last contribution to medical literature, "Gilbertus Anglicus, a Study in Thirteenth Century Medicine." Dr. Handerson's article was originally designed for publication in the Cleveland Medical Journal, which unfortunately ceased to exist before it could appear in its columns. The article was in type at that time. Shortly after Dr. Handerson died and the editors of the Journal, with the consent of his family, turned it over to the Council of the Cleveland Medical Library, who, recognizing its value, have given it to the profession in its present form. To those who are aware of the erudition, critical ability, and accuracy of all of the author's previous work, this scholarly study of the "Compendium Medicinal" of Gilbert of England, the earliest complete work on general medicine by an English author, will be most welcome. Reviewing all the data available and adding materially to it, on the disputed points, as to the exact period of the life of Gilbert and the date at which his book was written, Handerson concludes that he was born about 1180, and that his book was written circa 1240. The contents of the Compendium are carefully reviewed and analyzed and the chief editions described. It is curious that the Compendium was held in such esteem by subsequent generations, that a printed edition of it appeared as late as 1608. Dr. Handerson's study will be found an invaluable addendum to the previous studies by Dr. J. F. Payne on this extremely interesting Father of English Medicine, and is stimulating as illustrating the method to be employed in such research. A word as to Dr. Handerson himself is due, largely because of the excessive modesty with which he was wont to obscure his light. He was born in Ohio in 1837 and began his medical studies at the Medical Department of the University of

Louisiana, now Tulane University. The outbreak of the Civil War interrupted his course. Dr. Handerson enlisted in the Confederate Army, in which he finally achieved the rank of major. During the last year of the Rebellion he was a prisoner of war. When it was over he resumed his career as a medical student at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York, graduating in 1867. From that date until 1885 he practiced his profession in New York City, then going to Cleveland, Ohio, where he remained until his death, which took place on April 23, 1918. During the last two years of his life Dr. Handerson was totally blind. From a very early period Dr. Handerson was deeply interested in the history of his profession. In 1883 he published The "School of Salernum," an historical sketch of medieval medicine, which is one of the best studies of the subject in English, but his magnum opus was his translation of Baas' "History of Medicine," which appeared in 1888. This is really much more than a translation, as the section dealing with the history of medicine in this country was really written by Dr. Handerson, and his notes on and revision of the German text add greatly to the value of the work. It is this book which is probably referred to more often than any other by medical men in the United States, when seeking light on matters connected with the history of medicine. Dr. Handerson was a pioneer worker in medical history in this country, and his work has never received sufficient recognition. The posthumous tribute of the Cleveland Medical Library Association is most just, and we can imagine no other offering to his memory which would have been more appreciated by Dr. Handerson himself.

FRANCIS R. PACKARD

DR. JAMES CURRIE'S manuscript "Journal," sold, with many letters, at Sotheby's July 24th, 1918, has an interest for American readers. He is remembered as the first editor of the collected works of Burns, and as an early student of thermometry and hydro-therapy.

As an apprentice lad at Cabin Point, Virginia (1771-1776), his Tory principles were the cause of much trouble. After many difficulties, fully narrated in his "Life" (1831), he escaped. The "Journal," which with many letters was bought by the Public Library, Liverpool, is the diary of a voyage from Nixonton, N. C., to the Island of St. Martin, between September 19th and October 29th, 1776. It is not of much interest except as illustrating the careful self-education of a Scotch lad, and the horrid discomforts of a sea-voyage in those days. Much more interesting in the same volume is the manuscript of a letter which Currie wrote in defense of the Scotch in Virginia, and which appeared in Pinkney's Gazette on the 22d and 24th of March, 1775. For fifty years the Glasgow merchants had the lion's share in the tobacco trade of the colony, and their agents were slow in joining the newly formed continental association, which made them unpopular, and led to abusive attacks. Currie writes in defense of his countrymen, posing as a resident of forty odd years. It is a remarkable letter for a young man of nineteen, full of good sense and well expressed.

The other letters sold related chiefly to Burns and his friends, many of which were used by Currie in writing the life of the poet. There were three letters from Benjamin Rush, in one of which he begs to inform his friend, Dr. Currie, that "peace, order, and plenty continue to pervade every part of the United States." It is satisfactory to know that the most important of these documents were secured by the Public Library, Liverpool.

