Animal parasites the direct cause of many diseases. Bacteria and the germ theory of disease. Pasteur, viruses, and aseptic surgery. Consumption and its germ; the corpuscles and their resistance to bacterial invasion. Antitoxines as a cure in diphtheria. Their use in surgery; asepticism and Lord Lister. Listerism and midwifery. American aid in the treatment of fractures. Use of artificial serum in disease treatment. Koch's tuberculin and its use in consumption. Chemistry as a handmaid of medicine. Brown-Séquard and "internal secretions". Febrile ailment and cold-water applications. Surgical anaesthetics; Long, Morton, and Simpson. Ovariotomy operations by McDowell and Bell. Professional nursing. Virchow and the literature of medicine, anatomy, and physiology; his death; his "Archiv," "Cellular-Pathology," etc. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS VOLUME XIV. Dr. Jenner Vaccinates a Child _After the painting by George Gaston Melingue_ Richard Wagner _After the painting by Franz von Lenbach_ John Ruskin _After a photograph from life_ Herbert Spencer _After a photograph from life_ Charles Robert Darwin _After the painting by G. F. Watts, R.A._ John Ericsson _From a contemporaneous engraving_ Li Hung Chang _After a photograph from life_ David Livingstone _After a photograph from life_ Sir Austen Henry Layard _After the painting by H. W. Phillips_ Michael Faraday _After a photograph from life_ Rudolf Virchow _After a photograph from life_ BEACON LIGHTS OF HISTORY. RICHARD WAGNER: MODERN MUSIC. BY HENRY T. FINCK. If the Dresden schoolboys who attended the _Kreuzschule_ in the years 1823-1827 could have been told that one of them was destined to be the greatest opera composer of all times, and to influence the musicians of all countries throughout the second half of the nineteenth century, they would, no doubt, have been very much surprised. Nor is it likely that they could have guessed which of them was the chosen one. For Richard Wagner--or Richard Geyer, as he was then called, after his stepfather--was by no means a youthful prodigy, like Mozart or Liszt. It is related that Beethoven shed tears of displeasure over his first music lessons; nevertheless, it was obvious from the beginning that he had a special gift for music. Richard Wagner, on the other hand, apparently had none. When he was eight years old his stepfather, shortly before his death, heard him play on the piano two pieces from one of Weber's operas, which made him wonder if Richard might "perhaps" have talent for music. His piano teacher did not believe even in that "perhaps," but told him bluntly he would "never amount to anything" as a musician.