Book Notices. 255 



STATE MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY OF ILLINOIS. 



The regular meeting of the State Microscopical Society of lUinois 

 was held at the Academy of Sciences, Chicago, Januar\' 24, 1879. Presi- 

 dent Fuller in the chair. After the election of members and the trans- 

 action of some routine business, the Secretary read a communication 

 from a committee of the microscopical section of the Troy Scientific 

 Association in regard to the adoption of a unit of micrometric meas- 

 ures, with reference to action of the American Microscopical Society 

 at its next meeting. After an expression of views by various members, 

 the matter was referred to a committee consisting of Professors H. A. 

 Johnson, M. D., Lester Curtis, M. D.. H. H. Babcock and Mr. H. W. 

 Fuller, to consider the subject, and report their recommendations at 

 the next meeting. 



Dr. W. T. Belfield read a paper entitled " Have the Mammalian 

 Blood-Corpuscles a Nucleus ? " After recounting his own experiments, 

 he referred, in closing, to the so-called claim of the late Dr. Freer, of 

 Chicago, to the discovery of a nucleus in the human blood-corpuscle 

 by the use of reflected light, as employed by Dr. H. A. Johnson He 

 staled that Dr. Freer suggested that the peculiar appearance of the 

 corpuscle, when thus examined, might be due to the presence of a 

 nucleus. This suggestion, however, was not indorsed by eminent 

 medical gentlemen in England and Germany, and on his return from 

 abroad he had quite abandoned that theory. 



BOOK NOTICES. 



Index Medicus. A Monthly Classified Record of the Current 

 Medical Literature of the World. F. Lej-poldt, Publisher, New York. 

 Although this journal does not come strictly within our field, it is still of such 

 sterling value that we feel bound to bring it prominently before our medical 

 readers. The first two numbers are issued and bear evidence of careful editorial 

 work, and the style is unexceptionable. Its scope is fully set forth in the title, and 

 we can only add that the imdertaking, although involving a vast amount of labor, 

 bids fair to be carried out to the fullest extent. 



Periodicals are divided into several classes and arranged alphabetically imder 

 their respective heads. We find: "I. Journals and transactions exclusively 

 medical. II. Scientific Journals and transactions. III. Journals and trans- 

 actions devoted to collateral subjects, special theories, and popular medicine." 

 Among the latter we find the subdivisions of "Eclectic," " Homceopathic," 

 and "Veterinary." It seems to us that an index of this high character should 

 be above all distinctions of schools. A contribution to medical literature, 

 especially such as relates to surgery, pathology, or, in fact, to anything but 

 mere physic is, pritna facie, as valuable from one school as another, and deserves 

 the same recognition in an index "of the current literature of the world." 

 Not being doctors ourselves we cannot s)Tnpathize with the distinctions here 

 made, for we are assured that if occasion required us to look up the literature 

 upon any medical subject, no one school of doctrine would ser\'e our purpose or 



