MEDICAL NEWS. DEDICATORY CEREMONIES AT HARVARD COLLEGE. THE magnificent new medical buildings of Harvard University were dedicated on September 25-26, 1906. The principal addresses were delivered by the President of the corporation and by Doctor William H. Welch, of Baltimore. Doctor Reuben Peterson, of Ann Arbor, attended the exercises as a delegate from the University of Michigan. The buildings were erected at a cost of $5,000,000, this amount being donated for the purpose by Rockefeller, Morgan, and other philanthropists. Among the foreigners who received the honorary degree of doctor of laws on this occasion were Doctors José Eames, professor of pathology and chief of the clinical staff in the Medical School of Mexico; Franz Keibel, professor of anatomy in the University of Freiburg; Charles Scott Sherrington, professor at the University of London; Francis John Shepherd, professor of anatomy in McGill University, and Sir Thomas Barlow, professor of clinical medicine in the University College Hospital, London. THE PASSING OF A PIONEER DETROIT PHYSICIAN. DOCTOR MORSE STEWART, of 440 Jefferson avenue, Detroit, died at his residence October 9, 1906, at the advanced age of eighty-eight years, having been born in Penn Yan, New York, July 5, 1818. Deceased received his academic education at Hamilton College and later studied medicine at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, in Western New York, and at Geneva Medical College, receiving the degree of Doctor of Medicine at the latter institution in 1840. Shortly afterward he located in Detroit and engaged in practice with Doctor Zina Pitcher. In 1852 his marriage with Isabella Graham Duffield, daughter of the late Reverend George Duffield, D. D., was contracted. Six children resulted from this union, five of whom are living, two being physicians-Doctor Morse Stewart, Junior, and Doctor G. Duffield Stewart. Mrs. Stewart died in 1888. The Doctor was a resident of Detroit sixty-six years, during which time he witnessed the growth of the city from about ten thousand inhabitants to its present metropolitan number. MINOR INTELLIGENCE. THE entire department of "Original Abstracts," together with other important matter, has been crowded out of this issue. THE Ministry of Public Education in Russia has decided that henceforth women may qualify for diplomas in dentistry and pharmacy. THE Swedish Medical Society has appointed a committee for the scientific investigation of cancer. The chairman is Professor Berg. DOCTOR ROBERT M. O'REILLY, after four years of faithful service as Surgeon-General of the Army, has been reappointed by President Roosevelt. KATTOWITZ, Prussian Silesia, is experiencing an epidemic of ptomain poisoning resultant from the consumption of spoiled meat. Thirty persons have thus far become mentally deranged. To impure milk is attributed the recent outbreak of typhoid fever at Trenton, New Jersey, and it is reported that the State Board of Health will prosecute several proprietors of unclean dairies. THE Consolidation of the medical department of Tulane University and the New Orleans Polyclinic has been effected, the object being to make the Polyclinic the postgraduate school of the University. FOR obstructing the progress of a Roosevelt Hospital ambulance in New York City, by driving in front of it and ignoring the driver's signals, two negroes were recently arrested and subjected to fine. STOUGHTON, MASSACHUSETTS, is to have a new sanatorium for the treatment of tuberculosis. A site has already been selected and it is purposed to erect a building costing one hundred thousand dollars. DOCTOR ROBERT PATTERSON, of Philadelphia, has been appointed. subdean of the Jefferson Medical College. Doctor Patterson was formerly chief resident physician of the Philadelphia General Hospital. MEDICAL men of socialistic tendencies, located on the east side of New York City, have organized an association, the prime object of which will be the nomination of socialistic candidates for public office. SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, is to have a new county hospital. The buildings will be located on the site of the old county building destroyed by the earthquake, and will cost approximately sixty-five thousand dollars. IN June, 1908, the three hundredth anniversary of the founding of Quebec by Champlain will be celebrated, and incidentally the Frenchspeaking physicians of North America will hold their Fourth Annual Congress. THE Oil City (Pennsylvania) Medical Society will direct the destiny of the new hospital which is shortly to be established at that place. The new institution will be equipped with the latest medical armamentaria. · PITTSBURG is experiencing another epidemic of typhoid fever. Because of the wretched quality of drinking water dispensed in that city typhoid is constantly in evidence, but the present outbreak has assumed unusual proportions. THE Association of Military Surgeons of the United States convened in annual meeting at Buffalo, New York, on September 11, 1906. An interesting program was presented and participated in by both American and foreign representatives. THE International Congress of Dental Surgeons met in Geneva. during the early part of August. Resolutions were passed urging the adoption of equal standards by all countries, and an investigation of the value of diplomas of the various schools of dentistry. DOCTOR WILLIS S. ANDERSON, of Detroit, editor of the department of "Laryngology" in this journal, and a member of the teaching force of the Detroit College of Medicine, has recently been elevated to the Clinical Professorship of Laryngology in that institution. Ar the quarter centenary celebration at Aberdeen University in September last, the honorary degree of doctor of laws was conferred. upon Doctors J. William White, of Philadelphia, Archibald B. McCallum, of Toronto, and Howard A. Kelly, of Baltimore. THE Cocain habit is becoming so widespread in India that it is menacing the future welfare of the country. The English have adopted stringent measures in dealing with offenders, and any individual detected with the drug on his person is subject to punishment. DISREGARD for the ordinance compelling physicians to report cases. of childbirth in Birmingham, Alabama, is apparent. Twenty-four offenders were recently arrested and fined in that city, and admonished that future violation of the ordinance would entail heavier penalty. PROFESSOR NEISSER, Doctor Siegel, and Doctor Lasser, have been awarded the Simon prize of $25,000 for their contributions to our knowledge regarding syphilis. Of this amount the first