cussed. Another excellence of the book consists in the full detail of the technique
as to mode of securing, preparing, and examining specimens. There are so many
practical, helpful points in this book that we must add it to the library which we
regard as essential for the practitioner in his daily round of duties.—The Va.
Med. Semi-Monthly.

"There is little need in the present day to dwell on the value and importance
of the assistance given to clinical diagnosis, and therefore to treatment, by a
thorough microscopical and chemical examination of the products of disease or of
the blood and the various excretions. So important is it that within the past
decade many a work has been published devoted solely to this one branch of
clinical investigation, and there is no medical school where instruction upon it of
a systematic kind is not to some extent imparted. Nevertheless, this necessary
extension of the field of observation is in itself so wide and comprehensive that it
becomes more and more difficult for the practitioner to follow. It needs a
special department and a staff of highly-trained experts to carry it out to the full;
and it is this class of work which is being so well undertaken in this country by
the Clinical Research Association. The author of the volume before us has en-
joyed at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, ample opportunities for the
study of the subject, and his treatise is in every respect excellent. COVERING-
PRACTICALLY THE SAME GROUND AS THE WELL-KNOWN WORK OF PROFESSOR VON
JAKSCH, THE BOOK CONTAINS IN SOME SECTIONS EVEN MORE INFORMATION THAN
DOES THAT VOLUME. It is evident, too, that the author has himself largely con-
firmed the statements which he makes, and occasionally he feels bound to differ
from the somewhat too dogmatic teaching that has dominated parts of the sub-
ject. WE HAVE, AFTER A CAREFUL REVIEW OF THE CONTENTS OF THE BOOK,
NO HESITATION IN COMMENDING IT AS ONE OF THE BEST AND MOST COMPENDIOUS
MANUALS FOR THE CLINICAL LABORATORY THAT HAS APPEARED. The Subject-
matter is arranged on a very systematic plan, the text is not burdened
by references to literature, and the descriptions of apparatus as well as the
instructions for the performance of tests are clear and concise. Perhaps the best
section is that devoted to the urine, occupying about one-half of the volume, but
the sections on the blood and on the gastric juice and gastric contents are little, if
at all, inferior in scope and fulness4 In his preface Dr. SIMON pleads for a more
thorough recognition of these studies in places of instruction, and urges the younger
members of the profession to pursue them with diligence. As he says, c It is incon-
ceivable that a physician can rationally diagnose and treat diseases of the stomach,
intestines, kidneys and liver, etc., without laboratory facilities.' Whether his
suggestion that physicians might usefully employ a laboratory assistant to enable
them to carry out this duty will ever be realised, time, with its advance of know-
ledge, can alone show."—Lancet.

*' The sciences of chemistry and microscopy, as applied to medicine, are year by
year becoming of great importance ; and while both form part of every medical
curriculum in the preliminary stages, it is rare to find a medical school in which
they are taught purely from the point of view of their clinical application. Too
often they are learned by the student only to be forgotten as soon as he commences
the e professional' part of his studies. That the time has come when this state of
things should be altered, and a separate study made of these sciences in their ap-
plication to diagnosis, will impress all who read Dr. SiMOaY's volume.

11 It has evidently been the author's aim in this work to present to students and
practitioners not only the facts of physical science which are of practical import-
ance, but also the reasons which have led up to that union of empirical deduction
and scientific reasoning of which the modern science of diagnosis largely consists.
Consequently, we find in the volume precise descriptions for the examination of
the various fluids, secretions, and exudates of the body, both in health and disease.
In every case a description of the normal material precedes the pathological con-
siderations, which latter are in turn followed by a detailed account of the methods
and apparatus used in examination. Following the directions given, no worker
ought to.find any insuperable difficulty in learning to recognise, say, the presence