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Edited by Francis Badgley, M. D., and William Sutherland, M. D.

CYNANCHE PAROTIDÆA.

This epidemic, manifestly contagious, has hitherto, I believe, engaged but very partially the attention of medical writers; being, in general, left to terminate its own course, without the assistance or employment of remedial means, and thereby, as in similar morbid invasions of the system, trusting too much upon those laws of organism,^[1] for correcting and restoring deviation from natural actions to their normal condition. This epidemic, however, having in this section, and at this season, proved much more serious, and much more dangerous, than at any other period of its prevalence, I have been induced, from the great number of cases which have fallen under my own immediate auspices, to note down a few observations.

The disease made its appearance in the commencement of June last, and has only disappeared within a few days. The primary symptoms were as usually described: pyrexia, soon followed with a considerable tumor of the external fauces and neck, but generally on both sides; in some cases deglutition became much disturbed, and the fever ran to such height, and was attended with such cerebral disturbances, as to have proved exceedingly alarming, and which, I am persuaded, would, if not timely repressed, by active dephlogistic means, have produced fatal terminations.

In other cases, a sudden secession of the swellings in the neck and fauces has been followed by a considerable disturbance of the whole system; and I would, therefore, urgently recommend the avoidance of such repellent applications, so often and so thoughtlessly employed in similar affections.

What, however, is the most remarkable feature in certain cases of cynanche parotidæa, is the tumor of the testicles in males, and breasts in females, which sometimes succeed the subsidence of the primary affection. In several of the former, not only has the body of the testicles been found enlarged, and extremely painful to the touch, but, also, the spermatic cord and vas deferens—the lower portion of the epididymis remained hard for five and even six days; in the absence of the cynanche parotidæa, I should have pronounced this peculiar metastasis “hernia humoralis,” bearing as nearly as possible all its characteristic symptoms.

In the latter (the females), the breasts were also greatly tumefied. I particularly noticed it in one of my female servants, aged 18, and where the intensity of pain proved so great as to confine her to bed for nearly eight days.

In these secondary affections, the patients received the greatest relief from a common liniment, composed of about 2 drachms of camphor to an ounce of olive oil, adding about 4 or 5 ounces of pure ammonia water.

The fever will, in the milder cases, be efficiently resisted by administering (proportionably to age) small quantities of tart. antimony and water.

A. Von Iffland, M. D.

Yamaska, (near Sorel,) September 18, 1844.

ESSAI SUR L’EXISTENCE PHYSIQUE DE L’HOMME.

Messieurs,

Si nous scrutons les débris des siècles, nous verrons que nous sommes d’anciennes dates ainsi que tout ce qui nous environne. Excrémens de tout ce qui nous a précédé, nous tomberons un jour pour surgir encore, des siècles s’écouleront sans jamais rien anéantir pas même un seul de nos cheveux.

Soit que nous montions ou que nous descendions dans l’échelle des générations, nous sommes obligés d’avouer que rien dans le domaine de la nature n’est anéanti, que ce qu’elle perd dans un corps, elle le trouve dans un autre, n’existant pas à la vérité de la même manière, puisque ruiné des principes vitaux nécessaires à son mode d’existence, ou plutôt inapte à les recevoir, il est soumis à l’action élaboratrice de la nature pour devenir apte au maintien de son économie: de cette action résultent l’existence des êtres physiques, leurs différens modes et leurs modifications. Le développement de ces propositions fera le sujet de ma thèse.

Après les phénomènes qui se passent tous les jours sous nos yeux, pourrions-nous croire que ceux qui nous ont précédé aient ravi à la nature les principes matériels qu’elle leur avait prétés pour en faire des acteurs d’un moment sur le théâtre de la vie humaine; non, ils n’ont rien emporté d’elle, tous leurs prédécesseurs ne furent pas plus heureux, et ne nous flattons pas de plus de succès; s’il en était ainsi, qui réparerait les dépenses que fait la nature pour le soutien de millions d’êtres qui se nourrissent à son sein? Toujours prodigue elle serait bientôt vide comme le néant.

Si on interroge ce qui nous environne, on verra que les générations ne sont que des débris des générations précédentes et ont vécu comme nous de tout ce qui les a précédé. Elles n’étaient qu’une combinaison de particules élaborées des êtres n’importe de qu’elle espèce, d’une génération antérieure. Tour à tour elles se sont montrées sous divers modes d’existence. Hommes, ils sont devenus pourriture, de cette décomposition sont résultées d’autres substances; les substances ambiantes y ont puisé la vie et l’accroissement et même la nature déployant sans cesse ses immenses richesses en a formée d’autres animaux soit par une génération simultanée comme celle qui se fait par conception, ou spontanée comme celles de ces animaux résultant de l’action immédiate de principes vivifiant sur la matière. Il en est ainsi de toutes les substances, en se décomposant, elles forment dans la nature un fond commun, où chaque être puisera les principes nécessaires à son mode d’existence; d’où l’on peut inférer que l’homme, comme être physique existe de tout ce qui a existé et de tout ce qui existe.

“En qualité d’êtres physiques, dit Mr. l’Abbé de La Mennais,^[2] les substances brutes et organiques, l’air, la lumière, l’eau, les plantes, nous sont immédiatement nécessaires pour nous conserver; nous vivons dans une dépendance absolue de tout ce qui nous environne, et pour nous assurer un seul moment d’existence, des millions de rapports, dont la chaine s’étend du grain de sable imperceptible, jusqu’au soleil le plus éloigné de notre systême, doivent se tenir invariables.” Il y a entre les êtres physiques une dépendance absolue et réciproque sans préjudice ni pour les uns ni pour les autres, et même c’est en vertu de cette dépendance qu’ils existent.

Sans cesse décomposé et absorbé par les substances ambiantes, le corps de l’homme périrait bientôt, si ces mêmes substances ambiantes ne subissaient pas un changement analogue pour donner au corps en échange de ce qu’elles reçoivent, des principes propres à réparer les pertes qu’il fait et à entretenir la vie en bien. C’est ainsi que les alimens que nous prenons qui ne sont eux-mêmes que le résultat d’une transformation et d’une combinaison des dépouilles des êtres physiques, se transforment en partie de nous-mêmes, pour bientôt se transformer en d’autres substances et ainsi de suite: de sorte que tous les êtres physiques se maintiennent par cette transformation continuelle nécessitée par la dépendance absolue et réciproque des uns des autres.

Ces êtres conserveront leur mode d’existence avec des modifications particulières, suivant le dégré d’harmonie qu’il y aura entre les substances ambiantes et cet être, ou en d’autres termes, entre la substance active et la substance passive considérée l’une par rapport à l’autre. Ils changeront de mode d’existence, quand il ne pourra plus exister de rapports vitaux entre la substance passive et la substance active: c’est-à-dire quand la substance recevante serait inapte à recevoir la vie des substances procurantes, ou que les substances procurantes manqueraient des principes de bien nécessaires à la substance ambiante.

C’est ici le lieu de dire ce que nous entendons par principes vitaux: qu’on nous permette de hasarder notre opinion. Les principes de la nature et les différentes combinaisons de ces principes ont des propriétés différentes et agissent différemment à l’égard de chaque classe d’êtres physiques et même à l’égard de chaque être en particulier. Ces différentes propriétés dépendent non seulement de la substance active mais encore de l’organisation de la substance passive. Ainsi une classe d’être puisera dans les substances ambiantes des principes ou des particules de substances qui, considérées par rapport à cette classe d’être, seront appellés vitaux et morbifiques par rapport à une autre. De là suit que les principes vitaux seront ces particules ou ces émanations de la matière propres à entretenir ou à rendre parfaite une organisation considérée par rapport à sa distinction. Ce principe est évidemment matériel, mais ce n’est pas un principe particulier comme on a voulu se le persuader jusqu’à présent, mais bien tous les principes de la nature, moyennant certaines proportion; et combinaisons nécessaires aux substances actives et aux substances passives.

