inability to get rid of the increased secretion; but here there was no increased secretion, and no other cause of death was apparent. The case, therefore, was interesting as an example of unusual termination of bronchitis. The fibrine contrasted very remarkably with the post-mortem coagula, also existing in the heart; besides, the fibrinous deposit was confined to the right side, the impediment to the circulation having been in the lungs. he experienced a relapse of the rheumatic affec-racteristic of inflammation; but t is acknowtion. From this attack he had, to a considerable ledged to be sometimes absent, an it never bears extent, recovered, when he experienced a dull any definite relation of proportia to the other pain or sense of compression in one testicle.-On characteristics. It depends, in fet, upon local the third day afterwards, Dr. Hensley found the circumstances, most commonly upn the unyield. right testicle painful, swollen, and tender; the ing nature, the non-capability of welling, of the pain of a dull, aching, character, but coming on tissue to which the afflux of blod takes place. in paroxysms of greater intensity. There was He therefore rejected the word iflammation as nausea and some vomiting. The skin and con- unfit for the purposes of science. Dr. Butcher compared the mode of deposition of junctiva were very yellow; urine high coloured, In order to designate a certain rocess or functhese fibrinous coagula in the heart with what without sediment; slight pain in one knee. tion, hitherto, amongst many othes, called inflam occurs in aueurismal sacs under cure by compres- Ordered-a smart purge, six leeches, fomenta- mation, he proposed constructin from the Latin sion of the arteries leading to them. When by tions, suspensory bandage.-On the fourth day-sarcio, to mend; the substantie, sarcition; the mechanical obstruction the circulation through the the swelling had increased, especially in the epi- adjective, sarcitive, or sarcitory, the adverb, sarheart or lungs is impeded, the blood, in its passage didymis, which was exquisitely tender. Urine citorily, or sarcitively; and, if reded, the verb, through the former, is placed in the most favour-high coloured and depositing abundance of red sarcit. able condition for the deposition of its fibrin; this lithates. Ordered-four leeches, calomel, and same result being sometimes also a consequence of the remora or stasis of the blood in the right auricle from extreme depression of the powers of life, or caused by continued syncope, the deposit being then so large as to prevent the restoration of the heart's contraction. Dr. Butcher believed that in many of the cases brought to hospitals, after exposure to the greatest want and misery, with a scarcely perceptible pulse, with all the powers of life, in fact, almost extinct, these fibrinous depositions exist; yet, by a judicious administration of stimulants, recoveries are frequent. He was of opinion, then, that unless the deposit exceed a certain size, so as nearly to block up the cavity, such cases are prevented from terminating fatally by a free use of stimulants. By what process these coagula are removed he would not venture to say, but it might be supposed to be by absorption. opium.-Fifth day. Swelling a little diminished; The principal point of interest in this case, the Mr. Wilson thought that evidence of any other connection between the disease of the testicle and the rheumatism, more than a mere coincidence, was wanting, or at least unsatisfactory, in this case. Dr. Brady made some lengthened observations, in which he concurred with Dr. Bellingham, that the fibrinous deposit in his case was formed previous to, and was the immediate cause of, death; such an occurrence, he said, was not unusual in fatal cases of acute general bronchitis. Four years ago he (Dr. Brady) had exhibited to the Pathological Society of this city, the heart of a young man who The testicle might become inflamed in a died of bronchitis, at the Cork-street Hospital, in rheumatic patient, just as in any other person, the right ventricle of which was imbedded a dense without there being any relation of cause and white fibrinous mass, similar to that in the prepara-effect to the rheumatism. tion now on the table. On that occasion he had given it as his opinion, that death had resulted from the obstruction to the circulation produced by this formation, the deposition of which had most probably commenced two days before. Here also there was an absence of any other anatomical alteration to account for death. Dr. Brady next alluded to the importance of a system of treatment calculated to sustain the vital powers in most cases of bronchitis, and referred to the fact of the occasional occurrence of these amorphous depositions of fibrine, as tending to strengthen the practitioner in such an opinion. The tendency of modern science, especially the cultivation of morbid anatomy, fruitful as it is in valuable results, had yet led in the hands of many to a more active, but much less safe, course of treatment than that pursued by the most celebrated of the older physicians. Dr. Hensley considered that the very strong evidence of the connection in question, derivable from the remarkable manner in which the affection of the testicle kept pace with the