188 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
Myxogastre9 by Dr. L. Quelet ; and one by the Count de Castillon on the 
Artificial Culture of Mushrooms by the Japanese. A paper by M. Paul 
Brunaud on the popular names of Fungi in the neighbourhood of Saintes 
contains notes on the characters of two or three species. A plate which 
accompanies the number does not appear to belong to any of the papers con- 
tained in it. The number furnishes bibliographical notices of a great number 
of books and papers published in 1878, and concludes with a few pages of 
short notes on mycological subjects. If this review can be continued in the 
same style, it will doubtless prove exceedingly useful to students of Fungi ; 
but we should fear that its circulation will be very limited, and, probably in 
anticipation of this, its price seems to be rather high. 
HEALTH PRIMERS.* 
T HE six little volumes which have appeared of this very useful series are 
remarkable for their sound common sense treatment of important sub - 
jects, and for their cheapness. In this last respect these primers resemble 
many others which have appeared from time to time, and which have been 
the work of the most'distinguished physicists, anatomists, and botanists of the 
day ; but they differ from them by being within the comprehension of those 
individuals for whom primers are written. A primer in the olden time 
was a book which related to the fundamental principles of a branch of 
knowledge, and it was written in plain and almost monosyllabic English; 
but many modern ones are comprehensive u crams,” and prime up the student 
with the incomprehensible. The one was “milk for babes,” the others 
are “ strong drink ” for the old ; the old books were for the beginner, and the 
modern are only really appreciated by those men who know all about the 
subject. Certainly these little books can be understood by everybody ; they 
are didactic as well as suggestive ; and in reading them one is struck with 
the evident improvement in the method of thought of the medical profession, 
for they are edited and written by distinguished members of the faculty. 
They are the outcome of the third phase of medical thought during this 
century. Early in it, the doctors were heroic ; people were bled, blistered, 
and draughted, and were taught that every disease had, or ought to have, its 
special curative agent. Then, as the medical mind became logical, the ex- 
pectant treatment prevailed ; and now primers are written on “ preventive ” 
medicine or sanitary science. Formerly every epidemic was attributed to 
the anger and personal attack of the Ruler of all things, and was considered 
to be a warning against national and other sins. Now such disorders are 
believed and are proved to be the result of man’s stupidity, dirt, bestiality, 
and bad government. The little volume on “ premature death ” — that is to say, 
death before the expiration of the natural term — deals with the community 
rather than with the individual, and tells the true story of the cause and 
* “ Premature Death : its Promotion and Prevention.” “ Alcohol : its 
Use and Abuse.” “ Personal Appearance in Health and Disease.” u The 
House and its Surroundings.” “ Exercise and Training.” “ Baths and 
Bathing.” Royal lCmo. London: Ilardwicke & Bogue. 
