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NEW HYPODERMIC SYRINGE.
575
tagia, and their relations to the specific local lesions. In editors rightly thinking that they belonged rather to a highly interesting chapters, he contrasts the operationwork dealing with general anatomy than to one devoted of the specific viruses with that of ordinary poisons, and dis- exclusively to osteology. For a similar reason the descripThe references to cusses the different degrees of contagiousness of the specific tion of the interossei muscles is left out. He finds in the local lesions evidence of the specimens in the Comparative Anatomy Department of fevers. Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons have been presence in the body of the "second factor" essential to the propagation of the contagium, and attributes the varying corrected according to changes in the Museum, under the severity of attacks, the cessation of fever, the immunity charge of Prof. Stewart, to whom the book is also indebted, from second attacks, and other characteristics of these among other things, for excellent sketches of the parts diseases, in a certain measure, to the amount and activity composing che middle ear in the dry state. The work has of the contagium, but perhaps in greater degree to the been most carefully edited, and will undoubtedly continue amount of this hypothetical" second factor," and its exhaus- to meet with great and merited success. tion. The subject is well reasoned, as are the arguments in which he shows that relapsing fever is an exception to the general rule. For in that disease he maintains there some
the
is no evidence of a "second factor"other than in the blood. Lastly, he discusses the treatment of fever, dealing first with specific fevers, next with malarial fevers and rheumatic fevers, and then with the action of febrifuge remedies.
As
he maintains that " its curing that cold can cure pyrexia," and he does not think the statistics adduced in support of the routine use of cold baths in typhoid fever to be of much value. At the same time, he admits that cold is beneficial by stimulating inhibition. He says: "In all cases of fever in which the temperature tends to rise, or in which the patient is restless or sleepless, cold or tepid sponging is of service"(page 158); and that "when the action and use of cold is better understood, as it some day will be, when it takes its proper place as a stimulant of inhibition, and not as a direct depresser of function, we shall probably use it more freely than we do now " (page 164)-an admission which those who remember the author’s former opposition to this antipyretic measure will be pleased to note. We may well leave it to our readers to pursue Dr. Maclagan’s arguments for themselves. We can promise them some pleasant reading, and an acquaintance with doctrines which have at least the merit of originality, besides being evidently the outcome of a close study of the subject.
hyperpyrexia
regards cold, no proof
is
Osteology, Edited by Professor CHARLES Seventh Edition. STEWART and Mr. R. W. REID. A. Churchill. London: J. & WE gladly welcome a new edition of this well-known work on human osteology, and can cordially recommend it to those about to commence the study of anatomy. To the student who is introduced for the first time to the subject, the work is presented in an attractive form, and the custom adopted in it of using coloured lines (red for the origins or more fixed ends, and blue for the insertions or more movable ones) to indicate the attachments of the muscles is one which not only attracts the eye, but assists in impressing the exact attachment of muscles to a particular bone, or part of a bone, more firmly on the mind of the learner. It will be found that great care has been exercised in accurately placing these lines, and the student who, remembering this, makes himself master of their exact situation on a particular bone has obtained possession of a fact which will stand him in good stead during the years to come. Of course it is not intended that these illustrations should take the place of close and accurate study of the bones themselves, but if the student, holding the bone in his hand, carefully reaps the text, and compares the illustration with the bone, possibly marking it to ensure greater accuracy, he will advance rapidly and surely in his work. In the present edition a somewhat more detailed description of the bones has been given by Mr. R. W. Reid, who is well known to be an accurate observer and skilled anatomist. A few alterations have been made in the account of the minute structure and development of bone. Some of the plates have been withdrawn, and several new ones added. The descriptions of the larynx and soft parts of the ear have been omitted, the Holden’s Human
.
I
New Inventions.
