ical talk? Well, I do. I sometimes feel I should like to go back to protoplasm. Tonight I wish I were a barnacle on a South Sea Island rock where the full Pacific tides could wash over me, and the southern suns steep me in infinite calms of laziness. Give me the rest that lurks in the autumn fields and shadow-haunted woods, and you may take my place at the hospital and the college. Doctor, a September day with God, listening to the musical murmurs of the forest will strengthen you for many a day's struggle in town!

If I were a bird I'd fly to some forest so vast and deep that even the flutter of a falling leaf could be heard for miles in the still air, and there I'd build me a nest of silence, drink sunshine for wine, and never grow old. And when death came I would have no funeral, nor crepe, nor mourning friends, nor outdoor parade of hearse and followers, but I'd simply die and be done with it, as "morning changes into noon."

-

Don't you feel like 'resting a bit, like calling out to the mad procession to stop? For my part I would like to slow up for a while. I see doctors all about me growing gray. I see the babies I brought into the world wheeling perambulators for their own little "bald-headed tyrants," and it strikes me that I am getting along past the middle mile post. The calendars don't seem to be so reliable as they used to be. The seasons are constant, but they are in a greater hurry. Spring used to take off her things and sit awhile; now she only stops to throw a bunch of lilacs in at the window and flits away. Summer and autumn used to make themselves at home and linger long and pleasantly, but of late years the former weaves a garland which is hardly finished before the latter breathes upon it and it drops to pieces. As for winter, he barely takes time to show us his ermine and laces before he is summoned back to the land of nowhere.

A few words spoken lightly by the tongue of slander, a significant expression of the eyes, a cruel shrug of the shoulders, with a pursing of the lips, and then friendly hands grow cold, the accustomed smile is replaced by a sneer, and one stands alone

and aloof with a dazed feeling of wonder at the vague, intangible something that has caused it all.

So let us say no unkind word about another doctor or another man, nor worry about our detractors. There is one who understands us and knows us as we are.

"Our censors guard us roundabout

And hedge us with their dusty creeds;
They cry us wrong in hope or doubt
And howl like mad dogs at our deeds.
They wail our knotted skein of life,
And flout us for our clumsy hands,
Because with tangles it is rife—

But all the time God iunderstands.
"Our censors measure step and stride
With mathematic rod and rule,
And when we wander to one side
Straightway they cry aloud, "Thou fool!'
And book and bell and candle bring

To curse the one who halting stands, But ah! the footsteps wandering

He understands-He understands. "Our censors weigh our every word

And sift its sound for sign of sin
And whispered dreams that are unheard
Against the screen of fate they pin;
With happy smile they search our brain

To bind our thoughts with brazen bands, And hope shall struggle not in vain,

And all the time God understands.

"He understands our little fears,

Our little doubts and little woes,
And in the shadows of the years

He sees the soul. He knows-He knows;
He scans us, not as censors do-

To mark the blindly searching hands-
But all our good he brings to view,

He understands-He understands."

Let us as doctors preach the gospel of cheerfulness, self-confidence, optimism, and cultivate comradeship-fraternalism. When you come to look life fairly and squarely in the face what does it all amount to as regards oneself: food, clothing, the necessities for the continuance of life, that is about all any of us gets. We are all traveling the same weary road, footsore, tired, some more heavily burdened than others, all going down the hill of life, with steady or unsteady steps, fast or slow, and at the foot of the declivity there is waiting for us, all alike, the open grave, in which we must calmly take our place. We are here today, at the foot of the hill tomorrow and then the little mound, and the next day we rot-and how soon forgotten.

NEW EDITION OF THE W-A "ALKALOIDAL THERAPEUTICS"

A Text-Book of Alkaloidal Therapeutics. Third edition. Revised and Enlarged. By W. F. Waugh, M. D., and W. C. Abbott, M. D. Chicago: The Abbott Press. Octavo, 765 pages. Price, cloth, $5.00 net.

