BOOK REVIEWS PRACTICAL MEDICINE SERIES. Comprising Ten Volumes on the Year's Progress in Medicine and Surgery. Under the editorial charge of Gustavus P. Head, M. D., and Chas. L. Mix, A. M., M. D. Vol. IV. Gynecology. Edited by E. C. Dudley, A. M., M. D., Professor of Gynecology, Northwestern University Medical School, and C. von Bachelle, M. S., M. D., Assistant Professor of Obstetrics, Chicago Policlinic and College of Physicians and Surgeons. Series 1912. Pages 226. Year Book Publishers, Chicago. The series of ten volumes, $10. This volume, $1.25. SURGERY AND DISEASES OF THE MOUTH AND JAWS.-BLAIR. Published by C. V. Mosby Book and Publishing Co., St. Louis. 1912. Price $5.00. This book, coming at this time when surgery of the mouth is coming forward to the standard of general surgery, is both interesting and instructive. The book is written primarily for the student, so some subjects are given more space than would usually be allotted to them. We can but wonder why the bacteriology of the mouth is given so little place when really so important. The book contains 638 pages and has 384 illustrations. The illustrations are from photographs of actual cases, X-ray prints, or where line drawings will be clearer these are used. The chapters on cleft palate and alcohol injection of the fifth nerve are alone worth the price of the book. A. F. TYLER (Omaha). MUSCLE SPASM AND DEGENERATION IN INTRATHORACIC Their Importance as Diagnostic Aids and Their Influence in Producing and Altering the Well-established Physical Signs, also a Consideration of Their Part in the Causation of Changes in the Bony Thorax, and Light Touch Palpation. The Possibility and Practicability of Delimiting Normal Organs and Diagnosticating Diseased Conditions Within the Chest and Abdomen by Very Light Touch. By Francis Marion Pottenger, A. M., M. D., LL. D., Medical Director of the Pottenger Sanatorium for Diseases of the Lungs and Throat, Monrovia, California. Sixteen Illustrations. St. Louis: C. V. Mosby Company. 1912. Price $2.00. All half-baked or other underdone specialists should be exterminated. No physician has a right to that title unless he has been trained to avoid the pitfalls and dangers which may imperil the health and life of his patient. It is nothing short of a crime to turn a patient over to an uninstructed and ignorant novice and tell him to "go ahead and operate." Just so long as such a state of things exists, and unfortunately such a state does exist here and now, just so much worse it is for specialism and for the patient Let every man have at least three years of varied training in general practice, let him devote all his time and energy to learning a spcialty under a competent instructor for at least one year, then submit him to a test ("Regents," or Council of his Fellows), and we shall have specialists who are not an everlasting discredit to the profession.-Irving Wilson Voorhees. 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., JANUARY, 1913 No. 1 NOTES AND NEWS. Dr. M. A. Newell, of Sheridan, spent two weeks in Denver during the month of November doing post-graduate work. Mrs. Marshall, wife of Dr. T. E. Marshall of Sheridan, was successfully operated upon for appendicitis Dec. 7th, at the Sheridan hospital. Dr. C. E. Stevenson of Sheridan, recently attended the meeting of the C. B. & Q. surgeons at Chicago. He spent two weeks in post-graduate work. Dr. W. H. Roberts, of Sheridan, recently returned from attendance of the meeting of the State secretaries at Chicago. After the meeting he spent the month of November in Chicago attending clinics. On December 8th, Dr. H. P. Holmes, of Sheridan, Wyo., was stricken with cerebral hemorrhage while attending a patient, who was also suffering from cerebral hemorrhage. The doctor is improving. Dr. Holmes was formerly a practising physician in Omaha. How dear to our heart is the steady subscriber Who lays down the money and does it quite gladly, And casts 'round the office a halo of cheer. He never says, "Stop it; I cannot afford it, I'm getting more journals than now I can read." But he always says, "Send it; we doctors all like it In fact we all think it a help and a need." How welcome his check when it reaches our sanctum, How it makes our pulse throb; how it makes our hearts dance. We outwardly thank him; we inwardly bless him— The steady subscriber who pays in advance. Variations in the Picture of Gastric Ulcer. Cheney states that there is no absolutely certain clinical history of ulcer. Nocturnal pain, arousing from sleep, does not always mean duodenal ulcer. It may occur as well in gastric ulcer. Hematemesis may be entirely absent in the course of a chronic gastric ulcer, and its absence does not bar the diagnosis. Vomiting of any kind may never take place. While pain is the most unfailing symptom, it varies greatly in severity in different cases and at different times, also as regards the site at which felt and the time after eating when it occurs. The symptoms of ulcer may be simulated by the reflex gastric symptoms of chronic appendicitis, chronic cholecystitis, or intestinal parasites (tapeworm), or by the gastric crises of locomotor ataxia. Crotalin in Epilepsy The crotalin solution which Spangler has used in eight typical cases of idiopathic epilepsy was made from the dried, yellowish, crystallike scales of the evaporated venom of Crotalus horridus. The venom is obtained from the living reptile and dried between glass plates, under a bell jar, in the sun. A solution is then made by dissolving the crystals in glycerin and sterile water, to which a few drops of trikresol is added as a preservative. The solution is then put in sterilized ampules containing 1 c. c. of whatever strength is desired. The dose given ranged from 1-2000 to 1-25 of a grain. He found that not only are the virulence and number of epileptic fits favorably influenced by the crotalin treatment, but the excitability of the nervous system is modified and the general health of the patients, their mental faculties, and metabolism in every respect are considerably improved. The quality of the blood, and possibly its chemical composition, seem to be affected by the injection of the venom. As to the exact effect it has on the coagulability of the blood, further observation is necessary. There is no danger in the use of crotalin as long as the necessary aseptic precautions are taken in its administration, and the treatment is carried out with careful observation of its effect on the patient.