late visit to the United States appears to have given a strong impetus to antiseptic surgery, and the method is now practised by most of the principal American surgeons. Dr. Marion Sims performed ovariotomy antiseptically on the 23rd of November on a patient aged fortyseven, and the particulars of the case are published in a recent number of the New York Medical Record. Dr. Sass, who had perfected a convenient apparatus, directed on the occasion the carbolic spray, with which he covered the

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... of operation. The bands, sponges, and instruments were all dipped in carbolic water. The operation and dressing lasted forty minutes, the spray being kept up all the time. There were no adhesions. The peritoneal cavity contained six or eight ounces of a reddish serum, the membrane being everywhere deeply congested. The pediele was very short, and three inches broad. It was tied in three sections with strong twine, and drawn out and fixed in the lower angle of the wound, clamp-fashion. The external incision was closed with sutures, and a carbolised dressing applied. The pulse never rose above 90, nor the temperature over 1010. The tumour was polycystic, on the right side, and weighed fifteen pounds. Convalescence, writes Dr. Marion Sims, was fully assured in forty-eight hours, and the patient is now quite well. Dr. Marion Sims speaks most enthusiastically of the antiseptic method, and believes he is the first to have applied it in ovariotomy. In this, however, he is wrong, and we are somewhat surprised that he should have entertained such a misconception. Mr. y. -L. Hughes.—Wc have of late had frequent occasion to comment on matters arising before coroners. The case described by our correspondent is only one of many tending to show the necessity of a revision of the whole system.