other well-known rheumatic affections present-just as a rheumatic affection in a joint is known to doadded to the negative evidence of the absence of any other cause, rendered the proof of this point very conclusive. Mr. Pittard read a paper on "Suppuration." He first drew attention to his paper, read last year before the society, on the "Repair of Bone," the main object of which was to prove an assertion to the effect "that the form of tissue which adhesive lymph shall ultimately assume is determined by causes acting upon it subsequently to hesive Inflammation," read before the society in its effusion," made by him in a paper on "Ad1844. This assertion, which he must for the present assume as an established rule, was indis MEDICAL SOCIETY OF KING'S COLLEGE, pensable to him in showing what he considered to LONDON. Jan. 14.-J. T. ARLIDGE, M.B., Hon. Member, in the Chair. R. DRUITT, Vice-President. Dr. Hensley recounted a case of "rheumatic inflammation of the testicle." The subject of this case was a gentleman, aged twenty; his grandfather had been subject to gout. In the early part of last summer he experienced rheumatic pains in the shoulders and other large joints; afterwards he had pain in the small joints of the foot, with oedema around them, and a red blush, looking altogether much like gout. He had also lithates in his urine. Various remedies were used, with change of air and Bath waters, and he got nearly well in September, whilst taking iodide of potassium in decoction of sarsaparilla. A month after this, he became suddenly jaundiced; and, having got wet in his feet, be the true nature of suppuration. He objected to the expressions" suppurative inflammation" and "adhesive inflammation," used as contradistinguished to one another, and indicating affection specifically different. He objected to them as mis-enunciations which render fruit less any attempt to arrive at the truth whilst they are continued in use. He then proceeded to describe the function of sarcition as follows. God has endowed living beings with various functions, for certain purcontinuation of their species a function of poses, such as a function of gneration for the growth and nutrition, and manyothers; amongst these, and distinct from any of hem, is sarcition. He foresaw the various exigeries of his creatures, and provided for them. He foresaw that living beings would be coninually receiving wounds, and he provided fo the exigency so arrising, by endowing their tisses with the power of sarcition, by giving to them the sarcitive function. When a wound has been rceived, the process of sarcition sets up in the wanded part by the production and outpouring of adhesive lymph, which consists of nucleated cels of various sizes, and a fluid serum. These cels have a tendency to adhere to one another, by vrtue of which they soon form a coagulum that, as it were, waits for further orders as to what fom of tissue it is to assume. In the meantime this sarcitory coagulum affixes itself to any raw or serous surface with which it comes in contact, vhose blood-vessels soon shoot into it; and, this having occurred, it is said to have become organizel. If this affixation of a sarcitory clot has taken place to two opposite surfaces, it, of course, has become the medium of union between them. It waits for further orders. If it be subjected to pressure or compression, as shown in my paper of last year, it takes that as its order to become bone; if subjected to tension, it assumes the form of ligament or tendon; and if subjected to neither of these agents, it forms a peculiar tissue characterized by possessing a peculiar contractility. These three forms of tissue or internal struc ture, the osseous, the fibrous, and the cicatrizing, are the only ones that the sarcitive coagulum can assume; but if it presents a free surface, such surface may become either mucous or serous; and which of these two it shall be depends upon the agents to which it is exposed. Adhesive lymph or sarcitory cells can be effused by a serous or raw surface only, and to such surface alone can they affix themselves. When a mucous membrane is sarcitively excited it suffuses pus-that is to say, it suppurates. These rules both hold good with the adventitious mucous and serous surfaces respectively, which result from the metamorphosis of the free superficies of the sarcitory clot. The first sign of sarcitive excitement in a mucous membrane is an increased secretion of mu cus, which changes by imperceptible gradations to pus. The author here described the microHe also objected to the term "inflammation," scopic appearance of pus and of mucus, and dwelt which, he remarked, is a poetical metaphor in its on the very slight difference there is between etymology, and has not received any more definite them, and on the gradual transition from one to meaning in its use. It is a figurative expression the other, which, he stated, is as observable in applied to those appearances which necessarily viewing them with the microscope as it is to the result from an increased afflux of blood to a part naked eye. The term muco-purulent might be or organ, namely, heat, redness, and swelling; applied to some microscopic corpuscles as aptly and it is, therefore, equally applicable to diges- as it is applied with reference