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importance of using the serum as early as possible is

strongly emphasised, and instructions are given in regard tosubsequent injections. The serum should be given daily forthree or four consecutive days, and then if the cerebro-spinalflnid is free from organisms it may be stopped, otherwisethe serum is to be continued.

M. Netter and M. Debr6 have produced a valuable mono-graph which is thoroughly practical and instructive.

La Pratique Neurologique. Publiée sous la direction dePIERRE MARIE, Protesseur à la Faculté de Medecine deParis, par MM. CROUZON, DELAMARE, DESNOS, GUILLAIN,HUET, LANNOIS, LERI. MOUTIER, POULARD, Roussy.Avec 302 figures dans le texte. Paris : Masson et Cie.1911. Pp. 1402. Price Fr.30.

THE handsome volume before us, with its 1400 pages and

its 300 illustrations, is a production of which any school

might well be proud. It emanates from the active coterieof young neurologists who have been pupils of -Professor

Pierre Marie-under whose aegis the book has appeared-with the collaboration of three others-viz., MM. Desnos,Lannois, and Poulard-who have contributed articles on

their own specialties. The general plan of the work is toprovide a text-book of symptomatology of nervous disease,but the diagnostic and therapeutic aspects of the subjectalso receive full consideration.

Dr. Poulard opens with the nervous affections of theocular and visual apparatus in some 120 pages, which arereplete with practical hints and suggestions. Then- come chapters on the ear, by Dr. Lannois, on vertigo,apoplexy and coma, insomnia, aphasia, apraxia, and

agnosia. The next division of the work embraces the

semeiology of psychiatrical affections and a chapter on

idiocy. Sensibility is fully handled by Dr. Roussy in anarticle of about 100 pages. The reflexes, hemiplegia,associated movements, paraplegia, the diagnosis of medullarylesions, the semeiology of isolated muscular palsies and ofcerebral palsies, muscular atrophy and hypertrophy, in-

coordination and its treatment, myasthenia, tremors, chorea,myoclonus, athetosis and tics, occupation neuroses, catatonia,and catalepsy are some of the chapters comprised in thesection on motility. There are valuable chapters on affec-tions of the genito-urinary apparatus and on nervous dis-

turbances of digestion. Adequate attention is given to

radiology, the cerebro-spinal fluid, ventricular syndromes,electrotherapy, and hydrotherapy. In addition, we wish

to direct attention to certain small but useful sections

on the semeiology of the hand and the foot, on clinical

anthropometry, on gigantism, infantilism, dwarfism, on thestigmata of degeneration, and on the stigmata of syphilisIn these sections is embodied much interesting informationwhich is difficult of access as a rule owing to its scatterednature. There is a final chapter on pathological technique,in which all the modern methods of investigation are

concisely and accurately set forth.Enough has been said to give the reader a general idea of

the contents of this compendium, which aims at the presenta-tion of modern neurological knowledge in an attractive andreadable form. Considering the variety of the topics and the differing points of view from which they are approachedvery little overlapping has occurred. Detailed criticism ofa work that has taken over five years to complete,and is the product of many minds, is scarcely calledfor in this place, although as the volume is studieda number of points on which amplification or modifica-tion is perhaps desirable have been noted. But, as a

whole, we know of few treatises due to collaboration inwhich so uniformly high a level of scholarship is maintained,or where articles from different individuals are so uniformly

readable and lucidly expressed. The diagrams, many ofwhich are new, and the photographs are well reproduced ; infact, the typography leaves nothing to be desired. Not-

withstanding the size of the book it is light and easy tohandle. There is an adequate index.We are confident that the merits of this splendid volume

will be readily appreciated by all who are concerned, whetheras specialist or as general physician, with the manifold

phenomena of nervous disease.

A Junior Course of Practical Zoology. By the late A. MILNESMARSHALL, M.D., D.Sc., M.A., F.R.S. ; and the lateC. HERBERT HURST, Ph.D. Seventh edition. Revisedby F. W. GAMBLE, D.Sc., Lecturer in Zoology in theUniversity of Birmingham. With 94 figures in the text.London: Smith, Elder, and Co. 1912. Pp. 515. Price10s. 6d.

IT is highly appropriate that Professor Gamble shouldcontinue the succession as editor of this, the seventh, editionof Milnes Marshall’s well-known work, which after Marshall’sdeath was edited by Dr. Herbert Hurst, whose drawingsstill serve to illustrate its pages. The first edition datesfrom 1886.

