until their successors are chosen: president, William Henry Humiston; vice-presidents, James E. Sadlier, Poughkeepsie, and John D. S. Davis, Birmingham; secretary, William Warren Potter. Buffalo (re-elected); treasurer, X. O. Werder, Pittsburg (re-elected); executive councillors, E. Gustav Zinke, Cincinnati, and Herman E. Hayd, Buffalo; also executive councillor, to fill vacancy occasioned by the election of William H. Humiston to the presidency, William A. B. Sellman, Baltimore. Next place of meeting, Fort Wayne, Ind., the 3d Tuesday in September (21), 1909.

THE third annual meeting of the eighth district branch of the Medical Society of the State of New York, was held at Batavia. September 22 and 23, 1908. E. E. Snow of Batavia presided. Papers were read by Drs. DeLancey Rochester and H. C. Rooth, T. H. McKee, C. A. Wall, N. G. Russell, James A. Gardner, James E. King, William C. Krauss, James W. Putnam and H. R. Hopkins of Buffalo.

The following officers were elected: president, E. E. Snow of Batavia vice-presidents, Edward Munson of Medina and T. H. McKee of Buffalo; secretary, Lee M. Francis of Buffalo, and treasurer, C. A. Wall of Buffalo.

COLLEGE AND HOSPITAL NOTES

THE new free dispensary of the German Hospital, Buffalo, was opened September 14, 1908. The following medical and surgical staff has been appointed for the dispensary:

Medicine, L. Bradley Dorr, T. Hubert Wilson, Frank E. Hill; Surgery, J. G. Meidenbauer, James A. MacLeod, H. E. Braner; Gynecology, A. L. Weil. James Porter, Ray H. Johnson; Obstetrics, C. H. W. Auel; Diseases of the eye, William M. Mehl, Gustave A. Hitzel; Diseases of the ear, nose, throat, Francis M. O'Gorman; Diseases of the skin, F. W. Filsinger, Francis E. Fronczak; Orthopedics. L. H. Staples; Nervous diseases, Edward A. Bowermann; Diseases of children, R. C. Mehnert, Joseph Schweitzer, Albert Frey; Clinical pathology, N. K. MacLeod; Genitourinary diseases, William Gardner, Arthur Gibson.

FREDERICK COOPER HEWITT who died August 30, 1908, was the wealthiest man in Tioga County. He left an estate estimated to be worth over $5,000,000. His will written by himself, leaves more than $4.000.000 to various institutions, charitable and otherwise. Two million dollars is bequeathed to the New York

Post-Graduate Medical School and Hospital. The will stipulates that should any of his heirs attempt to break the will, he shall forfeit his inheritance, which shall then go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

The Sexual Question. A Scientific, Psychological, Hygienic and Sociological Study for the cultured classes. By August Forel, M.D., Ph.D., LL.D., formerly Professor of Psychiatry at and Director of the Insane Asylum in Zurich, Switzerland. English adaption by C. F. Marshall, M.D., F.R.C.S., late Assistant Surgeon to the Hospital for Diseases of the Skin, London. Octavo, pp. 536. Illustrated. New York: Rebman Company.

Professor Forel in this work presents a careful philosophical treatise of the sexual question. He considers the subject in its relation to suggestion, money and property, to the external conditions of life, to law, medicine, morality, politics, political economy, pedagogy and art. As a result of his study he arrives at some utopian ideas on the ideal marriage of the future.

First, the youth of both sexes will have been thoroughly educated as to the meaning of the sexual appetite. They will speak openly on sexual subjects to their masters and parents and to their companions of the opposite sex. The ideal marriage will reduce useless luxury and conventional formality to a minimum. Servants will not have the same position in the families as at present. He believes in matriarchism. This he defines is the legal privilege of the management of the family conferred on the wife, who is in reality the center of the family.

