1871J Notices of Books, 377 



to produce a resultant electromotive force equal to that of the 

 lowest cell only : it is these men who, from their deficiency in 

 the mere elements of mathematics, will still be debarred the 

 proof presented to them. The various units of electromotive 

 force and resistance that have been or are extant are given with 

 their equivalent British Association measures. The term veber 

 is used to express the unit quantity of electricity, or that which 

 passes through one ohm, in one second, with a difference of 

 tension of one volt; while the micro-farad has been assigned as 

 the unit of capacity. The tests given are from all sources and 

 of all degrees of delicacy ; the most delicate operation being, 

 perhaps, that of eliminating the error due to the unknown 

 temperature of the leading-in wires. Even though a new branch 

 of engineering, telegraphy can boast in this work of a most 

 compact collection of formulas and tables. Every subject coming 

 under the cognisance of the telegraph engineer has its chapter, 

 whether it be the best method of winding galvanometer wires, 

 or the course to steer a cable-laying ship, to take a set of soundings 

 for a submarine cable, or to measure the timber for an overland 

 line — in a word, the work is a dictionary for telegraph inspectors. 



On some Disorders of the Nervous System in Childhood : being 

 the Lumleian Lectures delivered at the Royal College of 

 Physicians of London, in March, 1871. By Charles West, 

 M.D., Fellow and Senior Censor of the College ; Physician 

 to the Hospital for Sick Children. London : Longmans, 

 Green, and Co. 



The foundation of the Lumleian Lectures is intrinsically in- 

 teresting, in so far that they were founded by men who, in a re- 

 markable time, were themselves most remarkable. In 1572, 

 when Shakespeare and Bacon were boys, when Raleigh was 

 serving his first apprenticeship to arms with the troops of the 

 heroic Queen of Navarre, when religious dissensions were 

 highest, and Europe struck aghast by the massacre of St. 

 Bartholomew — Richard Caldwell, and John, Lord Lumley, 

 executed a joint deed laying a perpetual rent-charge on their 

 lands for the foundation of these lectures. Not only historical 

 worth, but the fact that from the Lumleian chair William Harvey 

 first publicly taught his doctrine of the circulation of the 

 blood, will make the post one to be held only by the distinguished 

 in the art of medicine. Dr. West has been the lecturer elected 

 for this year, and, though he has no discovery to bring forward, 

 the subject chosen will find favour with every parent. His book 

 is the work of one who has passed much of his life among the 

 young ; to him their wants and sufferings are more familiar than 

 those of grown-up people. The disorders of the nervous system 

 have been selected, both because they are the most frequent 

 and the most fatal, as also because their peculiarities are more 

 VOL. VIII. (O.S.) — VOL. I. (N.S.) 3 C 



