qui's work in viewing social questions, but no one at all interested in such questions will fail to read one of the most fascinating economic works ever published.
A Practical Treatise on Nervous Exhaustion; its Symptoms, Nature, Sequences, Treatment. By George M. Beard, A.M., M.D. New. York: William Wood & Co. Pp. 198.
Dr. Beard's work deals not only with a very important subject to which he has paid long professional attention, but to a subject of prominent and painful interest in this country. Nervous exhaustion, or, as he names it, Neurasthenia, he declares to be at once the most frequent, the most interesting, and most neglected disease of modern times; while the family of disorders that have been hitherto grouped together under the name of "general debility," "nervous prostration," "nervous debility," "spinal weakness," "spinal irritation," etc., are of comparatively recent development and abound especially in the Northern and Eastern parts of the United States. The author thus states his purpose in the preparation of the book: "To describe with thoroughness if not exhaustively the symptoms of neurasthenia—those hitherto assigned to the other affections or regarded as special and distinct diseases themselves; to show their relation and interdependence; to distinguish them from the oftentimes closely resembling symptoms of organic disease on the one hand, and the symptoms of hysteria and hypochondria on the other hand; to unify and harmonize the complex developments and manifestations of this malady; to indicate its pathology and rationale, and. trace out in detail its prognosis, sequences, treatment, and hygiene—this is the task I have undertaken in the present volume."
Dr. Beard affirms that there has been a very important progress in the treatment of these affections during the last ten years. "In no department of therapeutics has there been even in this most active age so rapid and successful advance as in the management of nervous exhaustion, and the diseases that result from and are related to it; and hence a subject, the interest of which was originally scientific and philosophic, is now of direct practical and personal concern not only to specialists in the diseases of the nervous system, but to practitioners and to sufferers everywhere."
As the work is chiefly practical and designed for the use of the medical profession in treating the disease as it is found, the question of the causes which lead to it is not taken up. This is a very important branch of the subject, which requires to be itself separately and fully dealt with. Dr. Beard accordingly has in preparation and nearly completed a work on American nervousness, intended to be supplementary to the present treatise, which will discuss both the causes and the consequences of the rise and increase of neurasthenia, and the general nerve sensitiveness which is a kindred phenomenon in this artificial and excitable age. The author remarks that a philosophic and thorough analysis of American nervousness must be a contribution to sociology involving many problems of race, climate, institutions, and social customs.
Science Primers: Introductory. By Professor T. H. Huxley. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1880. Pp. 94. Price, 45 cents.
The appearance of this little volume has been waited for with eager interest and much impatience, owing to the popularity of the science series, to which it is a stepping-stone, and to the celebrity of its author. Much was expected, and the general expectations will not be disappointed. In the happy selection of its subjects, in the felicity of its illustrations, in the admirable clearness and simplicity of its style, and in the instructiveness of the lessons it inculcates, Professor Huxley's Primer is quite unrivaled, and it will be read by thousands with equal pleasure and advantage. It aims to convey a general idea of the nature and importance of scientific knowledge, to explain science as a method of thinking, to show its practical uses, and to exemplify its systematic bearings and various aspects by means of the most familiar objects. The first division of twenty pages, under the head of "Nature and Science," treats of Causes and Effects, the Properties and Powers of Bodies, what is meant by the Order of Nature and the Laws of Nature, and how scientific knowledge is obtained. The second division is devoted to "Material Objects,"
