TESTIMONIAL TO DR. FARR.

336 colloid into which the crystalloids diffuse plays, as one may TESTIMONIAL TO DR. FARR. naturally suppose, an all-important part in the production of spheroidal bodies. Mr. Rainey and Professor Harting WE are glad to state that steps are being taken to form insist that the phenomenon is due to a "combination" be. an influential committee to raise a fund for presenting to tween the colloid and the crystalloid, but Dr. Ord considers Dr. Farr some mark of the high appreciation of his long and that, if by this is meant chemical combination, the idea is valuable services entertained by the medical profession, by not well founded. He prefers to consider the influence of actuaries, by other scientific bodies, and by that large and the colloid on the production of spheroidal bodies as a increasing public which is interested in sanitary progress. result of intestinal molecular movement inherent to the The retirement of Dr. Farr after forty-two years of laborious constitution of the colloid. service, which may be said almost to have created the The practical application of these views to pathology has science of vital statistics, seems a fitting opportunity to been fully entered into by Dr. Ord in the volume before us, recognise the value of such service. The circumstances, and the microscopic modifications of urinary crystals, and moreover, of his retirement, together with his failure of the formation of calculi therefrom, have furnished an ad- health, seem still further to commend the project to the mirable text for their illustration. Our space will not support of all who are directly or indirectly interested in the us to dwell on this of the permit part subject, but we subjects to which Dr. Farr has especially devoted his life. can assure our readers that Dr. Ord’s remarks upon the We have reason to believe that the proposition is meeting modifications of crystalline form observed in the most with hearty support among the leading members of the pro. familiar kinds of urinary bodies, as produced by a variety fession, as well as of those various scientific associations of causes, are deserving of careful study, and few will rise with which Dr. Farr’s name has so long and usefully been from the perusal of this part of the volume without finding associated. We shall next week be in a position to publish their ideas, especially as regards the etiology of many urinary a preliminary list of the committee which is now being affections, considerably enlarged. The entire treatise forms formed to carry out the object in view. an important contribution to medical and scientific literature, and an almost indispensable addition to the library of every

ARMY MEDICAL DEPARTMENT.

practising physician. Cancer

of the Rectum, its Pathology, Diagnosis, and TreatIncluding a portion of the Jacksonian Prize Essay for 1876. By W. HARRISON CRIPPS, F.R.C.S., London : Surgeon to the Great Northern Hospital, &c. ment.

&

J. A. Churchill. 1880. THIS is not by any means a complete treatise on cancer of the rectum. The minute anatomy of the affection is considered and described at some length, and illustrated by several good engravings. According to the author cancer of the rectum is some form of cylindrical epithelioma, and he does not appear to recognise the occurrence of either scirrhus or sarcoma in that portion of the gut. The appearances of the specimens examined by Mr. Cripps-and they were numerous-are described with a good deal of care, but we think he must be mistaken in supposing malignant growths of the rectum to be so uniform as he leads his readers to infer. He considers the evidence of the heredity of cancer to be unsound, and his chapter on this subject is interesting, and contains important statistics. He does not appear to have met with any precancerous conditions of the rectum analogous to those seen in the tongue and breast, which have attracted so much attention of late. The practical interest of the work centres in the treatment of this disease by excision. Mr. Cripps has had a good deal of experience in the operation, and speaks favourably of it, and he is certainly entitled to do so from the facts adduced. He has collected all the reliable statistics of this operation, and gives the broad general facts deducible therefrom. But it is certainly surprising to find that in a work by its title professing to deal fully with cancer of the rectum no reference is made to the natural course of the disease, the complications met with, the modes of diagnosis when situated beyond the reach of the finger introduced per anum, and especially surprising that no mention is made of colotomy, an operation which has been so widely practised for the relief of patients suffering from the affection. Surgeons who have been accustomed to perform colotomy for cancer of the rectum want to be assured that the operation of excision of the rectum, when possible, is a safer operation, and holds out a better prospect of prolonging life. Should the author be called upon to bring out another edition of this work, we hope he will either alter its title or widen the scope of the work ; he would also do well to correct several clerical errors that have crept into the text.

THE London Gazette of February 24th contains the name of the following Surgeons-Major who have been promoted tc the new rank of Brigade Surgeon (dated Nov. 27th, 1879) :Herbert Taylor Reade, V. C. ; John Lyster Jameson; John Phillips, Cunningham, M.D. ; John O’Nial; Thomas William Fox, M.B.; Joseph Coleman Hornsby Wright, M.D. ; Johnston Ferguson ; John Ogilvy, M.D.; William Stewart, M.D. ; James Arthur Hanbury, M.B.; Duncan Alexander Campbell Fraser, M.D.; Frederick William Moore ; William Marshall Webb ; John By Cole Reade; Edward Malcolm Sinclair, M.D. ; William Cattell; James Ekin, M.B. ; James Hannan; Edward Louis Lundy; Thomas John Murphy, M.D.; Alexander Guthrie, M.D.; Edward Young Kellett; Robert Augustus Chapple; Adam Graham Young ; Robert Wyatt Meadows ; Richard Hungerford ; Leonard Kidd, M.B. ; John Tulloch, M.D.; Wallace Haward; Thomas Tarrant, M.D.; Exham Long Hiffernan ; Alexander Dudgeon Gulland, M.D.; Thomas Teevan; John Sparrow; Richard Chapman Lofthouse, M.D.; Joseph John Thompson; Rowland Wimburn Carter; Richard Wolseley, M.D.; William Ramsay Steuart; John Low Erskine, M.D. ; William Macnamara, M.D. ; Augustus Patrick Meyers Corbett, M.D. ; Thomas Smith Hollings. worth; Jeffery Allen Marston, M.D.; Andrew Semple, M.D. ; William Carden Roe; George Morlas Slaughter; John Wild Hulseberg; Sampson Rock.—Brevet:SurgeonMajor Thomas Knox Birnie, half-pay, Medical Department, to have the honorary rank of Deputy Surgeon-General

(Dated

lst

February, 1880).

DREADNOUGHT SEAMEN’S HOSPITAL SOCIETY.The

fifty-ninth annual court of the Seamen’s Hospital Society, Greenwich, was held at Willis’s Rooms on Wednesday, Mr. W. H. Smith, M.P., in the chair. From the report it appeared that the income of the Society, which at the same time provided a hospital, a convalescent institution,

and a home for sick and destitute seamen of all nations, amounted to .613,574 lls. 3cl. during the past year. It is to be regretted that the annual subscriptions for 1879 showed a net diminution of £200 as compared with the previous year. The committee, therefore, were making a strenuous effort to increase these subscriptions from f:3000 to £5000. On the other hand, continued the report, the collections from passengers, crews, &c., of merchant vessels had increased from £974 in 1878 to £1055 in 1879. The report stated that 213,502 seamen, English or foreign, had been relieved by the Society since its formation in 1821. During the past year 1740 had been received’into the hospital, while 159 had been under care and convalescent on the first day of that year. Of the 1740 there had been discharged 523 cured, 617 convalescent, 288 relieved, 48 not cured, while 131 had died.