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DOCTOR J. A. DEGHOREE, chemist to the Health Department of New York, recently made the announcement that wood alcohol, instead of ethyl alcohol, had been found in the preparation of Jamaica ginger and spirits of ammonia in forty of two hundred fifteen samples purchased of retail druggists of that city. Proceedings are pending against the offenders.

DOCTOR D. C. HAWLEY, of Burlington, Vermont, has been reelected mayor of that municipality. The doctor graduated from the University of Vermont in 1884, and since that time has practiced medicine in the city over which he rules. He has likewise been honored by the profession of which he is a member, being vicepresident of the American Academy of Medicine.

PLAGUE, which appeared at Mazatlan, Mexico, about the 15th of December, not only created a panic among the people, but cauesd the death of seventy-two persons. Mazatlan is on the Pacific coast, and as it has no railroad communication with the outside world, it is thought that the disease was introduced into that city from San Francisco by the steamer Curacao, monthly trips being made by this vessel between San Francisco and towns located along the Gulf of California.

THE interesting paper entitled "The Passing of the Historic McDowell Building at Danville, Kentucky," which was contributed to the June The Physician and Surgeon by Doctor William Lane Lowder, of McKinney, Kentucky, has attracted considerable attention. The photoengravings which elucidated the text have already been requested to illustrate abstracts made from the historic narrative by medical journals published in Columbus, Cincinnati, Richmond and Toronto, and reference has been made to it by other publications in this country, and in Europe, including the British Medical Journal.

THE Medical Society of the State of New York held its annual meeting in Albany last month. The committee appointed to confer with a similar committee from the New York State Medical Association in regard to consolidating the two societies, rendered a report, but no action was taken toward the accomplishment of the union, and the committee was continued. The following officers were elected: President, Doctor Algernon T. Bristow, of Brooklyn; vicepresident, Doctor Edward B. Angell, of Rochester; secretary, Doctor F. C. Curtis, of Albany; treasurer, Doctor O. D. Ball, of Albany.

THE Seventy-fifth anniversary of the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal was celebrated, February 19, the publication having appeared as a weekly under the present name in 1828, but its progeny antedates even this year, as it is the product of a combination between two other medical journals, one of which was founded in 1812 and the other in 1823. Prior to the appearance of this journal, thirty-one medical journals had been launched in the United States, twenty-three of which had merged into other journals or suspended. We congratulate this contemporary on its uninterrupted career of usefulness and trust that it may continue.

A MEETING of physicians was recently held in the New York Academy of Medicine to consider the advisability of abolishing the Board of Coroners in that metropolis. The office has ceased to be a constitutional one and can be abolished by the legislature. Accordingly a commitete was appointed to confer with the Committee on Legislation of the New York State Medical Association and other committees representing medical societies for the purpose of ascertaining the prevailing medical sentiment regarding the office. The consensus of opinion at the meeting favored a division of the coroner's powers and duties between the board of health and the magistrates.

DOCTOR LUTHER H. GULICK has been appointed director of physical training in the public schools of New York City. The position was recently created by the Board of Education, and Doctor Gulick, who has devoted considerable attention to physical instruction, was the unanimous choice of the members. He is a graduate of the University of the City of New York, class of 1886, and for fifteen years has been in charge of the physical training department of the Young Men's Christian Association of New York. The game of basket ball is said to have been originated by him, and he has edited the rules of this popular sport each year since its inception. In 1890 he was elected president of the American Association for the Advancement of Physical Education.

DOCTOR W. E. B. DAVIS, of Birmingham, Alabama, died at his home February 24, 1903, in the thirty-ninth year of his age, his early demise resulting from injuries received in a street-railway accident. He obtained the degree of Doctor of Medicine from the Bellevue Hospital Medical College in 1884, and his name has since become synonymous with medical progress in the South. He was instrumental in founding the Southern Surgical and Gynecological Society, and for two years was joint editor, with his brother, of the Alabama Medical Journal, likewise being a member of the editorial staff of the American Gynecological Jouranl. He was identified with the American Medical Association, in which he held various offices, and enjoyed honorary membership in the British Gynecological Society. His specialty was operative gynecology.

THE American Medico-Psycological Association will meet in Washington, May 12, 13, 14 and 15, 1903, in connection with the Congress of American Physicians and Surgeons, it having become affiliated with that body by a resolution passed at its Richmond meeting in 1900. Sessions of the American Medico-Psycological Association will be so arranged as not to conflict with the program for the Congress. On Tuesday, May 12, the subject for consideration by the Congress will be "The Pancreas and Pancreatic Diseases." The address by the President, W. W. Keen, M. D., of Philadelphia, will be given at 8 P. M. On Wednesday afternoon, May 13, the Congress will consider the subject of "The Medical and Surgical Aspects of the Diseases of the Gall-Bladder and Bile Ducts." A large number of papers are promised in the preliminary

announcement of the American Medico-Psycological Association. The Secretary is C. B. Burr, M. D., of Flint, Michigan.

THE Colney Hatch Asylum, the county hospital for the insane, located near London, recently sustained destruction of a wing of the building and lives of inmates by fire, five wooden buildings and over fifty lunatics, all women, perishing in the flames, some of the unfortunate creatures succumbing as they lay in their beds. Notwithstanding the panicstricken condition of the patients, about six hundred of them were removed safely to the main building, but owing to the great difficulty in perfoming the transfer some escaped from the attendants and remained. at large for the time being.