Since the first edition of this work appeared the progress in therapeutics has been great. In every department there has been good work done, with corresponding results. At the outset, the authors of this volume took the ground that the therapeutics of the active principles did not constitute a complete system or embrace the whole field. Being but a part, it did not justify the creation of a separate school or sect in medicine, but could only continue to live and develop so long as it remained attached to the parent stem. This has been verified by the gradual attenuation of the dosimetric movement in Europe. The journals established in various countries have died out, the central one in Paris has shrunk; the movement has spent itself. All there was to say anent the alkaloids has been said, over and over, and no new developments have been made to sustain the interest. Burggraeve and his strong supporters are dead, and their successors do little except to go over the tailings and extract a few grains of pure metal that escaped their predecessors.

Here in America matters are different. Those who first recognized the great importance of the alkaloids also saw that these agents formed only a part of therapeutics, and that the interests of the patient must suffer from any attempt to make a part serve for the whole and to shut out other useful expedients. More

over, there can be no normal, healthy development of therapeutics except as a part of the general professional advance.

Our judgment has been vindicated by the results. The use of the active principles and pure chemicals, given singly, with definite purpose, or combined with distinct intention, has progressed in the body of the profession until it is becoming a habit. Men are rapidly learning the advantages of applying therapeutic certainties to meet distinctly comprehended conditions. The old, set shotgun prescription is becoming obsolete. Nearly half the physicians of America are in touch with the "alkaloidal group," and the number increases apace.

The present volume is nearly double the size of its predecessor. Many books, innumerable journals, monographs, and other publications have been searched, to bring to light every smallest bit of information that seemed likely to be of use to the doctor in caring for his patient. A wealth of clinical reports has been uncovered, in French, Italian, Spanish, and in other journals, to all intents lost to all but their immediate readers; and these have been collected, compared, and consolidated into compact and convenient forms for reference. The labor involved has been great, but it has been indeed a labor of love, and the pleasure of presenting this valuable material to their colleagues fully compensated the authors for "long days of labor, and nights devoid of ease."

Comparing this with the first edition, we are surprised that there should be so few statements in the latter which time has proved erroneous. The changes are almost all in the addition of new material. But too many of the gaps then revealed in our knowledge of the action of drugs remain

still unfilled. Too many matters then involved in controversy are still in the same uncertain state. We sorely need to have important points settled, points that should have been settled long ago, and might have been, had our friends but done their share. Most of these can only be decided by experience it is the clinician, not the laboratory worker, whose aid we need.

The authors of this book come in touch with 60,000 physicians, embracing the majority of the active general practitioners of America. Were each of them to make careful observations as to the action of remedies, record them, and report to us, we could settle any moot point in therapeutics by this gigantic collective investigation. The trouble is, they don't know just how to go about it. Say, "scientific observation," and one begins straightway to think of the cost of sphygmographs, manometers, x-ray outfits, and that sort of thing. But, see here, we want to know whether people saturated with calx sulphurata will be attacked by mosquitoes and infected with malaria. Can't you try it? Won't you? Just give anybodyyourself-five grains of the drug daily and note results. You don't need a manometer to tell whether a mosquito bites you.

We don't want you to do it all, but to do what you conveniently can. But if each of you does that, we shall give this old world such a hunch as will make her axles squeak.

"LITORA ALIENA"

Litora Aliena. W. M. Leonard, publisher, Boston. Octavo, 78 pages. Price 50 cents.

I doubt if anybody enjoys his vacation as does the doctor. And for that very reason, when one of our guild does take the trouble to put into type the impressions derived from his pilgrimage in foreign lands, we appreciate his escape from the grind and his privilege in throwing off the cares of the profession as nobody else can do. That is the reason, probably, that the series of letters which recently appeared in The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal proved so charming. We are

glad that they have been republished in their present form, and commend them to our readers as well repaying the small price asked for them.

