to the ability displayed by them in conducting the proceedings.

It is now well known that cold water, tea or coffee are the only beverages at these dinners. A “cold water dinner" has not been a popular institution in the past, but the medical students have proved during these last few years that such a dinner can be made a thorough success in every sense of the word. His Worship the Mayor gazed with pride on his glass of clear, untainted city water, which he held up for the inspection of the company while responding for the Corporation. Some of those present "couldn't see it," but that was, no doubt, due to its transparency. The Chairman, 1st ViceChairman, Mr. Lauder, M.P.P., Prof. Pernet, and others, spoke in pleasing terms of the cordial good feeling which existed between the Trinity Medical School and its rivals; and Dr. Thorburn, the representative of the Toronto School, on rising to reply to the toast of the "Sister Institutions," was received with a perfect storm of applause from the students, showing the reality of this friendly feeling towards his School, and their appreciation of his own well-known popularity.

The Chancellor of Trinity University, Hon. G. W. Allan, in his response, congratulated the Trinity School on its success, and spoke in a most kindly way of the medical profession. Dr. Geikie, Dean of the Faculty, expressed his pleasure in meeting the guests, graduates, and students. He alluded in happy terms to the success of the School, and the efforts of the Medical Council to advance the interests of the profession in every possible way.

Dr. Stark, of Hamilton, responded for the graduates, and Messrs. Ferguson and Kennedy for the undergrads. Prof. Goldwin Smith, who was present, received, as he always does, a warm welcome from the students; but objections are frequently raised about the length of his speeches, as he will persist in "cutting them too short." Dr. O'Reilly and Mr. Gillespie responded for the "Toronto General Hospital." Among the other speakers were Drs. Allison and Burns, Prof. Pike, and Rev. Mr. Rainsford. Among the most pleasing features of the evening's entertainment was the really excellent singing of the students' quartette, Messrs. Fairchild, Gaviller, Jenner and Handbridge, assisted by Dr. A. J. Geikie, who presided at the piano. The dinner was concluded at a "seasonable" hour, and the general feeling was "happy to meet, sorry to part, happy to meet again."

AN ADMONITION TO OUR LAY

CONTEMPORARIES.

Sometime about the beginning of December, we were surprised to observe in both our morning dailies the announcement in a conspicuous place of the fact that Dr. Alt had removed to St. Louis, and that Dr. Ryerson had succeeded to his appointments here. We noted at the time that the two announcements in the different papers were verbatim ac literatim "counterfeit presentments." Again, on the morning of the 11th December, the Mail contains the same announcement in its column of the city news; and à propos of this we desire to point out to the editors of our lay contemporaries the desirability of exercising a close supervision over the authorship of such announcements, which generally emanate from the misguided zeal of some lay friend, and always offend the upholders of professional proprieties. We, of course, at once acquit Dr. Ryerson of all knowledge of, or complicity in, these paragraphs; for even if he were capable of treading the highway to professional success through the columns of the daily press-which we do not believe-yet here the fact that Dr. Ryerson succeeded to Dr. Alt's appointments more than six months ago, proves that the author of the paragraph We shall join knew not whereof he wrote. most heartily with our professional contem-porary in the endeavour to suppress this species of tradesman-like advertisement, before which every sense of professional etiquette and scientific modesty recoils in disgust.

PERSONAL.

Dr. J. P. Lynn, who has lately removed to this city from Ottawa, received an eulogistic address from the Rideau and Bathurst Medical Association. The address was signed by Drs. Grant, Sweetland, and 130 others. Dr. Lynn has been 20 years in practice; has been Coroner and Health Officer in Ottawa, and is an old and esteemed student of St. Michael's College, in Toronto.

MORAL INSANITY.-At the Canadian Institute, on the 11th ult., Dr. Joseph Workman read a very able and characteristic paper on this subject. Space will not allow us to do more than make a bare mention of the fact, in the hope that, if the paper be subsequently published, all our readers will make an effort to possess it. The subject is one upon which every medical man should hold a decided opinion, and be prepared with a reason for the faith that is in him. An imperfect synopsis

appeared in the Globe of the 13th ult.

Book Notices.

Atresia of the Genital Passages of Women. By EDWARD W. JENKS, M.D., LL.D., Chicago.

