PURIFYING A ROOM.-Recipe for purifying a room: Set a pitcher of water in a room, and in a few hours it will have absorbed all the respired gas in the room, the air of which will have become purer, but the water utterly filthy. The colder the water is, the greater capacity to contain these gases. At ordinary temperatures a pail of water will contain a pint of carbonic acid gas, and several pints of ammonia. The capacity is nearly doubled by reducing the water to a temperature of ice. Hence, water kept in the room awhile is always unfit for use. For the same reason, the water from a pump should always be pumped out in the morning, before any of it is used. Impure water is more injurious than impure air.

"SOROSIS, OR LADY'S CLUB.-The correspondent of the Louisville Courier, having attended the Press Dinner, and met several members of the "Sorosis," made the following remarks:

The principal, in fact the only, objection made to accepting the invitation of the Press Club, was the coloring that it was thought it might give to the report that" Sorosis" had departed from its original idea, but such a concession to gossippers it was concluded not necessary to make, and the acceptance had at least the effect of refuting some of the malicious stories that have been circulated.

I think no one present who saw Miss Alice Cary occupying the seat of honor, at the right hand of the chairman, Miss Phebe, with her bright face and manner, Mrs. Le Vert, with her always gentle courtesy and kindly smile, Mrs. Horace Greeley, who if she had not been Mrs. Horace Greely would have been known as something greater on her own account, and Mrs. Wm. H. Burleigh, once one of the most beautiful, and now one of the most graceful women in New York society, but would confess to themselves that it must have been a good thought that drew such women together.

CURIOUS EXPERIMENT.-In this month's Revue Populaire, of Paris, Dr. Bader, gives the following curious experiment, made by Dr. Claude Bernard: If oxygenized blood be injected into the arteries of the neck immediately after decapitation, warmth and sensibility return; the eye gets animated and displays such strong perception that a hammer shaken before it will cause it to wink and look sideways.

HOMEOPATHY.-Dr. Boscowitz, a distinguished Homoeopathic physician of Brooklyn, in an address before the Convention of Homœopathists recently in New York, on the practice of the school of Hahnemann in this country, said:

"Hahnemann's system of homoeopathy has been translated in this country by Dr. Hempel, but this translation is one so colored by the Doctor's peculiar views, and so far from being a literal interpretation of the great German's ideas, that it is almost useless as a text-book. Dr. Hempel is a one-idea man. Aconite with him is the great remedy for every ill that flesh is heir to. With the materia medica of homoeopathy translated by such a man, what wonder is it that homoeopathy,

as Hahnemann taught it, should be comparatively little known in America? The majority of its practitioners are men professionally uneducated in the full truths and practice of the system. The members of the strict school of homoeopathy, commonly known as high dilutionists, are few and far between.

"Even in the Homoeopathic College is the Hahnemann practice. ignored, and the ideas of the American school are substituted. For instance, the Professor lectures on quinine as a remedy in intermittent fever. Such a remedy is not known in the Hahnemann school."

THE CHOLERA IN HAVANA.--During the month of July, 1868, twenty-five hundred cases of cholera and nearly fourteen hundred deaths occurred in Havana. The following table shows the progress of the epidemic:

The health of the city continues to improve, and the cholera has now ceased to excite much interest.

The yellow fever has not increased in violence, but the cases, though few in number, are unusually fatal.

A SINGULAR CASE.-The following very remarkable case is given upon the authority of Dr. S. P. Crawford, in the Nashville Journal of Medicine and Surgery: A Mrs. James, of Washington Co., Tenn., was burnt to death by the explosion of a kerosene oil can. The face, legs, arms, and abdomen were completely vesicated, and the skin in many places was entirely destroyed. She was in the last stage of gestation, and lived only twelve hours after the accident. The movements of the child were distinctly felt three or four hours after the accident. A short time before the death of the mother she gave birth to a child. The child was at full maturity, but still-born. It bore the marks of the fire corresponding to that of the mother. Its legs, arms, and abdomen were completely vesicated, having all the appearance of a recent burn.

REMARKABLE CASE OF ENCEPHALOID CANCER OF THE EYE CURED.In August, 1865, we witnessed, in company with several of the journalists of this city, the removal of a terrible cancer, involving the en

tire left eye of William Kenna, a child of about five years of age. The case had been examined by many of the leading surgeons of the city, and all had pronounced the case beyond all possibility of cure. The operation was performed by Dr. Robert S. Newton, President of the faculty of the Eclectic Medical College of this city, and a perfect cure was effected. Notwithstanding the statement by all surgical writers that such a case was never known to have lived through the first year after an operation had been performed, we saw Master Kenna a few days since, now over three years since the operation was performed, and he was one of the most hardy and robust lads we have seen for many a day. This cure was the result of a method of treatment discovered and developed by this eminent Eclectic surgeon. -N. Y. Weekly Tribune, Sept. 9th, 1868.

