BOOK NOTICES. 505 



Omental purposes, as well as having in his judgment more power and flexibility 

 of mind and a far calmer and less excitable disposition. 



In this work he has reproduced the substance of two Royal Institution lec- 

 tures, which include apparently pretty much the whole subject, and much of 

 which is founded on actual observations made upon individual members of ants' 

 nests, or communities, followed up in his own room, where these nests were kept 

 in some instances for more than seven years. It will be a kind of revelation to 

 -some readers to know that he has at this time ants in his possession that are more 

 than eight years old, a much greater age than is usually accredited to any insects. 



The author's high estimation of the intelligence of these insects is still further 

 :shown by the first sentence of his introduction: "The Anthropoid Apes no 

 -doubt approach nearer to man in bodily structure than do any other animals ; 

 but when we consider the habits of ants, their social organization, their large 

 'Communities and elaborate habitations ; their roadways, their possession of do- 

 mestic animals, and even, in some cases, of slaves, it must be admitted that they 

 ihave a fair claim to rank next to man in the scale of intelligence." This seems 

 •a bold claim, but perhaps no man has a better right to make it, in view of the 

 time and labor spent by him upon the investigation of the subject. Every branch 

 -of it from their classification and structure, their food and dwellings, their habits 

 ■and characters, to the formation and maintenance of their nests, their relation to 

 plants and to other animals ; their behavior to relations, their recognition of friends, 

 their power of communicating; their senses, general intelligence, with his methods 

 of observation, his experiments on all of the above points and the results thereof, 

 is detailed in the most careful, complete and precise manner. 



Nothing can be more interesting to any person having the slightest taste for 

 natural history than this account, and we can recommend the book to all such as 

 exceedingly instructive as well as entertaining. 



The Diseases of the Liver. By George Harley, M. D., F.R.S. Octavo, 

 pp. 751, Illustrated. P. Blakiston, Son & Co., Philadelphia, 1882. $5.00. 



In this work, which has been looked for by the medical profession with much 

 interest ever since its announcement, the diseases of the liver, with and without 

 jaundice, are considered, with the special application of physiological chemistry, to 

 their diagnosis and treatment. It is generally believed, though with how much 

 basis of fact is doubtful, that diseases of the liver are more prevalent in the West 

 than in the older portions of the American Continent. Whether this is so or not 

 such diseases are sufificiently abundant and little enough understood everywhere 

 to render such a work invaluable to the general practitioner of medicine, especial- 

 ly as it contains a large amount of cHnical and scientific data that has never be- 

 fore been collected together by any author into one volume, and in many instances 

 gives a new rendering to old clinical facts by presenting them to the reader in 

 the light of modern pathological science. 



The author calls special attention to that portion of the work devoted to the 



