156 SHORT NOTICES. 



duction, the authors have taken separately their various especial 

 parts of the work. Thus Dr. Jones has written the department 

 of General Pathological Anatomy with that of the Alimentary 

 Canal and other viscera ; whilst Dr. Sieveking has given the 

 Pathology of the Nervous, Circulating, Respiratory and Osse- 

 ous systems. We think the work would be improved by extend- 

 ing the general department so as to make it embrace all patho- 

 logical conditions, without the necessity of repeating under the 

 head of each system much of wliat has been previously stated. 

 This would reduce the bulk of the special department, and give 

 the authors the opportunity of going into greater detail in their 

 account of microscopical pathological conditions. The chapter 

 on parasites, for instance, might thus be greatly extended, 

 especially the portion devoted to their vegetable forms, and 

 the results of such researches as those in Robin's volume on 

 ' Vegetaux Parasites ' given. 



The volume forms one of Mr. Churchill's medical manuals, 

 and is illustrated with a large series of well-executed wood- 

 cuts. 



A Popular History of British Mosses. By Egbert M. Stack. 

 Reeve. London. 



There are few departments of vegetable anatomy that offer a 

 less trodden field for the microscope than the family of Mosses. 

 As yet we are very imperfectly acquainted with the history of 

 their development and the mode of their reproduction. They 

 afford an interest, not only on account of their present distri- 

 bution on the earth's surface, but also on account of their 

 previous history in connection with the extinct vegetation 

 presented to us in the coal and other strata. This little book 

 does not profess to give an account of the microscopic struc- 

 ture of British mosses ; but all those who are studying this 

 subject will find it of great assistance in furnishing the names 

 of particular mosses, and enabling them to identify their spe- 

 cimens. This work is one of the best of the series to which 

 it belongs, and is a very useful addition to the literature of 

 our native botany. 



Etudes Physiologiques sur les Animalcules des Infusiores Vege- 

 tates. Par Paul Laurent. Tome I. Nancy. 1854, 



M. Laurent is known for his microscopical researches ; but, 

 unfortunately, the author has adopted theories which evidently 

 interfere with his power of making accurate researches. In 

 the first place, he maintains that there is no distinction be- 



