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of these muscles which enlarges the chest so as to allow ofthe indrawin of the air, which act is called inspiration.It is their relaxation which forces the air out again, andaccomplishes the expiration." Again as to circulation :"There are also in the veins valves which prevent the bloodfrom returning to the capillaries, but allow it to pass on

towards the heart. The muscular pressure to which mostof the veins are subject, therefore, arrests the progress ofthe blood in which it ought to go (sic), and it is in this waythat exercise acts as a healthy stimulus to the circulation."Speaking of the stages of icnammation : " There are, first,effusion, in which serum or pus exudes ; secondly, suppura-tion, or the formation of matter." The reason of the

pyrexia in inflammatory diseases is that "the inflamed partacts on the system much in the same way that you haveseen a small stove able to influence a long series of hot-houses with which it is connected by pipes." It is a pitythat the work was not supervised by a physician, so thatthese inaccuracies might not have blemished an otherwiseuseful volume. A less pardonable mistake, perhaps, is theinsertion of the wrong weights and measures at the end ofthe volume.

Home Gymnastics for the Health. Translated from theGerman. London : Hamilton, Adams, and Co. 1877.-

Although we are of opinion that no system of artificialexercises can replace the natural movements obtained bythe pursuit of the usual English pastimes of cricket, row-ing, and rackets for boys, and hunting, fishing, and shoot-ing for adults, still gymnastics are useful substitutes inthose cases where, from ill-health or other adverse condition,natural exercise is not attainable. It ought, however, to bea recognised principle at our schools that gymnastics shouldnever be allowed to curtail the hours of natural play. Thiscaution is needed, as it is rather the fashion at the presentday to extol the German system of physical education inschools of a certain class. We frequently hear comparisonsdrawn between the upright carriage of the German youthand the slouch of the English schoolboy ; but critics forgetthat the slouch is almost a traditional characteristic, and isno sign of languor, debility, or of slack muscles, for themajority of English schoolboys can prove themselves 11 aslithe as cats and as hardy as badgers." Indeed, we be-lieve, in any contest requiring strength and endurance, theEnglish schoolboy, weight for weight and age for age,would be more than a match for the continental youthtrained on the artificial system. However, as we havesaid, gymnastics are useful in certain cases, more espe-cially where it is desirable to exercise certain sets of

muscles; and it is also a valuable adjunct in the treat-ment of various chronic affections. In the work beforeus considerable attention is bestowed on this latter point,and the different exercises recommended for differentaffections are fully described. Indeed it is easy to see

that the exercise of certain muscles, as of the thoraxand abdomen,-the movement cure, as it is called in Ger-

many, - must have a powerful effect on the containedviscera. Under professional supervision, suitable gymnasticexercises are thus, without doubt, a powerful therapeuticagent; and the present work fulfils a useful purpose in

bringing the conditions under which they may be used soclearly, and we may add modestly, forward.Zeict/Mf Biologie. Band XIII., Heft 1. 1877.-Tbis

number contains the following papers :-I. Studies on theMethods of Warming adopted in the Schools of Munich, byDr. E. Voit and Dr. T. Footer. 2. On the Relations of the

Compounds which precede the Formation of Urea in theBodies of Mammals, to the Organism of Fowls, by Dr. W.Enifriem. 3. Histological and Physiological Researches,by G. Valentin. 4. The Rapidity of Nerve Degeneration,

by Mr. Gubowitsch. 5. On the Food of the Italian Ziegel-arbeiters, by Prof. Ranke. The researches on warmingschools, by Voit and Forster, are very complete and in-structive. They show the amount of combustible materialrequired to heat a house, and the distribution of heat inrooms, both in heated and non-heated, in ventilated and in

non.ventilated rooms. They find that in summer buildings’

are warmed from without, the upper and outer rooms ac-quiring a higher temperature; that ventilation by means

’

of suction draughts causes no remarkable change in the, distribution of temperature; that heated rooms give off a. large portion of their caloric to the rooms above them ; and

that the driving in of air which is not made to circulate in; consequence of its possessing a different temperature, causesJ no considerable mixture of air. The subject of the moisture- of the air is also considered, and they show that as a ruler houses are traversed by a current of air from below upwards.b Household Organisation. By Mrs. CADDY. London: o

Chapman and Hall. 1877.-This is a book in which amuse-ment and instruction are equally blended, and since it

f professes to teach us how we can go comfortably, and even"genteely," through life without excess of servants, we

3 feel that its perusal will be very generally beneficial, espe-- cially to those who think it is possible to he ornamental in1 this world without being useful. Mrs. Caddy has a sprightlyr style, and would shine, we fancy, as a writer of satirical- novels, but she has chosen this better part, and we are- accordingly thankful.

THE SMALL-POX EPIDEMIC.

THE fatal cases of small-pox in twenty of the largestEnglish towns during the third week of April were 81against 85 and 77 in the two preceding weeks; 68 occurredin London, 5 in Liverpool (excluding 4 in the ToxtethWorkhouse), 5 in Salford, 2 in Oldham, one in Blan-chester (excluding 7 in the Monsall Hospital), and notone in any of the fifteen other towns.

In London the small-pox deaths, which had been 78 and60, in the two previous weeks, were 68 last week. Of these40 occurred in the Metropolitan Asylum Hospitals, 5 in theHighgate Small-pox Hospital, and the remaining 23 inprivate dwellings. Excluding one admitted from Chiswick,and di8tr)bubing the ol her 44 hospital cases; the Registrar-General reports that 11 of the deceased small-pox patientsbad resided in Hackney, 9 in Southwark, 6 in Bow, 5 inBrthnal Green, 4 in Islington, and 4 in Camberwell; in all9 belonged to the wst, 20 to the north, 3 to the central,16 to the east, and 19 to the south group of dis ricts. Thefatal cases iu North London showed a marked increase uponthe numbers in recent weeks, especially in Haekney.The returns from the Metropolitan Asylum District

Hospitals show unmistakable signs of a decline in theprevalence and fatality of small-pox in London. The small-pox patients in these hospitals, which had been 988, 956,and 930 at the end of the three preceding weeks, turtherdecliued to 881 on the 21st inst. The number ot new casesadmitted during the week was 161, against 209 and 228 inthe two preceding wfeks. The hospital at Limehouse,which had been used since it was open for the reception ofconvalescents, is now empty.One of the most hopeful features in the recent returns

from these hospitals is a marked decline in the proportionalfatality of the cases treated, which almost invariably indi-cates the decline of an epidemic. Excluding the recentlyopened hospitals at Deptford and Fulham, in the returnsfrom which the cases transferred from other hospitals andthe new cases admitted are not fully distinguished, the pro-portion of deaths to completed cases, in the hospitals devotedto small-pox patients, was 241 per cent. during the firstfour weeks 0f the year, whereas it had declined to 17 3 percent. during the four weeks ending 21st inst. As the-completed cases during these two periods were 644 and770 respectively, the numbers are sufficiently large to yieldtrustworthy proportions.