LARYNGEAL PHTHISIS.* THE less than one hundred pages comprising this work are a faithful reflection of the results of one careful observer and worker. Illustrations are numerous and many are finely colored. *By Richard Lake, F. R. C. S., Surgeon-Laryngologist at the North London Hospital for Consumption, et cetera. P. Blakiston's Son & Company, Philadelphia, 1901. INTERNATIONAL CLINICS-VOLUME I, ELEVENTH SERIES.* THIS Volume consists of nineteen valuable articles bearing upon therapeutics, medicine, neurology, surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, diseases of the eye and laboratory methods, and a hundred-page review of the progress of medicine during the year 1900. Although all are deserving of notice, especial mention is made of the new and simple method of sterilizing catgut and sponges and of some practical methods in photomicrography. *Edited by Henry W. Cattell, A. M., M. D., and several collaborators. J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia, 1901. DISEASES OF CHILDREN.* THIS work, though of English authorship, has been adapted to American practice. It is thoroughly comprehensive; the style is clear; the illustrations are numerous and well selected. It is certainly an important addition to the library of this subject. *By Dawson Williams, M. D., Physician to the East London Hospital for Children. New (second) edition. Specially revised for America by F. S. Churchill, A. B., M. D., Instructor in Diseases of Children, Rush Medical College. In one 8vo volume of 538 pages, with 52 illustrations and 2 colored plates. Cloth, $3.50 net. Lea Brothers & Company, Publishers, Philadelphia and New York. PERSONAL HYGIENE.* THE intent and scope of this work can be best understood from the following heads of chapters: Hygiene of the Digestive Apparatus; Hygiene of the Skin and its Appendages; Hygiene of the Vocal and Respiratory Apparatus; Hygiene of the Ear; Hygiene of the Eye; Hygiene of the Brain and Nervous System; Physical Exercise. The contributors include Doctors J. W. Courtney, George Howard Fox, E. Fletcher Ingals, Walter L. Pyle, B. Alexander Randall, G. N. Stewart, and Charles G. Stockton. It is popularly written and should be well received, as there is now a general desire for this kind of knowledge. Physicians also would do well to clarify their ideas on many points by a perusal of this book. *Edited by Walter L. Pyle, A. M., M. D. Illustrated. W. B. Saunders & Company, Philadelphia. FRACTURES AND DISLOCATIONS.* THE demand for another new edition of this work so soon must be very gratifying to both author and publishers. It is noticeable, however, that advantage has been taken of the opportunity to make revision and additions of value. It is an authoritative work. *By Lewis A. Stimson, B. A., M. D., Professor of Surgery in Cornell University Medical College, New York. New (third) edition. In one octavo volume of 842 pages, with 336 engravings and 33 full-page plates. Cloth, $5.00, net. Leather, $6.00, net. Just ready. Lea Brothers & Company, Philadelphia and New York. HYGIENE AND SANITATION.* WE have noticed this work before in an earlier edition. The brief and practical presentation of the subject commended it to a large number of readers and made possible an early revision. The author has inserted a short chapter on military hygiene and made several other minor changes, thus bringing the work up to date. *By Seneca Egbert, A. M., M. D., Professor of Hygiene in the MedicoChirurgical College of Philadelphia. In one handsome 12mo volume of 427 pages with 77 engravings. Cloth, $2.25, net. Lea Brothers & Company, Publishers, Philadelphia and New York. THE MEDICAL NEWS POCKET FORMULARY.* ONLY for the reasons that this book may suggest remedies useful for certain diseases and remind a lapsing memory, do we feel justified in recommending it. It should certainly not be used in any routine manAs an aid, however, it holds a legitimate place and should prove useful to young practitioners especially. ner. *By E. Quin Thornton, M. D., Demonstrator of Therapeutics, Pharmacy and Materia Medica in the Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia. New (third) edition, carefully revised to date of issue. Price, $1.50, net. Lea Brothers & Company, Philadelphia and New York, 1901. PROGRESSIVE MEDICINE-MARCH, 1901.* In this volume are contained the latest contributions of note on the surgery of the head, neck, and chest; on infecting diseases, including acute rheumatism, croupous pneumonia and influenza; on the diseases of children; on pathology; on laryngology and rhinology; and on otology. Extended consideration is given to empyema, the breast, and to surgery of the skull and brain, to typhoid fever and to tumors. This volume compares very favorably with the preceding series. *Edited by Hobart Amory Hare, M. D., assisted by H. R. M. Landis, M. D. Lea Brothers & Company, Philadelphia and New York, 1901. DIET LISTS AND SICK-ROOM DIETARY.* THIS book of detachable diet lists for albuminuria, anemia and debility, constipation, diabetes, diarrhea, dyspepsia, fevers, gout or uric acid diathesis, obesity and tuberculosis, is certainly a great convenience to the busy doctor. *Compiled by Jerome B. Thomas, Jr., A. B., M. D. Second edition, revised. Published by W. B. Saunders, Philadelphia. FESTSCHRIFT.* THIS Volume, the first of the kind to be published in this country, worthily honors a worthy man. Much space would be required to even make reference to the many original and important ideas that it contains. Nothing short of a perusal should satisfy. Let the spirit in which it was written, spread and abound. *International contributions to medical literature in honor of Abraham Jacobi, M. D., LL. D., to commemorate the seventieth anniversary of his birth. The Knickerbocker Press, New York, 1900. THE TREATMENT OF FRACTURES.* THIS work is not presumed to be a treatise on the subject of fractures, nor is it exhaustive concerning the treatment of them. The author has had a large experience in this line of surgery and embodies within these pages the results of his observations. As such it is a valuable contribution on surgery. *By W. L. Estes, A. M., M. D., Director, and Physician and Surgeonin-Chief of Saint Luke's Hospital, South Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Published by the International Journal of Surgery Company, New York. THE TECHNIQUE OF SURGICAL GYNECOLOGY.