REVIEWS. 
373 
estly believe the book to be a good one. It is likely to be of real value to the 
readers for whom it is intended. The veterinary student will find it a most useful text¬ 
book. As a Pharmacopoeia, it may prove an important addition to the literature of 
veterinary medicine. 
Nouveaux Elements d’Histoire Naturelle Medicale. Par D. Cauvet. Bailliere. 
1869. 
We should be very pleased to see French scientific books more generally used by our 
students than they are at present. Science forms an important branch of college educa¬ 
tion in France, and is held in great esteem by the nation at large. As a consequence of 
this, good scientific manuals are abundant. They exist in variety enough to suit all 
classes, from the general reader who seeks an easy explanation of elementary prin¬ 
ciples, to the more earnest student who desires to obtain abstruse knowledge. These 
books are well written, clearly printed, often profusely illustrated, and, what is also of 
considerable importance, they are very cheap. Many of them are models of clear ar¬ 
rangement and lucid exposition. The logical tendency of the French mind is well dis¬ 
played in the treatment of scientific subjects. The English student who desires to gain 
an orderly method of thought, will do well to extend his reading into the scientific lite¬ 
rature of France. 
It may be that ignorance of the language will prove a bar to some. Yet it is easy to 
obtain sufficient knowledge to begin with. A short study of the grammar, and a good 
dictionary, are all that is necessary. A little patience and the feeliDg of something 
gained will then be a sufficient incentive to perseverance. 
The book before us is an example of the kind of work we should like to see in the 
hands of pharmaceutical pupils. It is in two volumes, written in a very readable style, 
and containing a large number of very excellent woodcuts. Altogether there are 790 
engravings dispersed through the text, and every one of them is well executed. We 
need hardly say how great a luxury these drawings prove to the reader. A great deal 
might be learnt by the inspection of the cuts alone. All the most important medicinal 
plants are here pictured in a remarkably life-like manner. As helps to the comprehen¬ 
sion and aids to the memory, the value of such pictorial representations cannot be over¬ 
estimated. The scope of the work is most comprehensive, comprising a general notion 
of zoology, botany, and mineralogy, with the history of the plants or animals useful in 
medicine. Commencing with the animal kingdom, after an excellent chapter on the 
organic empire of nature, the elements of classification are given with an explanatory 
table. The six classes—Mammiferes, Oiseaux, Reptiles, Batraciens, Poissons, and Bran- 
chiostomes—are then taken in their order, and the description of each group is prefaced 
by a chapter on Generalites, in which the distinctive features of the class are lucidly 
explained. 
After a table showing the subdivisions of the class, follows an account of those ani¬ 
mals possessing some interest in a medical point of view. Thus among the fishes, spe¬ 
cial reference is made to the electric torpedo, the skate, and the oil obtained from it 
(which was in slight demand some months ago in London), the cod, and the sturgeon. 
Altogether 330 pages are devoted to the animal kingdom. The natural history of vege¬ 
tables is preceded by several chapters on botany and botanical classification. The me¬ 
dicinal plants of each natural order are then described. This portion necessarily occupies 
the greater part of the work. 
The mineral kingdom is succinctly treated in 73 pages, native mineral substances only 
being mentioned. 
It is difficult within a limited space to do justice to a work so condensed, and yet so 
clear in arrangement, and so easy to read as this. An excellent sketch of the general 
principles of natural history, and a comprehensive account of the organic materia me- 
dica, are here combined. Yet the two volumes are published for 12 francs (ten shillings). 
We fear it will be some time before so good a book in the English language will be 
issued at so low a price. 
Let us add that a copious index is appended, which is a luxury rarely found in French 
manuals. 
