Monthly Review of Literature. 653 



from which we expect to glean of all the subjects that appear upon their title- 

 page, we have not been disappointed in our search. 



The other medical periodicals, still useful and interesting in their depart- 

 ments, were ceasing to be sufficient to supply the demand for increased and 

 more scientific information. The editors of the " Annals" listened to the call, 

 and, without rivals and unrivalled in their especial province, they have honour- 

 ably acquitted themselves of the duties incumbent upon that summons. 



We will not however encroach too far upon the patience of our reader, but 

 proceed at once to an examination of the book itself, and show how far our 

 opinion may be relied upon as authority. Pharmacy has never before been 

 attempted in the form in which it is treated by the " Annals of Medicine," 

 namely, as a science, and a guide to those in the medical profession whose 

 studies are more particularly directed to that subject. Thus the current prices 

 of drugs, their characters, quality, adulterations, with the means of de- 

 tection, &c., are ably and judiciously exposed. Under this head also may be 

 found, discoveries of new medicines, their uses and applications, with new 

 chemical analyses and syntheses. Vital statistics, from the pen of one of the 

 editors who has already attained to much reputation as a medical statist, and 

 to whom Mr. M'Culloch in his late excellent work particularly refers, has 

 bestowed many highly important calculations upon the public. We need 

 only point to a paper upon the " Law of Recovery and Death in Small Pox," 

 and another on " A New Method of determining the Danger and Duration of 

 Diseases at every Period of their Progress," by Farr, to confirm our dictum 

 on this head. 



Under the title of General Science a rich mine of intelligence and learning is 

 open to the working of its subscribers. Some of the papers deserve a notice, 

 we shall therefore name a few that we conceive most striking and particularly 

 characteristic of the intention of the work. Thus, On the Chemistry of the 

 Digestive Organs, by R. D. Thomson, M. D., in which a Newly Discovered 

 Principle of the Gastric Juice is described ; Professor Mueller of Berlin, Lec- 

 tures on Human Physiology ; Ophthalmology, by Middlemore, of Birmingham ; 

 Pathology of Bone, by Dr. Hodgkin ; Statistics of the Negro Slave Popula- 

 tion, &c. &c. 



In paying our parting respects to the editors of this most deserving, and 

 we trust prosperous periodical, we feel bound to express our gratification in 

 the review of their labours. One slight suggestion however we hope in good 

 fellowship will not be thought intrusive. We regard the fine arts with so much 

 reverence, that we must confess our taste somewhat shocked at the grim- 

 visaged god of the serpent that scowls upon their cover, so little emblematical 

 of the choice selections contained within. 'Tis true the finest diamond has 

 ofttime the roughest exterior, but it is also true that value and beauty are both 

 improved by the lapidary's art. 



Moral Statistics of Paris, [Prostitution dans la ville de Paris con- 

 sideree sous la rapport de 1'Hygiene publique, de la Morale et de 

 1' Administration,] by PARENT DUCHATELET. Thick 8vo. pp. 662. 

 Brussels. 



M. DUCHATELET was one of the most extraordinary men that France has pro- 

 duced during the present century ; and we may safely affirm, if a life spent 

 in unwearied search for facts, on which to base the science of public health, 

 be a just subject of praise, that M. Duchatelet's indefatigable industry and 

 high talent in a department that he has made peculiarly his own, demands 

 the highest praise from every sincere advocate of public health and morals, 

 not only in France but all over Europe. Honi soit, qui mal y pense. To those 

 persons who are scared by an awkward- looking title, or to others who with 

 puritanical affectation would hold aloof altogether from so disgusting and 

 scandalous a subject as that of which this book treats, we have not one word 



