MONTHLY CATALOGUE OF MEDICAL BOOKS. Lectures on the Structure and Physiology of the Male Urinary and Genital Organs of the Human Body, and on the Nature and Treatment of their Diseases. By James Wilson, F.R.S. 8vo. 14s. Essays on the Female Economy. By John Power, M.D. 8vo. 4s. 6d. A Manual for the Student of Anatomy; containing Rules for displaying the Structure of the Body, so as to exhibit the Elementary Views of Anatomy, aud their Application to Pathology and Surgery. By John Shaw. 12mo. 10s. Outlines of Midwifery, developing its Principles and Practice; intended as a Text-book for Students, and a Book of Reference for junior Practitioners. By J. T. Conquest, M.D. F.L.S. Second edition, enlarged. 12mo. 7s. 6d. Day of Month. METEOROLOGICAL JOURNAL. By Messrs. WILLIAM HARRIS and Co. 50, Holborn, London. THE Readers of the London Medical and Physical Journal will have perceived, from the indication on the cover of the present Number, that Dr. Hutchinson kas ceased to be the conductor of that Work. An appointment, which will shortly call Dr. Hutchinson to Russia, has caused kim to relinquish the Editorship; and, though he believes that the readers of the Journal will have ample occasion for gratification from the change, he is not willing to appear insɛnsible of his obligations to those who have patronized the Journal whilst it continued under kis superintendance, by neglecting to offer them his most grateful thanks, and by not expressing his acknowledgments of their favours to those especially who, by placing at his disposal the many estimable papers which, during the last three years, have been inserted in the department for original communications, have contributed, in an essential degree, to the success of his efforts to render the Journal worthy of the attention of the Medical Profession. London; Sackville-street, October 1, 1821. NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS. Mr. PURTON and Mr. C. C. WALLIS's Papers have been received, and are under consideration. We shall always be glad to hear from the former on subjects of importance connected with midwifery, which he states to have practised extensively. Mr. MARLEY'S case of angina pectoris will be inserted in our next Number. We regret that Mr. ENGLISH's notions and our own respecting the importance of his communication do not coincide. We have, however, mentioned the fact it contained in his letter in another part of the Journal. The Postscript is an Advertisement. A correspondent is informed that the Essay on the Sensibility of Animals, being the first of a series, is come safe to hand. We rejoice at Mr. JEFFERY DENNIS's recovery from tic-douloureux, by means of carbonate of iron. His communication partakes too much of the nature of a circular to be admitted in our Journal. Mr. J.D. must be aware that his case has already received the notoriety it deserves, for it has appeared in the Gazette of Health. Dr. ROBERT HAMILTON will see from the readiness with which we have given insertion to his communication, how much we applaud the idea of our brethren beyond the Tweed. We shall always feel most happy in promulgating an account of the progress of the infant Medico-chirurgical Society of Edinburgh. We trust that Mr. JOSEPH HUME, of Long-Acre, will soon be able to fan ur us with the case of which we have given an abstract outline in our Medical and Physical Intelligence. From our knowledge of his skill in practical chemistry, and of his having practised many years as an apothecary, we doubt not but his promised paper will be worthy of his reputation. Mr. TRIPE has our best thanks for his valuable Essay, inserted in the present Numher. His recent case of lithotomy will be read with much interest. We hope to hear from him again. A. Z. is mistaken; we have never had, nor wish to have, any thing in common with a certain Journal. We neither can nor feel inclined to admit the ribaldry against Sir W. Adams. CASTIGATOR has mistaken his man. He must look out for some other Journal, in which to vent his spleen. We admit, that four thousand pound and a high encomium, be stowed by a Committee of the British House of Commons, on a rival oculist, are rather "a sore eye." We have long been aware of the fuct which PERMISSUS wishes us to divulge; but we do not set up as reformers of irregularities, nor as the chastisers of quacks. True it is that the physician-accoucheur he alludes to belongs neither to the College of Physicians, nor to the College of Surgeons, nor to the Company of Apothecaries, and that he nevertheless practises in all the branches of our profession, which no one knows when or where he has learned; but PERMISSUS cannot, surely, be serious, when he expresses a desire to see us taking up a cause privately, which it is the duty of much higher authorities to defend on public grounds. We have no wish to make men merry at our own expense. The Editor of the Medical and Physical Journal would fain flatter himself, that in his endeavours to support the reputation of the Journal he has undertaken to conduct, his personal friends, as well as the numerous friends of science, generally, will assist kim, if not in increasing, at least in maintaining that degree of respectability for which this useful publication is indebted to the exertion of his worthy predecessor. Medical and Physical Journal. 5 OF VOL. XLVI.] NOVEMBER, 1821. [NO. 273. NOTICE. Another of the series of PROEMIA to the several volumes of this Journal, (which commenced with that to the forty-third volume,) comprising a History of the Progress of Medicine and its auxiliary Sciences for the half-year immediately previous to the period of their production, respectively, was published on the last day of July. One of the especial intentions of those Proemia, is to present a comprehensive view of the state and progress of Medicine throughout Europe generally, and in the United States of America; an object that cannot be effected in the regular monthly Numbers of the Journal, because of the small extent of space which can be there appropriated to this purpose. Original Communications, Select Observations, etc. Some Observations on the Use of Colchicum, tending to prove that Gout can be cured by smaller Doses of that Medicine than are exhibited by those who not only reprobate the Use of what they prescribe, but deny it any 66 specific Virtue:" with some cursory Objections to the Gastro-hepatic Pathology. By R. W. BAMPFIELD, Esq. one of the Surgeons to the Royal Metropolitan Infirmary for Sick Children, &c. &c. SE EVERAL years have elapsed since the property of colchicum to speedily cure the gouty paroxysm became known, principally through the medium of the Medical and Physical Journal, and the empirics proclaimed to the world, what is