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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of Botany in Leland Stanford Junior Uni- 

 versity, has therefore undertaken the present 

 work * mainly for the purpose of presenting, 

 in somewhat detailed form, a summary of 

 the substance of the great mass of literature 

 upon the subject that has accumulated, 

 much of which is out of reach of the botan- 

 ical workers who have not access to the 

 great libraries. Papers published by him 

 from time to time have served as the basis 

 of the work, and these have been supple- 

 mented by somewhat extended series of ob- 

 servations, the results of which are pub. 

 lished now for the first time. The illustra- 

 tions were, as a rule, made by the author 

 from his own preparations, and most of 

 them expressly for this work. A bibliog- 

 raphy of fourteen pages and a full index 

 make the work complete as a book. 



Limited as is the district to which this 

 volume of the work f is devoted, the south- 

 ern tier of counties and the coast from the 

 North Foreland to the Land's End, it presents 

 an extraordinary variety of outline, soil, and 

 climatic influences, and is hence of great in- 

 terest to the climatologist and health-seeker. 

 Each county is taken up separately. The 

 general geological features and the surface 

 configuration are first considered ; then the 

 climate, mortality statistics, and other facts 

 bearing on the healthfulness of the more im- 

 portant towns ; and finally a summing up of 

 the diseases which are aggravated by and 

 those benefited by a sojourn in this climate. 

 For instance, " rheumatism prevails gener- 

 ally in Cornwall, which therefore is to be 

 avoided by persons of rheumatic tendencies. 

 The county as a whole presents influences, 

 probably in the water, which are preventive 

 of urinary stone and gravel." Devonshire, 

 Somerset, Dorset, Hampshire, and the south- 

 eastern counties are dealt with in detail, and 

 valuable conclusions drawn from their phys- 

 ical and climatic peculiarities. The portion 

 of the work on medicinal springs occupies 



* The Structure and Development of Mosses 

 and Ferns ( Archegoniatae). By Douglas Hough ton 

 Campbell. Pp.544,8vo. London and New York : 

 Macmillan & Co. Price, $4.50 ; 14. 



t The Climates and Baths of Great Britain, 

 being the Report of a Committee of the Royal 

 Medical and Chirurgical Society of London. Vol. 

 L Pp. 540, 8vo. New York and London : Mac- 

 millan & Co. Price,, $6.EO ; 21*. 



the last hundred pages, and consists of a 

 consideration of the chemical composition of 

 each water and its probable effect on the 

 body, especially with reference to diseased 

 conditions. The book contains a great deal 

 of interesting information, much of which 

 was before inaccessible to the general reader 

 and practitioner, and with the companion 

 volume promised will undoubtedly take rank 

 as a standard treatise. 



The rapid advances which have occurred 

 during the past decade in all the sciences 

 have been nowhere more marked than in the 

 department of surgery. They have made 

 necessary the publication of a book of 1082 

 octavo pages* as a supplement to a work of 

 six volumes which seven years ago was a 

 complete and exhaustive treatise on surgery. 

 In this volume the aim has been to obtain a 

 digest of accepted and valuable facts ; mere 

 novelty and possible future value not being 

 considered sufficient warrant for serious con- 

 sideration. In carrying out the intention to 

 make the volume a supplement to its prede- 

 cessors, the authors of the several articles 

 have so far as possible avoided repeating the 

 contents of the previous work. Some topics 

 were originally so elaborately treated as to 

 now require but little discussion, while others 

 such, for instance, as brain surgery which 

 may almost be said to have come into ex- 

 istence during the past seven years, have 

 called for more space than did the article in 

 the main portion of the work. 



Diseases of the Vascular System and 

 Thyroid Gland \ is Part IV of a very 

 thorough and extensive treatise on modern 

 medical practice. While the subjects treated 

 in this volume are few in number, they are 

 of great importance to the general practi- 

 tioner. The first article, to which more than 

 half the volume is devoted, is on the diseases 

 of the heart and pericardium, and was written 

 by Dr. James T. Whittaker, of Cincinnati. 

 An interesting section of the paper is devoted 



* The International Text-Book of Surgery. 

 Vol. VII. Edited by John Ashhurst. New York: 

 William Wood & Co. 



t Twentieth Century Practice and Interna- 

 tional Encyclopaedia of Modern Medical Science. 

 In twenty volumes. Edited by Thomas L. Sted- 

 man, M. D. Vol. IV, Diseases of the Vascular 

 System and Thyroid Gland. Pp. 841, 8vo. New 

 York : William Wood & Co. 



