THE Florida medical association will convene its twelfth annnal session at Jacksonville on April 4, 1893.

THE Warren triennial prize of five hundred dollars for a treatise on "Rickets," has been awarded to Dr. John Strahan, of Belfast.

DR. KNAPP, of Ottawa, Kansas, for nineteen years superintendent of the Kansas state insane asylum at Osawatomie, died at his home on December 30.

THE university of Berlin has four thousand eight hundred and seventy-six students, of whom one thousand two hundred and fifty-four belong to the medical faculty.

A BUREAU of public baths, under the management of the state board of health, with a three-thousand-dollar superintendent, is the purpose of a bill now pending in the New York legislature.

"AN act granting additional quarantine powers and imposing additional duties upon the marine hospital service," has passed both houses of congress and received the signature of the president.

THE insane asylum of the Strafford county work-house, in the vicinity of Dover, New Hampshire, was destroyed by fire on February 9, and forty-four of the inmates lost their lives. A pyromaniac caused the fire.

A CORRECTION.-In Dr. Maire's article on "Mastoid Disease," in our last issue, the statement "the mastoid is diseased in about sixty-seven per cent. of all aural cases," should have read "sixty-seven one-hundredths per cent."

THE Lebanon hospital, of New York city, was dedicated on the 22d of February. It is a five-story structure, with several smaller buildings, and is located in the vicinity of One-Hundred-and-Fiftieth street and Westchester avenue.

DR. L. A. SAYRE, of New York, has exsected seventy-three hip-joints. A patient on whom he operated several years ago, removing the head of the femur and upper three inches of the shaft, recently won a prize in a skating contest held in Central park.

THERE were one hundred and twenty-eight new works published on medicine and hygiene in this country during 1892. This is twenty more then were published in 1891. In a graded list of nineteen classes of new books, medicine stands number thirteen.

ORGANOPATHY is the name suggested by Dr. John Aulde, of Philadelphia, for that branch of therapeutics which proposes the treatment of disease with an extract or tincture of the organ of a healthy animal corresponding to the organ affected in the human subject.

INFECTION BY CIRCUMCISION.-Dr. F. P. Kennicutt reports ten cases in which Jewish boys were circumcised by a tuberculous operator and in which the preputial wounds were all infected by the operator's saliva. Seven died and three recovered with tubercular adenitis.

THE Excelsior medical college is the name under which a bogus medical institution existed in a New York city hotel. The charter was obtained in Massachusetts, and a newspaper reporter who attended "lectures" one week and paid fifty dollars, was granted a medical degree.

DR. KATE S. SNYDER, class of 1888, university of Michigan, has been appointed assistant physician at the Southern Indiana hospital for the insane, located at Evansville.

SWITZERLAND has a population of about three millions, and their bodily ailments are administered to by one thousand one hundred and fifty-seven medical practitioners, ten of whom are women.

PHYSICIANS are considered poor business men, but statistics show that ninetyfive per cent. of business men fail to manage their own business, while ninety per cent. of physicians succeed in making a living.

FOR the reason that the medical service rendered was not worth so much money, a physician in Philadelphia returned a check for five hundred dollars which had been tendered him by a patient recently.

THE Pennsylvania society for the prevention of tuberculosis held a special public meeting at Philadelphia, January 25. The meeting was called to formulate plans for popularizing the organization, and membership was made eligible to everyone paying an initiation fee of one dollar.

THE north Missouri medical association is the name of a new medical society that had its inception in Brookfield, on December 2, 1892. It is composed of regular physicians of the counties of that state north of the Missouri river. The next meeting will be held at Moberly, April 18 and 19, 1893.

A CONVENTION of military surgeons will be held in Chicago August 8, 9 and 10, under the auspices of the Military surgeons' association. The association projects starting a medical journal for the publication of such papers referring to the soldier and sailor as could not appear in other periodicals.

THE legislature of Ohio has a bill before it whose purpose is the re-organization of the board of trustees of the Cincinnati hospital. It contemplates a board of five members, four of whom shall be appointed by the mayor, and the fifth one to be the mayor himself. Physicians are excluded from acting as trustees.

MEHARRY medical college, the medical department of the Central Tennessee college, located at Nashville, held its seventeenth annual commencement on February 7. Thirty-six students received the degree of doctor of medicine. During the past session of this school there were one hundred and twenty students in medicine.

