THE census bulletins announce that the average age at death in 1890 was 31.1 years, while in 1900 it was 35.2 years.

PROFESSOR VIRCHOW's valuable library, which contains over seven thousand volumes, has been presented to the Berlin Medical Society by his widow.

THE registered pharmacists in the United States are said to number forty-three thousand. In Great Britain the number is estimated at fifteen thousand six hundred.

THE Sante Fe Railway Company has decided to build a hospital at Los Angeles, California, for its employees. The estimated cost of the structure is forty thousand dollars.

DOCTOR WALTER LINDLEY has been elected dean of the College of Medicine of the University of Southern California, vice Doctor James McBride, who recently resigned the position.

THE medical colleges in Ohio have suffered a decrease in freshman attendance this year, presumably because the requirements are more exacting and the fees somewhat higher than heretofore.

DOCTOR JAY L. MCLAREN, of Eureka, California, formerly of Saginaw, Michigan, has disposed of his interest in the Sequoia Hospital Association, and contemplates enjoying an Eastern trip.

A CHARTER has been issued for the College of Physicians and Surgeons which will be opened at Los Angeles, California, in the fall. The originators of the plan will also erect a hospital to be conducted in connection with the college.

NEW YORK CITY has over eight hundred cases of pneumonia, an increase of forty per cent over the number during the same period of last year. The Health Board now proposes to compel notification by physicians of all cases of the disease.

THE Western Reserve University is the recipient of an endowment fund of one hundred thousand dollars, the generous gift of Mr. H. M. Hanna. The money will be utilized for the express purpose of advancing scientific medicine in the domain of anatomic research.

MANILA has seven hospitals affording accommodation for two thousand four hundred fifty patients. Four are under military control, one is supported by the charity of Chinese merchants for the sick of their race, and one is for the reception of lepers exclusively.

ARABIAN physicians prepare their own prescriptions, which is an easy task owing to the fact that they have a cinch on the therapeutics of disease. The remedies administered consist, regardless of the malady, of verses or texts from the Koran rolled into pellets.

DOCTOR WILLIAM S. THAYER, Chairman of the Tuberculosis Commission, caused the arrest of a Baltimore gentleman recently, for spitting on the floor of a street car. The offender was taken before a justice, where a fine of one dollar was imposed for violating the spitting ordi

nance.

THE aggregate bequests recently made to the Harvard Medical School by J. Pierpont Morgan, John D. Rockefeller and others is $2,821,225. The school's real estate and former endowment, including the above amount, has now reached a valuation of about $5,000,000.

HASHEESH, the Egyptian drug, is said to be a primary cause of insanity among the inhabitants of that country. Its use leaves no physical marks as does the prolonged use of alcohol, an exception being the staggering gait, but the drug has a very deleterious effect upon the mental powers.

DURING the past year fifty-eight thousand three hundred eighty-one seamen received treatment from the Marine Hospital Service, which is an increase of more than two thousand patients over the preceding year. One thousand three hundrd sixty-nine surgical operations, requiring the use of anesthetics were performed.

PLAGUE in India is said to be reaping a greater harvest than at any time since its outbreak seven years ago. During this period over two million people have fallen victims to the terrible malady, which the English authorities seem powerless to check. Isolation, segregation and inoculation have been tried without avail.

In a report to the New York Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor, John Seely Ward, who has made an extended stay in Europe investigating consumption hospitals for children, public baths, et cetera, advocates that the association erect near New York a hospital for the treatment of tuberculous children.

DOCTOR J. G. NEAL, a prominent surgeon of Santa Rosa, California, recently died of septicemia. He was a native of Kentucky, had practiced in Santa Rosa about six years, and left an estate valued at five thousand dollars, claimants for which will probably be many, although his nearest relatives consist of a brother and two sisters.

A NOVEL, yet practical, method of destroying rats, which select large ships as their place of habitation, has been perfected by a Frenchman. Carbonic acid gas is the agent employed, it being carried to the hold of the ship by means of an iron pipe, and allowed to remain there for some time. The gas, while suffocating the rodents, does not injure the cargo.

