of practical hints and formulas, answering the question which the puzzled doctor has so often put to him, "What is good for so and so?”—and, smile as we may, this is the sum and substance of all our endeavors.

To Dr. Shoemaker do we owe the introduction of the oleates, adding thereby to the list of useful things, in fact, opening up a new field of therapeutics of considerable importance.

THE MEDICAL BULLETIN VISITING LIST OR PHYSICIAN'S CALL RECORD. F. A. Davis Publisher, Philadelphia.

This visiting list has some new features which will suggest themselves to the careful business men in the profession in facilitating the keeping of daily visits. It is well bound and has all the usual tables for the conversion of apothecaries weights and measures into metric values-obstetrical calculations, dosage, new remedies and the many hints which young and old doctors are sometimes glad to have to refresh their memories. Size of the book 4x7 in., substantially bound. Price from $1.25 to $1.50, according to number of patients it will record.

THE PHYSICIAN'S ALL-REQUISITE TIME AND LABOR-SAVING ACCOUNT BOOK. Designed by William A. Seibert, M.D., Easton, Pa. F. A. Davis, Philadelphia. Price of style for 900 accounts $5.00, for 1,800 $8.00.

This is a very compact and well-designed physician's ledger, making it possible for any one who is at all systematic to post his visits and professional work by items, so that he can see at a glance the indebtedness of any patient. No ledger has been devised yet to post itself, but until that system is invented the doctor who invests his money in this one will do next best. The design of the ledger is more particularly for the town doctor, but it is arranged for all kinds of service.

THE PHYSICIAN'S VISITING LIST for 1891. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston Son & Co., 1012 Walnut St.

This is the fortieth year of this publication, showing its usefulness to the profession. Nothing in the way of compliment could be of more importance than to let it tell its own history. The price ranges from $1.00 to $3.00, as to size.

A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON IMPOTENCE AND STERILITY AND ALLIED Disorders of the MALE SEXUAL ORGANS. By Samuel W. Gross, A.M., M.D., LL.D. Fourth Edition. Revised by F. R. Sturgis, M.D. Philadelphia: Lea Brothers & Co., 1890. This is a well-known monograph of 169 pages, in clear, large type and leaded lines beautifully printed. It is free from the objectionable qualities sometimes found in such books, and with the addition of the notes by Dr. Sturgis, it is a faithful statement of the best that is accepted by the profession as sound pathology and

treatment.

THE FREE ACID OF THE GASTRIC JUICE DURING DIGESTION.Von Jaksch (Zeitschrift f. klin. Medicin., Bd. xvii, p. 383) makes an interesting contribution to our knowledge of the above subject. He finds that free hydrochloric acid is present in considerable quantity as early as a quarter of an hour after the ingestion of food. The quantity depends on the character of the food, and usually reaches its maximum in from one to three hours. This increase, however, is not a steady one, but shows intermissions after the first hour and a quarter, hour and a half, or even two hours. It is always most rapid on a meat diet, slower on milk diet and slowest of all on a pure carbohydrate diet. The greatest quantity of acid found in any one case-0.1615 per cent.—was obtained on a milk diet (fourteen observations), slightly less on a meat diet-0.1563 per cent.— (eleven observations), and least of all on a carbohydrate diet0.1102 per cent.-(ten observations). Digestion appears to be completed most rapidly on a meat diet, next in order coming carbohydrate and milk diet. He concludes that entire absence of free hydrochloric acid from the gastric juice, or its presence in traces only, during the first quarter to half an hour of digestion, is without pathological significance. If no free acid is present one to three hours after ingestion ef meat or milk, it is extremely probable that some severe disturbance of gastric function exists. On a carbohydrate diet, on the other hand, the presence of a mere trace of free hydrochloric acid is quite consistent with conditions of health. Furthermore, we are not justified in concluding that the presence of free acid in considerable quantity two to three hours after ingestion of meat or milk, points to some pathological condition, as wide variations are possible within physiological limits.-Supplement to

British Medical Journal.

CORRESPONDENCE.

DR. R. L. RANDOLPH'S NOTE ON THE USE OF FLUORESCEINE, ACCOUNTING FOR PREVIOUS FAILURE IN ITS USE.

BALTIMORE, December 16, 1890.

Messrs. Editors North Carolina Medical Journal:

MESSRS. EDITORS :-In the last issue of the NORTH CAROLINA MEDICAL JOURNAL there is a notice to the effect that fluoresceine, which was made the subject of an article in the Johns Hopkins Hospital Bulletin for last April, has proven a failure in the hands of some of the physicians of the Medical Society of North Carolina. The article in the Bulletin is an account of some experiments made by me to determine the effect of fluoresceine on the diseased cornea, and the criticism in your Journal would seem to call for some response from me.