NEW HYPODERMIC SYRINGE. THIS newly patented syringe has been made in accordance with principles laid down by Mr. Lawson Tait. The following advantages are claimed for it: (1) it is is portable and cheap; (2) there is no leather or other kind of piston to get out of order by becoming dry; (3) there is no glass barrel to be broken, and (4) if the soluble hypodermic tablets are carried, there is no need for the arrangement of a graduated barrel or piston. The syringe consists of three parts: the outer and lower, marked E, consists of a small tubular projection for the needle point, to be used as a boiler for dissolving the pellet by the aid of a match, candle, or gas flame. The pellet is put in it with and dissolved. The piston B is then removed from cylinder c; the latter is held with the needle downwards and the contents of the boiler are poured into it; the piston is then smeared with oil or vaseline, replaced in the cylinder, and, with the syringe reversed so as to bring the needle upwards, the piston is slowly pressed until the air is forced out of the cylinder and the solution begins to come out of the needle. It is then used in the usual manner. The piston B has a secondary use, for the
screw-cap
A alJ
une
Lop oemg
re-
moved, there is a place in which the pellets may be stored, a piece of cotton wool being placed at the top, the pellets then placed in and covered with a second piece of cotton wool, so as to prevent their being broken up by attrition. After use the piston should be wiped dry, and the inside of the cylinder dried by means of a small piece of cotton wool on the end of a match; a drop of oil is then to be drawn through the needle into the cylinder and passed out again ; the point is to be wiped dry by means of the cotton wool, and the instrument put together. The whole apparatus is composed of metal, and, as will be seen from the above description, requires careful drying and cleansing after use. Much ingenuity is shown in the arrangement of the syringe, and it may be found of service in cases where the necessity for its employment is not frequent; but we do not think that it will find favour with those who are familiar with the use of the conveniently graduated barrel and leather piston, with which, to commence the operation, it is only necessary to draw a ready-made solution into the syringe to the required amounts. Again, the needle is fixed, and cannot be removed for cleaning or replaced by a smaller one. It is sold be Messrs. Arnold and Sons, of West Smithfield, London.
tagia, and their relations to the specific local lesions. In editors rightly thinking that they belonged rather to a highly interesting chapters, he contrasts the operationwork dealing with general anatomy than to one devoted of the specific viruses with that of ordinary poisons, and dis- exclusively to osteology. For a similar reason the descripThe references to cusses the different degrees of contagiousness of the specific tion of the interossei muscles is left out. He finds in the local lesions evidence of the specimens in the Comparative Anatomy Department of fevers. Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons have been presence in the body of the "second factor" essential to the propagation of the contagium, and attributes the varying corrected according to changes in the Museum, under the severity of attacks, the cessation of fever, the immunity charge of Prof. Stewart, to whom the book is also indebted, from second attacks, and other characteristics of these among other things, for excellent sketches of the parts diseases, in a certain measure, to the amount and activity composing che middle ear in the dry state. The work has of the contagium, but perhaps in greater degree to the been most carefully edited, and will undoubtedly continue amount of this hypothetical" second factor," and its exhaus- to meet with great and merited success. tion. The subject is well reasoned, as are the arguments in which he shows that relapsing fever is an exception to the general rule. For in that disease he maintains there some
the
is no evidence of a "second factor"other than in the blood. Lastly, he discusses the treatment of fever, dealing first with specific fevers, next with malarial fevers and rheumatic fevers, and then with the action of febrifuge remedies.
