ART. II.-Glossology, or the additional means of Diagnosis of Disease to be derived from Indications and Appearances of the Tongue. By BENJAMIN RIDGE, M.D.-London, 1844. 8vo, pp. 84. With Plates. DR. BENJAMIN RIDGE asserts in this volume that certain parts of the tongue are so connected, anatomically and physiologically, with the various viscera, and are so influenced by the affections of those viscera, that the diagnosis of individual disease can be learned from its inspection alone. Mapping out the tongue, like a phrenological bust, he asserts that the sides belong to the kidneys, the tip to the large intestines, the edges to the brain, &c.; and dividing its surface into a dozen smaller compartments, he tells us that one of these little squares belongs to the larynx and trachea, another to the bronchi, a third to the minuter bronchial tubes, a fourth to the pharynx and œsophagus, a fifth to the stomach, and so on.

The author of these "novel disclosures" (as he terms them) discourses magniloquently on his truths being buffeted, beaten down, and trampled under foot for the time by his opponents, and consoles himself with the lofty stoicism that "it is satisfactory to think a future generation will sit in judgment between them and me." The "novel disclosures" are proved, not by cases, not by post-mortem examinations, but by bare assertion that such a connexion does exist. For instance :

"The short-piled gray, or slate-coloured velvety tongue, is connected with a state of the system most difficult to manage. It is diagnostic of the firm hold which the close morbid deposit has upon the surface of every mucous membrane throughout the body."

A close morbid deposit firmly adherent to the whole gastro-intestinal mucous membrane, to the lining of the mouth, ears, nares, larynx, trachea, and bronchial membrane, to the conjunctiva, urethra, bladder-and indicated by a slate-coloured tongue! And this is the evidence on which we are called upon to receive these new revelations. It need not be said that such statements afford no satisfaction to any reader acquainted with the common rules for estimating the value of medical evidence. We here meet with assertions such as would not be justified by the largest experience. Morbid phenomena are explained as boldly and undoubtingly as if the internal processes could be actually seen; and then Dr. B. Ridge tells his readers that his observations have been made in a limited circle during the few years he has been in practice. (p. 75.) The mode in which he conducts his observations very clearly indicates that faulty method of mind which renders them valueless:

"It is my practice, in most cases, not to allow a patient to tell me his sick tale, till I have seen his tongue. When my observations and diagnosis are completed, I then say what is my opinion of his malady, requesting him to be candid with me, and state how far it agrees with what he has to complain of; should there be any difference, this leads me to examine the tongue more minutely. Something, probably, that might have been overlooked at first, is made apparent; or should this not be the case, and I see no reason to alter my first diagnosis, I do not hesitate to differ from him; at all events, I am not misled by anything he has to say." (p. 52.)

We have quoted this at length, as it is a glaring and instructive ex

ample of a petitio principii-taking for granted what is to be proved. Dr. Benjamin Ridge so firmly believes that his scheme is true, that he absolutely rejects what contradicts it.

Again "One circumstance," says the author, with exquisite naïveté, "has troubled me in my researches, that I have not been able to find a place on the tongue for diseases of the uterus or the male genitals." Nature, alas, as she is apt to do, contradicts the theorist, and "troubles" him. He is forced to admit that the uterus "does play a prominent part" in the diseases of women, but how is it that there is no little square uterine patch left upon the tongue ? “There must, I am sure, be some reason why this has escaped me, though I believe that organ to be affected very much through the imperfect or morbid action of other organs." He feels half-conscious that this unfortunate uterus spoils the uniformity and completeness of a scheme otherwise totus teres atque rotundus; and he partially comforts himself with the belief that, after all, the uterus is not so very important an organ; that it is not so often the primary seat of disease.

Dr. B. Ridge has evidently industry and zeal; but the predominating faculty of his mind seems to be a scheming fancy, which leads him with fatal facility to frame theories and to discover causes, and which disinclines him to subject these "novel disclosures" to the severe and painful scrutiny of the understanding-which scrutiny, however, supposes a training of the reasoning powers, to which such a mind has never submitted itself.

Taking those things for granted which are to be proved-putting assertions in the place of arguments-allowing the wishes to warp the belief-supposing a greater uniformity and order and completeness in things than ever can be found-are defects of so grave a kind in the mind of an inquirer, that no advancement in the discovery of truth can be hoped for until they are eradicated. The existence of such defects renders nugatory the assertions, statements, inferences, and disclosures of any writer in whom these deficiencies are conspicuous, who brings forward new views. The only use of such books as this is perhaps to the writer of them, who, by publishing to the world his own mental deficiencies, gets a chance of being informed of them in an equally public way; a dear experience in every sense, but not the less beneficial because somewhat unpalatable.