A VERY unique occupation is that held by a Los Angeles woman, who serves in the capacity of detective for a local medical society. The office of this woman is to visit physicians who are suspected of practicing withcut licenses, and have them prescribe for certain ills which she assumes to have. With this evidence as support the society institutes legal proceedings.

A NEW YORK negress has given birth to quadruplets, two boys and two girls. The case is noteworthy because of the fact that the males. are white and do not possess the characteristic curly hair of the negro, while the girls, dark at birth, are gradually assuming a distinct ebony hue. The combined weight of the infants at delivery was nineteen pounds and seven ounces.

DOCTOR ARTHUR C. PROBERT, vicepresident of the Christian Hospital, of Chicago, was recently fined five hundred dollars and costs for fraudulent use of the mails. He was arrested several months ago on complaint of Doctor John B. Murphy and others whose names were used on "certificates" of the hospital without authority and for the purpose of swindling members of the profession.

THE New Hampshire State Board of Health has been experimenting with so-called antidiabetic gluten flour. Fourteen brands of the product of a half dozen firms were analyzed, and notwithstanding the fact that these flours are advertised as healthful for diabetic patients because of nearly absolute gluten constitution, careful analytical examination revealed an average of almost forty-eight per cent of starch.

DOCTORS B. C. THOMAS, J. S. Kennedy, E. B. Herrick, A. A. Walter, J. D. Kergan, J. A. Houghson, and J. A. Lonsdale, all medical practicians of Detroit, have been cited by the State Board of Registration in Medicine to appear before that body and show cause why their licenses should not be revoked. This action is taken in accordance with the law recently enacted to prevent the publication of objectionable medical advertisements.

THE Indiana State Nurses' Association was organized last month at Fort Wayne, Indiana, when the following officers were elected: Fresident, Mrs. Fournier, of Hope Hospital, Fort Wayne: first vicepresident, M. Henderson, of Union Hospital, Terre Haute; second vicepresident, L. Hill, of Fort Wayne; secretary, Mary Scott, of Indianapolis; treasurer, Florence Grant, of Indianapolis. The next meeting will be held at Indianapolis in February.

THE average yearly consumption of tobacco is greater in the United States than in any other country of the world. Statistics of the countries recording addiction to the habit in noteworthy degree are as follows: Netherlands, 3,400 grams; United States, 2,110; Belgium, 1,552; Germany, 1,485; Australia, 1,400; Austria and Hungary, 1,350; Norway, 1,335; Denmark, 1,125; Canada, 1,050; Sweden, 940; France, 933; Russia, 910; Portugal, 850; England, 680; Italy, 635; Switzerland, 610, and Spain, 550.

STATISTICS discloses the fact that on November I there were 5,423 insane persons under public care in Wisconsin. This number shows an increase of 248 during the last sixteen months. The Northern Hospital at Oshkosh has 599 patients; the State Hospital at Mendota, 403; the Milwaukee Hospital, 499. The remainder of the patients are distributed throughout the counties of the state as follows: Brown, 121; Chippewa, 142; Columbus, 101; Dane, 156; Dodge, 122; Dunn, 126; Eau Claire, 124; Fond du Lac, 110; Grant, 129; Green, 113; Iowa, 122; Jefferson, 127; Lacrosse, 146; Manitowoc, 160; Marathon, 167; Monroe, 50; Milwaukee, 220: Outagamie, 137: Racine, 131; Richland, 110; Rock, 150; Sauk, 116; Saint Croix, 139; Sheboygan, 118; Trempealeau, 108; Vernon, 117, Walworth, 125; Waupaca, 106; Washington, 126; Winnebago, 203.

THE Association of Assistant Physicians of the Ohio State Hospitals held its second meeting at the Toledo State Hospital October 7 and 8, 1903, Doctor George T. Harding, Junior, of Columbus, in the chair. A number of important papers were read and discussed, and resolutions were adopted in furtherance of the movement directed toward the establishment of a Central Pathological Institute for teaching and research in connection with the State Hospitals of Ohio.

