-The U. S. Bureau of Mines is to supervise the production of radium with the view of improving the process and avoiding the great waste of material in present methods. The work will be done in collaboration with capitalists who will establish free clinics for the use of radium in New York City and Baltimore.

-The civil-service examination for attending dispensary physicians in the dispensary department of the Chicago Municipal Tuberculosis Sanatorium, originally scheduled for Oct. 28, 1913, has been postponed to Nov. 24, 1913. The examination is open to all physicians residing in Chicago. Particulars may be obtained from the secretary of the Civil Service Commission, room 610, City Hall, Chicago.

-At the annual meeting of the Chicago Gynecological Society, October 17, the address of the evening was delivered by Mr. Leonard A. Busby, president of the Chicago City Railway Co., and the following officers were elected: President, Dr. Frank W. Lynch; vice-president, Dr. Henry F. Lewis; secretary, Dr. Robert T. Gillmore; treasurer, Dr. Charles B. Reed; editor, Dr. W. A. Newman, and pathologist, Dr. Arthur H. Curtis.

-We have received the following society publications: The News-Letter of Englewood Branch, The Bulletin of the North Shore Branch, The Bulletin of the Kane County Medical Association and The Bulletin of the Montgomery County Medical Society. The North Shore Branch publishes a sixteen-page pamphlet containing enough "ads" to pay all expense of publication and mailing and return a profit to the society.

-Rush alumni to the number of 275 held an enthusiastic banquet at the Hotel Sherman, Nov. 13. Dr. A. M. Corwin presided and submitted a proposition to raise an endowment fund of

$30,000. The alumni present subscribed $3,500 and a plan was formulated for securing subscriptions from members of classes not present at the banquet. This fund is for alumni purposes, including endowments for scholarships and any

other purposes that may appeal to the body of

the alumni from time to time.

-The Kane County Bulletin contains the following touching farewell which smells of Dr. A. L. Mann's style: "Hail and Farewell! We have only two or three lines of space left, consequently cannot inflict upon you the voluminous

Valedictory which we had planned, but must be content with turning the Bulletin over to a new Publishing Committee, with the certainty that they will improve on our efforts. They couldn't do worse."

Who would have thought that he was such a modest man?

-Compliance with the requirements of the Income Tax Law on the part of physicians offers many problems but it promises much light on the economics of the practice of medicine. How many physicians, especially those in general practice, know their net income or keep a separate account of their professional expenses as distinguished from their personal and family outlay? It means a much more elaborate system of accounting than most of us are accustomed to. In estimating the exemption of $3,000 only the expenses incidental to practice may be deducted from the gross income. How will you estimate the office rental, auto expense, etc., when your office is in your home and you take your family for an occasional "joy ride"?

-Gov. Dunne on October 28 appointed the following physicians members of the State Board of Health; Dr. John A. Robison, Chicago, vice Henry Richings, Rockford, term expired. Dr. T. B. Lewis of Hammond, vice P. H. Wessel, Moline, term expired. Dr. R. D. Luster of Granite City, vice R. E. Niedringhaus, Granite City, term expired. Dr. A. Szwajkart of Chicago, vice Charles J. Boswell, Mounds, term expired. Two members hold over. They are Dr. George W. Webster of Chicago, president, and Dr. Walter R. Schussler of Orland.

-At the special meeting of the Chicago Gynecological Society held in the Florentine Room of the Congress Hotel, November 15, at 8 p. m., papers were read by Dr. Lewis S. McMurtry, Louisville, on "The Foundation of Modern Gynecology and Abdominal Surgery"; by Prof. Dr. Kroenig, Freiburg, Germany, on "The Difference Between Former and Newer Treatments by XRay and Radium in Gynecological Diseases"; by Prof. Dr. Gauss, Freiburg, Germany, on "The Report of the Result of Radiotherapy in Gynecology"; by Dr. Thomas S. Cullen, Baltimore, on "The Umbilicus and Its Diseases," and by Dr. Robert L. Dickinson, Brooklyn, N. Y., on "Efficiency Engineering as Applied to Gynecological Surgery."

