ferent forms of the same malignant disease; that the morbid changes may commence in the mucous and muscular coats of the fundus and body of the uterus, though they are observed most frequently to begin in the orifice and cervix. It may be inferred, also, from these histories, that inflammation of the uterus does not give rise to cancer in any form, and that the progress of the disease to a fatal termination is never arrested by those remedies which subdue inflammation." (p. 12.)

Of the plates illustrating this fasciculus, the first represents "a fœtus of seven months, with its placenta partly adherent by a band to a nævus occupying the scalp and dura mater," the case being recorded in the twenty-second volume of the Med.-Chir. Transactions.' What right this plate, beautiful and interesting as it is in itself, has to a place among the illustrations of malignant diseases of the uterus, we must confess ourselves at a loss to discover. The subjects of the other plates are highly appropriate, and are executed with Mr. Perry's well-known skill and fidelity; but they scarcely comprise all the most important forms of malignant disease.

The second fasciculus contains a similar account of fibrous tumours and polypi of the uterus, of which sixteen cases are recorded. The illustrations are admirable, and are so selected as to bring all the chief varieties of these diseases under the eye of the student.

ART. X.-Lectures on the Parts concerned in Operations on the Eye, and on the Structure of the Retina, delivered at the Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital, June, 1847: to which are added, a Paper on the Vitreous Humour, and also a few Cases of Ophthalmic Disease. By WILLIAM BOWMAN, F.R.S., F.R.C.s., Professor of Physiology and General and Morbid Anatomy in King's College, London.-London, 1849. 8vo, pp. 144. With Thirty-eight Wood-engravings.

HAVING been prevented, by a press of other matters, from giving such an account of these Lectures as their merits call for, we must postpone to a future occasion our notice of some of the most interesting points of which they treat, and must content ourselves with recommending them to our readers as a most valuable contribution to ophthalmological science. The chief novelty will be found in the account of the minute structure of the cornea, the ciliary muscle, the retina, and the vitreous humour; and in the examination which Mr. Bowman has made into the departures from the normal characters presented by various textures in a state of disease. We trust that his connexion with the Moorfields Hospital will afford him opportunities of carrying out this latter part of the investigation with his well-known industry and acumen.

ART. XI.-A Treatise on the Diseases of the Heart and Great Vessels, and on the Affections which may be mistaken for them: comprising the Author's View of the Physiology of the Heart's Action and Sounds. By J. HOPE, M.D., F.R.S., &c. &c. Fourth Edition.-London, 1849. Post Svo, pp. 612.

THE merits of Dr. Hope's classical treatise are so well known to the profession, that we have no need to do more than notice the issue of this new edition: the peculiar merit of which consists in its being reduced in

size and price, without any omission from the text except in the case of such controversial matter as is now comparatively unimportant; and with the addition of some notes and cases which the author left in Ms., and ordered to be inserted in the next edition. The plates, we are informed, have been most reluctantly omitted: their insertion would have added considerably to the expense of the work; and it has been thought preferable to sacrifice them to the higher object of usefulness, by bringing the book, at a reduced price, within the reach of a larger number of students. We trust that, in its present compact form, the work will gain that attention from the "rising generation" to which it has so well established its claim.

ART. XII.-On the Cryptogamous Origin of Malarious and Epidemic Fevers. By J. K. MITCHELL, A.M., M.D., Professor of Practical Medicine in the Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia.-Philadelphia, 1849. Post 8vo, pp. 138.

In this little work the author sustains the same hypothesis in regard to the Cryptogamic nature of fever poison, as was put forth by Dr. Cowdell in his work on the Asiatic Cholera,' reviewed in our Third Number. It is obvious, however, that the author has not been in the least indebted to Dr. Cowdell, either for the idea itself, or for the arguments by which he endeavours to establish it; but that he has for some years been in the habit of propounding the doctrine to his class and to his scientific friends. After a careful study of his production, we feel bound to say that he has made out a very strong case; and that the arguments adduced by Dr. Cowdell and Dr. Mitchell, from the study of independent diseases, mutually tend to confirm each other. We are glad to find from Dr. Mitchell's Preface, that "experiments are in progress, which seem to promise more direct and unquestionable proof of the validity of the hypothesis ;" and we trust that they may lead to some satisfactory result. The author advances some very cogent objections to the theory of ferments, as the agents in producing what it is now the fashion to call "zymotic" diseases, which we deem worthy of attentive consideration.

