THE MICROGRAPHIC DICTIONARY. 227 



Here we should close our brief notice of this work, but there 

 is one passage in the translator's preface which we cannot pass 

 without reference : we allude to the observations he makes on 

 the cell theory of tissue-development, and in which we most 

 heartily concur. Mr. Busk remarks — 



" The ahiiost blind obedience at present paid to the doctrines of Schwann 

 and Scbleiden has apparently acted for some time as a damper upon original 

 thought on the subject. Attention, however, having of late been directed, 

 more particularly by Mr. Huxley, to the foundation upon Avhich this doc- 

 trine is based, and to the many and weighty objections to which it is 

 obnoxious, will, it is to be hoped, awaken a more scrutinising and inde- 

 pendent spirit of inquiry ; when, and not till when, we may hope to see 

 general, and with it Pathological Histology, placed on a firm basis." 



We are only too glad to endorse the opinions here implied, 

 and to express our surprise that clear-sighted and conscientious 

 observers can be found who still defend the old cell-develop- 

 ment theory absolute and unqualified. 



The Micrographic Dictionary ; a Guide to the Examination and 

 Investigation of the Structure and Nature of Microscopic 

 Objects. By J. W. Griffith, M.D., &c., and A. Henfrey, F.R.S., 

 &c. London. Yan Voorst, 1856 ; pp. 696 ; with 41 Plates by Tuffen 

 West, and numerous Woodcuts. 



We congratulate our readers upon the completion of this 

 laborious and valuable work, whose peculiar nature renders a 

 riotice of it in our pages almost imperative. Anything like a 

 critical review, however, of such an extensive encyclopedic 

 volume is obviously impossible within our necessarily con- 

 fined limits. Noi', perhaps, since the work has been, in part 

 at any rate, long before the public, is such a review now 

 demanded. But we think it incumbent upon us to point out 

 in brief terms what we conceive to be its more striking 

 merits and demerits, and how nearly its execution corresponds 

 with the conception implied in its title ; and to what extent it 

 will prove specially useful to the general microscopic 

 observer, for whom alone we take it to be intended. 



The Authors state that it is " offered as an index to our 

 knowledge of the structure and properties of bodies revealed 

 by the microscope." This sentence may be taken to mean, 

 either that the work is intended to represent an index of what 

 is known respecting the microscopic structure and (micro- 

 scopic) properties of all bodies, or of what we know re- 

 specting the structure and properties of all microscopic 

 bodies. In neither sense, however, it is clear, does it come 

 up to this ambitious aim. Such a field is too vast to be 

 occupied by any single work of many times the dimensions of 



