LITERARY NOTICES. 



277 



Coal, its History and Uses. By Profes- 

 sors Green, Miall, Thorpe, Rucker, 

 and Marshall, of the Yorkshire Col- 

 lege. Edited by Professor Thorpe. 



. New York : Macmillan & Co. Pp. 362. 

 Price, $4. 



This is a thoroughly popular book, but 

 at the same time a fresh and instructive 

 one. It originated in a course of lectures 

 that were prepared for delivery in different 

 places, by several professional gentlemen, 

 each taking the topic with which he was 

 most familiar. The volume has therefore 

 something about it of authority and com- 

 pleteness, which give it merit. The sub- 

 jects treated are " The Geology of Coal," 

 "Coal Plants," " Animals of the Coal Mea- 

 sures," " The Chemistry of Coal," " Coal as 

 a Source of Warmth," " Coal as a Source 

 of Power," and " The Coal Question" (that 

 is, the English question of the supply of 

 coal), and the rates of its production and 

 consumption. The volume is moderately 

 illustrated, and is got up in good style. 



Elements of Comparative Anatomy. By 

 Carl Gegenbaur, Professor of Anatomy 

 and Director of the Anatomical Institute 

 at Heidelberg. New York : Macmillan 

 & Co. Pp. 645. Price, $7. 



We congratulate the publishers, Mac- 

 millan & Co., for their enterprise in bring- 

 ing this sterling and standard Continental 

 work to the service of English and Ameri- 

 can students. It has been demanded for a 

 good while, and various publishers in London 

 and New York have at divers times talked 

 of cooperating with each other to reproduce 

 it, but were all at last afraid of the venture. 

 Mr. Macmillan has undertaken it alone, and 

 we have no doubt that he will find " money 

 in it. At all events, it is now the book upon 

 the subject of comparative anatomy, for the 

 relations of animal structures, that must be 

 consulted by all students. Biological sci- 

 ence has recently changed its course, by 

 which the older treatises have become anti- 

 quated, and to meet the new requirements 

 there must be new text-books. Lyell, when 

 an old man, revolutionized his geology to 

 bring it into harmony with advancing knowl- 

 edge, and Gegenbaur has done the same 

 thing with his great work on zoology. Dr. 

 Lancaster, the editor, thus refers to this pe- 

 culiarity of Gegenbauer's treatise : " We do 

 not possess any modern work on compara- 



tive anatomy, properly so called ; that is to 

 say, a work in which the comparative meth- 

 od is put prominently forward as the guiding 

 principle in the treatment of the results of 

 anatomical investigation. The present work, 

 therefore, appears to me to form a most 

 important supplement to our existing trea- 

 tises on the structure and classification of 

 animals. It has, over and above this, a dis- 

 tinctive and weighty recommendation in that, 

 throughout and without reserve, the doc- 

 trine of evolution appears as the living, mov- 

 ing investment of the dry bones of anatomi- 

 cal fact. Not only is the student thus taught 

 to retain and accumulate his facts in rela- 

 tion to definite problems which are actually 

 exercising the ingenuity of investigators, 

 but he is encouraged and to a certain extent 

 trained in the healthy use of his speculative 

 faculties ; in fact, the one great method by 

 which new knowledge is attained, whether 

 of little things or of big things the method 

 of observation (or experiment), directed by 

 speculation becomes the conscious and dis- 

 tinctive characteristic of his mental activity. 

 Thus we may claim for the study of com- 

 parative anatomy, as set forth in the pres- 

 ent work, the power of developing what is 

 called ' common sense ' into the more pre- 

 cisely fixed 'scientific habit' of mind." 



Lectures on Materia Medica. By Car- 

 roll Dunham, M. D. 2 vols. New York: 

 Francis Hart & Co., 63 Murray Street. 

 Pp. 828. 



This is an elaborate text-book on the 

 action of medical remedies, according to 

 the theory of Hahnemann, and it is a trea- 

 tise that will undoubtedly have weight with 

 the professional school which it represents. 

 Its author was Professor of Materia Medica 

 in the New York Homoeopathic Medical Col- 

 lege, and author of "Homoeopathy theScience 

 of Therapeutics," and he is evidently recog- 

 nized as a safe authority in this important 

 branch of homoeopathic medicine. The vol- 

 umes are made up from his notes, observa- 

 tions, and memoranda, based upon close 

 study and the experience of a wide practice. 

 Dr. Dunham seems to have been an accom- 

 plished physician, loving his work and apt 

 for it, and much liked by all who knew him. 

 Of the merits of the medical system to which 

 he adhered, our readers no doubt have their 

 own opinions this way and that, with which 



