CRITICAL NOTICES OP NEW PUBLICATIONS. 159 



those of France and Italy ; but are represented as " inferior in 



point of size and interior organization." The Universities, of 



which there are no less than twenty, are principally situated in 

 small, quiet towns, well calculated to favour studious habits. 



** The relations between professors and students are much more intimate 

 than in France and Italy, and the love of science is stronger than in those 

 countries. This devotion to science, and seclusion from general society, occa- 

 sionally gives rise, however, to a degree of pedantry and confined views, even- 

 in men of extensive acquirements ; and no where are there so many poor 

 savans as in Germany. • « • 'phe students, notwithstanding the 

 roughness of manners which prevails in some universities, are, for the most 



Eart, attentive, persevering, regular in attendance, and decorous in their be- 

 aviour, in the lecture-room. Of late years, drinking, quarrelling, and tak- 

 ing part in political disturbances, occur much less frequently among them. 

 The practice of medicine is not, in general, based upon any particular the- 

 ory, but is regulated by the observation of symptoms in individual cases, and 

 approaches nearer to tiae English than to the French method." 



With the exception of Berlin, the most celebrated University in 

 Germany, the management of surgical cases is represented as very 

 inferior to the system adopted in France and England. 



The work contains much useful information to English students 

 desirous of completing their medical education on the continent ; 

 pointing out the prescribed order of studies, the examinations requir- 

 ed, and the expenses candidates must necessarily incur for fees, &c. 



The Appendix is devoted to some apposite remarks on Animal 

 Magnetism and Homaeopathy, and an account of the ex})erimentsi 

 instituted by the Academic de Medecine with a view of exhibiting 

 to the public the manner in which the effects ascribed to these 

 agents were produced, and their analogy to each other. The ab- 

 surdity of these doctrines are now very generally allowed, both in 

 France and Germany ; and the attempt to introduce Homaeopathy 

 into this country proved a signal failure. 



The Steam Engine familiarly explained and illustrated ; with an 

 historical sketch of its invention and progressive improvement ; its 

 applications to Navigation and Railways ; with plain maxims for 

 Railway Speculators. By the Rev. Dionysius Lardner, L. L. D., 

 F. R. S., &c., &c. Fifth Edition, considerably enlarged. Lon- 

 don : Taylor, Upper Gower. street. 1836. 



Numerous in this our day of mental transcendency are those 

 choice spirits who have consecrated themselves to science ; but few 

 men have advocated its cause with clearer reasoning, disentangled 

 its intricacies with more successful diligence, and produced results 

 of more extensive benefit and importance, than Dr. Lardner. The 

 power and improvement of the steam engine, from the various pub- 

 lications which he has issued, appear to have been a favourite topic^ 

 of meditation ; and to bring its present advantages into more general 

 operation, and to calculate on the probable effects of its future im- 

 portance, when the march of improvement shall have increased its 