I feel sure that the negative results obtained by your reporters are to be attributed either to an impure article or to the wrong variety of fluoresceine, or to both. A specimen of fluoresceine was sent me not long since by a colleague in the West, with the remark that he could get none of the effects claimed for it. After trying the specimen on several cases, and failing to obtain any positive reaction whatever, I concluded that the drug was impure. This preparation was a brownish-yellow in appearance. After experimenting with the three varieties I found that the light red fluoresceine was the only variety with which we could get reliable results. In this particular my conclusions confirm those of Dr. Thomalla. I demonstrated the application of the agent in corneal lesions to the Johns Hopkins Hospital Medical Society, and the positive result of the experiment was undoubted. I have experimented with it freely in the Johns Hopkins Hospital and in the clinic of the Presbyterian Eye and Ear Hospital of this city and my colleagues on the staff of the latter institution, Drs. Chisolm, Harlan and Woods confirm my results entirely. The fluoresceine used in my experiments was obtained from the Chemical Laboratory of the Johns Hopkins University, and is a foreign preparation. None of

the fluoresceine obtained from other sources gave as positive results. By referring to the original article on the subject of fluoresceine as a means of diagnosing corneal lesions (Centralblatt für praktische Augenheilkunde, November and December, 1889) you will observe that my results would seem to indicate a less wide field of application than do those of Dr. Thomalla. But that the red fluoresceine, when properly prepared, docs bring to light minute and obscure lesions of the cornea admits of no manner of doubt, and I can readily believe that in a certain class of cases such an agent would be a help in establishing a diagnosis. I am confident, then, that your reporters have been experimenting with either an impure preparation or with the two varieties of fluoresceine which give more or less vague results, and furthermore, whatever be its sphere of usefulness in practical medicine, fluoresceine certainly produces the effect upon the diseased cornea in the manner described in the April number of the Johns Hopkins Hospital Bulletin.

I enclose you a letter received a few days ago from Dr. F. T Smith, of Chattanoogo, Tenn., giving me his conclusion, from a series of experiments with fluoresceine. Dr. Smith read a paper on the subject before the last meeting of the State Society of Tennessee. It will be seen that his results confirm my own.

Any utterance from the NORTH CAROLINA MEDICAL JOURNAL carries with it weight and influences the opinions of many, and justly so, for its reputation for fairness and for sympathy with what is accurate in medical progress is a matter of fact, and hence one would readily think that, with sufficient grounds, the JOURNAL would gladly modify a statement which was possibly too sweeping or which would be apt to mislead.

Believe me, very truly yours,

ROBERT L. RANDOLPH.

EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENCE.

THE AMERICAN PUBLIC HEALTH ASSOCIATION IN CHARLESTONHEROIC OLD CHARLESTON-THE PREVENTION OF CONSUMPTION-PROF. VENABLE ON CHEMICAL DISINFECTION.

To the indefatigable energy and under the leadership of Dr. H. B. Horlbeck the American Public Health Association owes the success of its eighteenth annual meeting. Following the Brooklyn meeting, where the most elaborate and successful preparations had been made, it would not have been strange if the meeting at Charleston, with its far fewer opportunities for entertainment compared with the city of Brooklyn, would have been a little tame; but not so, for the Association itself is its own host, and does not need the social accessories to make a successful meeting of a few days, and Charleston, quickened into a little activity in anticipation of the Christmas holidays, was equal to all the demands and expectations of strangers. There are many Brooklyns, for when one has seen a Northern city they have seen all, or at any rate there is a great similarity in Northern cities, but there is only one Charleston, and the visitor who for the first time looks upon the unique houses, the narrow streets, the ancient churches, the fine public buildings, he gets the impression that he is in a foreign city. To the Southern man, who knows the traditions and habits of the by-gone days, who knew Charleston in the days when she hazarded her all for the cause she believed in, who, looking out into the bay, recalls the terrible times of four years of successful resistance against superb armaments and superior numbers, and then entering the old city after another quarter of a century had passed over her with the terrible devastation of a great earthquake, inspired by the plain, heroic story of the Defence of Charleston Harbor by Major John Johnston, it would be surprising if he did not feel that he was walking on hallowed ground as he threaded the narrow streets.

The local Committee of Arrangements had selected the Hibernian Hall on Meeting street for our sessions, and when we compared its present restored condition with the photographs after the earthquake, it was hard to realize that the front portico, with its six columns and pediment, had been shaken down by the throes of the