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Dercum, M.D. The volume as a whole is rich in shrewd theorizing and records of well-digested experience, recorded in forcible and graphic English.

THE MEDICAL AND SURGICAL USES OF ELECTRICITY. By George M. Beard, A.M., M.D. and A. D. Rockwell, A.M., M.D. Eighth edition. New York: Wm. Wood & Co. 788 pp. We have the assurance of Dr. Rockwell, the only surviving author of this now standard work, and sole editor of most of the editions through which it has passed, that more care has been expended on the preparation of the present edition, than on any other since the second. An entirely new and very timely and practical chapter on "Dosage of Electricity," has been added. "Now that electricity has become popular in medicine" justly, says Dr. Rockwell,-"there is in some quarters, a tendency to treat all cases alike, by routine, mechanical applications, regardless either of the disease or the idiosyncrasies of the patient. The dosage of electricity is a special study."

The clinical chapters of this work naturally represent, with every edition, a wider experience. The book is an exhaustive treatise on its important subject, and by study of its text and numerous excellent illustrations, the non-specialist can obtain all necessary knowledge on how to use a highly valuable therapeutic adjunct.

HANDBOOK OF OBSTETRICAL NURSING. By Anna M. Fullerton, M.D. Second edition. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston, Son &

Co. 222 pp.

This little book appeals alike to mothers and nurses, and is rich in information valuable to both. The seal of popular appreciation is set upon it, by so prompt a demand for a second edition. It deals clearly and concisely with the signs, management and accidents of pregnancy; with the duties of the nurse during labor, and in its possible accidents and emergencies; with the care of the lying-in woman and the new-born infant; and closes with a few hints on the ailments of early infancy. The chapter on the care of new-born infants has been re-written, with additions, since the first edition of the book appeared. There are thirty-four excellent illustrative cuts, showing all the apparatus in use in the lying-in room, the methods of applying bandages, producing artificial respiration and the like. The little volume is substantially bound.

TEXT-BOOK OF MEDICAL CHEMISTRY. By Elias H. Bartley, B.S., M.D. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston, Son & Co.

We must briefly give the second edition of this practical and excellent work the far too tardy praise of being worthy the

popularty it has attained. Several additions have, in it, been made to the original work; the chapter on poisons has been enlarged, and a description of urinary tests incorporated in the present volume. The illustrations are many and suggestive. Concise and accurate; the student of medical chemistry will find the book an excellent companion.

The most noteworthy story in the January CENTURY is "Bentley's System," a capital sketch of a familiar type of newspaper man, by Viola Roseboro'. A sorrowful interest attaches to the Kipling-Ballestier serial, by the sudden death of its gifted junior collaborator since the last instalment appeared. The story of "Custer's Last Battle," is told by Capt. E. S. Godfrey. Among the charming bits of verse is "An Old Belle," by Lizette W. Reese, and "A Garland," by Frank D. Sherman. New York: The Century Co.

In the January POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, pages of especial interest to physicians, are "Tail-Like Formations in Men," a compilation of observations from the writings of Ecker, Bartels, Ornstein and others, and the third contribtion on "Our Population and Its Distribution," by Dr. Andrew D. White. Among other contributors are Horace D. Martin and M. G. Trouvé. M. Guillenim writes interestingly on "Communication with the Planets." New York: D. Appleton & Co.

GLEANINGS AND TRANSLATIONS.

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COFFEE AS A CAUSE OF PRURITUS ANI. A correspondent thus relates a personal experience: "For many years I suffered from the most aggravated form of pruritus ani, which refused to yield to any one of the many remedies applied for its relief — nothing seemed to have the slightest effect in ameliorating the torture to which the intense itching subjected me. After exhausting the pharmacopoeia I began to abstain from certain articles of food; one after another was dropped from my dietary for several weeks, but without effect until coffee was reached. An abstinence for a period of over two or three weeks resulted in complete relief from the distressing symptom. As a matter of experiment the use of coffee was resumed for several days with the effect of reproducing the pruritus; the experiment was tried several times with the same result. A year without coffee has been to me a year without pruritus."—Ñ. Y. Med. Jour.

PERSONAL AND NEWS ITEMS.

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DR. L. A. PHILLIPS will remove early in January, to the Woodbury Building, corner Berkeley and Boylston Streets, Boston.

DR. H. P. BELLOWS will remove early in January, to the Woodbury Building, corner Berkeley and Boylston Streets, Boston.

DR. JOHN L. COFFIN will open a Boston office, early in January, in the Woodbury Building, corner Berkeley and Boylston Streets, Boston.

DR. GEORGE A. SUFFA, from the New York Ophthalmic Hospital, will locate in the Woodbury Building, corner Berkeley and Boylston Streets, Boston.

AMANDA C. BRAY, M.D., B. U. S. of M., class of 1891, has settled at 49 Pleasant Street, Worcester. Office hours: until 9 A. M.; 2 to 4 and 7 to 8 P. M.

