BOOK REVIEWS.

HAND-BOOK of the Diagnosis and Treatment of Skin Diseases by Arthur Van Harlingen, M.D., Professor of Skin Diseases in the Philadelphia Polyclinic, etc., etc. Second edition. Philadelphia P. Blakiston, Son & Co.; Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co. Price $2.50.

We heartily welcome the second edition of the hand-book of the Diagnosis and Treatment of Skin Diseases by Arthur Van Harlingen, Philadelphia, 1889, which has been revised and enlarged by the author, and enriched with interesting plates. The book of course is on the same plan as the first edition having the diseases arranged in alphabetical order. This makes the book convenient for the students and for the general practioner who having not much time to study can find quickly and easily all the information they need in the matter of skin diseases. As an introduction the author briefly treats of the elementary forms of the lesions of the skin and gives a brief sketch of the classification which has been accepted by the American Dermatological Association. The description of the diseases follows in alphabetical order, and under group A, we find worthy to mention Acne of which a careful description is given, paying special attention to the numerous causes giving rise to this trouble. Special attention is given to the differential diagnosis between acne and the papula pustalar syphiloderma. The treatment is based on the etiology of the disease and a large number of formulae for internal and external treatment gives a scientific help to any practitioner.

Alopecia strikes the attention of the reader and alopecia areata is accompanied with five plates showing the difference. stages of this peculiar affection. The author does not pronounce his opinion, and although he says that it is not parasitic, etc., and not contagious still does not deny the possibility of the presence of a parasite. Under the letter B, baths in skin diseases. meets with the approbation of the reader. The physiological action of water on the skin is briefly sketched and the different effects of simple and medicated baths on different affections of the skin.

Dermatitis furnishes a large amount of interesting matter. Dermatitis venenata produced by the contact of poisonous substances giving rise to inflammation, as the rhus venenata, or poison

ivy, or rhus toxicodendron, or poison oak, or many poisons used as dyes.

Under the name of dermatitis herpetiformis following after Duhring in this affection he introduces the differential diagnosis between this singular affection and pemhipgus, herpes, erythema multiforme and eczema for which it could be easily mistaken. Dermatitis medicamentosa is very interesting as it has been a subject of special study. The effects on the skin of different drugs and the treatment of such conditions is well given.

The author treats of echthyma as a disease per se, and describes it as acute and chronic, and our experience obliges us to indorse his views. Large space is devoted to eczema, the most frequent affection of the skin. Its varieties are briefly described and the different agents capable of producing eczema are accounted for. The differential diagnosis and the treatment of eczema of the several regions is thus roughly given.

Another interesting article is electricity in diseases of the skin where a description of the instruments is given accompanied by plates and instructions concerning the different operations. Lepra is thoroughly discussed in all its varieties; so with the different kinds of lichen. Interesting are the articles on lupus erythematosus and lupus vulgaris where the author gives the new methods of treatment with the multiple scarification. The diseases of the nails also furnish a good article. Hypertrophy, atrophy, degeneration, deformity, malformation, discoloration of the nails are briefly but substantially considered, finishing with the consideration of the parasitary affections of this organ. As the letters run of course all the different affections follow by alphabetical order closing with urticaria and zoster.

As an appendix the diet in diseases of the skin is considered with an arrangement of the different kinds of food in digestible, questionable, and indigestible food which is of great value to the practitioner to answer the questions of the patients about what they should eat.

The book is good and of practical interest to students and practitioners. A. R.

HOME GYMNASTICS.-By E. Angerstein, M. D., Staff physician and Superintendent of the gymnasiums of the city of Berlin and by G. Eckler, head teacher of the Royal Institution for training teachers of gymnastics. Translated from the German edition,

Boston and New York, Houghton, Mifflin & Company. The Riverside Press, Cambridge, 1889.

This work is "intended for laymen and for use without a teacher." A thorough system of free movements is given illustrated by all needed engravings. The exercises are so thoroughly explained that they can be practiced without other guide than this book.