ART. XIII.-The Training Institutions for Nurses, and the Workhouses: an attempt to solve one of the Social Problems of the present day. By EDWARD SIEVEKING, M.D., Physician to the Northern Dispensary, &c. &c.-London, 1849. 8vo, pp. 22.

THERE cannot be two opinions amongst Medical Practitioners, as to the value of well-qualified and faithful attendants for the sick. How often do the discrimination and watchfulness of an intelligent nurse make all the difference between a favorable and a fatal termination of a dangerous malady! How constantly does judicious kindness mitigate unavoidable suffering; and what a source of tranquillity there is to the patient in the very tone and aspect of a gentle and devoted watcher! On the other hand, how frequently is the most grievous injury done by the neglect and presumption of the careless and ignorant; and how much does any manifestation of impatience, carelessness, or irritability, add to the sufferings of the invalid! The wealthy often find it difficult to secure such services as they desire; the poor must be in great measure deprived

of them, except when human sympathy supplies that assistance which they have no worldly means of obtaining. It is not sufficient, however, to make a good nurse, that she be specially trained for the purpose. The requisite knowledge may be imparted; but who, save the individual herself, can furnish that disposition which is a not less essential qualification? Moreover, our experience of the uneducated classes leads to the conclusion that, with a few rare exceptions, such a general education as tends to call forth the intelligence and to cherish the moral feelings, is an indispensable foundation for the character of a superior nurse. All who have had opportunities of watching the "Soeurs de Charité" in their self-devoted ministrations, will, we are confident, agree with us in attaching the highest value to such primary qualifications.

We are glad of any attempt to excite attention to the want under which this country certainly labours to a greater degree than most others; and we trust that the subject will not be allowed to drop. Dr. Sieveking's pamphlet contains some suggestions which are worthy of consideration; but the plan he proposes is only adapted, in our estimation, to meet one part of the difficulty,-that of providing the needful assistance for the poor, by educating for the object a portion of the inmates of workhouses. We hope to be soon again called on, by the promulgation of some more complete scheme, to draw the attention of our readers to this matter.

ART. XIV.-On the Science of those Proportions by which the Human Head and Countenance, as represented in Works of Ancient Greek Art, are distinguished from those of Ordinary Nature. By D. R. HAY, F.R.S.E., Author of First Principles of Symmetrical Beauty,' &c. &c. With Twenty-five Plates.-Edinburgh, 1849. 4to, pp. 80.

THERE are few subjects as to which the public mind in this country has made more progress during the last twenty years, than it has in the love of art and in the appreciation of beauty. And with this improved cultivation of the practical, there has been a corresponding advance towards a more correct estimate of the fundamental principles which constitute the theoretical portion of aesthetics. We no longer find it doubted that the human mind has an innate sense of beauty, as it has of truth and of goodness; and the notion is rapidly gaining ground, that no system of education can be complete, which does not include, with the cultivation of the intellectual faculties and the moral sense, the development of that sense of beauty which the Creator has implanted in our minds for wise and benevolent purposes, and which may not merely be rendered capable of ministering in innumerable ways to the enjoyments of ordinary life, but is connected also with its higher aims, imparting to truth its most attractive brightness, to goodness its greatest loveliness. Nor do we now find it denied that this sense can be improved by cultivation; or that, except in a few rare cases, its scope must be very limited, its indications very imperfect, unless it has been submitted to a regular discipline. On the contrary, in most departments of art it has come to be admitted that there are certain fundamental principles which may not be disregarded in any attempt to gratify the cultivated taste for beauty; so that, although the most rigid observance of rules cannot make an artist, no one can be a real artist who works in systematic violation of them. "By an implicit obedience to the application of these definite rules," says our author,

"genius has clothed the creations of fancy in poetic numbers, or given form and expression to the most exquisite combinations of musical sound, thereby charming the ear and entrancing the soul of the most intelligent and critical student of art, through that inherent principle in the human mind that responds in unison to every species of harmony."

Although this has long been conceded, however, with regard to poetry and music, yet it has been too much the fashion to assume that the formative arts are not amenable to any well-defined laws, whose bounds shall guide their development, or supply safe canons for the critic's guidance. There would seem no a priori reason, however, why such should be the case-why the combinations of colour and proportion, which are pleasing to the visual sense, and through it awaken the sense of beauty in the mind, should not be reducible, to a certain extent at least, to fixed rules, just as the combinations of sound which are pleasing to the ear are found to be accordant with rules deduced from the physical conditions under which those sounds are produced. It is probably known to most of our readers that Mr. Hay has perseveringly devoted himself to the search for these principles, and that his labours have been attended with a large measure of success, his works on 'Harmony of Colouring' and the 'First Principles of Symmetrical Beauty' having gained for him a high reputation, and having contributed to diffuse a belief in the existence of fundamental principles in the formative arts, even if it be thought that we are as yet only at the entrance of the path which may at last conduct us to them.

