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too old I shall never see America in this life." Few of our associates have ever been as warmly and as justly appreciated by scientific men as Dr. Drysdale, and his researches did much to open the way to later discoveries in microscopic life. He had the warm friendship of such men as Darwin, who highly commended his scientific labors. In his death we lose one of our ablest associates. Very sincerely,

I. T. TALBOT.

ALASKANA.

FUJIYA HOTEL, MIYANOSHITA, JAPAN, Sept. 1, 1892. Dear Gazette:

Just as I was leaving home for Japan, the advance sheets of a beautiful volume, written by my old friend, Dr. Bushrod W. James, came to hand. I put it in my trunk, promising myself the pleasure of its perusal on shipboard while crossing the broad Pacific. Now that I am resting a few days, at this quiet, charming place among the mountains, I must briefly write my impressions of the book.

In medicine and hygiene Dr. James long ago made a good reputation for himself as a writer. He has been a great traveller, and has written letters of observation of more than common interest; but here he has ventured into the domain of poesy, narrative and descriptive.

It has been my privilege to accompany the Doctor in some of his travels, and seeing the assiduity of his note-taking, I have urged him to issue a volume for the public to read; but I did not know he had been courting the muses the while, and that he would break out in verse.

However, "Alaskana" is out, and, after a careful reading, I must congratulate the author upon his research, happy narratives and descriptions and elegant expressions in poetry, He must rank with Longfellow who wrote of Hiawatha; with Crawford, who shaped up the story and legends of the Finns; and with Arnold, who has immortalized the ways and virtues of the Japanese in his "Japonica."

The tide of summer travel from America, and of late, also from Europe, has been moving up to Sitka, and this volume by Dr. James is destined to increase it and greatly enhance its pleasures.

Poesy has embellished cold facts and lifeless history, touched up the seas and rocks, the snow-capped peaks and glaciers, and charmingly told the legends of the Alaskans, with many a bit of quaint custom, of adventure, of hardship and homely joys.

On our steamship across the Pacific were several persons

lately from a visit to Sitka, to whom I loaned Dr. James' book, and all were pleased with its descriptions.

I think it becomes us, in the profession, to indulge in some feelings of pride that we count among us such literary gentlemen as Crawford and James.

Your far-away occasional contributor,

J. P. DAKE.

REVIEWS AND NOTICES OF BOOKS.

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OPHTHALMIC DISEASES AND THERAPEUTICS. By A. B. Norton, M. D. Philadelphia: Boericke & Tafel. 1892. 535 pp. This exhaustive and admirable work is in two parts; the first and larger part dealing with diseases of the eyes, and their treatment; the second part is a presentation of the pathogenetic and reputedly clinical symptoms of drugs having relation to the eyes. The second part is practically a third edition of the work on Ophthalmic Therapeutics, originally written, in collaboration, by Drs. Geo. S. Norton and T. F. Allen, and of which a second edition was issued by Dr. Norton alone. It has been thoroughly revised and brought up to date; doubtful drug-symptoms eliminated, and new drugs introduced. The first part of the book is entirely new. The late and muchlamented Dr. George S. Norton was employed, for several years, in perfecting its plan and collecting its materials, much of the latter being the classification of extended personal experience. It was to have been written by Dr. George S. Norton in collaboration with his brother, its present author; but this hope being frustrated by death, Dr. A. B. Norton has, with affectionate painstaking, undertaken and most successfully completed the contemplated work. It is a book which not only the specialist, but the everyday homoeopathic practitioner must heartily welcome, since it deals not only with rare but with ordinary ophthalmic diseases, such as the every-day practitioner is often called to cope with. Its style is terse and practical; enough of anatomy and physiology are given to assure easy comprehension of the matter in hand; in addition to very full indications for homœopathic medication, there are given many simple and sensible directions for local treatment and for operative interference. The sane modern plan is followed of giving separately the pathogenetic and the clinical indications of each drug dealt with. There are many admirable cuts and chromo-lithographic plates. The work will easily become a leading authority in its

chosen field.

AN ANALYTICAL SYMPTOMATOLOGY OF THE HOMOEOPATHIC MATERIA MEDICA. By Rufus L. Thurston, M.D., and Sam

uel A. Kimball, M.D. Boston: Published by the authors. The authors' aim is to compile a materia medica containing 200 or more remedies, complete in their provings, and of convenient size for use at the bedside; one that will be practical, handy, and reliable; that will be neither too large nor too small for its purpose; and that will be free from the imperfections of existing works. It is not to be "condensed by emasculating provings," but is to "include all the symptoms.' The analytical work is to be in the line of phraseology; in bestowing great care and attention to the study of synonyms, in order to secure clearness and uniformity of expression, and present symptoms shorn of unnecessary verbiage. The work is to be issued quarterly, in fascicles of twenty-four pages.

The present fascicle presents the symptomatology of Abrotanum, Absinthium, Acetic Acid, and a portion of the symptomatology of Aconite.

There may be somewhere a crying demand for just such a work as this is intended to be, but some have fondly hoped that the era of library versus laboratory book making had come to an end.

SUGGESTIONS TO PATIENTS. By W. A. Yingling, M.D., Ph.D. Philadelphia: Boericke & Tafel. 25 copies, 50 cts.

