The question of affiliation with the Canada Medical Association was also discussed, and the idea was indorsed by the Association, and the Executive Committee was given power to work out the details and to carry it into effect.

Under the head of School Hygiene, it was decided to memorialize the Government and request them to appoint a medical adviser for the Education Department, so that the question of hygiene and its teaching in our public schools might be carried out under the supervision of a person specially qualified on this subject.

A special committee which was appointed at our last meeting to revise the constitution and by-laws, presented their report. The only important change was the making of the membership fees permanent; that is, members to continue in good standing, must pay their fees annually whether in attendance at the meeting or not. The following were elected officers of the Association: President, Dr. C. J. Fagan, Victoria; Vice-President, Dr. Glenn Campbell, Vancouver; Treasurer (re-elected), Dr. J. D. Helmeken, Victoria; Secretary (re-elected), Dr. R. Eden Walker, New Westminster.

In response to a pressing invitation to hold the next annual meeting in conjunction with the State Associations of Washington, Oregon and Idaho, the next meeting place will be Seattle, where a joint meeting of the above Associations will be held, the exact date to be fixed later, probably some time in August, 1909.

Physician's Library.

Husband's Practice of Medicine. Designed for the use of students and practitioners. Sixth edition, rewritten and enlarged. By ROBERT F. C. LEITH, M.A., M.Sc., M.B., C.M., F.R.C.P. (Ed.), Professor of Pathology and Bacteriology, Birmingham, and ROBERT A. FLEMING, M.A., M.D., F.R.C.P. (Ed.), Lecturer on the Principles and Practice of Medicine, School of Medicine of the Royal College of Edinburgh: Assistant Physician, Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh. Edinburgh: E. & S. Livingstone.

This book will provide medical students with a concise, reliable and modern text-book of medicine. The book is not illustrated, but it is very complete as a text-book goes.

It is provided with a very full index, which will be appreciated. Treatment and the diseases of the nerves have been written by Dr. Fleming, while Dr. Leith has written the balance.

Hygiene for Nurses. By ISABEL MCISAAC, author of "Primary Nursing Technique," graduate of the Illinois Training School for Nurses; formerly Superintendent of the Illinois Training School for Nurses, etc., etc. Price, $1.25. Toronto: The MacMillan Company of Canada, Limited.

We find in this little book a text-book on hygiene for the young nurse of a rather practical character. There is just enough knowledge herein for the young nurse to assimilate. Its text is nicely arranged and unnecessary subjects are omitted.

Pulmonary Tuberculosis and Its Complications. By SHERMAN G. BONNEY, A.M., M.D., Professor of Medicine, Denver and Gross College of Medicine, Medical Department of the University of Denver, etc. With 189 original illustrations, including 20 in colors and 60 X-ray photographs. Philadelphia and London: W. B. Saunders Company. 1908. Canadian agents: J. A. Carveth & Co., Toronto.

This is a complete treatise on the subject of pulmonary tuberculosis and the many complications and secondary involvements. The book has been designed especially for the general practitioner, and in the text Dr. Bonney gives the observations of a large practical experience.

The section on physical signs of pulmonary tuberculosis is particularly thorough, a character which is necessary in a work of this kind. Special attention is also given to treatment. There are chapters on prophylaxis, open-air treatment, diet, sanitarium and climatic treatment, drug and vaccine therapeutics.

The work is particularly well illustrated, the sections on openair treatment and on the use of X-rays in the diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis being especially commendable in this regard.

Protective Association

ORGANIZED AT WINNIPEG, 1901

Under the Auspices of the Canadian Medical Association

HE objects of this Association are to unite the profession of the Dominion for mutual help and protection against unjust, improper or harassing cases of malpractice brought against a member who is not guilty of wrong-doing, and who frequently suffers owing to want of assistance at the right time; and rather than submit to exposure in the courts, and thus gain unenviable notoriety, he is forced to endure black mailing.

The Association affords a ready channel where even those who feel that they are perfectly safe (which no one is) can for a small fee enroll themselves and so assist a professional brother in distress.

Experience has abundantly shown how useful the Association has been since its organization.

The Association has not lost a single case that it has agreed to defend.

The annual fee is only $3.00 at present, payable in January of each year.

The Association expects and hopes for the united support of the profession.

We have a bright and useful future if the profession will unite and join our ranks.

EXECUTIVE.

President-R. W. POWELL, M.D., Ottawa.

Vice-Pres dent-J. O. CAMARIND, M.D., Sherbrocke.
Secretary-Treasurer-J. F. ARGUE, M.D., Ottawa.

