A Treatise on the Science and Practice of Midwifery.

But little can be said that will tend to increase the cordiality of the reception that is assured in advance for such an old and excellent friend as Playfair's Obstetrics, which stands in the first rank of English works on this subject. The present edition follows closely upon the sixth, and accordingly the author has not deemed it necessary to make any very extensive additions to his earlier editions. We regret, nevertheless, that he has not seen fit to enlarge upon the general subject of child-bed fever, the bacteriological aspect of which is decidedly slighted, while the relation of puerperal cellulitis and peritonitis to septic infection is scarcely indicated, these two manifestations of disease being treated almost as separate entities independent of any connection with infectious processes. The footprints of the American editor appear in greatest abundance upon the pages devoted to a consideration of the various modifications of the