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NEWS ITEMS.

ANESTHESIA IN HEART DISEASE.- -A special meeting of the Philadelphia County Medical Society was held on June 15th to receive the report of a Committee appointed, at the request of Dr. H. F. Formad, to inquire into certain testimony given by him at a coroner's inquest ; which testimony, he stated, had been imperfectly reported, giving rise to a false impression in the public mind. The opinion attributed to Dr. Formad was "that ether should not be administered to persons suffering with heart disease." It is true that he did so state, but the important omission of the words additionally used by him, "without due precaution and proper care both during the administration of the drug and after its withdrawal," materially altered the import of his testimony as reported.

That Dr. Formad qualified his testimony by the use of the language quoted, was substantiated by the statement of the Coroner and the evidence of the records of the Coroner's office.

In view of these facts the Committee reported the following resolutions, which were unanimously adopted :

Resolved, That in the opinion of the Philadelphia County Medical Society, the testimony of the Coroner's physician, Dr. H. F. Formad, "that ether should not be administered to patients with heart disease, without due precaution and proper care both during the administration of the drug and after its withdrawal" is correct and proper ; and the same caution should be observed in any other case.

And whereas, A false impression may have been given to the public by the imperfect reports of Dr. Formad's testimony published in the daily papers, and the medical profession placed in a false and dangerous position, therefore be it further

Resolved, That, in the opinion of this Society, the administration of ether is not only necessary and proper when pain is to be inflicted upon patients with cardiac lesions, but lessens the dangers incident to operation ; provided that due care be taken during the administration of the anaesthetic, and proper regard be paid to its after-effects.

PHARMACY AT CORNELL UNIVERSITY.-A School of Pharmacy is to be opened in connection with Cornell University during the coming Fall. Women and men are to be admitted.

THE TWELFTH MEETING OF THE SOCIETY OF NEUROLOGISTS AND ALIENISTS OF SOUTHWESTERN GERMANY was held on June 11th and 12th at Strassburg. Among the papers of interest read was one on the Use of Hyoscin in Nervous Diseases, by Erb, of Heidelberg, and Demonstrations of Nervous Diseases, by Kussmaul, of Strassburg.

ILLNESS OF PROFESSOR BILLROTH.-As the name of the great Vienna surgeon is almost as much a household word among his English-speaking brethren as it is