ART. V.-Hygrometrical Tables, to be used with, and Description of the Dry- and Wet-Bulb Thermometers. By JAMES GLAISHER, Esq., of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich.-London, 1847. 8vo, pp. 45. THOSE who are interested in medical topography are well aware how scanty our knowledge is of the humidity of the air. The quantity of rain which falls, and the number of rainy days, are nearly all the data we have at present of the humidity of most climates; and yet the influence of this condition on the human body is confessedly great, and any exact information promises much benefit. On this account we call attention to this pamphlet, which describes a more simple method of ascertaining the principal facts connected with the moisture of the atmosphere than has yet been adopted. The hygrometers made of catgut, wood, hair, whalebone, &c. are easily deranged, and cannot be relied on. Daniel's hygrometer requires the purest kind of ether, and much experience to use it effectively. The instrument now proposed is merely a common thermometer, the bulb of which is covered with muslin and kept wet with cold water by a simple contrivance. A second thermometer, with a dry bulb is necessary, as the humidity of the air is ascertained by comparing the temperature of the one with the other. If the air is saturated with moisture, no evaporation takes place, and there is no difference between the two thermometers ; but if the air is dry evaporation takes place, cold is produced, the wetbulb thermometer sinks, and its fall is in proportion to the dryness of the air. Having ascertained the two temperatures, that of the dry, and that of the wet-bulb, the observer has only to consult the tables calculated by Mr. Glaisher, and he at once ascertains various particulars regarding the humidity of the air.

For instance:-If the temperature be alike in both, then the air is saturated with moisture; but if the dry-bulb is 70° and the wet-bulb 55°, then the table shows that the degree of humidity is 0.470, that of complete saturation being represented by unity. Another column shows that under these circumstances the weight of the vapour in a cubic foot of air is 3.76 grains, and as it takes 8 grains of water to saturate a cubic foot of air, there will be required 4.24 grains of water more, to complete saturation. Another column gives the dew-point, and a fourth the height of a column of mercury, which the vapour will support.

The application of this instrument to the sick room is obvious. If the air is very dry, the difference between the two instruments will be great; if moister, there will be less difference, and when the air is saturated with moisture there will be no difference at all. If the difference between the two is very great, it may be necessary to make a moister atmosphere by exposing water in shallow vessels; or if a more rapid effect is required, by using heated water until the air is sufficiently moist, and then by replacing it with cold. If the air is too moist, or a dry air is needed, all water should be removed or covered, and some substance, like sulphuric acid which rapidly absorbs water, should be placed in the room until the requisite dryness is obtained.

Mr. Glaisher alludes to the value of information which may be obtained by this instrument, as to the humidity of the air in various places and times, in connexion with the mortality, and in addition to the Reports on Mortality of the Registrar-General. On this account, as well as for its use

in the sick-room, we give this slight notice, referring those who are likely to take the necessary pains in registering the particulars of the climate in which they reside, to Mr. Glaisher's pamphlet, which, besides the tables, contains very full directions for the employment of the thermometer, both in a wet and dry state. The papers on Medical Topography, in the Transactions of the Provincial Medical Association, indicate that there are many careful observers scattered over the kingdom, who would rejoice in any practical hints as to the best mode of conducting their inquiries. We would suggest, that such careful daily records might be best kept by many of those who are retired from the more active duties of their profession (either nolentes or volentes), many of whom might find in such constantly and regularly recurring observations requiring accuracy and time, a stated employment, whilst the reductions of these, so as to obtain some useful results, would satisfy and keep in practice the higher powers of their minds.

ART. VI.-Education and Educational Institutions considered, with reference to the Industrial Professions and the present aspect of Society. By the Rev. J. BOOTH, LL.D., F.R.S., M.R.I.A., &c., formerly Principal of Bristol College, and Vice-Principal of the Liverpool Collegiate Institution.-London, 1846. 8vo, pp. 108.

WE Commend this essay to the special consideration of all who are interested in the subject of which it treats,-and who among our readers is not?-the education of the middle classes. It might be almost regarded as an expansion of our own article on the Preliminary Education of the Medical Student (Vol. IX); and did we not happen to know that Dr. Booth was unacquainted with that article, until after the publication of his treatise, we might have got up a very plausible charge of plagiarism against him. We need scarcely add, therefore, that Dr. Booth's views, expressed in a clear logical style, with much felicity of illustration, have our hearty concurrence upon almost every point; and they are, of course, the more valuable, as coming from a gentleman of greater practical acquaintance with educational matters than falls to the lot of most men. Did our space permit, we should have been glad to present our readers with a few extracts, which point out, in a very striking manner, the insufficiency of the system of education generally pursued in our public schools to meet the wants of the present age, and the importance of substituting the study of the exact sciences for a portion of the very imperfect though prolonged course of instruction now given in classics. Upon these points, however, we cannot now dwell; nor shall we grapple with the question of the degree in which the Government of this country ought to support and regulate such institutions as those with which Dr. Booth has been connected. We must remark, however, that we cannot but regret to find Dr. Booth still so far trammelled by class prejudices, as to give what we must regard an unfair representation of the leading doctrine of the 'Vestiges of Creation' (p. 69, note). His acquaintance with philosophical history, however, has enabled him to prove the curious fact-that the general idea was very clearly stated by Seneca; an "anticipation" which was not a little remarkable in the then state of science.

