the disease it illustrates, and a general outline of the treatment appropriate in such cases. Thus, when complete, it will constitute a sort of museum of collected cases, showing in various groups not only the active forms of acute diseases, but their terminations or results also ;" and will thus form a most valuable accompaniment to any systematic treatise on diseases of the eye.

The second Fasciculus now before us is quite equal to its predecessor in artistic beauty, and in lifelike accuracy of delineation and colouring; and having already said of the first, that "it realizes all that we believe it possible for Art to effect in imitation of Nature," we do not see that we have any higher praise in our power to bestow. The subjects illustrated are Warts and Horns on the Eyelids, Syphilitic and Malignant Ulceration of the Eyelids, Diseases of the Lachrymal Apparatus, Rupia prominens, Phthiriasis (the pediculus ciliorum being identical with that of the pubes, not with that of the scalp), Ecchymosis, Edema of the Eyelids, specimens of the two principal types of Vascularity in Diseases of the Eye, and Scrofulous Ophthalmia. This last, to which a whole plate is devoted, in order to bring in the entire head of the subject, is a most painfully characteristic representation of one of the worst forms of this most intractable disorder.

Of Mr. Wilson's Portraits,' the first delineates a case of Kelis, a very remarkable and rare affection, consisting of an excrescence that presents very much the appearance of the cicatrix of a burn; the second is denominated Xeroderma icthyoides, better known as Icthyosis simplex; the third represents Lepra vulgaris, otherwise known as Psoriasis scutulata; and the fourth depicts Psoriasis vulgaris, about whose synonymy there is fortunately no trouble. Of the last three, we can affirm that they are most characteristic and admirably-executed portraits; of the first, as we have never seen a case of the kind, we can only remark that it has every appearance of being the same.

Mr. Maclise gives us, in his first plate, three figures illustrating the Surgical Dissection of the Wrist and Hand; in his second, two figures representing the relative position of the Cranial, Nasal, Oral, and Pharyngeal Cavities; in his third, the relative position of the Superficial Organs of the Thorax and Abdomen (which would have been more truly seen if the shoulders had not been dragged up by the tying of the wrists above the head); and in his fourth, the relative position of the deeper Organs of the Thorax and Abdomen. The plates are all excellent; and we are happy to find that our exhortations have been so well taken by Mr. Maclise, that there is not a single line in their accompanying commentary to which we can object as transcendental.

ART. VI-Some Thoughts on Natural Theology, suggested by a Work, entitled "Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation."-London, 1849. 8vo, pp. 246.

THE writer of these " Thoughts" seems anxious to shield the author of the "Vestiges," for whom he appears to have an enthusiastic admirationranking him with Newton, Laplace, and Cuvier, as men who "show what the reason of man is capable of, and exalt our conceptions of the dignity of human nature"-from the odium theologicum which has been so copiously poured upon him. In particular, he desires to show that the

doctrine of "development," as expounded in that work, has no irreligious tendency. Upon this point we are quite in accordance with him; our objection to it being, that it is destitute of an adequate scientific basis. We are disposed to think that all parties will ultimately meet in the belief that every natural phenomenon is the direct and immediate result of the Will of the Deity, acting according to a determinate plan; the original perfection of which was such as to need no subsequent interference, the universe having undergone its grand and harmonious evolution, without any departure from the original scheme, and being still as dependent as ever upon the sustaining power of its Creator.

ART. VII.-Questions and Observations in Hygiene: recommended to the consideration of Naval Medical Men; suggested to the mind of the Author by the approach of the Asiatic Cholera. By FRED. JAMES BROWN, M.D. Lond., &c., Assistant-Surgeon R.N.-London, 1849. Post 8vo, pp. 64.

THESE Very useful suggestions are grouped together under the following heads. Condition of the sick-berth, and round-houses or necessaries. II. Cleanliness, washing, and airing of clothes, &c. III. General clothing, ventilation. IV. Articles of food, water. v. Use of rum and tobacco; leave. VI. Use of fruit-Diarrhoea and Cholera-Sick-berth attendant. VII. Discipline. vIII. Religious and moral condition of the men. IX. Connexion of disease generally with the condition of the ship. -We earnestly recommend them to the attentive consideration of every medical officer in the navy. Our government marine ought surely to take the lead in the promotion of hygienic improvement; and to afford a model in this respect to the mercantile service.

