508 CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 
for a lover of nature debarred by his situation from frequent commu- 
nion with the glorious works in which he loves to see evidences of the 
Great Creator’s unfailing hand, we know no book which so thoroughly 
reccommends itself. In an especial manner also, it seems adapted to 
the service of those who have the care of young ladies, and who, often 
full of intelligence and feeling themselves, yet need every help to 
rouse the faculties, and impart a salutary stimulus and direction to the 
affections of the various minds with which they have to deal. 
A book of this kind gives, in such cases, precisely the assistance 
required: it attracts attention without any laborious effort of the 
governess, and whilst seeming only to amuse in hours of relaxation, 
disposes to that Jove of knowledge the absence of which is the most 
formidable obstacle to its acquirement; so that to instil it is the most 
important achievement of all education. 
Yet again we open the leaves of this beautiful book; and, taking 
for the present a farewell look at the honeysuckle, the convolvulus, 
the heaths, and the hare-bell—all delineated with rare loveliness— 
reluctantly close its pages, as if in so doing we shut out the flowery 
scenes of ** some bright isle of rest.” 
Experiments and Observations on the Gastric Juice and the Physio- 
logy of Digestion. By William Beaumont, M.D. Surgeon in the 
United States Army. Reprinted from the Plattsburgh Edition, 
with Notes by A. Combe, M.D. Edinburgh and London. 1838. 
pp. 319. 
Tue reasons which have induced Dr. Combe to reprint the pre- 
sent work from the American original, are, Ist, a strong sense of its 
inherent importance, and of the numerous applications which may 
be made of the facts and principles developed in it, to the prevention 
and cure of disease ; 2nd, its comparative inaccessibility to the Eu- 
ropean physiologist, from the difficulty which still exists of procur- 
ing it on this side of the Atlantic ; and lastly, an earnest desire that 
the author should obtain that credit which is unquestionably due to 
his disinterested and indefatigable labours. 
Dr. Beaumont has had the rare good fortune to meet with a case 
in which an artificial opening into the stomach existed ; and through 
this opening he could see every thing that took place during the 
progress of healthy digestion: and with the most disinterested zeal 
and admirable perseverance, he availed himself of the opportunity 
thus afforded of advancing human knowledge, by engaging the pa- 
tient to live with him for several years, and to become the subject of 
numerous and carefully conducted experiments. These experiments 
confirm the doctrines (with some modifications) taught by Spallan- 
zani and many of the most enlightened physiological writers. His 
observations were made, our author remarks, in the true spirit of in- 
