now stands is far from a bad book after all:-"unswept" as it is, and 'besmeared with sluttish time," it contains a great deal of matter of real and substantial value, which will prove of permanent interest, not merely to the young, but to the old practitioner. With an amiable modesty which it would be well if some others could imitate, all that the editor says of his book is, that he "hopes that it will be found an improvement upon former editions, and a good practical treatise." We beg to assure him that he may justly take the credit of having done much more for the original, than the other editors did; and consequently, that, as it now stands, the book is, in our opinion, vastly superior to the preceding editions. Nay more-due allowance being made for its inherent and unavoidable defects,-we think Dr. Davies is entitled to claim for it the character of "a good practical treatise." Dr. Davies has enriched the volume with many excellent practical observations of his own, and has drawn copiously from the stores of recent English writers. His own additions are all of a plain, unpretending practical character, conveying useful information much in the style in which Underwood himself would have given it. We regret that our present available space will not allow us to give even a single specimen of this new matter; but we can assure our readers that wherever they find the initials H. D. appended to an interpolated passage, they will find it worth perusal. By the way, it is a great defect in the volume that it is unprovided with an INDEX, as this is particularly needed in a book of such heterogeneous materials, and these so inartistically put together. A copious alphabetical index would have gone far to make up for the want of classification and arrangement inseparable from the plan on which the work has been composed. Among the many passages we had marked as bearing the stamp of Dr. Davies's own practical hand, we would refer the reader, for favorable specimens, to pages 186 and 313. He will there find excellent observations on two important diseases, "Spasm of the Glottis," and "Typhus or low fever of Children." Many others of a similar kind will strike the eye of the practised reader as he turns over the many-coloured pages now before our own; and we believe that few practical men whose business it is to treat the diseases of children, will fail, after even a slight examination, to add the volume to the shelf where he has deposited the works for daily reference in the exigencies of practice. ART. II.- Chemistry of the Four Seasons. By THOMAS GRIFFITHS. London, 1846. pp. 495. THIS little volume combines, in an emiment degree, amusement with instruction. It contains a discussion of the chemical, physical, and vital phenomena characteristic of the four grand periods or seasons of the year; of those changes which ever recur with the varying amount of light and heat, depending on the varying obliquity of the solar rays. The author states that the chief object of his essay is to adduce a few of the principal phenomena which admit of explanation and illustration through the medium of chemistry; and he has well executed his task. Commencing with a popular description of those elementary bodies which play an im portant part in the economy of Nature; which alike form the constituents of a fertile soil, and the atmosphere, of plants, and of animals; he proceeds to the description of the chief phenomena of vegetation in its chemical relations. His statements are illustrated by the details of the more simple experiments on which they are grounded, and these are accompanied by appropriate diagrams. The laws and properties of those wonderful and mysterious agents-heat, light, electricity, galvanism, and magnetism, are appropriately discussed, and their influence on vegetation noticed. Taken as a whole, we may say with confidence that this volume illustrates in a simple, popular, and amusing manner, the chemical physiology of plants, and completely fulfils the author's aim in writing it, viz., the communicating the more important facts of agricultural chemistry, in an agreeable manner, and unclogged by the deeper investigations and speculations of science. Any person ignorant of the facts on which our knowledge of the chemistry of vegetation is founded, and of the laws which regulate the chemical changes constantly going on in plants, will do well to possess himself of this volume; for by an attentive perusal, aided by a repetition of the experiments there indicated, he will prepare himself for the study of more extended and profound works on the same subjects. We would especially recommend it to youths commencing the study of medicine, both as an incentive to their natural curiosity and an introduction to several of those branches of science which will necessarily soon occupy their attention. We would notice further, and with commendation, that a sound and rational natural theology is spread through the whole work. ART. III.—A Practical Treatise on the Diseases peculiar to Women. By SAMUEL ASHWELL, M.D., &c. Second Edition.-London, 1846. 8vo, pp. 737. In our Journal for April, 1845 (vol. XIX, p. 345), we gave so favorable an opinion of Dr. Ashwell's Treatise on the Diseases of Women,' that the speedy appearance of a second edition was far from surprising us. On the contrary, we looked upon this as a matter of course, and accordingly laid the new volume on our table with great satisfaction. Happening, however, to place the old and new copies together, and to look at the last leaf of both, we were struck with the oddness of the identity of the two numerations, and the linear coincidence of the two final pages-each was page 737, and each page 737 contained eleven lines! This roused our suspicions-roused our well-known editorial keenness of scent after pseudo-second editions-and we then proceeded to compare the old and new volumes more carefully. Advancing from the end of the books towards the beginning, we soon had demonstrative evidence, in identity of type, spacing, capitals, italics, catch-words, literal errors, &c., &c., that the two portions we were examining were precisely the same! And as these evidences of identity continued till we had got over more than two thirds of the book, we naturally concluded that we had here a most flagrant instance of that trick of publishers, which we had already, more than once, exposed,—the palming on the public an old book with a new title-page, as a new edition, in a word, a PSEUDO-SECOND-EDITION. And yet our conclusion was not ART. V.