to characters visible tion, reparative inflammation, the production of to the naked eye. On these grounds he conthe annual new horn of the stag, and erysipelas: cluded that pus is altered mucus. Not, indeed, processes as different from one another as any that pus ever has actually been mucus, but that processes in living beings are, or, perhaps, can the same corpuscles which, in an excited mucous be. Pain also is usually enumerated as a cha-membrane, are thrown off as pus, would have been mucus in case the membrane had been quiescent. Pittard's paper. He considered the theory which he had put forth well deserving of attention, but, He then asserted that suppuration is, in all judging from what he had heard, he had not established it with that demonstration which he cases, the secretion of pus by a mucous memHe thought that the brane-a secretion which is proper to it when sar- should have wished to see. citively excited. When it takes place in one of objection started by Mr. Smith is really no obthe original mucous membranes, it is not pre-jection; the so-called pus in erysipelas, he could He ceded by those occurrences which precede it when state, is dead cellular tissue and serum. it takes place in situations where no original mu- would ask the author if he could bring forward cous membrane exists. The occurrences which any proof that granulations grow by additions precede it in such situations are the sarcitive pro- beneath, not upon, their surface. cesses, resulting in the formation of a new mucous membrane; which, being formed according to the rule before laid down, proceeds to secrete pus. The Author replied that he could not bring for- Dr. Arlidge, Dr. Duncan, and Mr. Rhodes, also REVIEWS. The Pathological Anatomy of the Human Body. 1847. logical knowledge. With extra earnestness do we welcome such offerings as come amply commended in their very self-evidence of minuteness and accuracy. Of such character is the work before us. It is clearly the production of a mind comprehensive enough for generalities, yet cautious enough to stop for the trifles which are the germ of all sound generalization. We have here a vast body of facts, constituting the embodiment of pathological laws. thing like exactitude to our profession. It will beThese are the grand truths we want, to give somecome exact in proportion as fundamental truths like these are placed before us. The present volume of Professor Vogel is indebted for its English dress, and for certain annotations of much value, to Dr. Day, the accomplished translator and editor of the "Simon's Chemistry," as published by the Sydenham Society. The profound literary attainments of Dr. Day, and his yet profounder skill as a chemico-pathologist and a practical physician, eminently qualify him for translating and annotating a work like the present; and we can only say that the manner in which he has executed his task reflects the highest credit upon him. It is, in truth, a masterly performance. The work itself deserves much praise. It embraces a very wide field of general morbid anatomy, and is therefore, as it purports to be, a prelude to other contributions to special morbid anatomy, or that of organs. The subjects in the present volume are chiefly comprehended in the divisions of-pneumatoses, or abnormal development of gaseous matters; dropsies, abnormal collections of aqueous fluids; pathological relations of the blood; pathological epigeneses, in their general relations; special relations of the same; pathological physical changes of the body; combinations of morbid elementary changes; independent organisms of the human body; malformations; postmortem changes. In seeking, therefore, for the cause of suppura. tion in other situations than in mucous membranes, it is only necessary to seek for those agents which determine the free surface of a sarcitory coagulum to assume the form of mucous membrane. The agents which, as before stated, determine the coagulum to assume the form of bone and tendon are such as are usually present in situations where those tissues are needed; the agents which determine the surface to become mucous are such as mucous membrane is usually exposed to, and is adapted to receive. Of these he particularized the contact of air, and of all dead solids, of saliva, urine, and, probably, all the The precision which medicine has of late years acother secretions, and of pus itself; whilst, on the quired in its departments of diagnosis and treatother hand, Canada balsam, Venice turpentine, ment, it mainly owes to pathology. By this term and water, prevent the metamorphosis in question, pathology we understand that knowledge of the and preserve to the organized clot a serous surmorbid functions of organs which we have scienface capable of pouring out fresh adhesive lymph: tifically reached by an acquaintance with their morthese latter, therefore, are extremely useful ap-bid conditions. However it may lie between the plications to wounds, as favouring the sarcitory exelusive symptomatologist, on the one hand, to doubt that an error of function is necessarily conprocess. nected with an error of structure; and the exclusive pathologist, on the other, to aver that these two stand together as effect and cause: however these things may be, true enough is it that