charge of the maladies treated of in the work, and has made them the subject of clinical demonstration or post-mortem investigation. In preparing the present edition, he has sought to make it still more worthy the approbation of his readers as the most certain method by increasing its practical resources. While not overlooking the advances made in scientific medicine, he has devoted most attention to the clinical aspects of the subject; but with the effort to preserve due harmony and proportion. Some new subjects have been introduced, and preliminary chapters have been appended to the chief divisions of the work, to make the study of the diseases of the class more exact, and to enhance the practical character of the whole; and the author hopes that little properly pertaining to the domain of practice has been overlooked, and nothing superfluous has been added.
Studies in Ancient History, comprising a Reprint of "Primitive Marriage." By the late John Ferguson McLennan. A new edition. London and New York: Macmillan & Co. Pp. 387. Price, $4.
The "Primitive Marriage," or "Inquiry into the Origin of the Form of Capture in Marriage Ceremonies," although confessedly only a tentative investigation, or, as the author phrased it, "an exercise in scientific history," made its mark at once when it first appeared, and has held a foremost place among works of original research for twenty years. Although republished twice within that period, it has been given both times unaltered: the first time because the author had been prevented from superseding it by the more comprehensive work he had intended, while, in the presence of the earnest demand for it, with or without revision, it was considered "better that it should be made accessible to students with its imperfections, than that it should remain inaccessible to them"; and the second time, in the present edition, as a posthumous work, for which the same demand was still current. It is, however, followed up with a second volume containing other writings of the author, "from which it will be possible to gather, in a considerable measure at least, how far the author's views had grown or been developed, how far they had changed or been added to, subsequently to the appearance of "Primitive Marriage." A few notes are given, which are confined to certain matters on which the author had announced a change of view, and to some other matters, such as Mr. Lewis H. Morgan's speculations, where circumstances had made an additional statement imperative. In an appendix to "Primitive Marriage" is given a pretty full collection of examples of the form of capture, upon the basis of a collection which the author published in 1866. The examples thus brought together suffice, at least, to show an extraordinary diffusion for this custom.
Entertainments in Chemistry: Easy Lessons and Directions for safe Experiments. By Harry W. Tyler. Chicago: The Interstate Publishing Company. 16mo. Pp. 79. Price, 60 cents.
This is another volume in the "Educational Series" published by the Interstate Publishing Company, and referred to elsewhere in these columns. The author gives a number of experiments that can be readily performed with very simple apparatus and a few cheap chemicals. His choice of subjects covers a wide range: thus, for instance, in one chapter he relates the history of a candle, in another he tells about the chemistry of yeast, in a third he treats of combustion and explosion, and in a fourth of soap. The book is well and entertainingly written, and the experiments for the main part well chosen. It seems to us, however, that in a book of this kind the experiments with hydrogen might have been better omitted, because it is questionable whether, even in the hands of a more experienced worker, such experiments can be regarded as "safe" ones.
N. W. Ayer and Son's American Newspaper Annual, 1886. Pp.1010. Price, $3.
This publication, now well known, contains full information about the newspapers published in the United States and Canada, the places where they are published, the business enterprises of those places, and their political proclivities, arranged and classified by States and counties in such a way as to be of the most benefit to advertisers, all of which is revised from year to year. The information on which the annual revision is based is collected in
