Notices of New Books. 2921 



dock, where we may presume they were nurtured and fattened amid 

 putrescent matters ; and Dr. Coldstream, than whom no one is better 

 qualified to decide the point, gave it as his opinion that the liver was 

 larger, darker, and more brittle than in the wholesome fish, and satis- 

 fied Dr. Christison that there was a difference of the kind. The 

 oysters by which, not along ago, some people were poisoned at Havre, 

 were procured from an artificial bed, which had been established near 

 the exit of the drain of a public necessary ; and Dr. Chisholm men- 

 tions a fact which bears on the question, and seems to prove that 

 copper communicates some pernicious quality to the oyster, probably 

 by acting as the cause of some disease. The fact was communicated 

 to Dr. Chisholm ' at St. Croix, by the late Mr. William Newton, of 

 that island. Some time after the Santa Monica, British frigate, was 

 cast away on the Island of St. John, one of the Virgin Islands, oysters 

 grew on her bottom, which was coppered. Many people ate of these 

 oysters, and although the consequence was in no instance fatal, it was 

 such as was dangerous and unpleasant in a very great degree, pro- 

 ducing cholera and excruciating tormina.' Further observations and 

 experiments are, however, necessary to elucidate this interesting ques- 

 tion. Lamouroux states that mussels never become poisonous unless 

 they are exposed alternately to the air and the sea in their place of 

 attachment, and unless the sea flows in gently over them without any 

 surf; but on this statement it may be remarked that mussels are al- 

 most always found in such localities, where they certainly thrive best." 

 — Introduction to Conchology, page 18. 



Dr. Johnson's bulky volume contains no fewer than five hundred 

 pages of pleasant, readable matter, much in the same strain as this quo- 

 tation, and one hundred additional pages on systems and the history 

 of systems. In neither division of the book is there any great amount 

 of novelty, indeed it is easy to believe the authors's own assertion on 

 taking leave of his readers : " I have felt," says he, " as I proceeded, 

 a growing conviction of my incompetency to the task I had too wil- 

 lingly undertaken" (p. 605). It is not, however, to be supposed that 

 the most diffident are the least worthy : and, evident though it be, 

 that the author is learning while he is teaching, and that he may teach, 

 still he has learned deeply and not superficially, and we always im- 

 part that knowledge most skilfully which we have most recently ac- 

 quired, and although, as I have said, the new does not predominate, 

 the true, which is much more valuable, forms the staple of the work ; 

 and it is with great pleasure, and after maturely considering the influ- 

 ence of such a recommendation, that I recommend this volume to the 



