5«4 



NA TURE 



[April 19, 1900 



the working man student is recommended by Prof. Perry 

 to condense the essential facts of Euclid's "Geometry" into 

 a few pages of careful instrumental construction, supple- 

 mented by perhaps half a page of Algebra for the fifth 

 and sixth books, and introducing at the outset the circular 

 functions of Trigonometry, and, most important of all, 

 the ideas and sacred symbolism of the Calculus. 



Valuable collections of examples are interspersed 

 throughout the Lectures, all having a definite practical 

 numerical character, or the interest of the practical 

 illiterate mechanic would be lost ; but we think the navi- 

 gator would object to the units employed in Example 9, 

 p. 113. An advertisement in the daily press warns us 

 that these Lectures to working men are to be discontinued, 

 and so we are disappointed of the hope of a similar 

 course, illustrated by practical examples, on Mechanics, 

 in which, to employ the author's words, the occult 

 phenomena described by the writers of cram-books 

 on Mechanics to be used in preparing for certain ex- 

 aminations will find no place. Each exercise will fix 

 firmly in the mind of the student the fact that a certain 

 principle is of importance outside examination rooms ; 

 and the student, when he works out an answer which 

 every practical illiterate mechanic knows to be ten times 

 too great, will not complacently rest satisfied with this 

 absurd answer, and talk about its being "theoretically" 

 right. 



The author has dared to introduce a lecture on Vectors 

 and their use and treatment — that is, Quaternions in 

 their simplest form, pace Prof. Tait. The resolution 

 and composition of directed quantities follows in a simple 

 manner, on a railroad of mathematical argument, with- 

 out blowing up any culverts and bridges by such artificial 

 obstructions as Duchayla's demonstration of the Parallel- 

 ogram of Forces. 



The ideal treatise is the judicious combination of the 

 Inwit and Outwit. These Lectures, in their assigned 

 scope of immediate practical application, work as far as 

 possible on the Outwit principle, while there are ten- 

 dencies in the world of abstract mathematics to exclude 

 Outwit as far as possible, and to proceed entirely by 

 Inwit ; and this latter method interests and commends 

 itself to the philosophic contemplative mind. Thus an 

 increasing gap is arising between the two lines of thought, 

 as the man of action must proceed at once on the avail- 

 able rational theory ; and he will incline to the treatment 

 advocated with so much eloquence in these Lectures on 

 Practical Mathematics. A. G. Greenhill. 



A SYSTEM OF MEDICINE. 

 A System of Medicine by Many Writers. Edited by 

 Thomas Clifford AUbutt, M.A., M.D., LL.D., F.R.C.P., 

 F.R.S. Vol. V. Pp. xiv -F 1056. 71 illustrations; 7 

 charts ; 3 plates. Vol. vi. Pp. xi 4- 944. 44 illus- 

 trations ; 3 plates ; 2 tables. Vol. vii. Pp. xii -\- 937. 

 34 illustrations ; 3 plates. Vol. viii. Pp. xii 4- 998. 

 16 illustrations ; 3 plates. (London : Macmillan and 

 Co., Ltd., 1898-1899.) 



PROF. CLIFFORD ALLBUTT is to be congratu- 

 lated upon having completed what must have been 

 a Herculean task. In a science which changes with the 

 velocity of medicine, the time consumed in the appear- 

 NO. 1590, VOL. 61] 



ance of a work is a very important factor. It is quite 

 conceivable that during the period that must necessarily 

 elapse between the first and the last volume of so monu- 

 mental a work some discovery in medicine, or the cognate 

 sciences of transcen dental importance, might occur. Such 

 a discovery might affect equally profoundly both the 

 written and unwritten volumes. A system thus astride 

 an epoch-making advance in the subject-matter of its 

 theme might bring the editor into serious embarrassment. 

 In this respect the lot of the present system has fallen in 

 pleasant places. It has been launched into the tide of 

 medical literature without any such contretemps, and the 

 first volume may be considered, from the practical stand- 

 point, as much up-to-date as the last. 



In the space at our command it is of course impossible 

 even to enumerate the contents of the four massive 

 volumes before us. 



Vol. V. is devoted to diseases of the respiratory and 

 circulatory systems. Dr. Ewart writes two comprehensive 

 articles on bronchitis and bronchiectasis. The mono- 

 graph on pneumonia is from the pen of Dr. Pye Smith. 

 This article contains an interesting critique of the bac- 

 teriology of pneumonia from the standpoint of the 

 physician, and concludes with copious clinical statistics. 

 Dr. Percy Kidd contributes a succinct account of con- 

 sumption, and what must be regarded as a very fair 

 rdsume of the different methods of treatment and their 

 results. Dr. Goodhart writes an able account of that 

 enigmatical disease, asthma. 



The second part of the volume treats of diseases of the 

 circulatory system. The first three articles of this sub- 

 division are of general interest. Sir Michael Foster con- 

 tributes an essay on the general features of the blood. 

 The clinical examination of the blood is fully dealt with 

 by Dr. Copeman. In this article the massive literature 

 of this subject is well condensed, no easy task ; the essay 

 is well up-to-date, and should prove most useful in con- 

 junction with its copious and well-classified bibliography, 

 not only to those who are simply interested in the subject, 

 but to actual workers in the field. Prof Sherrington has 

 condensed much matter into little volume in his article 

 on cardiac physics. What to leave out, and what to put 

 in, in an article upon this subject, in this place, must be a 

 matter of very great difficulty. We think the absolute 

 value of the article has suffered somewhat from its con- 

 densation, and that more space should have been devoted 

 to this subject. The physical and physico-chemical 

 aspect of dropsy, which has received very scanty attention 

 elsewhere, might well have been included in it. Functional 

 disorders and mechanical strain of the heart are treated 

 of at length by the editor. Here (p. 847), we notice 

 a misprint ; Prof Zuntz' collaborator was Geppert, not 

 Goppert. The volume concludes with articles on endo- 

 carditis and valvular disease. 



In vol. vi. diseases of the circulatory system are 

 continued. Sir Richard Douglas Powell contributes a 

 full account of angina pectoris. After a preliminary 

 division of the cases into two main classes, the author 

 proceeds to give clinical examples. The article concludes 

 with a consideration of prognosis and treatment. Dr. 

 F. T. Roberts writes upon diseases of the mediastinum 

 and thymus gland. The greater part of the author's 

 space is devoted to the interesting and complicated 



