The History and Epidemiology of Syphilis.

This small but important book consists of three chapters of equal length, owing to the fact that it consists of three lectures given by the author under the Adolph Gehrmann fund. The first lecture, on the beginning of syphilis, takes up the old argument as to the place of origin of the disease as considered from the European point of view. So convincing, apparently incontrovertible, is the evidence presented by Dr. Pusey that the old argument seems to be settled. Syphilis was imported into Europe from the West Indies by the members of Columbus's first expedition. It is an intensely interesting story. The quotation from the writing of Dias de Isla, a noted physician contemporary to Columbus, stating that "this serpentine disease" afflicting the sailors of Columbus was entirely unfamiliar to him and his colleagues, is a high point in this part of the story. A number of the oldest