we rarely find function much disturbed without finding also an organic account of it. The advances lately made by minute pathology have done much to provide us with conclusive information on these most important points of medical doctrine; we feel that the ground is good thus far, the only other feeling is, that we want this exact ground extending. The symptomatologist has yet many claims upon us which we cannot deny he can often take us to the bedside, and show us ailments which we cannot even conjecture the cause of; and he will prescribe for the symptoms of those ailments, and the sufferer will recover, and all in the absence of pathology, to the Crocodile; E. J. Sinclair, M.D., to be agent properly so called! These are the things that constitute the yet glorious uncertainty of physic. It may happen that the symptomatologist has many a recess which morbid anatomy will fail to illumine, and that the questio vexata of error of struc The remainder of his paper was occupied in glancing at cases of suppuration of common occurrence, and showing how the agent, which his theory makes necessary in the production of that process, is, or may be presumed to be, present in such cases. Thus, when a cut is exposed to air; in the admission of air into the pleura in pleurisy; in the lodgment of solid foreign bodies in the tissues; in the deposit of pus, which has accidentally burst into the current of the blood in the lungs, liver, &c. ; in death of bone; in the gangrene of portions of the soft tissues from the pressure of effusion, &c. The process of granulation, he asserted, is the the filling up of a wound by growth taking place beneath the adventitious mucous surface. The secretion of pus continues to take place from an adventitious mucous surface only so long as it continues in a state of sarcitive excitement; when that action ceases, is gradually substituted by mucus. The pyogenic membrane of Delpech and others, and the glandular arrangement of which pus is the secretion, of Hunter, from the adventitious mucous membrane of sarcition of the author. Finally, he remarked that sarcition, or inflammation used in that sense, is a healthy function or process; its aberration only is a disease. mation. Mr. Griffith, in moving a vote of thanks to the author, eulogised the present paper as one of an able series, read year after year before the society, on the important subject of reparative inflamMr. Smith did not see how the author's theory would account for those large collections of pus which so rapidly form beneath the skin, and bury amongst the muscles, in erysipelas; he could not conceive a new mucous membrane to surround all these collections, though it is very easy to conceive it in the case of chronic abscesses. The Author replied, that erysipelas, though called an inflammation, is not the process of which he had been speaking-it is not sarcition; nor is the so-called pus, found in such cases, really pus, but dead cellular tissue and serum. The sarcitive process sets in, in such cases subsequently to the occurrence of the sloughing, in order to repair the breach caused thereby; after which true pus is formed. Mr. Druitt had not heard the whole of Mr. ture and error of function will stand undecided for Expe progress of discovery will yet increase that aid, ness. These general groupings have subdivisions, which are treated of amply, and with much lucidThe subjects are not novel for investigation, and therefore cannot be expected to be treated of with unvarying freshness. Still the author reveals to us many facts which we meet with for the first time; and they look so like truths that they claim our best regard. The most celebrated article, and the best, is "The Pathological Epigeneses." We have not now space to devote to it, but shall consider it in our next number. NAVAL APPOINTMENTS.-Surgeons: T. Fraser, at sick quarters, Wick, N. B.; J. S. Davidson, to the Penelope; W. Crofter, to the Penelope; S. C. Urquhart, M.D., to the Penelope, for service on the coast of Africa; W. T. Alexander, to the Dee; H. O'Hagan, M.D., to the detachment of Royal Marines at Port Essington.-Assistant-Surgeons : N. Barrie, to the Ceylon; W. L. Gordon, to the Caledonia, for service of Plymouth Hospital; N. B. Alexander, to the Ceylon; W. B. C. Christy and E. W. Pritchard, to the Collingwood; A. Elliott, M.D., to the Marine Infirmary, Portsmouth; A. Little, M.D., to the Terrible; W. L. Gordon, to the Plymouth Hospital; H. French, to the Caledonia; J. Lilburn and R. Mingle, to the Victory; W. Thomas, D. L. Morgan, F. C. Sibbald, W. H. Clark, and M. Walling, to the Penelope, for service on the coast of Africa; G. Ayling, to the Avon; G. Everest to the Victory; W. Dunbar, to the St. Vincent; F. J. Whipple, to the Ocean; S. Bowden, to the Shy; P. Degan, to the Carysfort; F. F. Morgan, to the Kingfisher; J. A. R. Harvey, M.D., to the Melampus; S. M. C. Steele, to the Racehorse; R. Wallace, M.D., to` the Vengeance; F. J. Brown, to the Hasler Hospital; F. F. Purchas, to the Caledonia, for service of Plymouth Hospital; F. Mangar, to the Victory; C. H. Morrison, to the Constance; W. F. Kay, to the Plymouth division of Royal Marines; W. Bainbridge, to the Acheron. ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS. Gentlemen admitted members on Friday, Feb. 5: R. A. W. Westley; J. K. Baines; W. S. Briggs; E. Govett; J. Harward; M. Morris; C. It is under this feeling that we welcome, right J. L. Palmer; heartily, every contribution to our store of patho-Downes. WAR-OFFICE, Jan. 29.-55th Foot-Assistant- THE MEDICAL TIMES. mund Edward Hare Л Ceylon Rifle Regiment, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1847. F The attack on the Coroner, being circulated in such strong sensation and general excitement. UNANIa journal as the MEDICAL TIMES, naturally produced MOUS JUDGMENT OF THE QUEEN'S BENCH, DELIVERED a Surgeon Henry Clinton Foss, from 31st Foot, to ཀ་ BY LORD DENMAN. O We have a right, then, here to tell coroners that the law will not (to the sacrifice of medical witnesses of character) tolerate their violations of positive and well-known statutes, and that if they do venture on such violations, especially to the imperilling of innocent expect to be called to a strict account and men, they may heavy condemnation. another lesson for their safety. Coroners, once But the judges teach medical practitioners selecting a medical witness, may not get rid of him, if he threatens to be inconvenient, without first hearing his his full testimony, Mr. Day, having enterest far above anything of a merely per-evidence could he procured by a piolation of been chosen, was postponed till onal character, for henceforth it will stand a the law. Here again the coroner, by his treat Wilson's part and parcel of the law of England, and so form the great protection of the Medical Proment of Mr. Day, med:fession, alike from the silly blunders or daring in the 55th Foot, to lappointed to the 94tth Footlogi elling tools1 Joldanigami 19nnem izohnald edi un trevaried je dot aid bue sequlost aut pogu dow vam doi TO CORRESPONDENTS. vianon9987 DE BE 917 Journal published atoits now Office, and which is to free from the control of all Booksellers and Publishers. Gentlemen may procure it by an order on any Newsman or Bookseller, or it will be sent to direct from the Office of the Medical Times to dar Annual Subscribers sending by a Post-office order, directe bine some Angerstein Carfrae, or an order in town, One Guinea IN ADVANCE, which will free them for twelve months, 3. Half-yearly Subscription, 13s., Quarterly, 68. 6d, b No number of the Medical Times can be for warded, except to to gentlemen paying in ad on or unprincipled, or designing magistrates. The judges, in their written and very deliberate judgment, take great pains to show that, in our words, the lives and liberties of Colonel Whyte and Dr. Warren were dependent on the course and conduct of the inquest. "Against the commanding officers," says his lordship, there might be a charge of murder against hem, if the sentence under which the flogging had been inflicted was unwarranted; or, if war. ranted, and accompanied by wanton or cruel proA HANDSOME PORTFOLIO for holding the "ME-longation of suffering, it might involve a charge ADICAL TIMES" very desirable to those who st would keep the numbers clean for binding, and queasy of reference may be had, by order of any or at Office, price 5s. An allow98ance whe trade. 4D. HG! ་་་༽་རྟོན་ vance. ་་ shall have an answer to his inquiries 889 next week, 211 of 19tim slik, vide J.M., Aberdeen. We can recommend the institu SA tion to which our correspondant refers 1. Mr. Richardson. We are so inundated with unEi solicited, communications on the effects of vapour of ether, that we cannot accede to the proposal. W. C. J.-Our correspondent is certainly admis sible as a member of the National Institute; but I what the intentions of that body, if successful, may be, we are unable to state of 9.1 Un Jeune Anatomiste Ifsches will let us know what he wants, caired explanation. we we will give him the Mr. Blick. We received letters 37 From H. W Dewhurst. of manslaughter, not only against the officers who The court is thus emphatic in explaining the Some of these medical officers were necesthreaten the life of the party flogged; and the sarily present, for fear of any danger arising to inquiry was of considerable importance to them. It was further of importance to them, because, as the soldier had been in the hospital after the flogging, it was not wholly improbable that he might have fallen a victim to unskilful medical treatment." due, bean appends to his name. the law itself, in so Junius. ♫ him for the his a medical man on trial, is not content with the 10919.1 1.4CDT of all future inquests, the judges proceed to necessary, in common justice, for the guidance This important principle being laid down as vindicate another impugned right of the medical profession. Dr. Warren, Dr. Hall, and Dr. Reid, having made a post-mortem examination, and their character and interests depending on coroner, if he require a subsequent post-mortem the accuracy of their report of its nature, the examination, is bound, in common honesty, not to exclude from it those who had made the racters of Drs. Hall, Reid, and Warren, at the first. So say the judges, unanimously. The coroner, therefore, erred in leaving the chamercy of his former associate's”; post-mortem E assistant, according 2011 th st pay the coroner had no right to issue a warrant to researches,ou have brow and fise grey að F Warren. He was guilty of a misdemeanour