These are so highly important and creditable to him as a chemist, that we shall give a copy of his own account of them :-" As it is an acknowledged fact that the excessive use of distilled spirits, and other fluids contammg alcohol, tends to produce urinary gravel, I was induced to make some experiments for the purpose of ascertaining how far the addition of alcohol to the urine, after it is out of the body, tends to promote a deposition of lithic acid from this fluid. I found, however, from repeated trials, that it had a contrary tendency, both retarding the deposition of this acid, and greatly lessening the quantity deposited, which, probably in conse quence of its being deposited more slowly, appeared in larger and more distinct crystals when the alcohol was added to the urine. This com bines with other circumstances in proving, that, contrary to the opinion of M. Majendie, it is by the debility its incautious use induces on the digestive organs, and not by any direct influence on the urine, that alcohol disposes to urinary gravel."

M. Majendie never stated any thing so truly absurd, as that alcohol, when taken in excess, is conveyed to the blood, and from it separated by the kidneys. He asserts, that in consequence of the stomach being disordered by the alcohol, the food is not properly digested, and the blood being unhealthy, the secretion of the kidneys is found to contain lithic acid. Neither the lithic acid nor alcohol existed in the blood. The new combinations which are formed by the kidneys as much depend, if not more, on the disturbed state of their nerves, as an unhealthy state of blood from indigestion.

We have entered fully into the analysis of Dr. Philip's book, because we conceive his doctrines would be productive of very serious mischief if they were to prevail among young practitioners. If a practitioner were to consider inflammation of the brain, lungs, or liver, which was preceded by symptoms of indigestion, (from which, generally speaking, not one person in a hundred is entirely exempt) as sympathetic of a disordered stomach, and proceed to treat it on the scientific principle of curing the primary disease, the probability is, that he would lose twentyfive patients out of thirty. A dyspeptic patient is as liable, on exposure to cold, or change of weather, to inflammation of the lungs, liver, brain, intestines, as any other person; and when it occurs in such a subject, the anti-inflammatory treatment should be proportioned to the general state of the system, the degree of inflammation, and the importance of the affected organ in the animal economy. The idea of the inflamination being a "superaddition of inflammatory action to indigestion," because the patient was previously affected with indigestion, is, in our humble opinion, a very unfortunate one for young practitioners. The affection of the stomach, which the author has termed the second stage of indigestion, is the species of the disease which we have noticed in a late Number under the name of the irritative species, to which gouty people are particularly subject. To such patients, the abstraction of blood, solution of nitre, &c. &c. would prove highly injurious.

For the many books which have lately appeared on complaints of the liver and stomach, the public is indebted to Mr. Abernethy's work on the chylopoietic organs. The popularity it has acquired has induced others, for the purpose of giving publicity to their names, to make a book either to elucidate his doctrines, or to add to them some flight

The sys

of fancy that they conceive likely to attract public attention. tem has in consequence been terribly quacked. Indeed it appears to us, that Abernethy himself has adhered to his own system too pertinaciously, i. e. to the neglect of the topical management of local disease.

of the

COLCHICUM SEEDS.-The period recommended by botanists for collecting these seeds is the latter end of June, or the beginning of July. The proper time must, however, depend on the nature of the season. When it is as backward as the present the seeds may not be sufficiently matured till the middle of August. The collector should depend more on the appearance of the seeds than any particular period year. When the colour of the husk or bark of the seeds becomes darkly brown, he may consider them ripe, and fit for medicinal purposes. Dr. Williams, in a late communication to Dr. Uwins, observes, "In a pound of the seeds collected in the latter part of June, or early in July last, eleven ounces in weight were lost in drying, whereas the same quantity collected at the end of July, or the begining of August, lost two ounces and a half only. In warmer or dry seasons they may be found perfectly ripe a month earlier." The Doctor condemns the practice of bruising the seeds for the purpose of making the wine, " which some persons," says he, "have been induced to adopt, with the view either to augment their powers, or to obviate their scarcity; but as their valuable properties reside chiefly in the husk or cortical part, the benefit of preserving them entire is obvious." He also 16 strongly condemns the use of any other wine than sherry in preparing the wine of the seeds, all British made wines being decidedly objectionable."!! In his first communication on the anti-rheumatic properties of the seeds, he condemned the use of proof spirit, because the infusion of the seeds in it was turbid, and, on keeping, deposited a sediment. This statement he has since found to be incorrect; for instead of a proof spirit, the menstruum he employed contained only half the proper quantity of rectified spirit. The tincture he now prefers to the wine, because it will retain its virtues many years, whereas the wine is liable to run into the acetous fermentation, and thereby injure the extractive matter of the seeds it holds in solution. Few physicians are so candid as the learned Doctor, to acknowledge an ignorance of that very important branch of his profession-Chemistry. A vinous infusion of a vegetable product, unless kept in a cold situation, will certainly run into an acetous fermentation, although sherry or any other wine be employed. We, therefore, in making the wine, have added a proportion of alcohol, or subcarbonate of potass, to preserve it in a vinous state. That the tincture made with the dilute spirit, which the Doctor first employed, and unbruised seeds, should be turbid, and that with sherry wine should be clear, is to a chemist a very puzzling circumstance. The quantity of alcohol in each is about the same. Does the dilute spirit extract more resin or more gum than the wine? The fact is, if unbruised seeds are employed, the infusion made with wine, or a spirit, of the strength the Doctor first employed, or of proof spirit, is clear.

