Dr. BealE; on the Germinal Matter of the Blood. 63 
they deserve. He supposes tliat by the action of " irritants 
the tissues are reduced to a state in which, although not dead, 
they are temporarily deprived of all vital power. He thinks 
that the irritated tissues act towards the blood-corpuscles like 
ordinary solids, and cause them to acquire adhesiveness such 
as they exhibit when removed from the body, and that to this 
change inflammatory congestion is due."^" 
Surely these views, which were published in 1858, should 
be subjected by the reviewers to the most careful and searching 
analysis ; their importance and interest must needs be great, 
as first principles are involved in them. All Prof. Lister's 
papers fully deserve much more careful study and criticism 
than they have yet received. 
It is to be regretted that those engaged in writing reviews 
upon the work of observers in this country do not take more 
pains to give careful analyses than is generally the case : and 
I think that British scientific observers generally may fairly 
complain of the treatment they receive at the hands of re- 
viewers ; for while not unfrequently foreign observations upon 
minute points of special interest only to a few, are subjected 
to a most honest, careful, and elaborate analysis, general 
conclusions advanced by men iu. this country, and perhaps 
supported by a vast amount of most careful experimental 
observation, are dismissed with a few complimentary remarks, 
or passed unnoticed by journals which pretend to give critical 
and analytical notices of scientific work carried on in this 
country as well as abroad. There is more good and sound 
physiological work done here than most readers of our reviews 
would be inclined to suppose. f 
* Observatious in opposition to llie doctrine of irritation will be found in 
a lecture published by me in the 'Lancet/ Dec. 6ch, 1862. 
t In the last Half-yearly Report on Physiology in the ' Medico-Chirurgical 
Review/ the editor has*' not space" for short analyses of the following- 
memoirs of British authors : — 
" On the Arrangement of the Muscular Tibres of the Yentricular Portion 
of the Heart." By J. Pettigrew. 
" On the Coagulation of the Blood." By Joseph Lister. 
"Lectures on the Blood." By George Gulliver. 
" On the Brain of a Bushwoman, and on the Brains of Two Idiots." By 
J. Marshall. 
"On the Nerves of the Liver, Biliary Ducts, and Gall Bladder." By 
Robert Lee. 
" On Animal Dextrine or Amyloid Substance : its History and Physio- 
logical Properties." By R. McDonnell. 
" On the Amyloid Substance of the Liver, and its Ultimate Destination 
in the Animal Economy." By R. McDonnell, M.D. 
" On the Effect of Temperature on the Excretion of Urea, as observed 
on a voyage to China and at Hong Kong." By E. Becher, M.D. 
Every one of these papers contains topics of the utmost interest to the 
medical profession, and " space " ought to be found for analyses in a jour- 
nal which professes to give " half-yearly reports " on Physiology. 
