Dispense five-grain capsules No. xxv. Sig. One every two hours until five are taken daily.

When we have an acid condition, a teaspoonful of pure sodium phosphate and a five-grain tablets of lithia in a cup of very hot water will relieve, especially if constipation exists. Where they are vigilant and nervous, the bromide of strontium after meals exhibited in fifteen-grain doses is indicated. If the urine is ammonical, I use 20 grains of muriate of ammonia in a little hot water after meals. A change in the shape of an outing for a few days is to be considered. Verily, the mind runs the body, and commercialism is predominant in the minds of doctors, and surgical measures employed, to the detriment of our patients. A young man consulted me some time ago. Was suffering with hemorrhoids and what he called "a tight muscle," and the act of defecation gave much pain. He had lost much flesh and said he could not sleep without some hypnotic. His business was that of loaning money and taking chattel mortgages. He lived a life of continued fric

tions and was hyperesthetic and neurotic and his glasses were hazed, and he looked through a misty horizon. Before divulsing the sphincter muscle thought that I would try a waiting game and see what Dame Nature and relaxation would do for my patient. Advised a month's vacation to the northern lakes and gave him a chalybeate tonic, with a salve containing equal parts of calomel and ointment of the benzoated oxide zinc, and told him to relax and gave him a good suggestive talk. Six weeks' vacation did the work, and he assured me that he never felt better in his life. No sign of piles and he has not had his muscle stretched. Why not give a little more attention to rational medicine, and study up the action of the sympathetic nerve centers? A. V. BANES, M.D.

St. Joseph, Mo.

OREXINE TANNATE AS AN APPETIZER.

Editor Medical Summary:

Orexine tannate is an appetizer par excellence. I have employed orexine for over ten years in anorexia, and find it the most prompt restorer of the appetite or an appetizer employed.

Prescribed in 5 grain doses, one hour be-fore meal time will often create a craving for food, whereas before there was a repugnance to food.

The most convenient and pleasant method of administering is in capsule or tablet form, as it is insoluble in water; however, it is almost tasteless and may be given in powder form.

FERDINAND SCHREIMANN. M.D. Condordia, Mo.

EVOLUTIONARY PRACTICE OF MEDICINE AND SURGERY, Causes and Diagnoses of Chronic Diseases, Especially of Prostate, Kidney, Heart, Stomach, Lungs, Neuroses, etc. By George Whitfield Overall, M.D., Author of "Non-Surgical Treatment of Diseases of the Prostate and Adnexa," etc. Rowe Publishing Co., Publishers, 7 W. Madison St., Chicago, Ill. 1914. Price, $3.00.

This volume is a real multum in parvo on the subject of which it treats. Dr. Overall seems to have worked out a system of his own, original and, evidently, practical; he has drawn the curtain aside, and lets in the light so that all can see; shows the facts which he proves every day. He shows clearly how by careful diagnosis and the application of electrolysis, cataphoresis, faradization, etc., at the seat of the disease, the most obstinate of these conditions may be overcome. The book is divided into twelve chapters, which are as follows: Anatomy and Histology of Nervous System; Causes and Diagnoses of Diseases; Anatomy and Functions of Organs Involved; Acute Prostatitis; Subacute and Chronic Prostatitis, with Granulated Urethratitis, Vegetative Growths, Proud Flesh, Cystitis; Congested Glandular Enlargement of the Prostate, Vesiculitis, Complications of Cystitis; Vegetable Growths, Proud Flesh, Polypi, etc.; Senile Hypertrophy, and its Complications with Cystitis, Vesiculitis, the Rectum, etc.; Sigmoiditis, Pyrosaks, Overticulæ Tuberculosis, Syphiletic Prostatitis, Cystitis, Vesiculitis; Neuroses of Prostate and Adnexia; Brief Outline of Anatomy, Histology, and Pathologic Changes as influenced by perverted condition of the Prostate Gland, and Sequelæ to various lesions detailed in this work; Congested Inflamatory Conditions, arising as Sequelæ to Lesions of the Prostate, Bladder, etc.; Miscellaneeus Cases. Besides, there is a Preface, Introduction, and a complete Index. The text contains thirty-four excellent illustrations.

Three editions of "A Non-Surgical Treatise on Diseases of the Prostate Gland and Adnexa," by the same author, have been sold, numbering 18,000 copies in all; the last edition appearing about six years ago. The present volume contains all the essential points of the previous editions, taking in a larger and more extended scope of chronic diseases, in such a practical manner that it becomes a much more important work. This is the culmination of the author's indomitable perseverance and presents his achievements and accomplishments of over thirty years of practice, close observation and indefatigable study of chronic diseases. To give the reader a correct idea of the author's intentions of about what this volume was intended to be, we can do no better than quote from the preface in which he says: "In this volume I have endeavored to deal only with cold, stubborn facts; facts not based upon theory or guess work, not upon laboratory investigation, or a few isolated clinical observations, but with facts founded upon premises, deductions and conclusions strictly in accordance with physiological laws and toxic conditions as influenced by morbific states, and proved by hundreds of authentic clinical results."

