altogether the best which could be adopted is another question-one, indeed, far too important to be discussed in a cursory manner.

Mr. Peirce's work is quite readable, and is moreover instructive. There is, perhaps, too much laudation of individuals, but even this is to a certain extent excusable in one who is evidently thoroughly in earnest, and who feels the importance of the work in which he is engaged.

THE work of Dr. Bleek' will be warmly welcomed by the numerous adherents of the Darwinian theory, as an important contribution to the solution of this " question of questions." Dr. Haeckel, the editor, in his preface, states that the author has enjoyed unusual facilities for the study of the original conditions of language, in the dialects of the tribes of South Africa, having been stationed among them for the last twenty years; and that the present treatise has resulted from their "careful empirical examination and thoughtful consideration."

Language, according to the views of our author, is the exponent of self-consciousness. In the lower animals generally, sound is only the expression of feeling; not that the animal means thereby to communicate its feelings, but simply that there is connected with feeling a certain peculiar activity of the organism, and by that a sound is produced. In the progressive development of nature, there arose the consciousness, not only of the sound, as distinguished from the feeling that accompanied it, but of the necessary connection between the two; and thus, what was once the involuntary utterance of the feeling, became the audible sign of the feeling.

During this initial period of humanity, consciousness was limited to states of feeling, and, in order to make any real progress, language, and the consciousness bound up in it, had to be further formed. This was done doubtless by the union of interjections to express compound feelings, and the variation of original words to express shades of meaning.

'On the Origin of Language, by W. H. J. Bleek, Ph. D., Curator of Sir Charles Grey's Library in Capetown. Edited, with a Preface, by Dr. Ernst Haeckel, Professor in the University of Jena. Translated by Thomas Davidson. New York: L. W. Schmidt, 1869. 8vo, pp. 69.

Dr. Bleek estimates, as the time necessary for the development of language to its present stand-point, at least one hundred thousand years, but he would not consider it unreasonable to extend it over a much greater period.

It is impossible to do justice to the merits of a scientific work of this character in the short limits of a book notice, and we would urge all who are interested in this subject to procure and study this little book of Dr. Bleek's.

THE third volume of the St. George's Hospital Reports' is fully up to the high standard of excellence attained by its predecessors. The papers which specially relate to the anatomy, physiology, and pathology of the nervous system, are the following:

Cases of Delirium dependent on Impoverishment of the Blood. By Dr. A. W. Barclay.

Case of Cerebral Disease in a Syphilitic Patient. By Dr. T. Clifford Abbutt.

son.

On Paralysis of the Extensors. By Dr. Reginald Thomp

Are there any Special Trophic Nerves? By Dr. Handfield Jones.

Loss of Speech from the Bite of Venomous Snakes. By Dr. William Ogle.

In the first named of these papers Dr. Barclay details a case of delirium, in which, on post-mortem examination, no evidences of inflammation of the brain were discovered. The disease was inflammatory rheumatism, and he ascribes the cerebral derangement to toxæmia consequent upon the retention of effete matters. In such cases he regards alcohol as very prejudicial on account of its arresting elimination.

Two other cases of a somewhat different type were cured by the free administration of stimulants and food.

Dr. Abbutt's paper is a very full account of a case in which a patient, suffering from secondary syphilis, was attacked with mental aberration and paralysis-death ensued, and on postmortem examination syphilitic disease was found in the

1St. George's Hospital Reports. Edited by John W. Ogle, M. D., etc., and Timothy Holmes, F. R. C. S. Vol. iii., 1868. 8vo, pp. 409.

brain, meninges, vessels, and such of the cerebral nerves as were examined.

Dr. Thompson's paper, though short, calls attention to the fact that paralysis of the extensor muscles is not always a consequence of lead-poisoning. The symptoms in the case recorded pointed to the spinal origin of the disease. Two cases of paralysis of the extensors of the hand, in which there was certainly no exposure to the toxic influence of lead, have recently been under our notice. In both these there was in the first place pain in the back, fever, hyperæsthesia, and the other symptoms of acute myelitis. Such cases appear to show that there is a part of the spinal cord specially devoted to the supplying of nervous influence to the extensor muscles.

In a very interesting memoir, Dr. William Ogle adduces several cases in which loss of speech followed the bites of venomous serpents. Locating the organs of speech in that part of the brain nourished by the middle cerebral artery, he thinks the symptom observed is due to a spasmodic contraction of this vessel. Instances of the action of medicines upon the blood-vessels of particular parts are well known. Thus ergot contracts the vessels of the uterus, the spinal cord, the iris, etc.; belladonna the vessels of the iris, of the mammary glands, etc.; and quinine reduces the size of an aguish spleen from its action on the blood-vessels of that organ.

