some of the most interesting among the new ones are taken from the museum of University College.

A work in all respects highly creditable to its publishers, Blanchard & Lea, Philadelphia. D. F. W.

A TREATISE ON HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY, designed for the use of Students and Practitioners of Medicine. By JOHN C. DALTON, JR., M.D., Professor of Physiology and Microscopic Anatomy in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York; Member of the New York Academy of Medicine; of the New York Pathological Society; of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Boston, Mass.; and of the Biological Department of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia. With two hundred and fifty-four illustrations. Philadelphia: Blanchard & Lea.

It has long been known that Dr. Dalton was engaged in a series of original experiments and observations bearing upon disputed questions in physiology, and we have for some months been led to expect a systematic work from his pen, in which the results of these researches were to be assigned their appropriate places in the science of physiology. Among others we have been looking with much interest for its appearance, having long felt the need of a text-book adapted to the mode of medical instruction prevalent in this country. Dr. Draper's work raised and disappointed high expectations, and we have since adhered to Kirke's Manual for want of a more suitable one, looking anxiously for another attempt by some American author. We have, therefore, received Dr. Dalton's work with strong predilections in its favor, nor, so far as a superficial examination enables us to judge, do we find reason to suppose that our anticipations are not to be realized.

The adoption and recommendation of a new text-book, however, is a matter involving too great a responsibility for us to come to such a conclusion except after a close and thorough study of the work from beginning to end, which now in the last few weeks of our official duties we are unable to do; we pledge ourselves, however, to do so during the ensuing month, and to give our conclusions honestly and candidly in our April number. In one respect we feel already competent to praise the work highly-we speak of the illustrations: these are admirably designed, and beautifully executed, being evidently directed throughout to the one object of rendering the text intelligible; in every illustration all is presented which demands the student's attention for the time being, and nothing introduced calculated to confuse him and distract his attention from the one idea: a most satisfactory though very unusual clearness and

ease of comprehension is the necessary result. We have been both flattered and interested at finding the cut on page 264 almost exactly similar to a drawing which we had ourselves designed and used in the lectureroom for the purpose of rendering comprehensible at one glance the systemic portal and pulmonary circulation. So far as this department of the work goes, it is quite evident that Professor Dalton has studied not only the science of physiology, but the art of teaching. This, however, is merely a general notice of the work; a detailed review will be given in our April number. D. F. W. The above three works were received from the publishers, per W. T. Berry & Co.

AN ESSAY ON THE TREATMENT OF CATARACT. BY MARK STEVENSON, M.D., Surgeon to the New York Ophthalmic Hospital, Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine, etc., etc. Read before the American Medical Association.

We thought this was against the rules, and that even our friend Henry F. Campbell had to "regret" publishing one of his reports which had become the property of the Association, by being publicly read before that body. That is a question, however, which we leave Dr. Stevenson to settle with the publishing committee, and meantime express the opinion that we have got a good book here, though a small one. The author has his own opinions, and defends them well. We are glad to find that he is an exception to the general rule that American surgeons are shy of extraction. Without undervaluing the processes of depression and laceration, he contends, and we think rightly, that extraction ought to be practiced whenever the character and consistency of the lens render it possible; and (perhaps he ought to have added) when the skill of the surgeon is adequate to the operation.

It is a very well prepared report, and we only desiderate one thing, namely, that the author had given us a little more of the results of his own practice. D. F. W.

From the author.

A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON THE DISEASES OF CHILDREN. By D. FRANCIS CONDIE, M.D., Fellow of the College of Physicians, Member of the American Medical Association, Member of the American Philosophical Society, etc. Fifth edition. Revised and enlarged. Philadelphia Blanchard & Lea. 1858. 8vo, pp. 762.

The work under notice is too widely known, and its merits too thoroughly appreciated, to require from us any thing more than a simple an

nouncement to our readers of the appearance of this new edition with its various improvements; and we cannot better discharge such a task than by republishing here the advertisement of the author:

"To present a complete and faithful exposition of the pathology and therapeutics of the maladies incident to the earlier stages of existence— a full and exact account of the diseases of infancy and childhood-has been the aim of the author of the present treatise. For the furtherance of this object, in the preparation of the fifth edition, the entire work has been subjected to a careful and thorough revision-a considerable portion of it has been entirely rewritten, and several new chapters have been added.

"In the different sections will be found incorporated every important observation in reference to the diseases of which they treat, and that has been recorded since the appearance of the last edition; and in the several new chapters, an account of some affections omitted in former editions, and for the accurate description and satisfactory management of which we are indebted mainly to the labors of recent observers.

"The author therefore trusts that he has succeeded in rendering the work a reliable and useful guide to the actual state of medical knowledge in reference to all those diseases which either exclusively or most usually occur between birth and puberty-diseases which form, in some degree, a class apart from those of the adult-and demand for their cure a particular plan of treatment." E. B. H.

Editorial Department.

EXPLANATION.

OUR confrères of the Cincinnati Lancet and Observer "order us up" in reference to a remark made by us in our November number, to the effect that we were "rather shy of Ohio journals:" they want to know whether we mean them.

Most certainly not, brother editors; we alluded to a host of Eclectic, Botanic, Physio-Medical, and other sectarian journals which we found upon our exchange list when we first succeeded to the editorial chair of the Memphis Medical Recorder, and which even still occasionally find their way to us, with the never-reciprocated "Please X" on their cover. The Lancet and Observer, on the other hand, we have always found a high-toned and strictly professional as well as scientific journal.

And now we have a question of our own to put. In the last December number of the Lancet and Observer we met with some severe strictures (which we fully endorse) upon journals avowedly professional noticing the publications of Eclectics, specifying two Cincinnati authors of this sect named King and Cleveland. We ask our confrères did they mean us? We should not blame them if they did, for on the appearance of a small medical lexicon by the latter author, we, not knowing but that he was a doctor indeed, noticed the book,* very briefly, it is true, but in general commending the plan upon which it was written. As luck would have it, he afterwards published another work, "Are Mercurials Anti-Syphilitics?" with the sectarian stamp unmistakably impressed on the face of it. What sort of a notice this pamphlet received from us can be ascertained by referring to Memphis Medical Recorder for May, 1857. If our contemporary did refer to us, we trust he is satisfied.

* Memphis Medical Recorder, July, 1856.

D. F. W.

FIRST COMMENCEMENT OF SHELBY MEDICAL COLLEGE, NASHVILLE.

THIS event came off at McKendree church, on Thursday, the 24th ult. Though the weather was very unfavorable, a large number of citizens, ladies and gentlemen attended, and seemed much interested in the proceedings.

The diploma of the College was presented by the Rev. A. L. P. Green, D.D., President of the Board of Trustees, to the following gentlemen graduating as Doctors of Medicine:

The following gentlemen received diplomas of admission, ad eundem gradum:

GREENVILLE DOWELL, M.D., of Texas.

W. G. M'KENZIE, M.D., of Tennessee.

After the presentation of the diplomas, the students' valedictory was delivered by Dr. Wilbur F. Hyer, and the valedictory address on the part of the Faculty by Prof. Daniel F. Wright.

We have much pleasure in stating, as will be seen in our advertisement, that the Faculty goes into operation unaltered next October.

WE wish to call especial attention to the observations and experiments of Prof. Busch, given in our selected matter. This is a rare opportunity rarely improved-a case as unique as that of Beaumont, placed in the very best hands that could get the management of it. Many points of the first magnitude, relating to digestion and absorption, seem to be determined by it, and some of the disputed propositions of Bernard established.