LITERARY NOTICES. 



269 



tific investigation to wLich we owe all 

 the progress that has yet been achieved 

 in this important field. There has 

 never been a time in the history of 

 medicine when the need of independent 

 original research was so great as now, 

 when the questions demanding elucida- 

 tion were so numerous and so grave, 

 and the encouragements to their pur- 

 suit so promising. The sciences of ob- 

 servation and experiment have done 

 much for the world in many ways, and 

 the medical art has fully shared in the 

 advantages they have conferred; but 

 work in this direction is modern, and 

 that which has been accomplished is as 

 nothing to what yet remains to be done. 

 It is well for the medical colleges to 

 teach what is known, but they need to 

 know a great deal more, and it is cer- 

 tainly high time that we should have 

 a class of professional investigators in 

 this country so thoroughly qualified and 

 prepared for their work tliat our stu- 

 dents will not have to go to Europe 

 after the facilities for profound and ex- 

 haustive research. Mr. Carnegie's gift, 

 by establishing an ample and well-ap- 

 pointed laboratory for the experimental 

 study of important medical subjects, 

 will favor the progress of American 

 science, at the same time that it pro- 

 motes those interests of humanity that 

 are wider than nationalities. The ques- 

 tions to be taken up in such an institu- 

 tion and that are now in most urgent 

 need of solution are many, and one of 

 them was so well stated by a writer in 

 a morning paper that we quote it : 



Histological investigations — that is, by 

 means of the microscope — have within late 

 years shed much light on the heretofore oc- 

 cult processes taking place in the different 

 parts of the body in health and disease, and, 

 quite recently, scientific developments in this 

 field of study have shown the vast impor- 

 tance of these investigations, together with ex- 

 perimental researches, as regards our knowl- 

 edge of micro-organisms. Already it has 

 been demonstrated that several of the infec- 

 tious diseases are caused by specific parasitic 

 bacteria, and it is more than probable that 

 investigations now Ln progress will lead to 



further discoveries rendering preventable and 

 controllable many diseases which occasion 

 much human suffering and contribute largely 

 to mortality. It is, perhaps, not extrava- 

 gant to say that the discoveries already made, 

 conjoined with those which are foreshad- 

 owed, will prove of greater importance in 

 their influence on the science and practice of 

 medicine than any since the great discovery 

 of the circulation of the blood by Ilan'ey. 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



A Treatise on Insanity in its Medical 

 Eelations. By William A. Hammond, 

 M. D. New York : D. Appleton & Co. 

 Pp. 767. Price, $5. 



Whether insanity is on the increase 

 throughout the civilized world, as is claimed 

 by many and is certainly not improbable, or 

 whether the apparent increase is due to in- 

 creasing knowledge in regard to its real ex- 

 tent, the growing interest and importance 

 of the subject are not to be questioned. It 

 is impossible that science should not have 

 made great advances in the elucidation of 

 this most complex subject, depending as it 

 does upon the progress of physiology, ps}-- 

 chology, pathology, and therapeutics, and 

 cultivated by specialists as an independent 

 branch of practical medicine ; while through 

 the whole historic period down to quite re- 

 cent times the ignorance, prejudice, and 

 barbarism that have been displayed by so- 

 ciety toward the most unfortunate of our 

 fellow-creatures have been one of the dark- 

 est chapters of human experience; on the 

 other hand, the spirit of investigation can 

 offer no triumph so great as that which has 

 been achieved by the medical profession in 

 dispelling old prejudices and illusions, and 

 giving a rational account of the conditions, 

 causes, and diversities of mental alienation. 

 The subject is, indeed, yet full of obscurity, 

 and far enough from having been cleared 

 up, but great steps forward have been taken, 

 and in no field is there more continued ac- 

 tivity of research. Dr. Hammond's com- 

 prehensive and able work is a contribution 

 to the subject made in the light of the latest 

 achievements in all its dependent branches 

 of inquiry. We have looked through his 

 treatise with much interest and constant 

 instruction, and have already given in the 

 " Monthly " some important passages from 



