JANUAKY 22, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



133 



-portant journal in spite of the invasion of his 

 city and country, and under circumstances 

 that must be most trying. Isis was founded 

 in 1913, its purpose being to consider the his- 

 torical development of aU the various human 

 disciplines, a field not covered by any other 

 publication. It appears about four times a 

 year, is edited in a dignified and thoroughly 

 scholarly manner, and takes rank with the 

 best scientific periodicals of the day. Its 

 articles appear in the four languages of the 

 various international congresses, but the edi- 

 torial matter is in French. It should have 

 place in every general reading room, and par- 

 ticularly in the libraries of all institutions of 

 higher learning. 



It occurs to me that this is the time of all 

 times to encourage a Belgian scholar of inter- 

 national standing, struggling to continue so 

 important a publication. I have been glad 

 to send my own subscription in advance, and 

 I shall be glad to forward such subscriptions 

 as may be sent to me. The price is $3 a year 

 . ($6 for Vol. I.) and if one should wish the 

 journal from the beginning, $12 would pay for 

 the back numbers and one year in advance. 



I undertake this work merely to help a 

 worthy cause, but without any personal guar- 

 antee as to the effect of the war upon the 

 enterprise. I have been glad to send my own 

 money, and I hope others will join in the 

 worthy cause. David Eugene Smith 



Teachers College, 

 Columbia University 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 

 Anesthesia. By James Tayloe Gwathmey, 

 M.D., and Charles Baskeeville, Ph.D., 

 F.C.S. New York and London, D. Apple- 

 ton and Co. 1914. Pp. xxxii + 945. Il- 

 lustrated. 



The subject of anesthesia in surgical oper- 

 ations has attracted the attention of medical 

 men and others for three quarters of a cen- 

 tury. Between 1840 and 1850 the successful 

 use of ether was introduced in this country, 

 and of chloroform in Great Britain. Al- 

 though other substances were soon after 

 recommended for general anesthesia, some of 



which came into limited use, these two well- 

 known liquids have remained the standard 

 agencies for the production of insensibility to 

 pain in operations practically down to the 

 present time. 



In recent years, however, there has been a 

 widening of the field, largely because of new 

 discoveries and the introduction of local an- 

 esthetics to supplant, in many cases, the 

 earlier ones with profound general effects. A 

 voluminous literature has been accumulating, 

 not only in the way of papers, but also in the 

 form of longer treatises. Most of this has 

 been of interest to medical men only and has 

 been written for those engaged in some field 

 of medical or surgical work. 



But in this country the whole subject of 

 anesthesia has become of more popular inter- 

 est, as witness the discussions in the monthly 

 magazines, and even in the daily press, on the 

 subject of the "twilight sleep" in its rela- 

 tions to midwifery. At the present time the 

 newspapers bring us many accounts of the 

 difficulties of surgery on the European battle- 

 fields, where the supply of ether and chloro- 

 form is sometimes insufficient for the needs. ~ 

 Medical men and laymen alike have been 

 ready for a discussion of the whole subject of 

 anesthesia along somewhat broader lines than 

 obtained in the past literature, and such a 

 discussion is found in the work which is the 

 subject of this review. The authors bring a 

 wide range of experience to the task. One of 

 them is a specialist who has done much to ^ 

 perfect the technique of the administration 

 of certain anesthetics, and who has been one 

 of the foremost advocates of the proposition 

 that the administration of an anesthetic is 

 in itself an operation calling for special skill 

 and experience, and which should not be 

 turned over to any interne or advanced stu- 

 dent who happens to be at hand. The other 

 author is one of our well-known chemists who 

 has had an extended and unique experience 

 in the preparation and the study of the prop- 

 erties of a group of pure anesthetics. He is 

 the author of a number of valuable articles 

 on the subject of pure anesthetics. 



The work, therefore, brings evidence of 



