Principles of Human Physiology

Abstract

The sixth edition of a work of nearly one thousand pages is no mean testimony to its worth. We shall not, therefore, attempt to criticise this work, but simply afford our readers the means of judging whether the new edition has kept up with its predecessors in those departments where the use of the microscope is necessary. We are not sure that this is a work of supererogation. Researches with the microscope in this country do not at all command the attention which their importance demands, and if we examine the records of our own societies compared with those of other countries of Europe, it is very manifest that the easier methods of observation with the naked eye are favourites with the scientific men of Great Britain. As a physiologist, no microscopist could complain that Dr. Carpenter has neglected to chronicle and estimate those researches which alone could be carried on with the microscope. He has everywhere recognised research by the aid of this instrument, and in his work on the use of the microscope has shown how thoroughlyhe understands the facts that can alone be brought into consideration in the science of physiology by its aid. At the same time we cannot but regard a certain tendency to speculation in the direction of physical and chemical forces, as fraught with danger to physiology, unless accompanied with the sound observation of facts which the microscope alone supplies. On this ground we felt anxious lest Dr. Carpenter, in committing his work to the editorship of another, should diminish its value in relation to all those facts bearing on human physiology which can alone be properly understood by the use of the microscope. We are glad to say that, as far as our examination of this new edition of Dr. Carpenter’s work has gone, we observe no indication on the part of Dr. Power of attaching less importance to microsopical researches than his author.