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Notices of Books. 
toys, and say “ things are because they are,” which is merely a 
plainer and briefer way of expressing our author’s views. We 
will venture to say that had he even devoted a single year to the 
serious study of animal geography, he would have been more 
chary of referring to “ Nature’s intentions,” and would never 
have sought to account for the distribution of species in such a 
manner. 
Various other utterances, more remarkable and well founded, 
might easily be selected, if any useful purpose could be thereby 
answered. 
It is to be profoundly regretted that one who displays so much 
rashness in theorising, and who reasons in such a very peculiar 
manner, should not have deemed it incumbent upon him to show 
a little more courtesy toward those from whom he dissents. 
Such expressions as the “ pompous Humboldt,” whose “ ideas 
appear like the ravings of madness,” are happily not customary 
weapons in scientific controversy, and must assuredly damage 
the man who has the questionable taste to use them much more 
than the one at whose memory they are levelled. 
All that is really valuable in this book might well have been 
compressed into much smaller compass, and certain of the 
sections ought never to have been written. 
Hay -Fever or Summer Catarrh; its Nature and Treatment. By 
G. M. Beard, A.M., M.D. New York: Harper and 
Brothers. 
We cannot presume to endorse the opinion of an old and some- 
what testy friend, that “ hay-fever is all humbug,” although 
certainly we have never met with or heard of a case in private 
life, and know of its existence merely from medical works. 
Though not recognised as a distindf disease prior to 1819, it 
seems to have become prevalent in England, and still more in 
the northern part of the United States, and already attracts a 
considerable amount of attention. Unlike his predecessors in 
the enquiry as to its nature and origin, Dr. Beard holds that 
hay-fever is essentially a neurosis — a functional disease of the 
nervous system. “ The debilitating influences of heat and the 
external irritation of vegetable and other substances (pollen from 
different plants, essential oils, &c.) are exciting causes merely.” 
He does not believe in the existence of any specific suitable for 
all persons suffering from the disease. 
It is interesting to note that in America a special Association 
has been formed for the investigation of this affection. 
