250 Notices of Books. (April, 
Manual of Lunacy ; a Handbook Relating to the Legal Care and 
Treatment of the Insane. By LytrLeton S. WInsLow, 
M.B., &c. With a preface by ForBes WINSLow, M.D., &c. 
London: Smith, Elder, and Co. 
Nort being learned in the law, it is with diffdence that we 
express an opinion upon the work before us. Still a careful 
perusal leads us to conclude that the author is thoroughly master 
of his subject, and that his book will be of great value to all 
those members of the medical profession who devote themselves 
to the care of the insane, or who are called upon to give evidence 
on the mental condition of persons accused of crime. The 
section on ‘** Medical Evidence in Court ” contains advice which 
may be useful to other scientific men as well as to physicians 
when they have the misfortune to appear as witnesses in a court 
of justice. The unfair stratagems of counsel in dealing with 
technical evidence are alluded to in a manner which some, 
doubtless, among our readers will be able to appreciate from 
personal experience. 
The statistics on the varying amount of insanity and idiocy in 
different countries give wide scope for speculative inquiry. Why, 
for instance, should an Englishman or an Irishman be nearly 
five times more liable to insanity than an Austrian? Why, in 
the little German state of Oldenburg, should 1 in every 301 of 
the gross population be insane, whilst in Saxony the ratio is only 
Iin 1427? Neither race, nor government, nor religion seems to 
offer any clue to such a discrepancy as the latter. 
Introduction to the Study of Organic Chemistry. By H. E, 
ArmstTRONG, Ph.D., &c. London: Longmans and Co. 
Tuis volume belongs to the useful series of ‘‘ Text-Books of 
Science’ which Messrs. Longmans are at present bringing out. 
We cannot say that the work displays any very striking 
characteristics either for good or evil. The author, having first 
explained organic chemistry as the chemistry of carbon com- 
pounds, touches briefly upon formule, empirical and rational, 
and upon the action of various reagents upon the carbon 
compounds. He then passes on to the family of hydrocarbons, 
and considers the remaining groups of carbon compounds in 
their relation to the hydrocarbons. Those who take up this 
volume as a book of reference, and search in it for information 
concerning animal and vegetable substances of importance in 
nature or in the arts will find themselves disappointed. But to 
furnish such information is certainly no part of the author’s plan. 
His object has been to describe only those compounds whose 
‘relations to other well-understood bodies have been satis- 
factorily established.” The work is in its nature systematic, 
and substances whose constitution and relations are unascer- 