-Fever physiologically considered; considerations on Yellow Fever, Typhus Fever, Plague, Cholera, and Sea-Scurvy; also the Questions of Contagion and the Quarantine Laws; with an Address to the Public, &c. on the popular Treatment of Cholera. By DAVID M'CONNELL REED, Esq. Licentiate of Medicine &c.-London, 1846. Small 8vo, pp. 262. DR. M'CONNELL REED has taken great pains with his book, or at least with that part of it which refers to fever. The history and whole pathology of the different forms of fever are considered at length and in minute detail; but, we are sorry to say, most unsatisfactorily. With regard to the second part of the work we cannot express any favorable opinion. It is devoted to a consideration of the nature, cause, and treatment of epidemic yellow fever, typhus fever, plague, cholera, and sea-scurvy, the latter disease being most erroneously considered identical with the others mentioned. The appendix is an address "to the humane public, and to the honorable members of the medical profession" on the near advent of Asiatic cholera, and on the method of treating it. The author appears to be possessed of some talent, but it is sadly obscured by singular religious expressions, and by curiously new terms. For example, in his physiological estimate of the symptoms which depend on disorder of the brain and nervous system, Dr. Reed observes,--- "Fainting or syncope depends on suspended or probably retrograde action of the capillary vessels of the fibro-serous membrane of the brain; whence result, loss of the mento-organic faculty of sensibility, and of the animo-organic function of sensation; the mento-muscular faculty of mobility-at-will, and of the animoorganic function of voluntary motion; the total suspension of the animo- or mentoorganic faculties, &c." (p. 57.) Doubtless Dr. Reed uses these terms with a definite meaning, but we think he ought to have added a dictionary or glossary to his book. With regard to the prophetic and religious expressions of the author, we shall content ourselves with quoting the following piece of presumption: "The author confidently predicts a dreadful visitation of the cholera at the close of summer, or at the beginning of autumn, most likely in the month of August, to be succeeded by a desolating outbreak of typhus fever. He moreover predicts that those who will fall victims to these diseases are the very highest and the very lowest classes of society-those who, in consequence of their imprudence and profligacy, have induced want and starvation, with its accompanying miseries; and those who, in consequence of their avarice, gluttony, intemperance, and inhumanity, have induced an unhealthy, plethoric state of the system, coupled with an uneasy conscience. The author thinks he could go farther, and point out some of the individuals on whom this judgment will fall; but he forbears, leaving secret things to the Allwise Judge, and Disposer of all events both in heaven and earth." (pp. 225-6.) Dr. Reed further trusts much, as we learn, to "the efficacy of faithful prayer, vested in the church," relief in the coming troublous times. Our author seems to be a man mainly of three books; Thomas's 'Practice of Physic;' Hooper's 'Medical Dictionary;' and the Bible.' The latter affords mottoes; the first two numerous extracts. We cannot approve of the mixture of sacred and profane learning; the assumption of the power of prophecy, the judging of others; and the praying in public (on the sheets of his book) displayed by Dr. Reed. He should XLV.-XXIII. 16 "heartily thank God" in his closet and not on the wings of the press; and he should remember that divine law, "judge not, that ye be not judged," and not hint dark suspicions respecting his neighbours. There are evidently some elements of power in Dr. Reed's mind, but to use them aright he must undergo a course of mental discipline, or at least should learn to restrain his philological vagaries and check the exuberance of his religious imaginings. ART. VI.-1. Introductory Discourse on the mode of Investigating the Sciences belonging to the Medical Profession, delivered in the Theatre of St. George's Hospital, October 1, 1846. By Sir BENJAMIN C. BRODIE, Bart., &c.-London, 1846. 8vo, pp. 13. 2. On Medical Education: being a Lecture delivered at King's College, London, at the opening of the Medical Session, 1846-7, to which is added a Lecture delivered on the same occasion in the year, 1842. By WILLIAM A. GUY, M.B., Cantab., Professor of Forensic Medicine, King's College, &c.-London, 1846. 8vo, pp. 64. 3. The Motives of Industry in the Study of Medicine: an address delivered at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, on Thursday, October 1, 1846. By JAMES PAGET, F.R.C.S., Warden of the College and Lecturer on Physiology in the Hospital.-London, 1846. 8vo, pp. 30. 1. THAT the readers and auditors of a long succession of introductory lectures should turn away with a sort of frigid aversion from either the sight or hearing of another, is not, perhaps, very unnatural, when we consider the elements of which they are usually composed and the small amount of variety which is generally exhibited in their construction. But there is that about a superior mind which displays itself in the mode of discharging even the most formal duties or expounding even the most common-place truths. In the three "introductories" before us, we recognize as many exemplifications of this fact, for each is distinguished by some excellence that renders it worthy of special notice. The Discourse of Sir B. Brodie is expressly addressed to the pupils of the school of which he has been so long an ornament; and it exhibits, like all his addresses on medical and surgical topics, his strong practical sense, and his earnest desire that his hearers should be trained in habits of correct observation and logical deduction, and that they should acquire the knowledge under the guidance of which alone the reasoning powers can be rightly exercised upon the phenomena of life and especially of disease. The peculiar excellence of this lecture consists in its plainness and simplicity, in the aptness of the illustrations afforded by its author's vast professional experience, and in the soundness of the advice which he has imparted to his young friendsequally applicable, however, to those in all periods of life who desire that their advance in knowledge should be coeval with its duration, as to the method in which they should study the complex problems that present themselves for investigation. 2. Dr. Guy's Lecture is chiefly remarkable for the force with which the introduction of scientific study as a branch of general education, and more especially as a preliminary to the prosecution of medical study, is advocated, both on the ground of its direct utility, and of its beneficial influence on |