The Doctor's reports of the effects of the vinous and spirituous infusions of the seeds, are entitled to more attention. These continue to be in favor of the peculiar virtues of the seeds, in allaying rheumatic pains. Indeed not only from his reports, but those of others, as well

as our own experience, we state with confidence, that the vinous infusion will bear the test of extensive experience. We have not met with a case of rheumatism in which it has not manifested a specific effect; and when the seeds are to be obtained in a state of perfection, (in which practitioners have not been able to procure them within the last six months) we have no doubt they will be found generally very bene ficial as a sedative, in cases of gout, rheumatism, pulmonary consump tion, painful or spasmodic menstruation, and in allaying the pain of organic disease. The seeds possess a peculiar sedative property, and in many cases, will be found a valuable substitute for opium, heubane, hemlock, deadly nightshade, &c. Like the henbane, they possess the very important advantage over opium, of not affecting the head, or producing constipation, and at the same time, are more certain in their sedative operation. Serenity of mind, clearness of head, a favorable state of bowels, and improved state of the digestive organs, generally follow the use of the alkaline wine.

Dr. Williams, since our last report of the efficacy of the wine and oxymel of the colchicum seeds, in cases of gout, rheumatism, painful menstruation, asthma, chronic inflammation of the membrane lining the windpipe and bronchia, and pulmonary consumption, has published nine cases of rheumatism, of long standing, which were soon cured by the wine of the colchicum seeds, after other remedies had failed.

PULMONARY CONSUMPTION.-The celebrated Professor Borda of Italy, has found the seeds of the water fennel very beneficial in the first and second stages of pulmonary consumption, but of no use in the third stage. In inflammatory affections of the mucous membrane of the windpipe and bronchial ramification, when they supervene to catarrh aud inflammation of the lungs, he has also found them very ser viceable. He commenced with the dose of ten grains every two or three hours, which he gradually increased to a drachm. The seeds in conjunction with Peruvian bark were some years ago highly extolled in this country as a remedy for pulmonary consumption. Being powerfully narcotic or poisonous, their effects should be carefully watched. A mania for poisonous medicines has for some time prevailed among the physicians of Italy, and if their late reports of the beneficial effects of emetic tartar, foxglove, deadly nightshade, &c. be correct, the Italians possess the extraordinary power of resisting the fatal effects of those poisons. Three drachms of emetic tartar, administered to one patient, daily, have proved beneficial in cases of fever. Half a drachm of deadly nightshade in powder, and two drachms of the extract every three hours, act beneficially on the constitution of an Italian!!! To the strongest Englishman, one-eighth the quantity would prove fatal in a few hours.

HOOPING-COUGH.-Professor Borda speaks in very high terms of the virtues of the powdered root of the deadly nightshade in subduing hooping-cough. "Children," says he, "to all appearance past all human assistance, have been snatched from death by means of it." He first prescribed one-fourth of a grain of the powder every four hours, and increased the dose gradually, according to the age of the patient. In no instance he exceeded two grains. About two years ago Surgeon Kerrison, of London, published some cases of hooping

cough, which, after resisting the usual remedies, yielded soon to the influence of the extract of the deadly night-shade.

HEDGE HYSSOP.-Professor Borda has administered the decoction of the hedge hyssop with complete success in cases of dysentery, after ipecacuanha and other remedies had failed. He has also prescribed it in cases of intermittents which were greatly aggravated by the Peruvian bark, with the most decided advantage. "On the whole,” says the Professor, "it is an active contra-stimulant, and may be employed in mania and other complaints, where it is necessary to subdue morbid irritation or excess of stimulation."

