be not altogether so to ordinary routine. Under such circumstances, to throw in the bark,' is, to those who are asking for bread, giving a stone. There is no such thing as a permanently strengthening medicine. It is only what nourishes that gives any durable vigour or support. Medicine, as it is usually administered, interferes with appetite before a meal, and with digestion after it. Drugs, although not in general intoxicating, are at best unnatural stimuli; and, of course, are seldom to be resorted to, except in that state of the constitution in which it cannot be duly excited by the ordinary incentives to vital and healthy action." We have no doubt that, in the practice of physic, we should have been more successful if there had not been a single article of the class of tonics in the materia medica. The essay on Pharmacy is greatly enlarged in this edition, and contains several very apt remarks, no doubt the fruit of personal observation. In what he has stated of the mismanagement of infants, we cordially go along with him; and, so far from following the example of those who have accused our author of hyperbole and exaggeration in what follows, we wish it may have its due effect in improving a branch of medical practice, of which it is not too much to say, that it has hitherto been unaccountably neglected. "In no department of our profession does the practice of it appear so cruelly absurd as in the mismanagement of infants. I once ventured to observe, that, of the cases of mortality in the earlier months of our existence, no small proportion consists of those who have sunk under the oppression of pharmaceutical filth. More infantile subjects in this metropolis are perhaps diurnally destroyed by the mortar and pestle, than, in the ancient Bethlehem, fell victims in one day to the Herodian massacre. I plead guilty to the charge of rashness and hyperbole, which were brought against this remark when first published, but I wish that the years of experience and reflection, which have since intervened, had convinced me that the remark was altogether destitute of foundation. When we contemplate a church-yard, the earth of which is composed in great measure of the bodies of infants, it is natural for us to fancy, but surely it is not reasonable for us to believe, that those beings were born for no other purpose than to die; or that it is within the design of nature that the pangs of production on the part of the mother should, on that of her offspring, be almost immediately succeeded by the struggle of dissolution. Fault must exist somewhere: it cannot be in the providence of God; it must therefore attach to the improvidence and indiscretion of man. Consequences as fatal originate from ignorance as from crime. Infanticide, when perpetrated under the impulse of maternal desperation, or in the agony of anticipated disgrace, is a subject of astonishment and horror; but, if a helpless victim be drugged to death, or poisoned by the forced ingurgitation of nauseous and essentially noxious potions, we lament the result merely, without thinking about the means which inevitably led to its occurrence. Conscience feels little concern in cases of medicinal murder. The too ordinary habit of jesting upon these subjects in convivial or familiar conversation, has an unhappy tendency to harden the heart, and inclines us to regard, with an inhuman and indecorous levity, those dark and horrible catastrophes which too frequently arise from professional ignorance or mistake." On the remaining five essays we shall offer no remark. They are generally written in, a more sober style, and contain many useful hints and practical observations. Their subjects are, Ablution; Bodily Exercise; Occupation; Real Remedies, and a Remedy for those of the Imagination. We highly approve of the author's opinion respecting the utility of warm bathing. "The warm bath has a remarkable influence in composing the mind when in that state of violent irritation, which often leads to the use of Jaudanum or some equally deleterious opiate. This remedy has been for many years considered, at the Retreat at York, as of greater efficacy in certain cases of insanity than all the other medicinal means which have been employed. There is no agent which, equally with the tepid bath, is calculated to promote the general tranquillity of the constitu tion. It will often induce sleep when the more direct and accustomed opiates fail, and, with all its beneficial tendency, it is followed by none of those evil effects that are apt to arise from the drugs more generally employed to allay uneasiness, to restore composure, and to conquer the obstinacy of an involuntary and unnatural vigilance. The notion that the warm bath is relaxing, máy in a great measure‹ be derived from the effect which it is observed to produce upon inanimate matter; as if the nerves and muscles of the human frame were like the strings of a musical