EDITORIAL AND MISCELLANEOUS. The Serapion. We had the pleasure, in December, of attending a public meeting of the Serapion. The exercises of the evening consisted of an address from Dr. Tap pan, the President of the University, and the reading of the "Mint," a manuscript periodical issued by the society. The exercises of the evening were of a high order, both in taste and talent. To those who are not acquainted with the Serapion, we would say that it is a medical society, which meets weekly for the reading of original papers and selections, and for the oral discussion of scientific questions. Its weekly meeting are carried on by the students of the Medical College, but its annual meetings includes medical men from all parts of the State, some of them alumni of the institution, and others elected to the honor of membership. There are also monthly meetings in which public addresses are delivered by gentlemen invited for that purpose. The elevating influence of such associations on the profession is direct and mighty. The exercises carried on in them tend directly to the development of the arts of communication, on which depends organization, the great want of the present time. We have power enough, but we have not discipline enough to render the profession's power avilable to its higest extent. When the arts of speech and writing shall be fully cultivated, so that thought shall flash to thought along the ranks of the profession, with ease and yet with fire, the elements of strength will rush spontaneously to their appropriate combinations and organized power do a new work in the world. Schieffelin's Medicines. We were shown, the other day, a splendid suite of specimens illustrating Materia Medica, prepared by P. Schieffelin, Haines & Co. The series consisted of nearly three hundred samples, illustrating both the pure and the adultrated articles; and to medical students, especially those who are to practice in the country and must be their own apothecaries, the information derived from the study of such a suite of specimens is invaluable. The series is to be seen in the cabinet of the University of Michigan. Correction. The article on the sewing up of the subclavian vein by the mate of a vessel, which appeared among our selections of last month, was taken from the "Scalpel." The credit was accidently omitted, much to our regret, for we intend in every case to give full credit for all selected articles. There is nothing which we despise more than grudging other journals their merited dues. Medical Books and Surgical Instruments. We are often inquired of for the places where various Medical Works or Surgical Instruments can be procured. We take this opportunity to say that A. B. Wood. of Ann Arbor, has, we believe, by far the most extensive assortment of Medical Books in the State. He attends to orders from abroad promptly, and will procure, at the shortest notice, from New York, Boston or Philadelphia, any rare or new work which may be ordered, if it is not already on his shelves. Maynards', of Ann Arbor, and Higby & Dickinson, of Detroit, have arrangements to furnish Surgical Instruments of any kind or description to order. New Truss. So many Trusses have been invented that new ones meet with but little favor, but we sometimes meet those which combine, in a marked manner, various excellencies. We have seen one lately composed of an elastic band and a spring pad, which, simple as its construction appears, has been worn with signal relief by several patients in this place. It was invented by Mr. Silas Pratt, who has patented it, and intends to bring it effectually before the pub. lic. We think it will work its way to favor, and we make these remarks because we believe that men possessing mechanical tact and ingenuity should always be encouraged to exert their skill in producing instruments to answer the demands of the Surgeon. NOTICES O F WORKS RECEIVED. A Practical Treatise on the Diseases of Children. By FRANCIS CONDIE, M.D., Sect. Coll. Physicians. Phil: To call the attention of the medical fraternity to a new edition of this American medical classic seems almost a work of superrogation. The name of Dr. Condie is too well known and his influence too generally felt and acknowledged in the department of Pathology to which the present work refers to require other than a very brief notice of this new edition. Preserving in the arrrangement and classification of subjects the same order as in former editions, he has embodied in the discussion of the several diseases many uew facts and important views on their pathology and treatment. Among these, we are pleased to notice a summary of the opinions of Drs. Fuchs, Gairdner and Rees, on that condition of the pulmonary air-cells denominated Atelectasis Pulmonum, and which for a long period has been, and even still continues to be confounded by some writers with the consolidation resulting from Pneumonia. We need scarcely to remark that so important an error in the anatomical results of disease leads directly to the most injurious practical consequences. While every other part of the work bears ample evidence of the research of the learned author, we are happy to observe that the confusion and uncertainty arising from the adoption of views too often immature and crude, which are put forth in all manner of forms, has been avoided; that he has subjected them to a careful scrutiny, and adopted them only when they have been found to abide the test of true experience. If long years and mature thought, devoted to the diseases of infancy and childhood, can furnish a just claim to