THE New York state asylum has been supplying its patients with oleomargarine at a saving of two thousand two hundred and fifty-five dollars annually, and to the gratification of those who eat it; all pronounced it better than cheap-grade dairy butter. Now the "farmer's friends" are raising the wind, and want the use of the palatable article suppressed.

THE Woman physicians of Detroit have started a free dispensary intended for the benefit of poor patients. The following are interested in the organization: Florence Huson, president; Harriet A. Gerry, secretary and treasurer; Elizabeth L. Deuel, Gertrude Banks, Lucy J. Utter and Helen F. Warner, directors; Emma D. Cook, Flora J. Lorman Cobb, Lulu M. Hudson, Maud Fry, Louise Harvey, Mary Howell Miller, Harriet Foxton, and Isabella Foster.

DR. CHARLES SHEPARD, who recently died at Grand Rapids, left an estate valued at three hundred thousand dollars, the greater portion of which is divided between a widow and two sons. The Union Benevolent Association Home and Hospital, of which the doctor was president, will receive six thousand dollars.

CONNECTICUT is likely to enact a law for the regulation of medical practice. A bill is now pending in the legislature which provides for boards of examiners, each of the three schools being granted its own independent board of five reputable physicians nominated by the state board of health upon the recommendation of the medical societies.

A BILL has been presented to the assembly of New York which provides for the abolition of the office of coroner in the city and county of New York, and the transfer of the medical functions of this officer to the jurisdiction of the board of health. This body is empowered to appoint three "inquest physicians" at a salary not to exceed three thousand dollars a year, each. The bill is unconstitutional and will undoubtedly suffer defeat.

THE Illinois state senate is entertaining a bill which contemplates a medical examining board for that commonwealth. It will consist of nine regulars, one homœopath, and one eclectic; none of whom shall be connected with a medical college. A fee of twenty dollars at regular examinations, and fifty dollars at special examinations, will be exacted. A fine of not less than ten dollars nor more than two hundred dollars is a provision for violation of the laws.

NU SIGMA NU.-A banquet of the Alpha and Beta chapters of this confraternity was held in the Russell house, Detroit, on Friday evening, March 17. Dr. Flemming Carrow, of Ann Arbor, acted as toastmaster, and among those who responded to toasts were Dr. F. W. Robbins, Mr. Julian McClymonds, Dr. Victor C. Vaughan, Mr. C. B. Bradford, Dr. P. M. Hickey, Dr. F. W. Mann. The affair was very successful, and the next annual banquet will be looked forward to with pleasure.

THE nurses of Paris have organized a union. They were obliged to labor from fifteen to sixteen hours a day for meagre compensation. In the hospitals and asylums of the Seine department about six thousand nurses of different grades find employment, but many others are obliged to seek work among the general public in order to earn a living at their vocation. As a consequence large commissions must be paid to agencies which exist for the purpose of procuring situations. These grievances suggested the formation of the union.

A SANITARY Convention will be held at Stanton, Michigan, on Thursday and Friday, April 27 and 28. There will be sessions the first day at 2:30 P. M. and 7:30 P. M.; on the second day at 10 A. M., 2: 30 P. M. and 7:30 P. M., standard time. At each session of the convention there will be addresses or papers on subjects of general interest pertaining to public health, each paper to be followed by a discussion. Authors of papers are requested to limit them to twenty minutes. The speakers who lead the discussions are to be allowed ten minutes each, all others five minutes. The papers are expected to be original contributions, which, when read, are to be considered the property of the convention, and to be left with the secretary.

THE legislature of Ohio has passed a law requiring an examination before doctors are allowed to practice veterinary surgery. This body refused to consider a bill contemplating the regulation of the practice of medicine among human beings.

THE legislature of Massachusetts made an appropriation of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars in 1889 to erect buildings for the purpose of experimenting on methods of treating inebriates. The buildings are now ready for occupancy, and are located at Foxborn, Boston.

PATENT medicine venders have received a blow in England by a recent decision in the courts. The purchaser of a "carbolic smoke ball," who faithfully used the remedy according to directions, sued for the forfeit of one hundred pounds offered for every case it failed to cure. In spite of all the arguments of the defense the courts awarded the forfeit.

