98 
NATURE 
nary milk by the addition of either cold or hot water. 
The addition of the sugar is found to be necessary, in 
order to enable the other constituents to resist decompo- 
sition. Milk will keep any length of time when entirely 
desiccated, but by the process of drying entirely the milk 
loses its flavour and many of its properties. The semi- 
liquid condition of condensed milk prevents these changes, 
but in this state it is liable to decompose ; hence the 
necessity of additional sugar. 
The question arises as to whether this added sugar in 
any way interferes with the quality of the milk in its rela- 
tion to the diet of infants or invalids. In comparing 
human milk with cows’ milk, we find that the latter con- 
tains more caseine and less sugar than the former. 
Hence, when given to, children it is customary to add a 
little water and a little sugar to make it like mother’s milk. 
This object is really eased by the addition of cane 
sugar to the condensed milk, and it may therefore be 
unhesitatingly employed in the nursery as a substitute for 
ordinary cows’ milk. 
After a personal inspection of the Aylesbury manufac- 
tory, and a full consideration of the whole subject, we are 
quite prepared to say that where good fresh cows’ milk is 
unattainable, as it is almost practically so in our large 
towns, there is no substitute for it equal to condensed 
milk. Nor is this a matter of theory ; hundreds of gal- 
lons are being used every day in London, and most of it 
under the direction of experienced medical men. One 
medical man assures us that he has a healthy, fine-grown 
child of ten months that has never taken anything but 
condensed milk. 
As the diet of invalids, it may in some cases require 
watching when the action of sugar is injurious to the 
system: but in these cases milk should be altogether 
interdicted. 
It is to be hoped that no disadvantage in the use of 
this agent has been overlooked, as the advantages of its 
use are so many and so obvious. It presents a pure form 
of milk in a condition in which it may be kept for any 
length of time, and is not injured by removal, It is 
always at hand night and day, and by the addition of 
cold or hot water can be converted into nutritious and 
wholesome food. E, LANKESTER 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF MAN 
The Physiology of Man. By Austin Flint, Jun., M.D. 
Pp. 470. (New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1872.) 
E have already had to speak in terms of high com- 
mendation of Dr, Flint’s comprehensive treatise 
on human physiology, as being written in a clear, methodi- 
cal, and judicial style, the statements made being care- 
fully weighed, and in most instances supported, by the 
best, if not the most numerous, authorities ; whilst the 
author has in many parts enriched it with the results of 
his own important researches. The present, which con- 
stitutes the fourth volume of the work, is no exception to 
our remarks, It is occupied with the consideration of 
the nervous system, excluding the special senses, and 
gives a very complete account of that difficult and ex- 
tensive section of physiology, the study of which has 
engaged the attention of so many of the best workers in 
all civilised countries during the past twenty years. Dr. 
Flint commences by a short 7éswzaé of the principal facts 
that have recently been made out in regard to the struc- 
ture of the nerve-centres and cords, and the mode of 
termination of the nerves in muscle, gland, and skin ; 
entering into the subject perhaps as far as is necessary in 
a strictly physiological work, the author taking Schultze’s 
article in the recently published “ Handbook of Histo- 
logy” of Stricker, Kélliker, and Robin as his guides, 
The first chapter concludes with an account of the recent 
observations of Voit on the regeneration of the cerebral 
hemispheres after their ablation, which show that a large 
portion of these bodies may be reproduced, and that the 
organ may recover its functions to no very inconsiderable 
extent. 
The second chapter deals with the general functions of 
the motor and sensory nerves, and gives a very fair account 
of the history of the discovery of the difference in the func- 
tion of the anterior and the posterior roots, due promi- 
nence being given to the claims of Walker, Mayo, and 
especially of Majendie. In speaking of the recurrent 
sensibility of the anterior roots, Dr. Flint is not satisfied 
with Brown-Séquard’s explanation that it results from 
the compression of sensory nerves distributed to the 
muscles during the spasm caused by the irritation of the 
anterior roots ; but inclines to Majendie’s and Bernard’s 
opinion that there are actually recurrent sensory nerves 
in the anterior roots, on the ground that the pain is some- 
times apparently severe when the cramps are slight. 
The relations of the nervous system to electricity, and 
the rapidity of nerve conduction, with the means of esti- 
mating it, are well and correctly given. 
The cranial nerves are next considered. In this section 
we think the author fails in his account of the deep 
origin of each nerve. He doesnot appear to have heard 
of or seen the papers of Lockhart Clarke contained in the 
Philosophical Transactions (1858-67). Yet these contain 
by very far the most minute and the most accurate de- 
scriptions hitherto published on these points, and the 
importance of their relations to pathology would have 
fully justified more elaborate details. Thus, to take one 
point only, whilst speaking of the deep origin of the sen- 
sory root of the fifth pair of nerves, he makes no allusion 
to the very interesting facts described by Clarke of the 
internal connection of this root with the vagus and glos- 
sopharyngeal nerves in the grey tubercle, or caput cornu 
posterioris ; of the connection of its motor root with the 
glossopharyngeal nucleus and the fibres of that nerve, 
and with the fasciculus teres ; or, finally, of the connec- 
tion of the sensory root with the nucleus of the third 
through the intermediation of the grey tubercle, into 
which the sensory root penetrates. On the other hand, 
his account of the functions of the various nerves and 
their branches is given extremely well; the account of 
the chorda tympani, for example, being excellent ; and 
the conclusion at which Dr. Flint has arrived, namely, 
that it is a nerve of gustation, as well as a motor or 
stimulant ‘nerve for the submaxillary gland, being fully 
borne out by Lussana’s observations recently published 
in Brown-Séquard’s journal, and which, at the time Dr. 
Flint wrote,{had not appeared. A very long section com- 
mensurate with its importance is devoted to the pneumo- 
gastric nerves, the action of which on the heart, larynx, 
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