in upon Mr. Day till he had examined Dr. Hall and Dr. doing so. #between themsels With regard to travelling ex- a us maker f the expenses. -bear D. The cost of Robinson's apparatus is about two gisinéas; that of Mr. Startin one pound ten and two guineas. We are not aware of the cost of other forms of apparatus, 10 A Young Practitioner. The compositions for stopping decayed teeth are almost as numerous as the dentists themselves. We have found the amalgam glof silver very useful for filling molar teeth, but 119 its black colour prevents its use for the incisors. It is easily made by filing a silver coin, obtaining sufficient filings, placing them in the palm of the hand, and kneading them with a small globule of mercury until a soft paste is formed, which may. 1. be introduced into the cavity of the tooth, after having well wiped it with a piece of lint attached to the extremity of a probe. It hardens in a very short time, and will not readily drop out. the law here placed Dr. Warren and Colonel Now, is it to be doubted that the violation of Whyte in a position of considerable jeopardy? Did it not raise against them a popular feeling strong as that which carried Governor Wall to the scaffold? Did it not-keeping back, as it did keep back, important evidence-did it not multiply the chance of inculpation and promote against them a partisan spirit, in a jury already sufficiently hostile? Who can say what might have happened had Mr. Day, instead of being allowed himself to be seduced by the lust an honourable and high-principled practitioner, of public applause, and had lent himsef to the delusion of the day? secured to us by this Palladium of righta to discharge of his professional duties? Are metrial before a coroner's jury for conduct in the medical witnesses. Isamedical, manson his dical men at the bar of public opinion for their repute as professional witnesses. The coroner, then, must not follow the model of the Hounslow inquest, but, on the contrary, must set his face against any jury-remarks off foreign to their functions and incompatible with the sober discharge of their duties"; he must not attend agitating meetings, and criticise in a libelling strain the conduct of the perwitnesses or as accused": he must not lend his sons who have appeared before him either as direct aid and sanction to proceedings intended at least (if they go no further through adverse "monial" for his conduct as a judge: he must, {QUACKERY. "A wise physician, skill'd our wounds to heal, Is more than armies to the public weal." eircumstances) to give him a "pecuniary testi- | would not like it at all; and not only would be right glad himself to be exempt from such thraldom, but would be sorry enough for any sufferer who might chance to be its victim. We should uncommonly like any adventurer, who may imagine an editor's life easy, just to dip into the depths of it, and try what those soundings are-we should like any one, critical of editorial columns, to wield our pen for "a little month," and try to mend it! He would have the best idea he ever had, after even this short practice, of the real meaning of "killing no murder," and "taxation no tyrauny." Thus much for any sapient some body who may feel disposed, Rhadamanthuslike, to holloa! us with his critical inquiry of "What are you after?" But, once for all, we must object to be turned upon by the querist, who may politely inquire what we are especially driving at? At something, he may be sure, or we should not be quill-driving at all; and to stop a man, however courteously, in such a task as this, is about as complimentary as to ring a poor wretch out of a pleasant dream, and invite his head out of the window, whilst you politely apologize for troubling him to tell you the nearest road to an unknown somewhere. INDEED we should think he was! Our notion heartily inclines to the wise Homeric sentiment, uttered hundreds of years ago, and politely "rendered into English," as above, by the least polite of men-Pope! We confess to have little of the matter-of-fact Mars in our nature-that very Mars which shows itself in a disposition to quarrel with everybody, and everything, just, as it were, for the love of it. We have really no love of such like, and willingly leave the enjoyment of it to those who have a passion for mischief, for its own sake, or for the results of Vit. There are, bona fide, such souls as those comprehended in the above sentence-unmistakable living entities, who glory in a dash of devilry for the very fame of the thing, "or who slily" "promote the aforesaid for the profit thereof. The grave sentence upon which all this has hinged, and for which all this is intended to be an apology, is that preliminary one which spoke of two classes of people those who are mischievous for the very fun of it, and those other who play such pranks for the pay they may bring. OTA disquisition like this may seem to be idle H Y In speaking of the opposite class-those who deal in mischief for the profit of it-we fear we are encountering a very formidable set of foes. Formidable not only y from their number, but f for the patronage which they command amongst all classes and conditions of men. This is a tragic leaf which might really be made the title-page to a tragic volume. No matter! we will tell