April 10, 1873} 
connected facts which relate to them.. The student will, 
in this section of the work, find full directions for per- 
forming most of the experiments, which will, when all 
repeated, enable him to advance on a thorough and 
sound foundation. Great care is taken to render evident 
the phenomena of electrotonus, and the subject of tetanus 
is dwelt on in detail, the following being the propositions 
which are discussed and proved regarding it :—1. ‘“ Teta- 
nus from an ordinary interrupted current is a continuous 
contraction rapidly reaching a maximum, continuing 
(within limits) in that condition so long as the current is 
passing, and followed by a gradual relaxation upon the 
current being cut off.” 2. “Tetanus really consists of 
a series of simple muscular contractions fused together.” 
The apparatus necessary for verifying these and other 
points in which electricity plays a part, is described as 
far as is necessary for the wants of the physiological 
student, and some, as Wippe’s double key and Du Bois 
Reymond’s rheocord, are figured. Several of the points 
insisted on appear to be insignificant in themselves, but 
they must all, in the long run, have important bearings 
on future theory. 
In undertaking the “ Physiological Chemistry,” Dr. 
Brunton has had a somewhat easier task than the two 
authors last referred to, and his work is excellent. The 
results of Hoppe-Seyler, and other German chemists, 
which are as convincing as they are connected, are fully 
entered into, and the chemistry of digestion and excretion, 
together with the method of arriving at them, are explained 
at considerable length. As an instance of the manner in 
which the subject is handled, the following are the propo- 
sitions which are demonstrated in connection with the fact 
that pepsin is not destroyed during digestion. 1. “Although 
the digestive power of pepsin appears to be indefinite, 
yet a limited quantity of gastric juice will not dissolve 
an unlimited quantity of fibrin.” 2, “The arrest of 
digestion in this experiment (the proof of the previous 
proposition) is not due to the destruction of pepsin, but 
to the accumulation of the products of digestion in 
the liquid and to the want of acid.” 3. “A stronger acid 
is required for digestion if the products of digestion are 
present in quantity in the solution.” The theory of diges- 
tion, together with the action of the vagus and splanchnics 
on the stomach are fully discussed, and the unassuming 
way in which the author states his own opinions carries 
great weight with it. 
We should have liked to have seen a separate chapter 
on the methods to be used for rendering animals in- 
sensible, together with a notice of the relative value of 
different anzesthetics and the way to exhibit them ; as it is, 
the subject is only incidentally mentioned in connection 
with special operations. Ifthe drawings of the instruments 
had been incorporated in the text they would have been 
more easily referred to, and therefore more frequently 
looked at ; as it is, the one volume without the other is 
difficult to understand. The anatomical sketches, mostly 
after Bernard, which illustrate the distribution and rela- 
tions of the nerves and vessels that so frequently have 
to be manipulated by operating students, adds much to 
the completeness of the work, in which every effort has 
evidently been made to put the student in as good a posi- 
tion with regard to the subject as can be desired. 
The three accompanying woodcuts are from the second 
NATURE 
441 
volume of this work. The largest is an example of the 
size and character of the excellent illustrations in Dr. 
Klein’s histological section. Dr. Sanderson contributes 
that illustrating the relations of the pneumogastric nerve 
in the frog, and the third is one of the several electrical 
instruments described by Dr, Foster, 
WILSON’S INORGANIC CHEMISTRY: 
Inorganic Chemistry. By the late George Wilson. M.D., 
F.R.S.E. Revised and enlarged by H. G. Madan, 
M.A. (London and Edinburgh : W. and R. Chambers.) 
law so many of our old friends among the best 
books on chemistry, the present edition of the late 
Prof. Wilson’s Inorganic Chemistry has undergone some- 
what extensive alterations, and received considerable 
additions, which, in the opinion of its able editor, have 
been rendered necessary by the recent progress of chem- 
istry. The original plan, which is that adopted in some 
of our best text-books, has been adhered to, viz. of intro- 
ducing the student to a knowledge of the more important 
fundamental laws of chemistry, and to make him familiar 
with the properties of the chief elementary substances, 
and their more remarkable compounds. What is gene- 
rally known by the name of chemical physics occupies 
about one-fourth of the whole book. This portion is 
clear and concise, and deserves the highest eulogium, It 
may be perused with advantage by every chemical 
student. The theory of atomicity of elements, which is 
fast giving a new impression to organic chemistry, and 
which by some of our most eminent chemical teachers 
has of late been introduced into the domain of inorganic 
chemistry also, and which promises to reconcile and 
harmonise both branches of chemical science, has re- 
ceived but scanty recognition at the hands of the editor, 
although he professes to have brought the chemical 
nomenclature (in deference to the wishes of the pub- 
lisher), into accordance with the system adopted by 
Profs. Frankland and Williamson. 
Professor Wilson seems to have felt that physical and 
chemical laws cannot be studied with advantage without 
having some physical and chemical facts to work upon, 
and the pupil is therefore recommended to read the first 
108 pages, treating of chemical physics, with some care 
before proceeding further ; but “he is not to expect to un- 
derstand the introductory portion at once, but must go 
back from time to time to their study, when he will find 
them more and more intelligible as he grows familiar with 
the properties of chemical substances,” explained in the 
later pages. Is not this an admission that the plan upon 
which the book is constructed is a faulty one? Is it not 
time to relegate chemical physics to physics proper, es- 
pecially when we have such excellent elementary text- 
books as Balfour Stewart’s and others, and to treat of 
chemical changes in chemical text-books? Not that we 
would have it inferred that chemical changes can be 
understood without a knowledge of the general properties 
of matter, of heat, light, and electricity. By far the 
greater number of chemical changes being dependent 
upon chemical affinity, the laws of chemical combining 
proportions and volume composition can very well be 
explained by confining the teaching at first mainly to 
chemical changes. Physical considerations, especially at 
