Bibliographical Notices Epileptic and other Convulsive Affections of the Nervous System, their Pathology and Treatment . By Charles Bland Radclyffe, M.D., Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians; Physician to, and Lecturer on Materia Medica and Therapeutics at the Westminster Hospital, &c. Third Edition, incorporating the Gullstonian Lectures for 1860. London: John Churchill. 1861. 12mo. pp.312

1862 Boston Medical and Surgical Journal  
The object of this treatise is to show, that muscular contraction, so far from being called into action by an exercise of the nervous power, is in reality the result of the temporary withdrawal or interruption of that power ; that the muscular system is not excited or stimulated into action, but is held in a state of polarity during relaxation, " and that contraction is nothing more than the necessary result of the muscle being liberated from this state and left to the operation of the
more » ... e force which is inherent in the physical constitution of the muscular molecules." Thus ordinary muscular contraction difiera in nothing except in degree from the stiffness oí rigor mortis, the latter being only the extreme degree of the phenomenon, and being most marked on account of the entire withdrawal of thecontrolling nervous power. This standard work is too well known to the medical profession to require an extended notice from us. As a text-book, its value is universally acknowledged. It is to be regretted, however, that the editor has not thought it necessary to make larger additions in the present edition than lie has, to bring the work up to the standard of medical requirements at the present day. There is such a thing as being too conservative, and the fear of embodying in a permanent work remedies of ephemeral popularity may exclude some of real value. We regard it as highly important for the young practitioner to be prepared to employ the newest forms of remedies already in repute, as many of them are more agreeable in their administration than the crude drugs or the old familiar preparations of them. The fluid extracts, for instance, of which so many are in use at the present time, we do ugt The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal as published by The New England Journal of Medicine. Downloaded from nejm.org at UT DALLAS on September 15, 2016. For personal use only. No other uses without permission. From the NEJM Archive.
doi:10.1056/nejm186201020652205 fatcat:iahbqac2qnb7bjnsdb4x3puqpe