of the disease as suspended over the district, but as not finding in it a soil sufficiently congenial for their development. The importation of an actual case of cholera, however, supplied a more productive stock of the poison; which was concentrated in that one spot, be it observed, most favorable for its development,-namely, a dirty court. The persons most severely attacked were those who were in closest contact with the original sufferer; but most of the inhabitants of the court were in some degree affected. The removal of those principally endangered to a more open atmosphere, and their seclusion from other intercourse, seemed to have killed the growing malaria; and the epidemic influence never again became strong enough to regenerate the disease by itself. We trust that this island may enjoy a similar immunity, if the scourge should again devastate our country.

A general review of the whole case, then, leads us to this conclusion; that where the epidemic influence is strongly developed, infection is not likely to have any perceptible influence in propagating it; that the general march of the disease cannot be dependent upon human communication, and that quarantine regulations and similar restrictions upon intercourse are therefore utterly incapable of checking its progress; and that, if human communication be in any case the immediate agency in its transmission, it can only be so when a strong predisposition has been occasioned by epidemic influence, the developement of that epidemic influence being chiefly dependent upon those health-destroying conditions, which it is the object of the sanitary reformer to remove. And thus, to use the emphatic language of Mr. Farr, in the last quarterly Report of the RegistrarGeneral-quoted by Dr. Milroy as the motto to his pamphlet," Internal sanitary arrangements, and not quarantine or sanitary lines, are the safeguards of nations" against epidemic diseases. "As surely," says Dr. Milroy, "has cholera always sought out and settled down upon the abodes of misery and filth in every city of Europe that has been visited by it, as the vulture-crows in the East ever congregate where the most offal and garbage are to be found."

We are very glad to perceive, from the First Report of the Metropolitan Sanitary Commission,' which has just been published, that the views thus advocated by Dr. Milroy, and in which we have expressed our hearty concurrence, have been adopted by them, and made the basis of their recommendations. We may not, perhaps, theoretically adopt the noninfection doctrine in the extreme form in which it is propounded in this Report; but we are fully satisfied that practically infection has little or nothing to do in the propagation of the disease (except in such curious cases as that just quoted, where it seems to decide the balance between the "to be or not to be"), and that efficient sanitary measures, therefore, constitute all that can be done with any utility in the way of prevention. Dr. Milroy concludes his pamphlet with some judicious observations on the treatment; but as on this point we think that Dr. Parkes's remarks are more worthy of consideration, we shall only say that he attaches much value in the early stage to saline emetics; and that he lays much stress on the admirable precept of Hippocrates, not to do our patients any harm, if we cannot do them any good. It is evident that, in common with Dr. Parkes, he attributes many of the unfavorable sequela of cholera to the treatment employed, rather than to the disease itself.

PART SECOND.

Bibliographical Notices.

ART. I.-1. A Guide to the Examination of the Urine in Health and Disease, for the Use of Students. By ALFRED MARKWICK, Surgeon to the Western German Dispensary, &c.-London, 1847. 8vo., pp. 155. 2. A Table of Urinary Deposits, with their Tests, for Clinical Examination. By RAY CHARLes Golding, m.d.

MR. MARKWICK has attempted to supply a want which has been long recognised amongst students and junior practitioners. We regret that, after a careful perusal of his work, we must express our decided conviction, that he has failed in his proposed object. His book bears internal evidence that he is practically unacquainted with his subject, and that in many instances he has not even repeated the process which he describes. As the subject is one that is now attracting much attention, and as this circumstance may very possibly obtain for Mr. Markwick's volume a very considerable number of readers, we deem it advisable to notice a few of what we regard as the defects in its execution.

In a work intended for students, one or two of the simplest and most approved processes should be given, and all either involving difficulty of manipulation, or deemed questionable as regards their accuracy, should be omitted. It is better to have a thorough knowledge of one process, than a faint glimmering perception of a dozen. Let us see what are Mr. Markwick's claims on this point. We will take the test for bile and sugar. Six processes are given for the detection of bile. The fourth (why was the essential principle put there?) is for bilin or choleic acid; the first three and last two are for the bile-pigment. The third and fourth of these might have been well omitted.

For sugar we have eleven tests; and then a notice of the formulæ for calculating the amount of sugar by means of Biot's polarising apparatus, although we have been previously informed (see page 20) that "the obstacles and difficulties attending this method, are such as will in all probability prevent its coming into general use; and moreover, Dr. Leeson has proved that it is by no means to be depended on.'