Concluons donc: Dieu anime l’univers, et comme êtres physiques c’est l’univers qui nous anime; de son action sur notre systême résultera notre existence physique avec toutes ses modifications. La manifestation comme le développement des facultés de notre âme sera toujours en raison du développement et de la perfection qu’aura acquis notre organisation, comme j’aurai occasion de le démontrer plus tard. Du moment que nos organes ont pu être pénétrés par la réflection de cette émanation divine, elle y a placé son trône et de ce moment l’homme jouit de l’existence méta-physique. Mais l’harmonie nécessaire pour notre mode d’existence physique est-elle détruite, il ne peut plus y avoir de relation entre l’âme et le corps, puisque les principes morbifiques ont prévalue et nécessité une certaine désorganisation. Alors l’âme se trouve comme une reine qui n’aurait pour sujets que des Automates: elle abandonne son trône.

Le corps de l’homme entièrement sous l’empire des principes morbifiques, doit subir un nouveau mode d’existence: Alors les substances ambiantes continuent d’agir sur cette masse organique, la décomposent, l’élaborent, se l’assimulent, et ainsi la nature répare les pertes qu’elle a faite et peut continuer sa vivification.

Js. M. Thyfault.

St. Athanase, 15 Octobre, 1844.

DR. NELSON’S REJOINDER

Gentlemen,—I had at first intended to have answered all Dr. Holmes’ remarks seriatim, but on reflection I found that so doing would occupy too large a space in your journal, and that with little advantage to the profession: for to combat unfounded assertions, false premises, and consequently illegitimate deductions, would neither edify nor instruct—not even the merest tyro in physic; I shall, therefore, be as brief as possible, contenting myself by only rebutting the strongest of Dr. H.’s positions. The whole ponderous production bears a strong resemblance to an eastern pagoda, whose grotesque proportions and meretricious ornaments are of a nature to excite admiration in the uninitiated; while its whole structure causes pain to thinking men, that so much labour and expence should have been wasted on a subject so devoid of intrinsic value and calculated to lead only to error.

It is very unfortunate that a Professor of Medicine should evince so determined a disposition to distort facts and to strive to render the worse the better cause: should the Doctor manifest a similar anxiety on all occasions when his feelings are engaged, and those feelings to be often excited, I would most sincerely pity the pupil, who imbibes medical lore and logic at the Doctor’s school. But be this as it may, I shall at once enter upon the consideration of the Doctor’s most labored production.

He denies that peritonitis existed in Champeau’s case. Now I am quite ready to allow any unprejudiced practitioner to judge whether that were not as well marked a case of that dreadful disease as it is possible to witness: yea, even the Doctor’s “face gripée,” was there—or perhaps the “facies Hippocratica” would suit him better: the peculiar expression of countenance characteristic of peritonitis was present. It is true I did not give the Doctor a minute special detail of all the symptoms, for I thought it was quite sufficient to state even briefly what the disease was—never suspecting that Dr. H. would doubt the assertion of any practitioner, especially one his senior both in practice and in years.

Dr. H. denies the existence of inflammation, because he did not see its results or secondary products; he, notwithstanding, admits the existence of redness and congested vessels, and, strange to say, admits that these are the characteristics of inflammation. He says that the man labored under “long continued and severe pain.” Whence came his pain, if not from inflammation? He says that effusion is found in cases that terminated within the period that Champeau’s did; but I assert that after the second day—(that is forty-eight hours,)—Champeau had no “severe pain:” that collapse then set in, accompanied by a constant and drenching cold perspiration, which continued till his death. The inflammation had been arrested at least by the depletion—the subsequent sweating operated as a revulsive, and by absorption must have assisted in removing any effusion, had any existed.

The Doctor is a book-worm, I believe, and as such has perhaps read, that copious perspiration was had recourse to, for the cure of dropsy. The Caliph Varivillen is said to have been cured by exciting copious diaphoresis. Duhamel also relates cases of dropsy, cured by the same manner: the Indians of this day sweat their dropsical patients: this practice is not uncommon in Canada; I knew a dropsical man who crept into his own oven, after having removed a batch of bread; this he did for the purpose of curing his dropsy—but being forgotten he was literally baked to death. There is a quack in this city who prescribes sweating to all his patients:—perhaps the Doctor recollects the case mentioned in the Transactions of the Royal Academy of Sciences for 1703!! of a man affected with dropsy, to whom his wife administered a large dose of opium, to rid him of his disease, and herself of a sick husband; but lo! a profuse sweat was the result; the dropsy vanished, but the spouse remained.

In my testimony, as published in the Minerve, (the only correct version of it,) I stated that Champeau died from the supervention of gangrene: and I would ask any candid man, if the constitutional symptoms of the last thirty-six hours were not those of gangrene. Should any one have been led into error by Dr. H.’s ignis fatuus like prudence, I would beg of him to read over a second time, with attention, my statement of the case: the Doctor’s memory is as treacherous as his vision is imperfect, if he assert that I stated to him that C. had sat in an arm chair during his illness. I did tell him distinctly that C. had passed the night after the injury in an arm chair, but that I found him in bed at my first visit, which he never left till carried to the grave.

Dr. H. asserts that there was a bruise of four inches—well measured no doubt—but that had C. lived there would have been considerable sloughing. Let me ask the doctor what constitutes a slough, and if it be not sphacelus or gangrene? He also says that the lumbar region had been immersed in poultices, as though these had been constantly applied; but the moment collapse set in the poultices were replaced by cotton wool; moreover the said poultices had been principally applied to the abdomen; where there was neither bruise nor mortification. He denies that the lumbar region was gangrened; does he really forget that there was vesication there, that there was a constant oozing of bloody serum and bubbles of air from the lateral wound? Does he forget that the cuticle peeled off when touched, and only at that particular spot, exhibiting the whole lumbar surface of a dark chocolate colour? and on cutting into the part, that it was found decomposed and infiltrated? Does he forget that he attributed these appearances to “gravitation?” and has it escaped his recollection, so tenacious in other matters, that I laid the opposite side open, and that all was normal there, no blood, no infiltration, no peeling off of the cuticle, and consequently no gravitation. Can Dr. H. have forgotten that I called his attention in an especial manner to this fact? The quantity of bloody fluid issuing from this part was so great that the cloths placed under it to absorb the matter were frequently removed to prevent its staining the floor.

Dr. H. states that the appearance of the peritoneum, where the point of the bayonet rested, was due to the colour of the parts shining through this membrane, and not to the state of the membrane itself. Now the doctor did not dissect off this part of the membrane, and evidently did not desire to give it a thorough examination. How then can he be so positive that the peritoneum was really not affected, and that it was “so diaphanous.” It is indeed painful for me to be compelled to refute so many incorrect assertions. He admits, however, that the stomach was inflamed; but mark that this had nothing to do with the other diseased action of the abdominal viscera; not at all; it was all occasioned by intemperance, to which the patient was never addicted! The Doctor had “the curiosity” to peep there, and found a mare’s nest in reality; there was all the mischief; and death resulted from the joint influence of depletion and “the deprivation of stimulants to which he had been accustomed.” I cannot better refute this unjust postulate of the Professor than by referring him to the certificates furnished to the Pilot by several respectable persons intimately acquainted with the unfortunate party.^[3]

Were I disposed to sift the various quotations with which the doctor attempts to bolster up his untenable positions, I could easily turn the tables upon him; but I cannot help examining two of them: one, his quotation from Alison’s Outlines, vol. 1, page 96. Now it so happens that the inflammation in C.’s case was of so “short duration” as not to shew the usual consequences “from the rapid abatement of the diseased action,” owing to the full depletion had recourse to the moment I was called in. But the doctor cannot leave any stone unturned to direct censure on me. For instance, he blames me for not paying sufficient attention to my patient, and not being “sufficiently prompt:” yet I expressly stated to the doctor that I made Champeau aware of the dangerous tendency of his wound, and that he was to apprize me at once if he felt pain, &c. &c.; but the doctor’s memory is far less acute than his “curiosity” to detect marks of C.’s having been a drunkard.

