that "education therefore is the best which creates the highest appetite for books, and which, by conferring a complete mastery of written language, not only gives them as much intercourse with the minds of others as they are capable of enjoying, but opens up to them the wide world of facts and ideas which books contain."

His chapter on "society" is excellent. Full of nice discernment, genuine modesty, an acute appreciation of what is due to others, with indications of shyness and reserve, which his early life, studious habits, and his malady must have encouraged. With the full sense of the terrible privation he endures, and with every evidence from his entering into the subject minutely, that he has sharply felt its misery, yet the humour which everywhere gleams and enlivens his narrative, shows that he has neither become misanthropical, cynical, nor even stoical. But with manly good sense has learned, that the true art of enduring, is in submitting unconditionally to the will of Providence. He very judiciously says,

"It is surely a social duty in the deaf to avoid company, in the assurance that by going into it, or gathering it around him, he is only a stumbling-block to the pleasures of others, and is only laying up for himself a store of mortification and regret for those terrible disqualifications, which, in the solitude of his chamber, or in the presence of his trained domestic circle, he may half forget."

Dr. Kitto after concluding his own history, comments on that of Massieu, (the celebrated deaf-and-dumb pupil of the Abbé Sicard,) whose beautiful definition of gratitude, "the memory of the heart," has immortalized him. The following questions were put to him:

"A hearing female relative told me that she saw with her ears a person whom she could not see with her eyes; who was coming to my father. The hearing see with their ears during the night a person who is walking."

This answer is very analogous to that of the blind man, who explained his notion of scarlet, by comparing it to the sound of a trumpet. The blind man comparing a sight to a sound, whilst the deaf man compared sounds to sights. As Dr. Kitto says, the blind believe that sight is a kind of ocular hearing; and the deaf, that hearing is a kind of auricular sight. Dr. Kitto thinks, that the deaf-and-dumb believe there is a certain emission from the lips in motion, visible to others and not to themselves.

"Meanwhile it is certain that no proper idea of a sound can be entertained by those who never heard it, whatever be the degree of their education. The nearest approach to such an idea which they can possibly reach, is through the class of hitherto undescribed sensations which I have endeavoured to explain in the chapter on percussions."

This strikes us as a very acute and true remark, and a new one. Physiology confirms it, as both sensations depend on vibrations.

In bringing to an end our analysis of this lay' book, we trust that the pleasure we have taken in analysing it, will be conveyed in some measure to our readers, and will induce them to peruse the little volume itself. In a purely scientific point of view, it contains original matter, the result of the careful observation and the personal experience of many years, by one who can observe, and vividly convey his impressions. The remarks on percussions, as well as on the effect of the loss of hearing on the development

of those mental tastes which depend on the eye, and the high spiritual compensation thus afforded, rather than a physical one in the mere strengthening of the power of other senses, are worthy the attention both of the physiologist and metaphysician, and are proofs of the principle which in this review has been always strenuously insisted on, that the two studies should be united in order to throw any new light on that deep branch of inquiry. But besides its scientific value, another lesson may be incidentally learned from it ;-the history of a manly, honest, earnest mind, pursuing knowledge from the pure love of it, without any ulterior view, and under difficulties seemingly overwhelming, and this perseverance ending (as perseverance does) in success, although that success could not have been foreseen, is good as an example in a profession like our own, where the scientific objects are so high, the difficulties to be overcome so numerous, and the attractions to take a shorter and easier road than persevering labour points out, are so numerous and seducing. The strong will, the self-dependence gradually growing out of and based firmly (as the event proved) on an accurate self-knowledge, and not on an inflated estimate of his own capacities; the freedom from vanity which this shows, and with it genuine humility, and self-distrust under new circumstances which may happen, and of which he has had no experience, and the feeling of satisfaction and content, his honest pride in having used his success to his own exertions, and yet his submission to, and acknowledgment of a guiding Providence, are traits of a character which cannot be studied without the conviction that it is a high one, under a wish (which may not be barren) that such was the reader's own.

ART. XV.

A practical Treatise on Healthy Skin: with Rules for the Medical and Domestic Treatment of Cutaneous Diseases. By ERASMUS WILSON, F.R.S., Lecturer on Anatomy and Physiology in the Middlesex Hospital, &c. &c. Illustrated with Six Steel Engravings.-London, 1845. Small 8vo, pp. 356.

"In the following pages," commences our author, "I propose to make my reader acquainted with the structure and uses of the skin, in the hope of awakening his attention to the necessity and manner of training it to the purposes of health. I trust, moreover, by laying down correct and simple laws, to enable him to comprehend the principles upon which a sound and effective domestic treatment of its diseases may be conducted." We must confess ourselves to be rather at a loss to know, whether Mr. Wilson's objects be to address the general public alone, or whether he aims at including his professional brethren among his readers. If the former, we must say that we cannot find sufficient reason for selecting an isolated portion of general hygiène, treating it at such length and with such copiousness, and especially for appending to it so much information of a purely medical kind, though conveyed in language anything but professional;-except in those unworthy motives, which we have always felt it our duty to expose and condemn, from which we believe Mr. Wilson to be altogether exempt. If the latter, as would appear from the details here and there interspersed on some departments to which Mr. Wilson has devoted peculiar attention, as well as from the combination of rules

for the medical treatment, with those for the domestic management, of cutaneous diseases, we think that Mr. Wilson would have done much better to put his Exposition into a more professional form. We believe that there are many amongst his seniors, as well as his juniors, who would have gladly welcomed such a work, embracing the results of the continued attention which he has given to the subject, since the publication of his more formal Treatise, and devoted rather to the prophylaxis and the general management, than to the classification and particular treatment; of these ill-understood and most troublesome maladies.

