Editorial. Memoir of Prof. Chapin A. Harris. [Volume: 2, Issue: 5, December, 1860, pp. 274-288]

280

THE DENTAL COSMOS.

fellow-students and the confidence of his preceptors. Zealous in the pursuit of knowledge, he strove with diligence to compensate, by earnest application, for the want of an early training, nor did he fail to add to his
natural nobleness of character a proficiency in the art of his choice that
bid fair to heap upon him the honors and emoluments of his profession.
But, alas! how vain are the hopes of man! the most gorgeous conceptions of his fond imagination are in the twinkling of an eye cast down;
and the embodiment of his ambitious spirit "is resolved to earth again,
to become a brother to the insensible rock and to the sluggish clod, which
the rude swain turns with his share and treads upon!"
Well were it for all who are left to deplore the changes that chill the
blood and cause heaviness of spirit, could we, when the summons comes,
like the departed, "sustained and soothed by an unfaltering trust, approach
our end like one who wraps the drapery of his couch about himi and lies
down to pleasant dreams.". L. S.
REVIEW OF DENTAL LITERATURE AND ART.
BY J. H. M'QUILLEN, D.D.S.
AN ELEMENTARY TREATISE ON IIUMAN ANATOMY. By JOSEPH LEIDY,
M.D., Professor of Anatomy in the University of Pennsylvania, etc.
With three hundred and ninety-two illustrations. Philadelphia: J. B.
Lippincott & Co., publishers. 1860.
In the preparation of a work on anatomy, as the author is compelled
to travel over a well-beaten track, there is little or no room for originality, and his principal claim to consideration therefore must rest upon
the manner in which the subject-matter is presented to the reader. One
of the principal objections to the majority of text-books of anatomy and
physiology is that they are so elaborate and voluminous that students
just entering upon their studies find themselves in a maze, from which,
after a brief struggle to master the contents of the work, the majority free
themselves by seeking in incomplete compendiums those prominent points
of interest which the compilers deemed of sufficient importance to present.
Now either of these extremes is objectionable, and something which should
be a happy medium between them is desirable.
Fully recognizing this fact, no doubt, Professor Leidy states in the
preface that " this work is intended as an elementary treatise on human
anatomy, and is not an elaborate system adapted to the use of those who
have advanced in anatomical knowledge." Ile adds further, "that the
author has attempted to prepare such a book as he feels would have been
of service to himself in the commencement of his studies."
After a careful examination of the contents of this work, during which