enduring monument to their professional attainments and the ardor of scientific pursuit that pervaded them and caused them, when starved in military honors and pecuniary emoluments by a grateful and considerate Government, to coin their own rewards in scientific glory.

This catalogue is the key to all the treasures collected during the war, and it is a fitting key; that not alone sustains by its pompous, dignified, liberal extérieur the dignity of the institution, but that will never fail to unlock the secrets sought when properly applied. For we regard the plan of the catalogue as a masterpiece of classification: it is simple, but sufficient; it is logical, and yet by no means forced; it is regular, and in the different parts of the system pretty uniformly carried out; - so that in spite of its forbidding appearance this bulky index can be handled with the greatest ease. Thus, e. g., it was a matter of no difficulty to us whatever to find out, concerning a certain specimen described by STROMEYER, whether the Museum contained any similar specimen or not. We do not know exactly whom of the gentlemen connected with the curatorship of the institution to consider as the architect of the catalogue, and are quite willing to give the credit to all three of them.-The small octavo catalogue published in 1863 was not arranged after any such plan, it was a mere enumeration.

The Surgical Section is divided into 30 general divisions, the first 20 based upon regional anatomy chiefly, the last 10 made up of miscellaneous headings, as: Tumors, Casts, Photographs and Drawings, Weapons and Projectiles, Materia Chirurgica, and finally Lower Animals.

of the Surgical Section.

This list constitutes the table of contents The next page gives a schedule of the classification of the first division, "Injuries and Diseases of the Cranium," primarily into four sections:

A. Gunshot Injuries of the Cranial Bones,

[with a list of Specimens illustrating Contre-coup after Gunshot.]

B. Injuries of the Cranial Bones not caused by Gunshot. C. Injuries of the Soft Parts of the Cranium.

D. Diseases of the Cranium.

Each of these again have their sub-divisions. Thus the Gunshot Injuries comprise :

A. Contusions and partial
Fractures.

B. Penetrating Fractures.

c. Perforations of the Cranium.

a. Primarily fatal.

b. Operated upon by trephining.
c. Secondarily fatal without an
operation.

d. Sequestra removed.
e. Other cases.

a. Primarily fatal.

b. Operated upon by the removal of fragments.

c. Operated upon by trephining. d. Secondarily fatal without an operation.

e. Other cases.

a. Primarily fatal
b. Operated upon.

c. Secondary results without an
operation.

The next page introduces to us the specimens themselves, which are supplied with a double set of numbers, one current number, and another belonging to the ultimate sub-division of the catalogue. A brief description, a short history, and the name of the contributor, are the items here communicated, with frequently a woodcut representation of the specimen.

The catalogue of the Surgical Section concludes with a list of contributors (among whom we notice some St. Louis friends, Prof. HODGEN, and Assistant Surgeon E. J. MARSH, U. S. A., formerly residing among us, and others)-and an index of specimens according to running number of specimen and page of catalogue. According to this, there are no less than 4,719 specimens displayed in this section.

The "medical" specimens are far less in number, as is natural, numbering 877; a note informs us that they are chiefly wet preparations, preserved in alcohol, suspended from a glass hook on the stopper; the intestinal preparations-of which several most beautiful illustrations by photo-lithography are added to the text―are stretched upon frames of glass rods. They are classified in eight chapters according to anatomical systems, most of them subdivided according to organs, etc.

The Microscopical Section of the Museum contains a collection of 360 opaque injections by Prof. HYRTL of Vienna; the large majority of the specimens, however, have been prepared in the Museum. The catalogue enumerates 2,120 mounted preparations

for the microscope, and 149 photographic negatives of microscopic objects, taken at the Museum by Asst. Surgeon CURTIS. A note on pp. 131-134, with the aid of a plate and several wood-cuts, explains the method by which these photographs are obtained.

Finally, let us again express our high opinion of the worth of this catalogue, which is not alone valuable as a good index and finder of the specimens in the Museum, but has its uses also in the hands of those who have no access to the latter. The catalogue, by itself, has a scientific value, like an extensive case-book.

The mechanical execution of the large book, the splendid typography, the liberal allowance of paper, the artistic illustrationsare all decidedly pleasing, but also decidedly Uncle Sam-ish, not with an eye to economy. G. B.

THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE AND SURGERY APPLIED TO THE DISEASES AND ACCIDENTS INCIDENT TO WOMEN. By Wм. H. BYFORD, A.M., M.D., Professor of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children in Chicago Medical College, etc Second edition, enlarged. Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston. 1867. 8vo., pp. 616. Price, $5 00.

This is the second edition of this really meritorious book. It is a decided improvement on the first, both in regard to new matter and diction.

