ART. IV.-Elementary Instruction in Chemical Analysis. By Dr. C. REMIGIUS FRESENIUS, Chemical Assistant in the Laboratory of the University of Giessen. Translated by J. LLOYD BULLOCK, Member of the Chemical Society, &c.-London, 1843. 8vo, pp. 284.

Ir must be well known to our readers that the Giessen Laboratory is now the resort of students in chemical science, from all countries; on account both of the high reputation of the illustrious philosopher by whom it is superintended, and of the admirable arrangements of the school itself. And as its pupils are for the most part men who are not content with a smattering of knowledge but who enter upon their course of study in good earnest, with the view of qualifying themselves for the successful prosecution of the science in after life; it is obvious that no ordinary opportunities of ascertaining the best plan of instruction, must be enjoyed by those who have the direction of the practical course. Dr. Fresenius well remarks," Many ways may lead to the desired end; but one of them will invariably prove the shortest." Along that which his experience has proved to be the shortest cut, although very far from being a royal road, Dr. Fresenius endeavours to lead the student, by means of this treatise, which has already gone through two editions in Germany, and which has received the following imprimatur from Professor Liebig:

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'Dr. Fresenius conducts the course of elementary instruction, in mineral analysis, in the laboratory of the university of Giessen. During the two last sessions he has followed the method described in his work, entitled Elementary Instruction in Qualitative Chemical Analysis' This method I can confidently recommend from my own personal experience, to all who are desirous of obtaining instruction in inorganic analysis, for its simplicity, usefulness, and the facility with which it may be apprehended. I consider Dr. Fresenius' work extremely useful as an introduction to Professor H. Rose's excellent Manual, and for adoption in institutions where practical chemistry is taught, but it is especially adapted to the use of pharmaceutical chemists. Further, a number of experiments and discoveries have been recently made in our laboratory, which have enabled Dr. Fresenius to give many new and simplified methods of separating substances, which will render his work equally welcome to those who are already familiar with the larger works on inorganic analysis." (Preface.)

A treatise of this kind is obviously not adapted for notice in detail; but we shall give an extract from the editor's preface, which will indicate the leading features of the work, and especially the points on which it chiefly differs, as regards its plan, from that of Mr. Parnell, to which we directed the attention of our readers not long since.

"The author was led to compose this volume upon perceiving that the larger works on chemical analysis, such as H. Rose's, Duffos', and others, although admirable in themselves, present great difficulties to beginners, which difficulties may be summed up under three heads; 1st, Too great copiouness and detail; 2d, the absence of explanations of the causes of phenomena, i. e. the theory of the operations and reactions; and, 3d, the omission altogether of many substances of very frequent occurrence, especially in the operations of the pharmaceutist, such as the organic acids, &c. In avoiding these objections to former works on chemical analysis, Dr. Fresenius, I think, is not chargeable with having fallen into the opposite extreme of being too concise or elementary.

"The student may perhaps at first be disappointed in taking up this work to find that there are no tables constructed to furnish him at a glance with all he is desirous to know of tests and reactions, and to save him, as he may think,

trouble and time. But this has not arisen from oversight; the question of the advantage or disadvantage of tables to the students has been fully considered; and the author has decided, and the decision is borne out by the highest authorities, that such tables serve no really good purpose; they rather, on the contrary, supply but very superficial information, and satisfy the student before they have really informed him. The information contained in this work, like every other professing to teach a practical science, requires application and perseverance to attain; but if begun at the beginning, if the student will carefully go over the necessary preliminary facts, the examination of his tests, and the reaction of the simple bodies consecutively, and make himself master of this very simple and elementary part of the course, he will find no difficulties when entering upon the more elaborate, and-what might appear without this preparation-complex and intricate processes of the second part, the analysis of compound bodies. It is altogether another question whether the student should or should not exercise himself and his memory, by tabulating the results of his experiments as he proceeds; and to this question we reply in the affirmative; but it must be left to individuals to act in this according to their own judgments, and their own feeling of its necessity." (Preface, pp. 6, 7.)

Mr. Bullock appears to us to have executed his task as translator and editor, in a very creditable manner; so that the work altogether wears quite an English garb. We would, however, ask him why he has omitted the word "qualitative" from the original designation of the treatise? The title, as it now stands, is very liable to mislead others, as it has ourselves; since the book will undoubtedly be ordered by many, who expect that a treatise emanating from the school of Giessen, shall include organic as well as inorganic analysis. With the exception of the organic acids, the substances examined in this volume belong altogether to the mineral kingdom.

ART. V.-On Man's Power over himself to prevent or control Insanity. By the Rev. JOHN BARLOW, M.A. F.R.S. &c., Secretary of the Royal Institution of Great Britain.-London, 1843. 18mo, pp. 68.

