142 



SCIENCE- GOSSIP. 



M.B., B.S., M.E.C.S. ; and Surgeon-Major Kilkelly, 

 C.M.G., Grenadier Guards, Principal Medical Officer 

 and in Military Charge. The whole of the articles 

 are of value, especially the chapter on equipment. 

 The chapter on medical and surgical work in the 

 treatment of wounds from projectiles is most 

 interesting. The very numerous illustrations are 

 all good and carefully chosen. Many of them are 

 picturesque, and the whole book will be found 

 fascinating to the lay reader, and perhaps give a 

 far better idea of the important departments of 

 medicine and surgery attached to a large army 

 than can be obtained from any other source. The 

 number of patients treated in the Portland Hospital 

 was small when compared with the enormous 

 number dealt with during the war, so that this 

 book must not be considered as an exhaustive 

 report ; for that we shall have yet to wait some time, 

 until it is published under the auspices of the 

 Government Medical Department. 



A Treatise on Medical Jurisprudence. By 

 George Yivian Poore, M.D., F.R.C.P. xxiv + 

 533 pp., 8| in. x 6 in., with 18 plates. (London: 

 John Murray. 1901.) 12s.net. 



Any work by Br. Vivian Poore, Professor of the 

 Principles and Practice of Medicine in University 

 College, London, is sure to command attention. 

 The book before us is based on lectures delivered 

 at that College. They were taken in shorthand ; 

 but although since edited, with several additions 

 and emendations, the result is a colloquial style 

 which makes pleasant reading of a department of 

 medical education that has hitherto been rather 

 shirked by students. There can be no doubt about 

 the importance of a study of medical jurisprudence 

 to the profession, and in consequence of the issue 

 of the book we believe that a great impulse in this 

 department will be given among students, as 

 indeed also among general practitioners. The 

 object of the author has been to fix in the memory 

 of his readers valuable information for the guidance 

 of medical men by using illustrative cases drawn 

 from the Law Courts and the author's personal 

 experience. It will, therefore, be understood that 

 the student of criminology in both professional 

 and lay society will find within these covers much 

 of more than passing interest. The chapters on 

 poisoning occupy a couple of hundred pages, and 

 cannot fail to qualify any student who has read 

 them, in an understanding of the subject. A section 

 of the work is devoted to insanity in various forms, 

 and is accompanied by a number of typical illus- 

 trations from photographs of actual cases. The 

 metric system of M. Ber'tillon is treated at some 

 length with regard|to the identification of criminals. 

 Associated with this is a useful appendix giving 

 some actual cases. The pages of the work teem 

 with points of medico-legal importance — ranging 

 from certification of causes of death and the difrf- 

 culties arising in some instances, to the conduct of 

 the medical practitioner while being examined in 

 court, with advice and reasons for answering or 

 not answering questions in the different phases of 

 the case. From both the medical and the legal 

 aspects this work is one which thoroughly com- 

 mends itself alike to student and practitioner. 



Life by the Seashore. By Marion Newbigin, 

 D.Sc. viii 4- 344 pp., 7| in. x 5 in., with 93 illus- 

 trations. (London : Swan Sonnenschein & Co., 

 Limited.) 3s. 6d. net. 



This little book has arisen from various popular 



lectures given by the authoress, and it is illus- 

 trated with a good many diagrammatic drawings by 

 her sister. Its object is to give some account of 

 animals commonly found in rock-pools and other 

 littoral localities. It is a subject which never fails 

 to attract young people with a taste for natural 

 history and opportunities for visiting the seashore,, 

 and for them the authoress has apparently prepared 

 the book. 



A Treatise on Zoology. Edited by E. RAY 

 Lankester, M.A., L.L.D.. F.R.S. Part IV. The 

 Platyhelmia, Mcsozoa, and Nemertini. By W. 

 Blaxland Benham, D.Sc, M.A. ix + 204 pp., 

 9 in. x 6 in., with 28 illustrations. (London : 

 Adam & Charles Black. 1901.) 15s. net. 



We have already had the pleasure of referring 

 to the Library of Zoology, of which this forms 

 the fourth volume. Our previous notices appeared 

 in Science-Gossip, vol. vi. p. 370, and vol. vii. 

 p. 148. As we then stated, the ten parts will 

 appear as ready, and this is really the third which 

 has been issued. It deals with an exceedingly 

 interesting group of animals that have hitherto 

 received but comparatively little attention outside 

 text-books, magazine articles, or scattered mono- 

 graphs. They are the Turbellaria, Temnocephal- 

 oidea, Trematoda, Cestoidea, Rhombozoa, Ortho- 

 nectida, and Nemertini. Unfortunately the author,, 

 after writing the pages before us, left for New 

 Zealand, but Dr. Ray Lankester has assured him- 

 self that the proofs were properly revised, and has 

 caused some additions to be made, so including' 

 information which has been acquired even up to 

 the date of publication this autumn. The illus- 

 trations have been carefully drawn and well 

 selected ; in fact, we may say that the volume last- 

 added makes good our prophecy that this series 

 would form a standard treatise on zoology, without 

 equal in this country. 



Technics of the Hand Camera. By Walter. 

 Bulkeley Coventry, M.Inst.C.E. vii + 90 pp., 

 8 in. x 5^ in., with illustrations. (London : Sands- 

 & Co. 1901.) 5s. net. 



This little work has previously been reviewed 

 under the title of "A Treatise on the Use of the 

 Hand Camera," which was considered as mis- 

 leading ; therefore it appears under a new title. 

 Its contents are highly technical, and will be of 

 use to those who conduct their photography on 

 strictly scientific principles. 



The Soluble Ferments and Fermentation. By J. 

 Reynolds Green, Sc.D., F.R.S. Second Edition, 

 xvi +512 pp., 9 in. x G in. (Cambridge University 

 Press. 1901.) 12s. 



The rapid progress made in this section of the 

 study of bacteriology renders the issue of a new 

 edition of Dr. Reynolds Green's well-known work 

 no matter for surprise. Durirjg the two years 

 intervening between the first and second editions 

 many memoirs and scattered articles have appeared 

 on the subject in various languages. The pith of 

 everything of value contained in this recent litera- 

 ture has been incorporated by Dr. Green. In the 

 interval several new enzymes have been discovered,, 

 including hadromase, tanhase, lotase, galactase, 

 and vesiculase, besides several oxidases, and some 

 which effect reduction instead of oxidation. These 

 will be found treated in their appropriate con- 

 nections. A useful feature is the enlarged biblio- 

 graphy, which occupies no less than forty-two 

 pages. 



