Bren 
1829.] 
grudge expense in necessaries, to make dis- 
plays in superfluities—it is a positive ad- 
vantage, we say, ifit be granted that benefit 
is at all accomplished by communication— 
for every new elementary book is, in some 
respect or other, it may be safely affirmed, 
better than its predecessor. The last com- 
piler has the opportunity, and of course takes 
it, of making use of the labours of those 
who preceded him in his particular line, 
and of renouncing the bad. The great com- 
pelling motive for the new attempt is the 
correction of mistakes—the perception of 
some improyement—the expansion of some 
pursuit some sagacious suggestion, or 
some happy facility ; and as in all commu- 
nication, the plainest and readiest mode is 
the point of perfection, and this can only be 
attained by successive attempts—we repeat 
it, new elementary books are no evil; and 
no rational person will lament the pitiful 
loss incurred by giving up a bad book for a 
good one, or a good book for a better. 
With this conviction upon us, we gladly 
take every opportunity of pointing our 
reader’s attention to new works of this 
kind; and we have never with more plea- 
sure or confidence recommended any thing 
of the kind than we now do these First 
Steps to Astronomy and Geography—pub- 
lished by Hatchard. It is the production 
of a lady—the writer of a well received 
volume of Conversations on Botany, and 
does her infinite credit. If the neatness 
and simplicity of Mrs. Marriott’s conversa- 
tions recommended them to the instructors 
of young people, the volume, before us, is, 
on the same grounds, entitled to the same 
warm and welcome reception. It is well 
calculated to be popular in schools, and with 
governesses. A little contrivance, a sort of 
occular illustration of the sphericity of the 
earth, is well imagined—a ship, with all 
her sails set, is made to revolve on the cir- 
cumference of a circle, shewing distinctly 
why the sails come first in sight, and the 
hull last—as they are actually observed to 
do. The Geography consists of a light and 
lively sketch of the divisions of the globe ; 
but which, in a second edition—which it 
will undoubtedly reach—will require a little 
revision—some of the many changes of the 
last twenty years are not noticed ; and it is 
desirable that things of this kind should be 
brought up to the latest date. 
The Elements of Plane and Spherical 
Trigonometry ; by John Hind, M. A.— 
Analytic geometry has been so long and so 
successfully cultivated in France, while in 
this country it has but so very recently 
formed a branch of education, that it is not 
to be expected the elementary works we 
possess on the subject should bear any com- 
parison with those of our neighbours. Yet 
this is not altogether the case; and Wood- 
house’s Trigonometry will fairly compete 
with any similar treatise which Europe can 
boast. Longo proximus interyallo appears 
Domestic and Foreign. 
205 
the present work. Mr. Hind seems to have 
written exclusively for the students of the 
university of which he is a member. But 
as we do not consider the system of instruc- 
tion pursued at Cambridge the best calcu- 
lated to advance mathematical knowledge, 
we can say very little in favour of the work in 
question, but must enter our most vehement 
protest against the introduction of innume- 
rable questions to exercise the ingenuity of 
the learner, when neither the method nor 
the result is given of their solution. 
Analytic Physiology ; by Samuel Hood, 
M.D. — At a time when the press teems 
with ill-written volumes on medical subjects 5 
when every youthfnl candidate for the ho- 
nours and emoluments of his profession, 
deems it necessary to advertise himself to the 
public as an author, whether he have a 
single new fact or observation of the slightest 
importance to communicate, or not; when 
medical men are condemned to winnow a 
few grains of information from the appal- 
ling mass of dulness, ignorance, and mis- 
statement, with which they are beset, 
quarterly, monthly, and weekly, in count- 
less periodicals; we hail a work which 
professes to present us, in a small compass, 
with the most important facts in physical 
science, and to deduce from them xational 
principles of medical practice. Our author, 
if we may judge from his preface, appears to 
consider himself a discoverer ; to think that 
he has made a grand step in medical science ; 
and that, while the profession at large are 
wandering in the night of prejudice, and are 
held in subjection by the authority of obso- 
lete theorists, he alone has applied the lights 
of modern physiology to medical practice, 
and, in an especial manner, to the improve- 
ment of the treatment of nervous diseases. 
We know not what may be the doctrines 
taught in the schools in the other parts of 
our island; but, accustomed as we are in 
London to the rapid diffusion of knowledge, 
through the medium of the press, and know- 
ing that every physiological and medical 
fact of importance is, by some of our more 
enlightened teachers, communicated to their 
respective classes, often within a few hours 
after their publication, we cannot repress a 
smile when we are told of the ‘ physiology 
of the schools,’ and fancy we hear the 
language of a former age. Without for a 
moment desiring to withhold from our 
author the praise which is due to his fair 
pretensions, or doubting that many of his 
views are, relatively to himself, original, we 
feel, from the candour which we think we 
discern in his pages, that we shall have his 
forgiveness, when we express our belief that 
we have found more than “ some crude ves- 
tiges of most of his theories in the records of 
medicine.” The most remarkable feature 
in Mr. Hood’s practice is the formation of 
successive eschars with nitrate of silver or 
lunar caustic, in the course of the spine. 
We cannot suppose that he is not aware of 