The general management of the skin has been ably treated by many previous writers on popular hygiène; and particularly by Dr. Andrew Combe, whose chapter on this subject contains almost every direction of real importance. If the brain, the lungs, the heart, the stomach, the liver, the kidneys, &c. &c., were each treated in a separate volume, with the copiousness of illustration which Mr. Wilson has bestowed on his favorite organ, the Skin, the public would be in possession of a complete encyclopædical library of hygiène, which would not, we apprehend, be nearly as useful as Dr. A. Combe's comprehensive treatise; on account of both the expense and the time required for acquaintance with its contents. In some respects, however, the present publication is well timed: for it may serve to forward the "bath and wash-house" movement; which, combined with those which are taking place of early shop-closing, of draining and ventilation, and of public places of recreation, we look upon as among the most pleasing and favorable of the "signs of the times." If such be Mr. Wilson's purpose, we are ready to accept his contribution to the general impulse that is now operating so beneficially on the public mind, as one of no mean value, but we would have been better pleased if he had given a more prominent expression of his intentions, and had omitted many passages that appear to us to have somewhat of a too popular bearing.

We shall now extract, as specimens of the mode in which the different subjects are handled, a few passages which may, at the same time, communicate useful information to our readers. After a chapter on the scarf-skin, and another on the true skin, which contain clear and accurate descriptions of those structures, couched in popular language, our author proceeds to the perspiratory system; which he has investigated with particular minuteness.

"Taken separately, the little perspiratory tube, with its appended gland, is calculated to awaken in the mind very little idea of the importance of the system to which it belongs; but when the vast numbers of similar organs composing this system are considered, we are led to form some notion, however imperfect, of their probable influence on the health and comfort of the individual. I use the words imperfect notion' advisedly; for the reality surpasses imagination, and almost belief. To arrive at something like an estimate of the value of the perspiratory system, in relation to the rest of the organism, I counted the perspiratory pores on the palm of the hand, and found 3528 in a square inch. Now, each of these pores being the aperture of a little tube of about a quarter of an inch long, it follows that in a square inch of skin on the palm of the hand, there exists a length of tube equal to 882 inches, or 73 feet. Surely such an amount of drainage as 73 feet in every square inch of skin, assuming this to be the average for the whole body, is something wonderful; and the thought naturally intrudes itself, What if this drainage were obstructed? Could we need a stronger argu

ment for enforcing the necessity of attention to the skin? On the pulps (?) of the fingers, where the ridges of the sensitive layer of the true skin are somewhat finer than in the palm of the hand, the number of pores on a square inch a little exceeded that of the palm; and on the heel, where the ridges are coarser, the number of pores on the square inch was 2268, and the length of tube 567 inches, or 47 feet. To obtain an estimate of the length of tube of the perspiratory system of the whole surface of the body, I think that 2800 might be taken as a fair average of the number of pores in the square inch; and 700, consequently, of the number of inches in length. Now, the number of square inches of surface in a man of ordinary height and bulk is 2500; the number of pores, therefore, 7,000,000, and the number of inches of perspiratory tube 1,750,000, that is, 145,833 feet, or 48,600 yards, or nearly 28 miles. [Note. To the medical reader may be necessary to explain, that the sebaceous system is included in the system of perspiratory glands and tubes in this calculation. I have ascertained beyond question, that the sebaceous system is the perspiratory apparatus of the greater part of the body, the true perspiratory glands and tubes being found only in certain parts. Therefore, the calculation which I have made on these premises must be considered as falling within rather than beyond the truth."] (p. 43.)

it

The next chapter, "On the oil-glands of the skin," contains an account of the sebaceous follicles, which differs in some degree from that which is generally received, and which is probably more accurate.

"The apparatus for keeping the surface of the skin bedewed with an oily fluid, resembles, in general particulars of structure and economy, that of the perspiratory system. It consists of minute tubes, which traverse the scarf and sensitive skin, and enter the substance of the corium, where they terminate in small glands. These tubes are similar in structure to the perspiratory ducts, being composed of three layers, derived respectively from the scarf-skin which lines their interior; the sensitive skin, which is the medium of distribution of their vessels and nerves; and the corium, with its fibres, which gives them strength and support. Like the perspiratory tubes, they are in some situations spiral, but this is not a constant feature; more frequently they pass directly to their destination, and they are also larger. The chief characters in which they differ from the perspiratory apparatus are, the straightness and greater diameter of their tubes, their absence in certain situations, as on the palm and sole, and abundance in others where their office is more needful, as on the face and nose, the head, the ears, &c., and the degree of complication in the structure of their glands This latter character is sufficiently remarkable, since they offer every shade of complication, from the simple straight tube, to a tube divided into numberless ramifications, and constituting a little rounded arborescent mass, of about the size of a millet seed." (p. 56.)

