PHYSIOLOGY AND EXPERIMENTAL THERAPEUTICS. 493 has perfect sensation in the one leg, and uses his other three legs to keep the injured one out of trouble. He refers to the slow growth of hair and nails in a foot whose reflex arc has been cut in one of its parts and from this infers a diminished ability to make good a loss on demand. He then refers to the wear and tear on a foot used in walking, and thinks that this is greater than the foot without its reflex arc can supply. In favor of this assumption he adduces his results that the lesions may be prevented by properly protecting the paw. [The chief point of interest in this paper is the suggestion that all parts of the reflex arc are equally important in maintaining the nutrition of a part. On this assumption, many trophic lesions may be satisfactorily explained, which are now attributed sometimes to the loss of sensation, in consequence of which the animal is not aware of irritating foreign bodies, and hence cannot remove them; and sometimes to the cutting of trophic fibres. K.] NEW BOOKS AND BOOK NOTICES. All books received by the JOURNAL are deposited permanently in the Library of the Medical Society of the County of Kings. HOW TO PRESERVE HEALTH. By Louis Barkan, M. D. New York: Exchange Printing Company, 1890. The object of the author in the preparation of this book was to furnish the public an available hand-book of hygiene, and also a guide for the sick-room, in order that patients and their friends might be brought into closer accord with the aims and methods of physicians. The subjects discussed are many and various and are handled with skill. If readers carry out the advice given they will fulfil one of the principal aims Dr. Barkan had in mind in writing his manual, the preservation of health and the avoidance of sickness. A HAND-BOOK OF DISEASES OF WOMEN, including Diseases of the Bladder and Urethra. By Dr. F. Winckel, edited by Theophilus Parvin, M. D. Second edition, revised and enlarged, with 150 illustrations. D. c. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston, Son & Co., 1889. This is a translation of the first edition of Winckel's well-known "Lehrbuch der Frauenkrankheiten." The work befere us differs principally from the original in that it contains a section upon Diseases of the Female Urethra and Bladder, derived chiefly from Winckel's monograph. In discussing this latter subject complimentary references are made to Prof. Skene's Treatise on the Diseases of Women, and to his method of treatment. A GUIDE TO THE DISEASES OF CHILDREN. By James Frederic Goodhart, M.D., F. R. C. P. Rearranged, revised and edited by Louis Starr, M. D. Second American from the third English edition. With numerous formulæ and illustrations. D. c. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston, Son & Co., 1889. In the English edition the anthor has endeavored to make his Guide more useful to the student and young practitioner, by amplifying the directions relating to diet in infancy and by inserting recent methods of treatment which experience has shown to be successful. Dr. Starr has made this volume of still greater value by the thorough manner in which he has treated the subjects of "Feeding Infants and Children," and by inserting typical temperature-charts, an entirely new feature in works on children's diseases. The book is one which should be in the library of every practitioner. In the time of Queen Elizabeth the following excellent rules were given by Wm. Bulleyn for an apothecary's life and conduct.' "THE APOTICARYE." Must fyrst serve God, forsee the end, be clenly, pity the poore. 2. Must not be suborned for money to hurt mankynde. 3. His place of dwelling and shop to be clenly to please the sences withal. 4. His garden must be at hand with plenty of herbes, seedes and rootes. 5. To sow, set, plant, gather, preserve and kepe them in due tyme. 6. To read Dioscorides, to know ye natures of plants and herbes. 7. To invent medicines, to chose by coloure, tast, odour, figure, etc. 8. To have his morters, stilles, pottes, filters, glasses, boxes, cleane and sweete. 9. To have charcoles at hand, to make decoctions, syrupes, etc. Io. To kepe his cleane ware closse, and cast away the baggage. II. To have two places in his shop-one most cleane for the phisik, and a baser place for the chirurgie stuff. 12. That he neither increase nor diminsh the phisician's bill (i. e., prescription), and kepe it for his own discharge. 13. That he neither buy nor sel rotten drugges. 14. That he peruse often his wares, that they corrupt not. 15. That he put not in quid pro quo (i. e., use one ingredient in the place of another when dispensing a phisician's prescription) without advysement. 16. That he may open wel a vein for to helpe pleuresy. 17. That he meddle only in his vocation. 18. That he delyte to reede Nicolaus Myrepsus, Valerius Cordus, Johannes Placaton, the Lubik, etc. 19. That he do remember his office is only to be the phisician's cooke. 20. That he use true measure and weight. 21. To remember his end, and the judgement of God; and thus I do comende him to God, if he be not covetous, or crafty, seeking his own lucre before other men's help, soccour, and comfort. The apothecaries of the Elizabethan era compounded their medicines much as medicines are compounded at present, as far as manipulation and measuring are concerned. Prescriptions have altered, but shop customs have undergone only a comparatively slight change. The apothecaries table of weights and measures still in use, was the rule in the 16th century, and the symbols remain at this day just what they were three hundred years ago. The apothecaries to whom these directions were given were only tradesmen-grocers-who paid attention to the commands of physi cians. They were not required to have any knowledge of the medical science beyond what might be obtained by the perusal of two or three writers; they were not to administer drugs on their own judgment and responsibility, or to perform any surgical operation, except phlebotomy, and that only for one malady. The custom was for the doctors to sell their most valuable remedies as nostrums, keeping their composition a secret to themselves, and taking the price paid for them by the sick. The commoner drugs were vended by the drug-merchants (who invariably dealt in groceries for culinary use, as well as in medicinal simples), acting under the directions of the learned graduates of the faculty. Jeaffreson's "Book about Doctors," p. 69. The Mortality, by classes and by certain of the more important diseases, was as follows: Male.... Female.. White Colored. 245 ...161 Measles... 128 25 Deaths, by sex, color, and social condition, were as follows: 1479 Married. 34 Single. Widows, Widowers and not stated..226 Still-births, excluded from list of deaths, were as follows: Certain foreign and American cities show the following death-rates for the Total deaths, 5 to 20.. 66 20 to 40. 66 40 to 60. . 108 .270 .283 66 The mortality by classes and by certain of the more important diseases was as follows: Deaths by sex, color, and social condition, were as follows. 4 17 (under 5 years).. 9 Still-births, excluded from list of deaths, were as follows: 971 455 .394 823 108 I Certain foreign and American cities show the following death-rates for the month of April : THE BROOKLYN MEDICAL JOURNAL PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY THE MEDICAL SOCIETY OF THE COUNTY OF KINGS. EDITORIAL COMMITTEE: JOSEPH H. RAYMOND, M. D., ALEX. HUTCHINS, M. D., JOSEPH H. HUNT, M. D., GLENTWORTH R. BUTLER, M. D., FRED. D. BAILEY, M. D. Read before the American Public Health Association at its Brooklyn Meeting, 1890. Consumption is a disease which depends for its origin upon infection by a micro-organism known as the bacillus tuberculosis of Koch, and while it is true that the most careful researches fail to demonstrate its presence in about ten per cent. of well-developed cases of pulmonary consumption, it is conceded by a vast majority of authorities that without bacilli there is no consumption and that they can be found in every case at some stage or another, and always post-mortem. United as to the source of infection, observers differ widely regarding the question of direct contagion from a diseased person to a healthy one. Excellent authorities have written upon the side of those who proclaim that the danger of contagion lies in the air exhaled by the patient; and Hermann Weber has gone so far as to speak of cases of direct infection between husband and wife, and vice versa. After a careful study of the subject, the writer has arrived at the conclusion that there are no cases on record which prove that consumption is transmissible from person to person. All instances quoted by those teaching the contrary views can be explained by the results obtained through Dr. Cornet's experiments. |