in bed, and also diffuse a sufficient quantity of volatile alkali through the air of the apartments. After proper attention to the use of mustard and other emetics, then, ammoniated spirits DULY DILUTED, might be administered internally, and even per enemata, as useful adjuvants of treatment. I am the more anxious to draw attention to these suggestions, from the result of experiments similar to those mentioned in my work, page 160, showing the great changes effected on the blood by an atmosphere in which ammonia is diffused; I refer to the work alluded to, as containing observations on the influence of æriform remedies, the detail of which would now be tedious. Having mentioned the substance of this letter to some of those connected with Government, I am advised to submit it to the consideration of the Board of Health at Newcastle. I also request you will give these suggestions the benefit of your investigation, during the series of experiments you are about to institute on the subject of morbid poisons. I am, dear Sir, Your's truly, J. MURRAY. Mr. Stanley. We have by accicident been enabled to inspect a magnificent present which has been given to this distinguished professor of anatomy, at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, by the Governors of that splendid institution. The present consists of a tray composed of massive silver, which is chased in the very richest style of luxurious ornament; and of two smaller waiters of the same metal, and decorated upon a similar scale. The tray presents in the middle of its surface, in beautifully-wrought engraving, the arms of the Hospital, intermingled with those of Mr. Stanley. On the waiters also his arms are engraved. The three pieces of plate bear, in a conspicuous place, respectively, an inscription, signifying that each was given to Edward Stanley, Esq. F.R.S. by the Governors, as a testimony of the sense which they entertained of his ability and industry in directing and arranging their Museum. BOOKS RECEIVED FOR REVIEW. A Demonstration of the Nerves of the Human Body; founded on the Subjects of the Collegial Prizes for 1825 and 1828, adjudged by the Royal College of Surgeons. By Joseph Swan. This Part completes the Anatomy of the Sympathetic Nerve. Part III., containing the Cerebral Nerves, will be published in the ensuing spring. Price of Part I. 21. 2s. A Treatise on the Diseases of the Heart and Great Vessels. Comprising a new view of the Physiology of the Heart's Action. By J. Hope, M.D. Senior Physician to the St. Mary-lebone Infirmary, of London, formerly House Physician and House Surgeon to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, &c. &c. A Treatise on Physiology applied to Pathology. By F. J. V. Broussais, M.D. From the French, by John Bell, M.D. and R. La Roche, M.D. History of Chronic Phlegmasiæ, or Inflammations, founded on Clinical Experience and Pathological Anatomy; exhibiting a view of the varieties of these Diseases, with their Treatment. By F. J. V. Broussais. From the French, by Isaac Hays, M.D., and R. Eglesfeld Griffith, M.D. NOTICE TO CORRESPONDENTS. Communications have been received from Dr. Murray, of Dublin, Dr. Hays, of Philadelphia, Dr. Copland, Dr. Gordon Smith, Dr. Crane, Dr. Bourne, of Coventry, Dr. Hacket, of Trinidad, Mr. Rolls, Mr. Myers, Mr. Boyle, and Mr. Henry, which are under consideration. The Reports of the Medical Societies in our next. W. GUTHRIE, PRINTER, 15, SHOE LANE. ICE, gentlemen, as it is commonly usedthat is to say, pounded small, and put into a bladder, and then laid over the tumour, is as likely as any local application with which we are acquainted, to be servicable in irreducible hernia, whilst it is a resource which cannot produce any unfavourable consequences. It checks the progress of inflammation in the parts with which it is in contact: it causes a diminution in the size of the vessels-it lowers the temperature, and is, on the whole, an unobjectionable mode, certainly, of attempting to reduce a hernia. If it do no good, it will be sure to do no harm; and in effect accomplishes, without risk of danger, all that can be effected by any local application whatever. Tobacco, gentlemen, you are aware is employed in the form of an enema, in cases of hernia, for a specific purpose; it causes, very speedily, a depression of the vital powers; it diminishes the energy, and brings on that state of general relaxation of the body under which inflammatory action is likely to give way. The influence of tobacco is indeed so considerable on our physical powers, that the greatest caution is requisite in its administration, even in the way that I have mentioned. We generally infuse a drachin of Mr. Wheeler, the elder, late Apothecary to St.Bartholomew's Hospital, a gentleman now not far from his 80th year, and who exhibits in his healthy form, and his placid and cheerful spirit, a striking specimen of the blessings which a VOL. I. the tobacco in a pint of water. We inject half this quantity the first time, and if no particular effect take place in half an hour or so, we are then justified in administering the remainder in the same way. Omental Hernia. Gentlemen, rupture of the omentum renders persons very liable to the rupture of intestine. This liability I have had occasion to notice, and I remember very well that a gentleman, affected with omental hernia, and in whom the intestine would come down whenever he rode, or even when getting into bed, insisted on having an operation performed upon him. The operation was performed by Mr. Abernethy, during the time that I lived with him. Wound of the Intestine in the Operation for Hernia. Gentlemen, no person, I am sure, can have undertaken the difficult task of performing an operation for hernia, without