Literary Notices. xi 



the present writer) unfamiliar with the personnel of the writers would 

 be driven to the belief from a simple reading of these publications, that 

 the animus is far other than the spirit of gentleness and kindness sup- 

 posed to actuate such efforts. It is our belief that no man worthy of 

 the name will inflict what he regards as needless cruelty on animals. 

 His appreciation of the value of the work in hand doubtless differs 

 from that of the ignorant spectator or reader who appreciates only the 

 details. So far as our observation is concerned, the work of vivisection 

 is caqfied on in much the same spirit as that which from time to time 

 prompts investigators to expose themselves to serious disease in order 

 to secure subjective information of its symptoms. The propogandists 

 the antivivisection gospel are certainly not actuated by the spirit of 

 Him who asked " How much better is a man than a sheep?" 



C. L. H. 



tJowcrs' Manual of the Diseases of the Nervous System.^ 



The first volume of this well and favorably known work is upon 

 our table in a third edition and is presented in a substantial and attrac- 

 tive form The book itself is too well known to require review and al- 

 though it has been subjected to complete revision, the changes are not 

 conspicuous. 



The section which has been added on " the general constitution 

 of the nervous system " is brief and not very satisfactory. ^ The author 

 seems to feel that it is foreign to the plan of the book but cannot avoid 

 a reference to the data which, however unintelligible, are yet " chang- 

 ing our physiological and pathological conceptions in a manner and 

 degree that must be adequately recognized though much of their effect 

 is still uncertain." 



From what is said it would appear that all of the recent increments 

 of our knowledge of the anatomy of the nervous system " are the re- 

 sult of a method of metallic staining first devised by Golgi of Pavia." 

 There is no hint of the important part played by methylen blue and 

 Weigert's method, which certainly should rank as not less important 

 means of research. 



A brief statement of the neurone theory is followed by a more ex- 

 tended discussion of Max Schultze's theory of fibrillary structure of 

 the nerve fiber while, curiously enough, there is not a word regarding 

 Nissl's discoveries whose bearing here is at least fully as apparent. 



In the chapter on the structure of the spinal cord by Dr. Abraham 

 attention is given chiefly to the topography rather than the histology 



P. Blakiston's Sons and Co. $4.00. 



