Genito-Urinary System. Effects of Salts on Kidney Excretion and Glycosuria. Brown (0. H.). Amer. Journal of Physiology, 1904, Bd. 10, p. 378. Sodium chloride, sodium citrate and sodium acetate produce diuresis and also glycosuria. The glycosuria may be prevented by small quantities of calcium or strontium chloride. It is of interest that the sodium salts stimulate nerve also. Mesonephric Tumours. Schnickele (G.). Centrlbl. f. path. Anat., 1904, S. 261. A lengthy and detailed review with full bibliography.

Experimental Nephritis. Coyne et Caralié. Comp. Rend. de la
Soc. Biol., 1904, S. 45. Injection of cantharidin and antipyrin
into rabbits. Result-hyperæmia, hæmorrhages, degenerative
nephritis, casts.

Cystic Kidney and other Developmental Lesions.
Virchow's Archiv., 1904, Bd. 175, S. 442.

Nervous System.

Busse (Otto).

The Relation Between Acromegaly and Tumours of the Hypophysis.
Cagnetto (G.). Virchow's Archiv., Bd. 176, Heft 1, p. 115.
Histological studies of two cases of tumour of the hypophysis
together with the associated lesions and the conditions in the
spinal cord. In the first case acromegaly was absent; in the
second it was present. A slightly diminished functioning of
the hypophysis cerebri does not produce acromegaly, which
appears rather to depend upon primary metabolic disturb-
ances, chiefly affecting the bones. The metabolic changes are,
however, often related to changes in the hypophysis.
Three Modifications of the Method of Staining Nerve Fibrils by the
Reduction of Silver. Ramon y Cajal (S.). Compt. Rend. de
la Soc. de Biol., 1904, S. 368. (1) The staining of myelinated
axis cylinders; (2) the staining of myelin-free fibres and fibrils;
(3) the staining of nerve endings. Full tabulated details are
given in the original paper.

Clinical Report of Three Cases of Injury to Lower Spinal Cord and
Cauda Equina. Weisenburg (T. H.). Amer. Journal of Med.
Sciences, May, 1904, p. 768.

Chemical Pathology.

Decomposition of Nitrogenous Substances in Ascaris Lumbricoides. Weinland (E.). Zeit. für Biol., 1904, Bd. 45, S. 517. In fasting ascarides the amount of nitrogen excreted per 24 hours is 15-20mgm. for every 100gms. of body weight, the nitrogen being excreted as ammonia and ammonia derivatives. Alloxur Bases in Aseptic Fevers.

Mandel (A. R.). American 10, p. 452. During the fever cases in which all possible

Journal of Physiology, 1904, Bd.
which often occurs in surgical
precautions to avoid infection have been taken, there is

leucocytosis, the alloxur bases are increased and the uric acid is decreased. The injection of alloxuric bases in monkeys and men causes fever. Acetone and Diabetes. Geelmuyden (H. C.). Zeit. für Physiolog. Chem., 1904, Bd. 41, S. 128. Normal blood and tissues contain a small amount of acetone; in diabetes the amount is exaggerated. The urine always contains or yields a higher percentage of acetone than the blood. Carbohydrate inanition to be held to be the main cause of the acetonuria. Under normal conditions carbohydrate and acetone enter into synthetical union; when fats are substituted intermediate products are formed, namely, acetone yielding bodies and carbohydrates.

Purin Bodies of Human Fæces in Health and Disease. Walker Hall (I.). Journal of Pathology, 1904, p. 246.

Toxic Properties of Bile. Ruffer and Crendiropoulo. Journal of Pathology, 1904, p. 278. The nature and quantity of the hæmolytic substances present in bile vary in different individual animals. The hæmolysins are organic bodies. Anti-hæmolysins are also present in bile. The bile of one species is toxic not only for members of another species, but also for members of its own species. Small doses produce severe inflammatory lesions at the point of inoculation and well-marked modifications in the several constituents of the blood. In small animals injections of bile do not increase the anti-hæmolytic properties of serum.

Reviews.

Sketches of the Lives and Work of the Honorary Medical Staff of the Manchester Infirmary, 1752-1830." By E. M. BROCKBANK, M.D., M.R.C.P. Printed at the University Press of Manchester, 1904. Price 15s. net.

BIOGRAPHIES of over half a hundred honorary members of the Medical Staff fill the three hundred odd pages of this handsome volume, which is illustrated by about thirty full-page prints of men and buildings. An account is given of each of the physicians and surgeons, so that this work does not represent a history of the Institution itself. It deals individually and severally with every member of the Staff, from the time of Charles White, when the Infirmary was founded, to Thomas. Turner, under whose ægis the existing School of Medicine was incorporated with Owens College.

There are certain outstanding names which at once arrest attention. The Whites, father and son, mark the beginning. So much has recently been written about Charles White, one of the founders of this Institution, that we need not refer further to him. The echoes of Mr. Whitehead's Presidential address on the Whites and the Henrys still reverberate in our ears, and awaken kindly thoughts of Thomas Percival, for who can look at his portrait without feeling that one stands in the presence of a cultivated gentleman with a kindly benign expression that charmeth the onlooker. As Dr. Brockbank published in this journal last year a lengthy account of Percival's work and services to Manchester, we need not refer further to him here.

Two of the worthies, at least, spent but a short time in Manchester— John Latham, afterwards President of the Royal College of Physicians, and Peter Mark Roget, afterwards Secretary of the Royal Society.

