LITERARY NOTICES. 



415 



chronic alcoholic neuritis, that of consecutive 

 influenza, of beriberi, and the neuritis of 

 leprosy. Under definite nerve areas, neu- 

 ralgia is dealt with exhaustively and at 

 length ; also, rheumatic and gouty diatheses 

 and the pains engendered thereby. Under 

 Chapter VI, the diagnostic value of pain, as 

 it deserves, receives that effective treatment 

 so characteristic throughout the book of the 

 author's predominant bent of mind. 



Part II of the work takes up the special 

 therapeutics of pain, and points to the im- 

 portance of rest in the treatment of nervous 

 symptoms engendered by prolonged and se- 

 vere pain. Apart from the internal remedies 

 directly or indirectly applicable in treating 

 pain, the author proceeds to unfold his own 

 methods in increasing the certainty and du- 

 ration of several remedies and their action 

 on the peripheral nerves, and goes on to ex- 

 patiate upon the various surgical expedients 

 not infrequently employed. The uses of 

 compressed air in conjunction with remedies 

 which tend to diminish the acuity of percep- 

 tion, including author's pain, come in for 

 their quota of recorded observation, while 

 prevention of relapse is noted fully and with 

 precision. The closing pages supply some 

 supplementary observations on torture and 

 the infliction of pain as a judicial punish- 

 ment during the middle ages in Europe. 



Though cases that more properly belong 

 to the domain of general surgery and medi- 

 cine are not discussed by the author, the intri- 

 cacy of the whole subject of pain is never 

 lost sight of, and the vast array of patho- 

 logical conditions treated assumes a char- 

 acter unquestionably of interest and high 

 utility to the medical world. 



A STUDENT'S TEXT-BOOK OF BOTANY. By 

 SYDNEY H. VINES. (First half.) New 

 York: Macmillan & Co. Pp. 430. 

 Price, $2. 



THIS text-book has grown out of the 

 author's labors in revising Prof. Prantl's 

 Lehrbuch der Bolanik, when the thought of 

 extending the scope of that work was sug- 

 gested. The extension went on till what is 

 essentially a new and distinct work was pro- 

 duced. It deserves commendation for its 

 thoroughness and the symmetry of its struc- 

 ture. The first part, now before us, is de- 

 voted to the exposition of morphology, a 



brief chapter on classification, and a descrip- 

 tion of the cryptogams. The province of 

 morphology is defined to be " the study of 

 the form of the body of plants, including the 

 development of the body, the segmentation 

 of the body into members, and the form and 

 mutual relations of the members, as also the 

 intimate structure (anatomy and histology of 

 the body and its members in so far as struc- 

 ture throws light upon the morphology of 

 any part of the body). It is an essentially 

 comparative study." The two systems of 

 classification natural and artificial having 

 been distinguished, the natural system is de- 

 fined as having for its object the classifica- 

 tion of plants according to their fundamental 

 relationships ; and these being established 

 once for all by Nature herself, it is not based 

 on any arbitrary principle, but depends upon 

 the state of our knowledge of these fun- 

 damental relationships. "These find their 

 chief expression in the structure and other 

 characteristics of the reproductive organs, 

 as well as in the peculiarities of polymor- 

 phism presented by the life-history. This is 

 more definitely true with regard to the defi- 

 nition of the larger groups of the vegetable 

 kingdom ; within these groups relationships 

 may be exhibited sometimes in one way and 

 sometimes in another, so that it is not pos- 

 sible to lay down any universal rules for 

 determining close affinities. As the investi- 

 gation of this subject is far from being 

 complete, the natural system can not be re- 

 garded as being perfectly evolved ; the vari- 

 ous general sketches which have hitherto 

 been given are therefore no more than ap- 

 proximations to the truth." 



MAN AN ORGANIC COMMUNITY. By JOHN H. 

 KING. London: Williams & Norgate. 

 New York : G. P. Putnam's Sons. Two 

 vols. Pp. 327 + 328. Price, 



WE have here an effective work involv- 

 ing issues of prime import, as " an exposition 

 of the law that the human personality in all 

 its phases of evolution, both co-ordinate and 

 discordinate, is the multiple of many sub- 

 personalities." In each successive chapter 

 the reader will discover clear conceptions 

 fairly elaborated, and designed to prove the 

 initial allegation which the author super- 

 adds to a law already recognized in the do- 

 main of science treated. By progressive 