The Doctor is not more fortunate in his allusion to his second quotation from John Hunter, page 680. This was a gun-shot wound, which passed through the body, perforating bowels and other viscera: what similarity is there then between it and Champeau’s case—especially as collapse appeared, and proceeded uninterruptedly from the moment of the infliction of the wound? In that all the tissues of the abdomen were penetrated—muscular, mucous, and serous,—and there was no reaction in the circumstances requiring depleting measures; perhaps, too, the injury to the great solar ganglion originated and accelerated the catastrophe. The Doctor replies that the instance is cited as a proof of the speedy formation of adhesions. Very well, I rejoin; but his comparison is faulty, as I have above shown.

Dr. H. prides himself much upon his perspicacity and acumen, which have led him to arrive at his conclusion on the cause of the collapse—which, gentle reader, is nothing more nor less than this—“subsequent reflection and further information.” When he penned this paragraph, the Doctor certainly had not in his mind’s eye the following pertinent remarks of Dr. Johnson, relatively to the conduct that ought to be observed by a medical witness.

“Legal or Forensic Medicine, is altogether a science of facts: it has nothing, and ought to have nothing, to do with opinions. In its application to practical purposes, its true object must ever be, the development of truth, and that alone.”

“The more rigidly the medical witness confines himself to facts, and avoids the hazard of opinionating himself, and the indelicacy of meddling with the opinions of others, the better.”

“The difficulty is not, how to state, but how to ascertain, the facts of any given case and, unless the witness be morally certain of the truth of his facts—certain, beyond all possibility of doubt, that their accuracy cannot be impeached, he should hold his peace, and not bear witness at all.”

In conclusion, I repeat, that Champeau laboured under all the symptoms of Peritonitis,—that twenty-four hours after treatment commenced, all the acute symptoms ceased; a few hours subsequently, collapse ensued, attended with hiccup, vomiting, and copious cold sweats, which only terminated with life, thirty-six hours after, the inflammation was arrested. If any of the secretory products had been present, they were removed, doubtless, during the state of collapse; and the profuse perspiration, aided, it is reasonable to suppose, by the revulsive operation of the extensive injury in the left lumbar region, from the wound in the centre of which a bloody fluid, accompanied with bubbles of air, flowed so copiously after death, as to necessitate a frequent renewal of cloths to absorb it. Now, though there was no effusion (by the presence of which alone Dr. H. can detect inflammation) apparent, the result of uncurbed inflammation, yet the dilated and injected state of all the vessels, even to the most minute, together with the redness of the peritoneum, sufficiently indicated that inflammation had been there to a great extent.

That the collapse did not ensue in consequence of the copious depletion, is manifest, as the whole quantity of blood removed from this hale, plethoric man, was only 43 ounces at three bleedings, in the space of nineteen hours. It is true, I stated in Court that the two first bleedings were to the extent of about 24 ounces each, and the last 7 ounces; at the time I thought the plates were pints, but on measuring them a few days after, I found they only contained 12 ounces. I merely mention this by the way; for had not the symptoms abated, and syncope approached, I would have doubled the quantity of blood. Dr. H. asks why were not leeches applied? I reply, for the very good reason that they were uncalled for; the disease yielded to the general treatment; nor could the collapse have resulted from “the deprivation of accustomed stimulants,” since Champeau was an eminently sober man, not even using beer.

What then caused the collapse? Verily it was the gangrened state of the left lumbar region, and not Dr. H.’s four inches of bruised surface.

If we are to believe Dr. H., the pathognomonic signs of disease, as received by the “best Pathologists of the age,” are not to be our “polar stars.” No, no; we are only certain of the nature of a complaint, when the “date of nock is out.” Dissection alone reveals secrets,—the hidden mysteries are then developed, and after death we know how we should have treated the case during life!!! The manner in which death took place, the length of time elapsed before the examination, the season of the year, the treatment adopted, all go for nothing,—they had no influence in altering appearances, and as a wise judge once condemned without proof a man because his appearance displeased him, so would Dr. H. decide.

I can assure the Editors that I have written this hasty paper more in sorrow than in anger; not to obtain a miserable triumph over a Professional brother of respectable standing, but to set this interesting case in its true light; for in the language of the poet I exclaim:

In spite of myself, these remarks have by far exceeded the limits I at first prescribed to them, for which I ask your indulgence. I conceive that my first position has neither been carried by the storm, nor invalidated in the least by the clouds of Dr. H.’s authorities, and rest, therefore, its merits on my first communication.

Dr. SUTHERLAND’S INTRODUCTORY LECTURE.

The duties which I have undertaken to fulfil in this Institution, are to treat of Chemistry and of Materia Medica. The former subject has for its object briefly the study of the changes of composition effected by the affinities of the ultimate or constituent parts of bodies: the latter applies to the knowledge of those substances, drawn from the organic and inorganic kingdoms, employed in the cure of diseases.

It is natural that each Lecturer should insist on the necessity there exists for the acquisition of the particular branch, on which he may be employed. I therefore unhesitatingly recommend to you, as one of the first steps, to begin the study of these branches. I am borne out in this advice by incontrovertible authorities, and when I shall have stated the extensive, I might say universal, application of the laws of Chemistry, I have no doubt that you will fully recognise the benefits to be derived by a knowledge of them.

There exists, I am aware, a strong distaste among students generally, to the study of Chemistry, because they perceive not any present use in attempting to comprehend even its most simple laws; and, above all, they see not that it conduces proportionably with its intricacy, to the thorough knowledge of a profession intended to be the means “whereby they are to live.” No mistake, than this, can be more egregious—there is not, perhaps, not even excepting Anatomy, a branch of the Medical profession more requisite. Because its actions are not as easily seen as the origin of a muscle, or its combinations as perceptible as the uses of an organ—are we to forego the advantages offered us by a science of so unlimited a range of influence?

The Infinite creation is one vast laboratory—from the mountain to the pebble—from man, “the head and front” of animated beings, to the lowest grade of animated nature—all are subservient to the laws, fixed and immutable, of Chemistry; these guided and regulated by the Universal Spirit, the all-seeing Eye, the all-powerful Hand of the Creator, know no weariness, no cessation, no decay, but, co-existent with the Earth’s first formation, active and eternal, they guide the whirlwind, they cheer by preserving health and strength, solace by alleviating or removing disease. This is no “rhetorical artifice” or overdrawn picture. You have entered upon a high, almost a holy office, and the possession of all the means within your power should be deemed, not only indispensable, but a source of innate happiness. You are not to be simply and passively good, but are to use all the means at your command in imparting benefits to others, and when the will is equal to the power of rendering services, the human mind requires no other source of contentment here on earth. “Non est vivere sed valere vita.” Our being is not one of mere selfish physical existence, but one of Catholic usefulness to all God’s creatures. Imbued with such a conception of your calling, you may with some degree of accuracy foretel the result:—despondency, uncertainty, gloom, will disappear, and in their place, hope, confidence and the bright beams of science will prove a light to your steps and will give vigour to your energies. You will speedily perceive a change, mark with gladness advancement, and note joyfully the amendment as you progress; the harmony of creation now hidden from you will start from its depths in all its glory, to shine upon and elevate your characters. Thus, by patient and continuous application, you will be enabled to enter upon your profession devoid of the terror which uncertainty and ignorance cause, without any risk of committing those social crimes which are their attendants; and, thus fortified, you will with a more favorable result begin that which is too often the combat and strife of life.

