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ONTARIO MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. The meeting of the above association was held in Toronto on the 6th and 7th ult. and was well attended. The very limited time, viz.: two days, was hardly sufficient to enable the association to get through with the rather large number of papers presented. The result was an undue haste in some cases, where a little more time and attention should have been bestowed. Some papers of ordinary merit occupied much longer time in reading than was intended, while others of superior merit were either postponed beyond their order of precedence, or crowded out altogether. Some of the members also who brought patients with them, received scant attention, and in one instance the case was hurried through with almost indecent haste, and, although wholly unintentional, the gentleman presenting the patient received very little consideration for his kindness. As a rule too little time was allowed for discussion, and only a few seemed desirous of availing themselves of the small opportunity offered. One or two incidents occurred which it is scarcely worth while to refer to, except to avoid a repetition of them at some future meeting. We allude to the absence of the usual cour. tesy shown to the retiring president and ex-presi-nounce his method as a failure do so unjustly. dent, and in this case we might almost say, the founders of the association, in not inviting them to seats on the platform, or nominating either of them to the chair in the absence of the president. Of course we cannot but think, nay we feel assured, that this was purely an oversight; but it was none the less chilling. When it was announced that the association had decided to meet next year in Hamilton, some one remarked that he thought it should go east and learn a little of that suaviter in modo which is so characteristic of our confrères in the sister province of Quebec.

tured by the Portable Electric Light Co., 22 Water Street, Boston. It occupies the space of only five square inches and weighs but five pounds, and can be carried with ease. The light, or more properly lighter, requires no extra power, wires or connections, and is so constructed that any part can be replaced at small cost. The chemicals are placed in a glass retort; a carbon and zinc apparatus, with a spiral platinum attachment, is then adjusted so as to form a battery, and the light is ready. The pressure on a little knob produces an electric current by which the spiral of platinum is heated to incandescence. The usefulness of the apparatus and the low price ($5) will no doubt result in its general adoption. Some of the prominent business men of the State are identified with this enterprise. In addition to its use as a lighter the apparatus can also be used in connection with a burglar alarm and galvanic battery.

It was a source of regret to all that the president (Dr. Macdonald, of Hamilton) was prevented through illness from presiding during the first day of the meeting, and on the afternoon of the second day he was obliged to leave the chair before the close of the meeting, in order to take the train for Quebec, where he sailed for a holiday trip to Europe. He carries with him the best wishes of the Association for his future welfare and happiness.

RHEUMATIC ENDOCARDITIS. - Dr. Maclagan complains in the British Medical Fournal that his treatment of this disease by moderately large and frequently repeated doses of salicin has not received a fair trial, and that therefore those who de

He insists that the alkaloid-not the salicylateshould be given in doses of from 20 to 40 grains every hour for six hours, or until pain is relieved (which it generally is within that time), and that the same dose should then be given every hour till the pain is gone and the temperature falls to the normal, which usually happens within 24 hours. He gives the preference to salicin, not because he regards it as superior to the salicylate of soda as an anti-rheumatic, but because it may be given in large and frequent doses without causing such disturbance of the system as not unfrequently follows the use of the salicylate and necessitates its suspension.

ENLARGED BRONCHIAL GLANDS.-Prof. Wm. Pepper presented a case at one of his clinics, at the University Hospital, of enlargement of the lymphatic glands surrounding the right bronchus. The symptoms were dullness on percussion, diminished bronchial respiratory murmur on auscultation, pain over the region when the patient was INSTANTANEOUS LIGHT.-The Boston Transcript in the recumbent posture, and a scrofulous diatheof Dec. 30, describes a unique apparatus manufac-sis. Heart sounds were normal, and the lungs