There is much in this work to commend. But there is much with which many will disagree. For instance: of this country we find the following, "since the emancipation of negroes has caused domestic servants in the United States to become expensive luxuries, family life has to a great extent been replaced by life in hotels and boarding houses, and this has furnished another reason for avoiding conception and large families. The European race of North America will diminish and become gradually extinguished and will soon be replaced by Chinese or negros.'

After reading this on page 332, we must confess that our respect for the prognostics of the author diminished. For his facts and their presentation we have only praise.

J. W. P.

Diseases of the Nose, Throat and Ear. Medical and Surgical. By William Lincoln Ballenger, M.D., Professor of Otology, Rhinology and Laryngology, College of Physicians and Surgeons, of Chicago University of Illinois. Octavo, 896 pages, with 467 engravings and 16 plates Lea & Febiger, Publishers, Philadelphia and New York, 1908. (Cloth, $5.50 net.)

It is a genuine pleasure to examine such a book as this, one so filled with scientific material, one which constitutes a valuable

contribution to the literature of medicine. Its first notable feature is that it includes in its delineation the nose, throat, and ear in their entirety. Heretofore it has been customary for writers to deal fully, even amply with the nose and throat, but at most with the associated affections of the ear. Ballenger has introduced also the relationship of the eye to the diseases of the sinuses, though appreciative of the fact that the significance of this relationship is little understood. A marked feature of this work is the illustrations, many of which are original while all are well executed, making an instructive and clear exposition of the author's meaning and of his work. Especially is Dr. Ballenger interesting in dealing with diseases of the maxillary and accessory sinuses. Every laryngologist should possess the book.

BOOKS RECEIVED.

Diseases of the Skin and the Eruptive Fevers. By Jay Frank Schamberg, M.D., Professor of Dermatology and Infectious Eruptive Diseases in the Philadelphia Polyclinic and College for Graduates in Medicine. Octavo of 534 pages, illustrated. Philadelphia and London: W. B. Saunders Company, 1908. (Cloth, $3.00 net.)

Edited

Gynecology and Abdominal Surgery. In two volumes. by Howard A. Kelly, M.D., Professor of Gynecologic Surgery at Johns Hopkins University; and Charles P. Noble, M.D., Clinical Professor of Gynecology at the Woman's Medical College, Phiadelphia. Large octavo volume of 862 pages, with 475 original illustrations by Mr. Hermann Becker and Mr. Max Brodel. Philadelphia and London: W. B. Saunders Company, 1908. (Per volume: Cloth, $8.00; half morocco, $9.50 net prices.)

Anatomy, Descriptive and Surgical. By Henry Gray, F.R.S., late lecturer on Anatomy at St. George's Hospital, London. New American edition, enlarged and thoroughly revised, by J. Chalmers Da Costa, M.D., Professor of Surgery and Clinical Surgery, and Edward Anthony Spitzka, M.D., Professor of Anatomy, in the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia. Imperial octavo, 1,625 pages, with 1,149 large and elagorate engravings. Lea & Febiger, Publishers, Philadelphia and New York, 1908. (Cloth, $6.00; leather, $7.00, net prices.)

Progressive Medicine, Vol. III, September, 1908. A Quarterly Digest of Advances, Discoveries and Improvements in the Medical and Surgical Sciences. Edited by Hobart Amory Hare, M.D., Professor of Therapeutics and Materia Medica in the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia. Octavo, 285 pages, with 30 engravings. Lea & Febiger, Publishers, Philadelphia and New York. (Per annum, in four cloth-bound volumes, $9.00; in paper binding, $6.00, carriage paid to any address.)

A Textbook of Physiology. For Students and Practitioners. By George V. N. Dearborn, A.M., (Harvard), Ph.D., M.D. (Columbia), Professor of Physiology in Tufts College, Medical and Dental Schools, Boston. Octavo, 550 pages, with 300 engravings and 8 colored plates. Lea & Febiger, Publishers, Philadelphia and New York, 1908. (Cloth, $3,75 net.)

