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their respective advantage, disadvantage, and limitations, with useful prescriptions from the author's own experience and that of others, leaving the reader better armed to meet casual indications and the various contingencies which arise and require symptomatic treatment.

One of the most attractive features of the book is the citation and description of numerous climatic resorts, the discussion of hydrotherapeutics and all extra medicinal measures, and the judicious reasons for the application of those selected.

Dr. Bartlett has translated the German text into idiomatic English, thoroughly Americanizing the book and without losing the spirit or the details of the original. Climatology, hygiene and dietetics have been adapted to the needs of the American practitioner, and the prescriptions to conform to the American Pharmacopoeia. Where the editor's views differ from the author's, he has selected suggestions from the American or English clinicians. Such additions have been enclosed in brackets.

It contains a carefully selected list of American resorts and a brief mention of their most important features, with a tabulated list of drugs, many of the tables including those of the various iron compounds, of the iron-containing waters, and of arsenical water, which will prove very useful for ready reference.

Surgery: Its Principles and Practice. In five volumes. By sixty-six eminent surgeons. Edited by W. W. KEEN, M.D., LL.D., Hon. F.R.C.S. (Eng. and Edin.), Emeritus Professor of the Principles of Surgery and of Clinical Surgery, Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia. Volume III. Octavo of 1132 pages, with 562 text illustrations and 10 colored plates. Philadelphia and London: W. B. Saunders Company, 1908. Per volume: cloth, $7.00 net; half morocco, $8.00 net. Canadian agents, J. A. Carveth & Co., Ltd., Toronto.

The fact that the Mayo brothers, Moynihan, Edmund Owen, Kocher and Mayo Robson contribute to this volume makes it a valuable one. The surgery of the head, neck and thyroid gland diseases is elaborately treated of, as is that of the stomach, liver, gall-bladder, biliary ducts, pancreas and spleen. The illustrations are fine and numerous, quite a number being colored. Should the remaining volumes come up to the standard of the first three, Keen's "Surgery' will assume front rank amongst works of a similar class.

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Published on the 15th of each month. Address all Communications and make all Cheques, Post Office Orders and Postal Notes payable to the Publisher, GEORGE ELLIOTT, 203 Beverley St., Toronto, Canada

VOL. XXX.

TORONTO, APRIL, 1908.

No. 4.

COMMENT FROM MONTH TO MONTH.

The Physicians' Pedagogue. The members of the medical profession in these parts, and a very considerable proportion of the laity at large, have recently been treated to some very (supposedly) sound advice by the editor of The Globe. This gentleman, an acknowledged master among the members of his profession, has seen fit to take it upon himself to make some very scathing remarks about the members of the medical profession in this Province, and more particularly about the Ontario Medical Council. He has endeavored to prove-and has, doubtless, quite succeeded, in so far as he is personally concerned-that the Medical Council is guilty of gross negligence in that it has not caused the arrest, trial and summary punishment of certain doctors of physic, who are under suspicion of being guilty of the practice of criminal abortion.

Let it be granted in the start-off that the editor in question is sincerely desirous of bringing about real reform along the line he is indicating. Every intelligent member of society, lay or professional, will gladly wish him God-speed, and aid him to the best of his ability.

At the same time it seems to us there are certain requisites which are indispensable in the character of any moral reformer, viz:

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1. He should be honest.

2. He should be consistent.

3. He should have sufficient mental acumen to enable him to distinguish between things which differ.

Let us, therefore, see to what extent our self-constituted mentor measures up to this standard.

In an article in the November issue of this journal—one which was mailed to him in a sealed envelope, and which may reasonably be supposed to have reached him, albeit so far as we are aware no notice was paid to it by him in the editorial columns of his paper-we respectfully drew his attention to the facts of the case, from the standpoint of the practitioner. Subsequent to this, other articles, similar in character to that referred to in our editorial of November, appeared in the editorial columns of The Globe, from which it was evident to us the reverend editor had ignored the facts of the case, as pointed out by us. Was this fair, or even honest? Does this gentleman ever realize the tremendous responsibility which rests on him, filling as he does the position of moral and political adviser to over 50,000 daily readers? It is not too much to say there are thousands of people in the lower walks of life who glean their chief ideas, moral and political, from the Bible and The Daily Globe. What, then, shall be said of a great moulder of public opinion who consciously misapplies the facts in any given case, and thus creates a bias, which is calculated to do infinite injustice, if not distinct harm, to a considerable portion of the community?

