LITERARY XOTICES. 



373 



construction has been carried in special 

 lines of inquiry. For example, under the 

 term " metre," we have a list of 218 instru- 

 ments or machines for measurement, the 

 description of each being found under its 

 proper alphabetical heading. " These spe- 

 cific indexes afford the reader an excellent 

 opportunity for investigating thoroughly 

 all that pertains directly or indirectly to 

 any special subject, by using the index 

 under the title of that subject as a sort of 

 head-centre, and following out its various 

 branches through all their ramifications." 



The work includes about 20,000 titles, 

 and gives an exhaustive vocabulary of the 

 technical terms that are employed in vari- 

 ous trades and manufactures, and many of 

 which are not to be found in the current 

 large dictionaries. The work is, in fact, 

 little less than a mechanical library, sum- 

 marizing an endless multitude of books, and 

 bringing up its accurate information to the 

 present time. Of people who read and think 

 at all, it is hard to think of any class that 

 will not find it serviceable. 



A Course of Elementary Practical Phys- 

 iology. By M. Foster, M. D., F. R. S., 

 Fellow of, and Prtelector in, Physiology 

 in Trinity College, Cambridge. Assist- 

 ed by J. N. Laxgley, B. A., St. John's 

 College, Cambridge. Macmillan & Co. 

 Pp. 244. Price, $2.00. 



As the sciences come to be more and 

 more studied, directly and practically, there 

 arises the necessity for books of special 

 guidance in laboratory-work. In chemistry, 

 treatises upon manipulation are as old as 

 the science, and in recent years various 

 works have been published, instructing the 

 student in physical manipulations. The 

 same necessity is now beginning to be felt 

 in physiological study, and Prof. Foster's 

 little hand-book now appears to supply this 

 want for English-speaking students. The 

 book has grown out of Dr. Foster's prac- 

 tice as a teacher. When in University 

 College, London, he was in the habit of dis- 

 tributing among his students a syllabus to 

 guide them in their work. This became 

 extended, by the introduction of details, into 

 a practical course, which is now published 

 for general use wherever physiology is pur- 

 sued, experimentally, or by the observation 

 and verification of its facts. 



Dr. Foster recognizes that the intro- 

 duction of the microscope has given a direc- 

 tion to manipulative activity that is not al- 

 together favorable to broad physiological 

 study. The importance of histology is not 

 questioned, but the tendency has been to 

 pursue it separately, and to a certain extent 

 to accept it as a substitute for physiological 

 work on a large scale. Dr. Foster thinks 

 that microscopical investigation can only 

 be best pursued in combination with a full 

 scheme of physiological work. He says : 

 " Histological work, unless it be salted with 

 the salt, either of physiological or of mor- 

 phological ideas, is apt to degenerate into a 

 learned trifling of the very worst descrip- 

 tion ; and students are generally only too 

 ready to spend far too much of their time 

 in the fascinating drudgery of cutting sec- 

 tions and mounting stained specimens." 

 And again : " The student who has mounted 

 an exquisitely and beautifully stained sec- 

 tion is only just so much the worse for his 

 pains (as far as physiology is concerned) if 

 he docs not understand what the section 

 means. Hence, when the features of some 

 of the fundamental tissues and the general 

 working of the more important mechanisms 

 have been really learned, and the student 

 has got, by doing things for himself, to 

 know the value of a physiological experi- 

 ment, and the pitfalls that are hidden under 

 carmine and Canada balsam, he may be 

 safely trusted to fill in the details of his 

 study by means of reference to mounted 

 specimens and to mere demonstrations, or 

 even to descriptions of experiments." 



Though the work is elementary, and is 

 designed to be introductory to the author's 

 " Hand-book for the Physiological Labora- 

 tory," it is, nevertheless, comprehensive, and 

 covers the ground that should be passed 

 over practically by every well-educated med- 

 ical man. When our medical institutions 

 provide better for this form of study, we can 

 trust ourselves more safely in the hands of 

 their graduates. 



The Eeligion of Evolution. By M. J. 

 Savage, Author of "Christianity the 

 Science of Manhood." Boston: Lock- 

 wood, Brooks & Co. Pp. 253. Price, 

 $1.50. 



The multiplication of works on the re- 

 ligious bearings of Evolution, against it and 



