of this valuable work. We say 66 so soon," because its appearance some time was a certainty, such a flattering reception has it already met with from the profession. When Dr. Lilienthal found that his publishers had lost all the copies they had on hand of his book, he immediately set to work to improve the opportunity offered, and correct mistakes and misprints, make additions and alterations. The result is improvement in every respect. To those who have not seen the first edition, we would say, that this book is eminently practical, and belongs on every office-table, among the constantly used equipments of our work.

A COMPENDIUM OF THE MOST IMPORTANT DRUGS, with their Doses according to the Metric System. By Wm. F. Whitney, M. D., and F. H. Clark. Boston: A. Williams & Co. 1879. Pages 40. We are very much pleased at every indication of an effort to substitute the beautiful French system of decimal weights and measures for our barbarous old conglomeration of senseless, arbitrary standards, which have nothing to recommend them but their antiquity and wide. spread use.

PHARMACOPOEIA HOMEOPATHICA POLYGLOTTA. Edited by Dr. Willmar Schwabe, of Leipzig. Rendered into English by Lemuel Steffens, M. D., of Philadelphia. Second Edition. Leipzig: Dr. Willmar Schwabe. New York: Boericke & Tafel. 1880. Pages 374. This work bears abundant internal evidence of having been printed in Germany, in its type and general get-up, and even in this English edition, the preface is still printed in German, although the introductory part, with general practical instructions (thirty-two pages), is in English The rest of the book is the same for all countries, being printed in parallel columns in the five principal languages of the world (polyglotta). It thus aims to secure uniformity and to be the standard for all nations. New formulas have been introduced into this second edition, and many new remedies have been added. We are glad to see that this work directs the trituration of metallic substances, as far as possible, from the precipitated forms rather than from particles which are ground or filed off.

A GUIDE TO HOMOEOPATHIC PRACTICE, designed for the Use of Families. By I. D. Johnson, M. D. New York and Philadelphia: Boericke & Tafel. 1880. Pages 494.

Having become, through frequent use, pretty familiar with the same author's "Therapeutic Key," we were led to expect that his Guide would be carefully compiled; and after due examination we have not been disappointed in our expectation. It is rather larger than we could

wish, and goes too minutely into a number of diseases which laymen generally do not, and certainly ought not, undertake to treat without the advice of a physician, but we are glad to see that the indications under each remedy are not multiplied to such an extent as to utterly bewilder the unskilled would-be experimenter. It is clearly and well written, and seems to be a trustworthy guide.

SCRATCHES OF A SURGEON. By Wm. Tod Helmuth, M. D. Chicago: Wm. A. Chatterton & Co. 1879. Pages 120.

We all know by this time what Dr. Helmuth is as a skilful surgeon and as a scientific writer, but some who know him in this way have no idea how the man can unbend in his leisure moments. From this little book, however, they can get some inkling of his playful wit and humor, and occasional sarcasm, as well as tenderness. The pieces have all been printed before at various times, but are now first gathered together. He who cannot smile over and enjoy "A Ballad of the 16th Century," "My First Patient," "Long Branch," "To a Fashionable Obstetrician," etc., must be a dried-up old hypochondriac. We hope to get room to copy one of them some day. Meanwhile, buy the book and read all.

A GUIDE TO SURGICAL DIAGNOSIS. By Christopher Heath, F. R. C. S., of London. Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston. Boston: N. R.

Campbell & Co. 1879. Pages 214.

Those who are familiar with Heath's "Operative Surgery," and especially his "Minor Surgery and Bandaging," which has had such a wide circulation, will be favorably disposed towards this book. It, to some extent, serves the same purpose with reference to works on systematic surgery that DaCosta's "Medical Diagnosis" does to treatises on systematic medicine, though much less comprehensive. Pathology and treatment are omitted, and symptoms are condensed as much as possible. It must assist materially in overcoming the difficulty which almost every student finds in bringing his knowledge to bear promptly on the patient before him.

SUMMER AND ITS DISEASES. By James C. Wilson, M. D., of Philadelphia. Pages 160.

EYESIGHT AND HOW TO CARE FOR IT. By George C. Harlan, M. D., of Philadelphia. Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston. 1879. Pages

139.

These are Nos. III. and IV. of the "American Health Primers," of which we have already noticed two. The more we read the Primers,

the more we are convinced of their usefulness as missionaries of instruction among the laity. We have been told that Edward Everett's son, a short time ago, in lecturing to young men at the Christian Union upon improving their opportunities, counselled them never to sit idly while riding in the horse-cars or steam-cars, but to read some good book. He had always done so, and it had never injured his eyes, and therefore it was all nonsense to talk about its hurting anybody's eyes. Possibly a feeling of veneration for the father might induce some young man to put faith in the bad counsel of that son, whose chief claim to recognition consists in his being "the son." These Primers tend to counteract such false notions, as well as to give much other valuable instruction.

TRANSACTIONS OF THE MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL FACULTY OF THE STATE OF MARYLAND.

This is a nicely printed volume (tinted paper) of about two hundred pages of the doings of the Eighty-first Annual Session at Baltimore, April, 1879. Besides the minutes we find papers on glaucoma, squint, yellow and spotted fevers, the thermantidote, treatment of the insane, dipsomania, general progressive paresis, the solid rubber bandage for varicose ulcers. On page 134 attention is called to a new drug, muscarin, the active principle of poisonous fungi, which, judging from its physiological action, will probably be of considerable service when administered homœopathically. Its action is similar to that of pilocarpin and quite antagonistic to atropine. Brunton has found that the merest trace of it slows the heart, and sometimes causes it to intermit. It also dilates the blood-vessels. About half an hour after a dose of from too of a grain, we find profuse perspiration, contracted pupils, purgation, slight nausea, and a desire to urinate. If the muscarin is applied externally to the eye, dilatation instead of contraction results. No headache or giddiness in produced by this drug, as by pilocarpin. This is a pretty good start for a proving.