I shall occupy a little more of this hour in offering you some further advice. I trust it will be palatable, though I dare say, my co-lecturers have, or will, in their several introductories, labor equally with myself to superinduce the desired state of mind; yet, as coming from one their junior, they may not appear misplaced, as they tend to show the conviction in my mind, who am not many years your elder, that the proper and judicious application of your time is absolutely necessary for the attainment of your profession.

Though by many at the outset thought interminable, the period of preparatory study, it is in fact short enough. Possessed of this false idea of quantity in time, too many fritter away their opportunities in idle or useless occupations in quality of study. You must then, Gentlemen, from the beginning, have a will, not manifestation, but the very function of it, to learn, and a mind prepared for every exertion. From the first step you should arrange and classify what you read, so that you may at any moment touch, as it were, anything you may be called on to remember; for method and the habit of analysing, like the discipline of modern warfare, diminish in a great measure the inequalities of the mental powers, and assist in levelling on the intellectual field the giant and the dwarf. You are to be diligent and patient, too. You must not conceive that at once, and without effort, you can grasp all that will be presented to you; we are not all as Samuel Johnson, of whom it has been written, that he could seize whole libraries: no medical man ever acquired his profession by intuition—his is not the realm of imagination; and of him it may with truth be said, “Medicus fit non nascitur.” Injudiciously selecting your course of studies imperfectly acquiring its facts and forming crude and false theories will never render you able to pass even a mediocre examination, much less to practise with ordinary success. To one entering the threshold of science there is, I allow, something peculiarly attractive in hypothesis; it seems the mark of genius, and as such, commands our admiration and respect, but a persevering taste for hypothesis marks a frivolous rather than a vigorous intellect. If you inquire into the histories of those men who have been eminent in our profession, who have made for themselves a deathless renown, who may, too, with justice be regarded as benefactors of the human family, you will discover that they never wasted their energies upon trifling and useless speculations; their aim was the acquisition of truth, the imparting of real and intrinsic instruction, not mere light and fleeting amusement. It is legitimate in the poet to stray from the beaten track, to gather into his garner from every quarter, as far as the east stretches from the west; he is free of restraint; but from our science you must from the first exclude all fancy, all caprice, and be solely guided by the sober search after truth.

As the study of your profession virtually begins after your examination, so in my conception, your general education should not be neglected as soon as you open a medical book; on the contrary, you should daily devote an hour or two to the perusal of the literature of your own language, and by no means omit keeping up, or forming an acquaintance with the Greek and Roman tongues: these, which have been termed the dead languages, are far from being inert or dead matter; the authors of Greece and Rome most read, are indeed gone, their acts and earthly career may be numbered with those of the departed, yet their writings—and their opinions, which may be considered their angel parts—live and hover round us in their spirit. Independently of the refreshing enjoyment to be derived from the perusal of Greek and Latin, the study of these languages engenders a habit of quiet industry and research so necessary in the prosecution of any science; and by even a slight acquaintance with them we more readily comprehend Medical Nomenclature, and, understanding it, more easily retain it. Acquire information of every description, and from every source; the range of mental acquirements appertaining to medicine is almost unlimited—“Find tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, and sermons in stones”—make for yourselves storehouses of knowledge, whence you may in need draw benefit and pleasure; let everything you do conduce to the great end, the making yourselves more scientific and truly educated men. This active and inquiring condition of the mind, always on the alert for something new and useful, is diametrically opposed to the habit of irregular and desultory application—to the day dreams of the trifler: tossed upon an ocean of science without helm or guiding star he can never reach the shore, or, if some wave, some chance throw him floundering on the beach, he will find the coast inhospitable indeed. Not thus will you command success; you will not even merit it.

A proper condition of the faculties will always refer any new knowledge to its proper place, and, prepared by this habit of correct association and classification, no fear need be entertained that conclusions drawn from it will be erroneous or illegitimate. These “remora” to your perceptions, and to your memories, will daily become more powerful, and speedily you will perceive that it is by the improved condition of your memory that the general strengthening of your intellectual faculties may be estimated; for is not memory the life and soul of the mind, without whose sentient and quickening powers the thinking faculties are as so much dross? Is it not the chain which connects every event with which we have been concerned, every fragment of knowledge—into an harmonious whole? Memory, indeed, without the faculty of causation or of judgment would be vain, yet without it the powers of comparison would be a sealed volume; without it we would be inscribing words upon sand, which the first wave in the tide of events must obliterate. The simplest act of reasoning must have as a pre-requisite its vivifying and prompting presence. Memory, in fact, is absolutely to reason or judgment what attention and the faculty of perception are to memory—the link in the chain of gradation. The intellectual operation of sentient consciousness, of quasi presence or communion with that which we have known, and seen, and felt, becomes thus the present, the tangible; speedily the future appears devoid of uncertainty, inspired as we often unconsciously are by old experience, prompting “something like prophetic strain;” and what is experience? but the spirit within clothed in the attributes of the Mother of the Muses, as memory was styled in Classic Greece.

I must farther caution you from the indulging in speculations, or reasoning on ultimate causes; or drawing positive deductions from negative ideas; rest satisfied with facts and their laws—that is, “the most general circumstances in which the phenomena to which they refer have been perceived by us to exist.” You will otherwise, inevitably become involved in perplexity and darkness. The more you ponder upon, the less will you comprehend, a subject so far beyond our reach. To the human mind, invested with its tabernacle of clay, has not been granted the faculty of perceiving beyond a certain fixed and determinate boundary: if we attempt to pass this, on the very threshold we are forced back to our primitive clay,—we are compelled to feel and acknowledge the immeasurable disproportion between the illimitable object we wish to contemplate and our own terrene nature. Such speculations, however, may be useful to us in our present condition, as teaching us humility, and showing us that here the difference between man and man is naught—between the highest and lowest intellects inappreciably small. In a religious point of view they may be indispensable too, in preparing us for a future life, as pointing out with unerring certainty the existence of an All Wise and Supreme Being—they demonstrate, in characters stamped on nature’s front, the harmony and unity amidst variety in creation, and prove that which seems the result of chance, to be “direction which we cannot see.”

The physician, as well as the astronomer, but more particularly the anatomist, has been accused by many of being more prone to atheism than any other class of men, simply, I believe, because it has been imagined that the beautiful mechanism of the frame was nothing more to him than a mere machine, the intellect than a physical elaboration of the brain! Than this imputation, I need scarcely say, none can be more gross. If the unerring and undeviating course of the planetary system, if the good everywhere visible around us, cause us to admire and wonder, will not even a slight acquaintance with the structure of man prompt us to adore and bless? To no class of men can the philosopher’s words be more justly applied than to physicians, “qui studet orat.” He who reads the book of nature must worship Him, who impressed it with His characters and type. We feel, aye and equally with his peculiar apostles on earth, that the Almighty is everywhere present at all times; that His past years are countless; that His future days are unnumbered; we inwardly know from our daily occupations amidst pain and disease and death that His life is eternity, a never ceasing youth without the helplessness of infancy or the decay of old age, an entity, a Being in fine without birth or death. And is this not so? Has the inbred monitor ever whispered in vain? Are not the living letters written on all the infinity of space above: on all the earth, around, and on his own resemblance, on the features of his own creature—man. What can account for those “longings after immortality,” which elevate our aspirations to conditions more lasting, more holy than the present—to another and a better world? Is it a physical-terrene fear which, causing a dread of death, compels us to forge a doctrine which reconciles our doubts and dispels our apprehensions? no, it must be the moral conviction, emanating from God’s own spirit, which induces man to feel that he is possessed of a soul.

