SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



175 



John Hunter, Man of Science and Surgeon. By 



Stephen Paget. With Introduction by Sir 



s Paget. 272 pp. Svo, illustrated by 



portrait. (London : T. Fisher Unwin, 1S97.) Price 



3s. 6d. 



It was a happy thought of Mr. Fisher Unwin 

 to produce a " Masters of Medicine Series" ot books. 

 This, the first of them, forms a good precedent, and 

 Dr. Ernest Hart, who is the editor of the series, 

 has been fortunate in his selection of subject and 

 writer. The name of John Hunter is familiar to 

 every educated Englishman. His originality and 

 success, not only as a surgeon, but also as a teacher 

 of anatomy and of physiological investigation, 

 placed him high in the ranks of the masters of 

 medicine. Dr. John Hunter is another example 

 of unsuccessful boyhood producing a brilliant 

 manhood. As a boy, he was comparatively a 

 ne'er-do-well, and in later years himself wrote, 

 with more force than elegance : " They wanted to 

 make an old woman of me, or that I should stuff 

 Latin or Greek at the University ; but these 

 schemes I cracked like so many vermin as they 

 came before me." For all that, he was sent to 

 Oxford : but a couple of months sufficed him, in his 

 own judgment ; for he left the University and 

 returned to his tadpoles and caddis-worms, and 

 pestering people with questions that nobody 

 cared about. His elder brother William was then 

 practising medicine in London, and John, after 

 more waste of time in a timber yard at Glasgow, 

 wrote to him and asked leave to come to work 

 under him. Otherwise, John said he would enlist 

 as a soldier. Fortunately for science and the good 

 of mankind, William answered him kindly ; so in 

 September, 174^, the brothers joined each other in 

 London. To the tact of the elder brother William, 

 and the abundant common-sense lurking behind 

 the misdirected youth of John, we owe the develop- 

 ment of character in him who was later to become 

 a factor in the alleviation of suffering, so promin- 

 ently characteristic of modern surgery. In writing 

 the book before us, Mr. Paget has relied largely 

 upon family manuscripts collected by Miss Baillie, 

 a descendant from the father of John Hunter on the 

 female side. We have therefore an authority run- 

 ning through the pages which makes them more 

 interesting. As a naturalist of the old school, 

 John Hunter showed an independence of thought 

 and of investigation, which, had it been followed by 

 the biologists who succeeded him, would have 

 hastened the present exact methods of scientific 

 research. Still, two factors militated against John 

 Hunter's natural science investigations. The 

 greatest of these was his occupation in physiology, 

 and perhaps not far less was the great develop- 

 ment of acquisitiveness in his character. He 

 was a collector above all things, and collected 

 anything and everything when it in any way 

 bore upon his favourite subjects. Perhaps 

 it was well so, for did he not leave us the magnifi- 

 cent relics exhibited at the Royal I 

 Surgeons Some of these are associated with 

 quaint stories, not the lea, t being that of O'Brien, 

 the giant, whose body Hunt- 

 copper of hit own home a' I The 

 immense skeleton, pn Hunter's own 

 hands, U one of tl imens which attract! 

 a visitor In the magnificent museum in Lincoln's Inn 

 We shall U» for the 



■ '• illiam 

 |ame* Si: . 

 Hermann von Helmholtr, William Stokcn, Claude 



Bernand, Sir Benjamin Brodie and Thomas 

 Sydenham. 



Thnvgh a Pocket-Lens, by Henry Scherren, F.Z.S. 

 192 pp. Svo. with go illustrations. (London : 

 Religious Tract Society, 1897). 2s. 6d. 



This is one of those admirable little works on 

 natural history which are issued by the Religious 

 Tract Society. They circulate largely in schools 

 and other ways among young people, creating a 

 taste for enquiry into healthy subjects, and those 

 easily found. With this little book and an inex- 

 pensive pocket-lens, the young student, whether 

 boy or girl, will find abundant food for mind, and 

 recreation for many a year to come. Neither are 

 the subjects " dry," for the more we get to know, 

 the more we naturally desire to find out. Mr. 

 Scherren, very wisely, has contented himself with 

 telling his readers about the commoner objects 

 with which they are likely to meet in country 

 rambles. These he selects with judgment, and 

 with the illustrations, has compiled a book useful 

 to both young and old ramblers in country lanes 

 and fields. 



Medical Botany. By William Trelease, Sc.D. 

 12 pp. Svo. (Chicago : American Medical Asso- 

 ciation Press, 1897.) 



This little pamphlet is a reprint from the 

 "Journal of the American Medical Association " 

 of September 4th, 1897, and formed a paper read 

 before the section of Materia Medica, at the forty- 

 eighth annual meeting of the Association, in June 

 last. Dr. Trelease commences at the very beginning 

 of the subject of the use of plants as medicine. He 

 says: " Prior to emergence from its nameless pre- 

 barbaric state, the human race was undoubtedly 

 versed in botany of a strictly practical kind." This 

 he supports by reference to the use by other 

 animals of some plants as antidotes In the paper 

 before us the author reviews the whole subject of 

 medical botany and the pharmaceutical value of 

 herbs brought to the aid of the scientific physician 

 in more recent times. 



The Machinery of the Universe. By A. E. Dol- 

 bear, A.B., A.M., M.E., Ph.D. 122 pp. 8vo, 

 illustrated by 16 figures. (London : Society for 

 Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1S97.) 2s. 



This is one of the " Romance of Science Series " 

 of the S.P.C.K., and deals with the transformation 

 of energy from one form to another. There are 

 only three chapters in this small work, which is 

 necessarily sketchy in character, but will be useful 

 to those who know little of the phenomena with 

 which it deals. The subject is one of enormous 

 magnitude, and of course, to a large extent, 

 speculative, but will be found, as treated by 

 Professor Dolbear, interesting enough for general 

 reading. It deals with the infinitely great and 

 the infinitely small. 



Descriptive Catalogue oj Useful Fibre Plants of the 



World. By Chas. Richards Dodge. 361 pp. 



large 8vo, illustrated by 13 plates and 103 figures 



in the text. (Washington; Government Printing 



' . 1897 1 



Although this is really a catalogue, it contains so 

 much valuable descriptive matter that it becomes a 

 ■ upon plants, the fibre of which has been 

 used for commercial purposes. These number no 

 less than 1,0! Many of them are figured 



in the li and ill- 1. an nuiij'-i 1 n . oilier 



On the variotl platl Tie- descriptive matter, to 

 which Iready referred, varies In length 



from a line ral page, according to 



the importance of the specie . under notice. 