His conclusions are:

"1. The bite of a venomous snake frequently causes loss of speech.

"2. This symptom, when it occurs, is an early one preceding paralysis and the results of impeded transit of blood through the lungs. It may last for an indefinite period when other symptoms have disappeared.

"3. The symptom may be rationally accounted for by supposing that the poison produces spasm in the middle cerebral arteries.

"4. When the symptom is permanent, its continuance is probably due to thrombosis of the arteries above the temporary constriction.

5. That the poison should thus act preferentially on a

single artery or set of arteries is consistent with the observed action of other poisons and drugs, notably with that of cholerapoison, of alcohol, opium, digitalis, ergot of rye, belladonna, soda, lead, and potash salts.

Dr. Handfield Jones discredits the theory that there are special nerves devoted to the nutrition of the body.

THE present volume of Pennsylvania Hospital Reports' contains twenty-three articles of greater or less importance, but all of practical value. The only fault we have to find is that many of the papers relate to isolated cases, and might, with more propriety, have been published in a medical journal. This remark does not, however, apply to Dr. Hewson's memoir on the influence of the weather over the results of Surgical Operations, to Dr. Morton's on Urinary Calculi, to Dr. Da Costa's on Acute Rheumatism, to Dr. Hutchinson's on Intracranial Aneurism, to Dr. Hartshorne's on Oblique Fracture of the Clavicle, to Dr. Ashurst's on Excision of the Hip-joint, or to Dr. Packard's on the Treatment of Fractures. Taken as a whole, the volume is a very creditable one.

IN connection with the reports, attention should be called to a very admirably arranged catalogue of the Museum of the Hospital, prepared by Dr. William Pepper, the curator. The present museum was established in 1860, and already contains 550 specimens. The catalogue is descriptive, and much may be learned by its perusal. For instance, specimen 1,233 (the numeration begins with 1,000) is that of a "cancerous tumor of the cerebellum," and is described as the "case of a man aged sixty-one, admitted to the Pennsylvania Hospital, November 4, 1862, who had suffered for some time with violent headache which was most severe in the morning, and dizziness which caused him to reel and stagger. Stupor supervened, and he died December 16, 1862."

It will be seen that there is no mention of any want of coordinating power, and that vertigo was present. This case,

'Pennsylvania Hospital Reports, vol. ii., 1869. Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston. 8vo, pp. 320.

Descriptive Catalogue of the Pathological Museum of the Pennsylvania Hospital. Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston, 1869. 8vo, pp. 119.

therefore, tends to confirm the views relative to the "Physiology and Pathology of the Cerebellum" enunciated by the editor of this Journal in his paper on the subject published in the April number.

Of all the works yet written on chronic bronchitis, the one before us by Dr. E. Headlam Greenhow' is undoubtedly the best. It consists of eight clinical lectures delivered in the wards of the Middlesex Hospital, and which are illustrated with fortysix cases. The style is clear and to the point, and the principles of pathology and treatment eminently correct and practical. Books such as this are a positive addition to our medical literature. We wish they were more common.

THE Essentials of the Principles and Practice of Medicine, by Dr. Henry Hartshorne, has reached a second edition in a very short time. Of its class we know of none superior, but we doubt the utility of books of the kind, except as mere refreshers of the memory. They are apt to be abused by lazy and ignorant students, and practitioners, who depend on them to the exclusion of fuller sources of information. We suppose, however, that it is too much to expect authors to refrain from writing epitomes, and, so long as that is the case, we are glad the office is assumed by one so competent as is Dr. Hartshorne.

DR. CARL LIMAN has written a work which cannot fail to be useful to physicians and lawyers in Germany, and which we think might be translated into English with advantage to their brethren in this country. We commend the idea to the Medico-Legal Society. The conditions considered are those produced by epilepsy (the most important of all), chorea, hysteria, hypochondria, and melancholia, organic diseases of the

'On Chronic Bronchitis, especially as connected with Gout, Emphysema, and Diseases of the Heart. Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston, 1869. 12mo, pp. 236.

2 Essentials of the Principles and Practice of Medicine. A Hand-book for Students and Practitioners. Second edition, revised and improved. Philadelphia: Henry C. Lea, 1869. 12mo, pp. 452.

3 Zweifelhafte Geisteszustände vor Gericht. Berlin: 1869. 8vo, pp. 466. Doubtful Mental Conditions before the Law.