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WEATHER AND SKIN DISEASE.-Dr. Stelwagon, of Philadelphia, in an analysis of 2,000 consecuPERSISTENT HICCOUGH. The following are tive cases of skin disease, of which a detailed some of the remedies recommended by correspon- report appears in the Philad. Med. Times, points dents in a recent number of the Lancet for the re- out that skin diseases are much commonest in the lief of singultus: Hypodermic injection of mor- spring season-March, April and May, the prephia; laudanum and chloroform rubbed in along ponderance being in the order named. He says the course of the phrenic nerve; spinal ice-bag; the explanation of this may be found in the fact hot compresses to the spine; ten minims of tincture that at this season of the year, especially during of opium every four hours; hyoscyamine, arseniate March and April, the weather is apt to be damp of strychnine aa gr, bromhydrate of cicutine and windy, with sudden changes of temperature. ab gr. every half hour until relieved; ether sul- He thinks, moreover, that the skin, having been ph., vin. ipecac., tr. digitalis, aa 3ss., magnesia sulph. subjected to the prolonged cold of winter, is weak3ij., chloroform water to six ounces-two table- ened, and therefore more susceptible to disease. spoonfuls every four hours; infusion of mustard seed; inhalation of chloroform, ether, or amyl nitrite.

BRITISH MEDICAL ASSOCIATION.--The fifty-first annual meeting of the British Medical Association is to be held in Liverpool on July 31st and three following days, under the presidency of Dr. A. T. H. Waters. The address in Surgery will be delivered by Reginald Harrison, F.R.C.S.; and the address in Pathology by Dr. C. Creighton.

The general secretary, in the Brit. Med. Jour. of May 26, gives the following as the strength of the Association :-30 branches, with a membership of 6,275 and an unattached membership of 3,141, including 199 foreign and colonial members, giving a grand total of 7,416 members. This constitutes the most widely diffused and powerful medical organization in the world.

REMOVALS. Dr. Sharp, of Woodstock, N. B., has removed to Minneapolis, Minn. The following resolution respecting his removal was passed by the Carleton Medical Association :

Resolved,―That the President and members of the Carleton County Medical Society have heard with much regret of the intended removal of Dr. Sharp from Woodstock, and desire to express to him the high esteem which they have always felt for him, both as a man, a fellow practitioner and a member of this society. Wishing him and his family hearty God's speed, they would fain hope that wherever in

CANADIANS ABROAD.-Drs. J. A. Hunter and E. G. Knill, Ontario; and T. Bairston, Halifax, have passed their final examinations and been admitted members (double qualification) of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons, Edin., and Dr. C. A. S. Gordon has passed the primary in the same institution.

Drs. Reuben Levi (McGill), and H. Mickie (Toronto), have passed the Royal College of Surgeons, Eng., and received the diploma, and Dr. R. J. Bliss Howard (McGill), has passed the primary examination for the Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons, Eng.

David Tullock, M.B.,C. M., of Winnipeg, Man., has received the degree of M.D. from the University of Aberdeen.

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the tone of the stomach and poisoned the whole find consolation in the fact that the citizens of system of the patient.

CRESCIT EUNDO.-The British Pharmacopoeia Committee recommend the addition to the promised new issue of 29 articles and the omission of three. The German committee, on the other hand, recommend the excision from their armamentarium of a huge catalogue of preparations and the adoption of a comparatively small number of new remedies. One would have thought that this was the kind of treatment best adapted to our Pharmacopœia. If we go on at the present rate there is great danger of its becoming as unwieldy as the German volume; as it is, there are, we might almost say, scores of preparations in its pages which are not used once in a lifetime.

Basle, Switzerland, have voted by about five to one in favor of the abolition of compulsory vaccination.

MEDICAL COLLEge for Women.-Our respected contemporary the Canada Medical and Surgical Journal, in commenting on our remarks anent the woman's college, falls into an error in stating that it "is controlled by members of the faculty of the Trinity School of Medicine." For the information of our contemporary and others, we would say that not a single member of the Trinity staff has any connection with the female medical college.

