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be confirmed after a long interval. This cannot be said of

many medical works, and so we wish the second edition thesuccess it deserves.

Visiting List Tcmperat1lre Charts. Leeds : Harvey andReynolds.-This is another of those useful companions forthe busy practitioner which we have to notice from time totime. The charts are clearly printed, are of very convenientsize, and can be obtained in books of fifty. As each is filled

up it can be torn from the book, and placed with the recordof the case. We believe such charts meet an expressedwant, and of their value in enabling a systematic record tobe kept there can be no doubt.Memorandum Books for Practitioners.-Messrs. John

Richardson and Co.’s visiting list has especial features ofinterest and usefulness for the general practitioner. It

provides for the systematic registration of medical reports,and for keeping a list of drugs wanted, instruments lent, &c.

Specimen pages will be found at the end of the AnnualPrice Current of this firm, which is compiled and presentedin a very convenient form for medical men who dispense fortheir own patients.

New Inventions.MECHANICAL AIDS FOR PERSONS COMPELLED

TO PRACTISE REGULAR CATHETERISM.

MESSRS. MAYER & MELTZER, of 71, Great Portland-street, have, from the designs of Mr. G. Buckston Browne,made two apparatus likely to prove useful to the above classof patients. For in-doors, a box has been arranged, stand-ing on four legs, and containing everything that a patientneeds in order to use his catheter during the night or day.This contrivance will doubtless save both fatigue and loss of

time. Fig. 1 represents the box; it contains a pot-de.chambre (E), a washing-out india-rubber bottle (A), a bo]of matches (n), an oil-bottle (c), a candle (D), a drawer fojcatheters (F), and a drawer for towels (G). The box is

portable, shutting up into a small compass ; the four shorilegs unscrew, and are packed into the towel-drawer.For out-door use a walking-stick has been contrived, con.

taining an oil-bottle and a receptacle for catheters. It is ’

intended to obviate the trouble and annoyance of carryingoil and catheters in the pocket. Fig. 2 illustrates the

walking-stick. The top of the handle (A) unscrews, andexposes an oil-bottle (B), beneath which there is a receptaclefor a couple of catheters. In cases where a curved catheteris necessary the handle of the walking-stick may be suitablybent.

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INVALID TABLE AND DESK.

SURGEON-MAJOR J. B. HAMILTON, Statistical Officer tothe Surgeon-General, Simla, has invented an " invalid tableand desk" for the use of patients confined to bed, whichappears to be exceedingly simple, ingenious, and portable.It consists of a revolving shelf or table, supported on a lightwooden framework, with handles at the side, and is placedover the bed. By an arrangement of holes and pins attachedby light chains the height above the bed is regulated, thusallowing a thin or stout person to use it in comfort; thesesame pins support the framework on the sides of. the cot.When used as a table for meals &c., the revolving shelf isset at right angles, rests on a small block, and a pin insertedabove fixes it firmly. When required for use as a writingor reading desk the pin is removed, and by depressing asmall handle attached to the front of the table the latter israised to the desired slope, is fixed by the same pin, and acomfortable desk is formed. This action is very simple, andcan be worked by a bedridden patient with little trouble orexertion. The cost of the apparatus, made of deal or somecheap light wood, is stated to be only a few shillings. Ithas been adopted by the Government of India for use intheir military hospitals. -

CLOSET VENTILATING APPARATUS.

MR. THOMAS WALLER, C.C., of Fish-street-hill, has in-vented a ventilating apparatus for closets, which is com-mendable on account of its simplicity. The only visiblepeculiarities are wired apertures for the entrance of airbelow and in front, and the same arrangement at the backand just above the level of the seat. By fixing a tube atthe back of the closet, with an open mouth let into thespaces above and below the seat, gases which enter thecloset through defective joints in soil or syphon-pipes arecarried away immediately. The flap or cover, being fixedon an incline, acts in the same way as a blower to a fireplace.This ventilation can be made equally suitable for hospitalsand sick-rooms if the ventilating tube be connected withthe chimney. The inexpensiveness and simplicity of thearrangement are its chief recommendations, and it is henceworthy the attention of hospital, asylum, and unionauthorities.

THE LATE DR. MURCHISON.To the Editor of THE LANCET.

SiR,-Allow me to express to you my deep regret at

hearing just now of the death of Dr. Murchison. Allow methis expansion of my sympathy for a man so modest and ofso great scientific medical knowledge. His well known

writings ; his great diagnostic power and abilities to trainstudents in difficult clinical work; his kindness withoutaffectation, together with the view of a suffering man-atale soon told by the sad, slightly edaematous face, andthe strong pulsation of the external carotid-a man, I say,who knew how to forget himself for the benefit of others,made of Dr. Murchison an interesting and very sympathetic

figure to me and other foreign visitors of his clin-zque.Lastly, allow me, Sir, to say it would be a beauty moreamong the many of St. Thomas’s Hospital to see changedthe name of Mary or Arthur wards for the name of one whowas so modest, so wise, and an unrivalled teacher.

Yours, Sir, very truly,Paris, 25th April, 1879. A FOREIGN DOCTOR.