Many of the diseases here discussed are but imperfectly understood by the profession, because their magnitude and gravity are not fully comprehended. Medical men are therefore indebted to Prof. BYFORD for the clear, concise, and skillful manner in which he has arranged and elaborated his very valuable work.

Although we are unable at present to enter into a full discussion of its merits and demerits, yet we have no hesitancy in recommending its careful perusal to every student who may desire to obtain a thorough knowledge of this highly important branch of his profession. F. G. P.

etc.

STUDIES IN PATHOLOGY AND THERAPEUTICS. By S. H. DICKSON, M.D., LL.D., Professor in Jefferson Medical College, Philad., New York: W Wood & Co. 1867. 12mo., pp. 201. Price, $1 50. This book consists of six essays, of which five were delivered by the professor to his class, and subsequently published in medical

periodicals. The essay on pneumonia is new, and appears here for the first time.

In this article, which we have read with much labor, Dr. DICKSON does not give us original investigations, but collects the observations of others, and endeavors to draw valuable results from combining and reasoning upon them, thus choosing a legiti mate field for labor, which under some hands has yielded rich harvests. But our author seems to have been more diligent in collecting his data than in elaborating his conclusions or striving to express them clearly.

Perhaps the most prominent point in the essay is an attempt to prove that pneumonia is much more fatal than the teachings of medical writers would lead us to suppose: "Its victims abound everywhere, and everywhere it is habitually spoken of as among our most curable and least dangerous diseases." In support of the latter part of this quotation, he cites AITKEN, FLINT, J. H. BENNETT, and Prof. CALDWELL, the editor of Cullen's Practice. The first three of these gentlemen limit their statements on this point to uncomplicated pneumonia, and Dr. DICKSON seems to forget that he has already said (p. 113), " AITKEN affirms that one-eighth of the deaths in continental Europe are attributable to it."

The author then cites statistics from many varied sources to prove the large ratio of deaths in cases of pneumonia, and the large ratio of fatal cases of pneumonia in the bills of mortality.

Those who have worked with medical statistics will appreciate the difficulty of drawing legitimate scientific conclusions from the figures of observers of varying competency. With accurate observers, of scientific training, the multiplication of observations from different points of view tends to eliminate error, but when we increase our statistics from simply official sources, whether civil or military, it seems to us that we are about as likely to accumulate error as to eliminate it.

Commencing page 135, a long list is given of authorities reporting 80,437 cases of pneumonia, of which 16,915 were fatal. Added in with the 80,437 cases are four anonymous entries, amounting to a little over 4,000 cases. How these 4,000 cases were obtained, it is impossible to say; they certainly are presented in a very loose way. 59,976 cases, with 12,829 deaths occurred in the armies, Northern and Southern, in the United States,

showing a mortality of somewhat more than 1 in 5. The large number of these cases would alone make us suspect that they were not all cases of simple pneumonia. So good an observer as Sir THOMAS WATSON says, page 574 of his lectures, 3d Am. Ed.: "I have been surprised to find how few cases of pure idiopathic inflammation of the lungs present themselves among my hospital patients. Five or six in the year are as many as I see there. Intercurrent pneumonia, however, pneumonia engrafted upon some pre-existing disease, is abundantly frequent.”

Now we scarcely think that Dr. DICKSON will maintain that pneumonia has not been held to be a dangerous complication.

It seems to us to go far towards proving that pneumonia has generally been considered a dangerous disease, that its treatment has been discussed with so much interest, and that such heroic measures for its cure by blood letting and tartrate of antimony have been tolerated and widely adopted.

Bearing upon this point the following passage is not without interest from the recent work of Dr. H. W. FULLER, of London, sustaining the later views and results of Professor J. H. BENNETt.

"In my own practice the mortality has not ranged so high as the statistics just quoted (from Valleix, Grisolle, and others) would have led one to anticipate; for although patients are admitted into the hospital of all ages, and in all stages of the complaint, I have lost only 4 out of 78 cases, and of these 4, one died the day after admission, and the other three were in an advanced stage of the disease before the treatment was commenced. Whether this favorable result is attributable to my supporting the patient and avoiding depressing treatment, it is difficult at present to decide; but inasmuch as the statistics from which the more unfavorable results are deduced relate to cases in which copious venesection and other actively depressing treatment were employed, it seems not improbable that such may be the case."

The rest of the essay is mainly taken up with a consideration of the different views of the pathology and treatment of the disease, but the result of all is inconclusive. The author has not overthrown the latest views of pneumonia, neither has he enforced any old truth or established any new one, while the difficulties of his style and his confused treatment of his subject weary and repel the reader.