ART. XIV. -Lectures and Observations on Clinical Surgery. By ANDREW ELLIS, F.R.C.S.I. &c.-Dublin, 1846. 8vo, pp. 275.

THIS volume contains the substance of certain clinical lectures delivered by the author at the Jervis-street Hospital and the Cecilia-street School of Medicine, in Dublin, and was published, he adds, at the expressed desire of some of the pupils who attended the hospital during the session.

The subjects treated of are medical education, wounds of arteries, traumatic aneurisms, injuries of the head and their consequences, peritonitis and wounds of the abdomen, delirium tremens, catalepsy and hydrophobia. These topics are handled with a respectable degree of ability, and though we have looked in vain through the Lectures for anything which can entitle them to be considered as a valuable addition to medical literature, they nevertheless contain directions as to the details of practice such as form the proper staple of a clinical lecture, and which, no doubt, rendered them useful to those to whom they were originally addressed.

Whether such a publication was needed by the "students of Great Britain and Ireland," to whom the author has somewhat ambitiously addressed it, is another matter, and one to which we should be disposed to give a pretty decided negative. We cannot refrain, moreover, from adding that the author's literary researches have proved singularly infelicitous since they led him to the discovery of only scattered information in the works of former writers on such subjects as those we have named above. We think Mr. Ellis would have better consulted his own interests and that of his readers in offering his lectures to some one of our Journals than by publishing them in their present form; at all events we will venture to suggest for the future, seeing that his book is now un fait accompli, that he would act more wisely before committing himself to the public to consult some judicious senior on the matter, rather than to act on suggestions of admiring pupils.

We observe in his lecture on hydrophobia that the author not only comes to the conclusion that the bite of a dog, not rabid, can produce hydrophobia in the human species, but expresses his belief that the saliva of a dog in perfect health, and in a state of tranquillity when it neither bites nor attempts to bite, may, if applied to a wound, produce hydrophobia in the human subject. This, to say the least, is somewhat strong doctrine, and by no means sufficiently borne out by the evidence adduced, which consists of two or three cases related at second-hand, and without any of those details necessary to satisfy the mind as to the absence of fallacies so likely to exist in a matter of this sort. On this point we beg to refer our readers to an article on the work of Dr. Wright, in the preceding part of the present Number.

ART. XV.-The Pathological Anatomy of the Human Body. By JULIUS VOGEL, M.D. Translated by G. E. DAY, M.A. and L.M. Cantab. Illustrated by Ten Plates.-London, 1847. 8vo, pp. 587.

IN our last Number we gave a pretty full analysis of the original of this very valuable work, to which we must refer the reader. We have only to add here our opinion that the translator has performed his task in an excellent manner, and has enriched the work with many valuable additions.

WORKS PUBLISHED BY THE SYDENHAM SOCIETY.

ART. XVI.-1. An Anatomical Description of the Diseases of the Organs of Respiration. By C. E. HASSE, M.D. Translated and edited by W. E. SWAINE, M.D.-London, 1846. Svo, pp. 400. 2. The Seven Books of Paulus Ægineta. a Commentary. By FRANCIS ADAMS. pp. 510.

Translated from the Greek with
Vol. II.-London, 1846. 8vo,

3. The Works of William Hewson, F.R.S. Edited with an introduction and notes, by GEORGE GULLIVER, F.R.S.-London, 1846. Svo, pp. 360.

our

THESE three volumes, so beautifully printed and so elegantly got up, are the handsome return which theSydenham Society has made to each of its subscribers for his guinea of 1846, the lowest price of which, in the shops, would be nearer three guineas than two. And yet the beauty of these volumes is their least charm. We have made to ourselves a vow not to analyse any of the works of this Society, and for these reasons: readers either have the books or they have them not: if they have them they do not require any account of them from us: if they have them not, we do them a service by thus lending our aid to compel them to join the Society and so to possess these volumes and others of like value. Of the works before us, we will merely say that Hasse's is a unique treatise on its important subject, much improved by the author's manuscript additions and excellently translated by Dr. Swaine; that the second volume of Paulus is no less curious than the first, and displays the same store of classic learning in its accomplished translator, Dr. Adams; and that the great original value of Hewson's works is here doubled by the commentaries or notes of Mr. Gulliver. This volume is, moreover, illustrated with all Hewson's plates, finely re-engraved in a reduced size, and has a charming portrait of the author as a frontispiece.

