terms of the very excellent address of Dr. Hutchinson, the retiring President of the Indiana State Society, and we are pleased to have this opportunity of reading it more at our leisure. We also find the very interesting paper of Dr. Witherell, of Lafayette, on Artificial Lactation; a valuable paper on Medical Inhalation, by Dr. Fry, of Crawfordsville; on the Progress of Medicine, by Dr. Brower, of Lawrenceburgh; on Diphtheria, by Dr. Haughton, of Richmond; Dr. Fishback's Report on Medical Education; and a synopsis of the practice observed by the members of the New Castle Medical Society, reported by Dr. John Rea, the Secretary. The Indiana State Medical Society is a working society. Dr. B. S. Woodworth, of Fort Wayne, is President elect for the next year.

ON THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF MIDWIFERY. BY FLEETWOOD CHURCHILL, M.D., M.R.I.A., Fellow of and Professor of Midwifery and Diseases of Women and Children in the King and Queen's College of Physicians, in Ireland, etc., etc.; with additions by D. FRANCIS CONDIE, M.D. With one hundred and ninety-four illustrations. A new American from the fourth corrected and enlarged English edition. Philadelphia: Blanchard & Lea. 1860.

Scarce any obstetric author is so familiar to the American medical reader as the name of Dr. Fleetwood Churchill; and the handsome volume before us is simply a new edition of a work already well and favorably known to the profession of this country. In this new edition the author has evidently labored with diligence and success to bring up every department of the science of midwifery to its present state of progress; so that we find in this volume a clear exponent and a faithful review of the whole field of obstetrics.

As a general rule, we have little favor for editorial labors as an improvement to standard works on medical science; but in this case the additions of Dr. Condie have been made with judgment and evident good taste, and certainly add to the value of the work.

The present edition contains in the form of an appendix a chapter on Obstetric Morality, in which the author discusses with fullness the whole question of the morality of craniotomy, which has often proved a stumbling-block to very many worthy persons in and out of the profession. This chapter is merely a reprint from

the Dublin Quarterly Review, for which it was originally prepared as an essay.

An additional chapter is also added on the Qualifications and Duties of the Monthly Nurse, consisting of very suitable directions for the nurse as to her general character and conduct, her duties during labor for the infant, and the management of the mother and child.

These additions render the work still more complete and acceptable than ever; and with the excellent style in which the publishers have presented this edition of Churchill, we can commend it to the profession with great cordiality and pleasure. For sale by Rickey, Mallory & Co. Price $3.50.

TRANSACTIONS OF THE MEDICAL SOCIETY OF THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA, at its Twelfth Annual Session, held in Philadelphia, June, 1860. New Series. Part V.

The twelfth annual session of the Pennsylvania State Medical Society convened in the city of Philadelphia, June 13, 1860, the President, Dr. Condie, in the Chair. The volume of transactions before us contains the regular proceedings of the sessions, the address of the retiring President, and a large mass of interesting reports from medical societies, obituary memoirs, etc. Dr. Edward Wallace, of Berks county, was elected President for the ensuing year, and the city of Pittsburg agreed upon as the place of meeting for the year 1861.

INVOLUNTARY CONFESSIONS: a Monograph. By FRANCIS WHARTON.

This essay is a reprint of the closing chapter of a new edition of Wharton and Stille's Medical Jurisprudence, which is now issuing from the press. We have read it with a great deal of interest; and we rarely find so much philosophical reasoning condensed in so small space. The conduct of conscious guilt, and the deportment of premeditated crime, are discussed in all their phases with a maturity of thought that is most refreshing.

Transactions of the American Dental Association.-The sessions held at Niagara, August, 1859, and at Washington, July, 1860. To the regular minutes of these sessions is added a number of interesting essays on topics of interest to the dental profession.

Physician's Hand-Book of Practice for 1861.-This convenient little pocket memorandum-book is received from the publishers, the Messrs. W. A. Townsend & Co. It differs from the Visiting List of Lindsay & Blakiston in many respects, and will doubtless give excellent satisfaction to physicians who may use it. Price $1.25; for sale by booksellers generally.

Sclerotico-Choroiditis Posterior.-With cases and illustrations. A paper by Dr. Henry D. Noyes, Assistant Surgeon to the New York Eye Infirmary, and reprinted from the New York Journal of Medicine for March, 1860.

Editor's Table.