OBITUARY.

DR. ELLSWORth Burr.

DURING the past year death has invaded our ranks, and taken from our midst one who has often gathered with us in our councils, aud imparted words of advice, wisdom, and cheer; which has added largely to the interest of our association. A pioneer in the cause of liberal medicine has departed; one who has borne largely the priva tions, and I may say violent opposition, and perhaps contumely, incident to the early history of medical reform in this State, has been summoned to his reward. Doctor Ellsworth Burr, of Middletown, departed this life on the 25th day of July last, at the age of 53, having been engaged in the practice of his profession nearly thirty years. After pursuing the requisite studies, he engaged in practice early in the year of 1838, in the office which he occupied when stricken down by disease.

Possessing a vigorous physical constitution, and being endowed with a sound and matured judgment, possessing in a remarkable degree those discriminating qualities, that rendered his diagnostic powers generally accurate; and his therapeutic skill being fully commensurate, he early acquired an enviable medical reputation, which gave him an extensive and remunerative practice, in which his success gained him a large circle of warm and admiring patrons.

In the year 1855 he was elected to the chair of Theory and Practice in the "Worcester Medical Institution," which position he occupied in an acceptable manner, for the period of two years: when, owing to the large demand for his professional services in his adopted city, he resigned.

As a teacher of medicine he gave great satisfaction to his classes, as well as to his coadjutors, for his courteous, dignified, and gentlemanly deportment, as well as for his soundness of doctrine, and the earnestness with which he inculcated what he believed to be philo

sophical and rational medical truths. His large experience rendered him capable of making his teachings in an eminent degree practical.

Social in his domestic relations, genial and confiding as a friend, he won the esteem of all with whom he associated. Highly respected in the community in which he resided, he was awarded offices of honor and trust, both legislative and municipal; having served as representative from his town in the General Assembly, as well as a member of the Common Council and alderman of the City Government, also a member of the Board of Education in his city. But death has summoned him to his last resting place on earth, and we, as a society, as well as individuals, are called to mourn his departure-his family a faithful companion and counsellor, and the community in which he lived a valuable physician.-Proceedings of Conn. Eclectic Med. Society, May, 1868.

BOOKS AND JOURNALS RECEIVED.

The Physician's Visiting List for 1869, calculated for 25 patients per week. Eighteenth year of Publication. Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston.

The Chemical News and Journal of Physical Science.

Buffalo Medical and Surgical Journal.

Boston Medical and Surgical Journal.

Eclectic Medical Journal of Cincinnati.

The Druggists' Circular and Chemical Gazette.

The Journal of Materia Medica.

Pacific Medical and Surgical Journal.

The Leavenworth Medical Herald.

The Galveston Medical and Surgical Journal.
The Dental Register, Cincinnati.

The Dental Cosmos, Philadelphia.
American Homoeopathic Observer.
The American Journal of Photography.
Phrenological Journal, New York.
Journal of Applied Chemistry.

Galveston Medical and Surgical Journal.
Ohio Medical and Surgical Reporter.
The Medical Investigator.

American Agriculturist.

Braithwaite's Retrospect.
London Lancet.

Chicago Medical Examiner.

The Humboldt Medical Archives.

The Western Journal of Medicine.

The Philadelphia University Journal of Medicine and Surgery.
Eclectic Medical Journal of Pennsylvania.

The St. Louis Medical Reporter.

Canada Medical Journal.

The Cincinnati Medical Repertory.

HAVING given due attention to the history of the Eclectics, it is now proper to delineate the principal features of their doctrine. These were substantially identical with the philosophy of Plato. Hence they are likewise known at the present time by the designation of New Platonists. Plotinus declared that God is one, and that the Universe is not God, nor a part of God; nevertheless that it exists in his mind, derives from him its life, and is incapable of being separated from him.

The first proposition set forth by Ammonius was that of a primeval system of theosophy, a system which was essentially alike, at first, in all countries. Sir William Jones in his Lecture upon the Persians propounded this in the following concise form:

"The primeval religion of Iran, if we may rely on the authorities adduced by Monsani Fani, was that which Newton calls the oldest (and it may justly be called the noblest) of all religions a firm belief that 'one Supreme God made the world by his power, and continually governed it by his providence; a pious fear, love and adoration of him, and due VOL. IV.-NO. 5.

13