APPENDIX I. 



NOTICES OF BOOKS. 



A Manual of Physiology. With Practical Exercises. By G. N. Stewart, M.A. , D.Sc, M.D. 

 Edin., D.P.H. Camb., Professor of Physiology in the Western Reserve University, 

 Cleveland. London : Bailliere, Tindall & Cox, 1895. 



Professor Stewart is to be congratulated on having written a book which will be useful 

 alike to the beginner and to the advanced student. 



Several of the Manuals of Physiology in use at the present time date from a period when 

 the physiology taught in Medical schools was of a very meagre description, and as advances 

 have been made and more thorough teaching has became necessary these manuals have been 

 added to and amplified. 



From this origin serious defects arise. The treatment of the subject lacks homogeneity, 

 and except in those cases where whole chapters have been rewritten a sort of patchwork effect 

 is produced, and a sense of dissatisfaction arises which often leads to the student neglecting 

 his reading altogether. 



Such defects as these are altogether avoided in those rare cases where an enthusiastic 

 worker who possesses at once a power of clear description and lucid explanation and a 

 thorough grasp of the subject in its latest developments can be persuaded to make use of his 

 knowledge to smooth the way for beginners in his chosen science. , 



We have in the book before us an example of such a case. The author, besides being 

 one of the most prominent of the younger generation of physiologists, has had a very consider- 

 able experience in training medical students and others in the paths of physiology, and of 

 this experience he has taken full advantage in writing his book. Briefly, the plan adopted is 

 that of providing at the end of each section of theoretical matter some pages of directions 

 for practical exercises which shall illustrate the phenomena described. In this way a class of 

 students may be taken through the theoretical and practical work together, to the great 

 advantage of everybody concerned ; it often being the case at present either that the 

 students do not understand the theoretical bearings of the practical work they are called 

 upon to do, or that they fail to grasp the full significance of the book work because it is not 

 fully illustrated by laboratory exercises. This must often be the case when the courses are 

 conducted by two different teachers. Where the same man is teacher and lecturer things 

 are at their best, and students have the best possible chance of learning their subject in a 

 satisfactory manner, and where this is impossible the next best thing is for the theoretical 

 and practical work to be selected by the same hand, and set forth in a manner to mutually 

 illustrate each other. 



Dr. Stewart has gone very thoroughly over the ground, and has not scrupled where 

 necessary to introduce histological descriptions, e.g., in describing absorption of fat by 

 the epithelium of the villi, and the changes undergone by the cells of the salivary glands 

 during activity. 



On the other hand, general histology is excluded, and the 786 pages are devoted to 

 legitimate physiology throughout. 



The volume is brought well up to date, and gives evidence of having been written by one 

 actively working at the subject. The plan of using two different types has been adopted, and 

 will prove useful in defining portions which may with advantage be omitted in reading through 

 the work a first time. 



Defects there are and misprints, and some of the figures will appear rough to fastidious 

 eyes, but many of us will recognise in these rough drawings a strong likeness to familiar 

 pieces of apparatus with which, in the past, work which will live has been done. 



The print and paper are excellent, and the coloured figures well selected and admirably 

 reproduced. 



C 



