Books Reviewed.

Materia Medica for the use of Students. By JOHN B. BIDDLE, M. D., etc. Sixth Edition Revised and enlarged, with Illustrations. Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston, 1874.

The standard Materia Medica with a large number of medical students in the United States is Biddle's. But a little more than a year has elapsed since the publication of the fifth edition, and yet the author finds that the edition has been exhausted and that a new one is called for.

He has found it necessary to re-write some portions of the work, more especially those comprising therapeutics, and has made important changes in others. Transfusion is spoken of, and Aveling's Apparatus is figured. Some new articles of the Materia Medica have been added, and in its present revised condition the work will be found to be a valuable and convenient text book of Materia Medica.

The Building of a Brain. By EDWARD H. CLARKE, M. D. Boston; James R. Osgood & Co., 1874.

Dr. Clarke's "Sex in Education," has made him a wide acquaintance among educators, both in this country and abroad. The attention which that little book attracted, and the many answers and criticisms which it elicited, both favorable and unfavorable, showed that the subject was one upon which a little well-digested information would do no harm.

The present book is the outgrowth of an essay read before the National Educational Association, which met in Detroit.

The book is divided into three parts: Nature's Working Plans; An Error in Female-building, and A Glimpse at English Brain-building, of which part first constitutes the address delivered before the association.

These essays are a further exposition of Dr. Clarke's ideas as expressed in "Sex in Education."

The first essay is an argument in favor of a general and systematic developement of body and mind in unison, an appeal against the plan of teaching so generally pursued, of making a scholar learn so much from a given text book in a given time, regardless of physical or mental conditions, and often, we would add, regardless of whether the subject is at all understood by the pupil. It seems to be to often the plan to compel a scholar to commit to memory so much printed matter, with no regard as to whether the subject is understood or not, the teacher being satisfied if the pupil can repeat the words of the author verbatim.

It seems undoubtedly true that too little attention is paid to the require

ments of the body by those who attempt to develope the brain, and in these times, when the agitators of so-called woman's rights are clamoring for the admission of women into all the various pursuits followed by men, some one is needed to point out to them the danger of such a course. We would not deny to women the opportunity of obtaining the highest mental culture possible, but when that culture is to be obtained at the expense of physical health and the sacrifice of those traits which are so distinctly feminine, we ask, is the prize worth the cost? If girls are to be educated to as high a degree as boys, and why should they not be? it must not be in the same manner. Their physical natures are widely different, and teachers and parents should have the importance of this fact fully impressed upon them. Dr. Clarke's writings have attracted a large amount of attention, and we hope done some good. Those who have read "Sex in Education," should also read this later essay.

A Conspectus of the Medical Science; including manuals on Anatomy, Physiology, Chemistry, Materia Medica, Practice of Medicine, Surgery and Obstetrics; For the use of Students; By Henry Hartshorne, A. M., M. D. Second Edition. Philadelphia: Henry C. Lea, 1874. Buffalo, T. Butler & Son.

Hartshorne's Conspectus is always a favorite with a certain number of students about the time of examination, and as students will always seek works of this class, we are glad to have the task of their preparation placed in such competent hands.

Dr. Hartshorne's work is the most valuable of any of its kind with which we are acquainted; necessarily brief and concise, it does not omit any of the most important portions of medical science and practice. While it gives to the student the knowledge which he seeks in a compact and condensed form it stimulates in the ambitious a desire for more extended information.

The work is considerably enlarged over the last edition, and many new illustrations have been introduced. The most important changes that have been made occur in the departments of chemistry and phys ology, but more or less valuable alterations occur throughout the text.

In the preparation of this manual much care has been necessary to preserve only such facts and statements as should prove valuable and necessary to the medical student, this work has been admirably accomplished, and where any manual of the kind is to be used, Hartshorne's stands pre-eminent.

Archives of Dermatology. A Quarterly Journal of Skin and Venereal Diseases. Edited by L. DUNCAN BULKLEY, A. M., M. D. Vol. 1, No. 1; October, 1874.

When the announcement was made by Messrs. G. P. Putnam's Sons, that they wonld publish on October 1st, the first number of a Quarterly Journal

of Dermatology, to be edited by Dr. Bulkley, we anticipated an excellent, well arranged and well conducted Journal, and we were not disappointed in the first number, now before us. It consists of ninety-six pages of matter arranged under suitable departments, each under the care of gentlemen who have distinguished themselves in their several fields.

