172 
of irritation which had been aroused by the publication 
of the caricatures in Dickens’ “ American Notes” and 
**Martin Chuzzlewit.” Non-scientific readers, too, will 
find much to interest them in these volumes, in the 
conversations and anecdotes of such men as Scott, Lo-k- 
hart, Rogers, Whewell, Babbage, Macaulay, Sidney Sniith, 
Milman, and many other eminent men with whom Lyell 
was on terms of close intimacy. The literary gossip is 
indeed scarcely less interesting than the scientific. 
Of Lyell’s amiable and gentle nature these letters and 
journals afford abundant and interesting evidence. His 
correspondence with his wife and sisters, and his little 
nephew, abound with illustrations of the beautiful traits of 
his character ; and the warmth of his attachment comes 
out very strikingly in his communications with Man- 
tell, Fleming, Horner, Darwin, and others, with whom 
he was in constant and friendly intercourse. His 
greatest weakness was perhaps the excessive caution, 
sometimes approaching timidity, which is exemplified 
very strikingly in his correspondence with Darwin and 
Hooker in vol. ii. pp. 361-366. But it must be remem- 
bered that it was this same cautious habit which first 
enabled him to gain the public ear, when it was but little 
disposed to attend to the teachings of science, and his 
reputation for this character gave to his later writings on 
scientific questions an authority which perhaps no other 
living writer could command. It was in consequence 
perhaps of this that Lyell’s opinions on the subject of 
evolution, as stated in the ‘‘ Antiquity of Man,” were 
received by the public like the summing up of a judge, 
rather than as the speech of an advocate. 
We cannot better conclude this notice of Lyell than 
by quoting the words of his friend the late Dean Stanley, 
on the occasion of the funeral sermon in Westminster 
Abbey :— 
“Of him who is thus laid to rest, if of any one of our 
time, it may be said that he followed truth with a zeal as 
sanctified as ever fired the soul of a missionary, and with 
a humility as child-like as ever subdued the mind of a 
simple scholar. For discovering, confirming, or rectify- 
ing his conclusions, there was no journey too distant to 
undertake. Never did he think of his own fame or name 
in comparison with the scientific results which he sought 
to establish. From early youth to extreme old age it was 
to him a solemn religious duty to be incessantly learning, 
constantly growing, fearlessly correcting his own mis- 
takes, always ready to receive and reproduce from others 
that which he had not in himself. Science and religion 
for him were not only not divorced, but were one and 
indivisible.” 
These words were spoken when the grave had but just 
closed over Lyell’s mortal remains, but in the hearts of 
many who had the happiness of knowing and loving him, 
his memory will long continue green. 
JOHN W. JuDD 
OUR BOOK SHELF 
A Treatise on the Diseases of the Nervous System. 
James Ross, M.D. Two Vols. 
and Co., 1881.) 
THIS is a complete treatise on Diseases of the Nervous 
System, illustrated with lithographs, photographs, and 
many woodcuts, of which the latter have mostly been 
borrowed from several well-known anatomical and physio- 
logical works, The book is in many respects a valuable 
By 
(London : Churchill 
NATURE 
[ Dec. 22, 1881 
one, though in others it is not altogether satisfactory. 
The author is thoroughly accomplished in all that 
concerns the anatomy and physiology of the nervous 
system, and he is evidently fully impressed with the 
absolute importance of an adequate attention to details 
of this kind on the part of those who would master or 
keep themselves abreast of modern knowledge concern- 
ing disease of the nervous system. A vast amount of 
work has been done in strengthening our knowledge in 
this direction during recent years, and as a consequence 
in no department of medicine have greater advances in 
the direction of precision of diagnosis been arrived at. In 
no other work are these anatomical and physiological data, 
on which the practitioner must largely depend, so copiously 
reproduced. In this direction, indeed, there is some re- 
dundancy. Some of the chapters (such as Chap. I. of 
Vol. I.) might with advantage have been omitted alto- 
gether from the present work, whilst others (such as 
Chap. I. of Vol. I1.), dealing with the Anatomy and 
Development of the Spinal Cord, might have been very 
considerably curtailed. An anatomical treatise is one 
thing, but a work on a department of practical medicine 
is another thing altogether, although in it many anatomi- 
cal references ought to exist. On the physiological and 
pathlogical sides, what the author has to say concerning 
Inhibitory Functions generally, and concerning “ Syn- 
kinesis” (or the pathology of Associated Movements), will 
be found to be both judicious and more or less original. 
But in studying the authors account of the special 
diseases of the nervous system, especially in the light of 
other previous and fuller disquisitions, one cannot help 
seeing that much of the work (as in the section on Para- 
lysis of the Facial Nerve, for instance) partakes of the 
nature of careful compilation, and is defective in evidence 
that the author himself has had any very large experience 
of the diseases concerning which he treats. Some of the 
special diseases are indeed altogether inadequately dis- 
cussed, considering the style of the work generally. In 
fine, this treatise, though not without considerable merits, 
is unequal and in many places over-diffuse in its treatment 
of different parts of the subject. Greater strength and 
evidence of a larger practical experience in dealing with 
the different nervous diseases would have made the book 
more evenly balanced, and caused the reader to think less 
of its redundancies. These blemishes might perhaps 
be rectified in a subsequent edition. At present it isa 
work which will probably possess more interest for the 
few who are already conversant with nervous diseases, 
than for the many medical men and students who desire 
to make themselves more acquainted with them. To the 
latter its bulk (about 1600 pages) will probably be alarm- 
ing. The book ends with that most commendable thing, 
a good index. 
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 
[Zhe Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed 
by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to return, 
or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts, 
No notice ts taken of anonymous communications. 
[The Editor urgently requests correspondents to keep their letters 
as short as possible, The pressure on his space is so great 
that it is impossible otherwise to ensure the appearance even 
of communications containing interesting and novel facts.] 
The Function of the Ears, or the Perception of 
Direction 
REFERRING to the letter in NATURE (vol. xxv. p. 124) I may 
add that M. Buhler, our French landscape gardener, judges 
nicely the direction of sound. Some years ago I requested him 
to trace a walk across a wood so undergrown with a creeping 
plant that it was impossible to cross it. Having fixed the 
entrance and exit by going round the wood, he told my negro 
servant to answer every call of his by a shout, It just then 
occurred to me that an experiment might be made; and I 
ordered the negro (in his own language) not to shout, but to 