John Ferriar, a wandering Scot, and a son of the Manse, came to Manchester in 1785, where he soon became "an active and prominent member of the scientific and literary circles." He has the merit of suggesting that, in order to control and combat the ravages of the fever then prevalent, fever wards should be opened in various parts of the town, to which patients could be moved from lodging-houses and other dwellings. We refer the reader to Dr. Brockbank's account of the influence of Crompton's spinning mule on the dissemination of typhus on the one hand, and the cupidity or desire of the manufacturers for riches on the other. Ferriar also suggested for the public good the provision by the town of public baths for the poor. It is plain that Percival and Ferriar were great pioneers in Public Health." The haphazard experiments of Ferriar on "pneumatic medicine" fortunately led to no untoward result.

Of course there is a plentiful crop of polemics-from the resignation of the Staff to disputes about Cæsarean section, and the combined

attack by the surgeons, headed by Wm. Simmons, on the House Surgeon, Mr. Hutchinson. The Lay Board, after investigating the matter, exonerated the House Surgeon. Simmons, it appears, played the part of "Madame Prudence" rather than that of "Mrs. Honour," three of his colleagues resigning in consequence of the incident with the House Surgeon, whilst he stayed on.

One of the quaintest personalities in this array is Edward Holmeone mentioned rather for the possession than the exercise of uncommon abilities. "His rooms were never dusted for a generation." They were on the first floor, and he himself termed them his "happy rooms." The friend of Dalton-he left his fortune of about £50,000 to the University College, London.

The name of Ransome stands high in the rôle of integrity and fame in Lancashire. John Atkinson Ransome was the first to suggest catgut or silk ligatures for tying arteries, on the ground that, being of animal origin, they would be more readily absorbed."

an

Sparing of speech, little gifted with rhetoric, brusque in manner, possessed of an iron nerve, with an accurate perception of a diseased part, of sterling merit, and acquirements solid, in knowledge exact, and in professional treatment sound and judicious; "the confiidence that was once placed in him was never shaken." Such an one was Robert Thorpe, or in the vernacular "Bob Thorpe." His name is linked as a contemporary with James Ainsworth-either or both might serve for the highest type of Nature's gentlemen. There is something fascinating in the story at once dramatic, assertive and prognostic-on occasion when Thorpe was called to Oldham to make a third in consultation on a young gentleman. After the surgeons dined, they set out for Oldham. Mr. Thorpe was informed that he was going to the house of very religious people and a warning not to swear was given, a warning not unnecessary in those days. Thorpe was the last to enter the sick chamber, hands behind his back, and after making due investigation said: "Well, young man, if I was lying where you are, and saw all these folks crying round my bed, and three doctors in the room, I should think I was in a d- -d bad way; but pluck up your heart, you'll get better." He did. Scene Outside the sick chamber. "Why, Thorpe, you rapped out with an oath." "Nay, I'm d- -d if I did, for I was on my P's and Q's all the time I was in the house."

We gladly welcome this work, which will live as the repertory of the lives and doings of men to whom especially the poor of Manchester owe so much, and congratulate the author on the success of his unwearied efforts to disinter the facts and to put them in a readable and graceful setting.

"A Text-Book of the Practice of Medicine." By JAMES M. ANDERS, M.D., Ph.D., LL.D. Sixth Edition, thoroughly revised. Pp. 1,295. Figs. 81; plates 7. Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders and Co., 1903. Price 24s. net.

THE first edition of this work was published in 1897, and two years have elapsed since the publication of the fifth edition. These facts must be taken as evidence of the position which is filled by Anders' Text-book of the Practice of Medicine.

As a review of the previous edition appeared in these pages shortly after its appearance, it is unnecessary to say more now than that the general excellence of the book (now published in one volume) is fully maintained both in its letterpress and in its illustrations. The frequent use of tables giving points in differential diagnosis is of especial value to the student, whilst the young practitioner will find useful many of the prescriptions advised.

Among the new subjects dealt with are:-Paratyphoid fever, the fourth disease and trypanosomiasis, and additions have been made to the sections dealing with the mosquito-borne diseases, bacillary dysentery, cholecystitis and the use of the X-rays in the diagnosis and treatment of disease.

The author states in his preface that the work "only slightly touches the delicate, debatable points in medicine," but we think we are entitled to ask why the diseases of the spleen should be considered under the general heading "Diseases of the Digestive System" rather than under that of Diseases of the Ductless Glands."

"A Text-Book of Operative Surgery." By W. S. BICKHAM, Phar.M., M.D. Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders and Co., 1903. 4to. Pp. 960.

PART I. of this book deals with the operations of general surgery; Part II. with the operations of special surgery. In dealing with each group of operations the author first considers the following divisions of the subject:-(1) The surgical anatomy of the region or organ; (2) surface anatomy and landmarks; (3) general surgical considerations as applied to the part under description; (4) instruments required. The operation itself is described under the following headings:-(1) Title of operation; (2) description of operation, including its general indications; (3) preparation of patient; (4) position of patient, surgeon, and assistants; (5) landmarks; (6) incision; (7) steps of the operation; (8)

comments.

The above arrangement is an indication that he has attempted to deal with his subjects in a systematic and comprehensive manner, and we are of opinion that he has succeeded in an eminent degree. The descriptions are good and clearly expressed, and the book is thoroughly up-to-date and reliable in every way. The illustrations, 559 in number, are almost all original and are well executed.

Altogether we consider that the book is one which reflects great credit upon the author, and we have pleasure in giving it our very favourable recommendation.