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to the Ducbesse de Maine , from Ca . mille Desjjqulivs to Madame Emile de Gibardin . The necessity for limiting his articles to the exigencies of a newspaper has forced Saint Beuve into a concision both of style and exposition , which great improves his sketches ; and we know not which to admire most , the variety of his attainments or the skill of his pencil .
While on . this subject of announcements , we must not forget two new works by Heinrich Heine , a volume of poems under the title of Romanzers , and a prose work , Der Doktor Faust , which he calls eine getanzte Tragodie ! Anything from the pen the " Dying Aristophanes , " as his friends christen him , must excite the curiosity of all German readers .
Who has forgotten Jerome Paturot ? The author of that immense extravaganza is now publishing a similar one , Athanase Robichon , candidat perpHuel a la . prtsidence . The first part is very amusing , but it threatens to become wearisome before the close . Athanase Robichon is a patriotic Toymaker . He works for the glory of France . He wishes to place France above all Europe in respect of Toys . He defies Nuremberg : alone he sustains the combat—for twenty years sustains it , often wounded , never beaten , and drawing fresh energy from the
spectacle of his wounds . At last he succeeded in manufacturing a doll ; Europe adopts it ! Brilliant prospects are opening for France—her toys will become supreme ! This noble ambition , however , receives a new direction . He awakes one morning and finds himself one of the sovereign people . He is a sovereign ; and , as all may aspire to the Presidency , why not he ? What is to prevent him ? The duty of a President is to make the people happy ; he has all the requisites—je suis en fonds pour celaj on me verra a I ' ceuvre . Je Vinonderai de felicit es ce peuple , je Fen accablerai ! We cannot follow him in his course . Enough has been said to indicate the tone .
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PROGRESS OF PHYSIOLOGY . Principles of Pht / siolof /// , General and Comparative . By W . B . Carpenter , M . D . Tinrd Kdition . Churchill . The progress of the Science of Life , or Physiology as it is inaccurately called , rapid as it has been of late years , would have been still greater had the Method been more Scientific . Such progress as we have made has been mainly owing to an approach to this Method . Of late years we have learned how little can be done by direct observation
and experiment , and how much may be done by comparison . Since we have turned our thoughts to Comparative Physiology—since we have undertaken to study Life in its less complex forms , we have become convinced that as Nature herself obviously proceeds from the simple to the complex , we shall best penetrate the secret processes she pursues if we study her from the simple to the complex , and commence our investigations of Life with the lowest of the organized forms , not with
Man , the highest . This seems almost a truism when thus stated . The most casual inspection of physiological works will show , however , that this philosophical canon is followed but dimly when it is followed , and is inostly neglected altogether . Not only are Students introduced to Physiology , through what is called Human Physiology , —not only do they , and professed physiologists confine themselves mainly to the study of Man , seeking merely illustrations in tho broad field of comparative study—not only are they , therefore , called upon to investigate the most complex forms of life without previous knowledge of the Bimpler forms ( as if to begin Kuclid at the twelfth
book I)—but when they come to write treatises , either for Students or for advanced Inquirers , they construct these works in complete disregard of the processional Method , seeming to imply that the ; complex may rationally take precedence of the Simple . Kveu Dr . Carpenter , who has devoted , and successfully devoted , ho much of his time to Comparative Physiology , and who Itiiowh uh well as any one the absoluto necessity of that prelude to lluniun Physiology , when he composes a treatise on tho latter subject , the canon we allude to is entirely disregarded by him . To our astonishment we find him commendn < j with tho Nervous System—that is to say , wilhjjthe latest and most complex form of Animal life I i'Voni thio bo de *
scends to Digestion , Circulation , Nutrition , Secretion , and Reproduction . How unscientific this arrangement is will appear from the following considerations . Taking a broad survey of all its manifestations , we find that Life has two grand divisions—Vegetative and Animal ; , or , to use Bichat ' s language , into Organic Life and Relative Life . We see Plants and Animals , —the latter feeding on the former ; but we also see that the Animal itself is only distinguished from the Plant by the possession
of certain faculties , over and above those of organic or vegetative life , viz ., the faculties of sensation and locomotion . Equally to the Animal as to the Plant are organs of nutrition and reproduction indispensable ; and Cuvier ' s notion of an animal being able to live for a moment by its Animal Life alone , betrays a profound misconception of the Problem of Life . As in nature it is the vegetables which supply Animals with food , so in Animals it is the vegetative life which supports the relative life .
Physiologists have not sufficiently borne in mind that although in Man the Animal Life has a predominance over the Vegetative Life , nevertheless it is only superposed on the vegetative , and can never for an instant be independent of it . Nature presents to us a marvellous procession from the Plant , which has only organic life , to the Zoophyte , which exhibits a commencement of animal life , up through animals to Man , with a
gradual complexity of organism , and gradual enhancement of the animal life ; so that from simple processes of assimilation and reproduction our investigation rises to locomotion , sensation , intelligence , morality , and sociality ! The great change from inorganic to organic , that is to say , the first vital act , is assimilation ; add thereto the act of reproduction , and you have the whole life of a cell , the simplest of organisms .
