PROTECTIVE VENTILATORS.

468 must be one of the oldest Englishmedical congresses in existence, having held its speaking first annual meeting two years before the beginning of the present century. The chief feature of the volume before us is undoubtedly the address delivered at the opening of the session by Professor Newell Martin, of Baltimore. Dr. Martin was, a short time ago, assistant to Professor Michael Foster, at Cambridge ; and he left this country to take up the duties of professor in physiology at the University of Baltimore. The subject of his address was Secretion, and in it he has managed to convey in a very clear and comprehensive way the present state of knowledge upon this important subject. Amongst the papers and reports in the volume is an interesting one on yellow fever, by Dr. Evans, of Baltimore, in which he speaks very doubtfully as to remedial measures, but strongly urges increased attention to prophylaxis by improved sanitation. The treatment of the insane and the subject of dipsomania still continue to excite much attention in the States. They form the of in the section of two memoirs Psychology in this subject are not The very exhaustive, but Society. proceedings of honest work. evidence they give L’Année Médicale 1878. Paris : E. Plon et Cie.-We need only direct attention to this publication, which is a new venture, one more added to the list of year-books, launched under the auspices of the indefatigable M. de Bourneville. It strikes us as a very concise and fair summary of the work done in the various departments of medical science during the year 1878. A considerable amount of space is devoted to medicine, and the compilers in many instances have felt it incumbent on them to travel beyond the bare record of the year’s work, and to give more or less complete sketches of the previous history of the subject. This, no doubt, adds to the pleasure of reading these essays, which are mostly written clearly and with discrimination. The volume is, further, of convenient size, and may often be profitably consulted by those who have neither the time nor the opportunity for searching through the journals of the period.

annual

Transactions,

INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL CONGRESS AT AMSTERDAM.

duced by lesions anatomically and chemically appreciable. 4th. Special medical treatment directed to the constitutional disease should be entered on during, after, or, if possible, before the surgical operat.ion. 5th. A knowledge of the pathogeny, pathology, and the natural evolution and termination of constitutional diseases-not perhaps sufficiently possessed by surgeons-is of great importance. It serves to more than to incite to surgical measures, and increases confidence in the remedial efforts of nature seconded by a comparatively mild therapeusis. 6th. Operations on such patients, although more generallv palliative than curative, are nevertheless of great utility. In extreme cases they may prolong life, render it less painful, and for the patient at least they open the door of hope. A paper was read by Dr. Drysdale upon the Regulation of Prostitution and the Public Health. Mr. Marcowitz (of Bucharest) communicated the results of his observation on the Treatment of Ahdominal and Petechial Typhus by the Douche, which he contrasted favourably as regards its anti-pyrexial etiects with the cold bath. He believed that the shock of the douche was useful, that it acted in a reflex manner on the heat-regulating centres, upon which it seemed to have a stimulating effect, thereby continuing the good already obtained by the subtraction of heat. The only contra-indications to its use I were those insisted on by Liebermeister as to the cold bath-viz., intestinal haemorrhage, and a high degree of cardiac failure, as indicated by a small and feeble pulse. Pulmonary engorgement, save when it is due to cardiac weakness, is regarded as an indication for this measure rather than the contrary. Amongst the other communications read was one by Professor Virchow upon Medical Education. He urged the methodical classification of the different branches of medical science, so that the student should pass successively from the accessory sciences-anatomy, physiology, psychologyto the study of pathology and clinical medicine. As to books, it was to be desired, he said, that the pupil should have with him concise treatises, exactly summarising the state of science in each department of medical instruction, so that he may not be constrained to lose precious time in reading through long-winded books and monographs. In the special Medical section, under the presidency of Professor Rosenstein, a case of Tracheo-bronchial Adenopathy was read by M. Guiraud ; and Professor Eulenberg, of Greifswald, made an interesting communication upon the Transference of Sensibility.

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New Invention.

following is a brief summary of some of the more PROTECTIVE VENTILATORS. important papers read before the Amsterdam Congress, in addition to those given in our last issue. WE have within the last few weeks received from A paper read by M. Otto Becker, of Heidelberg, on Mr. Bracker, of the Ventilator Company, New York, Diseases of the Eye in relation to Cerebral Localisation, did specimens of a ventilating apparatus for rooms in which not, as M. Bouclmt stated, throw much new light on the ordinary windows exist. It consists of a simple hinged subject; but was characterised chiefly by the attempt to frame, covered by some fibrous material, the upper part of draw the distinction between the significance of the "choked which is fixed into the uppermost three or four inches disc"and descendingoptic neuritis. The author also stated of the whilst the lower portion is inserted at window, that the extent of the visual field was of value in deter- the bottom ; the former acting as an up-cast and exit, and mining between a primary optic atrophy (where this was the latter as an in-cast. The plan is, in fact, very similar double and not due to papillitis or neuritis) associated with in principle to the ordinary sash ventilation proposed by locomotor ataxy and other affections leading to amaurosis. Mr. Tobin and others some years ago. But the apparatus Hemiopia, especially lateral homonymous hemiopia, is of now described is more complicated, and it is claimed for cerebral origin, and serves as a diagnostic point, even if this particular invention that the in-coming air can be dispapillary atrophy be slight or absent. infected (or at all events deodorised) and rendered entirely M. Verneuil spoke on his favourite topic-the Indications free from dust and other impurities. and Contra-indications for Operations in the subjects of Constitutional Disease. His propositions were-1st. Surgical operations are not positively contra-indicated in subINSANITARY STATE OF LIMERICK. At a recent jects attacked with constitutional disease, but they were meeting of the Limerick Corporation, a communication was often permissible, frequently useful, and occasionally indis- received from the Local Government Board, which stated without a disinfecting chamber, the sanitary atithoripensable. 2nd. Their prognosis is always much more serious that, than in healthy subjects. 3rd. Their prognosis varies in the ties could not discharge their duties under Sections 137 and 139 of the Public Health Act, and adding that the erection first place according to the differences in constitutional of one should be no longer neglected. The guardians, howdisease, and for each of them considered separately, accord- ever, refuse to incur the cost at present, and so the matter ing as the diathesis belongs to a dyscrasic state or as it is in- stands. THE

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