NEIGHBORHOOD MEDICAL CLUB.

The Neighborhood Medical Club held its regular meeting at Young's Hotel, Boston, Jan. 18, 1906.

Dr. E. F. Norcross read a very interesting paper entitled "The Local Use of Formaldehyde in Erysipelas," and cited six cases which he had treated with a two per cent. solution, with prompt and permanent results.

At the meeting held Feb. 15, 1906, Dr. E. P. Ruggles gave an instructive paper on "The Treatment of Puerperal Eclampsia," with report of three cases treated by blood-letting, followed by nitra-venous injection of normal saline. All the cases recovered.

HOMOEOPATHIC MEDICAL SOCIETY of the STATE

OF NEW YORK.

The Homœopathic Medical Society of the State of New York held its forty-fourth annual meeting in Albany, N. Y., on Tuesday and Wednesday, Feb. 13, and 14, 1906.

The headquarters of the Society were in the Hotel Ten Eyck, and th sessions were held in the ball-room thereof. The meeting was one of the best attended in the history of the Society. A particularly good program of thirty-four papers was presented. The discussion was general and profitable, although the length of the program precluded as full a discussion on some of the subjects as would have been desirable. This fact spoke eloquently for the proposed amendment, giving the Society a three days' session. It was, however, voted down for other reasons.

President DeWitt G. Wilcox of Buffalo occupied the chair during the sessions.

It was the sense of the Society that the action of its Executive Committee in conference with the old school, in taking the stand that the time was not ripe for the unification of the three examining boards, be endorsed. Election of officers resulted as follows: President, N. H. Collins; First Vice-President, T. D. Buchanan; Second Vice-President, F. W. Seward, Jr.; Third Vice-President, O. S. Ritch; Secretary, H. Worthington Paige; Treasurer, F. M. Dearborn.

Wednesday noon the retiring president read his address, filled with pertinent suggestions on living topics, an essay well worth perusal, when and wherever published. It discussed amalgamation of the schools, patent medicines, certain forms of medical (?) advertising as to proprietary medicines, the school methods with children, etc. The paper by Dr. R. L. Copeland of Ann Arbor, Mich., upon "The Infinitesimal Dose,' and that by Dr. F. C. Curtis of the State Department of Health upon the "Erythematous Exanthemata," and the one by Dr. Herbert D. Pease, Director of the State antitoxin laboratory, upon "The Laboratory in Public Health Work," deserve special mention.

One of the most interesting papers of the session was given to the Bureau of Gynecology by Dr. N. W. Emerson of Boston, who spoke from his varied experience on “Ventral Suspension and Ventral Fixation."

NEW MEDICAL SCHOOL IN CHINA.—The Lockhart Medical College, organized under the direction of the American Methodist, Presbyterian and Congregational missions, together with the London missions, was opened early in February with much impressive ceremony. A large gathering of high Chinese officials and representatives from the diplomatic corps was present. The Dowager Empress is one of the benefactors.

BOOK REVIEWS.

Medical, literary and scientific publications will be reviewed in this department. Books and journals should be marked NEW ENGLAND MEDICAL GAZETTE, and sent to 80 E. Concord St., Boston.

Diseases of the Skin. With Special Reference to Principles of Treatment for the Use of Advanced Students and General Practitioners. By Henry M. Dearborn, M.D., late Professor of Dermatology, New York Homœopathic Medical College and Hospital, etc. Second edition. Revised, enlarged and edited by Frederick M. Dearborn, M.D., Dermatologist to the Hahnemann Hospital; to the Metropolitan Hospital, etc. pp. 655. Illustrated. New York: Boericke & Runyon, 1906. This volume is only slightly changed in form from the first edition of a few years ago. Several new chapters on recent discoveries have been added, and the entire work revised and brought up to date. An important improvement is the addition of many new, full-page reproductions from photographs of interesting or typical cases, upon a specially thick and finely finished paper. The binding allows the book to remain open at any page desired, and the book, as a whole, is a credit to the publishers.

The intention of the author to produce a book valuable to the general practitioner and advanced student has been well achieved. The anatomy, physiology, and general remarks on etiology, symptomatology, diagnosis, treatment, and classification, are condensed into sixty pages which form the first of three main divisions of the subject. In part two, comprising the body of the book, the different diseases are taken up separately. Special emphasis is placed on the correction of all physiological errors before prescribing local treatment or internal medication, both of which are thoroughly discussed. It is to be regretted that the exanthemata have not been included within the scope of the volume. A noticeable though not uncommon error, is the describing of cases which have made a recovery as "cured." The profession as a whole will surely look askance at reports of leprosy "cured" with hydrocotyle sixth decimal, or lupus erethymatosus "cured" with natrum muriaticum twelfth decimal. As a whole, however, the claims for the results of treatment are very moderate, the failures and successes being noted impartially.

