Mr. Tait does not think it more safe than other anesthetics, for he is quite certain that with none of these drugs will there ever be absolute security against accidents. He has seen no bronchitis after its use; it has no effect in arresting the secretion of urine, and upon the whole he is better pleased with it than with any other.-Maryland Medical Journal.

TREATMENT OF NEURALGIA.-Dr. Garretson says:-In cases of the unexplainable neuralgias no single remedy has proved so useful as these pills. My prescription is as follows:

B Ferri sulphatis exsic.....

Potassii carbonatis, āā........

Syr. acacia.....

Ft. pil. No. 100.

Sig. Begin with three a day, and increase to six; take several hundred.

A remedy that not infrequently proves serviceable in paroxysmal neuralgia is Duquesnil's preparation of aconitia, in doses of grain 1-200, repeated each two hours until numbness is felt; but in this case it did no good.

Brown-Séquard's famous pill amounts generally to nothing: here it was tried faithfully by the patient on his own prescription. A local application, commonly of great use, is a combination devised by Dr. J. L. Ludlow :

R. Atropine sulphatis........

Aconitinæ.....

Olei tiglii...
Ung. petrolii....

.gr. ss

gr. iss ....gtt. ii

...3ii-M.

Phila. Med. Times.

TELEPHONETICS.-The conveniencies of our modern inventions are, to an extent, offset by drawbacks. For instance, the telephone with the mischievous girl at the central office. A secular contemporary reports the following case: A husband calls up a doctor and tells him his wife has "a severe pain in the back of her neck, and complains of a sort of goneness in her stomach."

"She has malarial colic," returns the man of medicine. "What shall I do for her?" asks the now anxious husband. The wicked girl at the central now switched off to a machinist who was talking to a saw-mill man about his boiler, and this is the advice which falls on the husband's tympanum: "I think she's covered with scales inside about an inch thick. Let her cool down during the night, and before she fires up in the morning take a hammer and pound her thoroughly all over, and then take a hose and hitch it on the fire plug and wash her out." The doctor and the husband do not now speak as they pass by, and the doctor has found the telephone too expensive a luxury for further continuance. The Medical Age.

LOCALIZATION OF TUMOR IN THE BRAIN.-Dr. Hughes Bennett, of London, has recently made a remarkable diagnosis, with localization of a brain tumor, and directed a surgical operation which led to its successful removal. It is believed to be the first of the kind thus treated. He diagnosed an encephalic morbid growth of limited size in the upper part of the Fissure of Rolando, and requested a surgeon to trephine the skull over the suspected region. This was done by Mr. Rickman Godlee, and a mass of glioma, the size of a walnut, was extracted from under the gray matter of the upper part of the ascending frontal convolution. The operation was performed November 25th, and the patient was doing well on December 6th (London Medical Times). The chief symptoms which led Dr. Hughes to diagnose the extent and locality of the tumor were paroxysmal twitchings of the left side of the face, alternating with twitchings of the arm on the same side followed by slowly progressive paralysis of the hand, and later on, by twitchings of the eyelids and leg without paral ysis. These symptoms were accompanied by double optic neuritis and violent headache.-Buffalo Medical and Surgical Journal.

MR. TAIT ON THE CAUSATION OF LABOR.-In a recent article upon this subject, published in the "Medical Times and Gazette," Mr. Lawson Tait predicts that the real cause of labor

will be discovered by a careful study of the phenomena of extrauterine pregnancy. With our present evidence, however, he is inclined to regard the rhythmical contractions which continue during pregnancy as an important element in the matter. Although Mr. Tait's paper is mainly negative, it is interesting from the fact that he enters into a discussion of his favorite theme of ovarian and tubal physiology, and hints significantly that he expects to publish some very important facts in connection with his theory of menstruation. Anything that Mr. Tait may write on this subject will be read with the interest and consideration which his originality always provokes.-N. Y. Med. Jour.

Reviews and Book Notices

THE PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE of Gynecology, by THOMAS ADDIS EMMETT, M. D., L.L D., Surgeon to the Woman's Hospital of the State of New York; Ex-President of the American Gynæcological Society and New York Obstetrical Society; etc., 3rd edition. Thoroughly revised, with one hundred and fifty illustrations. 8 vo. leather, pp. 876. adelphia. 1884.

