uS 



NATURE 



[December 13, 1894 



exhibited in " The Principles of Water-works Engineer- 

 ing," the practical engineer will obtain fuller information, 

 with less trouble, from the more clearly arranged and 

 better illustrated pages of " The Water Supply of Towns.'' 



HAMILTON'S PATHOLOGY. 



A Text-book of Pathology, Systematic and Practical. 

 By D. J. Hamilton, M.B., F.R.C.S.E., F.R.S.E., 

 Professor of Pathology, University of Aberdeen. 

 \'ol. ii. Parts i and 2. ;London: Macmillan and Co., 

 1S94.) 



THESE two handsome volumes complete the labor- 

 ious task which Prof. Hamilton set himself many 

 years ago, of producing a text-book of pathology, which 

 should include not merely morbid anatomy and histology, 

 but should deal also with clinical medicine, and those 

 new but rapidly developing sciences, pathological 

 chemistry, pathological physiology, and bacteriology. 



It is true that the many varied problems which come 

 before a pathologist require for their solution a more or 

 less extensive acquaintance with each and all of these 

 branches. So many, however, are the workers, and so 

 vast has the literature become in each branch, that it is 

 already impossible for anyone to be equally proficient in 

 all. and it is necessary to specialise. 



If this is the case with the individual, it is much more 

 so with the text-book. It is impossible to compress 

 within even 1800 pages, a tithe of our present knowledge 

 of all these branches, and opinions will differ widely as 

 to how the selection should be made. 



The task of making such a selection is herculean 

 enough to daunt any man, and the thanks of all 

 interested in pathology are due to the Professor for the 

 very valuable addition he has made to our literature on 

 the subject. The amount of original work is considerable, 

 and the volumes are copiously illustrated by drawings, 

 the majority of which are by the author. 



.\n extremely useful feature in the book consists in the 

 bibliography of both the English and foreign literature 

 at the end of each section. The convenient system is 

 also adopted of indicating the title of any publication 

 referred to in the text by a number in Roman letters, 

 while the full titles and the corresponding numbers are 

 given in a list at the end of the book. The first volume, 

 which was reviewed in these columns in 1SS9, met with 

 general appreciation. This volume commenced with full 

 directions for making systematic post-mortem inspections, 

 and for the practical bacteriology and histology of the 

 tissues removed. .Nearly 200 pages were devoted to 

 a full account of inflammation and suppuration, and of 

 tumours and new formations, while the remainder of the 

 book was occupied by an account of the heart, the blood, 

 and the vascular system generally. 



The two parts of the second volume now issued are 

 bound up separately. The first part of the present 

 volume is devoted to a systematic account of the patho- 

 logy of the respiratory organs, the liver and the kidney ; 

 a good solid piece of work containing much original 

 research, in which arc embodied the well-known papers of 

 the author on diseases of the lungs, and on cirrhosis of 

 the liver. .Among the many observations, we would draw 

 attention to the important conclusion that in nephritis 

 NO. 131 I, VOL. 51] 



the fatty granular remains of the convoluted epithelium 

 are absorbed by the lymphatic system, and are not, as is 

 generally supposed, mainly washed out by the urine. 



The drawings, illustrating the author's views, are worthy 

 of all praise ; they are well executed, and are sufficiently 

 diagrammatic to impress the conclusion to be indicated, 

 while their reproduction also reflects great credit on the 

 publishers. 



The remainder of the volume deals with the diseases 

 of the digestive, the nervous, the osseous and the 

 cutaneous systems, finishing with a short statement of 

 the various malformations, and a good summary of 

 systematic bacteriology and of human parasites. 



The present volume is overweighted by 150 pages of 

 normal anatomy and physiology, which preface the 

 accounts of the various organs, nearly fifty pages and 

 twenty illustrations being devoted to the nervous system. 

 This material is surely out of place in a book, in which 

 the author has been compelled by the exigencies of space 

 and time to reduce his account of the pathology of many 

 conditions to too brief an account to be of value, so that 

 often there is no indication as to which lesions and 

 causes are common and important to remember, and 

 which are exceptional ; frequently a mere list of them is 

 given. 



It is also to be regretted that it has been thought 

 desirable to devote valuable space to the description ol 

 the various tests for sugar and albumen in the urine, as 

 this information is contained in the ordinary standard 

 books on clinical medicine. 



The author apologises for the lapse of five years since 

 the appearance of the first volume; and we cannot help 

 regretting that Prof. Hamilton did not publish only the 

 first part of the present volume, and allow himsell 

 another year or more in which to have worked up the 

 second part to the high standard reached in the earlier 

 portion of the book. Although five years may appear a 

 long time, for the production of the second volume of 

 this book, still the amount of labour required was so 

 extreme that more time was really necessary. The lack 

 of space also has necessitated so much compression, that 

 often the pathology is reduced to a mere explanation of 

 the terms used ; while the numerous omissions of im- 

 portant facts suggest that this part has been produced at 

 very high pressure, so that the facts are not presented in 

 their due relation to one another, while there are several 

 statements to which we would take exception. 



While such common causes of optic neuritis as plum- 

 bism and aniumia are omitted, excessively rare ones, such 

 as pneumonia and measles, are given ; again, while optic 

 neuritis is discussed, optic atrophy is omitted. Among 

 the causes of cerebral h;emorrhage, such well-recognised 

 ones as glioma and aneurysm are omitted. 



Through oversight the following conflicting statements 

 have been allowed to appear. Under cysts of the liver, 

 the association of such with similar ones in the kidney 

 is said to be fortuitous ; while under the head of 

 renal diseases, it is noted that out of sixty-two cases of 

 cystic kidneys, seventeen were associated with similar 

 cysts in the liver. On one page, in discussing the growth 

 of typhoid bacilli, great doubt is thrown on whether they 

 spore ; on the next page, it is stated that they invariably 

 spore when grown under suitable conditions. 