SOLICITOR,

F. H. CHRYSLER, K.C., Ottawa.

Send fees to the Secretary-Treasurer by Express Order, Money Order, Postal Note or Registered letter. If cheques are sent please add commission.

PROVINCIAL EXECUTIVES.

ONTARIO-E. E. King, Toronto: I. Olmsted, Hamilton; D. H. Arnott, London: J. C. Connell, Kingston; J. D. Courtenay, Ottawa.

QUEBEC-H. S. Birkett, Montreal; E. P. Lachapelle, Montreal; J. E. Dube, Montreal: H. R. Ross, Quebec; Russell Thomas, Lennoxville.

NEW BRUNSWICK-T. D. Walker, St. John; A. B. Atherton, Fredericton; Murray MacLaren, St. John.

NOVA SCOTIA-John Stewart, Halifax; J. W. T. Patton, Truro; H. Kendall, Sydney. PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND-S. R. Jenkins, Charlottetown.

MANITOBA-Harvey Smith, Winnipeg; J. A. MacArthur, Winnipeg; J. Hardy, Morden. NORTH-WEST TERRITORIES-J. D. Lafferty, Calgary; M. Seymour, Regina.

BRITISH COLUMBIA-S. J. Tunstall, Vancouver; O. M. Jones, Victoria; Dr. King, Cranbrooke.

Published on the 15th of each month. Address all Communications and make all Cheques, Post Office Orders and Postal Notes payable to the Publisher, GEORGE ELLIOTT, 203 Beverley St., Toronto, Canada

VOL. XXXI.

TORONTO, OCTOBER, 1908.

No. 4.

COMMENT FROM MONTH TO MONTH.

The Outlook for the Medical Student is a grave one. Before entering upon the study of medicine, the candidate should pause and think deeply. The medical colleges are again opening in Canada, and at this moment it is impossible to say what the number in attendance will be, nor yet what the first year classes will total up to. It would be interesting to tabulate the various reasons which induce these young men, many of them fresh from the high schools of the country, with practically no training in life of any sort, to enter upon the medical career as the one most roseate which offers itself as a fitting vocation for their lifework. Have they a "call"? If they have and can combine therewith a natural aptitude for the laboriously anxious life they will hereafter lead in prosecuting their profession, then it may be all very well with them. But, on the contrary, if they are looking for an easy mode of making a living and some money, as well as becoming members of a respectable calling, then there is in store for many of them keen disappointments. Of course, it is understood by all that not all who enter upon the study of medicine ever finish. Various and

sundry are the reasons which will deplete the ranks of every freshmen class as it proceeds to the final year. It is on every hand manifest to many who are already in the medical profession that particularly in this country is that profession far overcrowded. Toronto is said to be the second city in the world whose medical population is more in proportion to the civic population than any other city in the world, Madrid alone excepted. It is almost as bad in other cities of Canada, and also in the country. The last great West ever offers an alluring field; but even there, with a foreign population constantly pouring in, conditions for the medical practitioner are said to be burdensome, and that, although far-off pastures look green, only a few are actually eating the succulent morsel of success. When this is true and known to all, particularly to the professors in the different teaching faculties, why should there be any extra efforts put forth to entice young men into a profession which can gain only for its members a scant livelihood? Why should the paths of entrance be paved so smoothly? Why should entrance piecemeal be continued on the curriculum of the licensing bodies? Why should the standards not be raised? Why should the age entrance not be raised? Are the feelings and judgments of a boy of sixteen or seventeen years of age ripe for choice of a career? Is a young man of twenty-one years of age capable of employing that calm judgment and deliberation required in many emergencies with which the practice of medicine is hedged in, and in which often the life of an individual hangs in the balance? Has he at the age of twenty-one even more than acquired that good preliminary knowledge in general education which all ought to possess ere he embarks upon such a tempestuous sea as the study and the practice of medicine? As year after year goes by the medical profession takes a higher standing in the community at large; and, if this be so, does it not appeal to most men that granting licenses to practice the most noble and exacting of callings to young men who have but attained their majority is hardly apace with the advancement of the scientific and practical side of medicine? At least study up to that age of a general character should be demanded before any single student should be allowed to enter upon the study of medicine. It is "up to" the professoriate to do a little discouragement rather than encouragement to the everincreasing tide which annually surges into the medical colleges of the land. One would think this specially incumbent upon those professors of a state-aided enterprise, as there can possibly not accrue any private gain. And it would also be but just to the poor student himself that a view of his future life-work should, as far