I884.J 
103 
Analyses of Books. 
been called for. The editor has made such additions as the 
course of scientific discovery demands, but without otherwise 
modifying the character of the work. 
It may perhaps seem presumptuous to criticise any statement 
in a work of such general accuracy, and so justly approved of by 
teachers of physics. The following passage strikes us, however, 
as being open to exception : — “ The action of a noise (as contra- 
distinguished from sound) upon the ear has been compared to 
that of a flickering light upon the eye ; both are painful, in con- 
sequence of the sudden and abrupt changes which they produce 
in their respective nerves.” Now it seems to us that musical 
sounds are more distressing to a person who has any engage- 
ment other than listening to them than are most noises. We 
speedily get accustomed to the roll of street-traffic, to the rushing 
of a river, or the sough of the wind in the trees ; but who can 
get inured to the tolling of church-bells, or to the strains of a 
piano or an American organ in the next house ? 
It may perhaps be asked why Dr. Atkinson retains the term 
“ Natural Philosophy,” in place of its more precise modern 
equivalent Physics ? 
How to Arrest Infectious Diseases. By Edgar Barnes, M.D, 
London : J. and A. Churchill. 
It is in these days permissible to seek for the reduction — and, if 
possible, for the extinction — of some diseases, whilst others 
appear to be like water companies, “ vested interests ” sacred in 
the eyes of John Bull, and not to be restricted or interfered with. 
Fevers, smallpox, cholera, &c., have monopolised the title “ pre- 
ventive diseases,” and the attention of sanitary reformers. 
From this somewhat limited point of view the little book 
before us is a clear, intelligible compilation. It aims at serving 
the general practitioner as reminder of “ minute details, familiar 
enough but apt to evade the memory just when they are wanted.” 
As such the work is of considerable value ; but it is also intended 
to be placed in the hands of any intelligent non-medical man as 
a guide to him in protecting his family from the ravages of these 
diseases. It is undeniably well calculated to serve both these 
purposes. 
The author opens his subject by explaining the terms infection 
and disinfection. On the exact nature of infection he does not 
find it necessary to speculate, and uses the expression “ disease- 
germs” merely in a provisional sense, without pledging himself 
to any theory as to their constitution. He describes the ordinary 
invisible dust suspended in the air, and enumerates its consti- 
tuents as actually determined by microscopic and micro- chemical 
