A Manual of Weights and Measures. By Oscar Oldberg. Chicago: Charles J. Johnson. Pp. 246. Price, 81.50.
This book is designed for a text-book and a book of reference, and gives information of practical as well as theoretical value on the important subject, with a fullness and method that we have not observed in any other single work. It contains the elements of metrology; the relations between metrological systems and arithmetical notation; a brief review of the development of weights and measures; the demands of practical medicine and pharmacy in the matter of subdivision of the units employed; the metric system; American and English weights and measures; the relations of weight to volume; specific weight; specific volume; the construction, use, and preservation of balances or scales, weights and measures, and of alcoholometers, urinometers, and other hydrometers; and extensive tables of equivalents. Careful attention has been given to the applications of weights and measures to prescribing and dispensing, and to the construction of formulas for liquid preparations.
The Struggle for Religious and Political Liberty. By Theo. C. Spencer. New York: The Truth-Seeker Company. Pp. 140. Price, 75 cents.
The progress of political liberty occupies but a small portion of this book, which is mainly devoted to pointing out the defects, inconsistencies, and cruelties of the religions of the Western world. The claims of the Bible to be an inspired book are disputed, and it is compared to the Koran and the Book of Mormon. A sketch is given of the chief persecutions of Protestants and Catholics, and of the collisions between various Protestant sects. The Church of Rome is declared to be the chief obstacle to religious liberty.
Nervous Diseases and their Diagnosis By H. C. Wood, M. D., L.L. D. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company. Pp. 501. Price, $4.
This work is described by the author as a treatise on the phenomena produced by diseases of the nervous system, with especial reference to the recognition of their causes. Dr. Wood classifies nervous disorders under the following heads: Paralysis, Motor Excitements, Reflexes, Disturbances of Equilibration, Trophic Lesions, Sensory Paralysis, Exaltations of Sensibility, Disturbances of the Special Senses, Disorders of Memory and Consciousness, Disorders of Consciousness, and Disturbances of Intellection. The descriptions are clear, and a copious index is appended to the volume.
Dermatitis Venenata: An Account of the Action of External Irritants upon the Skin. By James C. White, M. D. Boston: Cupples & Hurd. Pp. 216. Price, $2.50.
This book is a manual for the medical practitioner, comprising accounts of the action of those vegetable, animal, and mineral substances which produce inflammation of the skin when externally applied, with directions for treating such inflammation. The plants are arranged alphabetically by families, and comprise a hundred species. The irritant action upon the skin of various vegetable products and chemicals is described, and also of the bites and stings of insects.
The Curability of Insanity and the Individualized Treatment of the Insane. By John S. Butler, M. D. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 59. Price, 60 cents.
The author recommends a preventive treatment in the incipient stages of the disease; lays particular stress upon the advantage of individualization in treatment, or its adaptation to the character and circumstances of individual patients and the manner in which their affection manifests itself; and advocates the separation of curable cases from those which are hopeless.
The Graphical Statics of Mechanism. By Gustav Herrmann. Translated and annotated by A. P. Smith. New York: D. Van Nostrand. Pp. 158, with Plates.
This work is intended to be a guide for the use of machinists, architects, and engineers, and a text-book for technical schools. The graphical method is becoming extensively disseminated in engineering circles, as its advantages over the analytical method are more and more recognized, and its further development is kept constantly in view. Its application has been impeded by the difficulty of taking account of friction