In the present treatise he attempts to show that the proportions of those ideal representations of the human head and countenance, in which the ancient Greek sculptors so much excelled that their works have become standards to all future time, are mutually connected with each other, and may be reduced to certain simple numerical and geometric relations. From the works of Plato, and from various historical data, he adduces strong grounds for the belief that some such theory had been constructed by the Greeks themselves, so that from the simple laws of numerical proportion and geometrical construction they formed a standard of perfectly symmetrical beauty, to which all their representations presented a certain conformity, however they might be modified to express the various phases of divinity or humanity. We fully agree with Mr. Hay in the correctness of the distinction between the beauty of form and the beauty of expression, and believe that no one who is not blinded by devotion to a theory could fail to perceive it. The one is purely aesthetic, and may be attained, to a certain limited extent, by observance of rules for its production; the other appeals to our emotional consciousness, and through it to the intellect. The one is independent of all association, and appeals simply to our sense of abstract harmony of form; whilst the other is intimately connected, through the associative principle, with the highest enjoyments that we can derive from intercourse with our kind. The two may coexist in the highest degree, or may be blended in various proportions; but either may exist without the other. We may have the most perfect symmetrical beauty with an entire absence of expressiveness; a most charming expression without the least approach to symmetry.

We could not attempt, without the aid of diagrams, to convey an idea of Mr. Hay's views with respect to the symmetry of the human head. It must suffice to say that his ideal head is made up by the combination of a sphere and an ellipse, having certain proportions to each other, the

former giving the outline of the cranial portion, and of the upper part of the face; whilst the latter gives the outline of the lower and anterior porThis he illustrates by well-arranged diagrams, which show that such a combination is accordant with reality in each of the three aspects in which the skull may be viewed, namely, the front, or facial, the lateral, and the basal. And he then goes on to demonstrate how, by a variation in the angles of the triangles which constitute the foundation of his construction, an infinite variety of gradations may be produced, which correspond with the various modifications presented to us in the works of the Greeks; whilst by a further departure from the fundamental type, in the inclination of the long axis of the ellipse, the elevated character of the physiognomy is made to give place to one of greater or less degradation, in which, however, the rules for the determination of the place of the features still hold good. The triangles on which the construction of most perfect symmetry is based, are those which Plato regarded as the most perfect in nature, being the right-angled isosceles triangle, which forms the half of a square; and the right-angled scalene triangle, which forms half of an equilateral triangle. The numerical proportions between the angles of these triangles are extremely simple, and correspond exactly with those which regulate the concords in music.

All these coincidences are certainly extremely curious; and the scheme which Mr. Hay has drawn up deserves the credit of great ingenuity, if nothing more. But we are firmly persuaded that there is something more, whether it is reserved for this generation to find it out or not; and that in art, as in science, there are fundamental truths, whose sublimity is only equalled by their simplicity, and which will reveal themselves in due time to its true votaries.

ART. XV.-Essay on the Use of Alcoholic Liquors in Health and Disease. By JOHN CHADWICK, M.D.-London, 1849. 12mo, pp. 124. THE author of this Essay tells us that the subject of it having been continually before his attention, in the course of his professional practice, during many years, he has come to the conclusion that a vast amount of mental and physical evil has resulted from the use of alcoholic drinks; that by a large proportion of the profession, as well as by the public, the true mode of action of these drinks on the human body is not known, not being correctly explained in any book specially devoted to the subject; and that there is no safe conduct in regard to them, except their total disuse, save in their legitimate office as medicines.-In these views we heartily concur; and as Dr. Chadwick has advocated them with considerable ability and good sense, we have much pleasure in recommending his treatise to our readers.

We may add, as an indication of the public demand for "temperance literature" of a superior class to the stuff commonly circulated, that the "Scottish Temperance League," having reprinted the article entitled "Temperance and Teetotalism," from the last number of Dr. Forbes's Review (by permission of Dr. Forbes), has circulated the whole of an edition of fifteen thousand, and has lately issued a new edition of ten thousand, with the name of the author (Dr. Carpenter) attached, at the price of three halfpence.