LITERARY NOTICES. 



847 



by the figures, is elaborate and often grace- 

 ful. The whole volume, especially these 

 catalogues, is lavishly illustrated, containing 

 154 full-page plates, many of them colored, 

 besides thirty-five figures in the text. 



Sixth Annual Report of the State Board 

 OP Health of Illinois, John H. Racch, 

 M. D., Secretary. Pp. 324. 



Among the peculiar functions of this 

 board, with the operation of which the 

 present report largely deals, is that of the 

 execution of the act to regulate the practice 

 of medicine in the State. The medical 

 profession is thus brought within the scope 

 of sanitary laws, and under responsibihty 

 to a body with power. It is the duty of 

 the board to issue certificates authorizing 

 practice in the State to "all who furnish 

 satisfactory proof of having received diplo- 

 mas or licenses from legally chartered medi- 

 cal institutions in good standing." It be- 

 came necessary to determine what was 

 "good standing," and what institutions 

 came under it. To define the term, the 

 consensus of leading members of the pro- 

 fession and the faculties of medical colleges, 

 in answer to letters soliciting their opinions, 

 was taken. Then test questions were sent 

 out to the colleges, the answers to which 

 determined whether they came up to the 

 standard. In evidence of the improvement 

 in the standards of medical education, it is 

 stated that, whereas in 1880 fourteen medi- 

 cal schools in the United States required of 

 candidates for admission evidences of pre- 

 liminary education, ninety schools now re- 

 quire them ; eighty schools give instruction 

 in hygiene, to seventeen in 1880 ; and twenty- 

 three make attendance on three or more 

 courses of lectures a condition of gradua- 

 tion, to eight in 1880, while fifty-six others 

 are making tentative efforts toward the 

 same point. The board is issuing a series 

 of "Preventible Disease Publications," to 

 which have been added during the year 

 circulars on the prevention and control of 

 scarlet fever and of diphtheria, and upon 

 the sanitary features of typhoid fever and 

 the prevention of its spread. These pub- 

 lications are in demand, and are often re- 

 printed in the newspapers. Some of them 

 have also been issued in German and in the 

 Scandinavian languages. Nearly half the 



volume of the report is occupied with the 

 lists of licensed physicians and midwives. 



Notes on the Opium-Habit. By Asa P. 

 Meylekt, M. D. Third edition. New 

 York : G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 47, 



The purpose of this publication is to 

 make a plea for more humane methods of 

 treating the opium-habit than have hereto- 

 fore prevailed. The author believes that 

 no disease known to man demands such 

 varied treatment as this of opium. " The 

 habit was formed to relieve a single symp- 

 tom of diverse disorders, namely, pain. . . . 

 The original disease often remains in abey- 

 ance, ready to break forth when the drug 

 is discontinued, and, if this disease be not 

 cured, the habit is not cured." Again, the 

 habit itself provokes disease, and this must 

 be treated variously. There is, therefore, 

 no specific for the opium-habit. There is, 

 likewise, no quick cure for it. The present 

 edition of the book has been thoroughly re- 

 vised and largely rewritten. Since the first 

 publication of the " Notes " the author has 

 found the opium-habit more widely preva- 

 lent than was first surmised. 



Comparative Physiology and Psychology. 

 By S. V. Clevenger, M. D. Chicago : 

 Jansen, McCIurg & Co. Pp. 268. Price, 



$2. 



The secondary title of this book charac- 

 terizes it as " a discussion of the evolution 

 and relations of the mind and body of men 

 and animals." Its intention is to elaborate, 

 as far as possible, a practical mental science 

 which will reconcile the observations of 

 anatomists, psychologists, and pathologists, 

 with direct reference to the more intelligent 

 treatment of insanity. Insanity, the author 

 believes, will be better understood, and its 

 treatment will become more scientific in 

 proportion to the development of psychol- 

 ogy, based upon comparative microscopic 

 anatomy, and a physiology into which molec- 

 ular physics shall enter more in the future. 

 The system under which the metaphysicians 

 have studied mental workings is regarded as 

 having been so insufficient and one-sided, 

 and their deductions often so absurd, as to 

 discourage honest investigators and throw 

 discredit on the pursuit. But a more sen- 

 sible psychology has been evolved under 

 the influence of such thinkers as Herbert 