ART. VII.-Observations on the Connexion between Famine and Fever in By HENRY KENNEDY, A.B., M.B., &c.—1847.

Ireland and elsewhere.

Pamphlet, 8vo, pp. 50.

THESE observations are a reply to Dr. Corrigan's pamphlet, on Famine and Fever as Cause and Effect in Ireland. Dr. Corrigan's facts are analysed and shown to have a different meaning than that which he has drawn from them, while his doctrine, that famine is the prevalent cause of fever in Ireland, is shown to be untenable. It is evident that Dr. Kennedy has the best of the argument, partly because he takes a wider view of the causes of epidemical diseases, partly because he has apparently a more philosophical turn of mind than his antagonist, and partly because Dr. Corrigan's position was one of the most untenable he could take up.

Dr. Kennedy maintains that the use of bad or deficient food injures the health by weakening the vital powers, and if the quantity be too small to maintain these diminished vital powers, then death results. This unhealthy condition predisposes to the attacks of diseases, and of fever amongst the rest, and if an epidemic be prevalent will increase its fatality, and prevalence, like any other debilitating cause. The destruction of vegetable life causing the famine, is dependent on the same cause as the epidemic itself; that, in fact, there is an "epidemic constitution" which involves all organisms within its influence, so that not only are these epidemical diseases amongst men, but domestic and other animals suffer with them. All this is, we think, very reasonable and in accordance with the views of the best writers on the subject.

It is manifest that a proper understanding of the meaning of terms used, is of first importance in a discussion of this kind. We are sure Dr. Corrigan would grant the utmost importance in the etiology of the Irish epidemic to the habits of the Irish people. In what other country in the civilized world do we read of corpses being left unburied in the filthy hovels in which the inhabitants have died? of the dead being devoured by dogs, simply because their graves are indolently made so shallow as to be within a few inches only of the surface? of the awful crowding in the hovels and workhouses? of the piling up of coffins outside a union workhouse, containing two, three, or four corpses each; remaining there for a fortnight unburied, and sweltering in putrefaction and decay? There is not a single practitioner in England and Scotland, who, with such facts before him, would say that a want of food was the cause of fever in a country like Ireland, and among a people like the Irish. Dr. Corrigan will be justified in stating that famine causes the over-crowding of the hovels, hospitals, and workhouses, but surely there are more direct causes of fever continually existing in Ireland than an empty stomach.

The inundation of the starving population of Ireland has convinced the inhabitants of Great Britain that the masses have no regard to personal cleanliness, or the decencies of civilized life. So long as the Irish continue in that condition, every successive epidemic must necessarily be destructive, and the well-meaning philanthropic efforts of men like Dr. Corrigan remain unregarded.

ART. VIII.-An Account of the late Epidemic of Scarlatina in Newcastle and its Neighbourhood. By EDWARD CHARLTON, M.D. Edin., &c.— 1847. Pamphlet, 8vo, pp. 62.

DR. CHARLTON has laudably assumed the office of historian for Newcastle, in so far as relates to the epidemic of scarlatina, which prevailed more extensively in that town during the summer and autumn of 1846, than at any period since 1778, when Dr. John Clark recorded its progress and characteristics. The well-written tract before us professes to contain little of novelty, and adds rather to our experience than our science. Its principal defect is the absence of numerical data, and of a more minute comparison of the relations which the origin and progress of the epidemic bore to the meteorological phenomena. General statements are becoming less and less admissible in medical writings. There are, however, some interesting facts detailed, and it is probable that Dr. Charlton has made the best use he could of the materials at his disposal. In turning to the head of "Cause," we do not find a word as to the influence of famine; other more efficient febrific agents are, however, noticed.

"The fever was not confined to the ancient and low-lying streets along the water-side on either bank of the Tyne, it spread through the streets and courts higher above the level of that river, especially to those recently built houses inhabited by numerous families, about Arthur's Hill, to the densely-crowded courts and narrow lanes at the foot of Westgate street, while in Gateshead its ravages were greatest in the wretched purlieus of Leonard's court, and the cottages about Busy Burn." (pp. 24-5.)

