NOTICES OF BOOKS. xi 



radicals of group I., quantitative estimations of the following out-of-the- 

 way elements are included — tungsten, vanadium, selenium, tellurium, 

 molybdenum, titanium, and uranium. The condensation necessary in 

 order to pack so much matter into so little space, reduces the descrip- 

 tions of methods to the most sketchy outlines, and the student would 

 find it impossible to carry out the experiments without constantly apply- 

 ing elsewhere for instruction. This, however, is apparently what the 

 author aims at, for at the beginning of Part III. (a useful Appendix, 

 containing brief directions for making certain inorganic preparations), 

 he says : " Let it ever be borne in mind that the great object of every 

 experiment is not the mere attaining of the actual result of such ex- 

 periment, but to give the student opportunities for reasoning and think- 

 ing, and the teacher opportunities for helping". A class of students 

 working through this book would most unquestionably aftbrd their 

 teacher ample opportunity for helping ; whether the other desirable end 

 would be accomplished is not quite so certain. 



Kirke's Hand-book of Physiology. By W. D. Halliburton, M.D., 

 F.R.S. Fourteenth Edition. London : John Murray, Albe- 

 marle Street, i8g6. 



No better means could be adopted of gathering a general idea of 

 the progress and evolution of Physiology, not only as taught in our 

 medical schools but generally as a Science, than to arrange in chrono- 

 logical order the fourteen editions which have done honour to the name 

 of Kirke. Perhaps the most striking evidence that could be derived 

 from such a comparative examination would be the gradual emancipa- 

 tion of Physiology from the influence of pure anatomy and surgery. In 

 thg days of the early editions of Kirke it was the anatomists and sur- 

 geons who taught Physiology, and it was anatomists and surgeons who 

 edited Kirke, as witness the names of James Paget, William Savory, 

 and Morrant Baker, all of whom were associated in turn with the editor- 

 ship, and all of whom were distinguished Fellows of the College of 

 Surgeons. Professor Halliburton, the present editor, is the first, in a 

 long series, who is in no way associated with the teaching or practice of 

 surgery, moreover he is a fellow of the sister college, namely, the Colle^'e 

 of Physicians, a Physiologist of European reputation and a Fellow of 

 the Royal Society. The present edition severs the long historical asso- 

 ciation between Kirke's Physiology and St. Bartholomew's Hospital. 

 For fifty years this great hand-book has been edited from the latter school 

 of medicine ; and by a strange irony of fate almost the very day that 

 gave birth to the new edition also witnessed the death of Morrant Baker, 

 who had for so many years been intimately connected with its destinies. 

 The new edition is entirely re-written, and, excepting in external ap- 

 pearance, bears little resemblance to its precursors. The previous 

 editions had all followed closely on the lines of the ones that im- 

 mediately preceded them, and in this connection it is interesting to note 