Mr. Wilson considers that the healthy action of the sebaceous system is peculiarly interfered with by the "sedentary and irregular habits of refined society." Instead of being completed according to the normal standard, the secreting operations are irregular and torpid, the contents of the cells unnaturally solid and dense; they are only partly or not at all emptied, and are either thrown out in a mass upon the surface of the skin, or, if too dense and dry for this mode of escape, they collect in the tube of the gland, and produce an unnatural distension of it, which frequently gives rise to inflammation. It is in this condition of the sebaceous system, that the curious parasite, first discovered by Dr. Simon of Berlin, and subsequently investigated by Mr. Wilson, appears most disposed to lodgment and multiplication within the oil-tubes.*

• We cannot help noticing Mr. Wilson's defence of the title, which he has bestowed upon this animal, as showing a degree of disregard for the rules of zoological nomenclature, which we should scarcely have expected from him. Having designated it as the Entozoon folliculocum, and having

“The animalcule of the skin is found in the oil-tubes, whenever there exists any disposition to the unnatural accumulation of their contents; it is found in numbers, varying from one or two to twenty, in the interior of the little grooved cylinder, which is squeezed out by the pressure of the fingers; and this in an apparently perfect state of the health of the skin, cannot be said to be in perfect health when its functions are performed in a torpid manner. Now, as in the majority of mankind, and certainly in all the inhabitants of cities and large towns, the skin is more or less torpid in its functions, so the presence of this animal in the skin is the rule, its absence the exception. I have found it in all ages, from youth to old age, more numerously, it is true, at the latter than the former period, and in great and remarkable numbers during sickness. Under these circumstances I see no other conclusion open, than to assume that it performs some beneficent purpose in the economy of the skin; that purpose being, according to my belief, the disintegration of the over-distended cells, the impression of a new condition upon the contents of the cells, and the stimulation of their tubes to perform their office more efficiently. In corroboration of this view is the fact, that these little creatures increase in number when the vital powers decline, so that when the energies of the system are reduced by disease, and when the skin, participating in that reduction, is unable alone to fulfil its functions correctly, these little beings are produced to aid it in the work.” (p. 62.)

This is certainly a somewhat favorable view of the purposes of this extensive parasitism; but we see no sufficient evidence in its favour; since the mere fact of multiplication of individuals under circumstances favorable to their existence, indicates nothing as to the final cause of their production. Doubtless it will be highly gratifying and instructive to the public mind, to be made acquainted with the fact, that the habits of " refined society" tend just as strongly to the production of this tribe of parasites, as the habits of the " great unwashed" favour the development of certain others, which are not in themselves one whit more disgusting. Here, as elsewhere, we see how nature manages to compensate one class for the exemption they may enjoy from the evils incident to another. The delicate town-bred lady of fashion, in descending from her carriage, shrinks instinctively from the mass of rags, filth, and vermin, which is brought

referred to the fact that the word entozoon is now used to distinguish a class of animals, he nevertheless is bold enough to add, "I do not think this an objection to its use as a generic appellation; and the specific name which follows renders any mistake impossible." (p. 61, note.) Such a method of nomenclature, carried to its legitimate extent, would produce inextricable confusion, and endless absurdities. Fancy our calling the window-swallow Avis fenestrarum; or the bed-bug Insectum lectularium. In Mr. Wilson's detailed account of the animal, published in the Philosophical Transactions for 1844, the generic name Entozoon was only suggested as provisional; the class, to which the animal should be referred, being still a matter of question. We should not have noticed the subject here, had it not been that the error of nomenclature is not only continued, but defended, by Mr. Wilson. And the error is the greater, because it is acknowledged on all hands, that the animal is not one of the class entozoa, being raised by its complexity of structure far above that group; so that it is very much as though Mr. Wilson were to christen a bat by the title of Avis speluncarum, because it flies like a bird, and lives in caves. The fact is, that the parasite in que tion is one of those animals which sometimes present themselves, to the perplexity of the systematic zoologist, but to the satisfaction of the philosophical student of nature who regards classes, orders, &c., as a machinery of human invention, adapted to serve the purpose of facilitating the acquisition of knowledge, but as having no real existence in creation. It unites the characters of the higher annelida or worm-tribe, of the lower arachnida or spider-tribe, and of the lower crustacea or crab-tribe, to such a degree, that it is yet doubtful which class ought to afford it a place. Its structure and history have been so ably elucidated by Mr. Wilson in the paper we have referred to, that little probably remains to be added to the information he has collected; and the difficulty in assigning its zoological position lies rather in our imperfect acquaintance with the nearest-allied forms among the classes just named. The investigator of the history of this parasite need certainly be in no lack of subjects for examination; for, strange to say, it is one of the most readily procurable of all living beings, especially in a town population.