easy compounds he has no tolerance, charging
upon them, that, although they may for the moment lubricate and soften
the hair, they burden the scalp, clog its pores, deaden the roots of the
hair, and cause or increase many abnormal conditions of the cuticle.
And certainly the formulae; which are quoted in the Appendix go far to
arouse in the reader the disgust for the popular preparations of the day
which the writer does not attempt to conceal.

In those chapters which discuss the scalp and hair in disease, Dr. Perry
takes the ground, that the trouble is primarily in the skin, and that
remedial treatment should therefore be directed to it. He mentions the
different eruptive and other affections in turn, and quotes the method
of procedure advised by medical men, in connection with a statement of
the manner of practice which he has successfully adopted, illustrating
his views with very good wood-cuts derived from the atlases of Wilson,
Neligan, and Dendy. In many cases he believes constitutional debility to
be the primary difficulty, and recommends a tonic regimen as the best
preliminary to a course of local treatment.

Without, of course, attempting to give minute directions for the
management of all diseased conditions of the head and hair,--which would
be alike impracticable in a volume of this popular character and
unprofitable to himself as a practitioner in such cases,--Dr. Perry
gives a large number of recipes which his own experience or that of his
favorite authors has proved to be trustworthy and serviceable, the
ingredients of which are cleanly, simple, and agreeable, adding plain
rules for the rational culture and preservation of the hair.

The book has its faults of style, to be sure,--principal among which is
a tendency to make too much of the scientific investigation and the
acquirement of the writer, extending sometimes almost to pedantry in the
use of long words and large phrases; but it contains much information
that is important and can be found nowhere else except by troublesome
comparison of extended treatises, and a deal of plain common-sense that
should commend it to attention and respect.

RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS.

Vida de Abran Lincoln, Decimosesto Presidente de los Estados Unidos,
precedida de una Introduccion. Por D. F. Sarmiento. Nueva York. D.
Appleton y Ca. 12mo. pp. xlviii., 306. $1.75.

Life and Times of Joseph Warren. By Richard Frothingham. Boston. Little,
Brown, & Co. 8v