426 
BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
not profess to aim at any special adaptation to the require¬ 
ments of veterinary practice, and occupies a somewhat 
broader plane in topic and treatment. 
In this new work Dr. Mills may fairly claim to have sub¬ 
stantially enriched our English medical literature, and his book 
will doubtless receive a hearty welcome from all who are inte¬ 
rested in physiological investigations. In the present work 
the author has departed from the somewhat old routine of 
his predecessors, by prefacing his essay with a consideration 
of the important subject of biology, with the history of the 
cell-structure, of vegetable and animal growth, and a disser¬ 
tation upon the origin of the forms of life and the develop¬ 
ment of the embryo. Passing thence, he enters upon a re¬ 
view of the philosophy of various progressive developments, 
and little by little, and degree following degree, the reader is 
systematically conducted to the consideration of the entire 
functions of circulation, the blood, the digestion and the res¬ 
piration, and through the entire connected phenomena the 
vital processes. The matter of the work is wisely collated, and 
the task of elucidation and arrangement skillfully^ performed, 
and the result is an eminently satisfactory rendering of diffi¬ 
cult and delicate material into a simple and attractive literary 
form. One of the principal difficulties encountered by the 
author must have been to combine and exhibit his materials 
in such a manner as to preserve a due interest in secondary 
and subsidiary subjects, important and essential, though still 
of a minor character, without departing from his main pur¬ 
pose, or detracting from the proportionate prominence of the 
leading theme, as expressed in the title of Animal Physiology , 
and his performance in this respect has been as wholly suc¬ 
cessful as it is eminently skillful. To read the book carefully 
ensures the comparatively easy acquisition of knowledge, and 
no doubt, the principal aim of the author, which is, in his own 
language, to “ make the book, from first to last, educative,” 
will be satisfactorily realized by students of both human and 
veterinary comparative medicine. 
The illustrations are well executed, and the liberal num¬ 
ber of original drawings are evidence of the time and labor 
