x88o.J Analyses of Books. 657 
in the white man, and it is more capable of grasping. In cer- 
tain inferior races the tibia is transversely flattened, as in the 
apes ; their anterior limbs are also longer in proportion to their 
hind limbs than in the higher races. 
M. Hovelacque gives a further distinction which we cannot 
accept : — “ A not less striking characteristic of inferiority is that 
of credulity, of faith, of religion, whatever it be. The idea of 
fetiches, of gods, of Deity, is the peculiar property of the lower 
races ; and the more or less gradual abandonment of these con- 
ceptions, puerile but dangerous, is an evident character of the 
superiority of a race. Faith in the higher races is merely an 
affair of education and of intellectual sloth.” 
Traite d' Ancesthesie Chirurgicale , contenant la Description et les 
Applications de la Methode Ancesthesique de M. Paul Bert. 
Par le Docteur J. B. Rottenstein. Paris : Germer Bailliere 
et Cie. 
The means of annihilating the pain formerly an invariable and 
fearful attendant upon all surgical operations have not unna- 
turally attracted a large share of public attention, and it might 
be possible to name reputations which have been cheaply earned 
by the persistent recommendation of new anaesthetics. 
The author pronounces artificial anaesthesia to be “ the greatest 
scientific conquest of our age, and the greatest discovery which 
has been made in Medicine, with, perhaps, the exception of vac- 
cination.” The glory of the invention he ascribes to Horace 
Wells. Still he quotes the words which Sir H. Davy had used 
in his pamphlet on Nitrous Oxide, published as far back as 
1799 : — “ Pure protoxide of nitrogen appears to possess, among 
its other properties, that of destroying pain, and may probably 
be employed with advantage in surgical operations not attended 
with a great effusion of blood.” Well may Dr. Rottenstein ex- 
claim “ l’idee etait la.” Surely we may submit that the merit of 
Davy in connection with anaesthesia was not inferior to that of 
the man who forty-five years later put this published proposal 
into execution. 
The principal object of the work before us appears to be the 
recommendation of the anaesthetic method of M. Paul Bert. It 
is found that, though the inhalation of nitrous oxide produces 
complete anaesthesia, this state cannot be prolonged for the 
time necessary for the majority of surgical operations, since 
symptoms of asphyxia soon appear, and prove rapidly fatal if 
the inhalation of the gas is continued. M. Paul Bert has over- 
come this difficulty by administering a mixture of equal 
volumes of nitrous oxide and of air under a pressure of two 
atmospheres. 
o y 2, 