Exercises are given for healthy persons and for invalids. Under the first division are the applications for babyhood, childhood, the school age, adolescence, maturity and old age. Under the last division are given exercises for general debility, anæmia, defective development of respiratory organs, constipation, hemorrhoids, corpulence, plethora, rush of blood to head or chest, asthmatic troubles, abnormities in the carriage of body (bent carriage, crooked carriage of head, turning the feet inward, lateral curvature of spine), weakness of muscles and incipient paralysis, St. Vitus-like twitchings and writer's cramp.

Many of our patients would be better treated by a prescription of this book than by all of our drugs or generalizing advice, and most doctors would be better for carrying out its precepts.

INEBRIETY.—Its causes, its results, its remedy. By Franklin Clum, D. D. S., M. D., author of "Men and Women." Second Edition, Philadelphia; J. B. Lippincott Company, 1889.

"The object of this book is to give a clear, correct, and impartial description of drunken frolics; their consequences and how to avoid them. The subject is treated from a scientific standpoint and the drunkard is pictured in colors true to life. His habits, his diseases, his misfortunes, his miseries, are described exactly as we find them, and the easiest and best way to cure and reform him is made known so simply and clearly that all may understand."

The author regards the drunkard as a sick man and drunkenness as a disease. He very considerately gives precise directions as to conducting a "spree" so as to have the least bad result. The book is quite readable and many good hints on the management of drunkards are given.

EDITORIAL.

A. B. THRASHER, A.M., M.D.,

Editor.

THE hasty autopsy in the case of Bishop the "mind-reader," is only another example of the fool-hardiness of some members of our profession. It is by just such acts that the profession as a whole is brought into disrepute. Under ordinary circumstances it would not be allowable to make a post mortem examination without consent of the family of the deceased. But in this case the subject was widely known as having frequently gone into the condition of trance, had had attacks of catelepsy, was of the most highly wrought nervous organism. At this time he was engaged in performing one of his wonderful feats and the eyes of a large number of people were fixed upon him-under these circumstances the physicians should have proceeded with great caution.

We much regret their action, not because we entertain for a moment the idea that Bishop was not dead when the autopsy was made, but because of the unseemly haste in any action which should have been characterized with deliberation and dignity. Indictment by the grand jury, while a weighty punishment, will at least call a halt on any further actions of the kind.

We hope that this meeting of the American Medical Association may be calculated to smooth out some rough feeling which has hitherto existed in the membership. The tendency of all bodies to be run by clicques is here seen, and when this is carried to an extreme it always defeats the original purpose. The large body of the members are not engaged in any wrangle for office, and they will not tamely be ruled by a few whose entire ambition is for office. The fact that the meeting is to be held in the east may work somewhat to the general harmony. At any rate we anticipate a pleasant and profitable meeting and hope to see a large representation of the country physicians.

THE

CINCINNATI MEDICAL JOURNAL.

Vol. IV.

CINCINNATI, JULY, 1889.

ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS.

THE USE AND ABUSE OF COCAINE.

By T. A. MITCHELL, M. D., OWENSVILLE, OHIO.

Read before the Miami Valley Medical Association, at Loveland, Ohio.

No. 7.

Cocaine is a remedy that has been prominently before our attention for the last few years; first as a local anæstheiic, and secondly as an internal remedy. As a local anestheiic I first began employing it in 1886, for the relief of pain in minor operations, and have been so well pleased with its use and results that my use of it has continually increased; and during the three years' use I have met with but few disappointments, and these were when an impure drug had been used.

My first use of it was in the closing of a large flesh wound in the calf of the leg of a nervous, excitable boy, of 18 years. The wound was inflicted by a cradle scythe, which made a very large flap. The father of the boy, thinking to dress the wound himself, sent in the morning to my office for sticking plaster; in the evening of the same day I was sent for to come and dress the wound. I found the flap, which was originally near 5 inches in length and nearly as broad, contracted so as not to more than half cover the under raw surface. The patient was very nervous, and extremely sensitive to the slightest touch. I dissolved 4 grs. in 2 drams of water, and of this solution injected hypodermically in three places in the flap 5 drops and with the remainder of the solution bathed the raw surface of both flap and leg. After the lapse of ten minutes I was enabled to handle the flap and wound at pleasure, causing the patient no pain whatever, and I put in some six or seven deep sutures with no flinching.