JUST AMONG FRIENDS as possible to the functional needs and resistance of the organs to be acted upon. This purpose can be accomplished best by using the active-principle granules. However, there are some remedies that should not be given in divided doses, as for nstance, most of the hypnotics; although there are certain conditions where even hypnotics should be given in divided doses. I have seen cases of insomnia, accompanied by great motor restlessness, where I got the best effect by giving 3 grains of sulphonal and 3 minims of fluid extract of conium every two hours for three doses, say, at 6 and 8 and 10 o'clock in the evening. Quinine in malaria and also cathartics as a rule are best not given in small, divided doses. When giving an active remedy, some functional corrective should be combined with it under certain conditions, as for instance, in prescribing a hypnotic for an individual with a weak heart, it is well to add to it some cardiac stimulant like sparteine sulphate. There is less danger in giving acetanilid if it is combined with caffeine or sparteine. Before instituting a line of treatment for any patient, you should ask yourself the series of questions suggested by A. Manquat, of Paris, in his "Principles of Therapeutics," as follows: With what dose am I sure not to exceed the limit of tolerance? Does this patient present any renal, hepatic, digestive, nervous or cardiac weakness liable to influence the action of the remedy or diminish his tolerance? Can the patient do better by proper hygiene, good nursing, etc., without drugs; in other words, are the diagnosis and prognosis of a nature to warrant medicinal, or drug, intervention? Are the organs upon which the disturbances depend in a state of simple asthenia, or are they affected by an intoxication or an active lesion? How is the disturbed function to be corrected? If this correction can be realized by means of a medicine, what is the useful action of this medicine? What are the organs and tissues upon which it will exert its selective action? What is the dose with which I can be sure to remain on the safe side of the limit of intolerance in a subject of medium resistance? Are the organs of the patient under consideration able to endure this same dose without intolerance? Will the medicine under consideration exert its action upon the same organs upon which the disease is acting? Is there any way of securing the desirable effect by acting indirectly through one or several other sound organs? What is the 965 posology to be adopted-not to avoid a poisonous action, but to adjust it as accurately as possible to the functional needs and resistance of the organs to be acted upon? Is it necessary to overcome or to suppress any symptom? Is there no serious inconvenience in so doing? Can the desirable result be obtained without medicine? If a medicine must be resorted to, what are the adjuncts whose employment will enable me to use as small a dose as possible of the symptom atic remedy? Will the symptom reappear after the medicinal action is exhausted? In that case, will there be no inconvenience in renewing the impression of the medicine? Is the state of the patient's organs and their functional activity noted with sufficient accuracy and completeness to enable me to recognize and follow the modifications produced by the medicine, in order to contine, reinforce, or suppress the medicine according to the effect observed? How will the heart, the nervous system, the kidneys, the liver, the digestive organs behave after the patient has received the medicines? Is there any fear of intolerance or accumulation because of insufficiency in organs of elimination? How are the first signs of intolerance to be recognized? Is the alimenation sufficient to bring about the desired improvement? If not, what dose of the medicine under consideration is most likely to be assimilated; that is, without inflicting upon the organs of elimination the task of rejecting the unutilized portion? Would this medicine be liable to give rise to trouble in the organs of reception? If I am obliged to prescribe a medicine which presents some disadvantage, is there any way to correct or attenuate it? In particular, is there any reason for alternating or dividing the doses or adding some functional corrective? In order not to do harm, the physician must have science, conscience, and art combined. Should there be incompleteness, conscience is preferable to science, since conscience leads to science, while the converse is not so certain. In case of doubt, a conscientious physician will carefully take every measure to avoid a harmful action. It will, gradually, become a habit with him to ask himself certain questions whenever he comes face to face with dangerous situations. The questions that must ever be kept in mind are concerning the indications, the dosage, the contraindications, tolerance and material errors. , THE PRICE OF CABOT'S "DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSIS" In his announcement of Cabot's "Differential Diagnosis" (CLINICAL MEDICINE, August, page 871), the reviewer gave the price of the book erroneously as $3.00. It should have been $5.50. The reviewer regrets that this mistake happened, and desires to make this correction. REESE'S "MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE” Textbook of Medical Jurisprudence and Toxicology. By John J. Reese, M. D. Eighth Edition. Revised by D. J. McCarthy, A. B., M. D. