682 
[November, 
Analyses of Boohs* 
perished in the treacherous embrace of the water-weeds, and the 
story was represented to us not as a modern invention, but as a 
veritable old Volksmarchen. 
The question “ Do fishes feel pain ?” is answered in the affirm- 
ative by W. J. V. Vandenbergh. Mr. Cuthbert Oxendale gives 
an instance of a cat hooking fishes out of a mill-lodge with her 
claws, and is of opinion that if the taste for fish had been old in 
cats they would ere this have taken to swimming. 
Mr. Leo H. Grindon, in an article on “ Poisonous Plants and 
Harmless Ones.” ventures on the bold statement that “ we may 
be sure that nothing in Nature has been created without a pur- 
pose benevolent in the end.” 
Our Medicine Men : A Few Hints. By H. Strickland Con- 
stable. Kingston-upon-Hull : Leng and Co. 
Fashions of the Day in Medicine and Science : A Few more Hints . 
By H. Strickland Constable. Kingston-upon-Hull : 
Leng and Co. 
We have in these two volumes a mixture of matter, wise and 
absurd, original and thread-bare, grave and gay, to the point and 
very much beside it, of anecdotes and quotations, all embedded 
in a gangue of anti-vaccinationism. Some years ago, we are 
told, a child of the author’s nearly died from vaccination. 
“ Hence this book.” 
To find a man who could either approve or disapprove of all 
that is here written would be impossible, and to expound and 
discuss all the various views here brought forward would occupy 
at least a yearly volume of the “Journal of Science.” Therefore, 
alter pointing out that, according to the Introduction, by “Our 
Medicine Men ” the author means “ our professors of the art of 
healing, our professors of physical science, and our professors of 
religion,” we will proceed to lay before our readers a fair selection 
of the views here set forth. 
In Appendix A, as well as in a number of scattered passages, 
we find A. Comte dealt with in a well-deserved and therefore not 
laudatory manner. He rightly reminds us that, according to the 
best authorities in every department, Comte was, scientifically 
considered, simply nothing. He conducted no researches, he 
made no discoveries, and was even not well versed in what had 
been done by others. He had some appearance of being a 
mathematician, but Arago tells us that even in that discipline 
he is not worth notice. And if we test his merits in other direc- 
tions we find him upholding the dualistic chemistry of Lavoisier 