ART. III.-The Distinction between Instinct and Reason. The Introductory Discourse to a Series of Lectures on the Properties and Functions of Animal Life, delivered before the Philosophical and Literary Society at Portsmouth. By J. STRANG, M.D., Vice-president of the Society.-London 1843. 8vo, pp. 44.

A VERY sensible and well-argued popular disquisition upon a knotty question, taking a medium view between the extreme opinions which have been upheld upon the subject, that corresponds closely with the one which we advocated in our Eleventh Volume.

ART. IV. — Observations on the Proximate Cause of Insanity. By JAMES SHEPPARD, M.R.C.S., being an attempt to prove that insanity is dependent on a Morbid Condition of the Blood. London, 1844.

12mo.

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ONE of our most irksome duties as reviewers is to read such a book as Mr. Sheppard's; which, under other circumstances, we should throw aside as useless after the perusal of a very few pages. Mr. Sheppard tells us that whilst reflecting on a drunken man he was impressed with the idea that insanity was at times connected with morbid conditions of the blood, a very probable supposition; but on further reflection he came to the conclusion that there is presumptive evidence "that insanity is universally and essentially dependent on morbid conditions of the blood." This he attempts to prove" by the faulty and exploded process of first framing a crude and hasty generalization from a few facts or opinions, and then finding or bending facts and arguments to prove it. He has brought forward no new facts, nor is there any internal evidence that the writer is at all practically acquainted with insanity. He has collected a few well-known truths showing that delirium and mania may coexist with excess in the quantity of the blood, and is relieved by depletion, and that puerperal mania is often the result of a deficiency in the quantity of the blood; but on the most important point, the alteration of its quality in insanity, we have none of that evidence which alone would be at all conclusive. By chemical analysis of the blood of the insane some new and useful information might have been collected, and in a book with this title such information was to be expected; but instead of cautious inferences drawn from pains-taking chemical research, in connexion with a personal acquaintance with the disease, we find that the author has been seeking fame by a much easier process, by collecting from a few well-known books the opinions of those authors most favorable to his own view, drawing from their opinions the loosest conclusions, and when these fail, putting "I doubt not . . I firmly believe .. I apprehend . . I can easily imagine" as the grounds on which we are also not to doubt, but to imagine easily, or believe firmly.

To show that we are not unfairly severe, we will quote three conclusions to which the author arrived:

"I have, I hope, made it appear in the preceding pages

"1st. That insanity does not depend on disease of the brain.

"2d. That insanity cannot result from unappreciable lesion of structure. "3d. That no conclusive evidence can be adduced in support of the position, that insanity can result from morbid conditions of the nervous system." (p. 33-4.) And how have these conclusions been arrived at on these three important questions? By the numerical method? By a collection of original cases carefully analysed? By personal acquaintance with the disease during life, and by examinations after death? Or even by a deep acquaintance with the mere literature of the malady? By no means. But by a few well-known cases from a work of Dr. Abercromby's, and a few quotations of the opinions of a few writers on insanity, with the cld experiment of Mr. Morgan's on the action of poisons, all made the basis of loose, inconclusive reasoning. Need we say that by this method truth can never be arrived at, or the bounds of medical science enlarged? The condition of the blood in so obscure a disease as insanity is well worth

investigating, and it should be subjected to chemical analysis by those who have the competent skill, the results compared with the analysis of blood in other diseases, and the connexion between its condition and the symptoms traced by those who are practically acquainted with the complaint. By some such process as this the question as to the relation between the blood and insanity may be settled, not by hastily assuming the fact that there is such a relation, and then proving it by words. It is true that the former method requires great opportunity of investigating the disease, chemical knowledge and skill, a cool judgment, and that rare quality the power of original observation: and that the latter is very easy, only needing a few books, pen, ink, paper, a lively fancy, no humility, and a very considerable opinion of one's own powers: but the one may benefit mankind by throwing light on one of the darkest defects of humanity; the other merely indulges an individual's egotism, vanity, and self-conceit.

ART. V.-Lectures on the Theory and Practice of Midwifery. By R. LEE, M.D. F.R.S. With numerous Wood-engravings. - London, 1844. 8vo, pp. 560.