instrument. The warm bath is, in many cases, a congenial and salutary cordial; it animates torpor and elevates depression: on which account, when intemperately employed, or in cases where there is already a too vigorous excitement, there is a chance of its proving deleterious. In furious mania, for instance, it has been known to produce mischievous effects." Our own experience coincides with that of the author in respect to the beneficial effects of the warm bath; by which we mean water at a temperature no less than 97 degrees, and often 99 and 100. Dr. Reid has added to the present edition of his work an Appendix, containing a few interesting passages from notes and additions made to a German translation of the first edition, by Dr. HAINDORF at ESSEN. It cannot be expected that we should enter on the consideration of these fragments; but we will not deny ourselves the pleasure of quoting one or two passages, from which it will appear evident that the translator had caught the true spirit of his author, and, in his own original remarks, endeavoured to think, reason, and write like him. On the subject of insulted pride as the source of mental dis ease, we have the following anecdote: "It happened, at W, that a gentleman, whose pride was well known, was one evening refused admittance to the nobility's box. He was highly incensed; and the next morning it was found necessary to put him into an asylum for lunatics. No art could there succeed in restoring the disturbed equilibrium of his mental powers; and, after å residence of ten years, he died there in a state of misery and stupefaction." Nor were we less amused at the ready manner in which the German Professor cured a young lady of a disorder, the removal of which would, but for his interference, have been attributed to the miraculous power of animal magnetism. "In the town of W- -, I was one evening called to visit a young lady, who was supposed to be dangerously ill with convulsions. Her relations told me that, other remedies having failed, she had for some time past been magnetised by her medical attendant. I found her lying on the sofa in a kind of extasy, and was informed that this state recurred several times in the day, but not with so much violence as then. She was accustomed, during the fit, to speak of higher things, and appeared quite unconscious of the world in which she lived. All belonging to her were assembled about her, to contemplate the wonder, as if she were a saint. As the lady had, in the paroxysms of a disease which was supposed to deprive her of her senses, placed herself in the most elegant attitude on the sofa, had arranged her fine light hair very nicely, and had bestowed great attention on the choice of her attire altogether, these circumstances, added to the state of her pulse, inspired me with some doubts respecting her unconsciousness and supernatural visions. I therefore endeavoured to comfort those about her, by saying, 'Be under no uneasiness: this is an ordinary case. Magnetism is not necessary to cure it. I will only cut off the patient's hair, and apply a cold cataplasm.' The instant I drew out my case of instruments, the lady roused herself from her ecstasy, and has never had a similar attack. She took some strengthening medicine, and is now a stout and healthy young woman.” A Practical Treatise on the Inflammatory, Organic, and Sympathetic Diseases of the Heart; also on Malformations of the Heart, Aneurism of the Aorta, Pulsation in Epigastrio, &c. &c. By HENRY REEDER, M.D. Member of the Medical and Chirurgical Society of London, and extraordinary Member of the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh. 8vo. pp. 276. Causton, London. 1821. We would ask Dr. Reeder whether, at his age, he has actually seen a sufficient number of cases of diseases of the heart as to enable him, either to confirm what other writers have advanced, or to bring forward new facts and more correct views respecting that class of organic affections. If he was not qualified to do either, wherefore has he undertaken the task of No. 274. 4 D writing a practical treatise on the subject? That a veteran practitioner like CORVISART, who had placed himself at the head of a clinical establishment, wherein scarcely any other case of disease than those of the heart were admitted for treatment, should, after a long series of years of experience, write upon them, we can readily comprehend; and we rejoice at the fact. That an anatomist of the tried skill of PELLETAN should indite essays on the same class of morbid affections, no one will wonder at, since the opportunities of seeing and watching the progress of these affections, which he enjoyed in a large hospital for many years, are known to have been numerous. That Dr. WARREN, of Boston in America, should venture on some original remarks respecting organic diseases of the heart, after having seen and recorded several cases of them, most industriously