Public Health

YOU CAN HELP IN THIS FIGHT
AGAINST CONSUMPTION.

Invest Your Charity in Red Cross Seals There's no better time than the Christmas season to show that you appreciate the vital importance of this great fight against consump

tion.

Do your share-by beginning the Red Cross Seal habit today-and keep it up.

Do your share toward lightening the burden of those afflicted with consumption.

and found that they did not thrive on a diet purely artificial to such animals. From this the "pseudo" expert deduces that because rabbits could not live wholly on cooked food, human beings should confine themselves to raw food. As raw food is natural to rabbits, so man has proved cooked food wholesome by uncounted centuries of

use.

Many so-called diet systems urge the use of raw foods. There is no objection to eating raw food if it is appetizing, agreeable and wholesome. But experience shows that the average man thrives best upon clean, wholesome, mixed foods, well prepared in the usual ways; some cooked, others raw. Of course, these articles should be of good quality, free from adulteration and dirt (visible and invisible).

In general, raw food is not as clean as cooked food for the cooking sterilizes and so renders innocuous pathogenic bacteria. Raw foods should be very carefully washed, but as a general rule simple washing will not remove all the bacteria,

If you cannot buy Red Cross Seals in your town, write to Red Cross Seal Headquarters, Chicago Tuberculosis Institute, 10 S. La Salle Street, Chicago, for as many as you wish at 1c each.

-The U. S. Department of Agriculture has recently had called to its attention, by letters from people all over the country, serious misstatements as to the effects of foods recommended by self-styled "experts in dietetics."

In view of the widespread literature and advice of so-called "diet experts," it seems desirable to warn people against adopting the dietary recommendations of those without real scientific standing in the community. Some of the advocates of freak diets are sincere, but are themselves deluded; while others are fakers, who seek to make monetary gain by advising peculiar systems. In most of the recommendations of these self-established "experts," there is hardly a shadow of reason. They use isolated and often unrelated facts of science as evidence of the value of their peculiar system, but completely ignore statements in current scientific literature which would negative their contentions.

As an example they cite the fact that some one tried to raise rabbits wholly on cooked food,

to them.

In some of the literature circulated by the advocates of raw food, their correspondents are urged not to eat animal food because they say meat is filled with bacteria. This is not true. The surface of meat is not sterile, but the interior is, except in rare cases. We do not often eat raw meat, except when dried, smoked and so practically sterilized. The proper handling of such food is essential.

THE FALLACY OF THE ENZYMS AND PARTICULAR CHEMICAL SUBSTANCES.

on the hypothesis that raw food supplies the body Some raw food advocates base their argument with necessary enzyms; or, that a certain food, such as whole wheat bread, supplies lime or some other special substance. The body, however, normally supplies all the ferments (enzyms) it requires, and the average mixed diets of Americans give them all the raw food that they require. If the American people ate nothing but wheat, it might be necessary to advise them to eat whole wheat rather than fine wheat flour in order to get some of the substances excluded from the flour by bolting. Recent investigation indicates that there is a valuable substance in bran, which is lacking in the interior of the wheat kernel. This substance, called by some vitamin, is, however,

present in many other foods, and an ordinary mixed diet supplies all of such material that the body needs. Whole wheat bread is wholesome and palatable and affords an easy way of securing variety in diet, desirable as well as pleasing. But the average American who usually gets plenty of the food constituents he needs in his other articles of diet, need not feel compelled to eat whole wheat bread exclusively, simply to supply one peculiar element.

So-called polished rice has been objected to upon the basis of investigations made in oriental countries where rice forms one of the chief staples of a very limited diet, and practically the only starchy food. People who live mainly on rice might be expected to need certain elements that are in the part of the rice that is polished off. But Americans do not live on a diet limited to rice. There is, therefore, no logical reason why they should not eat polished rice if they prefer it. Both polished and unpolished rice is wholesome and valuable.

