98 
MATURE 
[ Yune 3, 1886 
all, can at a glance pick it out for himself.” We confess 
that we are not conscious ourselves of any prejudice 
which this arrangement touches inconveniently, since the 
diagnoses, by themselves, can be obtained in another 
form. 
This first volume extends to the end of the genus 
Bolbitius; a second yolume is proposed to complete the 
work, embracing all the British Hymenomycetes. Thus 
far we have descriptions of 822 species, corresponding to 
485 which were included in the “ Hand-book of British 
Fungi” in 1871, and 383 in Berkeley’s “ Outlines” in 
1860; whilst all the European species included in Fries’s 
“Hymenomycetes” up to the same point was 1271. 
Hence it would appear that two-thirds of the species 
enumerated by Fries as European have been found in 
the British Isles. This may not be absolutely accurate, 
since there are some included in the present volume 
which are not to be found in Fries,‘but the proportion is 
small and will not much affect the ratio. It is an inter- 
esting fact that the number of British species has been 
nearly doubled in fifteen years, which at least must be 
taken to indicate a larger number of observers and in- 
creased activity, for which there was. doubtless some good 
and sufficient cause. Although coloured figures of 
upwards of 700 out of the 822 species have been published 
in this country since 1881, that would scarcely have been 
an appreciable factor in the result. 
Criticisms of particular species would prove of little 
interest to any but practical mycologists, and therefore 
we forbear. In these times, when authority is held to 
have such slender claims, and independence of opinion is 
esteemed more highly than respect for the convictions of 
the old masters, it is a great consolation to encounter 
such an earnest and faithful disciple of the good old 
mycologist of Upsal as we meet with in the author of the 
book before us. Yet, notwithstanding this good trait, he 
has evidently a weak place in his human nature, without 
the tact to conceal it, and this is to be regretted, since 
rancour—like young chickens—comes home to roost. 
M. G; G. 
A MEDICAL INDEX-CATALOGUE 
Index Catalozue of the Library of the Surgeon-General's 
Office, United States Army. Vol. VI. Heastie-Insfeldt. 
(Washington : Government Printing-Office, 1885.) 
Bee Nest the vast and rapidly-increasing mass of 
4 scientific literature it is a singular satisfaction to 
meet with a first-rate work such as this ‘ Index Cata- 
logue,” which holds out good promise of being a clue to 
some parts at least of what is far too large for any single 
grasp. And if in any department of science it is more 
important than in another to trace generalisations to their 
foundations upon observations, and to have the facts 
before one, it is in medicine, which still contains so many 
dogmas whose foundations are not beyond attack, and so 
many observations in want of an adequate theory to 
explain them. In giving a clue to medical knowledge this 
“Index Catalogue” is in one respect at least, and in one 
very important respect, unique among its class ; for under 
subject-headings such as, in this volume, hernia, hooping- 
cough, hydrophobia, hip-joint, hospitals, hygiene, in- 
sanity, &c., it gives a list not only of all the books and 
pamphlets in the library dealing with them, but also a 
list of the full titles of all the articles on them in all the 
periodical literature that it possesses, Fournals, Trans- 
actions, Reports, Reviews, Bulletins, &c.; and when we 
reflect that the list of such peviodicals taken in by the 
Surgeon-General’s Office amounts now to at least 3005 
(of which a very considerable proportion are weekly or 
monthly publications), such a careful classification of 
their separate articles would seem to be beyond all hope. 
However, the unexampled energy of Mr. J. S. Billings 
and his able assistants, which gives us every month the 
Index Medicus, has proved equal to this gigantic task, 
which it would have seemed to most men mere 
foolishness to attempt. The advantage to the student 
is immense; for in such periodical literature, by 
modern fashion, a great number of important facts 
in medicine lie buried, and there would hardly be a 
chance of finding them without some such help as is 
given us here. For though the literature of science is 
far less at present in bulk than the literature of some 
other subjects, most notably divinity, yet the literature of 
natural science, even in one of its many subdivisions, such 
as medicine, is paralysing in its profusion. To take as 
an instance the literature of a disease which, though just 
at present it is the fashion to talk much about it, is yet 
so rare that many doctors with considerable experience 
have never seen it, viz. hydrophobia, we find catalogued 
here not only 368 books dealing with it specially, but also 
the full titles of more than 1900 signed articles, not in the 
general but the medical press of the European languages, 
that have to do with it as well; and yet that is not a fifth 
part of what is catalogued under ‘“‘ Cholera” in Vol. III., 
and not a tenth of what is catalogued under “ Fever” in 
Vol. V. The subdivision and arrangement of the masses 
of information so gathered together is admirable, and that, 
for subjects so difficult to deal with as hospitals and 
hygiene, which occur in this volume, is not a little to be 
proud of, and one that any student will appreciate. To 
the accuracy of every entry it would be absurd to pre- 
tend to testify on our own investigation, but frequent use 
of the five preceding volumes and some testing of this 
sixth volume leave us in little doubt that a very high 
standard was previously reached, and will be found to be 
maintained, and of course that is one of the points of 
cardinal importance in what is practically a dictionary of 
reference. 
The Washington Library, or, as we should say more 
accurately, the “ Library of the Surgeon-General’s Office, 
United States Army,” is one of the two or three largest 
collections of medical books in the world, and its growth 
has been astonishingly rapid. It was begun in 1830, 
and, after the first thirty years, in 1860, it contained only 
350 volumes. To what size, at the end of the next thirty 
years, in 1890, we may see it grow we hardly venture to 
speculate ; but in 1883 it stood at about 60,0co books and 
66,000 pamphlets, and took in more than 2600 periodi- 
cals ; and yet a careful critic last year estimated that for 
every hundred medical books that were in both the Wash- 
ington Library and the British Museum there were also 
another hundred in each that were not in the other. If that 
be true, it would not astonish us to hear that for every 
hundred held in common there were fifty or more in the 
Bibliothtque Nationale at Paris, which were not to be 
ne 
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