The Sun.
London, England, 1850-12-25 00:00:00

LITERATURE

THE MEDICAL RECORDER, being a Digest
of Practical Medicine and Surgery. Edited by
W. Raleigh Baxter, LL D. First Half-yearly
Part.

The object of this most rueful medical periodical
is thus explained by Doctor Baxter in his opening
address :

"It is not in the light of a rival to any exiting pub-
lication that the Medical Recorder puts forth its claims
to the good opinion of the profession. The purp ,se of
the Recorder is peculiar, for its aim is to give results, di-
vested of details as much as possble. The law) er has
his Digest'—convenient as a reference and a guide; it
is intended, that the medical man shall no loner be
without his digest; and that a vacuum, known to exist
hitherto in medical literature, shall be filled up by the
publication of the Medical Recorder. In brief, it is pro-
posed to present to the medical profession a Catalogue
Raisonnt of the more practical contents of every medical
periodical of any consideration, together with a fair
sample of every new monograph that may be noticeable,
either by reason of its intrinsic merit or from the name
of its writer. Reviews of important new works on me-
licine shall be included in thisjournal; but the opinions
of the author will be given as fully as possible, and those
of the reviewer as briefly.
"Fur the fully occupied medical man it is proposed to
effect a saving in time by giving him results at a single
glance; for the man of restrict ~t 1 means a still more Um-
__

portant saving, by Lffarding him the opportunity of ob-
taining, at an exc. edibgly small cost, such a mats of
valuable information as it would be utterly impossible
tor him to procure in any other way."
These ohjecti have been completely carried out in the
present number. It coniists of 12$ closely printed
octavo pages, and in that space we have• for half-a-
crown an phabctically arranged digest of all the
important medical publications, whether appearing as
monographs or as articles in the various medical
journals, which have appeared from the month of May
to the month of November. Tnii first half-yearly
part contains nearly 300 compilations of recent me-
dical publications, all of which are conscientiously made,
and in which no result or fact of importance is
omitted, although the details and mere verbiage are
cut out. For the editor of such a publication we
know no one who is from his previous habits and
studies so well qualified as Dr. Baxter. Having fur
many years held the office of lecturer in various
wedical and scientific institutions in Dublin and in
London, he has in the compilation of his lectures been
obliged to continually exercise his judgment, and has
thus acquired a facility of selecting and classifying
facts which nothing but constant practice can give,
while his long connexion with the literary and scien-
tific departments of the public press has given to him
that condensation and, at the same time, perspecuity
of style in which the majority of medical writers are
so lamentably deficient.

THE NATIONAL CONCERTS.
HER MAJESTY'S THEATRE.

These concerts were brought to a close on Mon-
day evening, and whatever may have been their re-
sults in a pecuniary point of view (and we have rea-
son to know that the committee from the first were
utterly indifferent as to the pecuniary results of the
undertaking), there can be no doubt but that in an
artistic point of view their success has been
greater than even the most sanguine of their
projectors could have anticipated. The public has
been by these concerts enabled for the first time to
hear music of the highest order at reasonable prices,
and will never again be tolerant either of trash or
of dearness. The Philharmonic directors must look
to it in time, and reform their tariff, if they hope
for a continuance of public patronage. Music
of as high an order as any they can hope to give, per-
formed in as high a sty le of excellence as they can
hope to attain, and rendered more conscientiously be-
cause rendered precisely according to the composer's
original score, without, transposition or mutilation, has
been presented to the public at these, concerts, at
a rate of admission so moderate as to
place it within the reach of every lover of music, and
the audience has always been most attentive. Many
of the great works of Beethoven, of Mozart, of Men-
delsshon, of Slshor, of Weber, of Rossini, of
Herold, of Meyerbeer, of Balfe, and of
Wallace have been performed, besides new com-
positions by Balfe, by Labitsky, by Macfarren,
and by Howard Glover ; and among the
artistes who have been introduced to the public by
these concerts, we will only name Miss Goddard and
Master Heinrich Werner, who have already acquired
an enduring fame as pianists. Every pledge that the
directors gave has been fully redeemed, and we
sincerely hope that they may be induced ere long to
nudertake another series.