April 19, 1900] 



NATURE 



585 



subject of intra-thoracic new growths, which he handles 

 in a most satisfactory manner. The articles on throm- 

 bosis and embohsm are from the pen of Prof Welch, 

 and are treated very fully. A most copious bibliography 

 is appended, amounting to six pages. 



An interesting illustration of the essential unity of the 

 nerve muscle machine is afforded by a study of the 

 editor's attempt to consider in two separate sections 

 diseases of the muscles and diseases of the nervous 

 system. How far one can divide, from the standpoint of 

 disease, the neuro from the muscular element is naturally 

 of interest. As a matter of fact, however, it is to be 

 noted that, whereas the division between these two 

 classes of diseases in the general page of contents takes 

 |)Iace between the articles upon facial hemiatrophy and 

 ^eneral pathology of the nervous system, in the text 

 this is not so, the division occurring between the articles 

 upon erythromelalgia and diseases of the nerves. This 

 may be due, of course, to accident ; at any rate, it should 

 be cleared up. 



In the section devoted to disc ases of the muscles. Prof. 

 Sherrington contributes a most interesting article upon 

 tremor, tendon-phenomenon and spasm, and Dr. Bevan 

 Lewis one on the general pathology of the nervous 

 system. 



Space equivalent to two whole volumes or rather more 

 is devoted to diseases of the nervous system, and the 

 various articles upon the different subjects in this section 

 are very complete. A few monographs are to be found 

 here and there, in appropriate places, upon the general 

 physiology and pathology of the subject. Noteworthy 

 amongst these is Dr. Ferrier's essay upon the regional 

 diagnosis of cerebral disease. In it the chief parts of the 

 brain are considered seriatim, the effect of lesions of 

 them described, some clinical cases given, and a biblio- 

 graphy appended to each section. This latter method 

 will greatly facilitate reference, and might with advantage 

 have been adopted in other instances. Dr. Bastian 

 contributes an able essay upon aphasia and other speech 

 defects. Hysteria forms a subject of an interesting 

 monograph by Dr. Ormerod. The author discusses at 

 some length the hypotheses of hysteria, and criticises the 

 psychical speculations of Janet. Neurasthenia is treated 

 of at length by the editor. He defends the entity of the 

 disease, describing different forms of it according to the 

 organ or set of organs presenting functional aberration. 

 Prof. Victor Horsley writes upon traumatic neurasthenia. 

 Under this term cases of nervous disturbance after rail- 

 way accidents and other agencies produc ing sudden fear 

 or emotion, &c., are considered. The article should 

 prove useful to the medical advisers of railway com- 

 panies ; it concludes with a suggestive paragraph upon 

 malingering and points of medical jurisprudence. 



A section, occupying some four hundred pages, is 

 devoted to mental diseases. In the editing of this section 

 Prof. Allbutt has been assisted by Dr. Savage. Dr. 

 Mercier contributes a philosophical article upon vice, 

 rime and insanity. The volume concludes with a series 

 of essays upon diseases of the skin. A short appendix, 

 comprising an account of the recent researches on the 

 malarial parasite, has been wisely added to supplement 

 Prof. Osier's article on malaria in vol. ii. 



The editor and his ' collaborators must be immensely 

 NO. 1590, VOL, 6l] 



relieved that so prolonged an effort has finally ter- 

 minated. The fact that the system is somewhat 

 more bulky than was originallyxintended can scarcely be 

 considered a disadvantage. Portability is hardly ex- 

 pected of a " system " ; further. Prof AUbutt's work, taking 

 in regard the voluminous increase which has occurred in 

 medical literature in the interim, compares favourably, in 

 so far as bulk is concerned, with its predecessor. It is 

 sincerely to be hoped, and indeed expected, that the book 

 will meet at the hands of the profession with that success 

 which it richly deserves. F. W. TUNNICI.IFFE. 



THE NATURAL HISTORY OF WHALES. 

 A Book on Whales. By F. E. Beddard, M.A., F.R.S. 

 With 40 illustrations by W. Sidney Berridge. Pp. 

 XV -I- 320. (London : John Murray, 1900.) 



THE editor of the " Progressive Science Series," Mr. 

 Beddard, has undertaken the preparation of the 

 volume " On Whales." Amongst the mammalia, no 

 order is more remarkable than the Cetacea. The huge 

 size, both in length and bulk, attained by many of the 

 species, their fish-like habitat, the modifications in mam- 

 malian structure necessary to adapt them for a life in the 

 water, and the difficulties attendant on their capture, 

 have invested them v/ith an interest which appeals to 

 the popular imagination as well as to the naturalist. In 

 writing this book, Mr. Beddard has had in view the com- 

 pilation of a volume which, whilst based on scientific 

 lines, should be expressed in language divested as far as 

 possible of technicalities, so that the descriptions might 

 be understood by educated persons generally. In this 

 respect he has succeeded. 



In the earlier chapters he describes the most character- 

 istic features in the external form and in the internal 

 structure of whales, and he compares them with other 

 aquatic mammals. In their size, such species as Balaen- 

 optera musculus and B. sibbaldii are not only the largest 

 of living mammals, but there is no evidence of animals 

 having in past times existed which possessed a greater 

 magnitude, the most gigantic extinct Saurian reptile, or 

 even the Iguanodon, dwindling into insignificance be- 

 side these monsters of the deep. The skeleton in the 

 largest species, more especially the skull and spine, is 

 characterised by the bulk of the bones. There seems 

 to be a relation in the thickness of the tegumentary 

 blubber and the quantity of its contained oil to the 

 weight of the bones. In the Greenland Whale the indi- 

 vidual bones are much heavier in relation to their 

 size than in the Balasnopteridas, and the blubber is so 

 much thicker in the former, that a Balaena tnysticetus, 

 without taking into account the much greater value 

 of its whalebone, and estimating only that of its oil, 

 repays the whaling seaman much more than the capture 

 of Sibbald's Whale, although the latter may be from 20 

 to 30 feet longer. In the Sperm Whale, again, in ad- 

 dition to the valuable oil in the blubber, the cavity in its 

 huge head contains many, gallons of the peculiar fat, 

 which, when solidified after the death of the animal, 

 forms the well-known commercial article called sperma- 

 ceti. The fat with which these animals are so abundantly 

 provided, being of much less specific gravity than the 



