what they are capable of doing. Official want of recognition soon passes into official indifference, and this again into opposition to a body which manifests neither soul nor spirit, but confides in its own persuasion of its utility and in its self-knowledge of the work it accomplishes, giving, however, no external signs thereof to enlist attention to it. Those who have watched factory legislation and its results in this country will be much pleased to find its principles and its main provisions progressively recommending themselves to other countries. To what extent this progress has been made is shown in the appendix to this work. In fact, we find from it that several foreign kingdoms have not only been copyists of our measures, but have gone beyond us, and will soon become examples to us of more advanced views of protection as regards especially the labour of women and children. The treatise under notice is the composition of the First Secretary of the Austrian Embassy in London, who has evidently devoted great pains and research in the uninviting department of literature represented by blue-books and reports, and gathered facts to make a very readable, interesting book. Teratological Catalogue.-Our forefathers would have rested content with the announcement of a list of monsters and malformed parts, but the present age demands information, whatever it chance to be, served up as an o-logy, and our scientific men have consequently to extract from their well-thumbed Greek lexicons some recondite word which shall be duly tacked on to the o-logy, and make a term of due length and of the abstruse, mysterious signification sought for by the transcendental minds of the nineteenth century. The word Teratology, we presume, has the same sort of comfort about it to the scientific mind as 'Beelzebub' had to the religiously minded elderly female of the tale; and we should be sorry to disturb the comfortable sensations it may call forth by any critical remarks upon its character and parentage. And happily Mr. Lowne takes occasion in an excellent introduction to the catalogue to define teratology as having "for its domain the consideration of abnormal conditions of development." In arranging the examples of such conditions he adopts six classes:Variation; Duplicity; Excess of Growth; Arrest of Growth; Arrest of Development; and Disease; and these classes, again, are made subservient in their application to abnormal conditions of plants; of the axis in animals; of the limbs; of the skin. 1 Descriptive Catalogue of the Teratological Series in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. By B. THOMPSON LOWNE, M.R.C.S.E., &c. London, 1872. Pp. 110. and appendages; of the osseous and muscular systems; of the sensory organs; of the heart and vessels; of blood-glands; of the digestive organs; of the urinary and generative organs; of the oviduct and ova of birds. Mr. Lowne has well fulfilled his not easy task, and has rendered this section of the magnificent museum of the College of Surgeons devoted to abnormal forms available to the genuine student of morphology and of animal variations. He speaks of the apparent absence of laws regulating malformations; but with the aid of the collection he has catalogued, and of the descriptive notes he has supplied of the several preparations, we trust that the research of some ardent student will some day culminate in the establishment of some definite principles determining all departures from normal structure. Journal of Anatomy and Physiology. This excellent journal continues, we are glad to see, to appear with great regularity, and to contain a series of valuable essays and papers. Foremost amongst these are the notes on myology, by Professor Humphry, who really deserves high credit for his scientific work, when his labours as a consulting physician and his numerous and onerous duties as a professor of and teacher in the University of Cambridge are considered. The notes include descriptions of the muscles of the Lepidosiren annectens, of the smooth dogfish (Mustelus levis), of the Ceratodus, and of the glass snake (Pseudopus Pallasii), and also some general statements in regard to the disposition of the muscles in vertebrata. The other editor, Professor Turner, has not been idle, for we find him contributing a paper on the sternum of the sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus), another on the dentition of the narwhal (Monodon monoceros), and a third on the structure of the human placenta, besides two long reports on the progress of anatomy. The structure of the placenta is also the subject of a paper by Dr. Braxton Hicks. Professor Struthers gives a long paper on the cervical vertebræ and their articulations in fin whales, and Dr. Watson one on the anatomy of the Indian elephant, comprising the description of the urinary and generative organs of that animal. The other principal anatomical papers are--Dr. R. Traquair on the socalled tailless trout of Islay, Mr. Frank Champneys on a communication between the external iliac and portal veins, Mr. S. Messenger's notes of myological peculiarities, Mr. Stirling on the presence of Trichina spiralis in the muscles of the rat, Dr. Watson on a case of termination of the thoracic duct on the right side, Mr. Galton on a case of abnormality of the teeth in man, Dr. Handyside The Journal of Anatomy and Physiology. Nos. X and XI, May and Novem ber, 1872. on two cases of quadruple mammæ in brothers, Dr. Wagstaffe on a peculiar formation of the leg and foot, and Mr. Walter Rivington on valves in the renal veins. The principal physiological papers are by Dr. Ainslie Holles on tissue metabolism, or the artificial induction of structural changes in living organisms; one of considerable interest by Mr. A. H. Garrod on sphygmography; Dr. Clifford Allbutt on the effect of exercise on the bodily temperature; Dr. Lauder Brunton on the action of digitalis on the blood-vessels; Dr. Fraser on the Kombé arrow poison of Africa, derived from the Strophanthus hispidus; and by Mr. Butler Stoney on the effect of stimuli on the secretion of the parotid gland. The reports by Drs. Turner, Brunton, Ferrier, and Frazer, on anatomy, physiology, and the physiological action of medicinal and poisonous substances, are, as usual, very complete and accurate. Ringer's Handbook of Therapeutics.