than the West. This depends upon the number of the pauper population, which is generally greatest in the largest cities. But the 2d depends upon the number of patients compared with the size of the medical class receiving instruction, and the liberties given them by hospital rules; and in this respect we apprehend the West and South will be found to afford equal advantages to the East, if not greater. Comparatively few students have the opportunity in the eastern institutions, where the classes are large, of making examinations for themselves, of cases under investigation; and without feeling the pulse, applying the stethoscope, making percussion, examining closely the tongue, the eyes, the countenance, feeling the skin, or examining the evacuations, they hear the clinical instructor prescribe. Can the student learn much more in this way, than by simply hearing the symptoms explained, and the treatment laid down in the college lecture room? Hundreds of our readers who have set at a distance of perhaps (very fortunately) only 20 or of 50 feet from the patient in a crowded amphitheatre, and seen the examinations and heard the prescriptions made, can say whether it gave them practical tact in the sick room or not, and whether a fewer number of cases closely and properly examined, would not have qualified them better for practice.

In most of the schools and hospitals of the West, the number of students in proportion to the patients and teachers not being so great, they are afforded more opportunities of walking the wards, and those having charge of hospitals, we believe, are more liberal in allowing privileges. In the Chicago hospital last winter, the class was divided into sections, one of which visited the wards daily, and each student was allowed to feel the pulse, auscultate, &c., &c., as the examinations were made.

ARTICLE II.

The Human Brain: its Structure, Physiology, and Diseases; with a Description of the Typical Forms of Brain in the Animal Kingdom. By SAMUEL SOLLY, F.R.S., Senior Assistant Surgeon to St Thomas Hospital, and Lecturer on Clinical Surgery, &c., &c. From the second London Edition: with one hundred and eighteen wood engravings. pp. 496, 8vo. Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard. 1848. (From the publishers for sale by Joseph Keene, Jr., Chicago.)

This is a re-print of an English work without American notes, comments, or additions; in other words, it is without an editor. It is a thing well enough to try a book on its own merits occasionally, in which case, if it is popular, there will be less difficulty in awarding the meed of praise for its success. It is often extremely difficult to say whether the work itself and the reputation of the author bears up the name of the editor, or whether the editor enhances the value and reputation of the work.

In reference to the character of the work before us, we can only say, that from reading part of it, and glances at the arrangement of the subject in the remaining portion, we believe it to be excellent.

The comparative anatomy and physiology, the minute examination of the structures, and the close enquiry into the functions of the different parts of the brain and nerves, in the first part of the work, are highly interesting; and from the amount of observation and research here manifested, we feel justified in expecting to find laid down in the subsequent more practical part of the work, in which the diseases of the brain and their treatment are considered, a clear pathology and correct practice.

Vol. 1. No 2.-7.

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ARTICLE III.

Theory and Practice of Midwifery. By FLEETWOOD CHURCHHILL, M.D., M. R. I. A.; Licentiate of the College of Physicians in Ireland; Physician to the Western Lying-in Hospital; Lecturer on Midwifery, &c., in the Richmond Hospital School of Medicine; Author of a "Treatise of the Diseases of Females," etc., etc., with Notes and additions, by RoBERT M. HUSTON, M.D., Professor of Materia Medica and General Therapeutics, and formerly of Obstetrics, &c., in Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia, &c., &c. Third American edition with one hundred and twenty-eight illustrations, &c., &c. Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard, 1848. (From the Publishers-for sale by Joseph Keene, Jr., Chicago.)

The established reputation of this work, renders it unnecessary for us to say any thing in its commendation.

In the present edition, the author has taken especial pains to adapt it to the wants of the profession in America. It is one of the best works we have on the subject of which it treats. [E.

ARTICLE IV.

The Young Stethoscopist, or the Students' Aid to Auscultation. By HENRY S. BOWDITCH, M.D., one of the Physicians to the Mass. Gen. Hospital. Second Edition. New York: S. S. & W. Wood, 1848. (From the Publishers-for sale by Joseph Keene, Jr., Chicago.)

This is a convenient little volume, and the call for a second edition seems conclusive of its meeting with favor at the hands of the profession. The subject of which it treats is one too much neglected by the profession generally, as ausultation both mediate and direct, furnishes, when rightly

understood, one of the most important and clear means of detecting disease. The author has faithfully laid down the principles that should govern in its application, which will afford a correct guide to practice the only means of acquiring the tact and discrimination of sounds necessary to render it useful.

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ARTICLE V.

Principles and Practice of Surgery. By the late GEO. MCCLELLAN, M.D., Edited by his son JOHN B. MCCLELLAN, M.D. Philadelphia: Grigg, Elliott, & Co., 1848. pp. 432, octavo. (From the Publishers-for sale by Morrison & Talbott, Indianapolis.)

This is a handsome volume, got up in the very best style, and, as was expected, proves to be a very valuable, though a brief book. The "Principles and Practice of Surgery," comprised, index and all, within four hundred and thirty two pages, makes a very striking contrast with the ponderous works of Velpeau and Chelius, the American edition, of the former of these making 3005, and of the latter 2107 pages.

The work, however, is confessedly incomplete; but the Editor proposes, at some future period, as nearly as possible, to carry out the original design of his illustrious father in its completion, by adding to it a second volume.

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ARTICLE VI.

The Obstetrical Remembrancer, or Denman's Aphorisms on Natural and Difficult Parturition; the application of instruments, &c. Augmented by MICHAEL RYAN, M.D. First American from the ninth London edition, with additions by THOMAS F. COCK, M.D., Visiting Physician to the New York Lying-in Asylum. 18mo. pp. 264. New York: S. S. & W. Wood, 1848. (From the Publishers-for sale by Joseph Keene, Jr., Chicago.)

A concise collection of the most important facts in relation to obstetrics, and rules for the direction of the practitioner is here presented to the profession. The name of Denman, may give the idea of old and obsolete notions; but an examination of the work, will show that it is erroneous. An examination of the medical fathers occasionally, is not only interesting and instructing, but serves to remind us that most of the truths we have are not of modern discovery. [E.