CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 325 



dred other uncouth cabalistic terms, to do for the student whose 

 search is for truth, and truth only ? Dr. Palmer has wisely omitted 

 every term but such as are necessarily connected with the sciences. 



In reviewing works of reference, the common rules of criticism 

 are altogether inadequate : the unities hold no controul over such 

 productions ; nor can we measure their excellence by the heighth or 

 depth of intellect. A dictionary is an Augean labour, requiring 

 much learning, and more perseverance ; a record of nature and art, 

 in which hypotheses, however brilliant, are repudiated, since the 

 laws of nature cannot be contradictory to themselves: it is, there- 

 fore, a history o^ facts. How far Dr. Palmer has fulfilled his task, 

 no individual can determine : the merit of a book which especially 

 becom.es the property of the public, must and will be decided by the 

 public use of it. 



The compilation of such a work as this of Dr. Palmer's, by the 

 unassisted labour of an individual, exhibits a power of mind which 

 few possess, and which very few would be bold enough to ex- 

 ercise. Dr. Palmer has certainly accomplished his undertaking 

 with great credit : the work exhibits all the excellences required. 

 The articles in Natural History are admirably written, presenting, 

 as it were, a medico-zoological grammar. The articles in Physio- 

 logy, Pathology, Practice of Medicine, &c., &c., are highly satisfac- 

 tory ; while those on Anatomy and Botany are correct and concise. 

 The whole style is chaste and perspicuous ; and the scholar will find 

 very few classical errors : while the German and French synonyms 

 render the work invaluable to the student. If there be a fault, it is 

 in the omission of the Italian, which we could have wished to have seen 

 introduced. The style in which the book is printed, and its exemp- 

 tion from typographical inaccuracies, reflect great credit on the enter- 

 prizing publisher. We would particularly call the attention of our 

 readers to the articles Cote, Estomac, Femur, and Glande, in illus- 

 tration of Human and Comparative Anatomy ; in Morbid Anato- 

 my, Granulation and Hematode ; in Medicine, Epilepsie, Fievre ; 

 in Surgery, Hernia ; Obstetrics, Grossesse ; Materia Medica, 

 Graisse, Hippanthropie, Huille; Medical Zoology, Gymnote and 

 Hirudinees ; Medical Botany, Hellebore ; Medical Chemistry and 

 Mineralogy, Fer and Hermatite ; Miscellaneous, Crepuscule, En- 

 cyclopedic, Geographic, Gymnase, and Histoire Naturelle. The 

 following extracts will afford a fair specimen of the work : — 



" FoiE, s. m., — ^-ra^, — hepar, jecur, n. L., — leber, n. G., — liver : in Hu- 

 man and Comparative Anatomy, a large abdominal gland, the organ of the 

 biliary secretion ; existing, under divers modifications of form and structure, 

 in all the animal series, from Man to the Moliuscum. The liver exhibits 

 the peculiarity of receiving, by a distinct apparatus of veins, — see Veine 

 Porte, — all the returning blood from the chylopoietic organs. The pur- 

 poses of this disposition are unknown. Venous blood is not essentially re- 

 quisite for the secretion of bile : since this fluid exists in the Mollusca, where 

 the vena-portal system is deficient ; and has been found in the gaU-bladder 

 of a human subject in whom the vena portarum passed to the vena cava, 

 without entering the liver. And, again, the large quantity of blood, supphed 



