I8, I896. not mentionied, onily those of the Conijoinlt Board. This is prOl)ably aln inladvertent omission, but it may be well to draw attention to the fact in order that studenits niay not be under the misapprehlenlsionI that tlle Colnjoinit Board is the only examining body in London for a licence to practise. THE HOUJSING OF THE WORKING CLASSES. By EDWARD Bow-,MAKER, MI.D. London: Messrs. Metlhueil and Co. 1895. (12nl0, pp. i86, illustrated. 2S. 6d.) TIIE autlhor lhas set himself the task of

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... ollecting " into somethinig approachlinig a popular form information that might not othierwise be readily available." In this lie lhas succeeded. His book is lhandy, carefully arraniged, accurate, and up to date. He shows how the various laws liave come into being, and wlhat is now tlhe law. He shows furtlher hlow the law lhas been put into practice, and lie las giveni as illustrations the plans adopted by various companies or builders. We regret he did not include among these plans those of the Guinness trust, whose archlitect has slhown much ingenuity and originality in meeting the needs of -tlie poor, as, for instanice, in the supply of hot water to the various tenements. l)r. BOWMAKER makes his readers conlscious of the difficult problem involved in providing healthy homes for a rent of 9d. a week, whichl is all the workman at i8s. or 20S. a week ought to pay if his rent is to be in proportion to what, in othter classes, is deemed necessary expenditure. He suggests the national loss of homes wlich send their inmates to lho^pitals and keep workmen from work for twenty days in the .year through exhaustion; but according to presen-t conditions tlle unskilled labourer canniot both have a hlealtlhy htome and provide for food, clothing, sickniess, pleasure, and old age. In the face of this fact Dr. Bowmaker, after showing wlhat is possible under the Act of I890, and discussing the best plans for block d(wellings, and touchlinlg oni the rivalry between cottages anid blocks, attempts to deal with the problem of how to make imiiproved dwellinigs available for the mass of the people. His suggestionis for the regulationi of common lodgings -seem to us not to go far enloughl. It may be possible to have " licenised deputies," but lie can lhave little knowledge of tlle people wlho frequeiit lodging lhouses if lie tlhinks a register of (ccupation and pr'evious addresses could be obtainied. It would be interestinig to know what Dr. Bowmaker would say to a proposal that all common lodginigs slhould be in houses of a certain value, anld in nmaini tlhorouglhfares. His suggestioni, too, that chlaritable trusts should let at chteap renits to the poorer people would benefit certain eml)loyers, whose workpeople would nio loniger have reasoni to press for a rise of wages. Againl, it would be initeresting to kn-ow wlhat the author thlinlks of a proposal to enable cominunities to buy lanid on its outskirts at agricultural value, on which houses could be built and connlected by trams with the ventre of the towniship. But if Dr. Bowmaker lhas not supplied a solution to tlle problems he suggests, lie has provided ilnformationi invaluable to those who are conicerned to improve the dwellings of the poor. The book is a very armoury of weapons, accessible and ready for use, whichl may be used by members of local boards or officials against the houses which destroy the people. The same weapons may also be used aaainst members, or officials, or nieiglhbours who are slotlhful in business. The book ought to be in the lhanids of all who believe tllemselves to be their brothers' keepers. PATHOLOGIE UNI) THERAPIE DER PERITYPHLITIS. Appendicitis Simplex unid Appendicitis Perforativa. Bearbeitet von Dr. EDUARI) SONNENBURG, A. 0. Professor der Chiirurgie an (ler Universitlit, Director der Chlirurg. Abtlheilunig des Stiidt Krankenhliauses Moabit in Berlin. Zweite selir erweiteste Auflage. Leipzig: Verlag von F. C. Vogel. 