LONDON hospital recorded its first case of symphyseotomy, on February 12, 1893. The operation was performed by Dr. Arthur H. N. Lewars, and was an entire success. This surgical procedure has been elected in England but twice in one hundred and sixteen years. The first operation, which proved fatal to mother and child, was performed by Dr. John Welchman, at Kingston, on September 4, 1782.

THE association of physicians and surgeons of Windsor, Ontario, unanimously adopted the following expression of sentiment at its regular meeting held February 13, 1893: WHEREAS, a number of medical practitioners are endeavoring to secure legislation in a manner subversive to the usefulness of the Ontario medical council, we, who daily contrast the medical legislation of Michigan with the efficient legislation of Ontario, beg to express our entire confidence in our medical council; and we beg to urge that any change in legislation that we may desire should be brought about only through the council, by the representative whom we elect.

THE Cincinnati academy of medicine lately inaugurated a movement which resulted in the union of the several medical societies of that city and a division of the consolidated body into sections. The consummation of this plan has given Cincinnati a medical organization of about two hundred and fifty members. The following officers have been elected: President, Dr. C. G. Comegys; first vice-president, Dr. E. Gustav Zinke; second vice-president, Dr. E. S. Stevens; recording secretary, Dr. David De Beck; corresponding secretary, Dr. J. C. Oliver; treasurer, Dr. Geo. E. Jones. The erection of a society building is contemplated.

THERE is trouble in the children's hospital at Cincinnati. A new head nurse was recently appointed and the board of lady managers instructed her to keep a watchful eye on the medical staff and report observations to them. In endeavoring to regulate matters to the satisfaction of the lady managers the displeasure of the physicians was incurred, and they very forcibly expressed objection to the new order of things by immediately tendering their resignations, the action to be final unless the head nurse was removed. The board of trustees now appeared upon the scene and declined to accept the resignations of the physicians, but instead, the board of lady managers were notified to accept the resignation of the head nurse.

RECENT PUBLICATIONS.

REVIEWS.

GUIDE TO THE DISSECTION OF THE HUMAN BODY.*

THIS guide to dissection aims to supply the beginner with definite directions as to the manner in which he shall proceed in the dissecting-room. Dividing the time at his disposal into three courses of three weeks, the course he shall pursue each day during the nine weeks is definitely prescribed. The structures he shall examine are briefly described, and the student need never ask himself, "What shall I do next?" The guide is arranged in note-book form and interleaved with blank pages. It will be found a desideratum to students of anatomy. * A practical guide for beginners to the dissection of the human body. By Irving S. Haynes, Ph. B., M. D., demonstrator of anatomy in the medical department of the university of New York. Price, $1.00: E. B. Treat & Company, New York.

HAND-BOOK OF INSANITY FOR PRACTITIONERS AND STUDENTS.*

A VERY useful manual of insanity is issued by Messrs. Wood, from the pen of Dr. Theodore Kirchhoff, of Kiel. It is divided into two parts. The first deals with the anatomical basis and location of mental disturbances, the classification and mode of action of the causes of insanity, the signs, course and diagnosis of mental disease, the treatment of insanity, and a brief historical review of psychiatria. The second part classifies insanity, and gives separate consideration to the simple mental disorders, melancholia, mania, and paranoia, and the mental disorders associated with permanent anatomical changes in the brain or with general diseases. This portion of the work will be found especially instructive.

The manual is very clearly and concisely written, and affords the general practitioner an admirable opportunity for familiarizing himself with the special studies of the alienist.

* By Dr. Theodore Kirchhoff, physician to the Schleswig insane asylum. Illustrated with eleven plates. William Wood & Company, New York.

ALCOHOLISM AND ITS TREATMENT.*

DR. USHER'S book on alcoholism is an exceedingly powerful plea for the consideration of inebriety as a pathological state. The author reviews very carefully the pathological changes induced by alcoholism, and considers the disease in its inherited, acquired and infantile forms. The medico-legal relations of alcoholism are particularly well discussed. A phase of the disease, in which some very startling phenomena are exhibited, is described under the title of alcoholic trance. Much of this will be new to a number of readers. The treatment recommended includes those remedies employed by some of the best known specialists. The book is an admirable compendium of our recent knowledge of this interesting subject.

* By J. E. Usher, M. D., London. G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York.