Coal, its History and Uses. By Professors Green, Miall, Thorpe, Rucker, and Marshall, of the Yorkshire College. Edited by Professor Thorpe. New York: Macmillan & Co. Pp. 362. Price, $4.
This is a thoroughly popular book, but at the same time a fresh and instructive one. It originated in a course of lectures that were prepared for delivery in different places, by several professional gentlemen, each taking the topic with which he was most familiar. The volume has therefore something about it of authority and completeness, which give it merit. The subjects treated are "The Geology of Coal," "Coal Plants," "Animals of the Coal Measures," "The Chemistry of Coal," "Coal as a Source of Warmth," "Coal as a Source of Power," and "The Coal Question" (that is, the English question of the supply of coal), and the rates of its production and consumption. The volume is moderately illustrated, and is got up in good style.
Elements of Comparative Anatomy. By Carl Gegenbaur, Professor of Anatomy and Director of the Anatomical Institute at Heidelberg. New York: Macmillan & Co. Pp. 645. Price, $7.
We congratulate the publishers, Macmillan & Co., for their enterprise in bringing this sterling and standard Continental work to the service of English and American students. It has been demanded for a good while, and various publishers in London and New York have at divers times talked of cooperating with each other to reproduce it, but were all at last afraid of the venture. Mr. Macmillan has undertaken it alone, and we have no doubt that he will find "money in it." At all events, it is now the book upon the subject of comparative anatomy, for the relations of animal structures, that must be consulted by all students. Biological science has recently changed its course, by which the older treatises have become antiquated, and to meet the new requirements there must be new text-books. Lyell, when an old man, revolutionized his geology to bring it into harmony with advancing knowledge, and Gegenbaur has done the same thing with his great work on zoölogy. Dr. Lancaster, the editor, thus refers to this peculiarity of Gegenbauer's treatise: "We do not possess any modern work on comparative anatomy, properly so called; that is to say, a work in which the comparative method is put prominently forward as the guiding principle in the treatment of the results of anatomical investigation. The present work, therefore, appears to me to form a most important supplement to our existing treatises on the structure and classification of animals. It has, over and above this, a distinctive and weighty recommendation in that, throughout and without reserve, the doctrine of evolution appears as the living, moving investment of the dry bones of anatomical fact. Not only is the student thus taught to retain and accumulate his facts in relation to definite problems which are actually exercising the ingenuity of investigators, but he is encouraged and to a certain extent trained in the healthy use of his speculative faculties; in fact, the one great method by which new knowledge is attained, whether of little things or of big things—the method of observation (or experiment), directed by speculation—becomes the conscious and distinctive characteristic of his mental activity. Thus we may claim for the study of comparative anatomy, as set forth in the present work, the power of developing what is called ‘common sense’ into the more precisely fixed 'scientific habit' of mind."
Lectures on Materia Medica. By Carroll Dunham, M. D. 2 vols. New York: Francis Hart & Co., 63 Murray Street. Pp. 828.
This is an elaborate text-book on the action of medical remedies, according to the theory of Hahnemann, and it is a treatise that will undoubtedly have weight with the professional school which it represents. Its author was Professor of Materia Medica in the New York Homoœpathic Medical College, and author of "Homœopathy the Science of Therapeutics," and he is evidently recognized as a safe authority in this important branch of homœopathic medicine. The volumes are made up from his notes, observations, and memoranda, based upon close study and the experience of a wide practice. Dr. Dunham seems to have been an accomplished physician, loving his work and apt for it, and much liked by all who knew him. Of the merits of the medical system to which he adhered, our readers no doubt have their own opinions this way and that, with which
