Urology

This work is a textbook of Urology in one volume covering the field of Ur.ology very thoroughly and, in fact, including a chapter devoted to nephritis, a subject into which the Urologist is often unwillingly drawn, although best treated as a medical problem. This book is best adapted to the student, since its discussions are such that anyone without special training in Urology could not help but grasp them. A detailed description of the various urological instruments and of everyday technic of diagnosis and treatment is given. While this is of great value to the student or the general practitioner it will not often be read by the seasoned urologist. Many chapters are preceded by a discussion of anatomy and embryology. In such things as the diseases of the testicle and the enlargement of the prostate gland, this information is most valuable to both the student and the urological surgeon. An excellent discussion of the advantages and limitations of excretory urography is given. The authors state that many times this new method of diagnosis has been used to the exclusion of cystoscopic examination and retro-grade urography. They point out that the absence of dye in the pelvis may occur in a normal as well as a diseased kidney, and that as a test of kidney function excretory urography is of little or no value. Also that small defects in minor calyces must be checked by a retrograde examination. The chapter on anesthesia covers the subject well. The authors state that spinocaine is a good preparation for spinal anesthesia. This preparation has been discarded by many who have given it very extensive use and I believe that it has been generally displaced by the simple preparations. The authors also recommend the use of ephedrine in conjunction with spinal anesthesia, but in many of our urologicail clinics intravenous glucose-is used and ephedrine plays only a secondary role. The value and use of the various urinary antiseptics is admirably presented. The authors e all the modern data concerning sulfanilamide and the various urinary antiseptics. Their disapproval of many of the latter is very wholesome. The following bit of statistics concerning the azo dye preparations is typical of the careful way they have made use of current literature, "A questionnaire from a large group of urologists shows that thirty-three per cent felt they were of no use, twenty-one per cent never use them, and …