NEW TONSIL-HOLDING FORCEPS.

244 ROYAL SOCIETY OF TROPICAL MEDICINE AND HYGIENE : AETIOLOGY OF YELLOW FEVER.-In our report of the discussion following Prof. Kuczynski’s lecture (THE LANCET, Jan. 25th, p. 187), Ledingham’s statement " Diphtheroids ... incuba- MINOR SURGERY. tion " should read : " Diphtheroids, though rare as I By FREDERICK CHRISTOPHER, M.D., F.A.C.S., Associate in Surgery at Northwestern University pathogens, were widely distributed organisms, and ’, Medical School; Attending Surgeon, Evanston the occurrence of apparently saprophytic forms in Hospital, Illinois. London: W. B. Saunders healthy tissues had given considerable trouble in the Company. 1929. With 465 illustrations. Pp. 694. interpretation of growths from virus-containing 36s. organs especially after long incubation " ; and the sentence " To take one example ... visible " should SEVERAL volumes on Minor Surgery have recently read : " To take one example, the organism of pleuro- been published in England and it is therefore pneumonia of cattle could be cultivated in purely interesting to compare them with the latest artificial media with formation of colonies. Yet the views on the subject from America. This is virus-bodies which composed these colonies still a very good book. Its arrangement follows the remained, though microscopically visible, incapable usual lines except for the welcome addition of a long of very accurate resolution." chapter designed for " The Surgical Intern." This is He understood that, in full of sound advice which may be read with profit, Dr. Arkwright said : the case of typhus, cultures which began as cocci not only by the house surgeon, but also by his were believed to change into something which, if it chief, and is mostly applicable to residents in our own was not exactly... At the same time proteus and hospitals. We do not, however, recommend the rickettsia both to have a fundamental house surgeon in a London hospital to act on the relationship to typhus fever. If the change from one suggestion that " it is generally desirable to address to the other really took place somewhere, it was as many nurses as possible by their names." The first chapters deal respectively with closed perhaps begging the question to criticise the change which was alleged to occur in vitro. It was necessary, wounds, open wounds, foreign bodies, furuncles and however, for the observer to take care that his faith carbuncles, burns, injuries by electricity, circulatory in the unity of the two types of organism did not disturbances, and gangrene, while the rest of the book deals with injuries, infections, tumours, and carry him away into accepting ... deformities of the different regions of the body. Overlapping has been avoided with skill; "tennis leg " alone seems to be considered-and very well considered-under strains and also under injuries of the lower extremity. It is noteworthy that Dr. Christopher, when discussing antiseptics, everywhere A NEW VARICOSE VEIN CLIP. ranks mercurochrome and iodine together, and even THE spring clip shown in the accompanying states that iodine has been given up as a first-aid illustration has been designed to take the place dressing on a big railway system on the ground an assistant in that it gets stale and if applied repeatedly may the operation of cause severe burns. He also reiterates most vein that carbolic should the doctrine emphatically varicose It never be used. If he is correct in this, most English injection. consists of two general practitioners are steeped in heresy. The padded metal American idea of a fomentation seems to differ greatly plates connec- from our own; here it is described as a large quantity ted by a horse- of gauze soaked in warm, not hot, boric solution, and shoe spring kept warm by an electric pad. In our experience which when electric pads are apt to produce burns. over applied Particularly good sections are those on the suture the site of an of wounds of face, in which Dr. Christopher is a strong injection exerts advocate of closure by narrow bridges of adhesive sufficient pres- plaster where possible; on the removal of foreign sure to prevent bodies, which removal he rightly emphasises should circulation through the vein while subsequent not be undertaken lightly ; on breast tumours and their treatment ; on the treatment of tattoo marks; punctures are being made in other parts of the limb. The instrument has been made for me by Messrs. and on local anaesthesia. The chapter on infections Down Bros., Ltd., 21 and 23, St. Thomas’s-street, of the hand follows the lines laid down by Kanavel, who also contributes a foreword. The treatment London, S.E. of ganglions here advocated is rupture rather than R. DAVIES-COLLEY, DAViES-CoLEY, M.Chir. Camb., F.R.C.S. Eng. incision. We cannot believe that the ideal treatment of a bromide rash is by intravenous injection of NEW TONSIL-HOLDING FORCEPS. saline. The book is admirably printed on excellent THE advantages of the instrument, here illustrated, paper and the illustrations are superb. There are over others I have personally used are as follows: few misprints and the English is excellent. The 1. The sliding, detachable, fastener prevents the teeth consulting surgeon and the practitioner will find from biting through the tissue of the tonsil as by much to interest them, while the house surgeon means of it one can judge the exact amount of pressure will find it invaluable. necessary to obtain a sufficient hold. 2. It never INFLUENZA. Etiologie et prophylaxie de la grippe. By R. DUJARRIC DE LA I,IVIERE. Paris: Masson et Cie. 1929. Pp. 105 and plates. Fr.32. slips or tears away, it holds but does not bite through. THE writer of this monograph believes that, of the 3. Made of stainless steel, it is solidly built, has number of infective agents which have been considered strength to stand hard work and can be taken apart as causes of influenza, only three merit serious for cleaning. I have found it highly satisfactory consideration-viz., Pfeiffer’s bacillus, the influenza in every way and can thoroughly recommend it. filterable virus, and B. pneumosintes. Concerning The instrument is made by Messrs. Down Bros., the pneumococcus and streptococcus he has little St. Thomas’s-street, London, S.E. to say ; they are, in the words of Nicolle, " microbes GEORGE VARIAN, M.D., B.Ch. de sortie " ; they are found during the illness and

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