EDITORIAL. 
479 
Braithwatte's  Retrospect  of  practical  Medicine  and  Surgery.  Partlix. 
July.  Uniform  American  Edition.  New  York,  W.  A.Townsend  and 
Adams,  publishers,  1869  :    pp.  284,  octavo.    (Price  $2.50  per  annum.) 
The  half -yearly  abstract  of  the  Medical  Sciences.  Being  a  digest  of  British 
and  Continental  medicine  and  of  the  progress  of  medicine  and  the  col- 
lateral sciences.  Yol.xlix.  Jul}^  1869.  Philadelphia,  Henry  C.  Lea, 
1869  :  pp.  293.    (Price  $2.50  per  annum.) 
These  useful  semi-aunual  visitors  are  again  welcomed  with  their  useful 
burthen  of  valuable  papers  and  abstracts,  brought  together  from  a  wide 
range  of  journals  during  the  past  six  months  in  a  permanent  and  conve- 
nient form, 
The  Family  Adviser  and  Guide  to  the  Medicine  Chest.    A  concise  hand- 
book of  domestic  medicine.  By  Henry  Hartshorne,  A.M.,  M.D.  Re- 
vised and  enlarged.    Philadelphia,  J.  B.  Lippincott,  1869. 
The  adaptation  of  this  little  volume  to  the  purposes  indicated  in  the 
title,  have  been  well  endorsed  by  the  necessity  for  a  new  edition  so  soon 
after  that  noticed  in  our  number  for  Sept.,  1868.  Its  conciseness  renders 
it  fit  to  carry  in  the  pocket  or  valise,  and  will  be  useful  to  all  travellers. 
Foeticide  or  Criminal  Abortion. — A  lecture  introductory  to  the  course  on 
obstetrics  and  diseases  of  women  and  children.  University  of  Penn- 
sylvania, session  1839—40.  By  Hugh  L.  Hodge,  M.  D.  Philadelphia, 
Lindsay  &  Blakiston,  1869.  For  sale  by  the  publishers.  Price  30  cents. 
This  lecture,  published  twice  before  (1840,  1854)  is  now  again  printed 
with  a  prefatory  note  by  the  author.    This  is  sufficient  evidence  of  its 
merit  and  of  its  need  at  the  present  time. 
Circular  No.  2.  War  Department  ;  Surgeon  GeneraVs  Office,  Wash- 
ington, J  2d,  1869.  A  Report  on  excisions  of  the  head  of  the  femur 
for  gun  shot  injury.  Washington,  Government  printing  office,  1869  ; 
pp.  141,  quarto. 
This  report  is  made  to  the  Surgeon  General  by  George  A.  Otis,  As- 
sistant Surgeon,  and  brevet  Lieut-Colonel  U.  S.  Army.  It  is  partly  his- 
torical of  the  subject  from  the  early  part  of  the  18th  century  to  the 
Crimean  War.  The  cases  detailed  in  the  Report  amount  to  63,  of  which 
6  were  successful  and  58  fatal.  The  author  details  briefly  cases  by  other 
treatment  and  by  amputation  at  the  hip  joint,  and  draws  his  conclusions 
in  the  final  chapter. 
The  work  is  elegantly  printed,  and  illustrated  by  several  lithographs 
and  numerous  excellent  wood-cuts,  and  reflects  great  credit  on  the  De- 
partment as  a  contribution  to  the  literature  of  surgery. 
