1 882.] Recent Literature. 501 



healthy and morbid tissues, both hard and soft, and the letter- 

 press is aided by twenty-four plates. 



The second and larger part treats of the microscopical charac- 

 ters of the simplest particles of tissues and of their demonstra- 

 tion; of structural elements and elementary parts in health and 

 disease ; of deposits from fluids, and of animal and vegetable 

 parasites. After a chapter devoted to the living matter and cell- 

 structure of organizms the author treats of lymph, chyle, blood 

 and serous fluids, of medico-legal investigations, saliva, sputum, 

 vomited matters, faeces, discharges of various kinds, and milk. 

 Pus, animal poison or virus, contagium, and tubercle, are next 

 considered, and the author's views of their nature fully stated; 

 the urine, and urinary deposits and calculi, are next examined 

 into, and the remaining portion of the work, except a short chapter 

 devoted to human parasites, is taken up by methods of investiga- 

 tion of the various tissues and organs of the body in health and 

 disease, and statements of the author's opinions of the nature of 

 diseases affecting them. 



In a field so broad as that covered by this book there is of 

 course much room for difference of opinion. Dr. Beale devotes 

 much of his space to theories of his own, more or less ably sup- 

 ported by argument ; and to the disproof of rival theories. 



His opinion upon the value of the microscopic examination of 

 blood-stains in cases of supposed murder, based as it is upon the 

 great resemblance of the red blood corpuscles of the carnivora, 

 some ungulates, rodents, quadrumana and certain other mammals 

 to that of man, and upon his own extensive practice, is entitled to 

 great weight. He says, " I can hardly think that in any given 

 case the scientific evidence in favor of a particular blood-stain 

 being caused by human blood, will be of a kind that ought to be 

 considered sufficiently conclusive to be adduced, for example, 

 against a prisoner upon his trial." He, however, considers such 

 evidence as of value in strengthening or weakening other circum- 

 stantial evidence. 



Against all theories of disease that refer the contagion to 

 germs of fungi or bacteria, Dr. Beale decides unhesitatingly and 

 ar gues, in our opinion, almost convincingly. He does not by 

 a ny means stand alone. Dr. Benjamin Richardson has long ad- 

 vocated very similar views, and although the adherents of the 

 germ" theory have of late years made a far greater show in 

 Print than their opponents, it has been through the remissness of 



e latter rather than on account of the powerful arguments of the 



That bacteria, vibrios, etc., are found in abundance in all those 



aiseases called zymotic, is undeniable, but it is also true, as Dr. 



less G a , Sserts ' that " m any things we eat contain them in count- 



littl mU es - I n tne alimentary canal of infants suffering from a 



e stomach derangement, bacteria are often present in vast num- 