DR. JOHN H. CLARKE, editor of "The Homeopathic World," has removed from 34 Harrington Road to No. 30 Charges Street, Piccadilly, London, W.

H. A. GIBBS, M.D, has settled at 15 Wayland Street, Boston. Dr. Gibbs is associated with Dr. J. T. HARRIS, of 136 Warren Street. Office hours: until 9 A. M.; I to 3, 6 to 7 P. M. Telephone.

A VERY pleasant reception was given to the Hahnemann Club of Nashville, at the residence of Dr. J. P. Dake, 216 N. Vine Street, Nov. 11th, 1891, in honor of the Southern Homœopathic Medical Association and the Homœopathic Medical Society of Tennessee.

THE homeopathic physicians of Melbourne, Australia, have made great strides into popular favor by their marked success in dealing with a recent epidemic of the grippe. Individualization of cases and careful selection of remedy produced results which compared brilliantly with old-school theorizing over " 'germs" and dosing with quinine and alcohol.

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DR. D. S. C. KAVALGIAN, of Adapozar, Asia Minor, a graduate of B. U. S. of M., class of 1875, sending his annual subscription toward the support of a scholarship in "our most beloved Alma Mater," adds these pleasant and hearty words: Please give my regards to all our dear boys' of '75-'76—'77, as you meet them, and to all our venerable teachers. How happy they are that can see each other by dropping to 10 Park Square! I wish I could do the same at least once in my life. O, how I long to see them!

Don't forget me altogether!"

A LETTER has just come from our old friend and contributor to the GAZette, Dr. G. Oehme, now of Roseburg, Oregon. We met him first at the centennial celebration of Hahnemann's birth, in the little town of Meissen. Soon afterwards he came to this country and practised for a time in Concord, N. H., and later, for several years, in Plymouth, Mass. The New-England climate proved too severe, and, some twenty years ago, he went to Staten Island, N. Y. In each of these places he had a successful practice and many friends; but failing health again compelled him to move, and on the western slope he has found renewed health and delightful society. He is enthusiastic not only in regard to the climate and the future of the rapidly-growing State, but also about the prospects of homeopathy there, and the great demand for well-educated physicians. He desires very much to have a good physician at South Bend, Washington, a place charmingly situated, and which has grown in the last year from 800 to 3,500 inhabitants. Many of the people are from New England, and demand homeopathic treatment when sick. Dr. Oehme would gladly assist any one well recommended.. I. T. T.

THE final measurements of the head of H. L. Norcross, the New York bombthrower and would-be murderer of Russell Sage, were taken at the morgue, by Coroner Messemer, assisted by Drs. Landon, Gray and Dunham. shaped, has a retreating forehead, and is high above the ears. tween the base of the nose and the occipital protuberance is 19

The head is eggThe distance becentimetres, and

13 centimetres from the tip of the chin to the base of the nose. about 65 degrees.

The facile angle is

The skull is five millimetres thick at the parietal bone and ten millimetres in the occipital region. Thirteen centimetres is the greatest transverse diameter internally. Fourteen and a half centimetres is the distance from the lobe of the ear to vertex, and fifteen centimetres from the posterior border of the foramen magnum to the vertex, Sixteen centimetres is the greatest antero posterior diameter internally. The head measures 190 millimetres from the back to the front.

Dr. Zuckerkaudel (the German authority) says the maximum of the skull is 197 millimetres or 19 centimetres, The bomb-thrower's skull is pretty large. There is nothing abnormal about it. The circumference is 53 centimetres and five millimetres. The distance from the occipital to the vertex is 16 centimetres. The skull is considerably above the average in the capacity of the contents it will hold.

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THE death of Dr. CARL HERMANN HORSCH, of Dover, New Hampshire, is widely mourned, as removing an able and untiring worker, a popular practitioner, and a thoughtful and scholarly disciple and defender of homoeopathy.

DR. MARY J. SAFFORD. — No death that has ever removed a beloved member of the homeopathic fraternity, has been more widely, more deeply, more tenderly mourned than that, which on the eighth of December, called Dr. Mary J. Safford from this world's work and sunshine. It is many years since Dr. Safford, in search of the health she never fully found, abandoned her arduous and fruitful labors in our immediate midst, and made her home in the far South. Yet the years have in no wise chilled or dimmed the tender respect, the living affection of those who were privileged to be her friends, patients or co-workers in the city so long her home. Her untiring energy, her delicate skill, her sensitive faithfulness to duty, her gentle, sympathetic, womanly atmosphere will linger long in cherished memory, and their loss is a loss indeed.