* THERE is more in technique than can be taught or learned. To an extent it is a part of the surgeon. However, there is much to be acquired by the observing student and patient worker. To such this valuable work can be of the greatest service. The author has left out nothing from the first steps in the preparation for operations to the convalescence of patients. In many respects he differs from most surgeons and on that account his ideas are well worth considering. * Augustin H. Goelet, M. D., Professor of Gynecology in the New York School of Clinical Medicine; Consulting Professor in Gynecological Electrotherapeutics in the International School of Correspondence, Scranton, Pennsylvania; Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine, and of the New York Obstetrical Society; Member of the American Medical Association and of the New York County Medical Association; Fellow of the Societé Français d'Electro-Therapie, et cetera. Three hundred and forty pages; 150 original drawings; bound in cloth, printed in white leaf. Price, $2.00. New York: International Journal of Surgery Company, 1901. SOME SOCIOLOGIC PROBLEMS OF MEDICINE.* LECTURER ON BACTERIOLOGY IN THE DETROIT COLLEGE OF MEDICINE. [PUBLISHED IN The Physician and Surgeon EXCLUSIVELY) THE inventory is a necessity in business. The wise man of business reviews his affairs at least once a year. This is not merely to see if he has made or lost money; that he can usually tell by his bank account. It goes deeper and inquires particularly as to what portion of his business is profitable and what not. The most careful attention is given to those portions of the business which show a loss. The thing that is succeeding may be left alone, but the failure must be corrected, if possible. It seemed to me that it would be appropriate, and that you would not take it unkindly if, at this our last meeting for the season, I pointed out what appear to me to be some of the failures in our work. This I do, not because I have any particular fault to find with the profession. It were far easier and more to my liking to speak of its glorious attainments, of its noble sacrifices, of its heroic devotion to duty in the face of danger and death. First, a few observations on the work of our society. I believe we can claim to have made a good beginning. One of the most striking, it may be the most important, social and economic movements in our day is that of the union, the banding together for mutual benefit of those men who have a similar trade or calling. Allowing for all the selfishness of the union, reckoning its faults and failings fairly, I believe that a balance of good remains. The world gets better work done, incompetents are kept out, and there is a more equable distribution of the profits of industry. Almost every writer on the sociologic problems of medicine insists that a united profession is a necessity if we are to have our due, if we *President's address before the DETROIT MEDICAL SOCIETY, May, 1901. ་ are to command that importance, dignity and remuneration which they believe is ours by right. Some among us believe that physicians should combine into a regular trade-union. Without arguing the matter my personal belief is that this is neither necessary nor desirable. I do not see the need for physicians to combine against the rest of the world, but I do see the pressing necessity for such combination against the incompetents and the undeserving in our own rank. In a paper written some two years ago, entitled: "Advertising in the Medial Profession," I said: "Undoubtedly the great successes in medicine come to the great men in medicine, to those peculiarly endowed by nature or fitted by training for their work. But taking average men and average success I doubt if the best of them succeed best. Each of us can recall, not one but numerous instances of capable men who go through life with a very limited practice, while across the street, it may be, some ignorant pretender has and keeps a large practice. Probably in no business, certainly in no profession, are the people so incapable of choosing the good from the poor as in the choice of a physician. Witness the success of the Christian scientist, the eclectic, osteopath, homeopath and the whole brood of medical pretenders. Our code of ethics and our practice presumes that the people are fit judges of the physician's ability. I hold that this is not true. Were it true the quack and the advertiser would disappear. In law, if an attorney is weak, if he makes mistakes, if his opinion is not well-grounded, his associates at the bar delight in the opportunity to expose his mistake or weakness. The weakling is driven to the wall. In the ministry the sermon is criticised; the man is compared with others of his profession; the people can judge. But in medicine how is it? To the people the doctor must always approve of his colleague. "As a profession we here encourage and there allow such practices that to the people there is nowhere to be seen a line of demarcation between the reputable and the disreputable physician; between the William MacClures and the veriest quack. We blame the people when they choose wrongly and yet we offer them no assistance in making their choice. We petition the legislature to step in and kill the weeds which we have permitted to grow. As it appears to me, we owe it not only to ourselves but to the people, to the great world of need, to help them some way, somehow, in selecting their medical advisers." The main purpose in the organization of the Detroit Medical Society was the hope and belief that it might serve to bring into closer sympathy and union the reputable physicians of this community. As it appears to me, this should still be the chief object, and I trust that the officers installed tonight will count it both a pleasure and a duty to do their utmost to bring every available physician in the city and county into our midst. Let him belong to as many other societies as he may see fit. There should be other societies for special lines of work. I believe it is not too much to hope that in a few years membership in this society may be for the people of this community a certificate of medical respectability. If we could once have a large majority of the reputable physicians associated together it might then be wise to adopt some sign or symbol, owned by the society and loaned to its members, that would indicate to the patient who entered a physician's office that he had the approval of the best elements in our profession. This community and the medical profession have suffered long and |