174 
Analyses of Books. 
[March, 
The Asclepiad, a Book of Original Research and Observation in 
the Science , Art, and Literature of Medicine. Vol. I., No. i. 
January, 1884. By B. W. Richardson, M.D., F.R.S. 
London : Eade and Caulfield. 
By far the greater part of this work concerns the medical prac- 
titioner only, and appeals as little to non-professional men of 
Science as to the lay public. 
The first of the essays here placed before us gives an inte- 
resting account of the subcutaneous use of morphia, now 
becoming increasingly common. The. author considers that 
“ alcohol, aCting like an additional worry and wearer of life, is 
an important secondary agent in the production of the opium 
habitue. This may be so, but we should conclude that the 
primary agent is the increased over-work and worry character- 
istic of the latter half of the century, and which is a phenomenon 
perfectly without precedent in the history of the human race. 
The author mentions the case of a medical man who, in the 
space of three years, had injected into himself 6000 grains, 
sometimes using 12 grains daily. 
“ Harvey after Death ” is an account of the re-interment of 
the illustrious Harvey, which took place at Hempstead, in Essex, 
on the 17th of October last. 
The concluding essay, “ Felicity as a Sanitary Research,” 
opens up some of the gravest questions. Dr. Richardson asks — 
“ Can we honestly believe that these triumphs of ours which 
have so far ended in a certain victory over death have introduced 
any great triumph over misery? Have we by our labours made 
men, women, and children greatly happier as well as longer 
lived?’' He adds, very truthfully, “ These questions are mo- 
mentous, because, if we are aiding in the act of adding to length 
of life and in developing population without giving to an extended 
and universal life Felicity, we may, in the long run, be working 
evil rather than good for the human race. . . . Surveying the 
questions I have submitted, I do not think that we have, so far, 
done very much to add to human felicity.” 
This is very nearly the same ground which we have taken 
from time to time. Sanitarians have been very anxious to root 
out smallpox and typhoid fever, cholera and diphtheria. But 
what have they done to counteract insanity, paralysis, diseases 
of the heart, and, in short, chronic debility in every form ? 
Have they diminished or rather intensified the “ struggle for 
existence,” which more and more compels a man to employ his 
whole energies in the mere earning a livelihood, so that, as the 
“ Spectator ” puts it, the class, at least, which depends on brain- 
work is “ harassed as it never was harassed before ” ? We fully 
admit that were the struggle for existence entirely abolished the 
