REVIEWS. 
591 
scope, the ophthalmoscope, are invaluable aids ; but because 
a man has them for extraordinary work, he must not consider 
himself dispensed from using his eyes, ears, and fingers with 
the same diligence which raised our forefathers to eminence. 
Because a pupil can now follow out the beautiful researches 
of Bernard and Chauveau in experimental physiology, is 
surely no reason why he shall not strap ulcers and saw dead 
bones or broomsticks, to learn the handling of the saw and 
such like handicraft. But with time all excesses are duly 
moderated, and in its oscillations the pendulum ever indi- 
cates progress. The day will come — perhaps is not far dis- 
tant — when by practice in medicine and surgery shall be 
understood the utilitarian application of a sound philosophy, 
when the two families of so-called practical men and theorists 
shall be designated by their real names — empirics and specula- 
tors . The tide has set in. 
Conformably to his well-earned reputation as a hospital 
surgeon, Mr. Erichsen gives evidence in every part of his 
work of clear perception, decided judgment, and vast expe- 
rience ; and although we might have desired more than 
twenty-one lines on the treatment of pyaemia, a fuller exami- 
nation of the question of the day, caustics in cancer , it is un- 
questionable that the work before us is in the very first rank 
of the surgical treatises now current ; not one exists which we 
could more conscientiously indorse as a guide to the unin- 
itiated, or as a staff to the practised traveller in search of 
surgical knowledge. 
The Social and Political Relations of Drunkenness . Two Lec- 
tures, by Thomas Laycock, M.D., F.R.S.E., &c.. Pro- 
fessor of the Practice of Medicine, and of Clinical 
Medicine in the University of Edinburgh. Second 
Edition. 
We would that every one should read these Lectures, and 
especially students of medicine, to whom they are dedicated. 