You are not, Gentlemen, to be carried away with the idea that with your diploma or license in your pocket, you will rise per saltum, as a balloon filled with gas: your progress will be slow, gradatim—step by step, and these not always continuous; unaided you will have to climb the steep and rugged path of life, to make for yourselves a “local habitation and a name.” (I speak not thus to discourage, far from such is my object; I wish ab imo corde, by shewing you difficulties, to point out a path by which you may be enabled to overcome them.) Few there are who are elevated on the broad and easy wings of opulence. Our road to competence is too often a struggle for the light of Heaven, which should shine with equal warmth on all; too often the starting point in our life is the beginning of troubles and griefs innumerable; but, strong in your powers, be unwavering and yield not; press onwards; live such a life that if you cannot “command success you may merit it,” and be assured that the germ of knowledge within you, will bring forth fruit in the midst of difficulties, as surely as the good seed which the wandering bird or idle wind may have cast on stony ground. As at its rising the sun’s rays first illumine the mountain’s top, and at its going down last linger with their golden hues on its head, so do you, Gentlemen, in your spring time of life, be enveloped in an atmosphere of pure light, and at your setting the brightness will not depart from you; what storms soever may have assailed your middle age, you will possess that which will remove the bitterness from the greater part of adversity; your gradual decay will be the subject of solemn and affectionate pity, and when you shall have descended to the grave, your memory will be cherished with pious love and gratitude.

Education is in itself power, but its value depends entirely upon its proper application: and in possessing the ability to acquire, we should also have the taste and the will to rightly and wisely exercise it. We should not only be regulated by faculties stronger than those of others, but be guided by principles better established, and by associations of a higher and more beneficent order. I have used the words rightly and wisely; I wish them to be significant; for the diffusion and acquirement of mere knowledge does not necessarily impart either happiness or virtue; unblessed by that knowledge which is from the fountain of all excellence, you may, with a thorough comprehension of the good, also imbibe a love of the evil. You unquestionably may become learned, scientific, perhaps eminent, but you most probably will be unhappy and wretched: with keener susceptibilities you will be tortured by circumstances, which by your heightened sensibilities will assume the character of miseries hitherto unfelt.

I may myself be accused of that against which I cautioned you a few moments ago—namely, of speculating or wandering from my sphere of action: I may have done so,—yet in the short time I can scarcely have been very erratic. Such addresses as this are left to the taste, or views, or even particular vein of the lecturer: such, for the nonce, has been my conception of duty; the only excuse I offer for the deliquium; yet, if in these remarks I have strengthened your purpose of diligence, or even attracted your attention, then am I fully remunerated, and my labor is not in vain. Nor can I conceal that it would be a source of real gratification were I to have a secure place in the good opinions and kind feelings of my hearers.

I hope you will forgive me for being thus an egotist; I crave your indulgence yet for a short time in speaking of ourselves. I would, indeed, be guilty of injustice to my confrères and myself, did I not say something on the subject.

In establishing this School of Medicine, we have been accused of factious opposition to McGill College. Of this we are not guilty. We unequivocally disavow all intention of opposition or hostility. We object not to the members of that Faculty circling their brows with victorious laurels, the seeds of which were planted at a time when the greater number of them were yet in incunabulis; we oppose not their being habited in “purple and fine linen;” but to us be it permitted at least to till in a vineyard whose soil is fertilised by streams common to them and to us; we admit that their array is a superb one, yet in all humility we conceive ours as efficient. What exclusive right is possessed by this Faculty? What species of idolatry is it which ought to enforce us to blindly worship the memory of its departed founders, in permitting their representatives to hold within an iron grasp all the reputation derivable from such a source? What has rendered this place a shrine at which they alone are to receive homage? And were our endeavours to raise our standard, absolute opposition, what have they to apprehend? Surely the rise, or even the culminating of our star, cannot cause their bright particular luminary “to pale its ineffectual fires.”

Is our undertaking treason? Is our course stratagem? Is our end spoil? We acknowledge not any sovereignty, and divinity, in science, which we may not attempt to reach. Have we done aught in secret or in malice? Our deeds have been open as the noon-day,—our acts as beneficent as those of mortals may be. Are we agrarians in the field of intellectual acquirements—levellers of the standard of mental excellence? Are we not engaged in attempting to extend the range of intelligence? Are we not labouring to elevate our profession, by all our humble efforts? And how have our attempts been seconded—how our labours assisted? I leave the answer to the sober second thoughts of those who, in private conversation, have asked, “Cui bono,” and to those who, in public documents, have announced that an under current of bad feeling exists towards that Faculty. It was bad taste to whisper—worse judgment to write aught against us—even were hostility with its gory locks in existence; in this, as in many other instances, tace was the Latin for prudence: we should have been permitted, unheeded, unmolested, “our trumpet unblown,” to bide our time.

We foresee not that these lectures will be an injury to the medical school in connection with that Institution; on the contrary, we think that in more than one manner it will prove beneficial to an establishment which, as well as ourselves, depends on the public for countenance and support. Surely that school, always well conducted as it is and has been, has not pre-occupied every avenue to science. We attempt not to reap where they had sown, nor to gather where they have strawn. We attach not ourselves to the wheels of their triumphal car—Phæton-like, we borrow not the chariot of their sun to illumine the votaries of medicine in this fair city. We are indeed laborers in the same field of knowledge, but we are employing the humble instruments given us by the Almighty. We are embarked on the same ocean of science, and are steering to the same haven—guided by the same star; yet do I see no reason why we should therefore cross each other in our course—why we should take one breath of the breeze from their prosperous sail, or one wave of the popular tide from their bounding ship. We look upon our intentions as good, just, and tending to useful ends; and, for the attaining of our object, we will spare neither time nor trouble—use what energies we possess to the uttermost—look for reward, if successful, in the good we may effect; if the reverse, in an approving conscience.

It would be affectation not to acknowledge that we last year entered upon our operations with solicitude and apprehension; for we distrusted our powers and dreaded the success of imperfect and immatured plans: it is not for us to say in what manner our task was accomplished; but we declare that the result has exceeded our fondest hopes. If not brilliant, our lectures were at least conducive to instruction; for some of you, towards the close and after the termination of the session passed examinations creditable to yourselves and satisfactory to us. If our efforts did not rival those of others, they established for us at least a name for industry and perseverance. In our first course, we came before you almost literally unprepared; and as to mine own particular branch, in which material is so requisite, I was, de facto, destitute of nearly every description of apparatus; yet we progressed and completed a course of eighty lectures. This year we begin under far less unfavourable auspices, and the advantages we offer are of a less limited character. In the interval since our separation, we have made every exertion to bring our School into a condition whereby it will no longer be termed a “pseudo” attempt. We have taken commodious premises, by which more comfort will be obtained; we have made up from our individual books a library of upwards of one thousand volumes; we have, too, an embryo museum,—towards the forming of which, the preparations of Dr. H. Nelson, your Lecturer on Anatomy, together with those of Dr. Crawford, have chiefly contributed; we have a complete chemical apparatus, and a large number of plates, coloured and lithographed, of various morbid conditions. With all these additions and means, we may now say, that we have fairly entered the arena—of competition let it be called—but it will be one of honourable and justifiable endeavour, if not to excel, (that could scarcely be possible,) at least to equal our rivals in science.