A few years ago a valuable group of Burns' manuscripts, which had belonged to Dr. Currie, were sold by the Liverpool Athenæum, to which they had been presented by his son. There was a public protest, but fortunately the purchaser, a citizen of Philadelphia, gave them to the Burns Library, Kilmarnock.

Currie had deservedly a most successful career in Liverpool. His "Life" is well worth reading, and the two volumes of his "Medical Reports on the Effects of Water," 1797, are full of original observations on the clinical use of the thermometer. In this study he was far in advance of his contemporaries, who looked askance at his researches; so much so that the German translator quoted them in illustration of the backward state of English Medicine! Weir Mitchell, who had a great admiration for Currie, called my attention to his works, which he regarded as among the most valuable in English medical literature.

WILLIAM OSLER

THE histories of local institutions which have performed important functions in the life of any community and their compilation is a duty which, conscientiously performed, furnishes material of the greatest value to the historian, as well as stimulating local pride in their continuance and welfare.

Two books of this character have recently been brought to our notice, both dealing with institutions situated in Boston, which, however, have exercised an influence for good far beyond the local confines of that city. "The History of the Boston Medical Library,"1 by Dr. John W. Farlow, its distinguished Librarian, is of the greatest interest, not only to the medical profession, but also to all those concerned with library work. The Boston Medical Library was founded in 1805, by a group of prominent medical men belonging to the Medical Improvement Society of that city. In 1826 it was merged in the Boston Athenæum. In 1875, chiefly owing to the activity and zeal of Dr. James R. Chadwick, it was determined by a number of physicians to once more establish a distinct medical library, the drawbacks to having collections of medical books merely as sections of other public libraries such as the Athenæum and the Boston Public Library, having become manifest to all. Thus was begun the Boston Medical Library Association, the word Association not being dropped from its title until 1896. From its foundation it was successful. By the acquisition of medical libraries belonging to individuals, either by gift or bequest, and of libraries founded by other societies, such as the Medical Observation Society, and the Massachusetts Medical Society, its growth soon assumed phenomenal proportions. As it grew, it became necessary to move its quarters from time to time, until finally, in 1901, the

1 "The History of the Boston Medical Library," by John W. Farlow, M.D., privately printed 1918.

library was housed in the beautiful building which it now occupies on the Fenway. Besides having one of the largest collections of medical books in the world, it also contains a most valuable collection of medical medals, autographs, and pictures, and a number of very important medical incunabula.

The other book records the great achievements of the Humane Society of Massachusetts2 during one hundred and thirty years of beneficent activity. The Society was founded in 1785 by a group of well-known Bostonians to whom the work of the British Royal Humane Society had been described by an English traveler. Its first object was the resuscitation of persons drowned or suffocated, for which purpose it studied the various methods to be employed, procured appliances useful toward that end, and bestowed rewards on various rescuers. One method of resuscitation which the Society especially studied and for some years approved, was the use of tobacco fumigations in the rectum, special fumigators being provided in convenient places where drowning accidents were frequent. Circulars were drawn up for distribution conveying instructions for resuscitation. From its origin to the present day, the Society has numbered the most prominent citizens of Boston among its active members and friends. It early began to enlarge its scope by the erection of huts of refuge along dangerous points on the Massachusetts coast wherein shipwrecked mariners would find tinder and material for making a fire, blankets and food. These huts were the first organized effort at establishing anything like a life saving service on our coast, and they proved of the greatest value. Stimulated by their success, the Society,

2 "The Humane Society of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts," an historical review, 1785-1916, by M. A. De Wolf Howe. Boston, 1918.

which had launched the first lifeboat known in the United States in 1807, in 1840 began the establishment of life-saving stations, equipped with boats and crews to man them, at intervals on the coast of the State. In 1869 there were no less than 92 of these stations in active operation. Two years later, in 1871, the United States government instituted its coast guard system, thereby obviating to a great extent the necessity for private enterprise, so that by 1916 the Society had decreased the number of its stations to 36. The records of some of the heroic rescues, made by its crews, fill pages of the book before us, and cause a thrill of grateful admiration towards the Society which rendered them possible.