If the deductions of many food faddists accepted as facts were really operative, it would be difficult to explain how the human race had survived. It should have expired very soon after man had progressed enough in intelligence to begin to exercise any choice in his food and to cook it. But civilization has advanced from the time when man began to cook.

Many of the people who offer dietetic advice for sale recommended a diet to cure diseases without seeing the patient.

In many cases, people on beginning a radically new diet, whether of direct curative value or not, gain or think they gain a benefit. Marked change in diet or cooking will often produce the same effect, because change itself is often a benefit. In cases of serious digestive disturbances, sufferers should consult a physician of known ability and standing. To submit such cases for treatment by mail is as foolish as it would be for one having a complicated and highly specialized business trouble to ask another who had never seen his factory, and knew nothing about the business, to supply him with a positive remedy at long-dis

tance.

Much of the advice on diet which has passed from individual to individual, and much of the supposed scientific advice now being sold for a price by some of the food advisers, is really little more than folk lore.

The main thing, as one grows older, is to eat in moderation and then, as always, to see that what you eat is clean and that the cooked food you eat is originally in good condition and that it is well cooked. If you eat raw vegetables and fruits and raw milk, take precautions to see that they are clean before they enter your system. If something really disagrees with you, and the fault lies actually with the article rather than with the method by which it has been kept or cooked, stop eating that kind of food. If you experience serious discomfort which persists, consult the best physician you can discover.

As a general proposition, be wary of people who offer to give you advice or to cure you without ever seeing you. Finally, bear in mind that each human body has individual characteristics, and that a diet which admirably suits one man who lives in a certain location and does a certain kind of work may not be adapted to another individual living in a different climate and doing a different kind of work.

No advice is better than the old "Moderation in all things."

Marriage

JOHN EDWARD DOLAN, M.D., to Miss Josephine Connell, both of Chicago, October 15. HAROLD M. CAMP, M.D., Monmouth, Ill., to Miss Rose Laura Fox, Chicago, October 16.

CHARLES O. BURGESS, M.D., Monmouth, Ill., to Miss Lura Harlin of South Bend, Ind., recently.

OSCAR CLEFF, M.D., Chicago, to Miss Zolier Jacqueline Parsons of Mansfield, La., November 5.

FREDERICK MORRIS FRANKFORT MEIXNER, Peoria, Ill., to Miss Lillian Payne of Chicago, October 18.

ISADORE MICHAEL TRACE, M.D., to Miss Miriam G. Haekner, both of Chicago, October 14. GILBERT H. WYNEKOOP, M.D., to Miss Lucile Megahan, both of Chicago, November 20.

Deaths

WILLIAM G. TODD, M.D. Rush Medical College, 1844; of Chicago; died at the home of his daughter in that city, August 7, aged 91.

ALBA G. BLANCHARD, M.D., Eclectic Medical Institute, Cincinnati, 1882; a member of the Illinois State Medical Society; died at his home in Creston, October 28, from diabetes, aged 65.

ARMATUS S. HOLLAND, M.D., Chicago Homeopthic Medical College, 1896; for many years a practitioner of Chicago; died at his home November 2, from cerebral hemorrhage, aged 71. FREDERICK EUGENE WADHAMS, M.D. Rush Medical College, 1878; a member of the Illinois State Medical Society, and for 56 years a resident of Chicago; for several years local surgeon for the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad; died at his home in Chicago, November 1, aged 60.

EDMUND T. ALLEN, M.D., Cleveland University of Medicine and Surgery, 1881; Hahnemann Medical College, Philadelphia, 1886; a Fellow of the American Medical Association; once secretary of the Nebraska State Board of Health; died suddently at his home in Chicago, August 17, aged 57.

