1274

Vienna has recently issued the above work by Dr. EdwardBuchheim. The author, who is the Principal Physician ofthe Allgemeiner Beamten-Verein at Vienna, is well knownin Austria and Germany as an authority on the subject oflife insurance from a medical point of view, and his presentbook is a timely expansion of his publication some ten yearsago on the same subject.

- JOURNALS AND REVIEWS.

The Phonographic Record for November contains, inaddition to notes of a fatal case of laparotomy for perforatedgastric ulcer, an article by Dr. E. B. Gray upon the NewEdition of Phonographic Outlines of Medical Terms,reviewed in THE LANCET of Oct. 15th, and a discussionupon Chronic Disease of the Uterine Appendages, takenfrom the pages of one of the circulating manuscriptmagazines cf the Society of Medical Phonographers. Rest,hot vaginal douches, glycerine plugs and saline aperients,the treatment of uterine abnormality, and administration ofhydrastis canadensis, salix nigra, hamamelis, ergot, andbromides sum up the measures adopted. Removal of the

appendages is mentioned in deprecatory terms.The Practitioner.-The November number of this journal is

a very interesting one. Among the editorial paragraphs ofthe month is a sensible one on that ridiculously misnamedform of lunacy known as Christian Science. The editor

rightly says that although the practitioners of this form oftherapeusis are not amenable to the law for their purelymental therapeusis " yet that if they prevent medicaltreatment they may then be fairly held responsible. Amongthe original papers are a clinical lecture by Dr. PatrickManson on the Parasite of Malaria and a paper by Dr. PageMay on Sulphur Treatment during the Winter in Egypt,dealing mainly with the springs at Helouan. The Medico-

Literary Causerie deals with the late Wilhelm Meyer.

New Inventions.SAW FOR REMOVING PLASTER-OF-PARIS AND

OTHER CASINGS.

MR. E. G. KENDALL, of 53, High-street, Harborne,Birmingham, sends us a specimen of a saw which he hasrecently constructed for the removal of plaster-of-Paris andother casings. The saw has been made to obviate the use of

pliers, knives, acids, and other ill-adapted weapons, the

shape of the blade being so designed that the toothed edge ofthe saw will enable the operator to cut through casings ofany thickness without injuring the flesh of the patient.

A NEW MEDICINE BOTTLE.

MR. S. THISTLETHW AITE, of 35, Market-street, Man-

chester, sends to us for inspection an eight-ounce bottle and aone-drachm vial, the feature of which is that their necks are I

t of the same size and therefore require the same sizedz cork. The invention has for its objects the saving of

i time, expense, and annoyance to medical men and, druggists when dispensing and consequently merits respectL from us, but we are not certain that the conveniencej of the innovation is quite as obvious to everyone; as it may be to the dispenser. We have tried the

effect of pouring water from the eight-ounce specimenand found the narrow neck a decided obstacle to an evenflow. The fluid had a tendency to come in squirts whichmight make the measuring of an accurate dose a ratherdifficult task to the nurse, patient, or patient’s friends. This

l being so with an eight-ounce bottle we wonder what sort ofl flow would issue from a forty-ounce bottle, up to which size, the inventor is making bottles with a uniform neck. There

is not much demand in medicine for bottles containing asmuch as two pints, but when they are wanted they are

L generally intended to hold lotions or antiseptic solutions tobe used freely. We fear that a bottle whose speciality is to

j deliver yctttctinz a fluid that is wanted in large quantities willnever achieve a vogue among medical men or nurses, how-ever easy it may be for a dispenser to find a cork for it.

THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS OFEDINBURGH AND THE ARMY

MEDICAL SERVICE.

THE following memorial has been presented to LordLansdowne by the Royal College of Surgeons of Edin-

burgh :-To the Right Honml’rable the Jl.farq1lcss of Lansdowne, K. G.,

Her Xajesty’s Secretary of State for War.The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh wishing to

encourage its Licentiates to regard the Army Medical Servicemore favourably than they have done in recent years has hadunder consideration the regulations for admission to theservice, and after discussion at a meeting of the Fellows ofthe College has committed to us, its President and Council,the duty of respectfully bringing under your lordship’snotice its opinion in regard to certain changes whichit deems necessary. The College gratefully appreciatesthe interest your lordship has shown in the well-beingof the Army Medical Service, and, along with yourlordship, recognises the importance to the efficiency ofthe army of having a medical department highly educated,fully manned and equipped by the best men sent out fromour colleges and universities. With the view of obtainingsuch a class of candidates for the Army Medical Departmentwe beg most respectively to submit :-

FIRST. lit regard to the eondit’ions for admission to thesert’ice. - The present regulations for the competitiveentrance examination do not appear to us well adapted tosecure the best men ; too much importance seems to be givento elementary subjects and too little to the practical andclinical work which now occupy the latter years of pro-fessional study. Since Jan. lst, 1892, by order of theGeneral Medical Council, the course of professional educa-tion has been extended in all cases to five years, with therecommendation that the fifth year, thus added, should bedevoted to clinical work. By the regulations of the variousuniversities and other licensing bodies the examinations inelementary subjects, including chemistry, pharmacy,anatomy, and physiology, take place at the end of the first,second, or third year of study, thus allowing the fourth andfifth years to be devoted to the branches of surgery andmedicine and midwifery, and to clinical work in hospitalsand dispensaries.

Intending candidates for the army competitive examina-tion who have qualified themselves íor the active duties oftheir profession are thus deterred from entering the com-petition, which either necessitates a return to elementarystudies or a recourse to a " crammer" in order to acquiresuch kind of knowledge as will gain marks at the com-petitive examination. By this system the best men will notbe obtained for the service. While we hold that a thoroughknowledge of the fundamental subjects of anatomy andphysiology is essential, it must be remembered that allcandidates have already been tested in these subjects in amore practical manner than that employed at the army