General Surgery. By Ehrich Lexer, M.D., Professor of Surgery in the University of Koenigsberg. American edition edited by Arthur Dean Bevan, M.D., Professor and head of the Department of Surgery, Rush Medical College, (University of Chicago). An authorised translation of the second German edition by Dean Lewis, M.D., Assistant Professor of Surgery, Rush Medical College. Octavo, pp. 1041. With 449 illustrations and two colored plates. New York and London: D. Appleton & Co.

Fourth Annual Report of the Henry Phipps Institute for the study, treatment and prevention of tuberculosis. February 1, 1906 to

February 1, 1907. Edited by Joseph Walsh, A.M., M.D.

Transactions of the thirty-fourth annual meeting of the Oregon State Medical Association held at Portland, Oregon, July 1, to 3, 1908. William House, M.D., secretary.

The Cure of Rupture by Paraffin Injections by Charles C. Miller, M.D. Small 12 mo, pp. 81. Published by the Author, 70 State St., Chicago. (Prepaid $1.00.)

MISCELLANY.

THE State Civil Service Commission will hold examinations on October 17, 1908, for the following positions: Assistant in Clinical Psychiatry, Pathological Institute. $2,000; Health officer for Wells, Hamilton County; physician, sixth grade for hospitals and institution, $900, and maintenance; Veterinarian State Department of Agriculture and Health, $5.67 a day when employed.

The last day for filing applications for these positions is October 10. Full information and application forms for any of these examinations can be obtained by postal card request to the Chief Examiner of the Commission at Albany. Charles S. Fowler, Chief Examiner.

THE United States Civil Service Commission announces an examination on October 21, 1908, at the usual places, to secure eligibles from which to make certification to fill a vacancy in the position of aid (male), in the Division of Physical Anthropology, U. S. National Museum, at $50.00 a month, and vacancies requiring similar qualifications as they may occur.

FOR SALE

My residence, 189 Fourteenth Street, has been occupied by a physician for twenty years, and is well adapted for such purposes. Reasonable

terms.

Address, DR. E. T. SMITH, 189 Fourteenth Street, Buffalo, N. Y.

BUFFALO MEDICAL
MEDICAL JOURNAL.

VOL. LXIV.

NOVEMBER, 1908.

ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS.

Sociological Medicine.'

BY JULIUS ULLMAN, M. D..

Lecturer on Clinical Medicine, Medical Department University of Buffalo.

No. 4

you, who are about to begin the sixty-third regular ses

edge in your accepted vocation, I desire to welcome you to a return of the friendly relations of teacher and student. You enter the University for purposes of education in the science of medicine and your teachers and instructors return to you, after several months of rest and recreation, to disseminate through you the old and the newer truths based upon observation and experience, for the elevation of our chosen profession of medicine and for the preservation and uplifting of mankind.

Robert Louis Stevenson once wrote concerning the life of the Medical Man: "The physician is the flower of our civilisation, and when that stage of man is done with, and only remembered to be marveled at in history, he will be thought to have shared as little as any in the defects of the period, and most notably to have exhibited the virtues of the race." It is such a tribute to the honor, valor and value of our profession which makes us proud of our heritage and anxious to feed upon the ambition, so unselfish, to further the welfare of mankind, by not only combating the enemies which nature has in store for us, but to teach the doctrine of the prevention of disease and the fulfillment of good will and happiness to mankind. See to it that by your zeal, endeavor and industry, within these walls, you show a desire to emulate those who have labored wisely and well without regard to personal gain, and often unheralded, for the perfection and elevation of the science of medicine and have demonstrated that the triumphs of sanitary science, surgery and medical progress are among the grandest of civilisation!

We hear it often said that our profession is overcrowded. This is true in a relative sense, but it is equally true in all vocations of life and applies only to him who is indifferent, selfish,

1. An address delivered at the opening of the sixty-third annual session of the Medical Department of the University of Buffalo, September 28, 1908.