POSOLOGICAL TABLES. By Charles Rice. New York: Wm. Wood & Co.

1879.

A neat little volume of ninety-six pages, originally constructed at the suggestion of prominent members of the Medical Boards of Bellevue and Charity Hospitals, New York, for the use of the physicians and apothecaries of the New York public institutions, as a convenient guide in regard to average adult doses of the ordinary remedies, but more particularly with a view to establish limits beyond which the dose of powerful remedies should not be carried.

PAMPHLETS RECEIVED. - Homœopathic Treatment of Yellow Fever. By the Physicians of the Homœopathic Relief Association, of New Orleans. A popular tract for free distribution. Laryngeal Phthisis, read before the New York State Homœopathic Medical Society. By Charles E. Jones, A. M., M. D. Fifteenth Report of the Trustees of the Boston City Hospital. The Thermantidote. By H. P. C. Wilson, M. D., Baltimore, Md. List of Medicines mentioned in Homœopathic Literature, with all the authorized Synonymes and Officinal Preparations. By Henry M. Smith, M. D., New York. The Incompatible Remedies of the Homœopathic Materia Medica. By Charles Mohr, M. D. Boericke & Tafel. Millard on Diphtheria. Boericke & Tafel. Pendulum Leverage of the Obstetric Forceps. By Albert H. Smith, M. D., Philadelphia.· Four Papers on Urethrismus or Chronic Spasmodic Stricture. A controversy between Profs. F. N. Otis and Henry B. Sands, of New York. The Climate of Davos Am Platz in the Treatment of Consumption. By Alfred C. Pope, M. D., of London. National Board of Health Bulletin. A weekly publication. Washington, D.C.—Precautions requisite in the Administration of Ergot. By Prof. J. W. Compton, M. D., Evansville, Ind. · The Hand as a Curette in Post-partum Hæmorrhage. Other Symptoms of Nervous Exhaustion (Neuresthenia). By George M. Beard, M. D.- Conclusions from the Study of one hundred and twenty-five Cases of Writer's Cramp. Same author. Is the Homœopathic School Unsectarian? By H. M. Paine, M. D., Albany, N. Y.History of the Discovery of Anæsthesia. By J. Marion Sims, M. D. of Shelter, Albany, N. Y. (Dr. H. M. Paine, physician.) Treatment of Hereditary Syphilis. By H. C. Jessen, M. D., Chicago. W. A. Chatterton. The History of Massage. By Douglas Graham, M. D. the "Medical Record." Boston: A. Williams & Co. - The Doctrine of the Minimum Dose and the Theory of Dynamization, promulgated by Dr. Hahnemann. By H. M. Paine, M. D., Albany, N. Y. The Germ Theories of Infectious Diseases. By John Drysdale, M. D., of Liverpool. London: Balliere, Tyndall & Cox. Notes on the Position and Progress of Homœopathy in the United States of America. By Alfred C. Pope, M. D. Reprinted from the "Monthly Homœopathic Review."

The

The House Pathology and

Reprinted from

PERSONAL.

MARRIED. In St. Louis, Aug. 21, Prof. Philo G. Valentine, editor of the "St. Louis Clinical Review," to Miss Clara V. Hodge.

DIED. In Memphis, Tenn., the wife of Dr. T. S. Verdi, of Washington, D. C., Sept. 8.

In Fitchburg, Mass., of tubercular meningitis, Lucius Brainard, only son of Dr. D. B. and Mary C. Whittier, six years and four months.

Dr. G. F. Forbes, of West Brookfield, Mass., has just returned from Europe, where he has been travelling for several months in connection with Dr. J. K. Warren, of Palmer, and visiting the various hospitals.

Dr. S. H. Quint, a homœopath, has been appointed superintendent of the new insane asylum, of Camden County, N. J., at Blackwoodtown, which is now in successful operation, with about seventy inmates.

BY A. H. TOMPKINS, M. D., JAMAICA PLAIN, MASS.

IN the NEW ENGLAND MEDICAL GAZETTE for October, 1870 Dr. E. M. Hale put on record a case of membranous dysmenorrhoea cured by Borax. He says the cases of this disease reported cured "are very rare," but quotes one from Bennett, also cured by Borax, which probably directed him to this remedy for his own case.

Thanks to this record, I am able now to add two more cases, illustrating the power of Borax in this hitherto seldom-cured disease.

M

Mrs. M―, aged thirty-four, several years married but never pregnant, tall, rather dark, thin of flesh, had suffered extremely at every menstrual period since the menses were first established.

The worst of the pain began in the region of the right ovary and extended to the thigh of that side and sometimes to the knee. These pains came in paroxysms and were accompanied by expulsive efforts simulating those of labor. So she was told by a former medical attendant, who also expressed his belief that she suffered as much at these times as the average of women in child-birth. Be that as it may, her suffering was such as to cause her to seclude herself from company entirely while enduring it, as she could not trust her self-control. The paroxysms ceased with the discharge of cylindrical shreds of a "meaty" appearance (I use her words when quoting), varying in length from one to two inches, and in diameter "about the size of a common leadpencil." These shreds, usually one after each paroxysm, but several in the course of the menses, did not break up or dissolve by washing in water, but became very light-colored, and then re