To attempt to rear a new Medical School in the very stronghold of an Institution which was established by some of the ablest men which this country has produced,—the greater part of whom are, alas! now numbered with the dead!—an Institution which has flourished for many years, and has taken such deep root in the popular soil, that its decrees have assumed a species of patriarchal—I was about saying a hierarchal—authority in the land:—whose influence has been so wide-spreading, that its opinions have been deemed infallible; a school, incorporate, connected with a University,—endowed;—I say that such an attempt must be admitted as being one of no ordinary magnitude. We have passed the ordeal, and we assume no illegitimate spirit of prophecy, when we declare our moral conviction—drawn from our knowledge of events, that, in a very few years, our College will not yield to any other, either in the superiority of the education promised, or of the qualifications which its students may therefrom derive.

I said some time past, that the study of Chemistry was indispensably necessary to a thorough knowledge of your profession: its laws are almost of universal application, and the objects comprehended within its sphere embrace all substances composing the globe. Chemistry, as other sciences, has had its hour of darkness, and its day of glory,—at one time confined to a few, its then known laws mystified, and their results made subservient to charlatanic purposes and pseudo-medical agents; at another, considered as all powerful and capable of resolving every genus of problems connected with disease and health. Even the visionary ideas of the Chemists, par excellence, have contributed to our stock of knowledge,—from error we have derived arguments of truth, and the ardent pursuit, after the philosopher’s stone and the elixir vitæ, has added to our stores. Very shortly after this time we find Chemistry studied on some standard of firmness; Boyle, Priestly, &c. &c. lent their aid and gave it an impulse which has since increased and matured, till, in our days, we have intellects as bright, and names as great and glorious, in this department of science, as that of him who has given us the system of the planetary spheres. It is not, however, my intention to give a history of Chemistry,—it would be tedious and unprofitable.

To the physician—to the natural philosopher—to the agriculturist—to the artisan—it is of value paramount to physiology, to physics, to manual dexterity,—it must be hand in hand with all these, when they are practised on sure and scientific bases.

Without Chemistry you will be able to understand neither arterialization or the changes that take place in the lungs during respiration:—nor calorification, or the manner in which animal heat is generated, and the temperature of the frame kept at an equable degree in all climates and under all ordinary circumstances; without it, assimilation, or the transformation of the elements of the food into new compounds, analagous or similar to the various parts of the living organism; without it, the several secretions and excretions, and the circumstances modifying their character, cannot be made intelligible. Since the application by Lavoisier of the quantitative method of research to Chemistry, or of results drawn from calculations of weight and measure, this science has unobstructedly marched towards a high standard of eminence: it is now considered as indispensable to physiology, and in a few years, I doubt not, it will be inseparable from it. I quote the words of an author who has, in a very few years, made for himself a reputation unrivalled for the time:—“The imperfect character of the researches of physiologists for the last years, in explaining the functions of many of the important organs, as of the spleen and other glands, establishes the fact that their limited acquaintance with the laws of Chemistry has been the cause of the reproach cast upon them, and will continue to be so till the two branches are intimately blended together.” Minute anatomical investigation into the tissues and even microscopic observations of the ultimate reticulated nature of the blood-vessels of the different organs, cannot determine without Chemistry the character of their functions any more than contemplating the organ of hearing can give us an idea of the auditory apparatus and the acoustic nerve, without a knowledge of the physical laws regulating the transmission of sound by vibratory motion. It is solely by a knowledge, and an intimate one too, of the laws or principles regulating the action of forces or affinities, operating at insensible or inappreciable distances, that we can arrive at even an approximation of the truth. I would not have you suppose that, in thus speaking, I wilfully overlook the vis vitæ—vitality—that remarkable force always in action, both in the living vegetable and animal organism,—nor those organs of vital phenomena, present in all classes of animals; in the higher orders, embracing feeling, sensation, consciousness, and intellectual faculty; on the contrary, this force establishes the affinities requisite for the formation, from the same elements, of those compounds created in the system, which, deprived of this intermediate bond, are transformed into new combinations essentially differing from the former. This force continues constantly in active existence until death, and its cessation or obstruction in any part is that anormal condition termed disease. In pathological investigations you will have to contemplate the living powers as being in a certain condition of decay or arrestation,—that condition in which the laws regulating the actions of inanimate matter are unaffected or uncontrolled by it, the vital energy; and you will learn that several decompositions are thus effected similar to those in the laboratory. It follows, therefore, that the doctrines of Chemistry may impart useful aid to Pathology, though I acknowledge that little has been hitherto effected in this department of Medical inquiry. I sincerely hope that the last few years, rich as they have been made by discoveries in organic Chemistry, may become yet more beneficial to the human family, by the practical application of them to the treatment of disease.

To the pharmaceutist or pharmacopolist the powers of Chemistry have brought in latter days, an auxiliary of the greatest importance. The preparation of remedial agents from substances derived from the mineral or vegetable kingdom, is carried to its present degree of excellence solely by Chemistry—by whose laws we are enabled to detect adulteration, and prevent the prescription of incompatibles, or those substances which neutralize each other’s effects. The remedial agents, arranged by Dr. Murray in his classification of Medicines, under the head of Chemical action, are therefore perfectly in accordance with this view of the subject. Refrigerants, antilithies, antacids, escharotics, produce their several effects by Chemical action, elaborating new compounds from the materials supplied in the system.

To Medical jurisprudence also, Chemistry has extended the right hand of fellowship, in clearing off the mass of obscurity enveloping the history of poisons, taken intentionally or by accident, and frequently involving in its testimony the life of a fellow creature.

To the natural philosopher the language and characters of Chemistry point out an explanation of many of the phenomena comprised within his study; by it the effect on substances, by light and heat emanating from the sun, may be demonstrated: determining their state of solidity or fluidity, and in a higher degree, the form of gaseous matter; evaporation from the earth’s surface, forming clouds, and the causes effecting their condensation into rain; the rationale of dew, the result of the descent of these “living waters” upon the earth, all are rendered intelligible by Chemistry; and interesting, not only because these phenomena are familiar to us as “household words,” but because they are connected with the many necessities of our existence.

As civilization advances, industry is more taxed, and luxury, with its nascent and growing requirements, urges man to the utmost of his physical and intellectual powers. The gratuitous showers of manna, the almost spontaneous productions of the soil, in the first life of a country, while they supply food for the mere animal, in removing the urgency for exertion or the necessity for labor, destroy at the same time the impulse towards amelioration, and leave man devoid of the incitimenta, to any activity of mind or reason. His brain is the stagnant pool, previous to the descent of the angel, to vivify while disturbing the waters. As man, then, the sovereign of the Universe, is omnivorous; and, as he is always sufficiently fruitful and multiplying, he should cultivate that art which enables him to be possessed of his great want, of food, of bread: his energies should, therefore, be occupied in acquiring that proficiency in his calling which will procure for him the necessaries of life, as plentifully, and consequently as cheaply as possible. A perfected condition of agriculture is that art; it is the real and absolute foundation of all trade and industry, the first step in the resources and riches of a country. Agriculture is not simply the manual dexterity, obtained by habit, in holding the plough, it is not the mere moving of the integuments of the earth’s bosom; to be placed on a firm and scientific footing, it must be based on rational and fixed principles; referring to the mode in which nutrition is effected in vegetables, and the results which soil, manure, moisture, and a variety of external agents, produce in influencing their growth and abundance. From Chemistry we seek such principles, such knowledge; on its pages we read and comprehend the characters of the various inorganic substances, from which vegetables in general, “the food for man and beast,” draw their sustenance and life.