We are happy to learn that this excellent Society is very prosperous, having now considerably more than 2000 members. We trust the Council will proceed in their present course, giving us works of real value without regard to any stupid clamour that may be raised against them. It is their duty to do what they themselves think best for directing and improving the literary and scientific taste of their subscribers generally, not to cater to the unripe judgment and silly wants of the uninformed.

ART. XVII.-On Diseases of the Skin. By ERASMUS WILSON, F.R.S. Second Edition.-London, 1847. 8vo, pp. 482. With Eight Coloured Plates.

IN our Number for April, 1843, we gave a critical review of the first edition of this book. Although disapproving of the arrangement adopted by the author, we spoke favorably of the production as a whole. We refer to our previous article for the particulars of our judgment on the treatise generally, and content ourselves, on this occasion, with stating that the work is very considerably improved in the present edition, and is for the first time illustrated with plates. Of these plates it is impossible to speak too highly. The representation of the various forms of cutaneous disease are singularly accurate, and the colouring exceeds almost anything we have met with in point of delicacy and finish.

ART. XVIII. Knowledge; an Introductory Address, delivered at the Bristol Athenæum, October 5, 1846. By JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS, M.D.-London, 1846. 12mo, pp. 48.

"WHAT is knowledge? How is it obtained? What are its principal divisions? In what spirit should it be pursued?" are the questions which Dr. Symonds has essayed to answer in this address; and notwithstanding its brevity they are most clearly and attractively handled. This lecture, in common with all that proceeds from Dr. Symonds's pen, evinces the high intellectual and moral cultivation, the elegant taste, and the comprehensive acquirements of its accomplished author; and we strongly recommend its perusal to our younger friends, as likely to give them a definite apprehension of the objects of their pursuit, to stimulate their zeal in the laborious studies they have undertaken, and to elevate their ideas of the real value and ultimate purposes of that which they seek to acquire.

ART. XIX.-The Microscopic Anatomy of the Human Body in Health and Disease, illustrated with numerous Drawings in Colour. By ARTHUR HILL HASSALL, F.L.S. M.R.C.S., &c. Parts III-V. 8vo, pp. 114. With ten Plates.

WE should not have so soon returned to this publication, but for the sake of redeeming a pledge which we gave in our former notice of it, to speak more favorably of its execution, should the improved character of the work as it proceeded, enable us to do so. It is now our pleasing duty to state, that there is not only a considerable amendment in the plates of the three numbers before us, but that in the fifth part are given seven additional plates, to replace those issued in the early numbers, to which they are vastly superior, both in drawing and colouring. The justice of that part of our criticism which relates to the plates has thus been practically admitted by the author and his artist. It is right that we should further mention that the proportion of figures taken from the human subject is much increased in the later numbers. But we must still express our conviction that the work cannot be comprised within anything like the limits first announced, without doing injustice to a large proportion of the topics it is intended to embrace. For in the five numbers now issued, the animal fluids (blood, mucus, pus, milk, and semen) are not completed; and less than seven parts remain, therefore, for the description of all the solid textures of the human body. Moreover, of the large amount of letter-press which accompanies the plates, the greater part is occupied by details of a chemical nature, altogether foreign to the subject. The author seems to forget that he is writing about Microscopic Anatomy, not General Anatomy; and the investigations of Andral and Gavarret, Becquerel and Rodier, &c., on the proportion of the different constituents of the blood, have not a more just place in it than a full discussion of the microscopic characters of the blood would have in Turner's Chemistry. We are still constrained to say that Mr. Hassall appears to have entered upon his work too hastily; and that he seems ignorant of much that is current amongst intelligent microscopists at the present time, his acquaintance with the subject lying too much in the past.

ART. XX.-Euvres Complètes d'Hippocrate, Traduction Nouvelle, avec le Texte Grec en regard, collationné sur les Manuscrits et toutes les Editions; accompagnée d'une Introduction, de Commentaires Medicaux, de Variantes, et de Notes Philologiques; suivie d'une Table Générale des Matières. Par E. LITTRÉ, de l'Institut, de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, et de la Société d'Histoire Naturelle de Halle.Paris, 8vo, Vol. IV. 1844, pp. xx, 670; Vol. V. 1846, pp. 733.

The Complete Works of Hippocrates, a new Translation, with the Greek Text on the opposite Pages, collated with the Manuscripts and all the Editions; with an Introduction, Medical Commentaries, various Readings, and Philological Notes; followed by a general Index of the matter therein contained. By E. LITTRE, &c.

