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496 dedicated it to Dr. Mead in acknowledgment of the latter’s friendship and of the kindness shown him by the Faculty when he was apprehended to be in danger. Freind, in the first volume of this work, explains the contribu- tions to medicine of Galen’s immediate successors- Oribasius, Retius, Alexander Trallianus, and Paulus Aegineta-and shows the Arabians’ debt to them. The plague of Justinian’s time, the medical merits of St. Luke and St. Basil, and Harvey’s discovery of the circulation of the blood, all form interesting episodes in Freind’s narrative and are treated with great learning and skill. The volume concludes with an account of Palladius and later Greek physicians. In the second volume the Arabian school is dealt with, and it contains an admirable summary of the additions made by that school to medical knowledge. A description of the school of Salernum is followed by an account of the English mediaeval writers, Gilbertus Anglicus, John of Gaddesden, Mirfeld, and Arderne. The plague of 1348, the sweating sickness, the scurvy, lues venerea, gunshot wounds, lithotomy, and anatomy engage the author’s attention. He ends the volume with an account of Linacre and of his influence on subsequent medicine and physicians. Systematic medical biography began with the "Bustorum Aliquot Reliquiae " of Dr. Baldwin Harvey, and was con- tinued by John Aikin, by Dr. Munk in his " Roll of the College of Physicians," and by the numerous articles in the "Dictionary of National Biography." The College of Physicians, founded in 1518, initiated constant relations between contemporary physicians in England, and linked them with those of the past and the future in a continuous stream. Starting from the study of Hippocrates’ observa- tions of nature, the College soon went on to experi- mental research, the first great result being Gilbert’s discovery of the magnetism of the earth ; the second, Harvey’s discovery of the circulation; then followed Glisson, the pathologist, and Sydenham, the clinical observer, who may justly be regarded as the founder of the noble school of public health which exists in England. Finally, Matthew Baillie, the morbid anatomist, Sir William Jenner, Wilks, and Gee were treated of in succession, and especial mention was made of John Hunter, who established surgery as a scientific study in England, raising it from a mere discussion of method to the status of a true part of medicine, a true predecessor of Lister. Dr. Moore con- cluded by pointing to the many directions in which the history of medicine might be pursued, the variety of learning that might be brought to bear on it, and the relation it bore not only to the practice of medicine and surgery and to pathology, but to all allied subjects and the study of history at large. (To be continued.) THE MUSEUM. The Museum of the Seventeenth International Congress of Medicine, housed in two laboratories on the top floor of the Royal College of Science, illustrated much of the recent work in medicine and the allied sciences that had accrued since the last congress in Budapest in 1909. The main idea of the organising committee was to provide practical demonstration of the subject-matter discussed at the various sectional meetings. In addition, loan museums dealing with medical matters were on view, together with a most instructive series of exhibits dealing with museum technique from beginning to end. A first glance at these two laboratories, with all their available space filled, hinted at the enormous energy and perseverance required to crystallise the committee’s idea ; a fuller examination evoked feelings of admiration for the deter- mined manner in which success had been attained. Every- where evidence of the guiding hand of that experienced and versatile organiser, Mr. H. W. Armit, was to be found. To him we owe gratitude, not only for the vast preliminaries entailed in collection and arrangement, but also for his translation of the 200 page catalogue into French and German, and also for his frequent presence during the days of the exhibit as guide and friend to the many visitors present. The committee was lucky indeed in having him as secretary. Without entering into detail here the general ideas gleaned from a first view were the following. Firstly, the technical skill of the exhibitors, and here our memory chiefly recalls preparations from abroad which often typified the race that produced them ; secondly, the protean aspects of medical science and the dogged search for truth along so many paths ; then the everlasting pursuit of the direct and contributory causes of disease and the signal triumphs in mitigation and prevention gained by such of this investiga- . tion that bore success ; and finally, the idea of teaching that permeates the modern museum. Musem Technique. It was quite fitting that our attention should be drawn in the first instance to the apparatus of museum technique and the several methods of preserving the original colour in specimens to be mounted and their indexing. Thus we were shown within a museum the numerous processes required in the formation of a museum. All the methods of colour preservation seemed to be successful, but there was no indication of the cost which is always a consideration with at any rate the smaller London hospitals. A comparison from this point of view would have been of much value. Coronal and transverse sections through the entire thorax, as shown by Professor Hauser, indicating the lesions occurring in continuous viscera in that one plane without disturbance of parts, are a great advance on the usual methods of displaying a single viscus. These sections were particularly instructive in cases of pleural effusion and extensive cavitation of the lung. But here in England we doubt whether popular sentiment would allow many specimens of this kind being secured. Professor Spalteholz showed a large series of bones, hearts, and other viscera, which had been rendered trans- parent by passing through benzoline and mounting in oils- a most novel method of bringing out certain features such as the arrangement of cancellous tissue of bone and the process of ossification in foetal skulls, the centres having been previously acted on by a selective stain. Professor Wahby’s preparations of the vascular system obtained by metallic or celluloid injection and subsequent solution of the surrounding tissues were very prominent. A combination of injection and Spalteholz method gave a vivid picture of the vascular systems in small fishes and rats. Hygiene and Preventive Medicine. Underthis heading came an important exhibition, arranged by Dr. E. Collis, to show the effects of dust-mineral, metallic, and animal-in producing pulmonary diseases. Here we found many of the processes illustrated, specimens of the raw material used, and samples of dust from the worker’s benches or rooms, and numerous macroscopic and micro- scopic preparations of tissues obtained from man and animals after long-continued inhalation of foreign particles. In addition to these, statistical figures indicating the preva- lence of phthisis and other facts were at hand. It was interesting to know the "asthma" of those engaged in stripping cotton-carding machines, the comparative freedom of coal-miners from phthisis, and the great value of radiograms in estimating the amount and distribution of the fibrosis. Surely these workers in dusty trades-and the list is a very long one, including, as it does, stone dressers, flint knappers, ganister and other miners, potters, granite cutters, plaster- of-Paris workers, and many others-deserve our sympathy and whatever protection we can devise. Much has been done to reduce the prevalence of pneumoconiosis by efficient dust removal, adequate ventilation, and the conversion of former dry methods of grinding and drilling into wet ones. But all the devices ever thought out will fail unless they meet with the intelligent cooperation and not the carelessness or indifference of the workers themselves. Progress in the prevention of beri-beri was shown by a series of charts. One depicted its gradual abolition in the prisons of the Malay Peninsula on the substitution of whole rice for white, and another showed a fall in the death-rate from 421 per 1000 before to 5 per 1000 after the abolition of white rice amongst the Christmas Island coolies. These con- clusions were corroborated by photographs of pigeons showing their suffering from experimental polyneuritis and their cure by appropriate dieting. Cancer. The work of cancer researchers was illustrated from many aspects. Induced and abnormal mitoses were shown by models, photographs, and actual preparations. Experimental cancers in mice and spontaneous cancers in various animals
