‘AN ESSAY ON THE PATHOLOGY OF THE ŒSOPHAGUS.’ By John F. Knott.
Dublin: Fannin & Co.
‘THE OPERATIVE TREATMENT OF INTRA-THORACIC EFFUSION.’ By Norman
Porritt, L. R. C. P., Lond., M. R. C. S., Eng. London: J. & A.
Churchill.
‘ON THE PATHOLOGY OF BRONCHITIS, CATARRHAL PNEUMONIA, TUBERCLE, AND
ALLIED LESIONS OF THE HUMAN LUNG.’ By D. J. Hamilton. London:
Macmillan & Co.
We can well imagine the interest with which some practitioner in a
comparatively isolated locality—in the sense of being far from some one
of the great Atlantic cities where all new medical and surgical works
are kept in stock—reads over the titles of forthcoming works in the
particular department in which he is most concerned, and the eagerness
with which he anticipates their arrival after he has gone so far as to
order them. It may be, in this catarrhal land of ours, that it is throat
and chest diseases he is studying, and that the above works excited his
interest and drew from his pocket his hard earned dollars. If so, who
can doubt that emotions of pleasure warmed his heart as he contemplated
the instruction to be gained and the information to be acquired from
their perusal? For who would dare write on the pathology of the
œsophagus, if he had nothing to say? or descant on the operative
treatment of intra-thoracic effusion, if he was not qualified by
learning and experience to speak on the subject? But, lest the doubter
be abroad in the land, look further to the vouchers of the title page or
the preface. The first work on our list is “the Essay to which was
awarded the Gold Medal of the Pathological Society at the close of the
Session, 1876-77.” The second, “the Essay to which the Medical Society
of London awarded the Fothergillian Gold Medal, 1883.” Can anything be
more satisfactory? It is true that our last work boasts no such
authoritative endorsement, but then as the author is a professor of
pathological anatomy at Aberdeen, its other imperfections—from this
standpoint—we can imagine passed by, and the book, not without
misgivings, may be ultimately ordered with the rest.
What is the consequence? Two of the books will prove extremely
unsatisfactory, and but one will be found to fulfill in any way the
anticipations of the purchaser. The work on the œsophagus is the
production of an undergraduate—a creditable performance for a student,
but by no means the work any practitioner, not a friend of the writer,
would care to purchase. Mr. Porritt’s treatise is good to that degree
that one feels aggrieved that his friends permitted him to publish
anything until he had produced something first-class—for he is evidently
a young man of ability. Practical surgeons who have arrived at years of
maturity, not infrequently have occasion to notice that young men of
brilliant parts who enter upon the practice of that art, seem to think
they are unjustly kept in the background because no notice is taken of
their efforts to gain position in their profession by the arts of the
rhetorician or the tricks of the essayist. Nevertheless, no man can
become a surgeon, save by surgical works, or be entitled to speak as one
except he be a man of learning or experience—or both.
After so much that is unpleasant, it is a pleasure to turn to a work of
a radically different kind. In ‘Hamilton’s Bronchitis,’ the reader will
find a treatise that is a mine of pathological lore; a work every page
of which is suggestive and instructive. It possesses the rare quality of
being interesting to an unusual degree, and its perusal will be a
substantial pleasure to all its readers.
* * * * *
‘THE PHYSICIAN HIMSELF.’ By D. W. CATHELL, M. D. Fifth edition.
Baltimore: Cushings & Bailey.
It is rather humiliating to the physician who is interested in equipping
his brain to successfully combat disease to find himself distanced by
the individual who rides into a paying practice in a fine carriage. But
we must take the world as we find it, and so long as people are judged
by what they seem and not by what they are, such books as the ‘Physician
Himself’ will be demanded. What shall we eat, and where shall we sleep,
and how shall we be clothed withal, are, like the poor, always with the
doctor.
Dr. Cathell has succeeded quite well in showing the importance of
business tact and sagacity in promoting the welfare of the physician. He
gives rules as to the best methods to pursue toward patients both in the
office and out, so as to line the doctor’s pocket-book. He tells him how
to dress, how to walk, how to sleep and how to eat, what kind of signs
to display, gives hints as to the selection of an office, together with
suitable furniture, etc., etc.
* * * * *
‘POST-MORTEM EXAMINATION.’ By Professor Rudolph Virchow. Translated
by T. P. SMITH, M. D., from the fourth German edition.
Philadelphia: P. Blackson, Son & Co.
In this admirable little work, Prof. Virchow gives a brief account of
his early experience as Prosector in the dead-house of the Berlin
Charity Hospital, and traces under his auspices the development of a
systematic method of conducting post-mortem examinations. He also
criticises, explains and illustrates the regulations which have been
promulgated throughout Germany for the guidance of medical jurists in
performing autopsies and drawing up reports.
He also gives three interesting cases in which the post-mortem
examinations were performed by himself, the order of sequence enjoined
by the regulations being closely adhered to. They may be taken as
examples of the way in which all post-mortem examinations for
medico-legal purposes should be conducted. It is much to be wished that
a method similar to the one which has received the high sanction of
Prof. Virchow were adopted in this country. One hundred and thirty-eight
pages, neatly bound in cloth, with a number of plates. Price $1.50.
* * * * *
THE SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT (1885) OF THE OHIO STATE PHARMACEUTICAL
ASSOCIATION contains, besides the constitution and by-laws and history
of the organization, a number of interesting articles. One of them, by
S. J. Nicolay, M. D., of Hamilton, Ohio, is in reply to Query No. 1—“Do
the Various Fluid Extracts of Hydrastis Canadensis, Made Without
Alcohol, Contain all of the Active Principles of the Drug?” The writer
says that, properly, this extract “should not contain alcohol, since the
alcoholic extractive essentially contains resin, which, being an
irritant to inflamed mucous surfaces, is a detriment in a large majority
of cases to which it is otherwise applicable.” As to whether the various
fluid extracts of this drug, made without alcohol, contain _all_ the
active principles of the crude article, he concludes, after an
examination of six specimens from different manufacturers, that “each
specimen was found to contain portions of the two known
alkaloids—berberine and hydrastine—in their varying proportions.” “As to
whether these samples contained the alkaloids in as large quantities as
the respective samples of the crude drug from which they were made, was
not determined, but probably they did.” If this is true, the fluid
extract, without alcohol, will be as effective as that made with
alcohol, beside being quite miscible with water for topical application,
injections, etc., without becoming turbid and depositing resin.
Query 24—“_What_ is the Most Effective and Pleasant Disinfectant?”—is
answered by L. Sollman of Canton in an essay in which he treats: 1. “As
to what is that something which disinfectants are intended to
counteract.” 2. “What articles are disinfectants, and what is the way in
which they effect disinfection.” 3. “Which of them is practically
useful, and which is the most practical way of using them under various
conditions.”
A copy of the report can be had by forwarding fifty cents to the
secretary, Lewis C. Hopp, Cleveland, O.