54 



NATURE 



{Nov. 1 6, 187 



made up of men who, while they desire to acquire by 

 assiduous reading as much so-called medical science as 

 is thought necessary for them to possess, rightly regard it 

 as their principal duty to devote their energies during 

 their brief period of study to the attainment of skill and 

 experience in the arts of medicine and surgery. But 

 besides these, there is a smaller class of men who not 

 only have time for real study, but possess the necessary pre- 

 vious education in which their fellows are in general so de- 

 plorably wanting, and whose motive for work is something 

 higher than that of preparing themselves for examination. 



To medical students of this last class the lessons are per- 

 fectly adapted. Nor can we conceive that a better course 

 could be followed by a young man intending to fit him- 

 self for the higher career of the medical profession, than 

 that laid down by Dr. Foster, namely, that he should at a 

 very early period, i.e.., while he is still engaged in the 

 study of the more exact branches of natural science, first 

 work through the course of elementary biology laid down 

 for him in the well-known lessons of Professor Huxley ; 

 then that he should devote a considerable proportion of 

 his time during a subsequent year to becoming conver- 

 sant with the structures and processes peculiar to the 

 bodies of the higher animals, under the guidance of a 

 teacher who must be a real physiologist— all this being 

 accomplished before he begins his proper medical studies, 

 i.e., before he begins to study the details of human 

 descriptive anatomy. 



Strange as it may seem, it is not yet sufficiently recog- 

 nised by those who are concerned in medical education that 

 the men on whom the community dep ends for enlighten- 

 ment on the great questions of the preservation of health 

 and the prevention of disease, ought to be practically 

 familiar with all that is known concerning living processes. 

 The remark is frequently made that even to the consult- 

 ing physician or to the officer of health, physiology and 

 pathology are of relatively little value. Surely this must 

 be a mistake. It may be readily admitted that the ordi- 

 nary practitioner needs only familiarity with the charac- 

 teristics of human ailments and the prescribed methods 

 of treatment and skill in the handling of sick people, and 

 may well content himself with as much of the elements 

 of scientific knowledge as he can learn from manuals and 

 lectures ; but surely the education of those who are in- 

 tended to be advisers of the public in relation to health 

 and disease should have some more solid foundation. 

 There can be no question that these men ought to be 

 prepared for their higher functions and responsibilities 

 by such a course of preliminary work in physiology as 

 will enable them, if so be that nature has fitted them for 

 it, to enter with some hope of success on those most 

 difficult of all biological investigations which relate to the 

 nature and causes of diseases. 



BRITISH MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES 



British Manufacturing Industries. Edited by G. Phillips 



Bevan, F.G.S. " Salt, Preservation of Food, Bread, and 



Biscuits," by J. J. Manley, M.A. ; " Sugar Refining," by 



C. Haughton Gill ; " Butter and Cheese," by Morgan 



Evans ; "Brewing, Distilling," by T. A. Pooley, B.Sc, 



F.C.S. (London : Edward Stanford, 1876.) 



T^HE preface states that in these volumes, of which the 



-L present is one, " the facts are gathered together and 



presented in as readable a form as is compatible with accu- 



racy and a freedom from superficiality ; and though th( 

 do not lay claim to being a technical guide to each industr 

 the names of the contributors are a sufficient guaranti 

 that they are a reliable and standard work of reference.' 



This editorial explanation fairly describes the scope 

 the articles contributed by their respective writers to th 

 volume ; since, while not pretending to be a technic 

 guide to each industry, they must prove of great value 

 all desiring to obtain a getieral knowledge of the pr 

 cesses described. The common fault of encyclopsedi: 

 of this kind is to devote much space to detailed explan 

 tions of manufacturing processes and of the machine: 

 employed. To the ordinary reader all such elaborate detai 

 are useless, since his object is to obtain information upc 

 the general principles upon which the various process 

 are based ; and to the manufacturer practically engag( 

 in any process they are equally useless, since no matt 

 how carefully written, they can teach him nothin 

 because, as a matter of course, he is in advance of tl 

 processes described with so much detail. 



The first article is an interesting account of " Sail 

 where found, and how manufactured from the cru( 

 deposit. Some valuable statistics are given as to tl 

 quantity produced in and exported from England. 



The next article on the " Preservation of Food " by tl 

 same contributor deals with a subject of increasing ir 

 portance. Though there has been an important increas 

 of late years, in the amount of green crops, and in lar 

 laid down to grass in the United Kingdom, yet tl 

 consumption of beef and mutton has so spread amoi 

 the working classes, as to render the increased produ 

 tion vastly inadequate to the ever-increasing demand, 

 has become in consequence a matter of the highest ir 

 portance to discover means by which animal food mayl 

 imported from America, Australia, and other countri 

 where it is abundant. 



The chief processes hitherto employed for the prese 

 vation of meat are classified by the author under tl 

 heads of Drying, Action of Cold, Chemical Reagents, ar 

 Exclusion of Air. The drying process has certainly n 

 proved a success. " Charqui," so much praised a few yea 

 since, is but a poor substitute for fresh animal food. 



The value of ice in preserving meat in cold countries 

 so well established, that it naturally presents itself as 

 convenient agent. Hitherto, however, as regards gre 

 distances, it has failed. This has arisen from tv 

 causes : in the first place the temperature of melting i( 

 is not low enough to prevent change even on ship boarc 

 this difficulty will doubtless be overcome by the emplo 

 ment of machines, by which a temperature lower than p° < 

 can be maintained at sea. Another difficulty has aris< 

 from the fact that moat kept at the temperature of meltii 

 ice is very prone to change so soon as removed from tl 

 ice-tanks to be distributed throughout the countr 

 Doubtless in time these and other difficulties will be r 

 moved, and our large cities, at least, be supplied wii 

 regular arrivals of fresh uncooked meat from Soul 

 America and our colonies. 



The use of chemical reagents has hitherto prov< 

 inefficient, but we cannot agree with Mr. Manley *' that 

 is hardly likely that the use of chemicals will solve tl 

 question of meat preservation." A patent has lately bee 

 granted by which oxygen-absorbing reagents are so su 