There is yet another ground, on account of which Chemistry claims attention and study from all classes. I allude to its application to the mechanical arts, in its power of being subservient to our wants, in its ministering to our luxuries, and, in its giving us the means and power whereby we transform the rude and shapeless mass to the daily requirements of life. Look at the power, almost omnipotence, of steam, setting in motion the mighty mechanisms of machinery; applied to manufactures, doing the labor of a thousand horses, and with the accuracy of apparent consciousness; to locomotion, almost annihilating time and distance, making as nought the separation between Indus and the Pole; almost like Ariel putting a girdle round the earth; with its vast arms circling the globe: with its interminable iron arteries, branching off and anastomosing every where—fertilizing the wilderness, and now about irrigating even the desert; one of the means in rendering that gem of the ocean, that country, whose merchants are princes, and on “whose possession the sun never sets,” unlimited in commerce and wealth, colossal in strength and resources.

Metallurgy and assaying, the former the art of separating metals from their ores, the latter of testing the proportion and purity of the ore; and thus, pointing out the propriety of, and the profit to be derived from, working it, may receive useful lessons from the practical suggestions of Chemistry. The manufacture of substances used in every day life, is founded on Chemistry; as of all the saline substances: the vegetable and mineral alkalies: fermentation in its various forms, as distilling, brewing, making vinegar: the manufacture of sugar, soap; the art of bleaching, dyeing, tanning, calico printing, glass making, and numberless other operations, are but the result of Chemical actions, and demonstrate, that even in the management of common operations, the practical man may derive permanent advantages resulting from an acquaintance with Chemistry. We cannot go abroad into our streets at night, without the laws of Chemistry being a “light to our path;” every lamp is a Chemical phenomenon, every gas light a Chemical illustration; no longer is “darkness visible;” in our chief streets the beams of Chemical action, radiating in all directions, almost put to the blush the fires of the noon day sun, and spread over our homes, as seen from a distance, a halo resembling that part of the heavens known as the milky way, that galaxy of accumulated lustre from innumerable stars. No longer do we appear, as whilome we did in a “dim religious light” mysterious figures, spectral shades, hypothetical entities, now, de facto, illuminated by Chemistry, we appear as real and positive existences, beings instinct with life, forms possessed of determinate physical boundaries.

Let me not forget the less solar, though equally effective Camphine, a discovery of late years, a fluid whose vapour is as inflammable as gas, and whose illuminating power is quite equal to it, and which is destined to be the spirit to enlighten you in this room; may it prove efficacious, may it enable you to perceive that every act of “this breathing world” is intimately associated with the science which I here intend to make as familiar as possible. And recently, too, the application of electro-galvanism as a motive power, and an agent in decomposing salts of metals, for plating and gilding; the discovery of the Daguerreotype, or photograph, the instantaneous fixing, and accurate imprint of an object on a polished metallic surface, exposed to the strong solar rays, acting on iodine, have shed an additional lustre on Chemistry, and exhibit still more its omnipresence.

The loss of four lives within the last 12 months at Quebec, by the deadly effect of carbonic acid gas, ought, of itself, to urge the study of laws, which thus “feelingly” affect our very lives. We certainly cannot repress or prevent this spontaneous Chemical action in the regions below; yet, surely, were the knowledge more generally extended, even the commune vulgus would participate in the benefit to be thence derived, and at all events four men could not be found who one by one would precipitate themselves into such a yawning gulph. While on the subject, I may mention, that a plan has been recommended for extinguishing fire on board of ship, by the formation of this gas; the plan would answer were the fire smouldering but raging and furious I cannot conceive that even the specific gravity of the gas could preponderate over the expansive force of heat.

Enough, perhaps more than enough, has been said to urge the study of this branch of Medicine, upon the attention at least of the Medical Student; enough to point out the intimate connection between it and other subjects of general interest and utility, with which you, as educated and scientific men, should be not only acquainted, but intimately, thoroughly versed.

PATHOLOGY OF NEURALGIA.

Dr. Skae claims for himself the discovery, that neuralgia is dependent on congestion taking place in a nerve, in a part where, from the rigidity of the neighboring structures, as, for instance, in osseous canals, a ready diffusion of the pressure cannot take place.—Lon. Med. Times.

THE MONTREAL MEDICAL GAZETTE.

MONTREAL, NOVEMBER 1, 1844.

THE EDITORIAL NOTICES.

TO PHILO-MEDICUS.

Mounted on thy hippogrift, thou hast again manifested symptoms, Philo-Medicus, of being fuddled with physical joy, intoxicated with animal spirits, at the opportunity of fyling thy second or third appearance, and fanciest that thou hast polished us by thy rubs; thou canst not by thine endeavours, affect our temper or our metal, any more than thou canst produce sparks by the attrition of lead and flint.

Thine arrows have been too slightly limbered (lumbered quasi) to reach their aim in so loud a wind: hadst thou been enveloped in threefold steel, our pigmy straws could not have pierced, or our paper bullets have wounded thee or thine.

We have reason, Philo-Medicus, to be beholden to thee, more than thou supposest: thine epistles have added much to our reputation and have not invalidated one jot of that which was the cause of thy first philippic—thy cannon’s level hath hit the woundless air.

Excuse us, Philo-Medicus, if we appear to borrow somewhat of thy style; we too will use wise saws and modern instances,—yet will we not produce our points as thou hast done, lest they acquire the characters of a straight line.

Thou wilfully pervertest, Philo-Medicus, when thou sayest that we write, ad captandum, (vulgus understood): our poor sheets are addressed to men of our profession; we ask not the patronage of those not of us,—it is thou thyself who attempted the ad captandum mode of communication. For this very reason, we objected to meet thee in thine arena, and waiting the period of our lunar illumination, we sent thee a crustulum, which blandi doctores—(nosmetipsi) olim dant pueris ut velint discere prima elementa; imo quid vetat ridentem dicere verum,—the last line of which we earnestly pray thee to scan. This is then the extent of our captandum, and we therefore, with Tartuffe, accuse ourselves of having once killed a fly.

Thou calculatest that our senility must be extreme. We willingly plead to the infirmity—yet are we not in thy sacer-dotage.

If thine auguries, Philo-Medicus, are evidences of thy Pythonism, then art thou of a verity a Python—first born of Tellus after the deluge of our torrents of under currents; other Apollines, we will for the nonce prove thy destroyers and incontinent establish Pythian games.

Yet hast thou been a prophet false to thy gods—for through the horn portals of thy temple at Delphi, thou hast permitted ourselves and other unbelievers of thy divinity, to perceive not only thine own lean and hungry look—but the desecration of thine own acolytes and the profanation of thine own oracles: thou hast thyself razed thine altars, and hast broken down the carved work thereof, and hast exhibited their mutilated fragments to the million.

Thou art indeed a Roman in the camp, Philo-Medicus—a very Cassius; for thou hast proved thyself as dangerous to thine allies, as thou hast been auxiliary to thine adversaries: in marshalling thine array, thou hast made perceptible the discord in thy ranks, and hast established our tower of strength: with thy double edged goose-shaft thou hast made patent to the multitude thy dismembered armament—thy men in buckram,—and our armour of proof; and though thou hast, with thy folds long drawn out, attempted to circumvallate thy position, thou canst not, thy tail in thy mouth, bear on thine ensign irrupta tenet copula. From thy questionable shape, thy consocii must beware lest thou prove as recreant in thy proffered allegiance as thou wast whilome faithless in thy stewardship, and lest they too have reason to apply to thee the dying Roman’s words—et tu quoque Brute.

