LITERARY NOTICES. 



849 



the matter introduced by the American edit- 

 ors is distinguished by plain typographical 

 devices. 



The Treatment of Opium - Addiction. By 

 J. B. Mattison, M. I). New York : G. 

 P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 49. Price, 50 

 cents. 



This work embodies the substance of a 

 paper read at the last meeting of the Ameri- 

 can Association for the Cure of Inebriates, 

 and details the author's special method of 

 treatment, which he has successfully prac- 

 ticed for several years. The author main- 

 tains that opium-addiction is a disease, sel- 

 dom a vice, and should be treated as a dis- 

 ease. He advises against breaking off the 

 practice abruptly, while he finds the other 

 ordinary method of treatment, by gradual 

 decrease of the opiate with tonics, incon- 

 veniently slow. His own method is a mean 

 between the two extremes, and is based on 

 the power of certain remedial resources to 

 control abnormal reflex sensibility ; and he 

 claims for it the advantages of minimum 

 duration of treatment and maximum free- j 

 dom from pain. 



The Field of Disease: A Book of Pre- 

 ventive Medicine. By Benjamin Ward 

 Richardson, M. D. Philadelphia : Henry 

 C. Lea's Son & Co. Pp. 737. 



The author has written this work, he 

 says, " for those members of the intelligent 

 reading public who, without desiring to 

 trench on the province of the physician 

 and surgeon, or to dabble in the science 

 and art of medical treatment of disease, 

 wish to know the loading facts about the 

 diseases of the human family, their causes 

 and prevention. Any one, therefore, who 

 opens this book with the expectation of find- 

 ing in it receipts and nostrums will not have 

 that expectation fulfilled, and will discover 

 reference to no remedies except such as are 

 purely preventive in character." The old 

 historical terms are used in preference to 

 the new ; that classification of diseases is 

 preferred which has descended from the 

 best scholars in medical science and art, and 

 which is best known to the people at large. 

 Of the relative value of curative and pre- 

 ventive medicine, the latter " is not a science, 

 it is not an art separated neeessarily or prop- 

 erly from so-called curative medicine. On 

 vol. xxvii. 54 



the contrary, the study of cure and preven- 

 tion proceed well together, and he is the 

 most perfect sanitarian, and he is the most 

 accomplished and useful physician, who 

 knows most both of the prevention of dis- 

 ease and of the nature and treatment of 

 disease ; he who knows, in fact, the before 

 and the after of each striking phenomenon 

 of disease that is presented for his observa- 

 tion." The investigation of the subject is 

 directed to the tracing of diseases from their 

 actual representation, as they exist before 

 us, in their natural progress after their birth, 

 back to their origin, and, as far as is prac- 

 ticable, to seek the conditions out of which 

 they spring; and, further, to investigate the 

 conditions, to see how far they are remov- 

 able and how far they arc avoidable. 



The Windmill as a Prime Mover. By 

 Alfred R. Wolff, M. E. New York: 

 John Wiley & Sons. Pp. 159. Price, 

 $.3. 



There may have been a time when 

 windmills were considered antiquated and 

 of no further use, but it is so no longer. 

 These simple and economical sources of 

 power are quite generally employed in all 

 parts of our country, and their use is in- 

 creasing, and, according to Mr. Wolff, it is 

 now greater than at any other period in the 

 history of the world. " To place the num- 

 ber of windmills at work in America," he 

 says, " at s%vcral hundred thousand is to 

 give an estimate which those who have been 

 interested in this department of engineering, 

 and who have traveled along the main rail- 

 road lines of the country, must pronounce 

 as low." And we are further informed that 

 in some single cities of the Union over five 

 thousand windmills are manufactured, on 

 an average, each year. For those kinds of 

 work in which the power is not required to be 

 constant, but can be taken when it comes 

 such as pumping and storing water, com- 

 pressing and storing air, and driving dyna- 

 mo-machines to charge electrical accumu- 

 lators no machines can be cheaper than 

 windmills, and they are efficient enough. 

 American manufacturers have made great 

 improvements in the machines, and their 

 patterns are pronounced much better than 

 the European patterns, and destined to su- 

 persede them. Mr. Wolff's treatise is prac- 

 tical and a little literary, for it gives a very 