feeling that he runs the risk of wounding the protruded bowel. It sometimes even happens that the surgeon is unable, for some time, to pass the director beneath the constriction, and having, under such circumstances, no other alternative than the employment of a cutting instrument, he incurs still greater risk than ever of such an accident. For my own part, gentlemen, I confess to you, that I never yet commenced the operation for reducing a strangulated hernia, without being sensibly alive to the danger of wounding the intestine. This is a sort of apprehension, from which no man, however cautious, however well-informed, should consider himself exempt, and it is only by acknowledging your youth, and a manhood of temperance and integrity, must secure to the period of old age, has been among the first to warn practitioners against the employment of tobacco clysters in hernia, of a strength greater than that which Mr. Lawrence recommends in his lecture. D liability to this danger, that you will be induced to take the necessary measures in order to avoid it. You will naturally inquire what are the means by which we are most likely to prevent this occurrence. I think, gentlemen, that one of your principal objects, with the view of guarding against the hazard I have mentioned, should be to carry your external incision so far, as completely to denude the aponeurosis of the external oblique muscle. By such a course only, can you expect to proceed to the successful termination of your measures with certainty. In the next place, let me advise you never to trust to a shallow director, when you are about to relax the constriction. I present to your notice a director, which I always employ in private practice; you perceive that the groove is rather deeper than you have been accustomed to see; but this depth is essentially necessary, in order to prevent the intestine from being reflected over its edges, and in this way being imperceptibly placed in the way of the knife. Now, gentlemen, when such an occurrence as a wound of the intestine takes place, your best course is to seize, without delay, the sides of the aperture with a strong forcepsto tie the mouth of the wound with a silken ligature, and cut the ends of the ligature close to the knot. I may mention to you that such an accident as this has taken place in the practice of Mr. Abernethy, who tied the bowel in the way I have mentioned, and returned it.* In a case, which was operated on by myself some years ago, there was an opening in the protruded intestine, which could not be decided to have been inflicted by the knife. But the wound was tied, and that patient did well. It is my own impression, that when the bowel is wounded in the operation, if, in other respects the case goes on favourably, there is no reason to apprehend any dangerous consequences. You will find that an effusion oflymph generally envelopes the ligature, and that it is carried into the canal of the intestine, from which it ultimately passes off. The process has been found to take place in dogs, which have been made the subjects of experiments; and I believe it has been proved, that if you even tie the intestine of one of these animals completely across, the obstruction will be soon removed, and the ligature will be carried into the canal-so extensive are the powers of nature.† Difficulties of Post-Mortem Examinations. There is scarcely any member of our profession who, if he were called on, is not ready * [This is also the practice of Sir Astley Cooper.---EDs.] [This was amply proved by B. Bell, Travers, and others. See Appendix, Article Abdomen.... EDs.] to undertake the examination of the body after death, quite as an ordinary part of his business; and yet how few are there who are really competent to the due performance of such a task. Few indeed are acquainted with all the changes which the structure of the body may experience under the various influence of disease; still fewer are capable of appreciating the distinctions that exist between the phenomena which belong to the condition of health and those which belong to the condition of disease. I am not, I must say, ashamed to confess, that I am not able, at all times, to estimate with certainty, the nature of the appearances which present themselves in the human body after death. I have seen it stated, for instance, that the hemispheres of the brain have been coated with a stratum of lymph. I have known such a statement to be made by what one would be justified in considering as great authorities; but I must candidly inform you, that I have never seen lymph effused on the brain: that such an effusion may occur, I do not mean to deny, but such a thing as pus being poured out beneath the dura mater, is a circumstance that I will venture to say is, at all events, rare. Now in the majority of instances, where the appearance on the removal of the dura mater has been described to be purulent effusion, I have not the slightest doubt that this is nothing more than a serous infiltration into the pia mater, with which thickening and opacity of the arachnoid membrane are combined. LECTURE Delivered before the Fellows of the Medico- BY GILBERT T. BURNETT, Esq. ON THE PROGRESS OF MEDICAL BOTANY. GENTLEMEN, Informed by your learned secretary, that it is the duty of the Professor of Botany to deliver a lecture introductory to the combined course which the Council have decided shall be given by his colleagues and himself, during each session, upon the botanical, chemical, pharmaceutical and toxicological characters, principles, and properties of such plants as either have been, are, or might be used as medicines or as poisons, and not as yet having had an opportunity of consulting the professors of