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POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
matician on the part which the imaginative faculty bears in scientific 
labours, he expressed himself to the effect that by far the greater number of 
mathematical truths are obtained, not by deduction, but through the inven- 
tive or imaginative power, and in this he had a view even to the properties 
of the triangle, the ellipsis, &c., which is saying little else than that the 
mathematician as well as the physicist can do nothing for his science without 
artistic endowment.” We have selected the foregoing as a sample of the 
Baron’s ideas, and we doubt not that most of our readers will thoroughly 
agree with them. 
The other papers are many of them of exceeding interest, and make the 
work a most interesting and valuable one. 
DISEASE GERMS.* 
T HE second edition of this important work has appeared, and it demands 
a careful perusal by all who are at all interested in the subject. It is 
first of all, we may say, the only book of its kind in our language, and it is 
written by a man who must unquestionably be considered the first micro- 
scopic observer in the world ; for he is one who has gone on steadily with 
his observations for a considerable number of years, and he is the only one 
who has worked (we use the word advisedly) with the highest microscopic 
powers, the ~ and ~~ of an inch. Now from these circumstances alone 
considerable attention should be given to his writings. But when we 
further regard him as a professor in a vast public school of medicine, and as 
the author of an admirable manual of microscopic enquiry, we find ample 
testimony to his high character as an observer and a teacher. The views 
which the author lays down in this volume may in some cases be incorrect, 
though we do not say so ; but assuredly they must be regarded as sound, 
till some one, with equal microscopic powers and experience, comes forward 
to demonstrate the contrary. The book is, in fact, an expansion of the 
Radcliffe lectures which Dr. Beale delivered a couple of years since, at 
Oxford ; and the views it sets forth are given clearly, and while without 
that emphaticism which so readily suggests inexperience to the critical 
reader, they are nevertheless put forward as the strong and serious expres- 
sion of opinion of one who, while he is ready to be corrected, is nevertheless 
hopeful of the truth of his opinions. The first few pages contain a stinging 
assault on some of the more recent investigators or rather writers and lec- 
turers on the important subject of this volume. In this we fancy the writer 
has gone out of his way to take up the consideration of views and opinions 
which were not considered by the public as of more than a passing interest. 
We think, nevertheless, that Dr. Beale’s defence of the late Dr. Budd is 
both well-timed and in good taste, which of course we cannot say for the 
views which he opposes. Bioplasm appears to us a very good term, and we 
think that Dr. Beale has much in his favour as he traces its growth. But 
* “Disease Germs; their Nature and Origin.” By Lionel S. Beale, 
M.B., F.R.S., Physician to King’s College Hospital. Second Edition. 
London : J. & A. Churchill, 1872. 