Is it well that the editor of a paper should cry out against the sins of a profession, which, as a body, has nothing to blush for, while at the same time that paper is publishing advertisements of quack remedies, which purport to bring about cures, which every physician, and most intelligent members of the laity, know full well are beyond the bounds of possibility? Is this consistent? But, it may be urged, the admission of these advertisements rests with the advertising department, and so the matter in no wise concerns the lofty fashioner of faiths and fancies-the editor-in-chief. If he be not cognizant of such improper advertisements, he should be, and it would be as fatuous for him to disclaim his share of responsibility in this contemptible method of making money, as it would be for the quack to justify the failure of his nostrum to cause a cure, because the ignorant purchaser thereof had failed to properly diagnose his own ailment. A little wholesome backbone on the part of the press, in refusing to advertise such palpable

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methods of procuring money from the public under false pretences, would meet with the grateful approbation of a large part of the community and aid materially in stamping out this heartless method of imposing on all too credulous humanity.

In the November issue already referred to, we drew the reverend editor's attention to the fact that "it is not the function of the Medical Council to try, sentence and execute or imprison the medical criminal, but rather that this duty devolves upon the legal officers of the Crown." And still we are treated to the ridiculous. spectacle of our would-be moral mentor insisting that the Medical Council should arrest and duly punish such offenders; and herein it would seem that the gentleman is unable to distinguish between things which differ. In other words, he is barking up the wrong tree. Does he know what is meant by the term "criminal offence"?

He has been good enough to say the whole medical profession is on trial (because of the supposed offences of the few). This is an erroneous and wholly unwarranted charge to make, and a splendid specimen of gratuitous insolence. Lives there a medical man who would be such a consummate ass as to charge the whole ministerial profession with soiled skirts, because some few of the brethren may have fallen from grace? The charge is not alone unjust-it is unnecessarily stupid.

In closing, we beg to repeat what we said in our former article: "The Medical Council of Ontario is doing its utmost to maintain a clean profession in this Province, and is also doing its utmost to safeguard the interests of the people at large, by keeping out quacks, and God knows what 'pathies,' as well as by keeping up a high standard to which all its graduates must conform. If the public and the press do not possess the brains to appreciate this fact, so much the more are they to be pitied. Such an unwarranted attack on our professional honor is as groundless as it is cowardly; but, then, after all, the dog sometimes bites the hand of the master who feeds it!"

The Ontario Medical Association. The attention of the profession is again called to the Twenty-eighth Annual Meeting of the Association, which will be convened in the Normal College Building, Victoria Avenue South, Hamilton, on the 26th of May next and continue in session for the two succeeding days.

The provisional programme has been distributed throughout

the Province. The prominence given to the scientific side of the meeting, and this will be of exceptional merit, will not be permitted to dwarf its social aspects. At the smoking concert at the Yacht Club, Hamilton Beach, on Tuesday evening, there will be a most entertaining programme presented. On the succeeding Wednesday at the Royal Hotel the visiting members will be the guests of the medical men of Hamilton at dinner.

Outside members who are fond of golf are asked to take their clubs, as the privileges of the Hamilton Golf Club have been extended to all visitors, through the courtesy of the President, Mr. J. J. Morrison, and of his committee. Members who are visiting the meeting are also extended the privileges of the Thistle Club, by courtesy of the President, Mr. T. C. Haslett, and of the President of the Bowling Club, Dr. H. A. Wardell. Bowls will be supplied.

A luncheon at the City Hospital has been arranged, following the morning sessions on Tuesday. Other entertainments are under consideration and full announcement made in the final programme, which will be issued in May. The Committee on Arrangements hope that visiting members will bring their wives and daughters, who will be happily cared for by the local ladies, and they trust that this may be one of the features of the meeting.

The Preliminary Programme of the Ontario Medical Association's annual meeting at Hainilton appears on another page. The Programme Committee is to be congratulated upon the excellent character of the papers to be presented. There is to be a number of able men from the United States, and what is particularly happy is that there are to be several of Montreal's leading physicians and surgeons present to present papers and take part in the discussions. It is important to emphasize the need of a large representative meeting, as the constitution is to be revised to provide for affiliation with the Canadian Medical Association. It is hoped county and city as well as district societies will be well represented.

A Public Health Department for Canada is the title of a pamphlet sent out from the office of the General Secretary of the Canadian Medical Association. It has been sent to the press, medical and public, members of the House of Commons, the Senate, provincial secretaries of health boards, and medical socie

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