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston's Son & Co. 1911. Price $3.00. The subject of the law in relation to the practice of medicine, and the allied subject of toxicology are very important, and the practitioner should have at least a working knowledge of both, or else have at hand the means of obtaining the information. Reese's "Medical Jurisprudence" has been a favorite guide for many years, and the new edition, which has been brought to date by paragraphs on anaphylaxis and some recent information on toxicology, is certain of being welcomed by many physicians who desire a handy and concise manual rather than a cumbersome system. MUMFORD'S “SURGERY" The Practice of Surgery. By James Gregory Mumford, M. D. With 682 illustrations. Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders Company. 1910. Price $7.00. The author disclaims any intention of writing a treatise on general surgery, or, rather, on the theory and practice of surgery. With the immense progress of the last years and the far-reaching specialization in the field of surgery, as of all medical endeavor, the mastering of the whole subject by any one individual has become an impossibility. He therefore limits himself to presenting to the reader an account of the practice of surgery of surgery as he will see it at the bed side, in the accident-ward, and in the operating room. The work rather gains by the somewhat novel treatment of the subject-matter, in that the author has taken up surgical diseases in their order of interest, importance, and frequency; that is, so far as possible. This enables the student the more easily to find and study those conditions which he is most apt to have to deal with, while the rare surgical diseases, which he may never see, very properly occupy a less important position. PRINGLE'S "FRACTURES" Fractures and Their Treatment. By J. Hogarth Pringle, M. B., F. R. C. S. London: Oxford Medical Publications. 1910. Price $5.50. This book is excellently written and well gotten up, and will prove of interest to the surgeon, as also to the general practitioner who is called upon to treat fractures. MASSEY'S "IONIC SURGERY" Ionic Surgery in the Treatment of Cancer. With a Chapter on Ionization in Surgical Tuberculosis and in Hemorrhoids. By G. Betton Massey, M. D., New York, The A. L. Chatterton Company. 1910. Price $3.00. This is an entirely new work by the author, giving the fullest and latest technic of his method of destructive sterilization of cancerous growths by the massive cataphoric dispersion of the ions of zinc and mercury. A large number of case histories are related in detail, with the exact procedures employed in each and the results to date, and the apparatus and electrodes used are described and illustrated. ELY'S "JOINT TUBERCULOSIS" Joint Tuberculosis. By Leonard W. Ely, M. D. New York: William Wood & Co. 1911. Price $2.50. This volume shows clear evidences of painstaking study and investigation and of AMONG THE BOOKS a large personal experience. The author has succeeded in communicating the results of his observation in a form that must appeal to us, and his pathological descriptions and discussions are certain to aid the surgeon much in the recognition and treatment of the difficult conditions presented by tuberculous joint affections. Concerning the question of operative, respectively conservative, treatment, the author is epigrammatic: "When those who practise invariably radical treatment become more conservative, the conservatives may become more radical." The book is well printed and beautifully illustrated. THE PRESCRIBER The Prescriber. A monthly journal dealing with therapeutics, pharmacology, and the newer remedies. Edited by Thos. Stephenson, F. R. S. E., F. C. S. Volume V, January to December, 1911. Edinburg. Price 5s annually. The fifth complete volume of this excellent little journal has just been received, nicely bound in red cloth. It is a convenient book of reference for the therapeutic and pharmacologic progress of the past year. As we had occasion to say last year (CLINICAL MEDICINE, 1911, p. 806), The Prescriber is a journal decidedly worth having. It is full of good, upto-date information, which is presented in concise and readable form, yet complete enough to be useful without having to turn to the original articles for particulars. We want to encourage our readers to subscribe to this unique publication, the low price of which is remarkable. SADLER'S "PHYSIOLOGY OF FAITH AND FEAR" The Physiology of Faith and Fear. By William S. Sadler, M. D., Professor of Physiologic Therapeutics. Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co. 1912. Price, cloth, $1.50 net. To those familiar with Sadler's "Science of Living" this new product of his fine erudition and graceful diction will be welcome. To him the present-time recrudescence of psychotherapy is a natural reaction against the scientific materialism of the preceding century. Recognizing the influence of mental states on the bodily functions, the people crave information, and this has been misapplied by crude, crass, and commercial junk, intermingled with alleged religious cults and graft. 