Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 9.djvu/269

Rh

standing of this work may be inferred from the fact that it has gone to the sixth edition, and, having been out of print a year, reappears rewritten, enlarged, and much improved. Dr. Hammond has made the subject of this work a specialty, and his extensive medical practice in the department of nervous diseases can hardly fail to give much practical value to his treatise upon the subject. The work is written for medical students and the profession, but other people can collect a great deal of information from it, curious and valuable, in regard to nervous actions, conditions, and disorders.

In his preface Dr. Hammond says: "One feature I may, however, with justice claim for this work, and that is, that it rests to a great extent on my own observation and experience, and is, therefore, no mere compilation. The reader will readily perceive that I have views of my own on every disease considered, and that I have not hesitated to express them." Obviously, the great obscurity and unsettledness of our knowledge, both of the physiology and pathology of the nervous system, offer a strong temptation to confident minds to form and promulgate positive opinions concerning them, but the same causes should enforce caution upon the student in their acceptance.

eighth number of the second annual volume has just been published, and presents to its readers an excellent and varied table of contents, besides some useful illustrations for the practical painter, artist, etc. The contributions are from some of the best writers of the day upon the various branches of painting. This magazine must be useful not only to the painter, but also to the architect and builder. That a better idea may be had, we give the headings of leading articles, viz.: House-Painting; Interior or Mural Decoration; Pigment and Color; Hints on Drawing; Answers to Correspondents; Railway-Car Painting, etc. Price, $1.50 per annum.

this little volume, Prof. Guthrie, of the Royal School of Mines, London, presents to the general student of magnetism and electricity a very full compendium of that science. In directness of statement and clearness of expression this treatise is deserving of very high praise, and these qualities it doubtless owes to the circumstance that it is based upon the notes of the lectures delivered by the author for many years to mining students and science-teachers. The work is illustrated with over 300 woodcuts.

is the first of a series of three volumes, intended to assist pupils who are preparing for the examinations in building construction held annually under the direction of the Science and Art Department of the British Government. This first part treats of the points laid down as necessary for the examination in the elementary course. The subjects discussed are: Walling and arches; brickwork; masonry; carpentry; floors; partitions; timber roofs; iron roofs; slating; plumbing; cast-iron girders; joinery.

title of this work sufficiently indicates its purport, namely, the solution of chemical problems arising in the administration of justice. As a matter of course, the subject of the detection of poisons receives the most attention; but the author also describes the processes to be adopted for examining sundry alimentary and pharmaceutical substances, for examining written documents, blood-stains, etc. The translator of the work, Dr. J. P. Battershall, appends a list of books and memoirs on the subject of toxicology and the allied branches.

is a reprint from the American Journal of Science and Art. Besides the letter-press, the paper contains six lithographic plates giving views of the skull, dentition, jaw, feet, etc., of Dinocerata.