ary, 1868, which, we feel assured, have increased its practical value. At that time the medical department was placed under the immediate control of Drs. Hart and Day, who have kept the records and made monthly reports through this journal. Dr. Day and his new associate will continue to give the requisite time and attention to this matter, as opportunity will thus be afforded of testing fully the reliability and therapeutic virtues of the various vegetable preparations, and their relative efficacy in the form of alcoholic fluid extracts, concentrated tinctures, powders, &c. Every intelligent physician. recognizes the urgent necessity of a more rigid testing of the various Eclectic remedies, and we feel confident that an effort in this direction will meet the hearty sanction of the entire profession.

Especially is there need of a more thorough investigation of the concentrated powders, with the view of determining which can be procured in powder without being triturates, as reliable representatives of the active proximate principles of the various plants. In this way, only, can uniformity be maintained, and the physician know how much of the inert agent he is administering with each dose. It is claimed that, in the form of alcoholic fluid extracts, the various active principles of plants can be obtained as educts, while many of the powders must be products, a change in chemical composition necessarily arising from oxidation or otherwise during the process of manufacture. Such change, however, does not of necessity destroy their activity, but on theoretical grounds, may modify the action of the concentrated powders and render their therapeutical effects somewhat different from the crude material from which derived.

We wish to see this matter stripped of all the secrecy heretofore thrown around these preparations, and standard formula for their manufacture published and conformed to by our manufacturers. It is only by applying the test of actual experiment that the therapeutic virtues of the remedies can be definitely determined, and the relative merits of the different processes of manufacture can be compared and decided upon. The results of the investigations in the Dispensary practice will be given from time to time through the pages of this journal. We cannot too highly commend such an undertaking, and hope that all physicians will encourage these labors by cheerfully giving the benefit of their individual experience, when sought, and such material aid as will sustain the enterprise. The work is a great one, and will require much time and patient investigation to complete it thoroughly, but it is a step in the right direction, and is the

only means by which a reliable pharmacopoeia for concentrated preparations can be procured.

We hope that other manufacturers will be induced to take hold of the matter, and that competent pharmaceutical chemists, by their united efforts, will speedily give us a system of standard uniform preparations. It is time that all secrecy be removed, and that the physician be informed as to how his concentrated medicines are pared, and what their standard strength.

Eclectic Medical College of the City of New York.

The Fall and Winter Session of 1868-69 will commence on the 19th of October, 1868.

Fees for a full course, $100 exclusive of Matriculation and Graduation fees. Scholarships are now issued for $150, payable in advance, which entitles the student to attend as many courses of Lectures as he desires in this institution. Our students enjoy all the hospital facilities the city affords. We call the attention of the Medical Profession to the superior advantages that this School affords, and invite them to use their influence in sending students.

To Subscribers.

As there seems to be among some of our subscribers a misunderstanding in regard to the notices of SUBSCRIPTION DUE, sent them in the last number, we will state that many of them have reference to the coming year; they are due, because payment in advance is expected. Subscribers who are in arrears for the past year, will please remit their dues at once. Those who do not wish the REVIEW continued,

will greatly oblige us by returning the present number.

REVIEWS AND BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. A MANUAL OF THE DISSECTION OF THE HUMAN BODY. By Luther HOLDEN, F.R.C.S., Lecturer on Anatomy at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London. With Notes and Additions, by ERSKINE MASON, M.D., Demonstrator of Anatomy at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York. Illustrated with numerous wood engravings. New York: Robert M. De Witt. 1868. Pp. 588.

AN aspirant for professional favor in the shape of a work on Anatomy can, as a matter of course, lay no claims to distinction and

preference on the grounds of originality. Anatomy is a fixed and exact science, and such claims must be based on some abler method of treating the subject, or on some peculiarly happy arrangement by which its study is facilitated. For the practical wants of the student we regard the work before us as superior in some respects to other text-books on anatomy. It possesses over larger works, as Gray's, the advantages which every regional study of anatomy must possess over a purely systematic one. Every student engaged in dissecting cannot fail to observe the convenience and decided advantage which such a plan affords. It is much easier to learn anatomy where the various structures, such as muscles, vessels, nerves, etc., are described as they present themselves in each region upon examination, than where the parts are considered by systems and in groups. Their relations are better understood, and their importance in a surgical point of view more forcibly impressed upon the mind.

A majority of students entirely lose sight of the grand primary object had in view in the study of anatomy. It is not simply to know that certain structures exist-that a certain region contains certain muscles, vessels, and nerves, but the important point is to know the position and the relations which these various structures bear to each other. It is this last species of knowledge which, alone, will prove of practical value when surgical interference is required. We have often thought that Gray's Anatomy was not only unsuitable but positively injurious to the student in the dissecting-room. The only way in which anatomy can be thoroughly learned is by dissecting, and the student having before him such fine life-like illustrations is too apt to neglect the distasteful and repulsive training of the dissecting-room for the more agreeable but less efficient examination of the plates. Such anatomical facts learned without effort or the aid of the scalpel, leave no permanent impression upon the mind; but when a student studies the relations of the different structures with the parts exposed before him, such facts are indelibly fixed in the mind, and ever afterwards bear the impress of a reality.