EDWARD H. HIGBEE, M.D., Missouri Medical College, St. Louis, 1884; a member of the Illinois Medical Society; one of the founders of the Polyclinic Hospital, St. Louis; surgeon for the Chicago & Alton Railroad at Roodhouse, Ill., and alderman for several years; died at his home, November 3, from pneumonia, aged 66.

ARIA LOUIS DERDIGER, M.D. College of Physicians and Surgeons, Chicago, 1903; a Fellow of the American Medical Association; assistant in bacteriology in his alma mater; professor of psychiatry and ophthalmology in the Chicago College of Medicine and Surgery; president of the Chicago Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Infirmary; died at his home in Chicago, November 12, aged 47.

HIRAM M. MARTIN, M.D., University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1879; a member of the Illinois State Medical Society; president and professor of diseases of the eye and ear in the Chicago Ophthalmic College; president and professor of diseases of the eye and ear and clinical ophthalmology and otology in Jenner Medical College, Chicago; died in the Passavant Hospital, Chicago, September 29, aged 54.

HERMAN D. PETERSON, M.D., Chicago Medical College, 1892; a Fellow of the American Medical Association; a member of the Physicians' Club of Chicago and Mississippi Valley Medical Associa

tion; anesthetist to St. Luke's Hospital, Chicago, and attending gynecologist to St. Luke's Hospital Free Dispensary; lecturer on anesthetics in Northwestern University Dental School; died October 18, while being taken to St. Luke's Hospital, from pneumonia, aged 43.

WILLIAM HERBERT DENSLOW LEWIS, M.D., University of Michigan, 1878; born in New York, April 2, 1856, was educated in America and abroad and was licensed in Illinois in 1878; for many years a member of the American Medical Association and in 1906 chairman of the Section on Hygiene and Sanitary Science. He served as president of the attending staff at the Cook County Hospital, and was a member of many societies and state boards for the study of various phases of sanitary science; died in Chicago, October 5, 1913, aged 57 years.

Book Notices

THE TREATMENT OF RHEUMATIC INFECTIONS. From the press of Parke, Davis & Co.

This little volume of 134 pages is out in the interest of Phylacogens. The first page gives the views of Dr. A. F. Schafer and the theory upon which he worked in perfecting the bacterial derivative.

The subject of rheumatism is discussed at length in its various phases. The cause, the prognosis, the treatment, are all given attention. The technique of administration is described in detail, together with the reactions which may be expected, and also the contraindications for its use.

Over half of the volume is given over to case histories and extracts of articles written by various clinicians scattered throughout this country. Perhaps wild statements have been made by enthusiasts of every biological product that has thus far been produced; in fact, many such products of value have suffered from such enthusiasm, notably "Koch's Tuberculin," but one cannot read these extracts and case histories-noting the names of the men who are responsible for them-and say that these men have all been carried away by their enthusiasm.

One wishing to use Phylacogen will derive much information from this booklet.

THE PRACTICAL MEDICINE SERIES. VOLUME VII, "OSTETRICS," edited by Joseph B. De Lee, A. M., M. D., Professor of Obstetrics, Northwestern University Medical School, with the collaboration of Herbert M. Stowe, M. D. Series 1913. Chicago. The Year Book Publishers, 327 S. La Salle Street. This little volume seems to cover everything that is new in the field of obstetrics and reviews much that is not altogether new. The newer drugs used in obstetric practice are discussed, and the pages on

puerperal sepsis are very timely. Operative obstetrics receive a generous review. The book should be read by all who are practicing obstetrics.

Price of this volume $1.35. Price of the series of ten volumes, $10.

MODREN MEDICINE. ITS THEORY AND PRACTICE. In original contributions by American and foreign authors. Edited by Sir William Osler, Bart., M. D., F. R. S., regius professor of medicine in Oxford University, England; honorary professor of medicine in Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore; formerly professor of clinical medicine in the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and in McGill University, Montreal; and Thomas McCrae, M. D., professor of medicine in the Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia; fellow of the Royal College of Physicans, London; formerly associate professor of medicine in Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. In five octavo volumes of about 1,000 pages each, illustrated. Volume I, Bacterial Diseases, Diseases of Doubtful or Unknown Etiology, NonBacterial Fungus Infections, the Mycoses. Just ready. Price per volume, cloth, $5.00 net; half morocco, $7.00 net. Lea & Febiger, publishers, Philadelphia and New York.