The third division, however, is the part which will appeal at once to every homoeopath. In 130 pages all the principal remedies are taken up in alphabetical order. Their general characteristics and action on the skin are first clearly and succinctly stated. Then follow short paragraphs giving in succession the diseases in which the remedy under consideration has been found helpful, and the indications, with a statement of the strength which the author considers most efficient.

An adequate index completes a volume which no homoeopathic practitioner who treats any diseases of the skin can afford to do without. L.

Proceedings of the British Homœopathic Congress Held at St. Leonard's 1905.

This consists of a booklet containing all the papers read at the annual meeting and photographs of the officers and members. These papers have previously been published in the Monthly Homoeopathic Review, but are here brought together into one volume. The presidential address by Dr. G. F. Goldsbrough deals at length with the present status of homoeopathy, its most perplexing problems and some of its aims for the future.

Several illustrations of scenes in and near Hastings give an added finish to the otherwise valuable collection of papers.

PERSONAL AND GENERAL ITEMS.

DR. WALTER R. AMESBURY, B.U.S.M., 1886, has removed from Kingston, Mass., to 85 Milton Street, Readville Station, Hyde Park, Mass.

THERE will be a vacancy for a woman resident physician in the Women's Southern Homœopathic Hospital of Philadelphia June 1, 1906. Apply to Amelia L. Hess, M.D., 1911 Mt. Vernon Street, Philadelphia, Pa.

BOSTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE is congratulating itself upon having received, after inevitable delay, the Gold Medal awarded to it on its exhibit at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, at St. Louis in 1904.

MISS MILDRED GRAY will be very glad to do any stenographic work that physicians may desire to refer to her, either at their offices or at the Medical School. Arrangements can be made at the Pathological Laboratory of the B.U.S.M. or by telephone, Tremont 351.

ACCORDING to the State Board of Health report there were in Massachusetts in February 411 cases of scarlet fever, 581 cases of diphtheria, 3018 cases of measles, 80 cases of typhoid fever, and 19 cases of cerebro spinal meningitis.

FOR SALE $4000 practice for sale in one of California's delightful valleys. Collections, 95%. No opposition. Reason for selling, wish to devote year to post-graduate study and practice a specialty. formation by writing M. S. Kelliher, M.D., Lompoc, Calif.

Full in

DR. ALBERTA S. BOOMHOWER, B.U.S.M., '99, has recently left the practice of medicine and married Mr. Frederick W. Guibord of Washington. Dr. Boomhower was for a time in general practice in Roxbury, and later was house physician at the Westboro Insane Asylum. She now resides in Washington.

DR. DAVID M. GARDNER, Class of 1900, B.U.S.M., was recently in Boston for a brief stay, on business and visiting friends. He is very successfully conducting, at Caldwell, N. J., a sanitorium for the treatment of mental and nervous diseases. The Doctor has an interesting collection of photographs arranged in a booklet, which he will be pleased to mail to any physician who would like them.

DR. FRANK E. ALLARD'S course of Fifteen lectures of "Medico-Insurance will be given on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons during the Spring term at Boston University School of Medicine, the first lecture having been delivered on March 20th. Dr. Allard is a recognized authority on the subject, and medical director of the Boston Mutual Life Insurance Company as well as of several casualty companies.

A combined meeting of the Clinical Society and the Chicago Homœopathic Medical Society was held in Chicago on the evening of Feb. 15. The program consisted of a "stereopticon symposium" on Pulmonary Tuberculosis, Dr. W. Henry Wilson showing entire lung in numerous forms of tubercular involvement, and Dr. E. Stillman Bailey showing "Tent Colony," "Fire Escape," and "Roof" forms of outdoor treatment, sanitation, hygiene," etc.

DR. HOWARD P. BELLOWS and Mrs. Bellows have just returned from a month's cruise among the islands off the southern coast, stopping at Bermuda, San Juan, etc. The trip extended as far south as Trinidad, off the coast of South America. The voyage was of much benefit to Dr. Bellows' health, which has been seriously affected by the more than five years which he has given to the work of preparing for publication the provings of "belladonna," carried on under the auspices of the O. O. & L. Society.

