Ufricwfi. A Text-book of Medical Jurisprudence jor India.

By J. B/Lyon, f.c.s., F.i.c.j Brigade- Surgeon, Bombay Medical Service, &c. Cal- cutta : Thacker, Spink & Co.

In our issue for December last, we gave a

short notice of this book founded on a some- what cursory perusal of the proof-sheets. We ventured to state that it supplied a want in medical literature and would prove a boon to doctors and lawyers in this country. We have xiow been supplied with a copy of the completed ?svork, and on closer study of it, we are in a posi- tion to state that the estimate which we formed

of its value is more than sustained by better

acquaintance with its contents. The arrange- ment of the book is thoroughly systematic; the treatment of the various subjects eminently clear, methodical, and exhaustive; the style lucid;

the information practical; the arrangement na- tural and easy; the use of types and figures judicious, and the index copious.

The preliminary chapter on offences and their punishment, constitution, and procedure of cri- minal courts, and the law of evidence which has been compiled by Mr. J. D. Inverarity, barris- ter-at-law, supplies information and hints which will be found very serviceable by medical men. To review the vast array of material distributed

throughout this work would be an arduous labour. We have considered it a better test of

the value of the book for Indian purposes to search for references to subjects peculiar to

India, and we have not been disappointed. Such matters as infanticide, cattle poisoning, thuggee, burial alive, imputed wounds, snake-bite, rape of infants, mechanical abortion, &c., &c., are as fully dealt with as the scope of the treatise permits. There is a very complete series of illustrative

cases, English and Indian, appended, which have been very judiciously selected and carefully condensed. Another Appendix gives a number of useful tables of height and weight, ossi-

ficates, measurements, analyses, insurance data, &c., &c. The work is illustrated by a number of excellent woodcuts and plates ; most of the latter being from microphotographs supplied by Dr. Heueage Gibbes.

This text-book, in short, is, we feel convinced, destined to attain a standard place in medical

literature, and we advise every medical man in India to possess himself of a copy of it with- out delay.