H. C. Lea's Son & Co.. Publishers, Phil

The first edition of "Emmett" appeared in 1879. The second edition received the following very flattering, yet fully deserved notice from The British Med. Journal of February of that year:

"In no country of the world has gynecology received more attention than in America. It is, then, with a feeling of pleasure that we welcome a work on diseases of women from so eminent a gynecologist as Dr. Emmet. The work is essentially clinical, and leaves a strong impress of the author's individuality. To criticise, with the care it merits, the book throughout, would demand far more space than is at our command. In parting, we can say that the work teems with original ideas, fresh and valua

ble methods of practice, and is written in a clear and elegant style, worthy of the literary reputation of Longfellow and O. W. Holmes."

In endorsing this statement from our old world contemporary, we feel that we are scarcely doing justice to one of the most original and progressive writers and teachers of the American Continent.

In lieu of the extended notice, which so valuable a contribution to American Medical literature demands, we think we can better show the scope of this excellent work by quoting entire, the Author's preface to this, the Third edition, which is as follows:

"So great have been the advance and change of views during the past four years in gynecology, that the preparation of this edition has necessitated almost as much labor as rewriting the volume. Every portion has been thoroughly revised, a great deal left out, and much new matter added.

The chapters on the relation of education and social condition to development; those on pelvic cellulitis; on the diseases of the ovary; on ovariotomy; and on stone in the bladder, have been nearly rewritten.

The chapters on prolapse of the vaginal walls; on lacerations at the vaginal outlet and through the sphincter ani and perinæum; on the methods of partial and complete removal of the uterus for malignant disease; on the surgical treatment of fibrous tumors; on diseases of the Fallopian tubes; and on the diseases of the urethra, are essentially new, containing the views and experience of the author in a form which has not been presented to the profession before. To these chapters no fewer than one hundred and seventy-five pages of new material have been added.

A portion of the manuscript of the first edition of this work was expunged, or rewritten, by the advice of a friend, with the object of omitting or modifying certain views therein expressed which were then deemed too decided. It was thought that the profession was not in a condition to receive views so radically different in character from those universally accepted. The opinion was expressed that even the success of the book might be

jeopardized by urging the necessity for a revolution so complete as to establish a new school.

Since that time the entering wedge has been pressed forward, and good has already resulted from the teaching of a more rational course of treatment.

It is believed that in time professional opinion can be influenced to abandon intra-uterine medication, as one not based upon sound views of pathology; to recognize the different forms and shades of pelvic inflammation, outside of the uterus, now usually overlooked, as constituting the chief factor in, the diseases of women; and that the exciting causes of reflex disturbances will be more generally admitted.

In this edition these and other views have been presented in a more forcible manner than formerly, with the hope that in due time good fruit will be borne."

DISEASES OF THE URINARY AND MALE SEXUAL ORGANS, by WILLIAM T. BELFIELD, M. D., Author of "Relations of Micro Organisms to Disease', (Cartwright Lectures, 1883.); Pathologist to Cook County Hospital; Surgeon to the Genito Urinary Department, Central Dispensary, Chicago; Professor of Microscopy, Chicago College of Dental Surgery, etc. 8 vo. cloth, pp. 351. Wm. Wood & Co., Publishers, 56 and 58 La Fayette Place, New York.

1884.

This number of "Wood's Standard Library" for 1884, considers in a very able and practical manner, certain diseases pertaining to the debatable ground between Surgery and Medicine. While they are considered to some extent in works on Practice, and also those exclusively Surgical, neither here, nor in the special works devoted entirely to genito urinary and venereal diseases, do they meet with that consideration commensurate with their importance.

Dr. Belfield, considers in a very practical, thorough and satisfactory manner, in a series of 23 chapters, the following important subjects: The Anatomy and Physiology of the genito-urinary organs of the male; Methods of Examination; The Sound and Catheter; Urethral Fever; Precautions before Catheterism;