376 Notices of Books. (July, 
In England, with our usual love for inconsistency, we have 
three standards. The degree ordinarily used 1s 60° F. = 15°5°C., 
but the imperial gallon is fixed at 62~ F., and the proof point for 
Sikes’s hydrometer, as laid down by Act of Parliament, is 51° F. 
‘‘ These differences,” says the Author, ‘very justly serve no 
practical purpose, and only tend to confusion.” 
It is somewhat remarkable that amongst the various hydro- 
meters here enumerated there is no mention of the two most 
generally employed in England—Twaddell’s and the direct spe- 
cific gravity instrument. Baumé’s hydrometers, so much em- 
ployed on the Continent in chemical works, dye works, &c., are 
worthy of all condemnation. They are graduated in a very 
arbitrary and often careless manner, and their indications are not. 
readily calculated into direct specific gravity. 
The author has devised a modification of Sikes’s hydrometer, 
ordinarily used by Revenue Officers, which appears to have a 
decided advantage. 
Consumption and Tuberculosis, their Proximate Cause and Sphe- 
cific Treatment by the Hypophosphites. By J. F. CHuRCHILL, 
M.D. London: Longmans and Co. 
MEDICINE was reproached by the late Mr. Buckle as being still 
in the ‘‘ theological stage.” ‘‘ Not one of its so-called specifics,” 
continues the historian of civilisation, ‘‘ has been discovered 
deductively, or even justified a priori.” The Author holds that 
in the hypophosphites we have a specific for ‘‘ pulmonary affec- 
tions arrived at a priori by hypothetic induction, verified by 
clinical experiment, and confirmed by a concordance of the 
widest and most numerous array of facts ever brought forward 
in pathology.” 
Dr. Churchill was led, by his observations and experiments, 
to assume—provisionally, at least—the two following propo- 
sitions :— 
‘‘The tubercular diathesis is owing to a diminution in the 
system of the phosphorus element.” 
«« As this element fulfils the function of a combustibie body, it 
must be in a degree of oxidation inferior to that of phos- 
phoric acid.” 
He then proceeded to submit his theory to practical verifica- 
tion. Free phosphorus being, from obvious reasons, inadmis- 
sible, the choice lay between the oxide of phosphorus and the 
phosphorous and hypophosphorous acids. He selected the latter 
in the state of a lime-salt, and by experiments upon himself 
established the fact that it could be taken in 6-grain doses with- 
out any ill effeéts. He then proceeded to actual practice. Cases 
of consumption are, unfortunately, sufficiently common, and the 
