354 REVIEWS.

Veterinary Medicines. Their Actions and Uses. By FINLAY DUN. Eighth Edition. Edinburgh: David Douglas, 1892.

THE seventh edition of this standard text-book has been exhausted in less than three years, which may be taken as evidence of its continued popularity with veterinary students and practitioners. The present edition is somewhat bulkier than its predecessor, and this notwithstanding the fact that the space allottee! to the description of the properties and mode of preparation of the various drugs has been curtailed. The new matter deals with remedies recently introduced-chiefly new antiseptics and antipyretics. The matter is brought thoroughly up to date, the author having evidently sifted not only our own literature of the last few years but also the articles and works on therapeutic subjects that have recently been published in French and German. A lengthened notice of a work so well known as this would be out of place, and we need only say that the new edition deserves as quick a sale as the one that preceded it.

Horses in Accident and Disease. Notes and Sketches. By J. ROALFE Cox, F.R.C.V.S. Edinburgh: David Douglas, 1892.

THIS is a collection of 28 illustrations depicting the positions and attitudes assumed by horses in certain diseased conditions. They are reproductions of pen-and-ink sketches, and in his preface the author explains, in excuse of their appearance, that they were not drawn originally for publication. Some of them, it is true, are rather ragged and unfinished in appearance, but those who buy them will probably be glad that the author did not allow that to deter him from publication. Experienced practitioners will perhaps not learn much from a perusal of the plates and the descriptive notes, but on the other hand they will doubtless find them interesting as recalling cases that have come under their own observation. To less experienced members of the profession the book ought to be of more value, for the sketches, even without the notes, are graphic descriptions of attitudes and appearances some of which are of high diagnostic value. Commendation is due to the author for having done a piece of work that is both original and useful.

J. Zelle und Zellkern. Von Dr Bernhard Solger, Professor an der U niver­sitat Greifswald.

2. Ueber die Kastration der Hausthiere. Von L. Hoffmann, Professor an der K. thierarzt. Hochschule in Stuttgart. Leipzig: Arthur Felix, 1892.

THESE two monographs form part of the series of Thiermedizinische Vortnige published under the editorship of Dr Georg Schneidemiihl. In the first of them Dr Solger devotes nearly 60 pages to a description of the anatomy of the cell, and more particularly to the visible alterations of structure that take place in it and the nucleus during the various stages of cell division. The subject is discussed in the exhaustive manner which may be said to characterise the writings of German authors, and the text is illustrated by a number of well executed coloured figures.

Professor Hoffmann's work is a valuable addition to this series of publica­tions. It is of special interest at the present moment as dealing with a subject

REVIEWS. 355

that has recently engaged the attention of the veterinary profession in this country. The various methods of castrating the different domestic animals-­both male and female-are described and criticised, even caponing coming in for a share of attention. The torsion method is strongly recommended, while the use of the ecraseur or the hot iron, and castration in the standing posture, are condemned. In the description of his own method of performing the operation on the horse the author pays great attention to asepsis, not only during the various steps of the operation itself, but also in the after care of the animal. The interior of the scrotum and its outer skin are abundantly smeared with a I % corrosive sublimate ointment (made with vaseline). The floor and walls of the stall in which the horse is kept immediately after the operation are disinfected with 2 0/0 carbolised water, and no bedding is allowed. The elastic ligature is recommended for the castration of lambs, but it is open to doubt whether that would yield as good results as the other methods commonly practised in England and Scotland.

Weitere Untersuchungen uber das Verhiiltniss der Knochenbildung zur Statik und Mechanik des Vertebraten-skelettes. Von E. Zschokke, Professor an der Thierarzneischule in Zurich. Zurich: Orell Fussli, 1892.

To the casual observer the spongy osseous tissue at the ends of long bones and elsewhere almost naturally gives the impression that its intersecting plates and bars have an indeterminate or, one might say, haphazard arrangement. Abstract reasoning, however, might have led to an opposite conclusion, and observation has shown that the view is erroneous. Within the past 20 years a large number of observations regarding the architecture of spongy bone tissue have been published, but with few exceptions, chief among whom is Eichbaum, the authc;>rS had devoted their attention to the human skeleton. Professor Zscbokke has studied the structure of the spongiosa in the bones of the horse and other domestic quadrupeds, and the results of his observations are given in this monograph. Stated generally, his investigations show that, as in the case of the human bones, the architecture of the spongy tissue-the arrangement of its chief lamellre--depends upon the direction of the pressure or traction to which the bone is exposed. But it must not be supposed that the whole of the book is devoted to the architecture of the spongiosa. That is disposed of in a general way in the first 27 pages, 'II hile the remaining 40 pages discuss from a mechanical point of view the construction of the axial and appendicular skeleton of the horse. The work is greatly enriched by a large number of most beautifully executed plates, which reproduce in natural size the appearance presented by sections of bones of the horse and other animals. As the fruit of an original investigation of much interest the work is in the highest degree creditable to its author, and the style in which the printing and lithoglaphy have been executed is equally creditable to the publishers.

Handbuch der Fleischbeschau fur Tieriirzte, Arzte und Richter. Von Dr Med. Robert Ostertag, Professor an der Tieriirztlichen Hochschule in Berlin. Stuttgart: Ferdinand Enke, J 892.

WITHIN the last few years German veterinary literature has been enriched by a large number of excellent new text-books, and this one will certainly rank among the most important of the series.

Meat inspection when properly carried out is a practical application of the science of pathology; speaking generally, it may be said that the duty of those