chemistry, materia medica, and toxicology, as to the first subject to be discussed, he hopes he shall stand excused in selecting for the present occasion a general, rather than a special topic, viz. a review of the late progress of medical botany, including in this a retrospective notice of the changes which have taken place in public opinion with regard to its absolute value and its relative importance. Indeed, gentlemen, he has thought that a summary account of the advances and improvements which have been made in this science, since your society has been instituted, will not be considered an uninteresting detail by your new, nor an unwelcome offering by your older Fellows; the former of whom may have never known, and the latter, from the want of such a retrospect, may have in part forgotten, the improvements which have been wrought through the instrumentality of your society, and of other societies kindred with your own; a progress so remarkable, and a change so great, that they can only have arisen from the unwearied exertions of good soldiers, fighting in as good a cause. Gentlemen-retrospects are pleasing when long sought objects have become our own, when labours which we feared would ever be in vain, not only have deserved, but have obtained success. It is pleasant, I repeat, to look back from the vantage ground of successful enterprise, upon the arduous paths our feet have trod, and reflect that the once future hope of years now gone, has become the present possession of the time that is. Such a view is grateful, even when arrived at its utmost verge-we have only to contemplate a scene we soon must quit-how doubly grateful when in early life we reach that point in the vista of our past and future years, whence on either side extends a prospect, here of achieved, there of anticipated good. Such, gentlemen, is our lot, such the prospects now before us, and such the feelings with which I now address you; for not even the youngest here is too young to have seen many of the changes to which I have alluded, and we most of us have watched with fostering care the gradual rise in reputation of that department of natural knowledge, to which, as a society, our attention is especially directed. In truth, I know not the science which has advanced more rapidly, or which has made greater improvements than our own. Gentlemen, you are my witnesses, that a few years since, medical botany was not what it is, and that its reputation is not now what then it was. To us its present care has been committed, let us not prove unmindful of our charge, but urge on towards perfection, that which already has so far advanced, and strive to transmit with still greater improvements to our successors, that which so far improved is now inherited by us. To some of the soldiers of science, victory must always come a day too late; but if the rewards be reaped by their survivors, who have followed in their footsteps, and have fought their fight, the honours must be given both to the living and the dead; and if then it be pleasant (as none can doubt) to cast our eyes over the field of conflict, even when it is a field we have won to leave, how doubly pleasant to have arrived in time, to share both the hazards and the honours of the war, and to have still enough of strength remaining to secure the spoils, and life to enjoy the advantage we have gained. Gentlemen, to render the following detail more specific, and to avoid assuming your authority even in appearance, before your sanction has been given, I shall speak at first as for myself alone-and yet it will not, in the end, be for myself-but for all, as I am sure my statements will be verified by your experience, and then you will adopt them as your own. When, gentlemen, only fifteen years of age I became a student in the London schools, medical botany was at its lowest ebb-it had become almost a by-word of reproach, and the study entailed both on teacher and on pupil sarcasm and contempt, as if familiarity with his tools, which, as a workman, he must employ, could weaken the hand by which they must be used, or as if a knowledge of the means by which diseases may be cured, could enfeeble the mind, that should minister relief. Think not that I exaggerate-the above is no fancy sketch. Should any doubt, the following anecdote will prove that the picture is not too highly coloured; indeed, it is far from being over-wrought. A venerable botanist, and excellent man, who is an ornament to our profession, and a most successful practitioner [if we calculate success by the relief administered, rather than by the lucre gained], was absolutely scoffed at in the wards of a London hospital, for his love of botany-publicly taunted, not for ignorance of anatomy, physiology, chemistry, or pharmacy-not for insufficient knowledge of the principles and practice of his professionnot for ignorance of any thing the scoffer knew, but for knowledge of that he knew not-for his knowledge of botany-laughed at (I repeat the memorable words), for "knowing a nettle under a hedge." Such was the head and front of his offending.' This philosopher, indeed, was born, as it were, before his time; he was too much in advance of the age in which he lived to have his talents duly valued; for when amongst us such things were too little thought of, he added philosophy to physic, and both to great classical attainments. To some now present both the gentlemen alluded to were personally known-by fame to all they are known, and their names are only withheld, because am loath to offend the modesty of the illustrious living, or the memory of the illustrious dead. I tell the tale in pity, not in anger, accounting the error rather that of the age than of the individual. He had never studied the