These are, in our opinion, mere errors of judgment. In page 38, we have a worse error-an error in chemistry. In speaking of the origin of urea, we are told that "Dumas states it [urea] to be manifestly derived from the oxidation of the azotised materials of the blood,' which, he says, have a tendency to pass into organic acid and oxide of ammonia.'" !! This is the first time we ever heard of such a compound.

We have been struck with several errors of carelessness, two of which we feel it our duty to notice, as, if allowed to pass uncorrected, they might give rise to serious confusion in the minds of Mr. Markwick's readers.

In reference to the tables that have been compiled with the view of calculating the amount of solid matter in a given quantity of urine from its specific gravity, we are told that they "are all based on the now wellknown fact that the proportion of the solid contents of one thousand parts of urine is equal to the excess of its density over that of water multiplied by a given number." We doubted the accuracy of this statement as we read it, and were gratified to find that Mr. Markwick soon began to join us in these doubts; and in page 75, actually proceeded to show that "tables thus constructed can never do more than give an approximation to truth." Alas, for the well-known fact!

In page 53 there is a similar instance of carelessness. In his remarks on the conversion of benzoic into hippuric acid within the animal organism, we are told that Liebig accounts for the transformation by supposing two atoms of benzoic acid to act on the elements of one atom of lactate of urea, and produce two atoms of the acid in question. The student, happy in the conviction that he has now obtained a clue to the clear understanding. of a most interesting metamorphosis, and rejoicing in the idea that animal chemistry is indeed illuminating the most hidden regions of physiology, stands aghast at learning in the very next line that "the presence of lactic acid and its compounds in the urine has been disproved by Liebig.' Disproved by that very chemist who, in the preceding sentence, assumed its presence as a matter of course! That Liebig did give the above expla nation, is very true; and it is equally true that he does not believe in the presence of lactic acid in the urine; but Mr. Markwick is surely not justified in giving to students such a strange and contradictory medley of Liebig's past and present views, as he appears to have done in this instance. As we are on the subject of lactic acid, we may notice that in page 28, Pelouze and certain other chemists are made to doubt the existence of lactate of urea in urine. Pelouze has done more; he has disproved the existence of such a salt. Again we are told (p. 55) that Liebig has discovered a particular crystallizable substance which he believes to have been mistaken for lactic acid and its compounds, but we are not told that it is the "peculiar azotised principle" which is described in page 55, and we strongly suspect that Mr. Markwick is himself not aware of their identity; neither are we informed that it has been proved by Liebig (Researches on the Chemistry of Food, p. 62) that it consists of creatine and creatinine.

We deeply regret that the duty imposed upon us, as conscientious reviewers, has compelled us to notice these defects in Mr. Markwick's book; and we regret it the more, because we believe it was published with a worthy object; to be, as it professes, a guide to students. We trust that the author will accept our assurance that we could not have acted otherwise than we have done; and that if his volume reach a second edition he will correct the faults we have noticed.

We cannot leave him without another warning; and that is, to get some literary friend to revise the sheets of any future edition. Emunctaries, p. 4; analagous, pp. 10, 56, 102, &c.; crystalization, p. 26; izomeric, p. 38; elimentating, p. 38; hydrocianic, p. 42; fomation, p. 43; anæmia, p. 46; resinuous, p. 58; oscilate, p. 61; scarletina, table opposite p. 64; alcholic, twice in p. 79; mal- assimmilation, p. 111; accidulated, p. 108; hæmorrhoidal, 110; spermatozoa, p. 115; kiestein, p. 124; ebulition, p. 132; tentaculæ, p. 138, &c., strike the eye of the critical reader some

what unpleasantly, and are errors which might have been avoided by a very little care. We may add, that phospha-tes, p. 23, must not be made a word of three syllables to suit the convenience of any compositor, and that urox-anthin and micros-cope might be more orthographically divided.

A plate, illustrating the forms of the various crystals, globules, &c., would add very considerably to the value of the work; in fact, it is indispensable for the clear understanding of even the best description of microscopic objects.

Dr. Ray Golding's Chart is extremely accurate in its chemical details, and will be found very useful to those who do not use the microscope. But, in these days, who does not ?

