Book Reviews

Mechanisms of morphological evolution.Wallace Arthur. John Wiley & Sons Ltd., Chichester, West Sussex. 1984. Pp. xv + 275. £19.00.

to abate inflammation, the better to enable Nature to accomplish the developement of the parts.
However, if a writer whom we thought worthy to be called a luminary, had proposed any other attempts, we should have hesitated before we-expressed our regret, that "so universally an$ justly respected a name should be affixed to a proposal so manifestly absurd." Article 3.?Case of a Man who died in consequence of a Disease occasioned by -what may in general be considered as a Mild Punishment, By M. Burmesteu, Army Surgeon. There.is nothing very remarkable in this case, inasmuch as death by mortification, has often followed injuries much less considerable than the infliction of two hundred and fifty military lashes.
The paper is on other accounts valuable, and the motives of the author extremely praise worthy. It would have added something to the interest we felt in the perusal, had an account been given of the temper and disposition of the subject. We are persuaded that the disgrace attending such a punishment, would in many be a jHifficient means of accounting for so fatal an issue. The author supposes the first remedy to be animal gluten. One remark on digitalis, from the effects he found in his own person, will we hope be attended to by those practitioners who are attached to this powerful remedy. " I suspect, says he, that the difference in the accounts we have of it by different practitioners, has arisen from a circumstance very clearly marked in my case, and which strongly points out the great care and attention necessary in exhibiting this very active drug. 1 observed, and repeated the experiment a great many times, that after the digitalis had taken effect, my pulse was not lessened infre quency when I stood erect; it was then upwards of 100. When I tat down, it fell considerably; when lying on my back, it fell much more. Thus, during the time it was at 40 when lying, it was about 75 when, sitting, and above 100 when standing. This was invariably the case. When I turned on either side, it fell two or three, and intermitted. u I have found the pulse to vary in this manner, in all the patient? to whom I have given the digitalis to any extent. I need hardly point out the absolute necessity of carefully attending to this circumstance." Article 5.? On the Tic Douloureux, or Trismus Dolorifiiw. This article gives an account of two cases, in which Dr. Pierson succeeded in curing this very painful disease by mercurial salivation ; a third, in which the patient died of the remedy ; and & fourth, in which the patient declined its use.  The first is of a woman, who at the sixth month of her pregnancy passed through confluent small-pox, and was afterwards delivered at the natural 'period. It appears by the future history of the child, that it was not infected in vtero, which may account for the mother going her full time.
The second is, we believe, the first instance on record* of a child born with srnall-pox, and surviving. We wish the case had been related with more minuteness, as to the periods of the disease in the mother and child, connected with the birth of the latter.
In the third case, the mother had passed through the small-pox in her infancy. During pregnancy, she nursed a son with smallpox, who died. The child born, had small-pox pustules at thfe time of its birth. This was in the year 1788, and at this time, being in her nineteenth year, she has on her face and other parts of the body incontestible proofs of the disease. By this, it appears probable, as has been remarked by Dr. Adams, that the appearance of pock-marks in the face only, is to be ascribed to the greater inflammation attending pustules in that part, from its receiving the first shock of the disease, consequently that in the foetus every part being similarly circumstanced, will receive the impression at the same time, and in the same manner.
In both these cases, if the author has any further memoranda relative to the dates of the different events, or the degree in which the children were affected, they will add much to the value of his communication.
Article 8.?Report of the General Hospital, near Nottingham, from March 25, 1806, to March 25, 1807-By James Clarke, M. D. one of the Physicians to the Charity. Tub original articles finish with a short conclusion to the Enquirer's paper on the Royal Touch/ We are truly sorry to be obliged to remark the striking difference in the Critical Analysis. It requires no ingenuity to see that those venerable names who did so much' credit to the Annals, have relinquished that important office. During their labours, we met with no criticisms, without stating the author's meaning ; no unprovoked pertness where the intentions of their author were good ; no surreptitious invasions of their author's matter delivered as their own.
We would advise these truly respectable editors, no longer lo shelter themselves under the veil of an anonymous publication.
Let them veficct on the dignity of their own character, and if the labour of reviewing is too considerable, at least inspect the pro-' Auctions of those whom they employ. Let them reflect on the disgrace which a contemporary Journal of the same meridian incur-Ted by the partial manner in which medical articles were reviewed'.