DYSENTERIES, Their Differentiation and

Treatment. By Leonard Rogers, M.D., F.R.C.P., B.S., F.R.C.S., etc., Physician to the Isolation Ward (Cholera and Dysentery) Medical College Hospital, and Professor of Pathology, Medical College, Calcutta. Oxford University Press, Publishers, American Branch, 35 W. 32d St., New York City. 1913. Price, net, $3.75.

This is a valuable work on the subject of which it treats, as it emanates from a practitioner who has had wide and extensive experience with exceptionally favorable opportunities for investigating the subject in Calcutta, and was long engaged in collecting the material for this work, which aims

more especially at describing and differentiating the two great classes of amoebic and bacillary dysentery in their pathological and clinical aspects, and at giving indications for their treatment. During the progress of his rapid specific action of hypodermic injections of the soluble salts of emetine in amoebic dysentery; a discovery which enhances the importance of distinguishing this variety of the disease from that caused by bacilli, and in the author's opinion makes the present an opportune moment for the appearance of this book. PYORRHEA ALVEOLARIS. By Frederick

Hecker, B.Sc., D.D.S., A.M., M.D. Member of the Academy of Science of St. Louis, Mo., Consultant at Bell Memorial Hospital of the School of Medicine, University of Kansas, Rosedale, Kansas; Consultant at St. Margaret's Hospital, Kansas City, Mo. Illustrated. C. V. Mosby Co., Publishers, St. Louis, Mo. 1913. Price, net, $2.00.

The author of this little volume does not agree with the most common belief among dentists, that pyorrhea alveolaris is a local process, but, after careful observation ́covering a number of years, believes that the disease is the result of constitutional and exciting causes which lower the vital resistance of the alveolar process, gum and the peridental membrane. The body, in other words, is out of harmony physiologically, and as a result thereof, manifests itself in the alveolar process, and the gum and the peridental membrane. Thus this disease becomes a study for the diagnostitian to tell or diagnose its exact source. After this has been done, the disease is amenable to treatment, according to the author's statements.

CAUSES AND CURES OF CRIME. By Thomas Speed Mosby, Member of the American Bar; Former Pardon Attorney of the State of Missouri: Member American Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology; Author of "Capital Punishment," "Youthful Criminals," etc., etc. Illustrated. C. V. Mosby Co., Publishers, St. Louis, Mo. 1913. Price, net, $2.00.

This book represents the views entertained by one of the leading criminologists of the country on crime and the criminal. It forecasts the aim and intent

of those who are working for the new penology and is based on the premises that crime is in most cases the outcome of a diseased mind. The author stands for prison reforms, the use of the hospital instead of the penitentiaries, the conservation of man instead of his degradation when crime is first committed.

In the preface the author says: "The suppression of crime is not at all a legal question. It is rather a problem for physicians and economists. This, it is believed, will be fairly evident to all who peruse these pages. We shall find, too, that the habits of life and thought which make for health of mind and body likewise militate against crime; that physical, social and moral diseases abide in the same diathesis; that there is a physical basis of morals, as well as a spiritual basis of life; and that, in the study of normal and abnormal man, we can no more consider him as an animal without a soul than as a purely mental phenomenon without a physiological basis."

A careful perusal of this book will undoubtedly interest if not instruct the lay reader as well as the professional man.

SURGICAL EXPERIENCE IN SOUTH AFRICA,

1899-1900, Being Mainly a Clinical Study of the Nature and Effects of Injuries Produced by Bullets of Small Calibre. By George Henry Makins, C.B., F.R.C.S., Senior Surgeon to St. Thomas's Hospital, London, Vice-President of the Royal College of Surgeons of England; late Joint Lecturer on Surgery in the Medical School of St. Thomas's Hospital, etc., etc., etc. Second Edition. Oxford University Press, Publishers, American Branch, 35 W. 32d St., New York City. 1913. Price, net, $3.75.

This book presents the experience of an English surgeon of well known reputation, who was with the English army during the Boer War in South Africa in 1899 and 1900. In the author's note to this, the second edition, he says that this book, which has been many years out of print, is still asked for on the occasion of any fresh war, and also that its contents have been freely quoted in many foreign works, and this determined the author to reprint it. The book is divided into twelve chapters, which are as follows: "Introductory;" "Modern

Military Rifles and their Action;" "General Character of Wounds Produced by Bullets of Small Calibre;" "Injuries to the Blood Vessels:" "Injuries to the Bones of the Limbs" "Injuries to the Joints:" "Injuries to the Head and Neck;" "Injuries to the Vertebral Column and Spinal Cord:" "Injuries to the Peripheral Nerves;" "Injuries to the Chest;" "Injuries to the Abdomen;" "On Shell Wounds." In the text we have 105 admirably well executed illustrations and six temperature charts. The author's accurate historical and case record statements make this volume of especial interest to army surgeons in case of war.