The following admirable sketch of Dr. Safford's life and work is borrowed from the Boston Transcript:

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About half a century ago there was born among the green hills of Vermont a little child who was destined to influence thousands for good. Her parents were among those brave-spirited pioneers who moved Westward, and helped to build up the civilization of the newly opened lands. As the child grew she received an excellent education, partly in Canada, where she acquired the ready use of French and the ability to do exquisite needlework. Travel in the United States and the West Indies was followed by a quiet life with her brother in Cairo, Ill., for a time. But within the slight frame was a heart that responded to every cry of need, and a restless, active mind that demanded some more serious work than following the dull round of life of a woman in society. With the generous cooperation of her brother, she opened a free school in Cairo, and taught till the outbreak of the A personal friend of President Lincoln and of General Grant, it was easy for her to secure permission to carry succor to the wounded; and it is said that she was the first woman in the United States to administer relief on the field of battle. Before the echoes of the guns had died away she would tie her handkerchief to a stick, and, accompanied by a colored man bearing supplies, would seek out the wounded, and give such aid and comfort as were possible till the surgeons arrived. She went up and down the river in the transports, assisted in the hospitals, and in every way threw life and time and means into the service. All through that part of the country she was idolized by the soldiers, many of whom still recall her name with tender gratitude.

war.

Before the war was over the terrible mental and physical strain proved too much for her; and almost a wreck, she went abroad to try once more for life and vigor. For five years she sought them in almost every European land as well as in Egypt and the Orient, filling her mind with rich stores of knowledge and experience and winning back by degrees the blessed boon of health.

On her return from Europe, Miss Safford spent three years in New York study

ing medicine; and after her graduation she applied to the medical faculty of the University of Vienna for permission to study there. It was readily granted, and she at once returned to Europe, and for nearly three years studied in Vienna and other places, having exceptional opportunities, though in every place where she was received she was the first woman to study these branches.

As a physician, Dr. Safford practised in Chicago and Boston. In the latter city she also taught for years in the medical department of the Boston University. With the skill of the accomplished physician, she united the fidelity of the friend, and in the sick-room her very presence was the stimulus of sunshine. and the gentle touch of her hand was a benediction. Dr. Safford was one of the first women in Boston to be elected to serve on the public school committee, and here as everywhere she was faithful in the highest degree. She was warmly interested in all movements of reform and in efforts to better the condition of working girls. No hu nan being could come to her for sympathy or help without meeting quick response. Only those who were constant inmates of her family knew how incessant were the calls made upon her in this direction, and how unceasing were her generosity and devotion.

Again the brave little woman succumbed to overwork and cares far too great for her strength; and several years ago the pleasant Boston home, whose hospitable doors had been always so wide open, and round whose board gathered many a group of congenial friends, was broken up, and she gathered under her wing the two little girls whom she had adopted, and sought a balmier climate and more restful life in Florida. Since then she has made only flitting visits to the North; but those who had once known and loved her could never grow cold or forgetful. Whenever she came to Boston, she was welcomed to a hundred homes where she was claimed as an honored guest. Years came and went, leaving their traces on her gentle face; but through it all shone ever the light of love, the cheery spirit that never new defeat.

So many years had she been frail that no one should have been surprised to know that the silver cord had at length been loosed; yet it was with a shock of keen sorrow that her friends received the message that death had claimed her on the eighth of December. There will be mourning in Florida, where her sweet influence was widely felt; there will be mourning among the mountains of North Carolina, where she often summered; there will be heartache on the Illinois prai ries, while over the Vermont hills the sad news will break in tears that the little child born there so many years ago has passed beyond the sight of those who knew and always loved her."

We are permitted to quote from a private letter this tribute to Dr. Safford's worth and influence. The letter is dated from Tarpon Springs.

"Dr. Safford was buried yesterday. She returned from North Carolina about three weeks ago, took at once to her bed, with but little hope in herself I think, and has gradually faded away. Her brother was very sick, often thought to be dying, and he seemed to grasp all the resources at hand, and but a few seemed to realize how sick the dear little woman was, always so quiet and modest where self was concerned, until too late to do anything for her. The funeral was very sad. Every one seemed to have lost a dear friend. She was certainly a wonderful woman, and she really wore herself out in her constant work for others."

We cannot refrain, in conclusion, from quoting the following touching and beautiful paragraph from the Boston Saturday Gazette:

"The death of Dr. Mary J. Safford, late of Boston, which has been so generally noticed by the press, is a sad blow to the little town of Tarpon springs, Florida, where she had lived since leaving her Boston home, and to whose inhabitants she had endeared herself by a life of loving helpfulness as friend, neighbor, and physician. She had hundreds of friends in Boston, to whom her death is a personal sorrow; but in her Southern home, where her gentle influence had been, perhaps, most widely felt, her loss has affected the entire community. On the funeral day, December 10th, all business in Tarpon was suspended, that all might pay a last tribute of respect to a noble life. A lavish and magnificent floral display was made at her home, the church, and at the grave, which was lined with palmetto leaves and roses. A carpet of palmetto leaves was also spread for a wide space around the lot, which is shaded by stately Florida pines; blacks and whites uniting in this work of love."

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