.g,,. SOME NEW BOOKS. 629 



to split up the included genera into families ; they are, however, 

 arranged in such an order that their affinities are clearly seen, and so 

 that one genus naturally leads on to the next. To touch on minor 

 points, we rejoice to see that the writings of Pander at last receive 

 proper recognition, a result of which is, that the name Clitamhonites 

 resumes the place long usurped by the Orthisiua of D'Orbigny, a 

 restoration that has, we believe, already been made in our own 

 Natural History INIuseum. The much-abused name Strophomena is at 

 last restricted to what has long been recognised as the type of 

 Rafinesque's genus, viz., ^' Lepia-ria planiniibona" of Hall. The well- 

 known Strophomena rhomhoidalis is naturally restored to its proper 

 place in the Leptcrna of Dalman (whose original plates, by the way, 

 are here reproduced to the great advantage of American readers) ; 

 while the forms usually called Leptivna by modern writers take their 

 true name oi Plectamhonites, Pander. 



These changes, Avhich will, of course, appal a good many people, 

 will be welcomed by all who have to work on the Brachiopoda, as 

 not only doing justice to the older v/riters, but as bringing the matter 

 out of the confusion into which it had been cast by the arbitrary 

 restrictions and alterations of those who followed them. After all, 

 attempts at compromise in these questions generally work more harm 

 than good, and it is best in the end to follow the simple Law of 

 Priority. We are a little apt to think too much of ourselves and of the 

 momentary inconvenience that results, the inconvenience of re-writing 

 a few labels or re-arranging a few specimens ; and we do not think 

 enough of those who are coming after us, and who are the inheritors 

 of our weak-minded muddle-headedness no less than of any little 

 advance in knowledge we may be fortunate enough to make. 



F. A. B. 



Our Temperaments : Their Study and Their Teaching. A Popular Outline. By 

 Alexander Stewart, F.R.C.S., Edin. Second edition, carefully revised ; indexes 

 and additional illustrations, including chromolithographs from drawings by 

 Lockhart Bogle. 8vo. Pp. xxviii., 412. London: Crosby, Lockwood and Son, 



1892. 



It should be generally known — though it does not appear to be — 

 that there are four main types of physical organisation to which, or 

 to compounds of which, every man may be referred. These are the 

 Temperaments, and they are named, in accordance with the system 

 most prominent in each one, the Sanguine, the Bilious, the Lymphatic, 

 and the Nervous, which last has replaced the old Melancholic. 

 Medical men, from Hippocrates to Sir J. Crichton Browne, have 

 recognised not only the existence of temperaments, but the impor- 

 tance of their study ; and yet the physical and mental characteristics 

 of each temperament are still far from known. Shakespeare and 

 Addison remind us that the theory has been appreciated by poets and 

 prose-writers of all time ; and yet the word Temperament is, unfor- 

 tunately, misused in our daily conversation and our daily Press. 

 These thoughts have urged Mr. Stewart to publish the work of which 

 a second edition lies before us. 



Were the temperaments nothing more than expressions of 

 outward characters, such as the red hair, blue eyes, florid complexion, 

 and thick-set build that make up the sanguine temperament, their 

 study would be little more than learned trifling. It is the theory that 

 these outward marks are the signs of certain predicable mental 