HEALTH OFFICER KIEFER recently appeared before the Detroit Board of Education committee on sanitation and plead for reform regarding the drinking-cup system in vogue in the public schools. He informed the committeemen that since July I one hundred six persons had died of diphtheria, and urged that as much precaution be exercised to obviate the spread of diphtheria as is accorded to smallpox. He suggested that pupils be required to procure individual cups, or that fountain faucets, such as have been installed in the Ann Arbor schools, be adopted. Individual lead pencils and the fumigation of school books were matters likewise brought to the attention of the committee by Doctor Kiefer.

THE seventh general conference of health officials in Michigan, under the auspices of the Michigan State Board of Health, was held in the new medical building of the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, Thursday and Friday, January 7 and 8, 1904. The objects of the conference were: "The presentation of facts and the general comparison of views by the health officers and other delegates of local boards of health, among themselves, with the members of the State Board of Health and with those in charge of the State Laboratory of Hygiene, and especially with reference to the duties of supervisors, and other presidents of local boards of health, health officers, and other officials, relative to the restriction of the dangerous communicable diseases and relative to other subjects bearing upon the public health service of the State."

THE Michigan death rate for November was twelve and nine-tenths per one thousand population. Two thousand six hundred twenty-three deaths occurred during the month, one less than for the preceding month. There were four hundred twelve deaths of infants under one year; one hundred seventy-one deaths of children between one and four years, inclusive; seven hundred eighty-nine deaths of elderly persons, all over sixty-five years of age. Pulmonary tuberculosis caused one hundred fifty-eight deaths, while other forms of this disease were. responsible for the demise of twenty-seven; typhoid fever caused eighty deaths; diphtheria and croup, one hundred twelve; scarlet fever, fourteen; measles, seven; whooping-cough, twenty-eight; pneumonia, two hundred six; cancer, one hundred forty; while one hundred ninety-four yielded the ghost to accidents and violence. Diphtheria, scarlet fever, and other diseases peculiar to children indicated an increase, while tuberculosis and typhoid fever did not register as high as during October.

ALTHOUGH the white population of the United States is from ten to sixteen per cent greater than the colored, statistics show that while four hundred twenty-eight negroes died from tuberculosis during the past five years, only one hundred twenty-seven whites succumbed to the malady. The Ethiopian was not prone to this disease in his savage state and the susceptibility of the race to consumption at the present time may be due to a more advanced state of civilization and the adoption of indoor habitations.

THE Cleveland Medical Library Association held its annual meeting on Monday evening, the 14th instant. The reports submitted by the officers showed that the gain in the number of books equalled that of former years; that the indebtedness has been reduced during the year by nearly three-quarters; and that the increase in membership has been above the average. Officers for the ensuing year were elected as follows: President, Doctor Dudley P. Allen; vicepresident, Doctor David H. Beckwith; secretary, Doctor George W. Moorehouse; treasurer, Doctor Harris G. Sherman; librarian, Doctor Carl A. Hamann. Fifteen trustees were also elected for a period of three years. The sum of two hundred thirty-five dollars was subscribed by the members for the book fund, Doctor Daniel Millikin, of Hamilton, delivered an address on "The Irrepressible Savage," and the meeting was concluded with a smoker and refreshments.

RECENT LITERATURE.

REVIEWS.

LANDMARKS IN GYNECOLOGY.*

THIS is a curious volume, a mixture of good and bad, all jumbled up into one heterogenous mass. There seems to be little reason for the title of the book. The author may have had a definite plan in compiling the book, but it is not apparent to the reader. "Landmarks in Gynecology" have about as much signification as the "Circle of Byron Robinson." Facts known for years, and forming a part of every textbook, are stated so as to give the impression of being original with the author. The whole book is confusing and unsatisfactory. Yet, if one has patience and eliminates the peculiarities of plan and style, there are certain facts of value to be rescued from much that is the opposite. The author has been industrious and the book evidently represents considerable work at the dissecting and postmortem tables. These researches go far to counterbalance the peculiarities of the work set forth above.

*By Byron Robinson, M. D. Chicago.

Published by E. H. Colgrove,