This leaflet contains suggestions and instructions, by carefully following which a patient may be enabled to write a systematic and intelligent description of his case, so that his physician may have a fairly definite and accurate conception of the case on which to base his prescription. The author's idea, which is well carried out, is commendable and useful, and the pamphlet may be put to very good use by those who are frequently called on to prescribe by letter.

AN ILLUSTRATED ENCYCLOPAEDIC MEDICAL DICTIONARY. By Frank P. Foster, M.D. Vol. III. New York: D. Appleton & Company.

The third volume of this stupendous work is now before the profession. Like its predecessors it is a large double-columned quarto of about 800 pages, beautifully and substantially gotten up. Alphabetically it contains all the technical terms used by writers on medicine and the collateral sciences, in the Latin, English, French and German languages, from and including "fascia" to and including "minjak-lagam."

As an illustration of the thoroughness with which the work has been done, the word "ligament" might be referred to. Not

only are the pronunciation, derivation, equivalents in other languages, and definition given, (the definition itself being, by the way, a bit superficial and unsatisfactory), but the reader is furnished with a complete list with brief descriptions of all the ligaments of the body, the list with illustrations covering no fewer than thirty-three columns.. From five or six to fourteen columns are devoted to such terms as "gland," "ganglion," "forceps" and "fever."

It is interesting to note, as a sign the development of a spirit of fair dealing, that the once despised and ridiculed term "homœopathy," is now as justly and dispassionately treated as any other scientific term. For instance, much less than two decades ago, homoeopathy was defined, in one of the standard medical dictionaries at that time just revised and published in a new edition, as "a fanciful doctrine," said to consist "in leav ing the case to nature, while the patient is amused with nominal and nugatory remedies." To-day, in the classical work now under consideration, homoeopathy is excellently defined as "The therapeutical doctrine that certain morbid conditions may be corrected by the use of drugs that, in health, produce similar conditions; of S. Hahnemann, a system of medical practice based on the dogma that such a doctrine is the only one to be followed in therapeutics; (involving also, in most instances, the use of minute doses of potentized' drugs, and the avoidance of all doses large enough to have an appreciable effect other than that of curing the disease)."

With each volume of the work the high opinion founded on acquaintance with preceding volumes is but corroborated. We await with hearty interest the completion of a work that is des tined beyond dispute to be the standard authority as a medical dictionary.

GEOGRAPHICAL PATHOLOGY. By Andrew Davidson, M.D., F.R.C.P. 2 vols. New York: D. Appleton & Co.

These fine volumes, classic in form and in thoroughness of research, offer an example of the careful, exact, painstaking, permanently reliable and valuable work to which so many British medical men devote themselves in the intervals of their labors as practitioners. The subject of Dr. Davidson's inquiry is most interesting and significant, being, in his own phrase, "the geographical distribution of infective and climatic diseases, and the influence of temperature, rainfall, altitude, and soil-conditions on their prevalence, character, and epidemic spread." The immense labor involved in adequately treating such a theme, can be easily realized. Dr. Davidson has arrived at his results not only from study of all available civil statistics of the coun

tries dealt with, but from personal communication with medical and scientific men resident in those countries. His work is a treasure-house of material for the medical statistician, the climatologist and the etiologist, and, indeed, for all trained and broad-minded thinkers on medical or sanitarian subjects. There is nothing vague or theoretical about it. "In all cases," says Dr. Davidson, "it is desirable to replace vague expressions, such as 'rare,' 'common,' and 'very common,' by numerical ratios." The author has no fad to establish; his quest is for plain facts, and these his pages set forth with accurate classification and in immense variety. Not one of the many chapters is without its peculiar ideas and suggestions. With this year's history of cholera in mind, it is highly interesting to follow Dr. Davidson's history of cholera in India, a country which, except. in a few favored provinces, is never free from the ravages of the disease. Among the best-established of the facts developed by this study, is that cholera is in almost every traceable instance communicated by the use of polluted drinking-water. It is most encouraging to note, in the study of cholera in the United States, the vastly increased intervals between the visitations. A curious fact is that in cholera epidemics in our own country, the negro and Indian races suffered, proportionately, much more than the whites; in India, the death rate among the native troops is appreciably lower than among their white fellow-soldiers.

The work as a whole is a memorably valuable addition to medical literature. It is published in admirable form, and enriched by many illustrative charts.

TREATISE ON GYNECOLOGY, MEDICAL AND SURGICAL. By S. Pozzi, M. D. Translated from the French edition by Brooks H. Wells, MD. Two volumes. New York: Wm. Wood & Co.

Any new candidate for professional favor, in the line of gynecological literature, must be prepared to endure critical examination, for many favorites are in the field, and the field is somewhat crowded. This work by Professer Pozzi, however, invites close examination, disarms criticism, and creates a favorable impression, which on the whole increases rather than decreases with familiarity. The author's experience in a large Parisian hospital, his experience as instructor and lecturer, and his observations while travelling, have all been drawn upon to furnish substance for his treatise; but the work is chiefly a digest, a clever and just epitome of the most important writings of European and American gynecologists. In his preface the author is enthusiastic in recounting the exploits of his country

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