967 Dr. Sadler seeks to separate mental healing from sect and greed and to study it from the standpoint of the physiologist-physician. In so far as the occult may be bared, the irrational reduced to reason, the imaginative assumptions of the explorer beyond the bounds of the real brought under the surveyor's chain and properly mapped, he succeeds. But as long as the fancy of man can devise airy trifles, like the phantasmagoria of the tale-teller of Bagdad and coagulate them into a creed that he calls men to subscribe to as eternal truths, so long must the efforts of the plodding truth-seeker fall short. Dr. Sadler has collected many interesting facts regarding the innumerable exemplifications of human credulity and folly, people who should have more sense than to entrust their lives to fakers and submit to be hoodwinked by the most glaring deceptions. The book presents much useful material to him who needs to fight these frauds. WM. F. WAUGH. SMITH'S "WHAT TO EAT" What to Eat and Why. By G. Carroll Smith, M. D. Boston and Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders Company. 1911. Price $2.50. This is one of the most practical books on dietetics that has come to our attention. In its three hundred pages is contained a lot of information that every medical practitioner ought to have and which he can use to good advantage every day. Very few practitioners are as well informed as they ought to be on the subject of dietetics. In fact, the general opinion, in the past, has been that little or nothing need be known in this direction. But, as time passes, we are becoming more and more convinced that foods must be reckoned with; that they ought to be carefully considered in outlining a treatment for any case. The abuse of appetite and indiscreet selection of the foods that make up the daily diet lead to many mal-conditions, in which, if they are to be treated successfully, the dietary must be carefully censored, omitting those things which are contraindicated and prescribing such articles of diet as may be partaken of with advantage. This paragraph from the preface explains the aims of the author: "The desire is to place before the medical student, and particularly the active, busy practitioner, a book describing the fundamental elements of food and the principles underlying its use, the essential reasons why a change of the diet is desirable, and how this change may be made in the most practical, time-saving way, that there may no longer be an excuse, except in rare instances, for a country physician sending his patient to the city specialist to be dieted after an accurate diagnosis has been made. Only a few diet lists have been given, but each one is sufficiently comprehensive to cover the many different phases of the same disease." HAMILTON'S "MARRIAGE AS A TRADE" Marriage as a Trade. By Cicely Hamilton. New York: Moffat, Yard & Co. 1909. The author has filled 257 book-pages in order to say that marriage is, by tradition and custom, almost the only trade open to women; that marriage, therefore, is a compulsory institution, and that it is the only trade in which the workers are occupied in sweated labor without remuneration; that, further, this condition of affairs is artificial and forced, and is due to the unwillingness of man to consider woman as his equal in any way. The reviewer can not find that the author gives any remedy, and cannot but think that she might have made her argument just as well and less cumbrously in the space of fifty pages, or less. DELAFIELD AND PRUDDEN'S "PATHOLOGY" A Textbook on Pathology; with a final section on postmortem examinations and the methods of preserving and examining diseased tissues. By Francis Delafield, M. D., LL. D., and T. Mitchell Prudden, M. D., LL. D. Ninth edition. New York: William Wood & Co., 1911. Price $5.50. Delafield and Prudden's Pathology has long been before the profession and is generally acknlowledged as a standard textbook. The present, ninth, edition has been largely rewritten and revised, so that it is, in many respects, a new book, the more so, as the senior author, Dr. Delafield, no longer shared in its preparation. The resulting work is thoroughly to date in its contents. GRANCHER'S “RADIOGRAPHIC ATLAS" A Radiographic Atlas of the Pathologic Changes of Bones and Joints. By Amédée Grancher (Paris, France). New York: The A. L. Chatterton Company. 1911. Price $6.00. This beautiful volume contains an excellent collection of radiographs of normal and pathologic bones and joints which are sure to prove of material assistance in the interpretation of radiographic findings. As the author says truly, the Roentgen-ray is no longer employed merely to locate foreign bodies and to diagnose fractures. It also enables us to diagnose and control the treatment of other pathologic processes in bones and joints. The book is well gotten up and the plates are beautiful. DOCK AND BASS'S "HOOKWORM DISEASE" Hookworm-Disease: Etiology, Pathology, Diagnosis, Prognosis, Prophylaxis, and Treatment. By George Dock, A. M., M. D., and Charles C. Bass. Illustrated with 49 special engravings and colored plates. St. Louis: C. V. Mosby Company. 