It seems only a very short time since the first edition of this truly monumental work was received by the profession. One could hardly have foreseen the coming of the second edition so soon.

In the revision many changes have been made. A very important change is the change in type-the new being larger and much clearer. The size of the page is somewhat larger than in the old, and nearly 200 pages have been added to the first volume. The new revision comes out in five volumes. The mechanical make-up is good. The revision of the scientific side is highly satisfactory. The subjects discussed are brought down to today's views on these subjects, and are surprisingly complete.

The chapters on Infection and Immunity are up to the hour and leave nothing more to be said until other discoveries are made. The chapter on Typhoid Fever brings out the old, together with everything we have that is new. The chapters on Tuberculosis are complete. These chapters alone are very valuable to medical literature, and should be read by every physician.

As a system of medicine, we think this excels. A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON MEDICAL DIAGNOSIS. For students and physicians. By John H. Musser, M. D., LL. D., late professor of clinical medicine in the University of Pennsylvania; formerly president of the American Medical Association, etc. New (sixth) edition, revised by John H. Musser, Jr., B. S., M. D., instructor in medicine in the University of Pennsylvania; assistant physician to the Philadelphia Hospital; physician to the medical dispensary of the Presbyterian Hospital; physician to the medical dispensary of the hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Octavo, 793 pages,

with 196 engravings and 27 colored plates. Cloth, $5.00 net. Lea & Febiger, publishers, Philadelphia and New York, 1913.

When a medical text-book has run its sixth edition, its place in medical literature has been attained. Any work from the pen of the author of the original work-the elder Musser-needs no recommendation to the medical profession. But time goes on, new discoveries are made, even new diseases appear, and since his work was completed, many things new have come in medicine-particularly is this true in diagnosis.

The work covers a large field, but the author has reduced it to the full extent consistent with clearness. Its chapters on Examination of the Heart and Lungs and diagnosis of the pathologies of these organs are especially valuable. The illustrations that go with these chapters are excellent.

The type is of good size, and the mechanical work is good. We recommend it to students and practitioners.

MINOR AND OPERATIVE SURGERY, INCLUDING BANDAGING. By Henry R. Wharton, M. D., surgeon of the Presbyterian Hospital and the Children's Hospital; consulting surgeon to St. Christopher's Hos pital, the Bryn Mawr Hospital and Girard College; fellow of the American Surgical Association. Eighth edition, enlarged and thoroughly revised, with 570 illustrations. Lea & Febiger, Philadelphia and New York. 1913.

The eighth edition of this valuable handbook is just from the press. It is a very excellent and handy volume for the medical student or hospital interne.

Part I is descriptive of various bandages and is especially complete. This part of the book is cleverly and profusely illustrated.

Part 2 deals with minor surgery and illustrates many minor operative dressings and appliances. The chapters on fractures and dislocations are supplemented by many skiagraphs. Many illustrations of splints and appliances are given. One chapter is given to the ligation and operative procedures on arteries. The various amputations that may be done are described briefly in part. 7. The last chapter is given to general surgery.

It is a work that may be picked up by the student or practitioner for a review of technique in a very brief way.

ESSENTIALS OF

PRESCRIPTION WRITING. By Cary Eggleston, M. D., instructor in pharmacology, Cornell University Medical College, New York City. 32mo. of 115 pages. W. B. Saunders Company, Philadelphia and London. Cloth, $1 net. 1913.

Perhaps the things the recent graduate knows least about is prescription writing. Most of us had but little instruction on this branch while in medical college. Many men know what drug they want; they may know all about the dosage and therapeutics of it and all else, yet do not know how to write a proper prescription containing it.