the tale of shame from day to day, and see whether those at whom it points will repent themselves of their folly, and eschew it for ever. We are pointing, as will easily be understood, at "1 quackery, in one of the many forms in which it * " "I am sorry to see you walk so lame,” says Lady Somebody, to another Lady Somebody, as the two distinguées meet in a lounging place. "Your old enemy the gout, eh?" says Lord This to Lord That, as this brace of lordships come together, in the "house," or somewhere else. These are types of ten thousand such questions, infinitely varied, that are passed in every grade of society where the vulgar.commodity, yclept corns, is prevalent. The secret is generally hidden, and the real fault laid upon one disease or another, according to the aristocracy of the individuals suffering. Corns are such horrid things-things in which thee.commonest people can bear you company that the patrician of our country are really afraid of being found to have them. This is one of the points in which John Bull is ashamed of himself. Perhaps not the real, unmistakeable John, but one of those tinsel attachés, risen from the ranks, who not only forgets the source whence he sprung, but even the healthy savour of it. He is above the common herd (of which perhaps his father made one), and therefore above the common ailments of it-at least, if he have these, he does not profess them which really subsists between sanitary improvement and the extract from one of the works of a celebrated German naturalist, which is placed at the head of this article. The connection, although not apparent, is nevertheless real, as we hope to show long before the couclusion of what we are now inditing. in ordinary. He will walk lame, when the The general practitioners of England have shoe pinches, and ostentatiously send for his much to rejoice at in the circumstances of this family physician to treat him for the gout; all deputation. It is something that they have this he will, like a martyr, lay up for, and their claims and grievances placed before Gocover himself with flannels, and make all kinds vernment with all the efficiency of matured of fuss, and issue little domestic bulletins, and ability, and all the respectability of what cause little family and friendly anxieties amounts to official influence. It is in such a and all for nothing! And why for contingency as the one before us that we see To understand the connection of which we nothing? Because he has got a corn, perhaps vividly the uses of such an organization as that have spoken, it is necessary to take a general a couple, which he would not have his physician of the National Institute. That--as yet un- view of the arrangements or laws by which, in the know of for the world-such plebeian things! chartered-incorporation was not founded for midst of ceaseless motion, we find equally and the pain gives him an opportunity of a small or every-day utilities. Its duty is not to ceaseless stability. A well-educated and philósrest and a holiday, and he can quietly repose, be ever fuming and fussing like a parish nobody, sophic mind, possessing the requisite amount of deceiving Dr. So-and-so, until the foot shall be and blowing up trifles into matters of moment, information on the general system of nature, ready to be operated upon by Mr. Such-a-one, to justify a ridiculous activity. Your "ginger-will be able to appreciate both the eternal mo'with such a name, and nose, and beard-a cele- pop" politicians, ever ready to "fizz" out in tion and the eternal stability. He will brated chiropodist! Of course, he does not watery excitement and empty bustle, are well go further, and unravel the results dependent mind telling to this man, in whose integrity enough, if their object be innocent amusement, on different laws, and understand the mutual he has far more confidence than in that of the or the killing of some burdensome time; but co-operation which is universal in nature. physician who has attended himself and his are no models to follow, or authorities to bow So far as the universe extends, so far motion family for years, the petty ailment of one of his down to, where great and sensible objects are extends all matter is under the influence of pettitoes; and, without any knowledge of his cut-actually in question. The National Institute is this force. The brute stones and rocks-all inting or curing skill, wilfully commits himself into not a plaything for a profession's amusement-organic matter, vegetables and animals--are in the said chiropodist's hands, perfectly easy as to but a formidable agency to be used on occathe manner in which he will touch his corns or sion akin to its importance, and then with his pocket. So it is with certain lady fashionables, carefulness and wisdom. After the two depuwho, for similar reasons of personal and other tations of the Surgical Fellows and the Medical false delicacy, court quackery in its most con- Fellows, an interview with Sir George Grey temptible forms. And not only will they do unquestionably presented one of these occathus much, but do not hesitate to inscribe sions. Well was it that the profession could their names full length, in their boldest cali- use the opportunity. Well was it that they graphy, in testimony to the skill of the quack