MEDICAL EDUCATION FOR WOMEN.-It is announced that the Kingston Female Medical School has secured guaranteed subscriptions amounting to $1200 per annum for five years, and that only $300 more is wanted to complete the sum required. What about the Toronto Female School? McGill College, Montreal, is about to open its classes to women, so that female medical students in Canada will be amply provided with facilities for pursuing their studies.

DEATH FROM MALE FERN.-A case of poisoning from an overdose of the ethereal extract of male fern recently occurred in the practice of Dr. Coghill, of Ceylon. The quantity given was one ounce and a half—half to be taken at bed time and the other half the following morning. Purging, vomiting and cramps came on, followed by symptoms of collapse, and the patient died 12 hours after taking the second dose. Dr. Coghill was misled by an error in "Naphey's Medical Thera-lowing is the composition of injection Brou, a wellpeutics," where ounce is printed instead of drachm known proprietary medicine for the treatment of as the dose of this remedy. gonorrhoea :

A PLEASANT BEVERAGE.-Acidulated drinks are refreshing, especially in warm weather, but the constant use of lemons or limejuice is apt to interfere with the regular action of the bowels. Horsford's Acid Phosphate, with water and sugar, makes a delicious beverage, which allays the thirst, aids digestion and benefits the whole system. It also relieves the exhaustion following excessive mental or physical labor. Many prominent physicians have used it in their practice, and give it their unqualified approval.

THE ANTI-VACCINATION MOVEMENT.-The antivaccinationists do not seem to be making much progress in England, if one may be allowed to judge by their latest "moral victory." On the 19th ult., a motion by Mr. Taylor, member for Leicester, against compulsory vaccination, was defeated in the House of Commons by a vote of 286 to 16. The anti-vaccinationists, however, will probably

INJECTION BROU FOR GONORRHOEA.-The fol

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APPOINTMENTS.- -Dr. Fenwick, of London, has been appointed the representative of the Western University in the Ontario Medical Council, not Dr. Arnott, as stated in our last issue.

that angina pectoris is an excellent remedy in consumption." He must be a brother of the Toronto reporter who made a member of the Ontario Medical Association say that phymosis was an excellent remedy for chorea.

AT a recent sale at auction of old government medical supplies, at St. Louis, amongst other things one man bought 17,308 pills for thirty-eight cents. A local paper says: "The books and instruments sold had been used before, but the pills were entirely new."

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SUMMER SESSIONS.- The summer sessions inaugurated this year at the two medical schools in this city have been very successful. Sixty-two Dr. W. Stephen has been appointed physician to students are attending the clinical instruction at the Montreal Dispensary. the Hospital.

George W. Nelson, M.D. (Bishop's College Prizeman), Marbleton, Que., brother of Wolfred Nelson, M.D., of Panama, has been appointed Resident Surgeon of the Universal Interoceanic Canal Co.'s Hospital, Panama.

Dr. Augustus Jukes, of Regina, has been appointed Registrar of the districts of Touchwood, Regina and Souris, N.W.T.

Dr. T. A. Rodger, of Montreal, has been appointed surgeon to the Grand Trunk Railway, vice Dr. Scott deceased. This appointment is one we feel assured will give satisfaction both to the profession and the employés of the Company.

Prof. Robert Bartholow has been elected Dean of Jefferson Medical College, vice Prof. Elderslie Wallace, resigned in consequence of ill-health.

Dr. J. Corlis of St. Thomas, Ont., has been appointed Assistant Surgeon to the "Elgin" Battalion.

Dr. A. McDonald has been appointed on the acting staff of the Toronto General Hospital.

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F.R.C.S.-Dr. Robert Barnes has been elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, Eng., his diploma of membership bearing date May 8,

1862.

PARLIAMENTARY.-We are glad to observe that our respected and worthy confrère Dr. Gaboury, of St. Martin, has been elected member of the Local Legislature for Laval Co., Que.

THE Massachusetts Medical Society has declined, by a vote of 62 to 58, to admit women to membership.

Books and Lamphlets.

