HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



11 



NEW r.OOKS* 



SCIENTinC readers of all classes cannot com- 

 plain for want of intellectual pabulum. It is 

 both varied and abundant, served up in all kinds of 





Fij,-. 10. Adult Male Oraiig. 



* '• The Graft Theory of Disease." By James Ross, M.D. 

 London : Churchill. 



" Mini and Booy." By Alexander Bjin, LL.D. London: 

 Henry S. King & Co. 



"On the Coi/eervation of En-rgy." By Profjssor Balfour 

 Stewart. Londoo : H. 8. K ng *; Co. 



" Man and Apes," By St. George Mivart, F.R S. London : 

 Hardwicke. 



" Tbe Smaller British Birds." By H. G. and H. B. Adams. 

 London : George Bell & Sons. 



" Waste Products and Undeveloped Substances." By P. L. 

 Simmonds. London : Hardwicke. 



" Where There's a Will There's a Way, or Science in the 

 Cottage." By James Cash. London: Hardwicke. 



"Tbe Telegraphic Journal." Vul. 1. London: Henry 

 GiUman. 



dishes, and garnished with all sorts of attractive 

 surroundings. Nor can the most captious complain 

 of the Mcak nature of the material supplied. In 

 this respect it is unequalled in the history of litera- 

 ture. 



Dr. Ross, whose work we have placed at the 

 head of our list, modestly states in his preface his 

 iude'i)tcduess to the great leaders of modern science, 

 and seems to put forth his volume rather too tenta- 

 tively. We assure him he need not be ashamed of 

 his production. It is a valuable evidence of the not 

 distant utilitarian application of the theory of evo- 

 lution. Dr. Ross has proved sufficiently that what 

 many regard as nothing but airy speculations, chiefly 

 fruitful in their waste of time, may result in a more 

 thorough knowledge of zymotic diseases, and there 

 fore lead to the alleviation and possible extinction 



Fig. 1 1 . Face of Prohoscis Monkey. 



of the direst diseases to which poor humanity is 

 liable. ;!iln^this essay the author has quoted freely 

 from the most distinguished of modern writers, so 

 that,^in]this respect alone, the student will find it a 

 valuable digest of opinions on the subject discussed. 

 Dr. Ross is opposed to the theory that contagiuni 

 particles are parasites in the zoological or botanical 

 sense. On the contrary, he holds that contagium 

 particles are living, in the sense of being portions 

 detached from a living being : that they are not 

 germs capable of giving origin either to higher 

 forms of life, or to organisms like themselves, but 

 that they are anatomical units modified and indivi- 

 dualized by a diseased process, and capable of im- 

 pressing upon the healthy organism with which 

 they come into contact a succession of changes 

 similar to that which preceded their own modifica- 

 tion in the body from which they were detached. 

 In short, the Doctor has applied Darwin's hypo- 

 thesis of " Pangenesis " (which he shows is as old as 

 Hippocrates) to the explanation of the phenomena 

 of zymotic diseases. The last chapter, which deals 

 with the probable mode in which zymotic diseases 

 have been dLderentiated, is both valuable and 