DR. LEE'S recent work on Clinical Midwifery, showed him to have had unusually great opportunities of acquiring a practical knowledge of the obstetric art. The usefulness of that work, however, was somewhat diminished by the absence of those explicit directions, with reference to difficult points of practice, which are so essential for the guidance of the inexperienced. That want, however, is now fully supplied by the publication of these lectures, which form a most important addition to our obstetric literature. The first fourteen lectures are occupied with anatomical and physiological details, in which Dr. Lee has the great advantage of having been himself a diligent and successful investigator of those subjects which he describes. The next six lectures treat of the symptoms of pregnancy, and the disorders attending it; and the succeeding twentysix are occupied with the description of natural and preternatural labours, and the treatment appropriate to each. In these lectures especially, Dr. Lee's lucid descriptions, his explicit directions, and the high tone of feeling which he everywhere shows, and earnestly inculcates, deserve the highest praise. The last seven lectures, from the thirty-eighth to the forty-fourth, are occupied with a notice of some of the chief diseases of the puerperal state-including puerperal fever, and phlegmasia dolens, with reference to which time seems to have confirmed the opinions expressed by the author in his Essays on some of the most important Diseases of Women.

The woodcuts which illustrate the work are well chosen and well executed, and the elaborate statistical tables which it contains are extremely valuable. It will, we doubt not, extend Dr. Lee's already high reputation, and be found extremely useful by practitioners generally as well as by students. They can have no safer or more enlightened guide. In the next edition, the index, which is now very imperfect, should be made much more complete; as facility of reference is a point of great importance in all works intended as manuals for students and men in practice.

528 DR. BENNETT on Inflammation of the Nervous Centres. April, ART. VI.-The Vital Statistics of Sheffield. By G. CALVERT HOLLAND, Esq. M.D., Physician extraordinary to the Sheffield General Infirmary, &c.-London, 1843. 8vo, pp. 262.

THIS book is named from the contents of its eighth chapter; it is in reality a statistical history of Sheffield. The first chapter commences, like most works on local topography, with a general description of the town and neighbourhood, and notices the four rivers thereto appertaining, the geology, the men of genius, the noblemen in the neighbourhood, the water company, the botany of the district, the ornithology, the quadrupeds, the fishes in the rivers. The second chapter is headed "rate of increase in the population," but discusses, in fact, its social condition and economical progress. The third chapter is headed "comparison between the present and past periods of manufacturing distress." The fourth chapter is an inquiry into the causes of unoccupied houses; and the fifth, a comparison of the cottage accommodation in Sheffield with that in other manufacturing towns. Dr. Holland discusses also the sewerage and drainage, the streets and roads of the town, and the expenses of the highways. The eighth chapter, headed "physical condition of the population," contains the vital statistics proper of the town. In subsequent chapters, we have the statistics of the savings bank, of crime, of the wellknown manufacture of Sheffield, the silver and silver-plated manufactures, and the saw, edge-tool, spring-knife, file, and fork trades. Next come the statistics of friendly societies and secret orders, of education and religious instruction, of the mechanics' institute, the literary and philosophical society, and the school of design, of the medical charitable institutions, the licensed victuallers and beerhouse keepers, and the towntrust.

Our readers will see that Dr. Holland's subject is comprehensive enough to comprehend a great deal more than "the vital statistics of Sheffield;" but, in addition to the preceding, we have politico-economical discussions, and opinions are stated and views advocated respecting which there is certainly a considerable difference of opinion. Those who take an interest in statistical researches will readily appreciate Dr. Holland's great industry and zeal, and will find the work to be a valuable addition to their statistical library; it will doubtless also become a standard book of reference for his fellow-townsmen, as it certainly merits to be. There is no want of churches or chapels at Sheffield, there being sitting-room for nearly five elevenths of the population, while not one family in twenty is in the practice of attending either at one or the other.

ART. VII.-Pathological and Histological Researches on Inflammation of the Nervous Centres. By JOHN HUGHES BENNETT, M.D. &c. &c. -Edinburgh, 1843. 8vo, pp. 84.

ALTHOUGH this pamphlet comes before the profession as a distinct publication, it is neither a second edition nor a reprint of the series of articles published by the author in the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, but the articles themselves in a collected form, and printed from the types already set up, with the addition of a title-page. We think it necessary to state so much, for the benefit of those of our readers who have access to the volumes of our contemporary.

These articles consist of a series of cases of cerebral and spinal disease,