1895. (Pp. 240, 34 illustrations. I. 5.) THIS is the seconid and a muclh enilarged edition of a work thalt was first publislhed in I894. The autlhor, as it is well knowvni to surgeons, lhas for some years past devoted much attenitioni to the subject of appendicitis, anid sinee I889 lias conitributed a valuable series of papers anid lectules to the exteinsive literature relatin-g to this affection. His chief services in this branch of surgery consist in the distinction he has established between the catarrlhal and the perforative forims of appendicitis, and the indications he has established for expeetant treatmen-t on the one hand and for surgical intervention on the otlher. At the end of this volume lhe gives full and instructive records of 130 out of 150 cases of appendicitis that lhave been under hiis care in the course of the last six years. This is one of the best treatises on this importaint subject, and we hope that, like the work of Talamon, it will before long be presented in an English edition. This common and very serious affection is lhere discussed at full length and very clearly witlh regard both to its pathology anid to its clinical features, and a chapter is added giving full instructions on its operative treatmenit. The indications for surgical treatment are carefully considered, and a distinetion drawn between cases in which expectant treatment might do good, and cases in which any measure short of a surgical operation would be hopeless and unjustifiable. Readers of German works will be agreeably surprised to find here, in addition to a list of contents, a complete index. NOTES ON BOOKS. Lehrb?ivch der physiologischen Chemzie. Zweiter Teil. [Textbook of Plhysiological Clemistry. Part II.] By Professor RICHARl) NEUMEISTER. (Jena: Gustav Fischler. I895. Roy. 8vo, pp. 433. M1.8.50.)-The first part of tllis work was issued about two years ago; it treated of the subject "Nutrition," and we had occasion at the time to notice it very favourably. The second and concludiing volume of the textbook is now before us; it treats of the animal tissues and fluids. We congratulate Professor Neumeister on the successful completion of this very admirable work. It aims at giving a very complete exposition of this important branchl of phlysiology, and will be especially valuable as a work of reference to those engaged in chlemico-physiological research. The referen-ces to original papers w!lhich abound on every page will be found most useful by them. La Matiiere Vivante [Living Matter]. Par F. LE DANTEC, Maitre de Conferences a la Facult(-des Sciences de Lyon; avee unie Preface de M. A. GIARD, Professeur a la Sorbonne (Encycl. Sci. des Aide-Memoire). (IParis: G. Masson and Gauthier-Villars. I895. Small 8vo, pp. I92. 2f. 50c.)-This is an exceedingly ingenious and, as Professor Giard says in his preface, a most suggestive essay oln the physics of life in the lowest living forms. Unlike most of the volumes of this series it is not a summary of knowledge in a limited field, but a critical discussion of a fundamental question of physiology. It deserves the earnest attention of all physiologists, for M. Le Dantec is master of the literature of his subject, and applies plhysical laws withl the utmllost boldness and with much acumen to the explanation of the phenomena of digestioni, movement, and assimilation in the lowest organisms. It is impossible in a short notice to attempt to outline the argument of the essay, but its general scope may be gatlhered from its concluding sentence, whlichl runs as follows: " Speaking in general terms, it seems to be established that all the properties of a living being are inhlerent in the chemical conposition of the protoplasm of its egg; that all the plhenomena looked upon as mysterious-for example, adaptation, evolution, etc., are reducible to clemical plhenomena.' DIARIES . MESSRS. DUNCAN CANMPIBELL ANI) CO., of Glasgow, send us a few specimens of their niew diaries for I896, includiing their large Scribbling Diary, I22 in. by 71 in., is. 6d. to 3s. 6d., according to binding; the Commnercial Diary, 6 in. by 4 in., is. to gs. 6d., with six days to an openinig, the Sundays beinig arraniged altogetlher at the commencement; the Tablet Diary, is., for suspensioni, the sheets of wlichl are arraniged oln ain ingeniious turn-over system; the Victoria, 6d. to 6s.; the Royal, gd. to 7s. 6d., anid the Midiature Diaries, 6d. to 2S. 6d. Some of these contain muclh useful information regarding postal aild parliamenitary matters, etc., in addition to that whiiCh1 is ordiinarily given.