has given his treatment extensive trial, and avers that it has rarely failed. The remedy he has found best of any is the bromide of sodium in doses of thirty to sixty grains, three times a day for several days before starting, and during the voyage, until all danger is past. The remedy should at first be administered by a physician, and can afterward be intrusted to the patient. Dr. Beard especially warns against the use of purgatives, spirituous liquors, and morphine or opium. With the bromine-treatment he states that the patient may remain on deck or in his state-room indifferently, and may eat such things as he may desire. He is also much less liable to take cold at sea or just after landing.
The Throat and its Functions. By Louis Elsberg, A. M., M. D. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1880. Pp. 60. Price, $1.
This is one of the popular scientific lectures given under the auspices of the New York Academy of Sciences, and the subject, as befits such a course, is treated in a manner to make it clear to the unscientific. Dr. Elsberg describes the various parts of the throat and their function in speaking, and some of the instruments used in examinations of the throat, and closes his lecture with a description of Edison's phonograph, which he exhibited to his audience.
Alva Vine; or, Art versus Duty. By Henri Gordon. American News Company. Pp. 233.
This is a sketch, a fancy sketch, of what the author calls "a suggestive woman of the republic—a girl with a good physique, a cultivated mind, a large heart, capable of taking an interest in all that appertains to the welfare of the whole human family." It is a very fancy sketch.
A Study of some of the Starches. By Mrs. Lou Reed Stowell, M. S., Microscopical Laboratory, University of Michigan. Ann Arbor, Michigan: Courier Steam Printing-House. 1880. Pp. 17. Price, 15 cents.
This is a brief description of the appearance under the microscope of some of the more common starches, with instructions how to study them. The starches considered are those of potato, arrowroot, wheat, barley, bean, pea, corn, rice, oat, buckwheat, sago, tapioca, turmeric, and ginger.
The Management of Children, in Sickness and in Health: A Book for Mothers. By Annie E. Hale, M. D. Philadelphia: Presley Blakiston. Pp. 110. Price, 60 cents.
No better fifty cents' worth of a book for mothers have we seen in a long time. It is full of just the kind of information that all mothers require to possess, and this information is imparted in a simple and sensible manner, so that it may be perfectly understood. The points of most importance are given emphatic prominence, and the subjects are treated throughout with excellent judgment. It is one of the little manuals that can not be too strongly commended.
Problems in Relation to the Prevention of Disease. By J. R. Weist, A. M., M. D. Richmond, Indiana: Telegram Printing Co. 1880.
This is the address of the President of the Indiana State Medical Society at its session of this year. Dr. Weist points out the great losses, commercial and other, that result from an ignorance and disregard of sanitary conditions, and insists upon the necessity of legislation in the matter. He contends that the aim of physicians must be more and more to prevent rather than cure disease, and urges the consideration by them of such problems as have direct bearing upon public hygiene, a number of which he briefly indicates.
The Problems of Insanity. A Paper read before the New York Medico-Legal Society, March 3, 1880. By George M. Beard, A. M., M. D.
Dr. Beard declares, probably with much truth, that psychology is to be the great absorbing study of the future, and, in the study of the human mind, a thorough understanding of insanity will not only be of the greatest help, but indispensable. Among the problems he indicates as demanding attention are the proper definition of the disease, the general causes of it and of its increase in modern life, its real or apparent increase among the poorer classes, its diagnosis, and the proper system of treating it. In considering its increase Dr. Beard points out as