consideration, few men of this or any other country are better entitled to speak with authority than the author of the present treatise. We regret however to find that the rare, yet interesting disease, denominated by the French writers Contractures essentielles, has been overlooked, end hope to see the defect supplied in the next edition, which will undoubtedly soon be demanded. With respect to the style of the getting up, we need only state that is is issued by the enterprising Philadelphia publishers, Blanchard & Lea. For sale by A: B. Wood, Ann Arbor. Paget's Surgical Pathology. A. S. This capital work is a volume of about seven hundred pages, published by Lindsay and Blakistone, Philadelphia. For a fuller account see the review of it on another page. We esteem it a valuable addition to our stock of reading matter: For sale by A. B. Wood, Ann Arbor. Ricord and Hunter on Venereal; or, a Treatise on the Venereal Disease. By JOHN HUNTER, F. R. S., with Copious Additions, by DR. PHILIP RICORD, Surgeon to the Hospital du Midi, Paris, &c. Edited, with Notes, by FREEMAN J. BUNISTEAD, M.D:, Physician to the North West Dispensatory, New York, This work, appearing in this country for the first time in this form, is of high value, bringing down to us the work of the immortal Hunter, in combination with the teachings of the distinguished Ricord. It contains eight beautiful lithographic plates, illustrating venereal diseases and the instruments used in treating them. The whole makes a volume of a little over five hundred pages, covering the whole ground of the venereal poison, gonorrhoea and syphilis, with the consequences, direct and remote, and the modes of of treatment. It is published by Blanchard and Lea, Philadelphia. For sale by A. B. Wood, Ann Arbor. Dr. Armor's Prize Essay. This is a brief essay on the zymotic, or fermentive theory of fevers. Those who would read, will find it among our selections. Introductory Lecture addressed to the Class of the Kentucky School of Medicine. By H. M. BULLITT, M, D., Professor of Pathology and Physiology. The Kentucky bullets were always swift on the field of battle, and we see that they are also ready and keen on the field of science. The Transactions of the New York Academy of Medicine. Vol. 1, Part 2. Containing Hospital Hygiene, illustrated. This is a report of some striking facts respecting the propagation and treatment of Typhus Fever. We shall treat our readers to some of its contents at another time. The Legitimate Goal of Professional Ambition. Address introductory to the Course for the profession, for there is no principle more wild and lawless, while yet sublime and indispensable, than ambition, and an attempt to guide the arrow to its mark is worthy of praise. The high moral and religious tone of the close is admirable. Treatment of Vesico- Vaginal Fistula. By MARION SIMS, M. D., of New York. Published by Blanchard & Lea, Philadelphia. A valuable monograph on this most difficult and perplexing surgical operation. Its circulation among surgeons generally would be of great use. Seventeenth Annual Report of the Trustees and Superintendent of the Vermont Asylum for the Insane. From this report we clip the following summary: "The number of patients remaining Aug. 1, 1852- 'Since the opening of the Asylum 2066 patients have been admitted, 1694 have been discharged, and 372 remain in the Institution. Of the 1694 who have been discharged, 968 have recovered, equal to 57.14 per cent. Of those placed in the Asylum within six months from the attack, nearly nine-tenths have recovered. TERMS OF ADMISSION.-For those of this State, two dollars per week for the first six months, and one dollar and seventy-five cents per week thereafter. "For those of other States, two dollars per week, or $100 per year, if the patient remain such a length of time. "When the insanity is connected with epilepsy or paralysis, the terms are two dollars and fifty cents per week. "No charge is made for damages in any case. "Applications may be made to Dr. W. H. Rockwell, Brattleboro, Vt." ART. I. Observations on the Cause, Nature, and Treatment of Epidemic Cholera. By A. B. PALMER, M.D., Prof. of Anatomy in the University of Michigan. From the year 1817, when this terrible scourge first assumed a distinct epidemic form in the marshy district of Jessora, in the Delta of the Ganges, and particularly since it made its appearance in Europe, in 1829, it has justly received a large share of the attention of the profession. Men of the highest order of intellect, and of the most profound attainments, with all the advantages of the present advanced state of the physical sciences-with all the appliances for measuring the temperature, the pressure, the moisture, and the electrical state of the atmosphere, by their sides, and with scalpel, and test-glass, and microscope in hand-in the crowded lanes of cities, and on the open plains-upon the hill-tops, and in the valleys-amid the frost and gloom of Russian winters, and in the fiery heat of tropical summers-by the bed-side, and in the dead-house-they have plied the principles of all these sciences-now assisted, and now, perhaps, retarded, by the most ingenious speculations; and the results of these investigations have been spread before the medical world in elaborate reports; and the most profound and erudite minds have been engaged in arranging, generalizing, and comparing these accumulated facts, and drawing couclusions from them:still, it must be confessed, that far fewer principles are fully and demonstrably established than would be desirable; either as to the essential |