This is in no sense a treatise. It is rather a collection of essays on some of the problems connected with the heart in health and in disease. There are considered such widely diverse topics as the mode of contraction of the ventricular muscles, the bruits of mitral disease, back-pressure effects, the utilization of the blood as a carrier of remedies, venous pulsations, the automatic mechanism of the heart, heart disease, heart failure and treatment. The subjects are presented from the standpoint now of anatomy, now pathology, now physiology, now physics; or with statements based on experimental or clinical observation or offered as pure theory. The style is generally clear with frequent allusion and classical quotation. The book is interesting, and at times throws illuminating side-lights on certain phases of cardiology. As a whole, however, it is disappointing and makes one wonder why it was written.