51

proportion as the head is arrested high in the pelvis, inthe brim or above the brim, the necessity, the utility, andthe safety of the forceps become less frequent," and, " as acorollary from the preceding propositions, increasing cautionin determining on the use of the forceps, and greater skill incarrying out the operation, are called for."

(To be continued.)

BRADFORD MEDICO-CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY.

THE seventeenth annual meeting of this Society was heldon June 10th in the board room of the infirmary. The

report recorded a large increase in the communications tothe Society, in the number and attendance of members,and in the use of the now important library. During thesession a museum and pathological room had been added tothe infirmary, available to the purposes of members.

Dr. E. T. Tibbits was elected President for the ensuing,year, vice Dr. Burnie, who retires. Dr. Whalley was re-elected treasurer, with Mr. T. C. Denby to assist, and Dr.Goyder secretary. Drs. Craig, Dunlop, Burnie, and Rabag-liati were elected members of committee; Messrs. T. C.Denby and J. Appleyard, M.B., pathologists; and as

auditors, Mr. Hirst and Dr. Dunlop.A vote of condolence with the relatives of the late Mr.

W. H. G. Buckley, M.R.C.S., who had been ten yearstreasurer of the Society, and one of its first members, wasunanimously passed.

Reviews and Notices of Books.Children’s Lives, and How to Protect them. A Handbook

for ready reference. By WILLIAM LOMAS, M.D., M.R.C.P.,Physician to the Seaside Convalescent Hospital, &c. &c.

’Sampson Low and Co. 1879. - Those who have the careof children owe gratitude to Dr. Lomas for this clearand thoroughly sensible manual. It contains, of course,little that will be new to our readers, although there aresome matters of interest even for them; but to others itoffers a practical and trustworthy synopsis of the sanitationof childhood. The author has not made the mistake of

affecting originality. He starts no theories, and airs no

crotchets; but he tells what every mother ought to know,and tells it simply and well. If in some cases he has seemedto touch somewhat upon the province of the medical at.tendant, it is only because many, even in England, andthousands in the colonies, live so far from medical helpthat they are at times compelled to act, wisely or unwisely,for themselves. One of the best chapters in the book dealswith the treatment of children after recovery from severedisease. The too common custom of hurrying children

away to the seaside before they have gained strength tcstand the change, and often before they are fairly freefrom the taint of infection, is wisely reprobated, and thedangers of the lodging-house, enhanced by the frequencyof this practice, are pointed out. We heartily concur inthe advice which Dr. Lomas offers to the authorities of ou]national sanatoria, that they should place lodging-house,under systematic inspection, and should more frequentlyenforce punishment upon persons who are the means oi

bringing infection into their districts. Few things woulddo more to ensure the popularity of a watering-place thanthe knowledge that the danger of infection, now so com.monly dreaded, had been reduced to a minimum.

Transactions of the Clinical Society of London. Vol. XI,London : Longmans, Green, and Co. 1878.-BuZletin de laSociété Clinique de Paris. Vol. II. Paris : V. Adriar

Delahaye et Cie. 1879.-The appearance of the seconcvolume of the proceedings of the Paris Clinical Societyaffords an opportunity for contrasting its work with that o:its older sister, our own Clinical Society. The amount o:

work done by each is about the same, but the ParisianSociety holds more meetings, and its volume is repletewith original and suggestive work-therapeutical as wellas pathological. But what is most striking is the com-parative deficiency of purely medical subjects in the Englishvolume as contrasted with their redundancy in the French.For, excluding papers on dermatology (of which only threeappear in the French volume), we find only seventeen paperson medical subjects in our Society’s proceedings, as againstthirty-eight in our neighbour’s. It is time that our phy-sicians looked to their laurels, and bestirred themselvesin the cause of medical science. In justice it should beadded that all the communications read at the Paris Societyare not records of cases. The majority are, but some fewdeal with general therapeutical topics, such as the hypo-dermic injection of morphia in asthma and in dyspncea ; orare theses upon special subjects, as that on bronchial dilata-tion in tuberculosis, or that on the pathogeny of pneumonia-a clever paper by M. Fernet, in which he endeavours to showthat " acute so-called fibrinous pneumonia is a herpes of thelung, and this herpes is a trophic disorder due to a neuritisof the pneumogastric nerve." Most will concur with thePresident’s remark that the facts recorded by the authormight be admitted, but not his interpretation of them.

Amongst other interesting papers may be cited one byM. Rivet on aneurism of the arch of the aorta treated byelectrolysis with marked benefit; one on venous pulsationon the dorsum of the hand in the final stage of certain casesof pulmonary phthisis, by M. Peter, the President; tuber-culous ulceration of the palate, by M. Quenu; eruptions due

,

to chloral, by M. Mayor; generalised xanthelasma, byM. Chambard, this last being a subject fairly and thoroughlysifted in England. Of the contents of the English volume there

i is no need to speak here. Our pages have duly containedthe leading features of each of the papers (many of them of

high excellence and great practical value) as they were read., But there is one feature of the French volume which does

, not find its counterpart in the English. In this country we,

are content to let the journals record the discussions arising, out of the papers read before the societies, but in France aI full verbatim report of the remarks passed at the meeting

finds its place in the published volume. Do they managethese things also better in France ? Would its discussions

: gain in force and thought if our Clinical Society were to.

imitate its younger rival in this respect ? ’l

I Notesfor Students Pathological Anatomy. A Guide inthe Post-mortem Room. Part I.; pp. 29. By ROBERT J.

I LEE, M.A., M.B. Cantab. London : T. Richards. 1879.-These " notes " are intended to assist students when they

l commence the study of Morbid Anatomy. The authorI appears to have attempted too much; it would have beeni better if he had limited himself to the description ofthe way

a complete post-mortem examination is to be made, the organsr examined, and the more usual diseases recognised, withoutL the somewhat meagre explanations he has here and there

introduced. We notice several omissions; for instance, he! makes no mention of opening the pericardium before exam-r ining the heart, of examining the gall-bladder and bile-E ducts, or of investigating the intestine for signs and causesl of obstruction. Is it not rather misleading to speak of thel lung in red hepatisation as " firm," and in grey hepatisation, as "not quite so firm, more moist"? No instructions are

given in the methods of investigating many common sur-, gical affections, as stricture, fractures, aneurisms, diseases; of bones, and tumours.l Pott’s Disease, its Pathological and Mechanical Treat-L ment, with Remarks on Rotary Lateral Curvature. Byr NEWTON M. SHAFFER, M.D. New York: G. P. Putnamf and Sons. 1879.-The special feature of the first part off this essay is the distinctions in seat, cause, and terminations