October 12, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



465 



Although most of the theories formally set 

 forth in the book have now been before geol- 

 ogists for several years (always from these 

 same authors), it can not be said that these 

 theories have as yet met with general accept- 

 ance either in this country or among the 

 geologists of other countries. They must, 

 therefore, be regarded as still on trial in a 

 sense. None the less, these volumes are an 

 epoch-marking work, and the theories set forth 

 in them must be reckoned with hereafter in 

 every book on geology and by every teacher 

 and every student. In spite of its two thou- 

 sand pages one feels that the matter is much 

 condensed, and the authors impress the reader 

 with their judicial attitude of mind, with their 

 mastery of the subjects treated, and reserve 

 force in their statements and discussions. 

 Working geologists the world over owe the 

 authors something too for their having spared 

 us another new terminology or a new system 

 of spelling. They seem to stand godfathers 

 only to the new petrographic nomenclature 

 given in abstract on pages 433-8 of Vol. I. 



The illustrations, especially the half-tones, 

 are abundant, excellent, and new to our text- 

 books, though the line drawings are hardly 

 up to the standard of the rest of the book. 

 The work of the book manufacturer leads us 

 to hope that the day is not far distant when 

 publishers will find some way of making an 

 illustrated octavo volume of six hundred pages 

 without its weighing close to four pounds. 



The principal adverse criticisms that can 

 be made relate to the minor details of editing 

 — not to the subject-matter or to the method 

 of treatment. In the presence of so much 

 that is large, and helpful, and inspiring such 

 criticisms seem like mere quibbling. Not a 

 subject is touched upon in the entire work that 

 does not have the breath of a new life breathed 

 into it. 



J. C. Branner. 



The Eye, Us Refraction and Diseases: Dis- 

 eases of and Operations upon the Eyehall 

 and its Adnexa. By Edward E. Gibbons, 

 M.D., Assistant Surgeon to the Presbyterian 

 Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital; Demonstra- 



tor and Chief of Clinic of Eye and Ear 

 Diseases in the University of Maryland, 

 Baltimore. Vol. IL, pp. viii + 632. New 

 York, The Macmillan Co. 1905. 

 Medical text-books may be classified accord- 

 ing to their size or according to their char- 

 acter. The criterion of bulk is not neces- 

 sarily a high one, but if a book is made of 

 two large volumes it must be taken seriously 

 and permitted to enter the lists with certain 

 approved productions of well-known teachers. 

 There are a few text-books that stand out 

 preeminently with a distinct individuality, in 

 which the author shows that he has the matter 

 or the method to justify the book's existence. 

 Other books owe their lives to the patronage 

 of growing groups of students, who feel in the 

 printed lines the personality of the teacher 

 to whom they have listened. This class does 

 not always appeal to the larger public, and 

 unless the teacher is of wide and rare experi- 

 ence it is apt to be uneven and to consist in 

 part of a somewhat undigested collection of 

 statements from unproved sources. This is 

 unfortunately the impression made by the 

 work under consideration. The first volume, 

 which has been reviewed in these colimins, was 

 a book of more value because the author wrote 

 with authority. Physiological optics and its 

 application to the refraction of the eye was 

 evidently a familiar field, and the book was 

 welcome because there are very few writers in 

 our language who can treat this difiicult sub- 

 ject clearly and interestingly. This volume 

 deals with the diseases of the eye and shows 

 industry and a wide acquaintance with cur- 

 rent literature. No author can be familiar 

 with all the methods of treating disease in 

 these prolific times, and an open mind is justi- 

 fied, but it may be misleading to the student, 

 to group methods not sufficiently tried with 

 those of proved value, without giving marked 

 prominence to the latter. 



A few positive criticisms must be made, 

 however thankless the task. The important 

 subject of localization of foreign bodies in the 

 eye is insufficiently treated. There is no allu- 

 sion to the frequent association between ocular 

 disorder and disease of the nose and neighbor- 

 ing sinuses, and this is the more surprising 



