sist of four volumes) of what promises to be the most important contribution to medico-legal literature ever given to the profession. Written by an eminent doctor and chemist, and a well-known lawyer and professor of medical jurisprudence, aided by numerous lights of both the legal and medical professions, the work is a much more comprehensive and exhaustive treatise upon the subject than any of its predecessors. This first volume treats exclusively of pure medical jurisprudence and forensic medicine (thanatological) and to these two branches papers are contributed (in addition to those furnished by Mr. Becker) by Doc tors H. P. Loomis, I. C. Rosse, George Woolsey, Roswell Park, E. V. Stoddard, W. N. Bullard, D.S. Lamb and Hon. Wm. A. Poste and Chas. A. Bos ton, Esq. As these gentlemen have devoted especial study and research to the specialties they discuss, their opinions are of great value and importance. To one engaged in criminal practice the work will be almost invaluable, and to the general practitioner as a book of reference its value can hardly be overesti mated. The volumes are to be illustrated wherever desir able by "line" and "half tone" engravings and chromo-lithographic plates. The work is sold by subscription only, and no single volume will be sold. We recommend it cordially to the legal profession, believing, from a careful examination of this first volume, that it is of sterling merit and by far the best contribution upon the subject which has yet been published. The Paris Law Courts; Sketches of men and manners. Translated from the French by Gerald P. Moriarty, B.A. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1894. Cloth. $3.75. Astudy of the French judicial system is of peculiar interest to English and American lawyers, the whole method of procedure in the French courts being so different from that to which we are accus tomed. A perusal of this interesting work will, we think, leave but little doubt in the reader's mind that justice is more fairly meted out to the whole people in America than in France. This book, which is a translation of " La Palais de Justice de Paris" a work written in collaboration by certain members of the association of journalists attached to the Paris law courts, gives an excellent description of the courts, the form of procedure, and the history and customs of the Paris Bar. Interesting accounts are given of many famous advocates, the greatest among them being Maitre Lachaud. Of him it is said : — "Lachaud was not a defender, he was the defender of accused persons. An orator if you like, and a great orator, skilled in all vocal harmonies, in all
modulations of tone, with ten, nay twenty dif ferent voices at his command, according as he was called upon to convince or to persuade, to touch or to terrify; but, before all, he was a tactician of the very highest rank, and a psychologist by whose side specialists of that name were mere stammering babes. . . . His knowledge of a jury was extraordinary. Lachaud would make twelve separate speeches if he had to deal with twelve jurymen of different condi tions. . .With a marvellous intuition, he would find his way into every man's heart. Executing varia tions on the same theme with incomparable vivacity, speaking to each juryman in turn, fixing him with an eye which saw everything, never letting him go till he was thoroughly convinced." The book is finely and profusely illustrated, and should be eagerly sought for by the legal profession, giving, as it does, the best idea of French courts and lawyers yet published. The Criminal Code of Canada and the Canada Evidence Act, 1893. With an extra appendix containing the Extradition Convention with the United States, the Fugitive Offender's Act, and the House of Commons' debates on the Code. And an Analytical Index. By James Crankshaw, B.C.L. Whiteford and Theoret, Montreal, 1894. Half calf. $10.oo. This work of Mr. Crankshaw's is of importance and value not only to Canadian lawyers, but to all those interested in criminal law and proceedings. The annotations are admirably prepared, and are very full and exhaustive, while the citations are apt and directly to the point, evincing unusual good judgment and discrimination on Mr. Crankshaw's part. That the work will be thoroughly appreciated by the Bench and Bar of the Dominion there can be no doubt, and it will find a welcome from many libraries and practitioners on this side of the line. Wills and How Not to Make Them, with a se lection of leading cases. By B. B. West. Long mans, Green & Co., New York, 1893. We are inclined to agree with the author of this little book in his statement that " if the plain truth were told, it would be acknowledged that more misery and injustice have been worked by wills than by the series of wars the country (England) has waged since the modern system of will-making came into use." The work is a plea for the exercise of common sense and discretion on the part of testators in making their wills, if wills they must make, and the errors hitherto committed are held up before them as warning examples of the consequences of lack of