THIS little essay, like the former one from the same pen which we noticed with approbation a few months since, contains the substance of a communication made to the members of the Royal Institution at one of their Friday evening meetings. It possesses the same claims to the attention of the general reader, in the truthfulness, simplicity, and at the same time the comprehensiveness of its views; although the intelligent medical reader may probably not find anything in it, with which he is not already familiar. Mr. Barlow's object is to prove that, in a large proportion of cases, insanity may be traced to the faulty indulgence of some propensity or feeling, which the due exercise of self-control would have restrained; and he justly appeals, in support of this position, to the valuable effects resulting from the application of this principle to the treatment of insanity-the best restraint under which lunatics can be kept being that of their own self-control, if motives can be found of sufficient strength to cause them to exert it.

The views entertained, and the principles elucidated in this little work, have indeed a wide and important range. They call the attention to that greatest of all sciences which teaches us to govern and to strengthen the highest of our faculties for the most valuable ends, and to make the intellect the great auxiliary of virtue. It is gratifying to find an accomplished clergyman addressing a highly-cultivated audience on these topics;

worthy of those addressed, however distinguished in philosophy,-and worthy of a divine, who should know how to address himself to minds of the highest as well as of the humblest attainments. From the pages of Mr. Barlow's essay powerful arguments may be gathered for the promotion of education, and of all other means of preventing criminal excesses, and warding off impulses that by repetition become morbid and incontrollable; and in these days of rapid movement, vast speculation, and growing avarice and ambition, there are many readers in many classes of society to whom a medical practitioner may recommend such reading as remedial against restless cares which "not poppy, nor mandragora, nor all the drowsy syrups in the world" can cure.

ART. VI.-Remarks on Schools of Instruction for Military and Naval Surgeons, in a Letter to Sir Robert Peel. By SIR GEORGE BALLINGHALL, M.D., Regius Professor of Military Surgery in the University of Edinburgh. 8vo, pp. 16.

THE praiseworthy object of this Letter is to point out the importance of having a professorship of military surgery in London and Dublin as well as in Edinburgh. Sir George's motives in making this proposal are singularly disinterested, and he argues his case zealously and well. We cannot help entertaining doubts, however, whether the institution of the chairs in question is necessary. The arguments derived from their existence and utility in the continental states, appear to us less valid than to Sir George. The extremely low state of the full-pay and halfpay of the medical officers in the continental armies, prevents fullyeducated men from entering them, and interferes with the prosecution of study in the intervals of active service. The opposite state of things exists in this country. We willingly admit, however, that the military chair at Edinburgh has been very useful, especially since filled by Sir George; and it would give us pleasure to see his wishes fulfilled, and men of equal talents with himself appointed to instruct their junior brethren when on half-pay, in the other capital cities of the kingdom.

ART. VII.-The Electro-physiology of Man. With practical illustrations of new and efficient modes of Galvanic Treatment in a variety of cases. By JOHN DODDRIDGE HUMPHREYS, Esq.-London, 1843. 12mo, pp. 228.

A MERE puff, designed to inform the public, that John Doddridge Humphreys, Esquire, practices medical galvanism in a new and superior style; curing patient after patient whose maladies have resisted all ordinary modes of treatment, and applying the most efficient remedies to almost all the diseases that flesh is heir to. As a scientific production it is totally valueless. The author's whole theory of the operation of electricity on the animal body is founded upon Dr. Wilson Philip's wellknown experiments; the public faith in which, as identifying nervous agency with electricity, does not seem to be in the least shaken by the disproof with which this doctrine has been met by other experimentalists. We are far from discouraging the judicious application of electricity as a remedial means: since we regard it as a very important therapeutic agent, the true value of which has not yet been fairly tested. But as

suredly our confidence in it will not be increased by any of the reports of John Doddridge Humphreys, Esquire, or of any other professed electrician; since we all know how much those who restrict themselves to any one particular plan of treatment, become prejudiced, even when their intentions are of the best possible character, in favour of its use. But we hope that our other great hospitals will follow the example of Guy's, and will add an electrical apparatus to their armamentarium therapeuticum, placing it under the most competent director who can be secured, and giving to the public an unbiassed report of the results of its application.

The true nature of Mr. Humphreys's book is shown by the fact, that he only indicates in the vaguest possible terms, in what his "new and efficient modes of galvanic treatment" consist; so that no one has the power of repeating his experiments, and of giving a more trustworthy account of their value.