Arthur's Hill, and Leonard's Court, so distinguished for scarlatina, are in an Irish condition. Impassable quagmires, unpaved streets, "four or five beds in one small apartment, lighted by a single window which is rarely opened;" such is a picture corresponding very graphically to the localities of fever in Ireland. It is clear that while we think of the poor man's stomach, we must not forget his lungs.

ART. IX.-Hülfstabellen zur Erkennung zoochemischer Substanzen. Von Dr. FREIHERRN E. VON BIBRA.-Erlangen, 1846.

Tabular Aids to the Recognition of Zoochemical Substances. By Dr. F. E. VON BIBRA.-Erlangen, 1846.

DR. V. BIBRA has presented us, under this title, with four enormous sheets containing the reactions of all the important proximate constituents occurring in the animal body.

These tables give the chemical tests, physical characters, ultimate analyses, &c., of the following groups:

1. Protein-compounds; albumen, fibrin, casein, globulin, tritoxide of protein, binoxide of protein, and protein itself.

2. Blood-pigments; hæmatin, hæmaphæin, and hæmacyanin.

3. Extractive matters; those of flesh, blood, milk, and urine; osmazome, creatin.

4. Gelatin; glutin and chondrin.

5. Horny matter; keratin and chitin.

6. Urine; urea, uric acid, hippuric acid, uric oxide, cystin, kyestein, and allantoin.

7. Urine-pigments; uroerythrin, cyanurin, melanurin, uroxanthin, uroglaucin, and urohodin.

8. Bile; bilate of soda.

9. Bile-pigment; biliverdin, biliphæin, and bilifulvin.

10. Ptyalin, pyin, and pepsin.

11. Fats; stearin, margarin, olein, serolin, cholesterin, butyrin, castorin, cetin, aethal, hircin, and phocenin.

12. Brain-fats; cerebrot, cephalot, cerebrol, and stearoconot. 13. Sugar; diabetic sugar and milk-sugar.

14. Organic acids; acetic acid, lactic acid, oxalic acid, lithofellinic acid, and bezoaric acid.

15. Gases; oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, carbonic acid, carburetted hydrogen, sulphuretted hydrogen, and phosphoretted hydrogen.

16. Sulphur and Phosphorus.

17. Inorganic acids; hydrochloric acid, sulphuric acid, nitric acid, hydrofluoric acid, carbonic acid, phosphoric acid, silicic acid, and hydrosulphocyanic acid.

18. Bases; soda, potash, ammonia, lime, magnesia, alumina, iron, manganese, arsenic, and copper.

We extract his remarks on albumen as affording a fair illustration of his mode of treating his subject:

"Albumen (fluid). In all substances conveying fresh material for the nutrition of the organism, in blood, lymph, chyle, eggs, &c., also in morbid products. It coagulates in a tolerably concentrated solution in flocculi at 75° [169° F.], while in a dilute solution it gives rise to opalescence. Nitric acid, corrosive sublimate, and nitrate of the protoxide of mercury cause precipitates in extremely dilute solutions. Acetic acid does not precipitate it, but a precipitation occurs on the addition of ferrocyanide of potassium to a solution faintly acidulated by acetic acid. Alkalies prevent its coagulation by heat. Fluid albumen may be dried without assuming the coagulated state either in vacuo, or at a temperature not much exceeding 30° [86° F.] It is again soluble in water. Coagulated albumen: soluble in acetic acid, and again precipitable by exact neutralization with an alkali. It is thrown down from its acetic-acid solution on the addition of ferrocyanide of potassium. Coagulated albumen becomes blue if kept for some time in contact with concentrated hydrochloric acid."

Three ultimate analyses of albumen from different sources are appended. Suspended against a laboratory wall, these tables will undoubtedly be found useful by students of animal chemistry in the early part of their studies. Tables three feet long and two feet broad cannot be conveniently consulted in any other manner.

ART. X.-Body and Soul; or Life, Mind, and Matter, considered as to their peculiar nature, and combined condition in living things; with a view to render the Physiology of Life and Mind more easily understood by the general reader. By GEORGE REDFORD, M.R.C.S. &c.-London, 1847, 8vo, pp. 232.

THE title of this work did not excite in us any very favorable prepossession as to its character; since it appeared to indicate one of those attempts to obtain the attention of the public by a sort of clap-trap advertisement, which are so frequently made by half-educated pretenders; or one of those ambitious essays at philosophical composition, which serve to indi