GERMANY has special hospitals for the accommodation of 30,000 tuberculous patients. The statistics of these institutions for the years 1896 to 1901 showed that of 100 cases treated 87.7 were dismissed as cured or improved, 8.8 as unimproved, 3.1 as worse, and that 0.4 died. The imperial health office of Berlin has reported concerning the destructiveness of tuberculosis in Germany as follows: Of 1000 deaths of persons between the ages of fifteen and sixty, 316 die of tuberculosis. Persons under fifteen and over sixty are seldom affected with the disease. The mortality rate of the entire population averages 242 per 100,000 yearly, increasing in the Bavarian Palatinate to 329, in Bremen to 337, and in Hesse to 341. The conditions in the German Empire are better than in France, Austria or Russia, but worse than in Switzerland, Belgium, Denmark, Norway or England.

RECENT LITERATURE.

REVIEWS.

INTERNATIONAL CLINICS: VOLUME II, TWELFTH

SERIES.*

THIS volume is more than half taken up with therapeutic and medical topics and about one-quarter with surgical and gynecologic subjects. Among them are articles on passive movements and massage for the treatment of fractures, treatment of simple ulcer of the stomach, two cases of immediate death by the spinal injection of cocain, pancreatic cysts, experience gained from postmortems in the practice of medicine and surgery, resection of the cervical sympathetic, an outline of the organization and work of the medical department of the United States army, and some notes on the management of a modern private hospital. This volume is well illustrated both by plates and figures.

*Edited by Henry W. Cattell, A. M., M. D., Philadelphia, U. S. A., with the collaboration of John B. Murphy, M. D., Chicago; Alexander D. Blackader, M. D., Montreal; H. C. Wood, M. D., Philadelphia; T. M. Rotch, M. D., Boston; E. Landolt, M. D., Paris; Thomas G. Morton, M. D., Philadelphia; James J. Walsh, M. D., New York; J. W. Ballantyne, M. D., Edinburgh, and John Harold, M. D., London, with Regular Correspondents in Montreal, London, Paris, Leipsic, and Vienna. J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia and London. Cloth, $2.00.

TWENTIETH CENTURY PRACTICE OF MEDICINE, VOLUME XXI-SUPPLEMENT.*

THE encyclopedic character of this great work is well known. The quota of volume originally designed was fully completed two years ago, but the publishers and editor alike, realizing the continued great advancement in medical knowledge, wisely supplemented the work with this volume. It is surprising how many subjects have required attention, but most noteworthy are those of the etiology and prophylaxis of yellow fever, the dual character of dysentery, the medical aspects of the r-ray, and the significance for diagnostic purposes of the constituents of the blood and its immunizing properties. The etiology and successful treatment of cancerous growths are by no means satisfactorily settled, and yet so much work has been recently done on this subject that a thorough review has been made of them. Those who possess the first twenty volumes should also acquire this one.

*Edited by Thomas L. Stedman, M. D., New York City. William Wood & Company, New York, 1903.

PROGRESSIVE MEDICINE.*

THIS Volume contains the following reviews: Diseases of the digestive tract and allied organs, the liver, pancreas, and peritoneum by Max Einhorn; anesthetics, fractures, dislocations, amputations, surgery of the extremities and orthopedics by Joseph C. Bloodgood; genitourinary diseases by William T. Belfield; diseases of the kidneys by John Rose Bradford; physiology by Albert P. Brubaker; hygiene by Charles Harrington; practical therapeutic referendum by E. Q. Thornton. It will be noticed that the list of contributors this year is changed slightly from last year, but the standard remains the same. On account of the recent developments in the subject special attention is called to the article on diseases of the kidneys.

*Edited by Hobart Amory Hare, M. D., Professor of Therapeutics. and Materia Medica in the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia. Octavo, handsomely bound in cloth, 412 pages, 54 illustrations. Per volume, $2.50, by express prepaid. Per annum, in four cloth-bound volumes, $10.00. Lea Brothers & Company, Publishers, Philadelphia and New York. Volume IV, December, 1902.

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THE URETERAL DILATATIONS, SPINDLES, RESERVOIRS AND AMPULLÆ.

BY BYRON ROBINSON, B. S., M. D., CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

THE ureter is a tube with a nonuniform caliber. It possesses constant and inconstant, regular and irregular localized spindle or fusiform dilatations both in man and animals. There are three constant ureteral dilatations, namely, the ureteral pelvis, the lumbar or proximal spindle, and the pelvic or distal spindle. Irregular spindles exist in the lumbar, but especially in the pelvic segments. The spindleformed ureteral dilatations are connected by the narrow isthmuses (one-seventh, one-ninth, and one-tenth inch), which when the ureter is injected with solid matter become the location of easy fracture from manipulation. The dilatations are the ureteral ampullæ.

L-THE PROXIMAL URETERAL DILATATION OR RESERVOIR—(Calices and Pelvis).

This is chiefly the ureteral pelvis. The proximal ureteral dilatation is known as the infundibulum, or erroneously termed the renal pelvis. It should be termed the ureteral pelvis. It is the first urinal reservoir, or collector from the various renal pyramids. The ureteral pelvis contains at its proximal end the ureteral calices and at its distal end the proximal ureteral isthmus or neck. It is the adrenal segment of the ureter, and extends from the base of the renal pyramids to or beyond the distal kidney pole. It lies imbedded in the perirenal fat capsule. It may be imbedded in a groove of the kidney substance. It is an oval cone, flattened dorsoventrally and terminates at the proximal ureteral isthmus or neck. The ureteral neck, induced by the medial projecting distal kidney pole, is the cause of the ureteral pelvis or dilatation. The distal termination of the ureteral pelvis varies in man; it may be three inches distal to the kidney pole. The

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