1883.] Physiology. 677 
PHYSIOLOGY.: 
A TEXT-BOOK oF Puystotocy.2—Dr, Foster's work may well 
be regarded as epoch-making in the history of English text-books 
of physiology. Few authors have combined the capability and 
‘appreciative insight necessary to the treatment of this subject as 
ascience. Physiology is a chain of reasoning connecting isolated 
phenomena, and the study of that subject calls into play to the 
fullest that mental discipline which gives the power of sifting the 
true from the false and the acquirement of which is, ina measure, 
the design of the student’s labors. A great drawback to the 
general usefulness of Dr. Foster’s book has been the fact that the 
discussions contained in it were on a scientific plane to which the 
average medical student could hardly transport himself. In the 
new edition, however, the author has sought by the omission of 
the discussions of many disputed points and by the introduction 
of new diagrams, to render his book especially useful to the medi- 
cal student; there is given us, accordingly, a clear presentation of 
practical information in which, at the same time, the scientific 
aspects of physiology are held in full view. 
COMPARISONS OF STRENGTH BETWEEN LARGE AND SMALL ANI- 
MALS.—M. Delbeuf, in a paper read before the Academie Royale 
de Belgique and published in the Revue Scientifique, reviews the at- 
tempts of various naturalists to make comparisons between the 
Strength of large animals and that of small ones, especially in- 
Sects, and shows that ignorance or forgetfulness of physical laws 
vitiate all their conclusions : 
er a plea for the idea, without which the fact is barren, M. 
Delbeuf repeats certain statements with which readers of modern 
zoological science are tolerably familiar, such as the following : 
flea can jump two hundred times its length ; therefore a horse, 
Were its strength proportioned to its weight, could leap the Rocky 
mountains, and a whale could spring two hundred leagues in 
height. An Amazon ant walks about eight feet per minute, but if 
the progress of a human Amazon were proportioned to her larger 
Size, she would stride over eight leagues in an hour, and if pro- 
portioned to her greater weight, she would make the circuit of the 
globe in about twelve minutes. This seems greatly to the advan- 
tage of the insect. What weak creatures vertebrates must be, is 
the impression conveyed. : 
But the work increases as the weight. In springing, walking, 
Swimming or any other activity, the force employed has first to 
Overcome the weight of the body. A man can easily bound a 
height of two feet, and he weighs as much asa hundred thousand 
Stasshoppers, while a hundred thousand grasshoppers could leap 
$ is department is edited by Professor HENRY SEWALL, of Ann Arbor, Michigan. 
Eag A Sxt-Book of Physiology. By Dr. M. Foster, M.A., M.D., F.R.S. 4th 