Apart from the general advantages which are common to all works where anatomy is treated regionally instead of systematically, Dr. Holden's work possesses certain special excellencies which entitle it to favor. The language is plain and simple, and the descriptions exceedingly clear and concise.

The additions made by the American editor have reference chiefly to the anomalies of the vessels and muscles with which the student should be acquainted, together with the weight and measurement of organs.

Dr. Barclay's classification of the muscles, according to their uses and the grouping of the vessels and nerves, as given by Ellis in his Demonstrations on Anatomy, which are appended to the work, add materially to its completeness and practical value.

The illustrations, 134 in number, are most excellent and true to nature. The typography and general finish of the work is in the usually excellent style of the publishers.

NEWS AND MISCELLANY.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF PROF. CHARLES T. HART, M.D.

It will be remembered that a brief announcement of the death of Prof. Charles T. Hart, M.D., occupying the Chair of Physiology in the Eclectic Medical College of the City of New York, which thus became vacant, appeared in our last number, also a promise of a biographical sketch of the deceased, which we now proceed to fulfil. Prof. Hart was a native of Georgia, having been born at Sunbury, in that State, August 1, 1835, and was therefore in his thirty-third year at the time of his decease. His parents were highly educated and of the first respectability; his father having served in the State Senate four years. His mother was of the Stevens family of that State. Young Hart being near the ocean, had a strong inclination for a seafaring life, which, in deference to the wishes of his parents, he cheerfully relinquished and entered the Georgia University, and was graduated with honor. In 1837, having determined to follow the practice of medicine, he entered the Eclectic Medical Institute of Cincinnati, from whence, after passing through a thorough and complete course of instruction, he was graduated with the highest honors, and was the valedictorian of his class. On leaving Cincinnati he commenced the practice of medicine in Missouri. He was, however, soon recalled by his Alma Mater, and was appointed Professor of Physiology and Medical Jurisprudence, where he remained until 1861. During this period he assisted Dr. R. S. Newton in editing the Eclectic Medical Journal. He occupied a position as Surgeon in the Confederate Army during the late civil war.

After the close of

the war he settled near Red River, Arkansas, where his health, which had been undermined by his exposure and services, became more seriously affected by the miasmatic air, and he returned to Georgia. In 1867 he received an invitation from the Board of Trustees of the Eclectic Medical College of the City of New York to take the Chair of Physiology.

As a lecturer and writer, Professor Hart was remarkable for thoroughness and precision of statement. His knowledge was always comprehensive and exact; his mind was peculiarly adapted for scientific inquiry and observation and the practical adaptation of fact to theory. Had he lived he would undoubtedly have occupied the highest position in the school of medicine to which he belonged, and would have made a world-wide reputation. He was a man above all subterfuge and incapable of playing a double part. His conscience was sensitive to a remarkable degree in all the relations of life, but especially so in his professional relations as affecting his associates and the sick. A strong practical evidence of this peculiarity was manifested in the fact that he invested all his means and effort in establishing the Empire Chemical Laboratory, for the purpose of preparing absolutely pure and the most perfect possible Eclectic

remedies. The institution will be continued by his associate Dr. Day. Dr. Hart was married in 1860. His wife, with an only daughter, survive him. In his early death the Eclectic Medical College of the City of New York suffers an almost irreparable loss, while the school of medicine, to which he belonged, will feel that one of its most influential and useful members has been taken from them.

Resolutions of condolence and regret have been passed and others are to be, which will appear in the Review, and fully confirm all that we, his friend and associate for many years, have here written of a good and true man, too early called from his labors on earth. Cut down in the early maturity of his manhood, may his memory be cherished as the fragrance of early spring flowers.

ACTION OF IODIDE OF POTASSIUM INCREASED BY AMMONIA.—It is said that the action of iodide of potassium is increased and rendered more valuable when combined with ammonia, stimulating the stomach, diffusing the blood, and with it the medicine through the system, and by chemical decomposition liberating the free iodine, and thus sending it on its salutary message.

LACTATE OF ZINC IN EPILEPSY.-Dr. Hart has tried this remedy in combination with belladonna, on 240 patients in the Western Lunatic Asylum of Kentucky, all of whom had been affected with epilepsy from three to six years. An improvement took place in all, and in no case did he use it without effectually controlling the paroxysm in from 24 to 48 hours. His formula was: R Zinci lactatis, gr. xxx. Ext. Belladonnæ, gr. viii. M. ft. pil. x. Sig. One before each meal.

TREATMENT OF HERPES ZOSTER.-Dr. Jos. Konrad, in the Wiener Medicinische Presse, advises painting twice or thrice a day with collodion, and administering an opiate at night. By this simple means he completely cured fifteen cases-all he treated-in four to six days.

PEROXIDE OF HYDROGEN AS A REMEDY IN DIABETES.-Dr. John Day records a case of diabetes which had resisted all ordinary treatment for three years, and which is now rapidly yielding under the influence of the ethereal solution of the peroxide of hydrogen, given in half-drachm doses mixed in an ounce of distilled water, three times a day.

BDELLATOMY.-A curious practice lately introduced in Germany is the cutting of the leech so that the blood will flow out of his body as fast as he sucks it from the patient. An ounce, or even two ounces, may be drawn in this way by a single leech. The spring lancet is preferred, though a thumb lancet will answer. The incision is made in the side, the left side being preferable, and at the time when the leech