LITERARY NOTICES. 



75 1 



with it. The woodcuts arc in the most fin- 

 ished style of the engraver's art, and have 

 been prepared at a lavish expense. Besides 

 the array of fine woodcuts, illustrating the 

 steam-engine in all its phases, there is a 

 collection of elegant portraits interspersed 

 through the work of all the principal men 

 whose names are associated with its prog- 

 ress. These excellent likenesses cannot fail 

 to heighten the interest that will be felt in 

 the biographical features of the volume. 



The Journal op Physiology. Edited by 

 Dr. Michael Foster, of Cambridge, with 

 the cooperation in England of Professors 

 Gamgee, Rutherford, and Burdon-San- 

 derson, and in the United States of Pro- 

 fessors Bowditch, Martin, and Wood. 

 London and New York: Macmillan & Co. 

 $5.25 per year. 



This new project in scientific journalism, 

 though under the responsible control of the 

 eminent English physiologist, Dr. Michael 

 Foster, has nevertheless so international a 

 make-up as to give it a strong claim to lib- 

 eral American support. Dr. Foster's corps 

 of assistant editors are all very able men ; 

 and when we say that the American co- 

 operating editors are Prof. H. P. Bowditch, 

 of Boston, Prof. H. M. Martin, of Baltimore, 

 and Prof. H. C. Wood, of Philadelphia, it 

 will be seen that American science is well 

 represented, so that there will be no excuse 

 if the physiological work of this country 

 is not fairly chronicled. We are glad to 

 see these indications of a growing scientific 

 unity and practical co-working between the 

 two countries. The politicians will continue 

 to nurse antagonisms and alienations in the 

 interest of what they deem patriotism ; it 

 remains for Science to undo their work as 

 far as it may by cultivating a policy of har- 

 mony and mutual helpfulness. 



The Journal of Physiology is to be a 

 record of original research and progress in 

 this branch of science ; but its editors give 

 a wide and rational construction to the term 

 " progress " as applied to physiology. While 

 experimental manipulation will remain the 

 fundamental means of getting at facts, it 

 will still be recognized as legitimate to think 

 about the facts and find out their meanings. 

 The editors say in their announcement : 



" The physiologist works not only by experi- 

 ment, but also by observation, and indeed by 



what is often depreciatingly spoken of as spec- 

 ulation. The conductors of the Journal would 

 be the last to wish that its pages should be oc- 

 cupied by idle writing and the exposition of 

 baseless views ; but they would be equally un- 

 willing to refuse a paper because it threw light 

 on a subject by rearranging old facts rather than 

 by bringing forward new ones." 



The relations which the periodical will 

 sustain to the medical profession, from which 

 it ought to derive a strong support, are thus 

 indicated : 



" No branch of study during recent years has 

 been more fruitful in physiological truths than 

 the investigations into the action on living or- 

 ganisms and tissues of the various chemical 

 bodies known as poisons and drugs. Between 

 such investigations and those into the action of 

 medicines no logical separation is possible, and 

 the physiologist who does not welcome the phys- 

 iological truths gained by medical practice as 

 warmly as those coming from the laboratory is 

 unworthy of the name. So also a little reflec- 

 tion teaches us that the phenomena of disease 

 are in reality the deeper and more hidden events 

 of the body thrust up to the surface by some dis- 

 location of the economy. Hence all communi- 

 cations, in which the results of pathological ob- 

 servation or experiments are discussed with the 

 view of elucidating their causatiou rather than 

 in the interests of clinical science, may fairly 

 find a place in a journal devoted to physiology." 



As The Journal of Physiology will be 

 occupied with substantial original work, and 

 as the supply of this kind of matter is not 

 steady and regular, the issue of its succes- 

 sive parts and the amount of material they 

 contain will be subject to the discretion of 

 the managers. Instead of appearing at 

 strictly regular intervals, the numbers will 

 be issued at periods varying from two to 

 three months, while from four to six num- 

 bers will form the annual volume of about 

 five hundred pages. The Germans are fall- 

 ing into this mode of publication, which 

 seems sensible for a periodical of this kind. 

 One of its obvious advantages is, as the 

 editors say : 



"That it prevents a discovery made by one 

 man from being forestalled by another, whose 

 observations, although really made later in point 

 of time, might sometimes obtaiu priority under 

 the ordinary method of publication." 



Of the importance of the science of phys- 

 iology, nothing needs here to be said. A 

 great body of physiological truth has been 

 established which is of such moment to 

 the welfare both of individuals and of the 



