Book Reviews.

AMERICAN PRACTICE OF SURGERY.-Complete System of the Science and Art of Surgery, by Representative Surgeons of the United States and Canada. Editors: Joseph D. Bryant, M. D., LL.D., Albert H. Buck, M. D., of New York City. Complete in eight volumes. Profusely illustrated. Vol. IV. William Wood & Co., N. Y., 1907.

The fourth volume is composed of a continuation of Part XIII upon "Diseases and Injuries of Joints." The first chapter deals with dislocations, and is written by Dr. Emmet Ricksford, of San Francisco. He handles the subject in a most satisfactory manner, and from a very practical point of view.

Part XIV deals with Operative Surgery, with a number of sub-divided chapters. The chapter upon "Influences and Conditions which Should be Taken into Account Before One Decided to Operate," is very fully discussed by Dr. Chas. B. G. DeNancrede, of Ann Arbor. Upon this subject he states that it cannot be dealt with except in a very general way without dealing with the whole field of Operative Surgery. Geo. Ben Johnson discusses upon "The Preparation for an Operation, the Operation Itself, and the Care of the Patient During and Immediately After the Operation." In this he considers the diagnosis and prognosis of the case, and the actual preparation of the patient, and of the operating room, and of the instruments. The keynote of success, as suggested by him, is simplicity, and asepsis rather than antisepsis. He lays stress, and justly so, upon post-operative treatment. He discountenances stimulation and drugging after operative proceedures. Freeman Allen and F. E. Garland, of Boston, are the writers of the chapter upon "Anesthetics" and the Production of General Anesthesia," which subject is most scientifically and practically presented. It would be hard to point out the important points in this chapter. It must be fully read to be appreciated, as every surgeon is aware of the great importance of this subject.

"The Production of Local Anesthesia for Surgical Purposes" is written by James F. Mitchell, of Washington. He emphasizes the possibilities of local anesthesia in the many conditions for which general anesthesia is commonly employed, thereby reducing the danger of general anesthesia in the use of local anesthesia. He states that by using isotonic solutions, very small percentages of cocaine and similar anesthesia, combined with adrenalin, prove very satisfactory, and that the risk is practically nothing, thereby setting forth the advantages over

general anesthesia. In this chapter the subject of Spinal Anesthesia is discussed. The chapter on Amputations and Disarticulations is written by W. L. Rodman and J. S. Rodman, of Philadelphia. This chapter is well written, and conforms fully to parts already well defined. H. J. Whiteacre, of Cincinnati, discusses a chapter upon Excision of Bones and Joints. Ligatures of Arteries and Veins in Their Continuity is written by John M. Keys, of New York. Minor Surgery, by R. S. Fowler, of Brooklyn, includes such subjects as bandaging, the methods in use at the present day for plaster-paris as well as transfusion. These subjects are dealt with in a most general way. James S. Stone, of Boston, writes a chapter upon Plastic Surgery. The chapter is quite thorough, especially that part pertaining to the face.

Part XV deals with Orthopedic Surgery. The subject of Congenital Dislocation is contributed by Chas. D. Painter, as well as the chapter upon Infantile Paralysis, in which he sets forth Transplantation Tendons and Its Healing. The subject of Torticollis is written by Geo. D. Stewart, of New York. The Deformities and Disabilities of the Lower Extremities are well described by Royal Whitman, of New York, a subject with which he is extremely familiar. Under this heading he considers all of the various forms of talipes. Tuberculous Disease of the Spinal Column and the resulting deformities therefrom is considered separately, and has not been included in the chapter on Diseases of the Bones and Joints. This subject is considered in a most satisfactory manner by C. L. Starr, of Toronto. INTERNATIONAL CLINICS.—A Quarterly of Illustrated Clinical Lectures and especially prepared original articles on Treatment, Medicine, Surgery, Neurology, Pediatrics, Obstetrics, Gynecology, Orthopedics, Pathology, Dermatology, Ophthalmology, Otology, Rhinology, Laryngology, Hygiene and other topics of interest to Students and practitioners. By leading members of the medical profession throughout the world. Edited by W. T. Longcope, M. D., Philadelphia, U. S. A., with the collaboration of Wm. Osler, M. D., Oxford; John H. Musser, M. D., Philadelphia; A. McPhedran, M. D., Toronto; Frank Billings, M. D., Chicago; Charles H. Mayo, M. D., Rochester, Minn.; Thos. H. Rotch, M. D., Boston; John D. Clark, M. D., Philadelphia; James J. Walsh, M. D., New York; J. W. Ballantyne, M. D., Edinburgh; John Harold, M. D., London; Richard Kurtz, M. D., Vienna, with regular correspondents in Montreal, London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Leipsic, Brussels and Carlsbad. Volume II. Seventeenth Series, 1907. J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia and London, 1907. Volume II of the Seventeenth Series contains work along lines of the greatest interest to us, and is contributed largely by the leading men of Europe and this country. It contains most interesting and valuable papers, such as on "General Anesthesia" and the "Radical Cure of Inguinal Hernia; Local

Anesthesia in Major Operations," contributed by Doctor John Bodine. His experience is drawn from four hundred operative cases. He sets forth the advantages of this method. It can be read with profit by all those who are interested in surgical work. An interesting study of the "Vaccine Treatment of Infectious Diseases" will prove valuable. "A Plea for Laparotomy Rather than Paracentesis in Ascites," setting forth the advantages over the diagnostic as well as the curative agency, will also prove beneficial. The subject of "Duodenal Ulcers" will prove an interesting and most scientific exposition of the subject.

