1888.] MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 157 



MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETIES. 



Essex County, N. J. — F. Vanderpoel, Secy. 

 April 12, i888. — Meeting held at the residence of Dr. J. S. Brown. Montclair, who 

 had prepared an elaborate paper, with the cooperation of Mr. Crosby, upon the ' Prac- 

 tical Normal Histology of the Human Skin.' The Doctor spoke of the skin as being 

 composed of three layers : — the epidermis, cutis vera or corium, and subcutaneous tis- 

 sue. It is modified in structure so as to adapt it to the various uses to which it is put, 

 being thicker on some parts of the body than on others. The different layers, their 

 structure and peculiarities, were finely shown upon the screen by means of upwards 

 of two hundred shdes, some of the sections being less than y|o of an inch in thickness. 

 Some of the shdes illustrated the non-nucleated cells of the epidermis. Others showed 

 in a iDeautiful manner the Malpighian layer. The stratum lucidum was shown in some 

 as a well-defined line, and in others the pigment, which colors the skin of some races, 

 was shown to be in the stratum mucosum. The latter slides contained sections of skin 

 from the negro race, and it was stated that the coloring matter contained iron, which 

 had been derived from the haemoglobin of the blood. These sections were all well 

 cut and mounted, and were highly satisfactory. Some of the slides contained sections, 

 both transverse and longitudinal, of foetal fingers, showing the position of the nail, 

 nail bed, root of nail, matrix, end of phalanx, etc. The appendages of the skin were 

 also described. Exhaustive descriptions of the component parts of the hair, its position 

 and growth, the membranes lining the sheath, the medullary and cortical positions of 

 the shaft were given and illustrated, each with suitable slides. A vote of thanks was 

 tendered to Dr. Brown and Mr. Crosbv. 



NOTICES OF BOOKS. 



A Manual of Physiology. A text-book for Students of Medicine. Girard F. Yeo. 



3d American Edition. Philadelphia. P. Blakiston, Son & Co. 1888. pp. 758, 



319 ills. 

 It is a pleasant task to look through, for purposes of review, a work like the above- 

 One might suppose that in the present day text-books of physiology were too numer^ 

 ous to make it possible that a new good one should be written, which should not re" 

 peat the many already in the market. The masterly work of Foster, which stands 

 unquestionably at the head of all English works of the kind, is too full for the easy 

 use of any but the special physiologist. Clear it is beyond any dispute, but it is better 

 adapted to the wants of highly advanced students than of those in lower grades. It 

 moreover lacks diagrams and figures upon the histology which are most helpful to a 

 qeginner. In the work of Dr. Yeo the anatomy is kept constantly in sight, as well as 

 the histology, and the subject made as definite as possible by the omission of matters 

 under dispute. The work is not historical, but a very clear exposition of the present 

 standpoint. The order of treatment is after the general review of the facts of cell 

 structure, aggregation to form tissues, and a review of the chemistry of the body, and 

 of the food, a thorough survey of digestion, circulation, respiration, secretion and ex- 

 cretion, nutrition and animal heat, muscular action, nervous action, special senses, 

 central nervous system, reproduction development. 



While we like the order of treatment in general, consider the digestive system a 

 good place for the start with circulation and respiration after, we should prefer to treat 

 secretion in connection with digestion since it is there that the most extensive secretions 

 are treated, viz: — salivary, gastric, puncreatic, hepatic, etc. But we especially disap- 

 prove of the treatment of the general physiology of the nervous system, and special 

 physiology of the peripheral nerves before that of the special senses, followed by that 

 of the brain and spinal cord. Our choice would be to treat the special senses last, 

 and the central nervous system first. The features of especial excellence in the book 

 are full treatment of the embryological portion, and the very clear histological subjects. 

 The histology we take to be of the greatest importance in giving the student, and par- 

 ticularly the medical student, the information he ought to have to locate exactly the 

 trouble in disease. The early chapter on the living cell and its peculiarities is a chap- 

 ter of great value as an introduction to the later histological portions of the book. 

 Protoplasm being the living substance of the body, and medicine the study of those 