-New York Medical Journal. Nitrous Oxide Oxygen Anesthesia. Collins (Am. Journal of Surg.) reports two cases of death occurring in the course of nitrous oxide and oxygen anesthesia, the one apparently ascribable to the method itself, the other to the fact that poisonous nitric oxide gas had inadvertently been allowed to mix with the nitrous oxide during the preparation of the latter. He advises that the anesthetist always inhale a little of the gas before beginning its administration and promptly discard it if it has any odor. Collins is convinced that in operative work on the abdomen, where muscular relaxation is necessary, the use of nitrous oxide and oxygen is not as safe us in operations on other parts of the body; too much gas is required to produce the necessary relaxation. In cases where the incision involves the recti muscles, or requires the lithotomy position, and the muscles do not relax under the gas and oxygen, he therefore adds a little ether vapor (two to four drachms) to the mixture and then continues the anesthesia in the usual manner. Mortality Statistics Three Years Old The If the title given above reminds our readers of the wellknown song of "Bean Porridge Hot," the only apology that can be offered is that it is inspired by the receipt this week of the mortality statistics of the bureau of the census for 1909. The publication, nearly three years after date, of the great mass of statistical information regarding deaths in the registration area, is undoubtedly of scientific value to the student; but of what practical service is the distribution of this material long after the conditions which produced these deaths have passed away? It should be said, at once, in justice to the bureau of the census and its director, that the fault does not lie there. material for this volume has been ready for months, but congress did not appropriate money for its publication until recently. We understand that the responsibility lies directly on congress, and no doubt to many members of congress there is nothing absurd about printing mortality reports three years after they were compiled. But suppose the weather bureau did not publish its reports until three years had passed. Suppose the department of agriculture held back its crop reports until they were three years old. Suppose the treasury department sent to bankers, in 1912, reports on the gold reserve or the currency circulation or the bond issues in 1909. Would the financial world, the agricultural interests or the general public be satisfied? What the public and the sanitarians and physicians want to know is, what is the state of the nation's health today? What diseases are now causing loss of life and what dangers may be looked for and avoided? Statistics kept for three years before they are distributed may be interesting as historical data, but they are not particularly valuable as current information.J. A. M. A. Colds in Children T. S. Southworth, New York (Journal A. M. A., November 30), says that recent years' experience has taught him to respect the common infectious cold as far from a trivial affection. Its bacteriology is yet uncertain and we may have several organisms to contend with. Infants appear to be especially susceptible to these infections and when it invades a household it is likely to go through several members. In institutions where they care for children it spreads with great rapidity, and as sequels ear disease is common, and pneumonia rather less so but not infrequent. The most frequent injury, however, is inflicted by their influence on nutrition, especially in bottle-fed infants We are apt to look on these as colds when they are in reality systemic infections. Such colds are an unfortunate handicap in conducting feeding cases in private practice and digestive disturbances caused by them are common. The loss of weight leads the nurse or mother to overfeed the infant. Household infections are shown by recurring attacks during the colder months, and they may occur also in the warmer seasons. The amount of injury done to young children can scarcely be estimated, especially in oral and sinus complications. Traveling on trains, children's parties, dancing schools, etc., are frequent methods of exposure, and Southworth emphasizes the importance of this risk. In treating a case isolation is often difficult unless the child is confined to bed and this aid is lost during convalenscence. He does not consider it, however, impracticable, and if parents could realize the greater danger from this cause they would enforce it, as they do in cases of the regularly recognized contagious diseases like diphtheria, scarlatina and even mumps and chickenpox. It is a comparatively simple matter for the physician to acquaint the mother with the risks incurred and to advise her to keep those having the slightest cold from contact with the children. But Southworth knows of no text-book that teaches the danger of the common infectious cold and no medical school or health board which has taught or enforced precautions against this contagious disorder. |