146 



NA TURE 



[December 15, 1892 



and two of the others, of the University of Cambridge, 

 one has been honoured by both Oxford and Cambridge 

 degrees. Where is the " excessive representation of one 

 great academical institution " among these gentlemen ? 

 Undoubtedly one of the English Universities has a large 

 share ; but, if the author of the " Criticism " imagines that 

 the influence of that University, or of any member of it 

 acting on behalf of his University, had anything whatever 

 to do with the election of these officers to the posts they 

 hold, it is simply because he is utterly unacquainted with 

 the circumstances under which these appointments were 

 made ; and more especially with the difficulty of finding 

 competent men who are able and willing to devote an 

 immense amount of time and trouble to the affairs of the 

 Society. 



So with respect to the "reappearance" of similar 

 names on the Council "every five or six years." If the 

 critic had ever taken part in the business of selecting 

 a new Council ; or even if it had occurred to his some- 

 what captious mind (i) that all branches of science must 

 be represented ; (2) that men who can and will give 

 a great deal of time to the service of the Society are 

 alone useful ; (3) that it is not everybody's business to be 

 a useful councillor ; (4) that people who live far out of 

 London, as a rule, find it difficult to attend the frequent 

 meetings of the Council and its committees, he would not 

 have found it necessary to suggest corrupt motives for this 

 fatal reappearance of the same councillors ; and that in 

 spite of the rule that a man must be off the Council for a 

 year before he can be re-elected. 



It is further made a reproach to the Society that among 

 the yearly elected fifteen " the professor abounds greatly, 

 whileindependent investigators of the type of Joule, Brewer, 

 Spottiswoode, De la Rue, Darwin, Gassiot, Grove, and 

 others who have been the glory of English science, are 

 comparatively rare." To which singular statement (most 

 singular perhaps in the collocation of names) it would 

 seem necessary to reply only by putting two questions. 

 Will the critic point to any man ranking even with the 

 least known of those whom he mentions, now living, who is 

 not in the Royal Society, or who has not been placed on the 

 Council, except of his own choice, or from the accidents 

 of residence and occupation? And, secondly, has it oc- 

 curred to him that in the last quarter of a century, a multi- 

 tude of new professoriates in science have been created, 

 and have been filled by the best workers the appointers 

 could find ? And if these gentlemen have not left off work- 

 ing the moment they were made professors, does it not seem 

 probable that the Council of the Royal Society may have 

 had even better grounds for selecting them for the 

 fellowship than their appointers had for making them 

 professors 1 



Finally, the "Criticism" affirms that "eminent pro- 

 fessors may be named who are also eminent improvers of 

 natural knowledge, yet are not fellows of the Royal 

 Society." 



We venture respectfully, but firmly, to question the 

 accuracy of this statement ; unless these " eminent im- 

 provers of natural knowledge " have voluntarily ab- 

 stained from seeking the fellowship. It is not for 

 the Council to ask any one, however " eminent," to join 

 the Society. And if there are persons who have been 

 glad to accept honours from the Royal Society's hands, 

 NO. 1207, VOL. 47] 



but who have chosen to abstain from taking the steps 

 which would, as a matter of course, have placed them in 

 its ranks and have enabled them to take their fair share 

 in the burden of its work ; no one but themselves is 

 responsible for their singular position— the Royal Society 

 fara da se, and does not require their aid. 



THE ELEMENTS OF PHYSIOLOGY. 

 Elements of Human Physiology. By E. H. Starling^ 



M.D. Lond. (London : Churchill, 1892.) 

 T F this book is intended as an introduction to the phy- 

 -^ siology a medical student ought to acquire it will fill 

 its purpose admirably, but it would be too much to say 

 that it could in any way take the place of the larger text- 

 books. Such a book as this, rightly bearing the 

 word "elements" in its title, if used, as it should 

 be, as a " guide," will give the student an acquaint- 

 ance with the subject which will be an excellent 

 introduction to more detailed works. Dr. Starling 

 has written in some 400 small 8vo pages a concentrated 

 account of the physiological processes of the body. The 

 knowledge given is fully up to date. It must have 

 been a difficult task to do this in so small a space with- 

 out merely recording a succession of disconnected facts 

 and rival theories. Dr. Starling is to be congratulated 

 on having accomplished this task well. The judicious 

 selection he has made of the really important points, and 

 his terse and clear mode of expression has enabled him to 

 produce a book which besides being instructive is interest- 

 ing, which with a condensed manual is seldom the case. 

 The danger of the book lies in its excellence. If a 

 student, a medical student aiming at a mere qualification ' 

 trusts, with the aid of some histology, to this book alone, 

 he may doubtless accomplish his immediate object. But 

 who would then be satisfied that he possessed a know- 

 ledge of physiology such as a medical man should be 

 equipped with 1 If the student could not merely learn, 

 but also assimilate all that is brought before him 

 here, his mind would not only be supplied with much in- 

 formation, but also receive a useful training. The expe- 

 rience of teachers, however, is that the average student 

 does not understand the intricacies of many of the pro- 

 cesses and mechanisms of the animal body by having 

 them tersely expounded to him in a few sentences. He 

 may learn those sentences, but his ignorance is at once 

 exposed if he is brought face to face with the same question 

 along another path. The more a medical man knows of 

 what physiology can teach him of those portions cf the 

 science which come into the most intimate relation with 

 medical practice, all the better. The danger is that when 

 this book falls into the hand of the student he will be 

 satisfied, and refrain from consulting fuller works or even 

 from practical laboratory work, on the importance of 

 which the author in the preface so rightly insists. 



The introduction gives not only an account of the 

 general properties of living matter, but also a rapid 

 survey of the build and functions of the animal body, 

 touching even on development. This is followed by an 

 account of the chemical constituents, and as this must be 

 largely referred to by the student during the reading of 

 the book, it is a necessity, but would, I think, have been 

 better placed at the end. 