The contents of the Journal are arranged under the following heads: Original Communications, Transactions of the New York Dermatological Society, Clinical Reports, Extracts and Translations, Digest of Dermatological Liter ature, Reviews and Book Notices, Correspondence and Miscellanies. The contents of the present number are of an interesting and instructive nature Among the Griginal Communications we notice articles upon Rotheln, by J. Lewis Smith, M. D., Urethral Stricture, by F. J. Bumstead, M. D., Ele phantiasis of the Penis, by Robert F. Wier, M. D., and others of value. The Digest of Dermatological Literature is a valuable feature of the Journal, and the various subjects are ably reviewed by the gentlemen having charge of this department. We wish for the new Journal long life and a hearty support.

Books and Pamphlets Received.

Cyclopædia of the Practice of Medicine. Edited by Dr. H. von Ziemssen. Vol. I. Acute Infectious Diseases, by Prof. Liebermeister, Prof. Lebert, Dr. Heuisch, Prof Heubner and Dr. Oertel. The American Translation; edited by Albert H. Buck, M. D. New York: Wm. Wood & Co., 1874.

Transactions of the American Medical Association for 1874.

Clinical Lectures on Diseases on the Urinary Organs; By Sir Henry Thomp son. Philadelphia: Henry C. Lea, 1874. Buffalo: T. Butler & Son.

A Guide to the Practical Examination of the Urine; By James Tyson, M.D Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston.

The Chemists' and Druggists' Diary for 1874. London: Office of the Chemist and Druggist.

The Longevity of Brain-workers; By Geo. M. Beard, M. D. New York.

The treatment of Marasums, Whooping Cough and Debility of Children by Electricity; By Geo. M. Beard, M. D. From Detroit Review of Med, and Pharmacy, October, 1874.

Cases of Hysteria, Neurasthenia, Spinal Irritation, and allied Affections; with remarks; By Geo. M. Beard, M. D. From Chicago Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases.

ART. I.—Abstract of the Proceedings of the Buffalo Medical Association, Meeting held November 3d, 1874. Reported by W. W. MINER, M. D., Secretary pro tem.

Dr. JAMES P. WHITE, President, occupied the chair.

Members present: Drs. Rochester, Johnson, Lothrop, Miner, Brush, Brecht, Hauenstein, Miner and Fowler.

In the absence of the Secretary, Dr. W. W. Miner was chosen secretary pro tem. The reading of the minutes of the last meeting were by vote dispensed with.

Dr. Lucien Howe was invited to be present and participate in the deliberations of the Society, until he should have oportunity to qualify for membership. It was voted that Dr. T. H. Boysen, be a member of the Society on his compliance with the usual regulations.

It was voted that an invitation be extended to the members of the Medical Class, at the College, who are preparing to graduate at the close of the present lecture course, to be present, if they desire, at the regular meetings of the Society.

It having been appointed at a previous meeting that a paper should be read, it was by invitation then presented by the writer, E. N. Brush, M. D., upon the Unity or Duality Theory in Syphilis. Last June it was my good fortune to listen to a lengthy address

by Prof. Gross, at Detroit, in which he took occasion to declare his adherence to the doctrine of the unity of the venereal virus. Since then, at meetings of this Association, I have heard remarks made which seem to indicate that some of its members were also inclined to the same opinion.

The term unity or duality of syphilis, is in itself a misnomer, for if there be but one characteristic veneral poison evincing itself in different ways, but still capable of producing constitutional effects, there is no such thing as duality; and if there be two distinct poisons, one always local, the other always constitutional, there can be but one syphilitic poison, and hence there is no dual ity of syphilis. Confining ourselves for the time being in the use of the word veneral to those two classes of disease manifested first by the appearance of the local sore, whether hard or soft chancre, we shall be in a position more definitely to discuss the question as to their unity or duality.

Something over twenty years ago, Bassereau, a pupil of Ricord's, advanced first the doctrine of duality. Bassereau, in his clinical observations, confined himself to the local or constitutional characteristics of the diseases referred to, and did not hamper his observations with any inquiries as to whether the chancre was hard or soft. By a series of observations in which he practiced what is known as a system of confrontation, he proved, not that a woman having a chancre of a hard or soft base would communicate one of a similar character, but, that as the sore remained local or developed constitutional effects, it would remain local or vice versa in the persons contracting a sore from it, and they in turn would transmit a sore of a like character to others.

Bassereau and other well known authorities upon syphilis, assert that while local contagious ulcers upon the genitals, communicated by sexual intercourse, were well known to the ancients; the disease which we demoninate syphilis did not make its appearance until the latter part of the fifteenth century. It was at that time recognized as a new and distinct disease, and in the treatises of the times was described as such in separate and distinct chap

ters.