228 Notices respectiiiff New Books. 



of the frog, while he strongly contracted the muscles of the other 

 arm. The expected result at once exhibited itself, and a consider- 

 able deflection was obtained. This i-esult has been abundantly cor- 

 roborated ; the writer may perhaps be permitted to contribute his 

 personal testimony, he having on a first trial obtained a deflection of 

 thirty degrees. The sense of the deflection depends upon the arm 

 contracted ; on changing the arm, the deflection is in the opposite 

 sense. 



The electric deportment of the nerves has often been a subject of 

 anxious inquiry. A nerve possesses a current which exhibits itself 

 in a manner precisely similar to the muscular one. The arrange- 

 ment of an experiment with the nerve is in substance the same as 

 that applied to a muscle, and the direction of the current follows the 

 same law. It proceeds from the transverse section through the con- 

 necting wire to the longitudinal section. It is an error to suppose 

 that the various tissues of the animal body are electromotive towards 

 each other. If the current due to each particular be shut out, Du 

 Bois-Reymond shows that no possible combination of muscle, nerve, 

 tendon, skin and bone, can produce any electric action. 



Some slight alterations will probably suggest themselves to the 

 translator in the preparation of a second edition. Tlie name of the 

 author — not an easy one to English organs — occurs too often ; and 

 the polemical tone of the book might, in certain places, be soft- 

 ened down with advantage. In a work of such intrinsic value no 

 such seasoning is required. The letters referring to the diagram at 

 page 33 need a trifling correction ; and in one or two cases the word 

 'observation,' although the correct equivalent of the German Beo- 

 bachtuny, might be changed for some other word which would not at 

 the same time answer to Bemerkuhg. On the whole, however, the 

 translation has been carried out with care and fidehty ; and the 

 English investigator must feel indebted to Dr. Bence Jones for pla- 

 cing such a valuable work within his reach. 



Atmosphere : a Philosophical Work. By George Woodhead, Esq. 

 London : Hippolyte Bailliere. 



This book consists of a number of articles, communicated from 

 time to time to the IMcchanics' Magazine by the author, and doubt- 

 less thought too valuable by him to be ])ermitted to slumber in 

 obscurity. The avowed design of the work is to explain the causes 

 of certain eflects whose hidden springs have eluded the researches 

 of all philosophers, those of Greece included, up to the time when 

 nature, forgetful of her previous anguish, rejoiced over the advent of 

 a Woodhead. 



With regard to the work, it is our duty to state that we have 

 rarely seen so much nonsense crammed into so small a space. We 

 do not blame Mr. Woodhead for this — not at all ; the matter is evi- 

 dently due to circumstances beyond his conti'ol. There is a moral 

 Daltonism in the world as well as a physical one ; and as reasonably 

 might we censure the great discoverer of the atomic theory for his 

 devotion to one or two colours, as Mr. Woodhead for his adherence 

 to two ideas — he can't help it; the blame is not his but another's. 



