position of jointly returned causes and preliminary work relating to its next decennial revision.

It is by the authority and under the express direction of the American Medical Association that this circular has been prepared by the Committee on Public Health and recommended to the attention of the officers and members of all State and county medical societies in the United States. It has been approved by the special committees of various National organizations co-operating in this work, and by the Federal authorities, and it is earnestly hoped that the entire medical profession of this country will give heed to this appeal and begin at once, in vigorous, systematic efforts in their own localities and through the perfected organization of the medical profession, to advocate the adoption of proper methods for the registration of vital statistics, and especially for the immediate record of all deaths as they occur, with their causes, by means of standard certificates of death and burial permits.

The absolutely necessary requirements of a satisfactory law for the registration of deaths have been formulated by the special committee of the American Public Health Association, composed of practical registration and sanitary officials, in co-operation with the U. S. Census Bureau, and have been fully indorsed by the American Medical Association and other co-operating agencies. They have been specially issued by the Census Bureau, in the form of a pamphlet entitled "Legislative Requirements for Registration of Vital Statistics," for the use of all who may desire to improve methods of registration. This relates chiefly to deaths, but a second pamphlet on "Registration of Births and Deaths" contains drafts of model laws for both purposes.

The essential requirements of a law for the complete and thorough registration of deaths may be summarized below, as taken from the authorities cited. It may be said, on the basis of all past experience in this country, that any proposed law or draft of a bill that does not comply with these fundamental requirements will prove inadequate and unsatisfactory in practice. Physicians should watch all such legislation and see that proper measures are adopted. It is better to have no law, or attempt at legislation, than one that is sure to produce only imperfect and worthless results, and that will merely bring registration methods and vital statistics into contempt.

These are the necessary provisions for a registration law for deaths:

1. Deaths must be registered immediately after their occur

rence.

2. Certificates of death (standard form) should be required.

3. Burial or removal permits are essential to the enforcement of the law.

4. Efficient local registrars are necessary.

5. The responsibility for reporting deaths to the local registrar should be fixed.

6. The central registration office should have full control of the local machinery, and its rules should have the effect of law. 7. The transmission and preservation of returns should be provided for.

8. Penalties should be provided.

Include all of these provisions in a law and its results will be reliable; omit any one of them and the registration will be more or less defective and worthless.

It is not too early to begin work for the next legislative session. The first step, which should be taken without fail at the next annual session of the State Medical Society, is to appoint a strong committee-strong in interest in the improvement of registration and in ability to push the work, but preferably few in number-to organize the work in co-operation with the Public Health Committee of the Association and with the Census Bureau. This committee may correspond directly with Dr. Cressy L. Wilbur, Expert Special Agent of the U. S. Census Bureau, Lansing, Mich., who represents the Government authorities interested in the extension of registration, and is in direct touch with the Public Health Committee in its labors in pursuance of the resolution of the association. Dr. Wilbur will advise with the committees of any State in regard to the details of a proper registration bill, and will, when necessary, personally appear before medical societies, health officers' associations, legislative committees, etc., as may seem to be desirable for the purpose of advancing this work.

Please begin at once, and, if immediate results should not crown the first efforts, have your committee re-appointed at the next annual session, and fight it out until every State in the Union shall have an adequate registration of vital statistics. Our sanitary progress and the prevention of disease and deaths depend upon our knowledge of mortality and sickness, and it will be a glorious

achievement of the organized medical profession of this country if this grand result shall be brought about through its efforts. Very respectfully,

The Committee on Public Health of the American Medical Association.

HEMAN SPALDING, M.D., Chairman,

Chief Medical Inspector, Chicago, Ill.

WM. C. GORGAS, M.D.,

Assistant Surgeon-General, U. S. Army.

W. H. SANDERS, M.D.,

State Health Officer, Montgomery, Ala.

J. N. HURTY, M.D.,

Sec. State Board of Health, Indianapolis, Ind.

VICTOR C. VAUGHAN, M.D.,

Memb. State Board of Health, Ann Arbor, Mich.

Approved:

The Committee on Demography and Statistics in their Sanitary Relations of the American Public Health Association. WILLIAM A. KING, Chairman, Chief Statistician for Vital Statistics, U. S. Bureau of the Census, Washington, D. C. CRESSY L. WILBUR, M.D., Chief of Division of Vital Statistics, Department of State, Lansing, Mich.