In

TIC DOULOUREUX.-Mr. G. H. Villers, an experienced surgeon of London, has published a small treatise on this disease, to give publicity to a plan of treatment which he has uniformly found successful' in preventing and radically curing it. His mode of treatment, he says, "has invariably been to excite a new action in the system, checking or moderating the effects of the morbid impression induced by the cause of the disease, on the part or parts affected, and as the health of the body depends on the digestive organs properly performing their functions, it is necessary to observe, that whatever tends to derange these important viscera should be cautiously avoided. The body, during the treatment," must be kept gewly open, and the feet immersed in warm water, up to the knees, for several successive nights The benefit of this treatment,' he says, "is soon apparent by the consequent decrease of irritability. Bloodletting, where the constitution will bear it, he has also employed with advantage." The most healthy constitutions he has found to bear very large evacuations of blood, when symptoms clearly required it. many cases," says he, "a person after bleeding can be more easily stimu lated." The cold bath he has found a powerful tonic, but, like all others, it may be abused, so as to do mischief, and the warm bath, in like manner, has its good and bad effects, and their consequences must depend as symptoms may point out their use, or the reverse. "The first action of cold," says Mr. Villers, "is to produce a sudden torpor in the vessels of the skin, and to determine the volume of blood from the external to the internal parts; hence, if the person be disposed to internal bleedings, the first application of cold to the skin may bring it on." Mr. V. "has tried the carbonate of iron to the full extent of the dose the stomach will bear (as recommended by Surgeon Hutchinson of Southwell), in several well-marked cases of tic douloureux of ten and twenty years standing, with much success; but he has never had a case so decidedly cured by its administration without the assistance of external application, as that by Dr. Carter noticed in our last Number. In addition to the following form of prescription, he has found, by practical experience, nineteen cases out of twenty immediately alleviated by pledgets of linen, well bathed in common vinegar, applied and worn over the painful seat of the disease, and which has, in the space of two or three days, totally allayed the morbid irritation of that branch of the nervous system. The patient, at the same time, is to take the following medicine, and the bowels to be kept gently soluble :

Take of Blue Pill, Ipecacuan Powder, of each half a drachm. Mix and divide into twelve pills; two to be taken every night at bed-time.

Take of Carbonate of Soda;

Carbonate of Iron ;

Aromatic Confection; of each one scruple.

Pure water, two ounces.-Mix. To be taken three times a day.

The deadly night-shade, recommended by Mr. Bailey for pains in the face, Mr. Villers has found to merit the character given it by that gentleman. Mr V. recommends the patient to keep himself moderately warm. The head, he says, "cannot be too much so." Pure air and exer ise are also proper; and whatever tends to produce restlessness and anxiety, and excite the passions of the mind, are to be avoided. We are glad to find, from our foreign coadjutors, that Surgeon Hutchinson's pamphlet on tic douloureux has been translated into the Italian, French, and German languages, and that the carbonate of iron, in the dose recommended by him, has generally proved successful. The discovery is very justly termed, in some of the foreign Journals," one of the most important that has been made in medicine, since that of the circulation of the blood by the immortai Harvey."

DIGESTION.-D. Philip has repeated his experiments on rab. bits, in the presence of the President and several Members of the Royal Society, and the results satisfied them, that the galvanic fluid, conveyed by a branch of the eighth pair of nerves (after being divided) to the stomach, has some influence in keeping up digestion in the stomach; but that they proved that a similar subtile fluid is conducted from the brain, by the nerves, or that the process of digestion was kept up by the stimulating effects of the galvanic fluid on the stomach, was by no means clear. The report industriously circulated by a foreigner, of the name of Bozi, who has lately settled in this metropolis under the name of Dr Granville, that the experiments had totally failed, is therefore not true. We advise this foreign gentleman to be a little more circumspect in his conduct towards English physicians, and cautious in his recommendation of poisonous articles, for, in this country, high patronage does not afford the protection it does in others. The experiments of Dr. Philip are highly important, and we should be very glad to find his statements to be correct. We have been some time engaged in repeating them, but as we are proceeding on a more extensive scale, with the view of ascertaining the influence of oxygen conveyed into the lungs, in keeping up the vital powers, we are tearful we shall not be able to report the results for some months.

VACCINATION.-We are sorry to find that failures of cow-pox in affording security against small pox, are increasing throughout this country. A correspondent, at Bromley, in Kent, informs us, that a gentleman residing near Down, who lately returned from the East Indies, with a young family, inoculated, with small-pox matter, all his children, who had been vaccinated a few years ago in Boinbay. They all took the disease. The fever ran high, but the eruption was far from being numerous, and was so mild as to resemble chicken-pox more than small-pox. These cases are interesting, because we are told that the cow-pox has uniformly succeeded in the East Indies, as a security against small-pox contagion.

TWINS.-Sirs, In the 64th Number of your very valuable publica