It is instructive, and amusing perhaps, to note how in his early days the author could not forget he was a doctor, hence devoted himself to clinics and hospitals, but by and by the smell of the drug-room seems to have been shaken off, and.in the latter part he devoted himself more exclusively to the pleasure of sight-seeing and of conjuring among their once familiar localities, the ancient days of King Arthur and his table round; and of the other historic events which merry England has witnessed.

HEINEMANN'S "BACTERIOLOGY"

A Laboratory Guide in Bacteriology. For the Use of Students, Teachers and Practitioners. Second Edition. By Paul G. Heinemann, Ph.D. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. 1911. Price, postpaid, $1.59.

This is an ideal volume in every respect for the laboratory worker in bacteriology. It is concise, yet complete in every detail, and thoroughly modern. It is a credit to its author, who, however, needs no introduction to laboratory workers in bacteriology, as his frequent contributions to this important branch of biological science are of rare value. All the modern and improved methods are described in a clear, finished manner. The literary style also is such as to make this ordinarily dry subject most interesting reading.

This book is recommended, not only to medical students who, owing to the multitude of other subjects to be mastered. desire to acquire a knowledge of laboratory methods in bacteriology in the shortest possible time, but also to the general practitioner who wishes to be up-to-date on modern laboratory methods in bacteriology or desires to acquire a knowledge of new methods. Of the many similar excellent works on the market, we know of none that so thoroughly and completely covers the subject-matter in so concise and clear a manner and in such a way as to be

readily understood even by those having no intimate knowledge of the subject. J. F. BIEHN.

"AMERICAN PRACTICE OF SURGERY"

American practice of Surgery. A Complete System of the Science and Art of Surgery, by Representative Surgeons of the United States and Canada. Editors: Joseph E. Bryant, M. D., LL.D., and Albert H. Buck, M. D. Complete in 8 volumes. Profusely Illustrated. Volume 8. New York: Wm. Wood & Co. 1911. Price, cloth, $7.00.

The volume before us, which completes this monumental work on surgery, deals with the regional surgery of the thorax, exclusive of heart and esophagus, of the spleen, kidneys, pancreas, the hepatic organs, urinary and genital organs. It contains several chapters on the medicolegal aspect of surgery, on the relation of hospitals to surgery, on military surgery, naval surgery, railroad surgery, and concludes with a complete index of the entire work.

This system, the bringing out of which has required five years, is sufficiently well known so that it does not demand, at this time, a detailed discussion, and the fortunate subscribers, we are sure, will be glad to have the complete work finally on their shelves. Any physician who is interested in surgery will find in these eight magnificent volumes an enormous amount of information presented by the foremost American surgeons and teachers.

WITTHAUS AND BECKER'S "MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE AND TOXICOLOGY

Medical Jurisprudence, Forensic Medicine and Toxicology. By R. A. Witthaus, A. M., M. D., and Tracy C. Becker, A. B., LL.B. Second Edition. Volume IV. New York: Wm. Wood & Co. 1911. The price of this volume, sold separately, is $7.00, in cloth; $8.00, in brown sheep. The price of the set of four volumes is $24.00, in cloth; $28.00, in sheep.

The last volume of this authoritative work on medical jurisprudence covers the

very interesting subject of toxicology, written by Dr. Witthaus, who has devoted the greater part of his life to the study of chemistry and poisons, and to the art of the detection of the latter, so that he is probably better qualified than any one else to speak authoritatively on this subject. The various poisons are described in great detail, not only as to their action upon the organism, but the tests for their detection are also given.

The style of the book is remarkably interesting and the subject, though somewhat dry in itself, gains by being treated historically and by being illustrated with numerous references and cases in point, most of the causes célèbres being included in the description of the various poisons.

NEUBURGER'S "HISTORY OF

MEDICINE"

History of Medicine. By Dr. Max Neuburger. Translated by Ernest Playfair, M. B., M. R. C. P. In two volumes. Oxford Medical Publications. New York: Oxford University Press. 1910. Price $9.00.