1910. Price $2.50. The subject of hookworm-disease has assumed such an immense importance, especially in southern states, that the present treatise by two physicians who have studied the problem carefully meets a decided want. Our southern readers will be sure to find in it much that is of service to them in the treatment of this baneful malady. CORNELL'S "INSPECTION OF SCHOOL CHILDREN" Health and Medical Inspection of School Children. By Walter S. Cornell, M. D. Illustrated with 200 halftones and line engravings, many of them original. Philadelphia: F. A. Davis Company. 1912. Price $3.00. The author of this work is director of medical inspection of public schools in Philadelphia, and in this effort he presents a practical exposition of the work of medical inspection, born of the examination of some 35,000 children. The subject-matter discussed is rich, and includes a complete survey of medical practice as it relates to children of school-age. The fact that the hygienic problems of childhood have received generous consideration render it all the more valuable. The book will primarily be important for physicians entrusted with the medical inspection of schools; but to the pediatrist and the general practitioner also it affords much information for which, without it, he would have to search laboriously in textbooks and scattered journals, It is a splendid QUERY 5839.- "Sex Literature." C. W. D., North Carolina, writes: "I want to learn the name of the best book on sex matters, just the book to put into the hands of a boy sixteen years old who has no bad habits yet. I want to scare him, so that he may escape trouble." work. While the editors make replies to these queries as they are able, they are very far from wishing to monopolize the stage and would be pleased to hear from any reader who can furnish further and better information. Moreover, we would urge those seeking advice to report their results, whether good or bad. In all cases please give the number of the query when writing anything concerning it. Positively no attention paid to anonymous letters. QUERIES E. B. Lowry's "Truth Talks With a Boy Concerning Himself" will meet your requirements, we think. Personally, we should hesitate to place any other book dealing with sex-subjects into the hands of a 16-year-old boy, unless we had paved the way and were prepared to light him on his journey with common-sense, heart-to-heart talks. The average youth either already has formed his conception of such matters (which usually are wrong), or he knows nothing whatever of what is worth knowing, and, then, as a result, reads in the wrong spirit or gets distorted ideas. Lowry's little book, we believe, is a safe and most helpful publication of its kind; still, if the boy is capable of properly digesting "stronger meat," he may be supplied advantageously with such books as Malchow's or Lydston's on sexual matters. If you are not familiar with these volumes, you should get them. Another splendid book upon this subject, intended especially for boys, though more particularly for those somewhat younger, is Dr. George F. Butler's "Every-Boy's Book." In this volume Dr. Butler handles the subject in a most delicate yet straightforward way. Its special interest is for the youth ten to fourteen years of age. This volume should be placed in the hands of every boy old enough to read, and every parent should read it also. There is a similar volume for girls, "Every-Girl's Book," also written by Dr. Butler. The price of each is $1.00, and they are published by The Abbott Press, Ravenswood, Chicago. You say that you want to "scare your young man away from bad habits." Pardon us, doctor, if we suggest that that would be a most unwise proceeding. You can not "scare" him! The only rational procedure is to direct a perfectly natural instinct along natural and decent channels. Half the girls who go astray do so through ignorance, and half the young men who lead them astray are not natural libertines or morally depraved, but simply young, healthy, selfish, and ignorant animals. Were they properly instructed, they would realize that it is the first duty of the normal healthy male to protect the female even against herself; and, furthermore, they would be aware that the strong man-the man who is going to conquer through lifemust first learn to subdue his desires when yielding to them is likely to prove injurious to himself or others. It is fearful to contemplate the irretrievable injury which is wrought by a few mo-m ents of foolishness, or, rather, ignorant yielding, to a natural instinct on the part of two otherwise perfectly normal and rational young people. It is true that the sexual sense is more developed in some than in others and that where one could journey with perfect security, another would fall into the pit. We, as physicians, know that the weaknesses of the parents in this direction are transmitted to the children, and a strongly sexual father or mother must not be surprised if they find that their sons and daughters at puberty stray along forbidden paths, they knowing, as they do, their own tendencies. Such parents should take especial pains to warn and guide their children through this particularly difficult period. It has been the writer's experience that more indiscretion occurs between the ages of fourteen and seventeen than at any other period of life that is, in the average "decent" human being |