272 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



which experience has shown are essential to 

 safety. It is, of course, operated under the 

 block system, without which the operation 

 of any great railroad with its multifarious 

 traffic can not be safe. To listen to the ex- 

 cuses often made by railroad officials for not 

 adopting this system, one would get the idea 

 that it is in some way complex and intricate 

 and not easy of application to railway oper- 

 ation under all circumstances. It is, how- 

 ever, simplicity itself. It does not consist in 

 any necessary forms of appliance, but is sim- 

 ply a method of operating. Mr. Findlay de- 

 scribes some simple forms of indicators used 

 on the London and Northwestern, but any 

 form of indicator may be used. The block 

 system consists simply in dividing a road 

 into a number of sections and allowing but 

 one train at a time in either direction in any 

 given section. To apply it to a road re- 

 quires only the erection of proper signals 

 and suitable means for operating them, and 

 knowing their condition by the operators sta- 

 tioned along the line at the entrance of every 

 block division. It is a matter of no small 

 wonder that the officials of any considerable 

 road should resist the introduction of so sim- 

 ple a method of insuring safety, and that 

 any community should tolerate a railway 

 service not operated in such a manner. The 

 book is very readably written, and can be 

 read with interest by the general public who 

 have to make use of the railways, and with 

 profit by not a few of our railway mana- 

 gers. 



Diseases of the Urinary Apparatus. By 

 J. W. S. Gouley, M. D. New York : D. 

 Appleton & Co. Pp. xiii + 342. Price, 

 $1.50. 



Criticism of the substance of this trea- 

 tise must be left to that very small minority 

 of the medical profession who are familiar 

 with the latest contributions, made in Europe 

 and in this country, to the author's special 

 branch of their science. It is enough to say 

 on this subject that Dr. Gouley has here 

 brought into one small volume everything 

 which the well-educated practitioner, who is 

 not yet a specialist, needs, to set him on a 

 level with the foremost specialist in urinary 

 surgery and medication except experience. 

 The physician of a scientific habit of inquiry 

 will find it a most stimulating book ; full, in- 



deed, of the facts of observation and prac- 

 tice, but with each fact set forth, not as an 

 isolated fragment of knowledge, but as an 

 essential part of an organic system of truth. 

 At the same time the spirit of inquiry per- 

 vades the whole. The student of the subject 

 is taken into partnership with the teacher in 

 the great work of advancing the boundaries 

 of knowledge. The dogmatism which claims 

 finality and universality for its own formulas 

 is excluded ; and every acquisition is made a 

 stepping-stone in the way to new discovery. 

 One hardly knows, in ending the perusal of 

 these pages, whether the writer is most to 

 be congratulated as the representative of the 

 generation of reformers, who have recon- 

 structed this important branch of medical 

 science and placed it on a lasting basis, or 

 as the harbinger of their successors, who 

 will surely, by following out the same meth- 

 ods to far greater results, add immeasurably 

 to its power to serve mankind. 



It is rather our province to speak of the 

 literary form of the work, which certainly 

 deserves special notice. Technical treatises, 

 in every line of professional learning, are so 

 often marked by everything that is forbid- 

 ding in style that it is a rare privilege to 

 meet with one which can be treated as litera- 

 ture. Of course, no such work is designed 

 for popular reading; and this one, in par- 

 ticular, is addressed only to students of spe- 

 cial education and high intelligence. But its 

 special merit is that it is perfectly adapted 

 to its end. There is no waste of words, no 

 tedious repetition, no looseness of statement) 

 no parade of impertinent learning, no obtru- 

 sion of personality. Concise in style, precise 

 in definition, clear in reasoning, orderly and 

 progressive in arrangement, and with an ac- 

 curacy and care in terminology almost with- 

 out precedent, it leads on from the elements 

 of the subject to the very border lines of 

 contemporary knowledge in a steady march, 

 which offers a model in plan to all who 

 would teach subjects of difficulty. We trust 

 that it will receive from the profession a 

 welcome which will be an object-lesson to 

 many medical writers ; for it would be easy 

 to name many whose books, while containing 

 information of great value, would be doubled 

 in usefulness, though halved in size, if re- 

 written after the fashion of this admirable 

 tnulium in parvo. 