Many and various were the other public

benefactions of the Society. It offered a reward for the best collection of facts bearing on the origin of yellow fever, hoping that if the cause might be ascertained, the recurrence of the disease might be averted. In 1843 it gave $500 towards the purchase of a telescope for the astronomical observatory at Harvard. It contributed liberally, from its funds, towards the establishment of the Massachusetts General Hospital and other objects connected with the public health. It is doubtful if any other organization in the United States possesses so long and varied a record of useful benevolence, and preservation of its history in permanent form is well worth while.

FRANCIS R. PACKARD

THE great French pictorial weekly L'Illustration has recently resumed its practice of publishing as a supplement the current plays of literary worth produced in the theatres of Paris. On March 1st it published in this manner "Pasteur," a play in five acts, written by Sacha Guitry, and produced for its premier at the Vaudeville with the author's father, Lucien Guitry, in the title rôle. M. Guitry states that he was stimulated to write the play by reading the classic life of Pasteur by Valery-Radot. The action is based on facts narrated in the book, especially the inoculation of Joseph Meister, the first patient upon whom Pasteur used the antirabic virus. Many of the lines in the play are Pasteur's own utterances. The final act is the great reception in honor of his

seventieth birthday. M. Guitry has used with dramatic effect some of the vivid incidents in the great man's life, and the play gives a moving idea of his unswerving devotion to scientific truth and of the irritation caused him by the unscientific criticism of his logical methods and the absolute accuracy with which he employed them. We know of no similar dramatization of a great scientist's achievements, and the value of such a production in its effect on either professional or lay audiences must be immense. Appended are a number of criticisms by the leading French dramatic critics which are unanimous in their expressions of approbation.

FRANCIS R. PACKARD

ASPECTS OF DEATH AND CORRELATED ASPECTS OF LIFE IN ART, EPIGRAM, AND POETRY. Contributions towards an Anthology and an Iconography of the Subject. Frederick Parkes Weber, M.A., M.D., F.R.C.P., F.S.A. XI+786 pages; 145 illustrations, third edition, revised and much enlarged. Price $7.50 net. New York: Paul B. Hoeber.

The byways of literature are much frequented by doctors-to their great benefit. With a hobby a man is reasonably secure against the whips and arrows of the most outrageous fortune. Among our English brethren an avocation is more common than in America, and in the midst of a busy practice a man will keep a keen interest in literature or botany or archæology. It is interesting to note that at present the President of the Poetry Society, the President of the Bibliographical Society, and of the Classical Association, are physicians.

The volume before us represents the avocational studies of one of the best known of London physicians, and a student of extraordinary keenness. To-day Dr. Parkes Weber is in medicine the successor of Jonathan Hutchinson, and an anomalous case or a new disease is sure to be illustrated at once from his wide experience. This work is an outcome of his studies in Numismatics, to which subject he has made many valuable contributions, and on which his father, the late Sir Hermann Weber, was a distinguished authority.

The book has grown in a remarkable way: the first edition, 1910, consisted of a series of articles reprinted with alterations and corrections from the Numismatic Chronicle. A second enlarged and revised edition appeared in 1914. The present greatly enlarged and rearranged edition combines an

exhaustive iconography of death with a complete anthology. It forms, as the author says, an "essay on the mental attitudes towards ideas of death and immortality," and the various ways these have affected the individual, as illustrated in epigram, poetry, and the minor works of art, such as gems, medals, jewels, etc.

Of the four parts into which the work is divided, the first is general and historical, the second an arrangement and analysis of the various possible aspects of death, the third deals with medals and coins, and the fourth with engraved gems, rings, and jewels, and representations in pottery. It forms an extraordinary study on the reaction of man's mind towards the last great act; and one is astonished at the industry and versatility of the author who has laid under contribution the literatures of all time. Every aspect of death is discussed, and he clothed the time-worn skeleton by correlating every aspect with the living.

Of special interest to the doctor is the long section in Part 2, dealing with the medical, sanitary, and social attitudes towards death.

It is astonishing how much medical history may be read from coins. From the fifth century B.C. are Sicilian coins illustrating the freeing of Selinus from a pestilence, possibly malaria, by the drainage of the neighboring marshlands. The special work by Pfeiffer and Ruland-"Pestilentia in Nummis"--deals with the medals and tokens relating to epidemics of plague and other infectious diseases. The literary value of the work is enhanced by references from the authors of every period; for example, under this section of the emblematic representation of disease, Johnson's striking statement is quoted: