1st. Of a Stock and Mutual Company combined.

2d. The profits are divided annually on the contribution plan. 3d. This Society always give thirty days grace to the assured in case of non-payment of premium when due.

4th. It is the only New York Company in which all policies are absolutely non-forfeitable after the first annual premium is paid.

5th. It is the only New York Company that is entirely non-forfeitable; all its policies are kept in force until the premium is exhausted in accordance with the Massachusetts statute.

6th. The return premium rates of this Society are as low as the lowest.

The Directors and Officers of this Society we feel assured are fully deserving of the confidence and support of all classes, and so long as not one in one hundred of our adult population is insured, we feel it a duty and a pleasure to call attention to this very important subject, and close with the advice to all--get your life insured immediately in the First First National Eclectic Life Assurance Society, or in some other good company, "for ye know not what a day may bring forth."--(From the New York Tribune, August 25, 1868.)

DEATH FROM ELATERIUM.-In the Western Journal of Medicine is reported a case where fatal poisoning occurred from the administration of of a grain of Elaterium. This prescription moved the bowels vigorously every five or ten minutes for sixteen hours. The purging was finally stopped, but the patient died.

COMPRESSION OF THE CAROTIDS IN CONVULSIONS.-Compression of the carotids is said to be of great value in epileptiform convulsions, as well as in the treatment of convulsions in children. The most convenient mode of procedure is as follows:-With the thumb and forefinger compress both carotids until only a feeble current passes through them. In a few seconds the convulsions diminish, and in two or three minutes cease altogether.

ACONITE IN PARALYSIS.-Aconite is, par excellence, the great femedy in nearly all cases of paralysis. Its powerful control over the arterial and nervous system places it in the foremost rank of agents with which to combat this disease.-Dr. Webster in Med. and Surg. Reporter.

THE USE OF REMEDIES DURING MENSTRUATION.-In a work lately published at Paris by M. Raciborski, the author endeavors to show that the prejudicial effects of remedies used during menstruation have no existence. He considers that our acquaintance with the physiology of this function should destroy a prejudice existing both in and out of the profession. M. Raciborski has prescribed emetics and purgatives during the catamenia, and even venesection, without in the least disturbing menstruation. A great point, according to the author, is to explain to the patient that no ill consequences will

result from therapeutical interference during the catamenia, as her apprehensions might otherwise prove uncomfortable. Of course no remedies should be used except they be clearly indicated.

CONVULSIONS IN CHILDREN.-Samuel Gee, M. D. (St. Bartholo mew's Hosp. Reports), treats infantile convulsions as follows: (1.) During the convulsions, and for a week afterwards, give the bromide of potassium or ammonium in doses (say to a child of a year old) of four grains three or four times a day. (2.) When the convulsions have been absent for a week or two, begin with ol. morrhua and vin. ferri.

THE EXPLOSIVE POWER OF SODIUM.-The explosive power of sodium is equal to that of about 25 lbs. of gunpowder, or 24 lbs. of nitro-glycerine. A spoonful of water coming in contact with 200 oz. of sodium would occasion an explosion equal to that which would be occasioned by the ignition of 5,000 lbs. of powder, or the concussion of 500 lbs. of nitro-glycerine.

DRESSING FOR WOUNDS.-The following formula makes a good dressing for wounds: a solution of potassa chloras (2 drachms) in glycerine (4 fl. ounces), mixed with alcohol (2 ounces), forms a clear liquid, which is readily absorbed by linen, and does not soil the clothing. It keeps the dressing moist for twenty-four hours, is easily washed off with lukewarm water, and is adapted for soft granulations.

ANTI-GALACTIC PROPERTIES OF BELLADONNA.-Dr. D. W. Stormont, of Topeka, Kansas (Leavenworth Med. Herald), mentions two cases of mammary abscess, in both of which the secretion of milk was stopped by the application of belladonna (ext. belladonna, 3 ij., aquæ, f. j.), painted over the breast. The lacteal secretion may be restrained, or entirely dried up, at the option of the physician, in in one breast, without producing much effect in the other. Hence he considers it invaluable in mammary abscess, both as a prophylac tic and as a curative agent. The patient should be cautioned against nursing the child from the breast to which the belladonna has been applied.

LEGITIMATE MEDICINE IN OHIO.-Ohio allows no one to practise as a physician without a diploma, after September.

WANTED-The September number, 1866 (No. 4, vol. I.), of the Eclectic Medical Review. Fifty cents each, will be paid at this office for well preserved copies of the above No.

THE MEDICAL GAZETE.-This spirited weekly medical journal, now under the Editorial supervision of Dr. A. H. Carroll, assisted by Dr. J. C. Peters, completed its first volume in September. It is ably conducted and characterized by its liberality and progressive spirit.

PARTNER WANTED-In a lucrative practice of over 11 years. Practice worth four to five thousand dollars per annum.

Address J. A. Reid, M. D., Box 99, Davenport, Iowa.

THE Eclectic system was characterized by three distinct features: namely, its theory of the Godhead, its doctrine of the human soul, and its theurgy. Modern writers have commented upon the peculiar views of the New Platonists upon these subjects, seldom representing them correctly, even if this was desired or intended. Besides, the immense difference in the nature of ancient and modern learning has unfitted, to a great degree, students of the later centuries for apprehending properly the predominating elements of the Philaletheian theosophy. The enthusiasm which now-a-days is often considered as piety, would hardly be competent to explore or have anything in common with the enthusiasm of the old mystic philosophers.

The anterior idea of the New Platonists was that of a single Supreme Essence. This is the Diu, or "Lord of Heaven," of the Aryan nations, identical with the Iaw, Iao of the Chaldeans and Hebrews, the Iabe of the Samaritans, the Tiu or Tuisco of the Northmen, the Duw of the Britons, the Zeus of the Thracians, and Ju-piter of the Romans. He was the Being, the Facit, one and supreme. From him all other VOL. IV. NO. 6.

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beings proceeded by emanation. The moderns appear to have substituted for this the theory of evolution. Perhaps a wiser sage will combine the two hypotheses. These deitynames seem to have been invented with little or no reference to etymological signification, but principally because of some mystical meaning attached to the numerical signification of the specific letters employed in their orthography.

All the old philosophies contained the doctrine that deo, theoi, gods or disposers, angels, demons, and other spiritual agencies, emanated from the Supreme Being. Ammonius accepted the doctrine of the four Books of Hermes, that from the Divine All proceeded the Divine Wisdom or Amun; that from Wisdom proceeded the Demiurge or Creator; and from the Creator, the subordinate spiritual beings; the world and its peoples being the last. The first is contained in the second, the first and second in the third, and so on through the entire series.*

* Akin to this is the doctrine of the Jewish Kabbala, which was taught by the Pharsi or Pharisees, who probably borrowed it, as their sectarian designation would seem to indicate, from the magians of Persia. It is substantially embodied in the following synopsis:

The Divine Being is the All, the Source of all existence, the Infinite; and he cannot be known. The universe reveals him, and subsists by him. At the beginning, his effulgence went forth everywhere. Eventually, he retired within himself, and so formed around him a vacant space. Into this he transmitted his first emanation, a Ray, containing in it the generative and conceptive power, and hence the name IE or Jah. This in its turn produced the tikkun, the pattern or idea of form; and in this emanation, which also contained the male and female, or generative and conceptive potencies, were the three primitive forces of Light, Spirit, and Life. This Tikkun is united to the Ray, or first emanation, and pervaded by it; and by that union is also in perpetual communication with the infinite source. It is the pattern, the primitive man, the Adam Kadmon, the macrocosm of Pythagoras and other philosophers. From it proceeded the Sephiroth—ten emanations, which are not individual existences, but qualities, and are named as follows: the Crown, Wisdom, Magnificence, Prudence, Severity, Beauty, Conquest, Glory, Foundation, Dominion. From the ten Sephiroth in turn emanated the four worlds, each proceeding out of the one immediately above it, and the lower one enveloping its superior. These worlds become less pure as they descend in the scale, the lowest in all being the material world. But there is noth

The worship of these subordinate beings constituted the idolatry charged upon the ancients-an imputation not deserved by the philosophers who recognized but one supreme being, and professed to understand the vπovoia, hyponia or under-meaning, by which angels, demons and heroes were to be regarded. Epicurus said, "The gods exist, but they are not what the oi Toλo, or common multitude, suppose them to be. He is not infidel or atheist who denies the existence of the gods whom the multitude worship, but he is such who fastens on these gods the opinions of the multitude." Aristotle declares, "The divine essence pervades the

ing purely material; all subsist through God; the Ray, his first emanation, penetrating through all creations, being the life of life; therefore all is divine. The first world, Aziluth, is peopled by the purest emanations; the second, Beriah, by a lower order, the servants of the former; the third, Jezirah, by the cherubim and seraphim, the Elohim and B'ni Elohim. The fourth world, Asiah, is inhabited by the Klipputh, of whom Belial is chief. The human soul derives its elements from the four worlds, spiritual life, intellect, the passions, and corporeal appetites. A conflict having arisen between the inhabitants of the fourth world, Asiah, and the higher emanations, evil and disorder have thereby come to exist. Mankind having sinned in their first parent, from whose soul every human soul is an emanation, they are exiled into material bodies to expiate that sin and become proficient in goodness. They will continue to be born in new bodies one after another, till they become sufficiently pure to enter a higher form of existence. This was called the αναστασις, anastasis, or continued existence; also the metempsychosis, or changes of the soul.

In the epistles of Paul we find these doctrines inculcated more or less among the churches. Hence such passages as these: "Ye were dead in errors and sins; ye walked according to the aon of this world, according to the archon that has the domination of the air." "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against the dominations, against potencies, against the lords of darkness, and against the mischievousness of spirits in the empyrean regions." But Paul was evidently hostile to the effort to blend his gospel with the gnostic ideas of the Hebrew-Egyptian school, as seems to have been attempted at Ephesus; and accordingly wrote to Timothy, his favorite disciple, "Keep safe the precious charge entrusted. to thee; and reject the new doctrines and the antagonistic principles of the gnosis falsely so-called, of which some have made profession and gone astray from the faith."