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NEW BOOKS, WITH SHORT NOTICES. 
Manual of Human and Comparative Histology. Edited by S. 
Strieker, &c. Translated by Henry Power, M.B. Lond., F.R.C.S., 
&c. Yol. II. The New Sydenham Society. London, 1872. — The 
second volume of this work has made its appearance in England during 
the past few months, and we are promised the third volume in a com- 
paratively short period. It is a peculiar work, having its several 
articles written by different authors, but for this reason it is eminently 
an excellent and yet it is also an unequal book. There is apparently 
a want of Editorial guidance, and it rather looks as though Herr 
Strieker allowed eacb individual author to write just as much or just 
as little as he pleased, and upon whatever plan seemed most desirable 
to him. The consequence of this is inequality of articles and absence 
of any definite scheme. For instance, some papers are decidedly too 
short, while others appear to occupy too long a space ; some are accom- 
panied by a copious German bibliography, while others have nothing in 
the form of a list of authorities. Again we must say that we consider 
that English work has been almost completely overlooked ; of course 
such articles as those of Allen Thomson, Lionel Beale, Huxley, 
L. Clarke, and a few others are referred to, but “what are they among 
so many” German authorities ? And, indeed, the only writer who has 
attempted a full list of authors is Herr Waldeyer; yet from his list 
of German workers and a few French and English names one would 
naturally be led to believe that Deutschland was essentially the country 
where the microscope flourished in the hands of the human anatomist. 
This is of course objectionable, and it is the more so from the fact that 
it is an evil of very old growth, and unfortunately it leads most readers 
to fancy that microscopical anatomy is, so to speak, a dead science in 
tbis country, which is par excellence the parent of the microscope. 
Of course Mr. Power bears no blame for this, it is solely the authors 
of the papers themselves, whose ignorance of English work is very 
much to be regretted. The Editor has done his duty, as is his custom, 
with patience and skill, and has rendered into terse and pleasing 
English what in some instances must have been horribly long-winded 
German phraseology. On the whole we have every reason to be well 
satisfied with the volume, for it brings home to us in a condensed form 
the various opinions of men who are not mere compilers but actual 
workers at the particular subjects on which they have undertaken 
to give us their ideas . 
We cannot possibly do more than allude very briefly to some of the 
voluminous contents, leaving to our readers the more pleasant task of 
devoting themselves fully to any particular subject which may interest 
them. The paper on the liver, which opens the volume, and is from 
the pen of Professor Ewald Hering, of Vienna, is in our opinion the 
least valuable in the volume. This appears to us from its brevity, 
from its comparative novelty, and from the fact of the author’s 
negligence (in print at least) of existing workers ; for the few he 