" A cell , " says Dr . Carpenter , " in Physiological language is a closed vesicle or minute bag , formed by a membrane in which no definite structure can be discerned , and having a cavity which may contain matter of variable consistence . Every such cell constitutes an entire organism in such simple plants as Red Snow or Gory Dew j for although the patches of this kind of vegetation which attract notice are made up of vast aggregations of such cells , yet they have no dependence upon one another , and the actions of each are an exact repetition of those of the rest . " The cell in short
is a plant : minute , yet individual , and its powers of reproduction ( i . e ., of throwing off cells similar to itself ) is so great that extensive tracts of snow are reddened quite suddenly by the Protococcus nivalis ( Red Snow ) . "In such a cell , " continues Dr . Carpenter , " every organized fabric , however complex , originates . The vast tree , almost a . forest in uself—the zoophyte , in which we discover the lowest indications of animality—and the feeling , thinking , intelligent man—each springs from a germ that differs in no obvious particular from the permanent condition of one of those lowly beings . "
Is it not clear , then , that to understand Life we must ascend through its simpler to its more complex manifestations , and that to begin our study with the more complex is to violate an obvious canon of Methodology ? The point is of great importance , and in introducing Dr . Carpenter ' s work we felt bound to insist on it ; for many a student alurmed by the bulkiness . of this volume and the magnitude of the study , will be apt to ask " Why should 1 bother myself with Comparative Physiology ?"
To the student , to the philosopher , nay even to the " general reader , " this work of Dr . Carpenter ' s presents itself with urgent claims . As a survey of the laws of animated beings it must interest all except the most frivolous ; and although we have many and serious objections to some of the views here set forth , yet mindful of his preface we will estimate his work by its merits , and not by its shortcomings . , The Principles : of Physiology , then , is a ponderous volume of 10 HO closely printed pages , illustrated by 321 woodcuts , and estimated merely as a classified collection of facts it would demand a place in every scientific library ; it is , however , inueh more than that , it is a comprehensive and luminous treatise , compensating by the multiplicity of its facts and tho clearness of its exposition for the want of that philosophical power which alone can render such treatises permanent . To convey a notion of its value an a rellection of the present state of the Science wo need simply repeat what wo find stated in the pre-face , that of . tho 1 Q 80 pages which compose this third
edition , not above 150 belong to the previous edition . It is in fact a new work , As editor of the British and Foreign Medical Review , Dr . Carpenter is necessarily well informed of all the discoveries which Continental inquirers are making ; and in this respect alone his work will be a most valuable indication of the condition of each problem . ^ ^ The arrangement is philosophical—showing how when treating the whole subject he was naturally led to follow Nature ' s order . After the preliminaries on the general characters of organized structures , the nature and conditions of vital
phenomena and the tissues , he describes the distinctive characteristics of the Vegetable and Animal Kingdoms . He next passes in review the details of the Vegetable Kingdom from the Cryptogamic to the Phanerogamic Plants ; this is followed by a similar survey of the Animal Kingdom from Zoophytes to Mammalia . A chapter on the general plan of organic structure and development concludes this portion . The second portion is devoted
to special and comparative Physiology . He begins with Aliment , passes to Absorption in vegetables and animals , thence to circulation , thence to respiration , thence to exhalation of aqueous vapour , and to Nutrition and Secretion . The evolution of Light , Heat , and Electricity is then considered . Next we have Reproduction , which concludes the phenomena of vegetative life ; those of animal life , viz ., sensible motions , and the functions of the nervous system , being rightly left till the last .
We are not insensible to the value of such writers as Dr . Carpenter : men in " whom an inordinate appetite for facts has been developed somewhat at the expense of the philosophic power ; and it is not by way of diminishing our praise of his work that we note in passing a want of power . There is no such work in our language , so that were it tenfold less estimable we should feel bound to recommend it . Let the student draw his own conclusions—there are the facts in abundance , well grouped and well stated . If the reasonings do not always strike him as very cogent , let him pass on : it is not as a speculative book that it should be read ;
yet even as a speculative book he will find it quite equal to many of great reputation—the very variety of Dr . Carpenter ' s studies haying guarded him against the narrow views resulting from the absurd " division of labour " carried on in science . We are stating in general terms our deliberate opinion . This is not the place for a detailed examination of the opinions Dr . Carpenter sets forth . We thank him for his work ; the public also has reason to thank him . In the face of so much that is excellent it would be worse than churlish to fasten on defective details . What book , as Martial says , is without its good , bad , and
mediocre parts ? " Sunthona , sunt quoedam mediocria , sunt mala plura , Quae letris : aliter non fit , Avite , liber !"
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riUDIIAM ' S KOSSUTII AND MAGYAR LAND . Kostuth and Magyar , Land or , Personal Adventures during the War in Hungary . IJy Charles l ' ridhain , Esq ., U . A ., late correspondent ol tlie Times in . Hungary . Madden . The reader of this book will be somewhat puzzled when he considers the two striking facts it presents of Mr . Pridham ' s enthusiasm for Kosauth , and bia position as " Times correspondent . " Did the Times , when it sent out a gentleman of such decidedly anti-Austrian views , intend to favour Kossuth ? We cannot imagine that journal employing Mr . Pridham in ignorance of his opinions ; did it wish to have correspondents of both colours , in order to be ready to side with the victor , as it usually does ? Ue that as it may , Mr . Pridham is in no sense to he understood as taking tho Times view of the Hungarian struggle , and that makes it more provoking to find nothing really about Kossiith or tho Hungarians in this book . He deserves a severe reprimand for uncli a misleading , catchpenny title ; but severer than any reprimand will bo tho effect produced upon the reader , who , disappointed at not finding what was promised , will fail to appreciate what really is amusing in tho book . Had Mr . Pridham contended himself with the title of " Personal A . lvenlums , " lie would have gained a pleased audience ; but he has made a false step at the outset , and mu « t bear the weight of a frustrated reader ' s indignation .
" For the fastidious reader , " Mr . lVidhain says , " who demands and is satisfied only with the suproineat elegance of diction , this littlo book neither was , nor could l » e written . " We are satisfied with Hornethintf less than tho " aupremesfc elegance of diction , " but yet , without being over-
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TNTov . 15 , 1851 . 1 © fl * & * ft frit * 1091
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 15, 1851, page 1091, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1909/page/15/
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