JOHN S. FULTON, M.D., Secretary State Board of Health, Baltimore, Md.

HENRY M. BRACKEN, M.D., Secretary State Board of Health, St. Paul, Minn.

JESUS E. MONJARAS, M.D., Mexico, D. F., Mexico.

FREDERICK L. HOFFMAN, Statistician Prudential Life Insurance Co., Newark, N. J.

The Committee on Vital Statistics of the Conference of State and Provincial Boards of Health of North America.

IRVING A. WATSON, M.D., Chairman, Secretary State Board of Health, Concord, N. H.

CHARLES A. LINDSLEY, M.D., Secretary State Board of Health, New Haven, Conn.

PETER H. BRYCE, M.D., Secretary Provincial Board of Health and Deputy Registrar-General, Toronto, Ont.

CRESSY L. WILBUR, M.D., Lansing, Mich., Honorary Member.

The Committee on Morbidity and Mortality Statistics of the Conference of State and Territorial Health Officers with the United States Public Health and Marine Hospital Service. HENRY B. BAKER, M.D., Chairman, Secretary State Board of Health, Lansing, Mich.

GARDNER T. SWARTS, M.D., Secretary State Board of Health, Providence, R. I.

HENRY M. BRACKEN, M.D., Secretary State Board of Health, St. Paul, Minn.

United States Public Health and Marine Hospital ServiceTreasury Department.

WALTER WYMAN, M.D., Surgeon-General, Washington, D. C. S. N. D. NORTH, Director, Washington, D. C.

United States Bureau of the Census-Department of Commerce and Labor.

WILLIAM A. KING, Chief Statistician for Vital Statistics, Washington, D. C.

BIOGRAPHY OF A FOOL.

He didn't have time to chew
The food that he had to eat,
But he washt it into his throat
As if time were a thing to beat.
At breakfast and lunch and dinner
'Twas a bite and a gulp and go-
Oh, the crowd is so terribly eager,
And a man has to hurry so!
A bite and a gulp and away

To the books and the ticker! A bite
And a drink and a smoke and a seat.

At a card table half of the night;

A pressure, a click and a pallor,

A cloth-covered box and a song;

A weary old fellow at forty,

Who is deaf to the noise of the throng.

-"Chicago Times-Herald."

BOOK REVIEWS.

Elements of WATER BACTERIOLOGY, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO SANITARY WATER ANALYSIS.-BY SAMUEL CATE PRESCOTT, Assistant Professor of Industrial Biology, and CHARLESEDWARD AMORY WINSLOW, Instructor in Sanitary Bacteriology, in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 12mo, x+162 pages. Cloth, $1.25. Order through your bookseller, or copies will be forwarded postpaid by the publishers on the receipt of the retail price. New York: John Wiley & Sons. London: Chapman & Hall, Limited. 1904.

The purpose of this book is to fill a gap in the literature of the subjects of which it treats. For, while recognizing the fulness with which bacteriology, chemistry and water analysis is treated in many works, and the opportunities given to students by lectures in various institutions, the authors have recognized the need of an elementary work, both as an introduction to the subject and as a manual for students. Though it has been especially prepared with reference to the course of study pursued in the Massachusetts School of Technology, it appears to be equally well adapted to similar courses of study in other institutions. Nevertheless, the authors would have it "distinctly understood that students using it are supposed to have had beforehand a thorough course in general bacteriology, and to be equipped for advanced work in special lines."

It is admirably arranged in ten comprehensive chapters: The Bacteria in Natural Waters; Quantitative Bacteriological Examination of Water; Interpretation of the Quantitative Bacteriological Analysis; Determination of the Number of Organisms Developing at the Body Temperature; Isolation of Specific Pathogenes from Water; Methods for the Isolation of the Colon Bacillus ; Significance of the Presence of B. Coli in Water; Presumptive Tests for B. Coli ;. Other Intestinal Bacteria; the Significance and Applicability of the Bacteriological Examination, and an appendix upon the composition and character of the culture medium.

THE THERAPEUTICS OF MINERAL SPRINGS AND CLIMATES.-By BURNAY YEO, M.D., F.R.C.P., Emeritus Professor of Medicine in King's College, London; Consulting Physician to King's College Hospital; Hon. Fellow of King's College; Formerly Professor