On the Poisons found in Alcoholic Spirits.. Most absurd notions have been entertained by the people generally, and expressed by writers and public speakers, on the supposed presence of strychnine and other foreign poisons in alcoholic spirits as if alcohol itself was not active enough in its poisonous effects. We find, on this subject, an article from Dr. A. A. Hayes, in a recent number of the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, so appropriate that we copy it entire :

"Frequently, within the past few years, the public journals have called attention to the existence of poisonous bodies, especially strychnine, in the spirits produced from grains, and no little excitement has grown out of such announcements.

"A somewhat extended series of analytical observations on these spirits, from many sources, has convinced me that no good reason for such a statement could be found, and my conclusion has been supported by the testimony of those who are opposed to the manufacture, but who frankly admit that no case has ever fallen under their notice, at the places of manufacture, which would lead to even an inference, in regard to the adding of any deleterious body to the distilled spirits. The addition of nonvolatile bodies to the fermented worts, if made, would not contaminate the spirits distilled from them, and it is probable that the supposition, in relation to the use of strychnine for the pur

pose of increasing the product of whiskey, arose from the ruse of a foreman, who wished to conceal the particular characteristics of his ferments in daily use. In low places where such spirits are retailed, drugs which produce narcotic effects, or temporary frenzy, are doubtless resorted to in special cases, while the infusing of pepper or salt is not a very rare occurrence.

"Cases of sudden poisoning by the low-priced, common spirits frequently occur, which are not necessarily referable to poisons of foreign origin. Some of the so-called fusel oils, produced in the fermentation of mixed grains, either sound or after they have become injured from exposure, act as powerful poisons, and in some states of depressed action of the human system, fatal effects would doubtless follow from the introduction of such oils into the stomach.

"As a general statement, the spirits produced in this country to serve as beverages are remarkable for their purity and freedom from any substances which careful rectification can remove. When, through age and suitable exposure, the oils contained in them have passed into ethereal bodies and thus ripened the spirits, they become equal, in soundness and purity, to any products imparted from abroad, and far less deleterious than most of the so-called brandies of the present time.

"There is, however, present in the newly-distilled, and, in most cases, in the older spirits, a source of danger, which, so far as I can learn, has been overlooked, or possibly attributed to criminal intention, which should be publicly known, and is of especial interest to the medical profession.

"Newly-distilled spirits, of the most common kind, often contain salts of copper, of lead, or tin, derived from the condensers, in which the vapors are reduced to a fluid form. The quantity of copper salt contained in the bulk usually taken as a draught is sufficient to produce the minor effects of metallic poisoning; the cumulative character of these poisons may even lead to fatal consequences. With a knowledge of the fact now stated, instead of resting on a supposition of the existence of an organic poison in the spirits which have caused sickness, the physician may notice the symptoms of metallic poisoning, in persons addicted to the habit of consuming newly-distilled spirits, and interpose his aid in preventing the fatal termination of vicious indulgence.

"Since I first demonstrated the fact of the frequent occurrence

of these metallic salts in the more recently manufactured spirits, the investigation has taken a wider range, and the results have proved that as all spirits at one time were new, so with few exceptions arising from peculiar rectifications-most spirits. have been, or are more or less contaminated by metallic compounds. Old or more matured spirits have generally lost every particle of the salts once held in solution. Changes in the organic solvent have caused the deposition of the metallic compound, accompanied by the organic matter from obvious sources, and in such spirits the metallic oxide is always found—if it has been present in the dark-colored matter which has been deposited at the bottom of a cask at rest. This dark deposit has the appearance of, and has been mistaken for charcoal, detached from the charred staves of the casks in which the spirits have been stored.

"Of this dark deposit every sample has, on examination, afforded abundance of copper, copper and tin, or copper and lead, even when taken from the finer qualities of foreign spirits.

"Observations have been made on the nature of this change from a soluble to an insoluble state. Samples of new spirits have been kept in glass vessels until the whole metallic salt has fallen in dark flocks, leaving the clear fluid free from any metallic compound and perfectly pure.

"It appears, therefore, that matured spirits lose their poisonous impregnation during the time necessary to adapt them for use as beverages, and that while the clear, transparent fluid contains no metallic impregnation, a turbid, though ripened spirit may prove deleterious through its suspended metallic compounds.

"In order to avoid the poisonous effects of these salts, perfectly well-ripened and clear spirits only should be used in the preparation of medicines, and when ordered as restoratives, no new or turbid alcoholic fluids should be allowed to enter the room of the patient or hospital. As a further elucidation of this subject, the following more strictly chemical remarks are offered.

"The origin of these salts is connected with the production of acids, as well as alcohol, in the fermenting vats. When the wort is subjected to heat in the still, acetic, butyric and other acids rise with the vapor of alcohol, and pass into the condenser, now most commonly made of copper, with masses of solder containing lead. At the instant of condensation, these acids exert a