The Magistrates' Annual Practice, by Charles Milner Atkinson (Stevens and
Sons, 215.), is the fourth annual issue of a book which is intended to fulfil two functions,—first and chiefly, to inform a Magistrate of his general powers and duties, and secondly, to bring his knowledge up to date.—The Year-Boo',: of Treatment for 1899 (Cassell and Co., is. 6d.) does something, of the same kind for the medical profession, only that in this case the new matter occupies a much larger proportion of the whole. The cynical remark that medicine makes great progress in every direction except the treatment of disease is not borne out by the contents of this volume and its predecessors (this is the fifteenth annual issue). Not the least noteworthy feature of the new Medicine is the rapid growth of the kind of treatment of which vaccination is the most familiar example. The articles on consumption and kindred diseases will be read with special interest.—Yet another annual volume is The Year's Music, 1899, edited by G. R. Carter (J. S. Virtue and Co., 2s. 6d.) After a brief retrospect of the chief musical events of the year we have a list, extending to forty pages, of the musical literature of the year. This is followed by an account of London and provincial musical institutions, schools, and societies. A separate chapter is given to the music of cathedrals, colleges, &co and another to musical degrees.—Occupying a somewhat anomalous place between art and history is " 1812 " : Napoleon I. in Russia, by Vassili Verestchagin, with an introduction by R. Whiteing (W. Heinemann, 6s.) It is not offered, writes Mr. Whiteing, "to the reader as a history of the invasion of Russia," but as an introduction to the series of pictures which the artist is about to exhibit in this country. These, he says in effect, are the things that happened, and that I paint. We are inelined to think that something more brief and more directly referring to the artist's work would have done what was wanted more efficiently.
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