THE PRACTITIONER'S READY REFERENCE BOOK. A Handy Guide in Office and Bedside Practice. By Richard J. Dunglison, A. M., M.D. Third edition, thoroughly revised and enlarged. Philadelphia P. Blakiston, Son & Co. Toronto: Willing & Williamson.

The fact that this work has passed through three editions in the comparatively brief space of six years would argue for it a wide and steadily maintained popularity. That it can be accepted as a criterion of the intrinsic value of the volume is more open to question. Taking into consideration that nearly one-fourth of the book is devoted to such points as dosage, incompatibles, prescriptions, and a bare synopsis of the treatment of diseases, the inference is permissible that on these subjects,

which every practitioner is supposed to have at his fingers' ends, Dr. Dunglison's readers and patrons are somewhat weak-kneed. For this, however, the author can in no wise be held responsible; his business is to grasp the condition of the market, and to cater to the existing demand; and, accepting as a fact the inferential view just propounded, he has done so successfully. Within the limits of some five hundred pages he has collected a mass of facts, figures and hints relating to every branch of the physician's and surgeon's art, and which, owing to their being widely scattered through various professional treatises, are not always easy of access to the busy practitioner. To the younger members of the profession, especially those who are just embarking in practice, the book is likely to be particularly serviceable; while older men, who have grown somewhat rusty in the minutiae of the teaching of the schools, will frequently find a consultation of its pages beneficial. We are inclined to think that somewhat more than its share of space has been assigned to materia medica, while other and equally important subjects have not received the full recognition they deserve. This, however, is easily remedied, and as each successive edition of the work has contained numerous additions, it will doubtless be attended to in the future. The value of the section on "Selected Prescriptions" would be materially enhanced were the source from which each formula was drawn appended thereto. Among the more valuable features of the work, to our mind, are the tables of the solubility of drugs in various menstrua, doses for hypodermic and other injections, for atomized fluids for inhalation, gargles, collyria, suppositories and enemata, inany of which are not to be found in the pharmacopoeias; also the hints for the use of galvanic batteries, and the selection and application of trusses- simple things in themselves, but which it is not every medical student's fortune to become familiar with during his apprenticeship. The dietetic preparations for the sick will also be found extremely valuable. The section on "How to prepare stained sections of animal tissues" (read before the Quekett Microscopical Club in 1879) seems to be somewhat out of place in a work of this kind; moreover the pathologist who endeavors to keep pace with the times will be apt to find the directions it gives somewhat old-fashioned. Upon the whole, however, the author has conscien

tiously carried out the object he had in view, and has succeeded in producing a work of much value to the younger members of the profession.

A MANUAL OF AUSCULTATION AND PERCUSSION ; embracing the Physical Diagnosis of Diseases of the Lungs and Heart, and of Thoracic Aneurism, by Austin Flint, M.D., Professor of the Principles and Practice of Medicine and of Clinical Medicine in the Bellevue Hospital Medical College, etc. Third edition, revised. Philadelphia: Henry C. Lea's Son & Co., 1883. We heartily welcome the third edition of the work of this well-known teacher and writer. The mention being all that is necessary. book requires no comment at our hands, a mere It will be found without a rival on the subject upon which it

treats.

ON CERTAIN PARASITES IN THE BLOOD OF THE FROG. BY Wm. Osler, M.D., M.R.C. P., Lond., McGill College, Montreal.

ON CANADIAN FRESH-WATER POLYZOA. By the same author.

Both the above are reprinted from the Canadian Naturalist.

Births, Marriages and Deaths,

On the 6th ult., Constantine O'Gorman, M.D., of Hastings, to Eleanor, second daughter of A. McLean, Esq., of Walkerton, Ont.

F.R.C.S. Edin., of Toronto, to Jane Stewart, second daughter of A. Thornton Todd, Esq.

On the 14th ult., Frederick LeM. Grasett, M.D.,

On the 21st ult., G. H. Cowan, M.B., M.R.C.S. Eng., of Napanee, to Ida Alberta, eldest daughter of the late John Percy, Esq., Ernestown, Ont.

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