Boston University School of Medicine was the scene of a very enjoyable reception and dance, on the evening of March 23rd, tendered by Delta Chapter of Alpha Sigma fraternity to the other fraternities and societies in the School and to the Faculty. A special feature was the presentation to the School, in the name of the alumni, of a beautiful flag of large size. Dr. William H. Watters made the presentation speech, and Dr. Frank C Richardson, Registrar, made a happy response.

WARD I. PIERCE, M.D., of Somerville, Mass., B.U.S.M. 1904, has removed to Pittsburgh, Pa., where he will be associated with Dr. G. A. Mueller in special work on the eye, ear, nose, and throat.

As Dr. Pierce served for a year in the Pittsburgh Homœopathic Hospital, he had the opportunity of becoming well known among the profession in Western Pennsylvania. It is understood that his prospects are most encouraging. He may be assured of the best wishes of his Alma Mater.

FOR SALE On reasonable terms, private sanatorium finely located opposite Washington Park, Roxbury, Mass. Has been successfully conducted by a nurse for twenty-five years. Had had the patronage of a large number of the leading physicians of Boston. It is fully furnished, and exceptionally well adapted for a sanatorium or private hospital for the care of eight or ten patients. For further particulars, address the Business Manager, Dr. W. K. Knowles, M.D., 40 Mt. Pleasant Ave., Roxbury.

WE learn that Dr. Mary R. Lakeman, a graduate of the Boston University School of Medicine, is associated with Miss Elizabeth M. Fessenden in opening a camp for girls at Holderness, N. H.

The booklet recently received gives a prospectus of the various features of the camp which is called Winona Fields. As in many similar institutions the objects sought are health and happiness. There will be out-of-doors gymnastics, swimming, rowing, paddling, horseback riding, games, excursions, etc. The girls will read, write, eat and sleep out of doors, the only shelter being a canvas roof, except on rainy and cold days, when a large farm-house will be at their disposal.

Medical examination is required of all.

Special arrangements can be made for tutoring when desired.

As such occupations make for the well-being of those enjoying them, they should have the hearty encouragement of all.

THE Sympathy of the GAZETTE is extended to Dr. J. Frank Trull, of Biddeford, Me., in the recent loss incurred at his hospital by a fire which for a time threatened almost complete destruction to the institution. Thanks to the efficient fire department of Biddeford, and with assistance from the neighboring city of Saco, the loss was much lessened.

When the fire started, an operation was in progress in the operatingroom, and the surgeons had reached such a stage that cessation of their work would mean fatal results to the patient. They moved into an adjoining room, where the operation was completed under most adverse circumstances, with firemen working in the room above and water running down upon them. Umbrellas were held over the patient and the operators for protection, and the work was performed over a submerged floor. The surgeons were Doctors N. W. Emerson of Boston, L. A. Brown of Portland, and F. A. Ferguson of Bath, Me., all graduates of the B.U.S.M., as is the owner of the hospital, Dr. Trull.

BY FREDERICK B. PERCY, M.D., PROFESSOR OF MATERIA MEDICA, BOSTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE.

Transition periods in medicine have always been epochal. Great men possessed of great and candid minds have in every age and generation struggled with the problem of drug influence in disease. System has followed system; theory, theory; all alike to disappear and be forgotten. From Hippocrates, the father of medicine, who said at the close of his life in speaking of disease, "Such are the causes, such the course, such the termination, alas, of all the diseases of my day; but if you ask me how to cure them then I must close my mouth; I did my best with the rough means at my disposal," down through the various schools of Asclepiades, Galen, Paraclesus, Stahl, Silvius, Boerhaave, Brown, Haller, and up to the time of Hahnemann, doubt and uncertainty prevailed as to the power of drugs. Some years before the promulgation of the law of similars, Hahnemann thus voiced his opinion of the practice of medicine: "A number of causesI dare not count them up-have for centuries been dragging down the dignity of that divine science of practical medicine, and have converted it into a miserable grabbing for bread, a mere cloaking of symptoms, a degrading prescription trade, a very God-forgotten handiwork, so that the real physicians are hopelessly jumbled together with a heap of befrilled medicine mongers. How seldom it is possible for a straightforward man by means of his great knowledge of the sciences, and by his talents to raise himself above the crowd of medicasters, and to throw such a pure, bright sheen upon the healing art at whose altar he ministers that it becomes impossible even for the common herd to mistake a glorious, benign evening star for a mere vapory sky-fall. How seldom is such a phenomenon seen, and hence how difficult it is to obtain for a purified science of medicine a renewal of her musty letters of nobility."

*Read before the Boston Homoeopathic Medical Society March 1, 1906.