indeed truth, that "medicine cannot boast of a much more important disco very;" yet, although its efficacy and power have been clearly established by the evidence of as many instances of its unequivocal effects as ever supported a medical fact, this concurrence has not produced such an uniformity of opinion and practice as the evidence seems to sanction and demand; nor has it led to the general adoption of this medicine in the treatment of gout. In the mean time, numerous nostrum venders, availing themselves of the publicity of the discovery, have taken advantage of the supineness and discrepancies of professional men, to enrich themselves by selling this specific for the cure of gout," under the titles of "Reynold's Specific," "Wilson's Tinc-. ture," "Light's Royal Specific," W-'s Medicine for the Gout," "Perry's Specific," &c. &c.; and, while some practitioners have been slow to recommend, or prompt in objecting to the administration of colchicum, many patients have terminated their acute sufferings by having recourse to its use in the. NO. 273. 3 L shape of a nostrum, and have become advocates, irresistibly eloquent, in pleading the cause of selfish individuals. It ap pears to me that this order of things should not exist without an examination into the nature of its causes, and the force of the objections to the use of colchicum as a remedy for gout. The following have occurred to me as among the principal causes that influence the conduct of the profession : Prejudice, or previous belief; scepticism; some fatal and unexpected results from large doses of the medicine; deference to the authority of great names. Prejudice is two-fold: it may sway the mind of the patient or of his doctor. On the part of the patient it may be excused, if, from experience of the inefficacy of medicine, he has concluded gout to be the opprobrium medicorum, or, at all events, that no remedy is a jot superior to patience and flannel; or if, when not interrupted in its natural course, it has subsequently bestowed immunity from all other diseases, he may have a strong previous belief that such consequences would not follow a hasty cure of the paroxysm. In whatever manner this prejudice arises, if it cannot be removed by reason, a relation of facts, and the confidence the patient usually places in his physician, we must leave him to the powerful argument of a severe fit of pain. Medical prejudice is inexcusable; for, as it implies firm belief without experiment, which it excludes, we dare not hope to remove it, except by the desertion of patients, and the consequent strong appeals of self-interest; unless the prejudiced become subject to gout, and are roused by a contemplation of the loss of locomotion, from a successive destruction of their joints. Medical scepticism on the virtues of new remedies, is, to a certain extent, justified by experience; for few, who have practised a quarter of a century, but must have witnessed the ephemeral life of favourites of fashion; and all, who have read the history of pharmacy, must know how many medicines, wonder-working in their day, have been consigned to utter neglect and oblivion. Medical scepticism is also rational, and (like doubt) becomes the parent of truth, when it is accompa nied with experimental investigation and patient inquiry: without them, it must be nearly allied to prejudice. Fatal results have speedily followed the use of large doses (more especially of the sedimentous portion,) of vinum colchici, and we apprehend the two-drachm doses of its discoverers were incompatible with the patient's safety. I have twice witnessed death to ensue on the following day after a drachm had been administered over night, in two cases of dropsy; yet I have not seen such a consequence from its employment in gout. The objection to its use, which arises from its being a poison, should not apply with greater force against it than against any other deleterious medicine. Opium will poison in large doses, yet every body prescribes it. The objection can only be urged against unsafe doses; and one of the objects of this paper is to point out the successful results of small doses of vinum colchici, as cannot alarm the most timid, in carrying off the regular pa roxysm of gout; a circumstance which does not appear to be generally known. The authority of great names is, indeed, diminishing in this age of strict inquiry: on the present subject, the public possess the authority of Dr. Scudamore for entertaining a belief, that "the effects of colchicum in gout are altogether unsatisfactory," whilst, in my own practice, it has uniformly proved most satisfactory: it will, therefore, be another object to demonstrate that Dr. S. administers as much colchicum as any other practitioner, and to establish a conviction that he cures gout by the same remedy he has condemned as "altogether unsatisfactory." In the formula+ for the diuretic purgative. draught, at page 186 of Dr. S.'s scientific Treatise on Gout, he prescribes from four to twelve drachms of the acetum colchici, to be taken in divided doses in twenty-four hours, of which the medium quantity would be one ounce a-day. Of this form of exhibition it is observed, at p. 200, "From a very careful investigation into the properties of colchicum, I am led to think that the acetic acid takes up all its active properties, and that given in the formula which I have already mentioned, it produces all the good effects of which the medicine in its other forms is capable, and is not chargeable with any one. ill consequence. In the formula alluded to, "the acetic acid is neutralized by magnesia, and the colchicum, brought to the state of a mere solution in water, by having its acid menstruum neutralized, is in the most favourable state of preparation in which it can possibly be administered." (Note, p. 186.) Notwithstanding this free use of the colchicum "in its most favourable state," and the great success of the treatment of which it forms a part, Dr. S., in speaking more particularly of this medicine, given "in free doses," (the exact quantity is not mentioned,) says, its "effects were altogether unsatisfactory;" and he "observed that the stomach was irritated; an increased fur of the tongue, with thirst, were produced; and no certain action of the bowels occurred." (P. 193.) In my practice, such effects have not followed; nor have I had occasion "to charge" the vin. colchici * SCUDAMORE on Gout, p. 193. "I have experienced the most remarkable success from a draught of magn. gr. xv. ad xx.; magn. sulphat. 3j. ad 3j.; acet. colch. 3j. ad zij.; with any disfilled water the most agreeable, and sweetened with syrup or extr. glycynh. It should be repeated at intervals of four, six, or eight, hours."-P. 186, op. cit. |