could use it through the instrumentality of an who has duped them. They will talk modestly organized body, which to the power of num› enough of their family physician or surgeon, bers added the influence and respectability of and hesitate to recommend either to their select responsible official position. acquaintance; but Mons. This or Herr That, with the grin and guttural, or shrug and nasal, they will commend in ecstasies! Only let him look as un-English as possible, and gabble a patois no Crichton could comprehend, and charge * heavily enough, and he will have plenty of customers amongst those whose boast it is to keep themselves select. We only wish they really were so; then their foolery would not be catching. But, with their talk and testimonials, they contrive to spread the mischief beyond their own circle, to which it ought properly to belong. All sorts of fashionmongers imitate their folly, and make up their company. In this way it is that the class we spoke of contrive to do mischief for the gain of it, as we shall show in another article. . Sir George Grey has now, therefore, heard the physicians, surgeons, and, finally, the general practitioners. If he has not learnt the truths of medical, reform he has, at all events, been taught its difficulties. Sir James Graham, with all his intellect, knew remarkably well the rocks ahead much like the Irish pilot-viz., when he had steered his vessel fairly on them: Sir George Grey will know them by an earlier and, therefore, more fortunate teaching, and by the shipwreck of others avoid that of himself. We are breaking no confidence when we assert, that on one point there now remains, after the interview, no doubt :-the impossibility of passing any Medical Reform Bill during the present session. All labours on our part, all attempts on that of others in that direction, will be worse than futile-delusive and delusory. There is hence, however, no reason why we should remain idle. The incorporation of the body of general practitioners, and all surgeons and physicians wishing to join their ranks, offers so many advantages to the profession, and presents itself in so irresistible an aspect to a gentleman so fair, so able, so thoroughly well-intentioned as Sir George Grey, that we cannot suppose that it will be refused if warmly and unanimously sought after. We entreat, then, to this point, the serious deliberation of every medical man. If they agree with us, that an incorporation, while atoning in part for a great corporate wrong, can do no professional man injury, will do many great service, and will aid vastly the progress of our science, let them not hesitate to memorialise Sir George Grey individually, or through district meetings, for the concession of the boon. SANITARY IMPROVEMENT. "In nature there is a perpetual struggle, an uninterrupted rotation. The powers of formation and destruction operate alternately, whence nature is always dead and regenerate. The tensive and, at the same time, most satisfactory sense, calls eternity in a state of ceaseless variation by the name of human mind, viewing this last phenomenon in its most ex NATURE."-FRIES. IT is extremely probable that many of our constant state of formation and decay. Changes of place, of form, and of composition, are coutinually occurring, and without these changes our world would be a dead, inert, lifeless mass. We can easily see these changes if we seek for them with an observant eye. We can trace many of them, and show their causes and their object; but there are others which are still mysterious in their character, and, although indicated to us, we cannot as yet fathom their causes or fully appreciate their consequences. While on this subject we cannot withhold a short quotation from one of the ablest works on the "Study of Natural Philosophy," written by, perhaps, the first of English philosophers now living-Sir J. Hershel. Speaking of the creation, he says:-"He" (man) “approves and feels the highest admiration of the harmony of its parts, the skill and efficiency of its contrivances. Some of these, which he can best trace and understand, he attempts to imitate, and finds that to a certain extent, though rudely and imperfectly, he can succeed; in others, that, although he can comprehend the nature of the contrivance, he is totally destitute of all means of imitation; while in others, again, and those evidently the most important, though he sees the effect produced, yet the means by which it is done are alike beyond his knowledge and control." The investigation of causes has thus, on the authority of one of our ablest philosophers, been shown to be of the highest importance, not only to our intellectual advancement, but to our practical and everyday convenience. Reverting to the ceaseless motion in particular objects, unaccompanied by change in Nature, the alterations going on with constancy at the surface of the earth may be shown to be consistent with her eternal, immutable laws. We can trace motion and change, formation and destruction, throughout the whole of the materials of the earth and the beings inhabiting it. The rocks and stones, which appear of all other portions of the crust of the earth the most immutable, are subjected to the disintegrating action of air and water, of cold and heat, and |