REVIEWS. 395 



Annual of the Universal Medical Sciences. 5 Vols., 



Royal 8vo. (Philadelphia, New York, and Chicago : The F. A. Davis Co. 

 London: F.J. Rebman. 1896.) 



These superb and exhaustive volumes contain a yearly report of the 

 Progress of the General Sanitary Sciences throughout the World. They are 

 edited by Charles E. Sajous, M.D. (Paris), and Seventy Associate Editors, 

 assisted by over Two Hundred Corresponding Editors, Collaborators, and 

 Correspondents, and are illustrated with Chromolithographs, Engravings, and 

 Maps. 



To give a list of each subject treated in these five large volumes would 

 take up too much of our space. We deem it better, therefore, to make a short 

 extract from the Preface, in which Dr. Sajous says : — " In the vast field before 

 us we can, at best, but gather the salient points of what we read. The memory 

 seizes upon the theme of a given subject, and time either allows the impression 

 to disappear, or, by furnishing evidence of its worth, brands it as an acquisition 

 to our knowledge. To present these salient points in a form at once intelligible 

 and practically useful has been the aim of the Editor in elaborating what he 

 considers the most important feature of the 1896 Annual. The Analytical 

 Index and Cyclopeedia of Treatment gives a summary of every practical article 

 quoted in the Annual proper, and of all the criticisms introduced by the 

 Associate Editors — the active principle, as it were, of the whole year's labours. 

 The arrangement of this material is peculiar — a counterpart, as it were, of an 

 international medical congress in brief, each subject being sub-divided into 

 sections. The excerpts being arranged in careful, logical sequence, each phase 

 of a disease is taken up in turn and each author expresses his views at the 

 proper time. The brevity of the excerpts gives them a most striking character, 

 and the whole, with its numerous contradictions, the overwhelming evidence 

 adduced in favour of certain views or against others, etc., constitutes what 

 seems to the Editor to be a most instructive combination — one, indeed, he 

 thinks, never before placed before the profession. .. . . During the prepa- 

 ration of the work, any very important innovation in the general field of 

 medicine, appearing in the medical press, was noted and introduced as an edi- 

 torial note, thus practically bringing the most important question up to the 

 date of publication." 



We notice, also, that the following among other improvements have been 

 made: — i. Headings and side-headings are printed in bold, black letters; 

 2, All prescriptions are written out in full and in the usual form, instead of 

 running them into the text as formerly. 3, All therapeutic subjects have been 

 collected in the fifth volume, so as to enable the practitioner to keep it on his 

 desk for ready reference. 4, Increase in the number of coloured plates, which 

 are exceptionally good. 



Science Progress. New Series, Vol. 1., Part 4. A Quarterly 

 Review of Current Scientific Investigation. Conducted by Sir Henry C. 

 Burdett, K.C.B. Edited by J. PJretland Farmer, M.A., with the co-operation 

 of a large Editorial Committee. (London : The Scientific Press, Limited.) 

 Price 3/-, or io/6 per annum, post free. 



This part contains papers on the following subjects : — The Natural History 

 of the Sea, by George Murray, P\R.S. ; The Venoms of the Toad and Sala- 

 mander, by Richard T. Hewlett, M.B. ; The Red Pigment of Flowering 

 Plants, by F. W. Keeble, B.A. ; Recent Values of the Magnetic Elements at 

 the Principal Magnetic Observatories of the World, by Charles Chree, M.A,, 

 F.R.S. ; The Position of Sponges in the Animal Kingdom, by E. A. Minchin, 

 M.A. ; The Diseases of the Sugar-Cane (Part II.), by C. A. Barber, M.A. ; 

 Recapitulation, by J. T. Cunningham, M.A. j Appendix ; Reviews of Books. 