Fond as the public may seem of a severity to which they are iti no fear of being exposed, there are limits which may be exceeded. The editor of the Edinburgh Review seems conscious that he can no longer trust his writers with medical works ; and it is notorious, that the only article of (hat description, which has for some time appeared, was written by himself, though not of the profession. We forbear to dwell on so unpleasant a subject; but the respect we bear the profession, and the high opinion we entertain of the well known editors of the work before us, oblige to say thus much, and we sincerely luopeit will not be necessary to say more.
This work being intended as a subject of political ceconomy, it may be thought, might have passed unnoticed in our Journal.
But the physiological part contains some remarks entirely new, and not less ingenious. We feel ourselves, therefore, impelled to bring them before the faculty, that they may meet with that general attention from individual observations, by which only they can be confirmed or refuted. Few of our readers can be ignorant of the valuable Treatise on Population presented to the public by the Rev. Mr. Malthus. One very important part of "that gentleman's doctrine seems to explain the laws by which the population of mankind is kept under by vice and misery, and even to show that such means are not unnecessary to prevent the race from eating up one another. Dr.
Jarrold's view of the subject is infinitely more consolatory, and, in our opinion, not less satisfactory to common sense than honourable to that Fountain of good, from whom only natural laws can originate. After considering the various causes which prevent population in ihose different countries in which Mr. Malthus has traced them, and pointing out various errors of that gentleman, our author enters on the subject as a physiological question. He first shows, that the longevity of the Antediluvians was absolutely necessary, in order that arts of any kind useful to man, might be brought to such astute as to facilitate their future improvement; confirms the tradition, that after the flood human life was gradually shortened till ii arrived at the period marked out by David, which he conceives may still be considered as the proper medium, where no particular events tend to shorten its duration. He then enters the checks which are opposed to u redundant population, and . .
shows Dr. Jarr old's Dissertations on Man. the more despicable she becomes, and the more disqualified for being a mother. " That the class of Women of which I have been speaking owe their sterility to the influence of their minds, is considerably strengthened by the consideration, that promiscuous intercourse is not of itself a hinderance to pregnancy. At Otaheite, and many other places, where the manners of the. people admit of this practice without incurring disgrace, no check to population follows : they have no proper sense of shaiye; their conduct does not appear to them corrupt; their intercourse is precisely that of brutes,, and brutes are never sterile because of promiscuous intercourse;, it has no injurious effect in the propagation of animals. " In Europe the female character is held in the highest estimation, and is as sacred as life itself; but at Otaheite, or among savages, if virtue has a name, the sentiment is wholly unknown : a sense of decency characterizes civilization. In Europe the female takes alarm at the most distant insinuation, and days of the severest conflict precede and accompany a dissolute life; the mind is never at rest: but the unrestrained manners of an unenlightened people arc never checked by reflection. Unrestrained manners in an European are not the mere indulgence of animal instinct, they imply the triumph of depravity over virtue and religion y the struggle is severe: it is the mind that is conquered ; it had modelled the face to be an index of itself, the index remains, but the character it expresses is changed: the new aspect given by depravity demonstrates the influence the mind has over the body. If the mind affects the external character, it doubtless biasscs the constitution/ Our author next considers the state of the mind as influencing the constitution, without any particular view to moral depravity, or the common causes of abject distress, and by a happy quotation from the illustrious Adam Smith, shows, that the difficulties by which a family is continued, multiply in proportion as a state; advances to civilization. " It is," says Dr. J. " a familiar fact, that the higher class Ts unproductive : but the important part of the fact is, that this circumstance is limited to civilized nations ; it extends no further than where superiority in rank implies superior information. Th? chiefs of a nation of shepherds are not unprolific; in all nations in that state, or even advanced a step further, genealogies reaching down many centuries are common. " I cannot help remarking it," says Dr. Smith, " that very old families, such as have possessed some considerable estate from father to son for many successive generations, are very rare in commercial countries. In countries which have little commerce, on the contrary, such as Wales, or the Highlands of Scotland, they are very common. The Arabian historians seem to be all full of genealogies : and there is a history, written by a Tartar, Kham, which has been translated into several European languages, and which contains scarcely any thing else: a proof that ancient families are very common among those nations." Wealth of Nations, v. 2, p. 129. " Such authority, for the general fact, may be considered as conclusive, but the reasoning admits of doubt: the change of property in a commercial country is certainly frequent; but it is not wholly in consequence of the rise and fall of fortunes which, commerce gives birth to. Athens was not a commercial city, nor Berne, and yet old families were rare. The nobility of this kingdom are above the influence of commerce, yet they cannot boast of estates being many centuries in their families. It is not from commerce only that such events originate ; they must have another cause.
