580 
OBITUARY. 
the  success  of  which  is  a  standing  disgrace  to  the  common  sense  of  the  Amer- 
ican people. 
The  following  have  been  received  : — • 
The  Uremic  Convulsions  of  Pregnancy,  Parturition  and  Child-bed.  By  Dr. 
Carl  K.  Braun,  Professor  of  Midwifery,  Vlnena.j  Translated  from  the 
German,  with  notes  by  J.  Matthews  Duncan,  Lecturer  on  Midwifery,  &c. 
New  York:  S.  S.  &  W.  Wood,  389  Broadway,  New  York  :  1858,  pp.  182. 
Transactions  of  the  New  Hampshire  Medical  Society. 
The  American  Homoeopathic  Review.    New  York,  Oct.,  1858. 
TJie  Nashville  Monthly  Record  of  Medical  and  Physical  Science,  which  is 
a  fusion  of  the  Southern  Journal  of  Medical  and  Physical  Sciences,  and 
the  Memphis  Medical  Recorder. 
The  Journal  and  Transactions  of  the  Maryland  College  of  Pharmacy,  for 
September,  1858. 
Belmont  Medical  Journal,  (Bridgeport,  Ohio.) 
OBITUARY. 
Robert  Brown. — This  distinguished   botanist  died  on  Saturday,  the 
12th  of  June,  at  his  house  in  Dean  Street,  Soho,  in  the  eighty-fifth 
year  of  his  age.    Though  less  popularly  known  as  a  man  of  science 
than  many  of  his  cotemporaries,  those  whose  studies  have  enabled  them 
to  appreciate  the  labors  of  Brown,  rank   him  altogether  as  the  fore- 
most scientific  man  of  this  century.    He  takes  his  position  not  so  much 
from  his  extensive  observations  on  the  structure  and  habits  of  plants,  as 
from  the  philosophical  insight  he  possessed  and  the  power  he  displayed  of 
applying  the  well  ascertained  facts  of  one  case  to  the  explanation  of  doubt- 
ful phenomena  in  a  large  series.    Till  his  time  botany  can  scarcely  be  said 
to  have  had  a  scientific  foundation.    It  consisted  of  a  large  number  of  ill- 
observed  and  badly-arranged  facts.    By  the  use  of  the  microscope  and  the 
conviction  of  the  necessity  of  studying  the  history  of  the  development  of 
the  plant  in  order  to  ascertain  its  true  structure  and  relations.  Brown 
changed  the  face  of  botany.    He  gave  life  and  significance  to  that  which 
had  been  dull  and  purposeless.    His  influence  was  felt  in  every  direction : 
-—the  microscope  became  a  necessary  instrument  in  the  hands  of  the  phi- 
losophical botanist,  and  the  history  of  development  was  the  basis  on  which 
all  improvement  in  classification  was  carried  on.    This  influence  extended 
from  the  vegetable  to  the  animal  kingdom.    The  researches  of  Schleiden 
on  the  vegetable  cell,  prompted  by  the  observations  of  Brown,  led  to  those 
of  Schwann  on  the  animal  cell ;  and  we  may  directly  trace  the  present  posi- 
tion of  animal  physiology  to  the  wonderful  influence  that  the  researches  of 
Brown  have  exerted  upon  the  investigation  of  the  laws  of  organization.  Even 
in  zoology  the  influence  of  Brown's  researches  may  be  traced  in  the  interest 
attached  to  the  history  of  development  in  all  its  recent  systems  of  classi- 
fication.  Brown  had,  in  fact,  in  the  beginning  of  the  present  century, 