collected and accurately described, even Dr. REEDER will admit to be a proper and a fortunate circumstance. That LAENNEC, than whom few persons since the days of MORGAGNE have more diligently studied the morbid structure of the thoracic viscera, should feel anxious to give to the world the result of his investigations, one can easily understand. But that a medical man, who professes to have nothing either very new or very singular to impart to us, on the subject of these very diseases, should set himself down to compose a treatise upon them, we confess to be unable to comprehend. Does Dr. Reeder think that neither Burns's book, nor the translation of Corvisart's work, are a sufficient guide for the English reader in the study and treatment of diseases of the heart? If so, we must next inquire into the nature of the substitute he has himself brought forward for these two works; and examine into the merits of a performance with which Dr. Reeder has probably intended to supply the deficiencies left by the above illustrious writers. Dr. Reeder's Treatise on Diseases of the Heart presents a remarkable feature. It contains no classification of those maladies. The book is simply divided into so many essays, of which there are twelve, and each of which might stand of itself; for it has no connexion with that which precedes it, nor does it portend what is to follow. The principal subjects of these twelve essays may be thus enumerated:1. Carditis. 2. Angina Pectoris. 3. On Change in Structure of the Valves of the Heart and large Arteries. 4. Enlargement of the Heart. 5. Diminution in the Size of the Heart. 6. Adhesion of the Pericardium to the Heart. 7. Polypi in the Cavities of the Heart. 8. Sympathetic Affections of the Heart. 9. Malconformations of the Heart, 10. Hydrops Pericardii. 11. Aneurism of the Thoracic Portion of the Aorta. 19. Pulsation in Epigastrio. 1. Carditis.-The heart, like most other parts of our fabric, is liable to inflammation. Carditis will manifest itself suddenly at times; and occasionally it will be found to have made its approach insidiously. From the consideration of the intensity of the symptoms attending it, Dr. Reeder is disposed to divide carditis into the "acute variety" and the "sub-acute form." Of each of these he has detailed the symptoms. Those of the latter are only different in intensity from the characteristic symptoms of the acute variety, which are described by our author in the following extract: "Symptoms of the most Acute Variety.-Those which usually demonstrate the existence of the most acute form are-general pyrexia; extreme anguish or pain, with a sensation of heat or burning, in the region of the heart, accompanied with a labouring, and sometimes a jarring, sensation in its action. Most commonly there is violent palpitation of the heart, yet on some occasions it is, in a great measure, absent; and syncope, more or less complete, takes place; or one of these not infrequently alternates with the other. The pulse is rapid, hard, and often irregular and intermittent; great anxiety and restlessness or jactitation are also present; and the patient's countenance has an expression indicating the greatest distress. Sometimes there is an entire inability to lie in the horizontal posture, and the person then experiences some slight alleviation of his sufferings by leaning for. ward; and, in other cases again, no such uneasiness is produced by that position. Vomiting, too, on some occasions, takes place; and delirium not infrequently supervenes. Wandering pains have, in some instances, been felt in different parts of the body. The respiration, moreover, is accelerated or hurried, by reason of the more rapid transmission of blood through the lungs, and partly also in conscquence of the distress experienced in the chest; it is not, however, actually difficult; nor is the pain in the thorax augmented by taking a full inspiration, nor by any slight cough that may sometimes attend." The sub-acute will often merge into the chronic variety, which is acknowledged to be of very difficult detection. Carditis is often complicated with other inflammatory diseases, particularly of the pericardium or of the lungs. Indeed, Corvísart has asserted that acute carditis never occurs without complication. As for the means of clearly determining the particular organ which shares the diseased action of the heart, we are apprehensive that Dr. Reeder has rather laid down conjectural sources of diagnosis, than positive distinctions warranted by experience. "When the pericardium is inflamed, and the heart, at the same time, is affected in a similar manner, there are no particular symptoms manifested which enable us to decide whether the former be in reality so diseased."-" It very rarely happens that the pericardium is inflamed alone, and without the heart at the same time being so diseased; yet, if such should occur, there will be pain in the region of the |