and including May 20th it has increased to 922. This is in advance of our record any preceding year in the history of our membership and I doubt not we will pass the 1,000 mark before the close of 1913. The following officers were elected for the ensuing year: President, D. C. Bryant, M. D., Omaha, Neb. Vice President, David T. Martyn, Jr. M. D., Columbus, Neb. Dr. D. T. Quigley of North Platte was chosen as our representative to the International Congress of Medicine to meet in London this summer. Dr. A. R. Mitchell of Lincoln, was chosen as one of our delegates to the American Medical Association and Dr. F. A. Long of Madison, as alternate. Their term of office is from May, 1913 to May, 1915. Dr. A. D. Nesbit of Tekamah and his alternate Dr. E. A. Steenburg of Aurora were our representatives last year and continue as our representatives until May, 1914. Our Councilors elected were: District No.5, A. P. Overgaard, Fremont. District No. 8, P. J. Flynn, O'Neill. Their term of office is three years from date of election. BOOK REVIEWS JOSEPH M. AIKIN. SKIN GRAFTING. For Surgeons and General Practitioners. By Leonard Freeman, B. S., M. A., M. D., Professor of Surgery in the Medical Department of the University of Colorado, Surgeon to St. Joseph's Hospital, The National Jewish Hospital, and the City Hospital, Denver, Colo. With 24 illustrations. C. V. Mosby Company, Publishers, St. Louis, Mo. 1912. Price, net, $1.50. This is an important little volume. The text is divided into twelve chapters, and contains 25 illustrations, which help to a considerable extent in illuminating the text. The little work presents a brief, condensed, resume of all that is best and most important for practical use on the subject of skin grafting, presented in such a plain and concise manner that it becomes a very important work for the general practitioner and none who are interested in the subject should fail to secure a copy, as it will form a very valuable addition to any physician's library, to be read and studied at leisure. W. B. Saunders Company, Publishers, of Philadelphia and London, have issued another edition (17th) of their handsome illustrated catalogue. In going through this edition we find it describes nine new books and ten new editions, not described in the previous issue. These new books are of great interest to the medical man, because they treat of subjcts being daily discussed in medical circles. Any physician can get a copy of the Saunders' catalogue by dropping a line to these publishers. A copy should have a place on the desk of every physician, because it is most valuable as a reference work of modern medical literature. Send to Saunders today for a copy. WESTERN MEDICAL REVIEW Per Published Monthly by WESTERN MEDICAL REVIEW COMPANY, Omaha, Nebr. Annum, $2.00. The WESTERN Medical Review is the Journal of the Wyoming State Medical Society and is sent by order of the Society to each of its members. OFFICERS: President: Dr. Amos W. BARBER, Cheyenne Secretary: DR. W. H. ROBERTS, Cheyenne All matter for publication in this section should be sent to W. H. ROBERTS, M. D., Editor, Sheridan, Wyo. COLLABORATORS-SUBJECT TO REVISION. Pestal, Joseph, Douglas; Keith, M. C.; Casper; Marshall, T. E., Sheridan; Nelsen, N. D.; Shoshoni; Wicks, J. L., Evanston; Wiseman, Letitia, Cheyenne; Young, J. H., Rock Springs. Vol. XVIII. CHEYENNE, WYO., JUNE, 1913 Danger From Antimeningitis Serum. No. 6 Partly from personal observations and partly from the records of the Cincinnati hospital, S. P. Kramer, Cincinnati (Journal A. M. A., May 3), reports six cases of death coming on with respiratory paralysis a few minutes after the injection of antimeningitic serum and two cases in which the respiratory paralysis was relieved by artificial respiration, the children dying later with the disease. In a previous article (New York Medical Journal, 1912, xcv, No. 11) he had reported cases of respiratory paralysis following the lumbar injection of cocain and from the similarity of the cases here reported he considers these latter to be of toxic origin. He quots from his expirements on dogs in which it was shown that methylene-blue injected into the subdural space could find its way through the central canal and, aided by the ciliated eptithelium, into the ventricular system of the brain. He gives tracings made from experiments by injecting antimeningitic serum and a solution of trikresol of the strength used in the serum, into the subdural space producing respiratory paralysis and concludes that the trikresol is the offending agent in the cases here reported. He concludes therefore that serum containing 0.5 per cent of trikresol cannot be safely used for injections in young children. The article is illustrated. Treatment of Post Partum Haemorrhage. Ratchinsky resorted to the following very simple and effective method of stopping severe post partum hemorrhage: With the hand in the vagina he raised the uterus out of the pelvis and, by tilting the body of the uterus forward, brought it well over the pubis. By this procedure the broad ligament is put on a stretch, distorting and compressing the uterine vessels, while the uterus is compressed against the pubic bones. In two cases he succeeded in the manœuvre by external manipulation alone. He also employed the method successfully in two cases of metrorrhagia, one due to metroendometritis and the other fibroid. In looking up the literature, the author discovered that this method was suggested by Fritsch, in 1904, although the purpose was merely to produce compression of the bleeding uterus. The same idea occurred to Ott, a Russian, in 1901. Yet, notwithstanding the simplicity and effectiveness of the method, it received no notice from obstetricians.