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REVIEWS. 



EUDIMENTS OF PATHOLOGICAL HlSTOLOGY. By CaKL WedL, M.D., <S:C. 



Translated and Edited by George Busk, F.R.S. (Printed for the 

 Sydenham Society.) 



The Sydenham Society has done unspeakable service for the 

 medical profession by presenting its members with numerous 

 works on Anatomy, Pliysiology, Medicine and Surgery, in an 

 English form, which, but for it, would ever have remained in 

 this country sealed books, unread and perhaps unknown to the 

 vast majority. 



One of the great defects, we might almost call it an inevi- 

 table defect, in medical education, is its partialness — its one- 

 sidedness. Tlie lax-ge amount of scientific study necessary in 

 medical education, the few years allotted to learning, and the 

 early age at which most young medical men are compelled, 

 from circumstances, to spend their whole time in the practice 

 of their profession, preclude almost the possibility of anything 

 like a complete general education, and but a small proportion 

 of the members of the profession will be found well conversant 

 with some of the languages of Europe in which many of the 

 most important works of the present day are written. These 

 observations are especially applicable to the German language — 

 and in the German tongue have appeared recently many of the 

 most important publications that have ever been issued upon 

 subjects connected with the medical profession. 



Not the least valuable of these is the work now before us. 



The title of Wedl's work — ' Rudiments of Pathological 

 Histology,' is not absolutely correct, and does not do full 

 justice to its real character. It is not rudimentary ; for the 

 subjects of which it treats are well considered in all their 

 length and breadth ; and although histological descriptions 

 constitute the bulk of the letter-press, and the great majority 

 of the illustrations refer to structures as seen with hig^h magni- 



o 



fying powers, still there are interspersed many admirable de- 

 scriptions of coarse pathological anatomy, and much interesting 

 generalization ; and among the figures are many illustrative of 

 structures as seen by unaided vision. 



Again, the work has not the completeness which its general 

 and comprehensive title would seem to imply : the literature 

 of the several subjects treated of is very imperfect, and indeed 

 no effort seems to have been made on the part of the author to 

 render it otherwise : that was evidently not his object. 