ART. VIII-A Pathological and Philosophical Essay on Hereditary Diseases. With an Appendix on Intermarriage, and on the Inheritance of the Tendency to Moral Depravities and Crimes. By J. H. STEINAU, M.D., of the Royal Medical College, Berlin.-London, 1843. 8vo, pp. 52. This brochure may be regarded as a second edition of an essay which was published some years since in Germany; where, the author informs us, it met with a very favorable reception. It contains a good summary of the recorded opinions and experience of a large number of celebrated physicians, and some interesting observations made by Dr. Steinau himself; but we do not find anything very original in his mode of viewing the subject. As a lucid compendium of the present state of our knowledge, however, it may be read with advantage. We do not venture to anticipate that any improvements in physiological knowledge will ever teach us how the influence of the male parent is exerted upon the germ, so as to impress on it the tendency to repeat, in its own body when fully developed, and in the germ of a succeeding generation, certain peculiar disordered actions; any more than we expect to be able to find out why a particular feature or other peculiarity of his own is repeated in his offspring or, to take a more general case, state why the first embryonic cell, which seems to be alike in all animals, should develop itself into the form of the genus Homo, rather than into any other. mysteries which we cannot solve in our present state of existence; and we can only account for them by regarding them as instances of a general law. The influence of the female parent, upon whom depend the nutrition and support of the germ from its earliest introduction into the ovum, up to the time when it can maintain itself, is more easily accounted for; and knowing what a remarkable effect the state of the mind has upon the processes of nutrition and secretion in the parent, we can scarcely wonder at any result which manifests itself in the offspring. We think that the subject of hereditary disease would be best considered as a branch of the more general inquiry into hereditary propagation of corporeal forms and mental characters in general; and we would suggest to Dr. Steinau the prosecution of his inquiries (a continuance of which he leads us to expect, if time and opportunity be afforded to him,) on this more extended basis, the importance of which, from various intimations in his present essay, we are sure that he fully appreciates.

These are

ART. IX.-Manual of British Botany, containing the Flowering Plants and Ferns, arranged according to the Natural Orders. By CHARLES C. BABINGTON, M.A. F.L.S. F.G.S. &c.-London, 1843. 12mo, pp. 400. We cannot better set before our readers the peculiar characters of this admirable little volume, than by quoting from the preface the author's own account of the motives for its production:

"From the attention which has long been paid to the elucidation of the Flora of Britain, and the numerous excellent botanists who have, since the time of the justly celebrated Ray, (not to go further back,) employed their talents upon an endeavour to determine the indigenous products of these kingdoms; the author, in common, it is believed, with most English botanists, did not suppose that much remained to be done in British botany; for he could not expect that, after the labours of such men as Smith, Hooker, Lindley, and others, and the publication of so invaluable and unrivalled a collection of figures as is contained in the English botany, there could still be many questions concerning the nomenclature, or any considerable number of unascertained species, the determination of which would fall to his lot. He had not however advanced far in the critical examination of our native plants, before he found that a careful comparison of indigenous specimens with the works of eminent continental authors, and with plants obtained from other parts of Europe, must necessarily be made; for it appeared, that in very many cases, the nomenclature employed in England was different from that used in other countries, that often plants considered as varieties were held to be distinct species abroad, that several of our species were only looked upon as varieties by them, and also that the mode of grouping into genera was frequently essentially different." (Preface, p. 5.)

Mr. Babington then traces these discrepancies to their true sourcethe exclusive system, which, arising in some degree from our insular position, has been cherished, during the early part of the present century, by the separation induced by the continual state of warfare between Britain and the continent; and which has prolonged the attachment to the Linnæan system, and the valuable, but frequently erroneous works founded upon it, to the almost total neglect of the works of continental authors, who, it must be remembered, have under their observation a very large proportion of the plants found in this country, and who have frequently great advantages over British botanists in studying the influence of circumstances in producing variations. In the preparation of the present work, the author states, with his characteristic modesty,

that

"He has carefully examined nearly all the best European floras, comparing our plants with the descriptions contained in them, and in very many cases with foreign specimens of undoubted authenticity. In the adoption of genera and species, an endeavour has been made, by the examination of the plants themselves, to determine what are to be considered as truly distinct; thus, it is hoped, taking nature as a guide, and not depending upon the authority of any name, however distinguished. Still, let it not be supposed that any claim is made to peculiar accuracy, nor that the author considers himself qualified to dictate to any student of botany; for he is well aware that there are many points, upon which persons who have carefully studied the subject, may form different conclusions from those to which he has been led." (Preface, p. vii.)

To the faithful execution of this purpose, Mr. Babington's well-known character as a scientific botanist, is a sufficient guarantee; and in regard to the typographical beauty and accuracy of the work, it is enough to say, that it is published by Mr. Van Voorst, and is worthy of his reputation.