THE PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF MEDICAL HYDROLOGY, Being the Science of Treatment by Waters and Baths. By R. Fortescue Fox, M.D. (Lond.), F.R. Met. Soc. Late Hyde Lecturer of Hydrology, Royal Society of Medicine. Oxford University Press, Publishers, American Branch, 35 W. 32d St., New York City. 1913. Price, net, $2.00.

The aim of the author of this up-to-date work has evidently been to describe and discuss the various actions, both of waters and of baths, upon the body, by giving just enough detail to enable physicians to use these methods of treatment, in both acute and chronic cases, in their own practice, whenever these methods would seem to be indicated. It is, however, necessary that a sound knowledge of the principles of Medical Hydrology be known by the physician who would undertake to apply them in practice. But, he who draws upon these rich resources will often be surprised at the benefit his patient will have obtained from them. While the work is by no means a guide to health resorts, the author hopes that the physicians who follow the general principles of this work may find in the Index of Waters and Baths sufficient information to guide them in the selection of spas or medical springs for their patients. In fact this work sets forth in a systematic and comprehensive form the medical doctrine of waters and baths.

Trousseau states that persons whose bowels never move except by the use of purgatives obtain daily stool by the use of very small doses of belladonna. Dr. Baker.

MEDICAL EXAMS. ARE USELESS.

Sir William Osler, Professor of Medicine at Oxford University, in an address at the reopening of the Medical School of St. George's Hospital, recently denounced the existing system of training medical students, especially the lecture and examination features.

Sir William contended that the work of the students from the day they enter the school ought to count for more qualification and that the students ought not to be under the continual fear of examination. He said the Chinese system of education, which is directed to a single end, the passing of examination, shows perfectly the blighting influence of examinations and how they sterilize the imagination.

"The great chasm between education and examination is," he continued, "shown by the statistics of aspirants to the Royal College of Surgeons. Half of the entrants fail, yet these are the very pick of the students. The lectures ought to be reduced. The day of the lecture is past. It ought to be an offense on the part of a senior student to attend a lecture.

"In the case of inefficient students, parents ought to be told after a year or two they would never make decent doctors. There ought to be no written papers at the final examination.

"Watch the man handle a patient. Fifteen minutes at the bedside is worth three hours at the examination table. The student needs that the incubus of examination should be lifted from his soul. We make the study of our profession an intolerable burden by examinations, and the enormous expansion of the subjects of the curriculum."-Ex.

For epistaxis use strong solution of antipyrine (20%) on cotton. It is most effective.

In discussing the treatment of cystitis in his text-book, "Practical Gynecology," Dr. Montgomery states that "helmitol, grains 10, 3 or four times daily, has the advantage over urotropin in that it can be given effectively in either acid or alkaline urine. Both drugs should be administered largely diluted."

Scudder claimed that polymnia uvedalia was the best hair tonic in the materia medica, in the proportion of four ounces of the tincture to twelve ounces of bay rum, to be thoroughly rubbed into the scalp.

In earache drop one drop of tincture of aconite upon a piece of cotton, and insert in the affected ear. When the pain is gone remove the medicated cotton and replace it with a piece of warm unmedicated cotton.

Whenever there is danger of metastasis from mumps, either to the mammary glands or to the testicles, apply a hot mustard poultice over the parotid gland and put the patient to bed for a few hours. The inflammation will be attracted to its original site and there remain, and will abate with proper treatment.-Dr. Ellingwood.

Dr. Samuel Floersheim considers ipecac useful in stimulating hepatic action. For this purpose he gives the powdered extract in capsule or pill form, never using the wine or tincture. He has never employed the drug as a hemostatic.-Med. Standard.

Dr. Ellingwood says that persistent crops. of boils can be cured by small repeated doses of echinacea, persisted in for from two to four weeks.

When there is an excess of indican in the urine, thorough and persistent flushing of the colon removing and keeping the intestine free from feces, will cure this condition, says a writer in the Med. Record.

Theoform is a condensation product of theobromine with substances that split off formaldehyde. It is a white, bitter powder, and is given in doses of 15 grains for the same purpose as diuretin.

Hydrogen peroxide instilled into the ear and allowed to remain for a few minutes will soften and disintegrate the cerumen, which can then easily be removed by spraying with warm water.

During the teething of infants, sudden febrile disturbance, nervous irritations and extreme restlessness may be allayed by the use of a simple solution of sodium bromide, from one-half to one grain per dram of the solution, given every few minutes if necessary or every hour or two.

A dram of olive oil twice a day, regularly given, will correct some cases of stubborn constipation in infants. It might be well to add three or four drops of fruit extract of cascara to this.

Acids taken before meals are said to reduce the secretion of acid, while acids taken after meals will aid digestion.

Tartar may be removed from the teeth by dipping a damp brush into magnesia and rubbing the teeth thoroughly with this two or three times a day.

As a simple measure to relieve cold in the head, inhale spirits of camphor or the vapor of camphor gum on which a little alcohol is poured.-Thos. Williams, in Ellingwood's Therapeutics.

The tinitus, produced by quinine and sodium salicylate, can be overcome or prevented by giving the patient small doses of ergot in conjunction with these remedies.