Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 44.djvu/138

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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the Hæmatozoon malariæ; and no bacteriologist or pathologist attaches any importance to Tommasi-Crudeli's alleged Bacillus malariæ. The typhoid bacillus was discovered by Eberth, not Gaffky, who simply confirmed in 1884 Eberth's discovery and announcement made in 1880. Nor did Dr. Klein discover the Bacillus pneumoniæ in 1888, as Friedländer had made pure cultures of these organisms in 1883. In fact, the bacteriology of the volume has been written by a person having a very limited acquaintance with the subject. No reference is made to Miquel's, Adametz's, Beumer's, Maggiora's, Fränkel's, Giaxa's, Proskauer's, Manfredi's, and Fülles's investigations of the relation of micro-organisms to the soil.

While the book might have been more complete, it is still sufficiently extensive to be of great use to any student of sanitary science.

The Disease of Inebriety from Alcohol, Opium, and other Narcotic Drugs. Arranged and compiled by the American Association for the Study and Cure of Inebriety. New York: E. B. Treat. Pp. 400. Price, $2.75.

The association named above was organized in 1870, and has a membership composed of physicians connected with asylums for inebriates, and other persons interested in the study of the drink problem. Its cardinal doctrine is that inebriety is a disease, and is curable as other diseases are. It further postulates that all methods hitherto employed for the treatment of inebriety that have not recognized the disordered physical condition caused by alcohol, opium, or other narcotics have proved inadequate in its cure; hence the establishment of hospitals for the special treatment of inebriety, in which such conditions are recognized, becomes a positive need of the age. The association has been in the habit of holding annual and semiannual meetings, in which a large number of papers have been presented, read, and discussed. Six volumes of Transactions were issued, and the (Quarterly Journal of Inebriety was established. Its special work has been to gather and group the scientific literature of the subject and make it available for future study. In addition to this literature many members of the association have published volumes on the subject; valuable papers have appeared in this country and Europe. Many of these works having passed out of print, the secretary of the society. Dr. T. D. Crothers, was authorized to prepare a volume to contain the most reliable conclusions and studies of eminent authorities on all phases of the disease up to the present time. In this volume are discussed the etiology, pathology, treatment, and medico-legal relations of inebriety. The selections have been gathered from more than five thousand pages of printed matter published in the Journal and Transactions, and are from papers which have not appeared elsewhere, and hence will be new to most physicians. But it is acknowledged that, while the facts are very numerous and startling and fully sustain the principles of the association, they are not yet sufficiently studied and generalized to be accepted as absolute truths.

Missouri Botanical Garden, Fourth Annual Report. St. Louis: Published by the Board of Trustees. Pp. 226, with 23 Plates. Price, $1.

While no extensive improvements have been undertaken at the garden during the year, the liberal appropriations made for its support have been judiciously expended, and the accounts show a handsome surplus of funds. The library contains now 11,455 books and pamphlets, and the herbarium 203,000 sheets of specimens. The number of visitors to the grounds has considerably increased as compared with previous years; and so far as could be gathered from their remarks, they have shown an appreciation of the improvements that have been made, especially of the more natural grouping of the plants, and of the addition of large specimens of cacti, yuccas, etc., from the arid regions. The last include a number of representatives of characteristic species from the dry districts of Texas, Arizona, and California. The additions to the herbarium have consisted of the current American collections, about three thousand duplicates from the herbarium of the late John Ball, a set of the valuable Exsiccatæ of the Austrian flora, given by the Vienna Museum, and many smaller collections and single specimens presented by correspondents. A card index to the species of plants described and figured in works at the garden has been begun; and