EE VI EATS. 
93 
may partly lay claim to a word or two. Dr. Cobbold has dealt with tbe sub- 
ject of tape-worms and their treatment, and be has nearly 100 cases in 
which he records almost invariable success. In most of these cases the 
common male fern was the remedy successfully employed, and we think 
that if the prescriber is cautious in obtaining a proper sample of his drug, 
his results with this medicine are. likely to be good. However, there 
are some instances in which the worm cannot be removed. The writer of 
the present notice remembers two cases which were under his own treat- 
ment — one for more than three months — and which he was compelled to 
send away uncured. They had both been in India, had been under the care of 
military medical men and u club doctors,” and one of them had spent some 
weeks at Netlev Hospital, — and yet they were not cured. This little book 
gives sensible advice to the medical man — advice not always, we are sorry 
to say, followed, — and we are glad to see it in its third edition. 
SCIENCE BY-WAYS* 
I N this volume Mr. Proctor has expressed his wrath with certain critics, 
more especially those of the American school, and we think there is 
much justice in his remarks. Mr. Proctor has been blamed for writing 
popular treatises, and we cannot at all see for what reason people who are not 
his immediate friends can object. There is not the slightest doubt that he 
wields a clever pen, and in addition to this he comes before the public with 
exact knowledge and with a power of popularising a subj ect which very few 
possess under such circumstances; then who can object to his writing as 
many works as he pleases to issue ? We certainly do not see what right 
critics have to cavil. They have to review a book like that before us at 
this moment, which possesses intrinsic worth, which popularises in a telling 
manner, and yet without any slovenliness as regards its scientific value. 
Why, then, can they not do their work without attacking the author ? We 
cannot tell, unless it be that private pique prevents them. For ourselves 
we only regret that one who possesses the unquestioned ability of Mr. 
Proctor should expend his time in popular essay-writing rather than in 
noting down the observations made with the telescope or the spectroscope. 
But we hail with pleasure the announcement of the issue of a new work 
from his pen. In the present book we have a reprint of a series of essays, 
most of them astronomical, but one or two physiological, and indeed to our mind 
these are the most interesting of the whole assemblage. It deals with u life 
past and future in other worlds,” the planets put in Leverrier’s balance, 
comets’ tails, three orders of comets, the sun a bubble, the sun’s surroundings 
and future eclipses, the weather and the sun, finding the way at sea, journeys 
towards the North Pole, rain, damage from lightning, growth and decay of 
mind, have we two brains ? on some strange mental feats, automatic chess 
* “ Science By-ways, &c. &c. ; to which is appended an Essay entitled 
1 Money for Science.’ ” By R. A. Proctor, B. A., &c. London : Smith & 
Elder. 1875. 
