Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 24.pdf/42

This page needs to be proofread.

Reviews of Books specific as to cramp, could be authori tatively announced. Cases as they arise might then be treated as illustrations of the appropriate principle but them selves denied force as precedents. Thus regarded, simply as aiding and suggest ing the formation of a sharper and clearer denning of the rule or principle, specific cases might well be of use. At present they confuse and bewilder. In the absence of that great desideratum, some statement of the law which could speak with authority, the building of a code of laws of increasing usefulness, because of greater certainty and clear ness, would be the proper work of statu tory revision. Such a codification, however, would plainly not be that of the irresponsible and ill-trained political legislator, but of the responsible and pur poseful judiciary. The proper perform ance of a public duty so momentous in its consequences to a complex civiliza tion may appropriately be claimed by the legal profession. To this it should consecrate itself in the highest spirit of social service. It is therefore no small part of the merit of Judge Street's excellent work that it, in some sort, points the way to this high end. STEDMAN'S MEDICAL DICTION ARY A Practical Medical Dictionary; of words used in medicine, with their derivation and pronuncia tion, including dental, veterinary, chemical, botani cal, electrical, life insurance and other special terms; anatomical tables of the titles in general use, and those sanctioned by the Basle Anatomical Conven tion; pharmaceutical preparations, official in the U. S. and British Pharmacopoeias and contained in the National Formulary; chemical and thera peutic information as to mineral springs of America and Europe, and comprehensive lists of synonyms. By Thomas Lathrop Stedman, A.M., M.D., Edi tor of "Twentieth Century Practice of Medicine" and of the Medical Record. William Wood & CoNew York. Pp. 988+ 10 (appendix). (Thumbindexed, $5; plain, S4.50.)

23

plan of the book, and its dignified and attractive form, justify us in recom mending this work as a reliable one for the use of those outside the medical profession who recognize the growing necessity of a layman's knowing some thing about a science constantly being broadened by current investigation. We are pleased to see that the author has done what he can to discourage the use of those hideous Greco-Latin maca ronic terms which have fastened them selves on the nomenclature of medical science, and that he would substitute, for example, "oothectomy" for "ovari otomy." The recent Basle Anatomical Nomenclature is adopted, and if, as we believe, one of the functions of the technical lexicographer should be to standardize a terminology, Dr. Stedman seems to have produced in this respect a model of scholarly thoroughness and scientific precision. The work is entirely new and up-todate, and its utility to medico-legal practitioners and criminologists is ap parent at a glance.

PARISIAN WOMEN LAWYERS Love vs. Law. By Colette Yver. Translated by Mrs. Bradley Gilman. G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York. Pp. 401. ($1.36 rut.)

IN a novel of real worth, written with seriousness of purpose, a French authoress, known in private life as Mme. Hazard, deals with the marriage of a gifted woman barrister to a leader of the Paris bar, and with the fortunes of an imaginary group of women lawyers who have their counterpart in some actual personages in the Palais de Justice. The novel is interesting as a study of the influence of the feminist IHE high professional standing of movement on domestic life, and also as •"• the uic author tiuiiiin of ui this uns medical uu;<iii.iu dicuu - a portrayal of various types, all rather tionary, the reputation of his publishers, attractive, of the French woman the noticeably complete and scholarly barrister.