"Post

One would be repaid for reading the chapter upon partum Hemorrhage and Its Treatment." The article upon "The Essentials of Scientific Infant Feeding" will prove extremely interesting as well as very important. Progressive members of the profession will find this volume extremely interesting and valuable.

The volume is nicely bound and well illustrated. It gives us the greatest pleasure to recommend it in the highest terms.

SURGICAL SUGGESTIONS.

The sensation of a foreign body in the eye may be provoked by the presence of a small tarsal tumor.

A periostitis at the margin of the orbit may resemble a cellulitis. It is often of syphilitic origin.

It is worth while bearing in mind that subcutaneous swellings are sometimes gummata.

Frequent applications of tincture of iodine on a "tooth-pick" swab will often heal a concealed ulcer where other means fail.

When a patient complains of pain in the eye with epiphora, don't always think it is due to conjunctivitis. The cause may be a beginning glaucoma.

Persistent furunculosis and allied suppurating skin lesions appear to yield in a large percentage of cases to Wright's vaccine treatment. Stack vaccines are usually suitable to such The internal administration of yeast, calcium sulphide, etc., affords only occasional help.

cases.

A small, hard, irregularly nodular scalp tumor is very likely an endothalioma. A little section should be removed under local anesthesia for microscopical examination. If the diagnosis is corroborated, radical removal is necessary.-A. J. S.

"LADY THOROUGHBRED, KENTUCKIAN."

No part of this broad land of ours offers a more attractive setting for a romance than the Bluegrass State, that home of beautiful women and fine horses-a fact which has by no means been lost sight of by novelists. None of them, however, have caught the Kentucky spirit better, or shown a truer and more convincing picture of the country and its people, than has Will Levington Comfort in his new novel, "Lady Thoroughbred, Kentuckian." This story, which is published complete in the March Lippin cott's, is crowded with action vivid and intense from the time the curtain rises to the dramatic climax.

It was in Cincinnati, while engaged in newspaper work, that Mr. Comfort first got a breath from rcross the river of the fascinating Kentucky atmosphere. The fragrance and the color clung, but it was not until years afterward that he found time to carry out a long-cherished wish to do a novel of Kentucky setting. This involved moving from the North to live in the very heart of the Bluegrass, a few stations below Lexington. It was a town of five thousond inhabitants-of fairest repute and the proper size for study.

"Kentucky," the author writes, "loves her own better than Virginia-better than any State in the Union. Kentuckians are prouder that they are Kentuckians, and announce it earlier and more frequently in a conversation with a stranger, than the people of any other State. Communities of Kentucky hold to their memories and traditions with a zeal and affection rivalled only by some of the old-world peoples. While they are becoming infected at last, Kentuckians have been the slowest of all Americans to allow themselves to be poisoned by the dollar-lust."

Here is an excerpt from the story which touches upon Mr. Comfort's conception of the Kentucky woman:

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What manner of food these Southern ladies eat seems not diverse from that of outer lands; but in proper fettle and plumage, they are the substance itself of freshness and fairTaine did not call the Southern ladies faultless, as Southern gentlemen do. He believed Kentucky wives and daughters and sweethearts to be intolerant listeners, excessive and erratic conversationalists; but he observed that they are bred in an atmosphere of chivalrous sires and sous and lovers, which is the first condition of fine blooming. The blur of misery did not waver in the faces before him; erudition had not put its dusty gray insignia there; bravado did not cheapen the

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manner of the mistresses, nor was their happiness dissembled. That they were the salt of the earth was so manifest that they did not take pains to point it out to an observer. brightest branches of old Kentucky lineage were there-a sprig of Gentry, a blossom of Breckinridge, twigs of Lees and Woolsons and Calhouns, families of fixture when the colonies were thirteen, men who had colleged in Cabron and polished in Venice and Munich for the express purpose of breeding better horses after they had returned to the lime-sweetened waters and rolling meadows of the Bluegrass."

In "Lady Thoroughbred, Kentuckian," Mr. Comfort gives us a story of such dramatic power that it would carry the reader in any setting; but placed among such people as Kentuckians, so ripe with romance, so unique in their chivalry, honest in their passions, and possibly bourgeoise in their culture, it becomes a document of importance as well as a tale of peculiar intensity.

DRUG INSANITIES.-A study of 171 cases of mental derangement from morphin and cocain is reported by A. Gordon, Philadelphia (Journal A. M. A., July 11). It includes 80 cases of acute and 91 of chronic intoxication; 60 of the acute cases were from morphin, and 52 of these patients recovered. In 7 cases there was apparent recovery, but a second attack of coma ensued, terminating fatally. It is probable that a new absorption occurred of poison which had lain for hours inactive somewhere in the digestive tract. Some of the patients had had only one dose, others several. There was no relation between the amount taken and the symptoms. Thirty-five presented notable mental disturbances for weeks, slowness of thought, inability to grasp complicated subjects and striking mental fatigue. All were annoyed by dreams. There were 15 patients with acute cocain intoxication, 9 of whom recovered completely in a short time. Four others had convulsions without a previous history of epilepsy, followed by a comatose condition for from one to three days and insomnia, vertigo, anorexia and delirious attacks for six weeks or more; two died, one in syncope in twenty-four hours, the other in four days from exhaustion following extreme agitation and delirium. In all the cases there was vertigo and ataxia and peculiar visual and tactile hallucinations. Five acute cases were from mixed cocain and morphin poisoning; the prominent symptoms in all five were marked with stupor with paroxysms of delirium and visual hallucinations. The tactile hallu