A commercial country is always civilized; commerce is in part the cause and the consequence of civilization, but the uncertainty that attends it is not the sole occasion of the frequent changes of property. Estates made hereditary often want an heir, and this I apprehend to be the principal reason that families hold large estates for so short a time. Those who enjoy any rank in a civilized country, who stand at its head, cither in intellect or in power, stretch their capacity to the utmost, that they may acquit themselves with credit in the stations they fill: this exertion of the mind is, in the view I take of the subject, the efficient cause of the few generations an estate is enjoyed by such a family, or rather that such a family exists to possess it." After this, we have some ingenious remarks on the gradual effects-produced on the human figure and intellect, in proportion as bodily prowess or mental qualifications are more attended to by being more valuable to the possessor ; but we cannot refrain from copying the conclusion of this chapter, as it shows the object of the author in a very striking point of view. " There are many estates enjoyed by families that possessed them at the Norman conquest, but such families have never risen to greatness: they have not given birth to genius : it is in vain to enquire of them the improvements made even in agriculture, or of such as it is desirable should be made: they are men of precedents, not men of thought: the maxims of their ancestors guide them : they are useful in peopling a country, but not in civilizing it. Philosophers and poets, men of science or of taste, are not of this order; those who flourished a few generations back, live only in their works, their families are extinct. But it may be said, if this be the case, knowledge is a great evil, and the bulk ?f the people can never be informed. This remark will be attended to in another place ; all I aim at, at present, is to establish the fact, that the most thoughtful people, taken as a body, are the least politic; by thoughtful, I mean any violent exercise of the niind, whether it be of a savage or a philosopher. " Although this subject, from the nature of it, appears entirely confined to?the human race, yet its principles are founded in the laws of nature, and may be supported by analogy. A hare, under the protection of a park, breeds earlier in the year, and yields N 3 more tflore young in a season, than one that has been subject to perpetual alarm; the food of both may be abundant, but the timidity ofthe animal stifles the voice of nature. A mare, that ranges undisturbed over a barren pasture, brings forth its foal every season ; but the same mare, well fed in a stable, and trained to the chace, is wholly unproductive. An elephant, caught ut the earliest period "of its life, and domesticated, and treated in a way apparently agreeable to it, never brings forth young. The same may be said of most species of birds ; if they are allowed a large room to fly in, and live on the food they are most fond of, yet they never build a nest.
These facts are sufficient to show, that an increase of animal life depends on something more than animal passion, or the abounding of the means of subsistence." What we have offered, though in some degree explanatory of the object pursued in this truly valuable performance, will give but a small estimate of the various striking and original ideas to be met with in the work.
We should regret that the chapter on hereditary diseases is so short; did it not give us an opportunity of transcribing the whole. i)rf Jarrold's Dissertations on Man. " Madness is a disease not altogether of the same nature aa those just mentioned; it respects the connection of the mind with the body: and I have not sufficient knowledge of the subject to advance a confident opinion respecting its influence on fecundity. " From the above facts and observations, it is evident that certain diseases so far influence the body as to be propagated, which could not happen if the principle of increase was, as Mr, Malthus intimates, a given quantity: that which is liable to alteration may be increased or diminished. Hereditary diseases, experience teaches, hasten those evolutions in the system that are nccessary to pregnancy. If six children be as many as a marriage of sound and healthy persons usually yields, eighp is not a larger proportion for those who are diseased. I would not be meant to imply, that all numerous families are infected with disease, that is not the case; but I do contend, that an unsound constitution, in a civilized country, most commonly proves prolific." Nothing can be more just than most of the observations contained in this chapter: but we feel ourselves under the necessity of making a few remarks. We could have been very glad if our author, with his usual precision, had defined in what degree we are to consider diseases as hereditary. If by the term,