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REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES.
Skin Diseases, Including their Definition, Symptoms, Diagnosis, Prognosis, Morbid Anatomy, and Treatment. A Manual for Students and Practitioners. By Malcolm Morris, Joint Lecturer on Dermatology at St. Mary's Hospital Medical School, etc. With Illustrations. Philadelphia, Henry C. Lea, 1880. Duod., pp. 320.
Mr. Morris's little manual is decidedly superior in many respects to its predecessors in the same line heretofore published. Abandon- ing the alphabetical order of treating the subject which has hitherto satisfied the various writers on dermatology who have put forth epitomes and manuals, he has boldly arranged his matter according to a definite classification, thus aiding the student to gain a con- nected and coherent notion of cutaneous affections in their relation to one another. Mr. Morris has also shown a praiseworthy pro- gressiveness in giving up those time-honored representations of the skin and its appendages which have for so many years satisfied the artistic instincts and the scientific requirements of writers and pub- lishers, and has boldly given the modern views of the anatomy of the skin with illustrations which really do illustrate the text. While we cannot altogether endorse the classification adopted, we are glad to say that it is far in advance of any other which has yet been put forth in English works, and is at least in close relationship with the classifications prevalent in Germany and America.
When we come to examine the manner in which Mr. Morris has handled his subject, and the proportion and arrangement of the various parts of his book, we are disappointed to find that in this respect he has not succeeded to the degree which might have been expected. To begin with, some forty precious pages are occupied with the discussion of the eruptive fevers, including diphtheria, a task which we think would have been much better left to writers on general medicine. No student or practitioner will satisfy himself by a perusal of Mr. Morris's chapters on this subject. In the second place, due proportion of parts is not observed in the treat- ment of the individual diseases. Entirely too much space is given to morbid anatomy, and too little to diagnosis and treatment. A little work like this is nothing if not "practical." Finally, we must complain of a certain want of originality in the treatment of the subject. Mr. Morris seems afraid to give his personal experi- ence, but continually quotes the opinions of one or two masters, notably Hebra and Hutchinson.