science he contemned, and was therefore incompetent to form an original opinion; his mouth but spake, his voice but echoed the prevailing prejudices of his time, prejudices which have only lately been subdued, for many were the attacks made by the intelligent on the strong holds of ignorance, before medical education became established on its present enlarged and liberal basis. How often was the necessity of a knowledge of botany urged before its study was required; how often were the premises admitted, and the conclusion irrationally denied? Such, gentlemen, was the state of medical botany when I commenced the study, and nearly such its state when I began to lecture; as things could not be worse, I adopted as my motto, Spero meliora," and better things have come. Various attempts had previously been made to establish a botanical class in the medical schools of London. Wheeler, Smith, Thornton, Emerson, and others, convinced of the importance of botany to physic, had successively essayed the task, but were severally compelled to relinquish the attempt, for, although they were willing to teach, not finding students willing to learn, they abandoned the project in despair. Thus while botany in general, and out of the schools was advancing, botany, in the schools, and especially medical botany, receded almost to extinction. The Society of Apothecaries seem almost alone to have kept the feeble spark alive by their herbarizings and garden demonstrations, but even in this last London refuge for the science, although the lectures were delivered gratuitously, and food provided for the body as well as for the mind, few comparatively were the students who would accept the proffered breakfast, dinner, and tea, which were to be associated with a medico-botanical demonstration, and even of the few that ate the viands, still fewer were there that listened to the lecture. Thus the early fate of each succeeding lecturer resembled that of his predecessors, for even when the lectures were gratuitously given, woefully small was the class attending-sometimes the dual number was all too large for its enumeration, and often the lecturer was barely privileged to address his audience as gentlemen. How great is the contrast now, for instead of your Professor being almost the only lecturer in London, at one time, I believe left quite alone, there is a botanical lecturer in almost every school; and still, notwithstanding the competition, the classes have been rapidly increasing, and the botanical courses are now esteemed among the most popular and numerously attended in our schools. So that a pupil in his noviciate might be well excused for doubting whether it could ever have been otherwise, and this the more especially, when he finds that even the first dawnings of the science bring to light many points of interest and importance, which had hitherto been shrouded in impenetrable obscurity. When he finds, to take but a few isolated, and hence much weakened illustrations, when he finds that vegetable anatomy discloses the primordia of vital organization, exhibits the simple drafts or outlines of those afterwards elaborate systems, which in animals seem obscure from their connexions, and startling from their complexity. Yes, here are to be found the first out-shadowings of the muscular, digestive, nervous, and other systems, even before they have become such in reality; and those who are curious in these matters, may consult Dutrochet's Treatise on the Motive Organs of the Sensitive Plant, and also an account of some experiments performed by Mr. Mayo and myself, to show the nature of its contractile apparatus, published in the Journal of Science, aswell as several essays of mine in the same Journal, "on the Adumbrations of a Stomach in Vegetables," on the digestion and respiration of plants, and on the development of their several organic systems. Again; well might a freshman feel disposed to doubt the accuracy of our reminiscences, when he learns that vegetable physiology brings him acquainted with the various functions of automatic life in their most distinct and simple forms; when he finds that he can trace absorption through all its stages, and demonstrate the extraordinary power of endosmose, by which fluids permeate organic membranes, and are forced to rise in tubes and vessels, against the force of gravity; when he sees in plants the circulation of the sap, and its motion shown to exist, independent of an impelling heart; and also among many other privileges, he finds that he can, in plants, examine the actions of organic, separate from those of animal life; i. e. can investigate the phenomena of irritability unmixed with those of sense and instinct. [The various examples given by the Professor, want of space compels us to omit.] Well might a novice be incredulous with regard to the late neglect of botany by physiologists, when he finds that phytochymics will explain the influence of vegetable life on matter, the conversion through the agency of the growth of plants of inorganic into organic, the change of refuse into useful things. Well might he disbelieve our record, when he learns that botanical geography will enable him to tell the mean and the extreme temperature of countries, and not only their temperatures, but their relative and their positive degrees of salubrity, by the presence or absence of various plants. Well might he indeed impugn our veracity, in saying that any one had ever declared such science useless, when botanical geology not only indicates the nature of various soils and strata, as unerringly as the rule of the mineralogist, or the crucible of the chemist; but when fossil botany unfolds a page turned down by nature, and reads to us the history of changes |