There is little alteration in the general text, but a newchapter has been added to meet the need of those who

attempt elementary embryology in their junior course-

the chick being chosen, although it is open to the samecriticism that applies to many other accessible and con-venient types of animal life, that it is a highly modified, andnot a primitive, example of its division. Its practicalconvenience, however, is very great. In the introduction thestudent is told that all animals should be carefullyobserved alive," and suddenly, three lines further on, he isintroduced tn tht-. " odontophore of a. snail and f,’hp.

scaphognathite of a crayfish. " As to the killing of

animals, we are told that ’’ three or four minutes’ immer-sion (in chloroform) is sufficient for small animals." It

might be well to state that the vapour also is used.

The whole work is based on certain selected typesof animals from amoeba upwards, so that many micro-

scopical details are included, as well as descriptions of

naked-eye dissections. Few medical students have suffi-

cient time to master such a mass of details as are here

presented. In this connexion we might cite the elaboratedetails of the astacus or the crayfish, or the elaborate detailsof the skull of a dogfish. A whole chapter of 72 pages isdevoted to the dogfish, while two chapters, or over 100 pages,are given to the rabbit. Details of vertebræ are given almostwith as much care and detail as obtains in a text-book onhuman anatomy. Over 60 pages are allotted to the fowl.The added chapter on the development of the chick is shortand practical. The work maintains its elaborate and thoroughdescriptions of the types selected. In these days someteachers of zoology would prefer to be left freer in theirselection of animals to be dissected. We do not find anyobservations on such important disease-producing organismsas trypanosomes, though such parasitic forms have long beenknown in the blood of vertebrates from fish upwards.The work will prove most useful to students who wish to

follow a zoological career, and may be consulted with profitby medical students preparing for the higher examinations inzoology.

LIBRARY TABLE.

My System :Fifteen Minutes’ Work a Day for Health’s

Sake. By J. P. MuLLER Illustrated. Third edition.

London : Ewart, Seymour, and Co. Pp. 92. Price 2s 6d.

net.-The author was formerly lieutenant of Royal Engineersin the Danish Army. He subsequently practised as a private

1066

engineer and was then inspector of the sanatorium for con-sumption in Jutland, but has latterly devoted himself to thestudy, practice, and teaching of personal hygiene and

physical culture. As an all-round amateur athlete, also,it would seem that he is well qualified to instruct the publicon rational athletic exercises. His chief aims are to promote :(1) the function of the skin ; (2) the action of the lungs ; and(3) the digestion ; the principles being the breathing of pureair, with, of course, the open bedroom window ; systematicbreathing exercises ; the regular habit of a cold or lukewarmbath ; and the carrying out of the special exercises designedto bring into play all the muscles of the body harmoniously,and not to exaggerate certain special groups of muscles ’’ foreffect." There are obvious resemblances to the Swedish

system of gymnastics, but there are also very manycharacteristic exercises of Lieutenant Muller’s own systemwhich appear to be rational and not difficult. He onlydemands 15 minutes in the morning and 5½ minutes everyevening, but insists that it is daily exercise for a short

time rather than longer periods once or twice a week

that will produce the best results. A large number ofphotographs make the directions easy to be followed

without any personal instruction. The translation, byG. M. Fox Davies and H. R. Murray, is in goodEnglish.

The Way 1vith the Nerves. By JOSEPH COLLINS, M.D.,Physician to the Neurological Institute of New York. Londonand New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons. Pp. 313.-Thisbook is a compilation of letters, written to a neurologist, onvarious nervous ailments, real and fancied, prominence beinggiven to conditions which are supposed to owe their originto the developments of modern civilisation. To these letters

the replies from the neurologist are appended, his advice

being designed to supply effective treatment for the-

various typical neuroses that have been detailed. The

book belongs to a class which we do not, as a rule,review in THE LANCET-that is to say, it is one which

aims at providing the public with medical advice and

suggestions for treatment, which they might use, to theirprobable detriment, without applying to a practitioner-though we do not suppose for a moment that such conduct iswhat Dr. Collins has intended to facilitate. There are

counsels contained in the replies which might certainly beof value to neurotic subjects or to those in charge of them,but the manner in which the neurologist clears up the

difficulties of his patients is not one which would often beof service in real life in this country. This is because the

letters appealing for advice are not themselves, perhaps,always genuine documents; sometimes the questions appearto have been framed with the intention of providing theneurologist with an opportunity of making certain sugges-tions. If this has occurred it would account for the air of

unreality which pervades the correspondence.The Prescribing of Spectacles. By ARCHIBALD STANLEY