As
he maintains that " its curing that cold can cure pyrexia," and he does not think the statistics adduced in support of the routine use of cold baths in typhoid fever to be of much value. At the same time, he admits that cold is beneficial by stimulating inhibition. He says: "In all cases of fever in which the temperature tends to rise, or in which the patient is restless or sleepless, cold or tepid sponging is of service"(page 158); and that "when the action and use of cold is better understood, as it some day will be, when it takes its proper place as a stimulant of inhibition, and not as a direct depresser of function, we shall probably use it more freely than we do now " (page 164)-an admission which those who remember the author’s former opposition to this antipyretic measure will be pleased to note. We may well leave it to our readers to pursue Dr. Maclagan’s arguments for themselves. We can promise them some pleasant reading, and an acquaintance with doctrines which have at least the merit of originality, besides being evidently the outcome of a close study of the subject.
hyperpyrexia
regards cold, no proof
is
Osteology, Edited by Professor CHARLES Seventh Edition. STEWART and Mr. R. W. REID. A. Churchill. London: J. & WE gladly welcome a new edition of this well-known work on human osteology, and can cordially recommend it to those about to commence the study of anatomy. To the student who is introduced for the first time to the subject, the work is presented in an attractive form, and the custom adopted in it of using coloured lines (red for the origins or more fixed ends, and blue for the insertions or more movable ones) to indicate the attachments of the muscles is one which not only attracts the eye, but assists in impressing the exact attachment of muscles to a particular bone, or part of a bone, more firmly on the mind of the learner. It will be found that great care has been exercised in accurately placing these lines, and the student who, remembering this, makes himself master of their exact situation on a particular bone has obtained possession of a fact which will stand him in good stead during the years to come. Of course it is not intended that these illustrations should take the place of close and accurate study of the bones themselves, but if the student, holding the bone in his hand, carefully reaps the text, and compares the illustration with the bone, possibly marking it to ensure greater accuracy, he will advance rapidly and surely in his work. In the present edition a somewhat more detailed description of the bones has been given by Mr. R. W. Reid, who is well known to be an accurate observer and skilled anatomist. A few alterations have been made in the account of the minute structure and development of bone. Some of the plates have been withdrawn, and several new ones added. The descriptions of the larynx and soft parts of the ear have been omitted, the Holden’s Human
.
I
New Inventions.
NEW HYPODERMIC SYRINGE. THIS newly patented syringe has been made in accordance with principles laid down by Mr. Lawson Tait. The following advantages are claimed for it: (1) it is is portable and cheap; (2) there is no leather or other kind of piston to get out of order by becoming dry; (3) there is no glass barrel to be broken, and (4) if the soluble hypodermic tablets are carried, there is no need for the arrangement of a graduated barrel or piston. The syringe consists of three parts: the outer and lower, marked E, consists of a small tubular projection for the needle point, to be used as a boiler for dissolving the pellet by the aid of a match, candle, or gas flame. The pellet is put in it with and dissolved. The piston B is then removed from cylinder c; the latter is held with the needle downwards and the contents of the boiler are poured into it; the piston is then smeared with oil or vaseline, replaced in the cylinder, and, with the syringe reversed so as to bring the needle upwards, the piston is slowly pressed until the air is forced out of the cylinder and the solution begins to come out of the needle. It is then used in the usual manner. The piston B has a secondary use, for the
screw-cap
A alJ
une
Lop oemg
re-
moved, there is a place in which the pellets may be stored, a piece of cotton wool being placed at the top, the pellets then placed in and covered with a second piece of cotton wool, so as to prevent their being broken up by attrition. After use the piston should be wiped dry, and the inside of the cylinder dried by means of a small piece of cotton wool on the end of a match; a drop of oil is then to be drawn through the needle into the cylinder and passed out again ; the point is to be wiped dry by means of the cotton wool, and the instrument put together. The whole apparatus is composed of metal, and, as will be seen from the above description, requires careful drying and cleansing after use. Much ingenuity is shown in the arrangement of the syringe, and it may be found of service in cases where the necessity for its employment is not frequent; but we do not think that it will find favour with those who are familiar with the use of the conveniently graduated barrel and leather piston, with which, to commence the operation, it is only necessary to draw a ready-made solution into the syringe to the required amounts. Again, the needle is fixed, and cannot be removed for cleaning or replaced by a smaller one. It is sold be Messrs. Arnold and Sons, of West Smithfield, London.