Sitppleme7it to " IV at lire," October ii, 1906 



half the sugar of the world to be supplied from the 

 beet. 



Space will not permit a more extended review of 

 this interesting volume, but enough has perhaps been 

 said to indicate its character and scope. 



J. B. C. 



SCIENCE AND ART OF MEDICINE. 



A System of Medicine. By nianv Writers. Edited 



by Prof. T. Clifford Allbutt, F.R.S., and Dr. H. D. 



Rolleston. Vol. i. Pp. xvi+1209. (London: Mac- 



millan and Co., Ltd., 1905.) Price 255. net. 



A PAR.AGR.APH in the preface to this new edition 



-^^ of Prof. Clifford .AUbutt's great " System of 



Medicine " sufficiently explains the necessity for a 



revision. The editors (for Dr. H. D. Rolleston is 



now associated with Prof. Allbutt in this capacity) 



point out that " the life of a text-book of medicine is 



comparatively short, and that it is desirable that a 



new edition should appear before the first has ceased 



to represent accurately the present positions of medical 



knowledge." With this object it is intended to revise 



and bring out every year a new volume corresponding 



to one of the first edition. 



The volume under review is the first to be issued 

 under this scheme, and interesting and instructive 

 articles by Prof. Allbutt and Dr. Payne on the history 

 of medicine serve as a fitting introduction to the 

 more technical portion. The first half of the latter 

 comprises a number of articles, which are really 

 concise monographs, on subjects ancillary to the prac- 

 tice of medicine, the names of the contributing 

 authors being a sufficient guarantee of their general 

 excellence. In this way the practitioner is furnished 

 with brief but sufficient guides to such subjects as 

 nursing (Miss Amy Hughes), dietetics (Sir Dyce 

 Duckworth and Dr. Hutchison), climatic treatment 

 of disease (Sir Hermann Weber and Dr. Foster), 

 hydrotherapy (Sir Hermann Weber and Dr. Parkes 

 Weber), physical exercises (Mr. Corner), massage 

 (Dr. Mitchell), electrical treatment (Dr. Lewis Jones), 

 X-rays (Dr. Williams), &c. The important subject of 

 the hygiene of youth is dealt with by Dr. Clement 

 Dukes, and a natural compleinent to this, old age, 

 is discussed by Sir Hermann Weber and Dr. Parkes 

 \\'eber. Medical statistics are in the- able hands of 

 Dr. Tatham, and a readable account of the national 

 records of mortality is thus presented. It is a ques- 

 tion whether some details of statistical methods and 

 of the mathematical pitfalls of statistic making might 

 not with advantage have been included. 



Five articles have been devoted to the science of 

 medicine; these comprise the general pathology of 

 nutrition, by Dr. Mott ; the general pathology of new 

 growths, by Dr. Andrews, which includes all the 

 recent work on cancer genesis; the clinical examin- 

 ation of the blood, by Dr. Drysdale, giving a good 

 account of this important subject; inflammation, by 

 Prof. Adami, probably the best account of this sub- 

 ject in the English language; and fever, by the late 

 NO. 1928, VOL. 74] 



Sir J. Burdon-Sanderson, with additional ch.ipters bv 

 Dr. Hale White and Dr. Pembrey. 



The last 300 pages include some of the acute infec- 

 tions. SepticEemia, pyaemia, and erysipelas are dealt 

 with by Mr. Watson Cheyne ; infective endocarditis, 

 by Prof. Dreschfeld ; cerebro-spinal fever, by Dr. 

 Ormerod (in which, by the way, no mention is made 

 of the small outbreaks of this disease which have 

 occurred in the British Isles since 1900); influenza, 

 by Dr. Goodhart ; and relapsing fever, by Dr. 

 Rabagliati and Dr. Bulloch, the latter giving a verv 

 complete and up-to-date account of the bacteriology 

 of the disease and of spirochsetes in general. 



Enteric fever and the so-called paratyphoid infec- 

 tions are treated in a very complete manner, Prof. 

 Lorrain Smith dealing with the bacteriology and 

 Prof. Dreschfeld with the clinical subjects; no point 

 seems to have been overlooked. 



Diphtheria is similarly dealt with in a very com- 

 plete fashion ; epidemiology, by the late Sir R. 

 Thorne, revised by Dr. Hamer; bacteriology, by the 

 late Prof. Kanthack, and revised by Dr. Andrewes ; 

 clinical features, by Dr. Gee; and serum treatment, 

 by Dr. Herringham ; in the latter section, while eight 

 pages are devoted to statistics showing the efficacy 

 of the treatment, a mere paragraph describes the 

 dosage, &c., and no reference is made to the use of 

 an anti-microbic serum in cases in which the bacilli 

 persist during convalescence. 



Tetanus is described by the late Sir George 

 Humphry, the article being revised by Prof. Wood- 

 head. An excellent account of the pathology of the 

 disease is here presented, but the passage of the 

 toxin along the nerve trunks is not emphasised so 

 much as it might be, and no reference is made to the 

 injection of anti-toxin into the course of the great 

 nerves in cases of traumatic tetanus. 



.Mtogether this volume commands admiration, and 

 if its high standard be maintained, as it doubtless 

 will be, in the succeeding volumes, this " System of 

 Medicine " will form a lasting monument of the high 

 place which British medicine holds at the present 

 time. 



PRACTICAL ZOOLOGY. 

 .4 Course in Vertebrate Zoology. By Dr. H. S. Pratt. 

 Pp. x + 299. (London and Boston : Ginn and Co.. 

 n.d.) Price 7s. 



THIS work, a companion volume to one on in- 

 vertebrates published four years ago, is a labor- 

 atory manual, and gives directions for the dissection 

 of the dog-fish, the perch, Necturus, the frog, .-i 

 turtle, a pigeon, and a cat. It is on the whole- a 

 trustworthy guide, and may usefully serve as a hand- 

 book for a short course on vertebrate anatomy. The 

 animals chosen are, with two exceptions, already 

 described in text-books available in every laboratory, 

 and we are at a loss to discover what particular office 

 the present volume serves to fill, as in fulness, 

 accuracy, or mode of treatment it does not surpass 

 its predecessors. We presume that it represents the 