Electricity in Medicine and Surgery. By JOHN J. CALDWELL, M.D., Baltimore.

The "Abdominal Method" of Singing and Breathing as a Cause of "Female Weaknesses." By CLIFTON E. WING, M.D., Boston.

Report on Obstetrics, read before Canada Medical Association, September, 1880, by Prof. WM. GARDNER, M.D., McGill.

The Use of Electricity, Damiana, etc., in the Treatment of the Genito-Urinary Organs. By JOHN J. CALDWELL, M.D., Baltimore, Maryland.

The Electric Laryngoscope. By A. WELLINGTON ADAMS, M.D., Colorado Springs, Colorado. Reprinted from "Archives of Laryngology, Vol. I., No. 3, September, 1880.

Higher Education of Medical Men, and its Influence on the Profession and the Public. Presidential address delivered before the American Academy of Medicine, 28th Sept., 1880. By F. D. LENTE, A.M., M.D. New York: Chas. L. Bermingham & Co., 1260 and 1262 Broadway.

A Case of Combined Intrauterine and Abdominal Twin Pregnancy; the first child born naturally at 8 months; the second delivered alive at term by Laparotomy. By H. P. C. WILSON, M.D., Baltimore. Reprinted from the American Journal of Obstetrics. New York: Wm. Wood & Co., 27 Great Jones St.

Codman and Shurtleff's Catalogue, containing a Paper on the Inhalation of Atomized Fluids, by H. BEIGEL, M.D. (Lancet); on the Treatment of Chronic Diseases of the Lungs by the Inhalation of Atomized Fluids, by Morrell MACKENZIE, M.D. (Med. Times and Gaz.), and on the Inhalation of Nebulized Fluids, by J. SOLIS COHEN, M.D. Codman & Shurtleff, Boston; Lyman Bros. & Co., Toronto.

the middle ages.

In truth, it would appear that he has introduced this part as an appe tizer to the more gustatory repast which he presents in the rest of his book. If there be in the present day any rational practitioner of medicine, or (if that be possible) any rational believer in the mysteries of Homœopathy, who desires to obtain a clear view of this wonder of our wondrous century, we can, with perfect sincerity, commend to his perusal Dr. Smythe's unpretentious little book. It is cleverly and forcibly written, and exhibits a very commendable minimum of those grammatical abnormalities and rhetorical excrescences which would appear to find a congenial soil in the great valley of the "Father of Waters," where not only a new variety of the Anglo-Saxon family is being rapidly evolutionized, but also a new and far less tight-laced dialect of the English tongue.

Dr. Smythe's exposition of the original won ders of the theory of Hahnemann, and of the harmonies of its present interpreters, is amusingly instructive, and cannot fail to edify all who feel a desire for more ample knowledge of this marvellous conception of human mentality. It would be more than sufficient to make the crumbled bones of Hahnemann shake in their decayed cerements, to hear, or even to dream of, the transmigrations and transformations. which his inspired revelations have undergone within the past quarter of a century. The once happy family of his disciples is now split up into discordant anarchical sections, the majority of whom not only repudiate his most cherished and most potent dogma cf the infinitesimals, but also question that of the similibus, whilst a very large percentage of them, if not indeed the whole fraternity, are either professed freebooters, or stealthy poachers, ready for bagging game on either side of the boundary, with either the popgun of their own battalion or the blunderbus of their antagonists, just as their dupes may prefer.

Great and graciously acceptable in all ages has mystery ever been; and let it not be said, as long as homœopathy lives, breathes, and fattens on human credulity, that our age is unworthy of association with any that has preceded it.

Should any one question this asseveration,

we would simply ask him to read Dr. Smythe's little book: it will not cost him much, and he may read it leisurely, at little loss of time. When he gets through, he may not turn it to bad account by lending it to the first strong believer he chances to meet with, and watch the result.

But here we are reckoning without our host. It is one thing to lead a horse to the water, and quite another to get him to drink. We will now offer a bet, at large odds, that of the first twenty patronizers of homoeopathy to whom any so-called allopathist will read a page of this book, reproducing even the very words of Hahnemann, or his modern interpreters, and drawing from them their inevitable deductions, he will be told by nineteen, as the writer of these lines has been by an earnest disciple, "it's all lies;" yet this repudiator saw a homœopath dip the tip of his finger into a drop of some infinitesimal, and touch with it the navel of a baby yelling with colic, and cure it as quick as lightning. Great is mystery!