THIS work proceeds somewhat slowly, at least much more slowly than the learned Editor anticipated when seven years ago he published his first volume, and promised that the whole should be finished at the rate of three volumes a year. It goes on however steadily and satisfactorily, which is of more consequence; and we know by the experience of two or three memorable instances in this country that it is not easy to attain the punctuality of the Editors of the Penny Cyclopædia (and may we not add) the Cyclopædia of Practical Medicine, in works of equal magnitude.

The fourth volume which was published in 1844 finishes the list of the genuine works of Hippocrates, and contains the treatises "De Articulis," "Mochlicus," "Aphorismi,' "Aphorismi," "Jusjurandum," and "Lex." In his "Avertissement" and his "Addenda et Corrigenda" the Editor takes the opportunity of noticing some points in the former volumes which required further consideration, and in some cases, with his usual candour, corrects and modifies his former statements. To each work he prefixes an "Argument," or introduction, in which he discusses (and sometimes at considerable length,) the subject matter of the treatise, and supplies such preliminary information as may be necessary for understanding it more thoroughly. Some of these introductions are extremely interesting, and contain a valuable store of antiquarian information, illustrated and explained by frequent reference to the present state of Medical Science. The volume closes with some "Remarques Rétrospectives," on the character of the genuine works of Hippocrates and the general ideas by which they were inspired.

The fifth volume contains the Second, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh books, "De Morbis Popularibus," "De Humoribus," the first book of the "Praedictiones," and the "Coacal Praenotiones;" all of which treatises are edited, translated, and explained in the same style as the preceding works. One of the most interesting discussions introduced in this volume is that on the meaning of the word avopa, which introduces a digression on the history of the Smallpox. (p. 484.) The learned editor not only quotes the chronicles of Marius and Gregory of Tours to prove that this disease had appeared in Europe earlier than is commonly supposed, but also remarks of the plague of Athens, and of that in the reign of M.

Aurelius Antoninus, that, "if they were not identical with the Smallpox, they had at least considerable resemblances with that disease." Into this "vexata quæstio" we shall not enter at present, but shall content ourselves with once more recommending M. Littre's work to all our public libraries, and to those individuals who take an interest in ancient medical literature, as being the most important work of the kind in completeness, if not in extent, that has been undertaken for more than a century.

ART. XXI.--Remarks on National Education. By GEORGE COMBE.Edinburgh, 1847. 8vo, pp. 33.

ALTHOUGH the question to which these Remarks relate is one which it would be foreign to our purpose to discuss, yet we cannot pass Mr. Combe's pamphlet without notice; since it presents within a narrow compass a large mass of well-directed argument in favour of the position that the State ought not only to provide for, but to compel, the education of the people. He combats with great earnestness the prevalent idea that religion can only be taught dogmatically, and that an education into which it is not formally introduced is thereby "godless ;" and points out very clearly that any instruction which tends to enforce those laws on which the Creator has framed our physical and moral constitution, is essentially and directly religious. "The moral and religious sentiments," he truly says, "are the grand levers of civilized society. He who commands them is irresistible; and until science shall discover her own character and vocation, that she is the messenger of God, speaking directly to these sentiments in strains calculated to thrill and rouse them to the most energetic action, she will never wield her proper influence over society for the promotion of their moral, religious, and physical welfare. Never, until she does so, will she take that place in social esteem and veneration, which, as the fountain of divine wisdom, she is entitled to possess."

ART. XXII.-A Practical Manual, containing a Description of the General, Chemical. and Microscopical Characters of the Blood and Secretions of the Human Body, as well as of their Components, including both their Healthy and Diseased States, with the best methods of separating and estimating their Ingredients; also, a succinct Account of the various Concretions occasionally found in the Body, and forming Calculi. By JOHN W. GRIFFITH, M.D., F.L.S., Senior Physician to the Finsbury Dispensary.-London, 1846. Part II. 12mo, pp. 168. With two Copper-plates.

WE noticed the former part of Dr. Griffith's Manual soon after its publication, three years since, and then commended it as valuable so far as it went, though we felt called upon to express our surprise that so ample a title-page should be the prelude to so partial a survey of the subjects announced. In the little volume now before us, however, we have the completion of the entire range; and this in a very satisfactory manner. We can only regret, on Dr. Griffith's account, that he did not publish the