-N. Y. Med. Jour. The Teaching of Insanity. F. X. Dercum, Philadelphia (Journal A. M. A., April 5), is firmly of the opinion that mental diseases should be taught just like other diseases, both didactically and clinically, and that the instruction should be of such a nature that when the student finally enters practice he should be able to recognize the common and every-day forms he is likely to meet and to know when to recommend asylum treatment or otherwise. Theoretical considerations should enter but little in a course on mental diseases in a medical school. As far as possible emphasis should be laid on symptoms, course, prognosis and treatment. The student should be taught the proper use in these cases of the alteratives, glandular extracts and hypnotics or sedatives. That physiologic remedies, like rest, bathing and exercise, should be taught, goes without saying. There is at present, Dercum thinks, a strange and unfortunate tendency to drop the practical study of insanity and its symptoms and to go into psychologic speculation. He refers especially to the Freudian school and the importance laid on psychanalysis by such authorities as Bleuler and some others. There is a grave danger in the proposition of introducing a newer psychology and neglecting the rational instruction. He says now it is actually proposed to force into the already overcrowded curriculum of the medical student the study of a subject alike barren and theoretical, to take the place of the teaching of internal medicine of which insanity is but a part. He sees no possible good and much evil in these modern tendencies. Elimination of the Midwife. C. E. Ziegler, Pittsburg (Journal A. M. A., January 4), considers the midwife an unnecessary evil and not excusable on any grounds of poor obstetric work by physicians. He is opposed to educating and licensing midwives, first, because he considers it unnecessary, and a plan can be evolved by which good medical attendance can be assured to every parturient woman; and second, because he does not believe it possible to train women of a type of even the best class of midwives to practice obstetrics satisfactorily. There is a great deal more in obstetrics than merely assisting the natural forces of Nature. Each case should be studied beforehand, and accidents and the abnormal possibilities of the mother and child need the educated eye of the physician. It will never be known, perhaps, how many thousands of babies are sacrificed by the lack of this. Another very pertinent objection to giving 50 per cent. of the cases to midwives, as at present, is that they contribute nothing to our knowledge of the subject. The cases they treat should be available for the training of future physicians, which is at the present time almost impracticable. On the other hand, it is plain that every woman has a right to demand such care during and following childbirth, as is needed for her welfare and that of the child. He criticizes the present method of administering medical charities as unjust and inefficient. Any system that does not give the most economical service consistent with essential efficiency is wrong, and physicians ought not to be obliged to bear the burden that should be assumed by the individual or the state. The remedy, as far as obstetrics is concerned, can be brought about through the establishment of obstetric charities, consisting of maternity hospitals and maternity dispensaries with all that they imply. Where medical schools exist these may be directly effective. But in the rural districts he agrees with 'Professor Prichett of the Carnegie Foundation that "a sanitary service, subsidized by the state, will alone render efficient relief in backward districts without demoralizing the profession." He believes that every student graduating should have had experience with at least fifty cases, and he gives results of inquiries as to how near this is approached in the various medical centers. In conclusion, he gives the account of a plan adopted in Pittsburg for the elimination of the midwife. The hospital, the first of its kind in this country, has been modeled largely after the wellknown Frauenkliniks of Germany. While the work is young, the outlook is promising for the elimination of the midwife question. Hemophilia. Gressot (Zeitsch fur Klin Medizin) reports extremely minute clinical research for months in a case of hemophilia with necropsy two hours after death. The findings show that a general lack of thrombokinase cannot be the cause of hemophilia, but it is certainly lacking in the blood. It can be supplied from without in local application to the bleeding points in the form of fresh blood, serum or tissue juice. By this means the flowing blood can be rapidly coagulated and, provided that the thrombokinase can get deep enough into the wound, the hemorrhage may be arrested by it. This local application can be applied only to hemorrhage from the skin or mucosa of the mouth. No other means proved effectual in controlling the hemorrhages in the case described, although all the measures in vogue were given most thorough trial. There was no history of hemophilia in preceding generations, but the patient was the last of five brothers who had succumbed to bleeding from the gums or head after comparatively slight injury. The patient has five sisters, three of whom are married and are normal and their daughters are also normal, but each has lost one or two sons from hemophilia. Doctor, you have not done your duty if you have not invited your brother physician, who is not a member, to attend a meeting of your county society as your guest. Show and tell him what he is missing by not becoming affiliated with the county and state organization and then persuade him to file his application for membership with your secretary. You owe this duty to him, to your society and to yourself. Will you not make the effort to invite some non-member to your next meeting? |