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THURSDAY, JANUARY 25, i?94. 



RECENT PUBLIC HEALTH WORKS. 

 A Treatise on Hygiene and Public Health. By T. 



Stephenson, M.D., F.R.C.P., and Shirley F. Murphy. 



Vol. ii. (London : J. and A. Churchill, 1893.) 

 Public Health a?ul Demography. By Edward F. 



Willoughby, M.D., D.P.H. (Macmillan and Co., 1893.) 

 Methods of Practical Hygiene. By Prof. K. B. Leh- 



mann. Translated by W. Crookes, F.R.S, In two vols. 



(London : Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner, and Co., 



Limited, 1893.) 



IN our review of vol. i. of the "Treatise on Hygiene 

 and Public Health," it was pointed out that the 

 various articles comprising it were written by men whose 

 knowledge and experience upon the subjects allotted to 

 them for treatment was a sufficient guarantee of good 

 work, and that any faults that the reviewer might pos- 

 sibly detect in the volume must almost of necessity 

 be those of omission. To this second volume — which 

 contains matter of the greatest possible interest and im- 

 portance to the student and practitioner of preventive 

 medicine — the same remarks apply. It is at least equal 

 in all-round excellence to vol. i. ; but here and there a 

 few points might, in our opinion, have been more fully 

 dealt with than they are, especially in a book which is 

 destined to become essentially the work of reference for 

 those interested in public health matters. 



Article i treats of " The Pathology of Infectious Dis- 

 ease," and is written by Dr. Klein. This is an excellent 

 resume of what is undoubtedly the most important 

 branch of preventive medicine, and it forms one of the 

 best features of the book. No one can question the 

 authoritative value of an article coming from such a 

 source ; and the fact that it is well written, and the various 

 stages of the study are carefully arranged and treated of 

 in admirable sequence, make this difficult subject both 

 easy and pleasant reading. Appended to the article is a 

 weahh of illustrations, comprising plates of a large num- 

 ber of cover-glass specimens of cultures of the different 

 bacilli, all beautifully clear, and many coloured to show 

 the characteristic staining of bacilli and fungi in tissues 

 and fluids ; sections through pathological tissues, &c. ; 

 specimens of blood, mucus flakes and pus, showing 

 bacilli ; representations of a large number of tube cul- 

 tures — streak, stab, shake, and surface ; cultures on 

 potato, and plate cultures. We fancy that a few illus- 

 trations of the apparatus employed in bacteriological 

 research would be acceptable, and we note that no men- 

 tion is mide of Haff"kine's work in anti-choleraic vaccina- 

 tion ; this might certainly have been included, notwith- 

 standing the circumstance that a valuable piece of 

 desiruciive criticism, emanating from Dr. Klein, has 

 thrown considerable doubt upon the value of the method. 

 The article which very appropriately follows upon the 

 first is contributed by Dr. T. W. Thompson, upon the sub- 

 ject of "The Natural History of Infectious Diseases"; 

 it IS a careful and well-written article, leaving but little 

 to be desired. The subject of the communicability of 

 phthisis IS, however, worthy of a little more space than 

 NO. 1265, VOL. 49] 



that allotted to it, more especially as during the past two 

 years a conviction has established itself among health 

 officers that there is at present an enormous amount of 

 preventible mortality from that disease, by reason of the 

 fact that the malady is frequently traceable to infection 

 from a pre-existing case ; and there is every prospect, in 

 the near future, of phthisis being brought more directly 

 under the control of preventive measures. 



Article 3, by Dr. J. C. McVail, gives an excellent 

 summary of the work that has resulted in our present 

 system of vaccination, and deals fully enough with the 

 subject of anti-vaccination. The article contains many 

 useful diagrammatic expressions of the deaths from 

 small-pox, and the general incidence, age and sex 

 incidence, types, &c. of the disease among both the 

 vaccinated and the unvaccinated. 



The subject of vital statistics has been entrusted to 

 Dr. Ransome for treatment. It is, of course, a good 

 article, but rather short, and hardly explanatory enough 

 in some respects for the purpose of those who will doubt- 

 less consult the volume upon points which they have 

 either not been able to understand or to gather from the 

 perusal of the smaller works upon public health. 



The main scope of Article 5 is the hygiene of those 

 who live at sea, in ships as their houses, and with the sea 

 and air as their environments. It is appropriate, there- 

 fore, that under the heading of "Marine Hygiene" the 

 writer should treat of sea-water in its chemical and 

 physical aspects ; the various kinds of ships, and the 

 material used in their construction ; shipping and pas- 

 senger statistics ; the cubic space, ventilation, and tempera- 

 ture of cabins and bunks ; the water supply of ships ; and 

 the sailor, his food and its preservation, his clothing, 

 and the diseases to which he is especially subject. The 

 best feature, and the most useful, of this admirable article 

 is that bearing upon port sanitation, and Dr. H. E. 

 Armstrong is to be congratulated upon a careful and 

 valuable contribution. 



The sixth article, upon military hygiene, is by Prof. J. 

 L. Notter. It is substantially that which appears in the 

 same writer's edition of Edmund Parke's work upon 

 practical hygiene. It is well written and sufficiently 

 exhaustive. 



The article which deals with disposal of the dead 

 consists of two parts. Part i. is contributed by Sir 

 T. Spencer Wells, and treats of the various methods 

 employed by different sects and nationalities. It is ad- 

 mirably written, extremely interesting, and is a powerful 

 vindication of cremation. The second part is written by 

 Mr. Frederick Walter Lowndes, who, while he discusses 

 the question in a spirit of impartiality, maintains that 

 there need be no difficulties and dangers in the prevailing 

 method of disposing of the dead, if proper care be exer- 

 cised in the selection of the site of the burial-ground and 

 its subsequent management. 



The volume is concludedbyan excellent article upon the 

 medical officer of health, by Dr. Ashby ; and we are glad 

 to find the writer advocating whole time service, though 

 deprecating the altogether inadequate emoluments which 

 are offered in return. This will be found one of the most 

 valuable contributions in the whole volume for those who, 

 having secured an appointment as medical officer of 

 health, wish to have brought before them the whole 



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