ART. VIII.-Portraits of Disease of the Scalp, with the Safest and most Efficient Modes of Treatment. By WALTER COOPER DENDY, Senior Surgeon to the Royal Infirmary for Children, &c. &c. Fasiculus I.London, 1849. 4to. Four Plates.

We believe Mr. Dendy to have made good use of the extensive opportunities which his position has afforded him for the study of the diseases of the skin which are most frequent in children; and among these, as every practitioner knows, diseases of the scalp hold a conspicuous place. He has intended to present in this treatise (of which the second and concluding part is announced as nearly ready) "the merely practical view of the maladies, avoiding any minute microscopic delineations, and all formal disquisitions on their pathology;" and so far as his text is concerned, he has succeeded well. But as to his plates, alas! we cannot speak in the same terms of commendation. Had they been issued as caricatures instead of as portraits, we should have strongly recommended them as admirable provocatives of laughter, as we have observed them to be productive of this result in the case of every one who has inspected them. Mr. Dendy would certainly consult his credit by suppressing these delineations, and substituting a set of plates drawn by some professional artist more capable of doing justice to the subject.

ART.-IX. Memoirs on the Ganglia and Nerves of the Uterus. By ROBERT LEE, M.D., F.R.S., Lecturer on Midwifery at St. George's Hospital, &c. &c.-London, 1849. Small 4to, pp, 36. With five Engravings. 2. Practical Observations on the Diseases of the Uterus. By ROBERT Lee, M.D., F.R.S., &C. The coloured Illustrations from Original Drawings by Mr. PERRY. Parts I and II.-London, 1849. Large 4to, Plates I-VIII; pp. 20.

THE first of these publications is not precisely what its title imports, for the 'Memoirs' constitute but a very small part of it, the remainder consisting of a statement, by Dr. Lee, of all the transactions that have occured in connexion with them between himself and the Royal Society. The medical public has, we suspect, had quite enough of the discussion; and we do not see that any good purpose can be gained by recpening_it. We may state our decided opinion, however, that Dr. Lee, like Dr. Marshall Hall, has fair grouud of complaint against the Society on account of some of its proceedings in connexion with his Memoirs; and we trust that the Physiological Committee, as now constituted, will take warning by the errors of that of preceding years, and avoid even the appearance of favoritism or jobbery. At the same time it can scarcely be supposed that Dr. Lee's history gives both sides of the case, and it would be wrong, therefore, to judge from it alone. After a careful perusal of it, we are confirmed in the justice of the statement which we have made in the early part of the present Number (p. 9.), respecting the insufficiency of the microscopic evidence supplied by Dr. Lee; for although it is true that he did, in the year 1839, seek the assistance of Mr. Tomes, in 1840 that of Dr. Hake and Dr. Grant, and in 1841 that of Mr. Dalrymple, yet the first of these gentleman confessed himself unqualified to give a satisfactory opinion respecting the structures in question; the second merely states that the fibres resemble those of other nerves; the third says that "the evidence from the microscope is very flimsy; the fourth (whose opinion is entitled to every respect) did not examine nerves prepared by Dr. Lee, but specimens dissected out by himself; and not one of them says a word about the ganglia. At that time, moreover, the true characters of the "gelatinous" nerve-fibres were not understood by microscopists; and as we do not find that Dr. Lee shows himself at all aware of the progress of this branch of historical inquiry, we would earnestly counsel him, before he makes any further move in this matter, to seek the assistance of those who can give him an opinion respecting the nervous or non-nervous character of the structures he describes, which shall be satisfactory to the scientific world.

It is refreshing to meet Dr. Lee again in the field of "practical observation," in which he has already laboured to such good purpose; and we have great pleasure in bringing under the notice of our readers the work he has recently commenced, which promis's to be of great value as a clinical history of the diseases of which it treats. The first fasciculus, which is devoted to malignant diseases of the uterus, records the principal features of forty-two cases, from which the author draws the following conclusions:

"From these cases it will be seen that the fungoid tumour of the uterus, or cauliflower excrescence, scirrhus, carcinoma, and corroding ulcer, are merely dif7-IV. 21*

ferent forms of the same malignant disease; that the morbid changes may commence in the mucous aud 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 presents "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 fascicilus 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 opthalmological 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 Discases 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 8vo, 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 endeavors 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 favourable and 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