named investigator receives $19,000, and the balance is divided between the other two. THE Wentworth Hospital Company is to erect a fifty-thousanddollar structure in Sacramento, California, articles of incorporation having already been filed. The stock is to be disposed of in shares of one hundred dollars each. Work on the building will shortly be commenced. THE Wayne County Medical Society met in annual session at Detroit on Monday, September 17, 1906. The following officers were elected for the ensuing year: President, Doctor J. Henry Carstens; vicepresident, Doctor William F. Metcalf; secretary-treasurer, Doctor Walter Ford. THROUGH the benevolence of a Delaware philanthropist the Antituberculosis Society of that state now owns several acres of land near Newcastle, and will shortly establish a tent colony thereon. As soon as a sufficient sum is acquired buildings, including a tuberculosis. dispensary, will be constructed. THE prevalence of malaria in Italy is slowly being dissipated by the government. Formerly the annual death rate from the disease was over fifteen thousand, but since the state has inaugurated distribution stations where quinine may be obtained gratis, the annual mortality has fallen to less than eight thousand. LEICESTER, England, has inaugurated a novelty in the form of public first aid cabinets, which are to be placed on the street corners. The cabinets contain dressing materials and appliances of use in emergency cases. They are constructed on the plan of our fire alarmı boxes, access being gained by breaking the glass door. DOCTOR JAMES E. PILCHER, of the army, and editor of the Journal of the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States, has been awarded the Enno Sander gold medal for his prize contribution on "The Training of the Medical Officer of the State Forces to Best Qualify Him for Local Service and for Mobilization With National Troops." OWING to the elevation of the entrance standard the medical department of Columbia University has suffered a decided decrease in attendance. During the first ten days of registration three hundred thirtyone students matriculated, while during the corresponding period of last year four hundred five students were registered. A decrease has likewise been experienced by the College of Pharmacy. THE King Edward Sanatorium for Consumption, located at Midhurst, Sussex, England, has just been completed at an approximate cost of $1,000,000. The institution is ideally situated on a plot of one hundred fifty acres, six hundred feet above sea level, and twelve miles inland. Accommodation for one hundred patients, each of whose sleeping rooms affords one thousand seven hundred thirty cubic feet of air, is provided for. THE Clinical Society of the University of Michigan held its first fall meeting in the University Hospital, October 3, 1906. The cases reported on this occasion are published in another department of this number. The following officers were elected for the ensuing year: President, Doctor Hugo A. Freund; vicepresident, Doctor Leroy W. Childs; secretary, Doctor David M. Kane. The society will convene monthly during the college year. THE annual meeting of the Western Surgical and Gynecological Association was held at Salt Lake City, Utah, on September 3, 1906. The officers for the ensuing year are: President, Doctor Charles W. Oviatt, of Oshkosh, Wisconsin; first vicepresident, Doctor Samuel C. Baldwin, of Salt Lake City; second vicepresident, Doctor Jabez N. Jackson, of Kansas City; secretary-treasurer, Doctor Arthur Mann, of Minneapolis. Saint Louis was chosen for the next place of meeting. A MEASURE providing for the medical examination of persons suffering from communicable diseases has been introduced into the city council of Saint Louis, Missouri. The scheme carries an appropriation of forty thousand dollars to defray expenses. Should an ordinance result new officers will be created as follows: One chief medical inspector-salary $1,800; one supervisior of nurse inspectors-salary $1,500; assistant medical inspectors-salary $1,200 each; and assistant nurses-salary $900 each. RECENT LITERATURE. REVIEWS. THE PROPHYLAXIS AND TREATMENT OF INTERNAL DISEASES.* THERE is at present a lively interest in all the problems of therapeutics. Many of the old methods are being discarded for better ones. The reign of therapeutic nihilism has given place to a serious effort to learn the best methods of treating disease by prevention, by specific measures and by the proper relief of symptoms. In this desirable movement the present work is sure to take a prominent part. It is complete, well classified, and the various items are easy to find. The point of view is a broad one, the development of modern medicine being thoroughly understood by the writer. The details are such as are used by the most careful therapeutists at the present time. In case of difference of opinion, the author's choice is, as a rule, sound, and in the case of almost every disease he shows personal mastery of all the necessary manipulations. Prescriptions are sparingly used in the text. A selection at the end of the volume follows modern lines as far as possible. The shotgun and polypharmaceutic mixtures still retained in many text-books are conspicuous by their absence. The metric system is given the preference, and we are glad to see that in the dosage the fractions used by many authors, but impossible to follow in actual practice, are avoided. There are a few survivals, as in giving a dose of quinin at thirty-seven and one-half grains, or of calomel for fumigation at seven and one-half grains. Mistakes are very few; the spelling for Doctor Lazear's first name as José is, therefore, all the more striking. The volume is of convenient size, clearly printed on paper of pleasing surface. It can be highly recommended to the classes for whom it is prepared and is sure to have a favorable reception, and to still further enhance the reputation of the author. G. D. *Designed for the Use of Practitioners and of Advanced Students in Medicine. By F. Forchheimer, M. D., Professor of Theory and Practice of Medicine and Clinical Medicine in the Medical College of Ohio, et cetera. New York and London: D. Appleton & Company, 1906. INTERNATIONAL CLINICS.* VOLUMES II and III of the sixteenth series of this well-known work have been received. It is only necessary to say that the wise selection of articles has been kept up with the same skill as before. Both volumes contain valuable practical articles, and give just the sort of information that the busy practitioner, no less than the leisurely student, |