ART. II.-Principles of Physics and Meteorology. By J. Mueller, Professor of Physics at the University of Freiburg. Illustrated with 530 Engravings on Wood, and Two coloured Plates.-London, 1847. 8vo, pp. 574.

THIS very handsome volume forms one of a series of similarly-illustrated standard scientific works, which it is the intention of the spirited publisher (M. Baillière) to issue at regular intervals; and of which Dr. Prichard's Natural History of Man,' and Mr. Waterhouse's 'Natural History of Mammalia' (the latter at present in course of publication) formed a worthy commencement. The present volume commences that portion of the series devoted to the physical sciences; it has been already followed by a volume on the Mechanical Principles of Machinery and Engineering,' translated from the German of Professor Wiesbach; and we are promised at an early period a new edition of Professor Graham's 'Chemistry,' and a 'Practical Treatise on the Use of the Microscope,' by Mr. John Quekett, than whom, we may say with certainty, no more competent writer on the subject could have been found.

We believe that we may safely assert that no treatise on Physics has ever made its appearance in this country more splendidly "got up," so far especially as regards its illustrations, which are engraved and printed in the very first style of art, and bestowed with a liberality that almost amounts to profusion. And the general plan of the work is extremely well calculated to afford a comprehensive knowledge of the principles and most important facts of the various departments of physical science, to those who do not desire to enter deeply into any one branch, or who wish to obtain such knowledge as a preliminary step to a more exclusive study of some particular division. But we must take exception to some of the details, the execution of which is by no means such as to give to the work the value which its general aspect promises. In the first place, the weights and measures are nowhere brought to English standards; and the comparative table supplied, to enable the reader to make his own calculations, is so incomplete as to be almost unserviceable. Secondly, the translator, in attempting to give a literal rendering of the original, has in a great number of instances really perverted the author's meaning, by employing words and phrases which are not in our language the real equivalents of the German terms; thus completely proving his ignorance of the technicalities of many of the subjects on which his pen has been employed,

and justifying the principle that a translator should be as well acquainted with these as the original writer. Thirdly, the work is in many parts decidedly behind the present state of knowledge; and we particularly notice the omission of philosophical advances and practical improvements which have been made in this country. Thus not a word is said of Faraday's recent most important discovery of the Universality of the Magnetic Influence, and of its Relations to Light; nor do we find any notice of Smee's Voltaic Battery, which, for the greater number of purposes, has superseded every other in this country. There is not a word on the mutual relations of the Imponderables; Professor Matteucci's researches on Animal Electricity are not anywhere referred to; and the whole subject of the Physics of Living Beings is most summarily and imperfectly discussed. Of the somewhat gaudy frontispiece, no explanation whatever is given in the text, save that it represents different ring-systems of polarised light; what these severally are, we are not told; and the plate, with its various references, is therefore altogether useless except as an attraction to the intending pur chaser.

We cannot but think that the spirited publisher would have done much better, if he had caused an original treatise on the subject to have been prepared by some competent English writer (and of such there is no lack); or if, at any rate, he had secured the services of a translator qualified to present a good English version of the original, to supply its deficiencies, and thus render it, what it might easily be made, a standard text-book for the student of the physical sciences.

ART. III.-An Essay on the Use and Abuse of Restraint in the Management of the Insane, including some remarks on the Origin and Nature of their Diseases. With copious Notes. By HAMILTON LABATT, A.B., T.C.D., Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland; Demonstrator of Anatomy at that College, &c.-Dublin, 1847. 8vo, pp. 76.

We learn from the preface to this essay, that it was written in competition for a prize offered by Sir Edward Sugden, whilst Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and that the author considers that he has reason to complain of certain proceedings relative to the adjudication of the prize by the Council of the Irish College of Surgeons. Into the merits of this question we are not disposed to enter; and, with regard to those of the essay itself, it will be enough to state that it is a very respectable performance, not distinguished by any remarkable qualities, but showing a very fair acquaintance with the subject, and a proper discrimination with regard to the true value of the non-restraint system. The accounts which he gives of the success which has attended the adoption of that system, in a large proportion of the public lunatic asylums of Ireland, are very encouraging, and bear out the statement of Dr. Conolly that, on the whole, the Irish asylums are better managed than those of England. There are, however, some terrible exceptions, which repeat the worst features of the management of our County Asylums some thirty or forty years since; and we trust that these will not long be permitted to disgrace the management under which they

occur.