38^ 



NATURE 



\_Feh. 24, 1 88 1 



has received the approval of the Times. " In fact," 

 that journal concludes, in a leading article on the 

 speech, "if the objects proposed by Prof. Miiller for 

 attainment are desirable in themselves, there ought to 

 be no difficulty in obtaining funds for the purpose In 

 view of what the Commissioners have sanctioned in 

 principle for one College at least in Oxford, it can hardly 

 be said thit the objects aimed at are either very visionary 

 or very far in advance of public opinion. ' If Prize 

 Fellowships may legitimately be used for the purpose of 

 giving some men a start in ordinary life, it is dii^cult to 

 see why they should not also be used, within reasonable 

 limits, for giving others a modest provision for the pursuit 

 of a learned career." 



Why not ? every one is likely to repeat except those 

 who imigine they have a vested interest in being sup- 

 ported in idleness on what is really the property of the 

 nation. By so doing, the university would once more 

 make an approach to what it was intended to be, a 

 really national institution. The change would incommode 

 none but idlers, and those who have at heart the real 

 advancement of science and learning must be convinced 

 that the present isolation of both universities can lead to 

 nothing but stagnation. Oxford especially, with its silent 

 and all but deserted laboratories, could only gain by an 

 accession of activity from the outside. Only thus indeed, 

 only by having regular additions of fresh energy, can the 

 place be kept sweet and wholesome ; and if once this 

 principle be accepted, as indeed it must be, and the sooner 

 the better, there need be little dififici:lty in regulating its 

 application. At present it would be difficult to calcu- 

 late how much of the best intellectual energy of the 

 country is wasted or misapplied, simply because there is 

 no channel open^ by which it may be 'guided into the 

 course in which it could do the best work. 



There were several other subjects touched upon by the 

 speakers at the University College dinner, to which we 

 have not space to refer. Prof. Morley's tribute to the 

 memory and the work of Mr. Carlyle was well-timed and 

 appropriate, coming as it did just when the country was 

 awed by its recent loss. Mr. Carlyle often said hard things 

 of science, as he did of everjthing else under the sun. All 

 the same, his methods and his philosophy were as scien- 

 tific as they could well be, being simply his peculiar 

 applications of the doctrine of the reign of inevitable law 

 everywhere. Apart from this, and while we might dis.igree 

 with everything he said and positively taught, it must be 

 admitted that the inspiration of his teaching gave fresh 

 energy and earnestness to scientific research, as it did to 

 every other sphere of intellectual activity. 



ATLAS OF HISTOLOGY 



Atlas of Histology. By E. Klein, M.D., F.R.S., and E. 

 Noble Smith, 'L.R.C.P,, M.K.C.S. (London: Smith, 

 Elder, and Co., 18S0.) 



MODERN histology is not yet fifty years old, but fifty 

 years old in the nineteenth century means a great 

 deal, and it is rather a matter of surprise that no English 

 work entirely devoted to histology should have yet 

 appeared than that we should be welcoming the largest 

 and in some respects the most important illustrated work 

 on that subject in this or any language. 



That modern histology is most faithfully represented in 

 the book before us becomes abundantly evident on looking 

 at the figures and their description. We find the tissues 

 and organs of the body delineated under every aspect and 

 after every possible method of treatment ; hardened with 

 chromic acid, osmic acid, picric acid ; stained with 

 hajmatoxylin, carmine, aniline blue ; submitted to the 

 action of gold and silver salts and otherwise prepared 

 lege artis. Of the value of these in elucidating structure 

 there can be no question whatever, but at the same time 

 we think it would have been well in a comprehensive 

 work of this description had more space been given to 

 the representation of the tissues in their living condition 

 and unaltered by the action of reagents : the almost 

 complete absence of allusion to and representation of the 

 fresh tissues being a defect in the book. 



Dr. Klein, in selecting the subjects for illustration, and 

 Mr. Noble Smith in e.xecuting them, alike deserve high 

 praise. Many of the figures are evidently as near an 

 approach to facsimile of the preparations as can well be 

 attained, and it need hardly be said that the pieparations 

 themselves, made as they are by so skilful a histologist, 

 are as good in all probability of their kind as it is possible 

 to make them. 



In looking through the plates one is especially struck 

 with the excellent manner in which the minute anatomy 

 of the various organs is detailed, indeed the part of the 

 work which relates to the structure of the viscera is in all 

 respects better than that in which the simple tissues are 

 dealt with. The illustrations of the latter are compara- 

 tively meagre, and in many cases too small, considering 

 the size and aim of the work. This is very marked in 

 the figures of the blood and in those of cartilage and 

 osseous tissue, as well as in the illustrations of the structure 

 of voluntary muscle. On the other hand, the development 

 of bone is well and carefully represented, especially so far 

 as the more intimate processes are concerned ; but we" 

 miss the general features of bone-formation, such as the 

 first calcification of the primitive cartilage bone, the 

 periosteal irruption, and so on. The nervous tissue is 

 also abundantly and beautifully illustrated, and here we 

 are glad to observe that Dr. Klein has availed him- 

 self of the magnificent representations given by Key 

 and Retzius in their monograph on the nervous system ; 

 representations that could scarcely have been improved 

 upon, and to compete with which would have involved 

 needless labour. 



That the lymphatic system should occupy an important 

 part of the work was to be expected from the fact that we 

 already owe to Dr. Klein two monographs wholly devoted 

 to that system, and from them, as well as from the plates 

 in the "Handbook for the Physiological Laboratory," 

 some delineations are here republished. With the excep- 

 tion of these and one or two other less important instances 

 the figures throughout the book are new, and will no 

 doubt for many years furnish a stock to which both 

 teachers and authors may come for diagrams and 

 illustrations. 



As before remarked, the representations of the minute 

 structure of the viscera are particularly good, and will 

 prove useful in replacing many of the coarse and semi- 

 diagrammatic figures which at present occupy a prominent 

 place in the text-books of histology and physiology. We 