-The rapid sale of Dr. Ringer's treatise on therapeutics speaks well for the ready appreciation by British practitioners of new views of practice when recommended to them on sufficient authority and with sufficient precision. Indeed, a considerable portion of the therapeutical teachings of this book is very much at variance with the prevailing dogmas twenty years since. The doctrine of the efficacy of frequently repeated small doses is an innovation, and that of the antagonism in action of many drugs is a development of positive science from what were only crude guesses previously obtained. The present edition has undergone revision throughout, and numerous additions have been made in it. Of the latter we may note a new chapter on nitrite of amyl; a digest of the experiments with cold baths in fever; a fuller account of the Turkish bath as a therapeutical agent, also of the action and uses of veratria, of aconite, and of digitalis; in the case of the substance last named the researches of Fothergill, Foster, and Da Costa being very fully represented. Other new matter is introduced in the account of the Calabar bean, and Dr. Fraser's valuable experiments and conclusions respecting the antagonism of belladonna and physostigına are pretty fully detailed. The cutaneous rash from the alkaline bromides comes in for notice, as does also the recent use of large doses of iodide of potassium in the treatment of aneurism. On the other hand, we should have looked for a fuller history than is given of nitrous oxide as an anesthetic, considering the great extension of its use even since the date of the previous edition. Moreover, we fail to see reference to the death that ensued not long since from its administration, although this unfortunate case pre A Handbook of Therapeutics. By SYDNEY RINGER, M.D. Third Edition, 1873. Pp. 576. sented points of interest lacking in the history of the one fatal instance the author was able to quote when he put forward the last edition. We are likewise disappointed at the little new matter introduced in the account of alcohol, and note with regret that the excellent experiments by Dr. Clouston on the use of bromide of potassium in mania have escaped notice, as also have the various recorded examples of the value of chloral in puerperal convulsions. This third edition contains nearly one hundred pages more than the one preceding it; but it is right to add that a considerable proportion of this increase is due to the employment of a larger type, and consequently to the extension of the same amount of matter over a wider surface. When another new edition is called for we shall be glad to see a chapter on general therapeutical doctrines and on the modes of action of medicines. The treatise has, as heretofore in earlier editions, our hearty approval. Wilson Fox on Stomach Diseases.-This new edition is in some degree a new work, the author having extended his plan so as to make the work comprehend all the well-recognised lesions of the stomach. In this form we believe the treatise will be more highly valued than before. The principal additions referred to in the preface as made to this new issue are the chapters on ulcer and cancer of the stomach, besides some minor contributions; but besides these special articles much other new matter, particularly in the way of notices of opinions and researches by the best-known modern pathologists, has been also added. These notices, which are largely in the form of quotations, attract attention on almost every page, and attest the industry of Dr. Fox in seeking to make himself familiar with all that has been said and done in connection with the subject-matters he deals with. This zeal and conscientiousness in noting what other authors on stomach disorders have written, and in crediting them with their opinions, may, in the estimation of some, be regarded as a fault in the treatise, in so far as it makes Dr. Fox the recorder of the works and views of others, to the detriment of his own character as an original observer and an experienced physician. However, granting that such an opinion may obtrude itself upon any readers, there is ample matter to prove Dr. Wilson Fox to write from personal research and experience, and to possess views of his own both in pathology and treatment. He has evidently aimed at completeness in the information presented; and, as he surmises, the collection of opinions and authorities on stomach diseases will save future writers much trouble in discovering the sources of opinions and statements The Diseases of the Stomach; being the Treatment of the Varieties of Dyspepsia.' Fox, M.D., F.R.C.P., &c. London, 1872. Third Edition of the Diagnosis and now generally received or still open to consideration and discus sion. The work is divided in two parts, of which the former is occupied with the symptomatology of the stomach, the latter with the special diseases of that organ. In treating of the causes of dyspepsia, as manifested by the various symptoms belonging to it, Dr. Fox has shown much brevity in the consideration of food and drink, desiring, we apprehend, to avoid being betrayed into writing a work on diet as well as on stomach maladies. Nevertheless we should have been pleased to have had a more full account of foods as sources of disease and as means of cure, and might, certainly, have looked for something more than the very meagre notice of alcohol he has presented, both in its character as a cause of disease and as a remedy. As might be supposed from the well-known bent of the author's mind, pathological details are very fully entered into, and the reader who masters them will gain a very clear insight into the symptomatology of gastric disease, and gain some steps in advance in his search after means to effectively treat them. The therapeutical directions are rather too miscellaneous and general, and the author seems timid of propounding as his own any special modes of treatHe retreats, as it were, when he discusses treatment, under the mantle of those who have advocated some one or other particular course. The reader is consequently left very much to his choice amid a greater or less variety of plans set before him, his monitor too frequently only giving an uncertain sound. Still, our opinion remains that this work by Dr. Wilson Fox is a highly valuable one, representing very fully the most recent views relative to the pathology and symptomatology of diseases of the stomach, and offering an excellent digest of the principles and details of treatment advocated by the most eminent practitioners of the day. Billroth's Surgery." The study of surgery, which you begin with this lecture, is now, in most countries, justly regarded as a necessity for the practising physician." This is the first sentence with which Professor Billroth commences a course of fifty lectures, delivered, we suppose, to his class in Vienna; but whether this be so or not, it is the first sentence we find in the introductory chapter to what may, with complete propriety, be called his great work on surgical pathology and therapeutics; if permitted, we should be disposed to venture something like a paraphrase of the above, and say, The study of medicine, which you begin with this lecture, is now, in most countries, justly regarded as a necessity for the practising surgeon. In point of fact, the division between medicine and surgery 1 General Surgical Pathology and Therapeutics. By THEODORE BILLROTH, Professor of Surgery in Vienna, &c. Translated from the Fourth German Edition, by CHARLES HACKLEY, A.M., M.D. New York, 1871. |