PERCIVAL, M.A., M.B., M.C. Cantab., Senior Surgeon to theNorthumberland and Durham Eye Infirmary. Illustratedwith diagrams. Second edition, revised. Bristol: John

Wright and Sons, Limited. London: Simpkin, Marshall,Hamilton, Kent, and Co., Limited. 1912. Pp. 168. Price5s. 6d. net.-We reviewed the first edition of this excellentlittle work so recently as Nov. 12th, 1910, and but little needbe added to what we then said. The present edition includesseveral new paragraphs and two more tables, one giving thevalues of various metre angles, the other the focal distancesin inches and centimetres of different lenses. The regula-tions for the Services, in the Appendix, have been made ascomplete as possible. In cordially recommending the bookin our previous review, we expressed the hope that it mightbe more widely studied than we feared likely would be the

case. The appearance of a second edition in so short a time

justifies the hope rather than the fear.Baoteria as Friends and Foes of the Dairy -Farmer. By

WILFRID SADLER. With eight illustrations. London :Methuen and Co., Limited. 1912. Pp. 112. Price ls. 6d.-The general public hears a great deal nowadays aboutbacteria as sources of disease, but it is safe to say that but avery small proportion of it is aware of the extent to which weare all dependent on microbic action in the preparationof many industrial products, and still more in the prepara-tion of foods. Even the dairy-farmer, whose business it isto utilise and control microbic action, is for the most partignorant of the nature of the forces that influence the

quality of the milk and the making of butter and

cheese, and of the myriad sources through which diseasegerms may gain access to these foods and render them

poisonous instead of life-giving. This is the information that

Mr. Wilfrid Sadler gives in his little book from the combinedpoint of view of the scientist and practical dairyman. The

book deserves a wide circulation not only among producers,but among consumers also, for it is only when the consumeris sufficiently instructed to demand what he ought to havethat the producers as a whole can be relied on to take all theprecautions necessary to secure it for him.

The British Red Cross S’ociety First-Aid Manual. No. 1.

By JAMES CANTLIE, M.A., M.B. Aberd., F.R C.S. Eng.,V.D. London : Cassell and Co., Limited. 1912. Pp. 219.Price 1s. net.-This is Manual No. 1 of a series of three

prepared by Mr. Cantlie at the request of the Councilof the British Red Cross Society. No. 3 was reviewed inTHE LANCET of Feb. 3rd. The information contained inthe present book forms the basis of all Red Cross work. It

consists of so much anatomical and physiological informa-tion as is an essential pre-requisite for affording efficient

first-aid in emergencies, with directions for applying it in theemergencies themselves. There is an elementary chapter onthe transport of injured persons, a subject which, with othersakin to it, is dealt with more thoroughly in No. 3 Manual.An introductory note gives a descriptive account of thework and objects of the British Red Cross Society. The

technical information given in the body of the work is-

sound, and is couched in such language and expressed soclearly that any intelligent person should find it easilyunderstandable. The book is adequately illustrated with

123 cuts. The ready methods of arresting haemorrhage are-well described and figured. The book can be highlycommended to all seeking instruction on the subject.

MISCELLANEOUS VOLUMES.

IT is a sign of grace when members of the medical pro-fession are moved to dedicate some part of their leisure tothe Muses in this matter-of-fact age. In Psyohe and OtherPoems (London : G. Bell and Sons, Limited. 1912. Pp. 116.Price 2s. 6d. net.) Dr. Augustus H. Cook woos Erato (andoccasionally, as in "The Confession," Melpomene) withsome success, albeit unequal. In ’’ Procrastination" theauthor takes a more didactic vein, and warns us in reallypowerful lines against Britain’s unpreparedness for war.-In Nursery Rhymes, illustrated by F. M. Wiloish (London eGeorge Routledge and Sons, Limited. Pp. 95. Price 3’s. 6d.),it is naturally not the rhymes, but the illustrations, thatare original. We miss some old friends, but the 29that are given will doubtless serve to wile away thetedium of the little ones when convalescent from their

! infantile disorders. The illustrations are somewhat un-

. equal, but many are very attractive.-It is hard for

i the medical man to take the "Science of Palmistry"’! seriously or to realise that intelligent and cultivated persons