Diseases of the Pharynx, Larynx, and Trachea. By MORELL MACKENZIE, M.D., London, Senior Physician to the Hospital for Diseases of the Throat and Chest, Lecturer on Diseases of the Throat at the London Hospital, &c., &c. New York: William Wood & Co.; Toronto: Willing & Williamson. This is an age of specialties, and probably one of the worst abused of them all is that of the "Throat." Quackery has reaped rich harvests from this diminutive portion of the body during the last few years. The man who studies diligently this region, and at the same time knows but little about the system generally, should never presume to say he understands the treatment of "Diseases of the Throat." Such diseases are so often only the local manifestations of constitutional disorders that none but wellinformed physicians, in the broadest sense of the term, should be trusted with their treatment. Of course we cannot object to the latter class paying special attention to the throat, or any other portion of the body, if they are so disposed, but we must protest against the abuse of specialties by superficial one-sided men, which is so common at the present time. Every student of medicine should study diseases of the pharynx,

larynx, and trachea as carefully as he does those of the lungs, liver and kidneys, and should be taught to use the laryngoscope as skilfully as he does the stethoscope.

Dr. Morell MacKenzie is an able physician, and probably the greatest living authority on diseases of the throat, and we would like to see his work cccupying a place in the library of every medical practitioner in the country. He describes carefully the various kinds of instruments required, and his descriptions are always accompanied with excellent plates. He treats fully the different forms of pharyngitis and the diseases of the pharynx, such as cancer, tumours, syphilis, phthisis, neuroses, and disorders of traumatic origin. His chapter on Diphtheria and True Croup, which he considers identical, is especially comprehensive and instructive. The chapter on Diseases of the Tonsils also deserves special mention. He describes and treats in the same thorough and scientific manner all varieties of diseases found in the larynx and trachea, whether of local, constitutional, or traumatic origin.

In the Appendix he gives a number of special formulæ for topical remedies, such as steam and spray inhalations, gargles, lozenges, pig. ments, and insufflations; and specially indicates those which he has found most beneficial in his own very extensive practice. We regret exceedingly that our limited space prevents us from a more extended notice of many of the subjects he discusses so ably, and we only hope that our readers will supply the deficiency by a careful perusal of the work.

special subject meets with a book so well adapted to the wants of his class. The truthfulness, accuracy and neatness which mark each of its pages, compel us to speak in very high terms of this book. In fact, after carefully scanning its contents, the only regret felt is that the authors should have stayed their hands so soon in such a good work. Had they extended their labours so as to include the Insecta, Reptilia Proper, Aves and Mammalia, we feel assured the Atlas would have been still more useful and instructive. However, with its present compass, perhaps, while inexpensive, it contains all that is absolutely required by the average college student with but little time at his disposal. It is a volume of fifty pages, and has twenty-four plates, comprising 423 coloured figures and diagrams. Eight of the plates are devoted to the vegetable kingdom; the remaining sixteen illustrate the comparative anatomy and histology of the animal kingdom. The cryptogamic plants taken up are Yeast, Bacteria, Mould, Chara, Protococcus, and the Bracken Fern. Plates VI., VII. and VIII. exhibit parts of flowering plants, and, we think, might be somewhat improved; for example, microscopic views might be substituted for those of the leaf of the Pea, the Horse-Chestnut and the Honeysuckle, which leaves themselves may be readily obtained by all students.

The Proteus and Bell Animalcules, Freshwater Polype, Earth-Worm, Lobster, Crayfish, Mussel, Snail and Frog, are the animal types, the last seven plates being monopolized by the Frog, an amphibious creature that has frequently contributed to the advancement of science, and whose structure, physiology and development form a most interesting and profitable study. In order to give our readers some idea of the character and value of this Atlas, we here enumerate a few of the objects therein beautifully figured. In Plate XVII. portions of the edible Snail are represented, among which are the horny upper jaw, the radula, longitudinal vertical section of anterior portion of odontophore, subradular membrane with its longitudinal muscles, auricle and ventricle of heart with cephalic and abdominal arteries, the colourless, nucleated and amœbiform blood-corpuscles, blood-vessels in the lin