The Bookworm had the privilege, some time ago, of examining and using the beautiful encyclopedic work on the history of medicine, designed by the late Professor Puschmann and carried out by Dr. Neuburger, Professor of Medical History in the Imperial University of Vienna, in association with Professor Pagel of Berlin. Because of his knowledge of that large work, the reviewer was greatly pleased to learn of a smaller work by Neuburger, and its translation into English is a source of gratification.

The first volume, now before the writer, contains an introduction by Dr. Osler, whose views on the importance of historical study are well known. The text deals with the history of the medicine of the East and of that of Classic Antiquity and the Middle Ages. We wish to assure our readers, from our personal experience, that the study of medical history is by no means only a hobby and a pastime, but that it enables us to appreciate and understand the better the acquirements of modern

researches. The present work is an unusually meritorious one and should be read and studied widely.

Like all the "Oxford" medical publications, this book is beautifully gotten up. The type is particularly clear, owing to the use of a dull-white paper, the latter of very light weight, so that the large volume is easily handled.

EAGER'S "COURTSHIP UNDER CONTRACT”

Courtship Under Contract; The Science of Selection. A Tale of Woman's Emancipation. By James Henry Lovell Eager. New York: The Health-Culture Company. 1910. Duodecimo, pp. 450. Price, cloth, $1.20 net.

That there is "something rotten" in the manner in which the marriage relation is played fast and loose with in our wonderful advance of civilization there can be no gainsaying. More, the "marrying in haste and repenting at leisure" is as old as humanity. But we admit that in our present socioeconomic conditions, the evils of ill-considered marriage and of reckless divorce are painfully accentuated. Yet, not one of the remedies proposed, whether they may lean to free-love or trial-marriage or what not, has offered an acceptable solution, because they all were obnoxious to our sense of the fitness of things.

In the present novel, the author proposes a further remedy in the form of courtship under contract. The heroine enters into a contract with her wooer, with the full approval of her family, according to which they are to live together as husband and wife, in all except the sexual relations, for a space of six months. The woman is to remain full mistress of her person and to occupy a separate bedroom, but otherwise the companionship is as close as possible. This contract is published under the marriage notices and arouses the greatest interest. After several months the heroine makes use of the right granted to both parties in the contract and terminates it, because she finds that she does not love her fiancé sufficiently to spend her life with him.

It is fortunate for the young lady that both she and her foster parents occupy an assured position and enjoy a high reputation for probity. Otherwise--and in actual life almost certainly-she would have been ostracized, with our usual want of charity.

While the problem dealt with in the story and the solution offered is interesting, we doubt whether it would be practicable. Our young ladies are not such cool-headed and fish-blooded prigs as Mona, the heroine, appears to be, and few young men could probably withstand the temptation of constant close companionship without making desperate attempts to obtain full possession of their fiancées.

The book is written in an earnest and persuasive style, which unfortunately could not remain free from preaching. It is somewhat disturbing to find a charming young lady of nineteen with the mentality of an old professor of social economy, but we realize the difficulties under which the author labored and will not criticize too sharply.

CORNER'S "MALE DISEASE"

Male Diseases in General Practice. An Introduction to Andrology. By Edred M. Corner, M. A., B. Sc. London: The Oxford University Press. 1910. Price $6.00.

The author insists upon the need of a science of the diseases of men, which might be designated as andrology, in correspondence with the analogous gynecology, because "men are, without doubt, carriers and transmitters, often unconsciously, of venereal infection into their own homes." The results of venereal disease in the male, therefore, would properly form an important part in the proposed science, which, like its counterpart gynecology, is an offspring of general surgery; with this difference, that gynecology has passed through the intermediate stage of obstetric surgery from which it has divorced itself.

The volume treats, as may be supposed, of the pathology and treatment of diseases of the male genital organs. Both congenital and acquired conditions are fully discussed.