Thou art a humoral, too, Philo-Medicus; thou triest to hallow the sacred old—thy very appearance is leucophlegmatic; yet possessest thou not all the powers of a horse (hippocratic): come to us for the etymology, Philo-Medicus; the time of crisis is not by thee well measured; thou, no doubt, aided in thine elaboration by the puissant generative power of the sun, didst occupy ten—we, assisted by the chaste moon, seventeen days—cæteris paribus, thou hadst the advantage; we do not concoct in heat, Philo-Medicus,—we compose in coolness—our words are real combinations, of disjointed things, if thou wilt—for these are thine: our compounds are made currente calamo: our products are doubtless periodic, and cheerfully do we acquiesce in thy suggestion of lunar influence: plain men we are, and not possessed of aught by intuition, we gladly shine even by borrowed light, some of which is the reflection of thine own cloud-dispelling brightness.

We admire thy scintillations, Philo-Medicus—the more as thou shalt never, by their instrumentality, pick a pocket, risu inepto, res ineptior nulla est. Of thy cork leg, thou hadst better have made a stopple to thy wide and flat evaporation into thin air. Thou hast laboured in many lines to disprove that which thou allowedst to be true in two words—similis simili; by the way, Philo-Medicus, triangles have three sides, only one of which is a base—though, otas tou onou echon (we want the character de jure and de facto),—thou evidently didst not pass over that bridge of sighs to tyros—yclept pons asinorum—previously to reaching the goal of thy mathematical lore. Thy ridicule has been sine dubio pointed—but to thyself—and thy shafts have reverted to thine own bow—mutato nomine de te fabula narratur. Verily, thou hast lionized us—but no lions we, were not thyself and thy Romans hinds—no wolves, were not thine other Romans sheep.

Thou questionest our acquirements, Philo-Medicus; in comparison of thine they are unprofitable, because they are less versatile in their application. Thou impugnest our motives too; this is the unkindest rasp of all. Here, however, thine intellectual plethora gave thee an obliquity of vision which prevented thy distinguishing nostrum and tuum; never, Philo-Medicus, and we speak in sincerity,—never whisper aught about motives. There is an Eye above that sees into their depths, and to him leave the judgment; well dost thou know this. Were man to inscribe on his brow the decalogue—were this encircled by the golden rule—were he to write on his door-posts lessons of duty—were he, as the ancient Jews, to cover his garments with the phylacteric expression of his motives—yet would he meet his neighbour, who, after reading the comprehensive law of truth and of love, would wilfully be blind to the wisdom of Christianity, and would knowingly transgress all its teachings. Speak not, then, Philo-Medicus, of man’s motives; when you have seen a flood-tide of malevolence flowing in a constant stream, then do thou oppose thy barrier—the under-currents are beneath thy ken.

We wish to part with thee in all kindness, and recommend to thyself our sober feeling—depending, perhaps, as thou hast asserted, on want of modesty. When we read thy first epistle, we laughed and quoted invidiam virtute partam, gloriam non invidiam putarem. We sat down and writ thee our crustulum in about ten minutes; on the advent of thy last we again had a philosophic saw—summa petit livor—perflant altissima venti,—even thou shouldst have had some of this resignation—Vale, Philo-Medice; Ride si sapis.

We apologize to our readers for again occupying so much space with Philo-Medicus. His letters have been published in the Courier of this city, and feeling that we held communion solely with our subscribers respecting the matter at issue, we preferred allowing his last letter to remain unnoticed till this month, feeling assured that the cause would remain unaffected, and our remarks in the September number would be judged by the Faculty at large at the standard they merited. The answer, it will be seen, is more in pity than in anger, and partaking nothing of the character of Fabian warfare. We promise that this will be the last.

The Lecturers at the College of Medicine commenced their labours for the present session on Tuesday, the 1st of October last, by delivering introductory lectures in their respective departments. Dr. Arnoldi, jun., upon whom had devolved the duty of opening the business, selected as the subject of his address, the past history and present condition of the profession in this division of the Province, and commented at some length on the origin and progress of the several Institutions now existing in Montreal. By adopting the plan which they have done, the Lecturers on each branch will be enabled to deliver, during the session, two full courses, each consisting of upwards of eighty lectures in the English and French languages.

The number of students who have already matriculated, amounts to forty-two.

At the earnest solicitation of a number of subscribers and other friends, both in and out of the profession, we have been induced to publish in our present number Dr. Sutherland’s Introductory Lecture on Chemistry. Intimately connected as we are with Dr. S., we felt considerable hesitation in complying with the request of the requisitionists, fearing that by so doing we might be charged with a desire to puff up the College of Medicine of Montreal: lest any such idea should be entertained, we beg to state, that it will afford us the greatest satisfaction to insert the Introductory Discourse of any of the Professors or Lecturers of any of the Medical Schools in this Province. As a gratifying proof of the manner in which it was received, we have great pleasure in acknowledging a donation made by a respected Member of this Bar to the College Library: the donation alluded to was a splendid folio edition of the works of Albinus.

The Editors of the Montreal Medical Gazette feel great pleasure in tendering to Dr. Wm. McDonell, of Dublin, their best thanks for the kind offer conveyed to them, through W. C. Meredith, Esq., Q. C., of this city. They gladly comply with his wishes, and avail themselves of this opportunity of testifying their appreciation of the flattering notice of their journal entertained by so distinguished a Member of the profession in Ireland.

They beg also to acknowledge the receipt of the August number of the London and Edinburgh Medical Journal, edited by Dr. Cormack, the learned Professor of Forensic Medicine in the University of Edinburgh. In presenting to the able Editor their sincere thanks for his kind offer to exchange, they beg to inform him, that by forwarding the numbers of the London and Edinburgh Medical Journal to Messrs. Wiley & Putnam, 6, Waterloo Place, London, they will be duly received.

They beg likewise to acknowledge the receipt of Dr. Hockin’s work on Ophthalmic Medicine, a notice of which will appear in their next number.

Boston Medical and Surgical Journal.—We regret to learn by the No. of the 22d. instant, just received, that several of our late numbers have not reached the office of our valued contemporary; inquiry was made of our publishers on the subject, who assure us, that not only has each successive number of the Montreal Medical Gazette been regularly posted, but the postage paid by them to the frontier. We beg of our esteemed friend to cause enquiry to be made at the Post Office in Boston.

EXTRACTS.

ON THE PRESENT STATE OF KNOWLEDGE OF THE NATURE OF INFLAMMATION.

Retardation of the flow of the blood in small vessels with dilatation of their calibre, and at last stagnation of the blood-corpuscles in the vessels, constitute the first microscopical phenomena in the inflammatory process, as seen in the frog. There is good reason for thinking that the microscopical phenomena of inflammation are the same in man. It is generally supposed that the dilatation is primary, and the retardation of the flow of blood a physical effect of the preceding dilatation; the retardation, however, is greater than the dilatation will physically account for. With respect to the nature of the dilatation, it is now admitted that the dilatation of the arteries in inflammation is a state of relaxation or paralysis and not of activity. Mr. Jones, not being satisfied that the capillaries and radicles of the veins have contractile walls, which the small arteries are believed to have, and therefore unwilling to admit primary dilatation from relaxation in them, concludes that dilatation of the capillaries and radicles of the veins is secondary to the retardation of the flow of blood in the arteries, and is owing to distension from accumulation of blood. Henle thinks that relaxation and dilatation of the vessels, with retardation of the flow of blood, act in determining stagnation of the blood, and in this way, the retarded flow of blood, together with the relaxation and dilatation of the vessels, favours the exudation of serum; hence the plasma of the blood in the part becomes inspissated by a preponderance of protein matter over the salts. This inspissation of the plasma determines endosmotic changes in the red corpuscles, in consequence of which they are disposed to aggregate. Mr. Jones does not agree with Henle in this: he conceives that the stagnation of the blood must recognize some other cause than inspissation of the plasma. Mr. Jones considers that the proximate cause of inflammation, although affecting the constitution of the blood, does not reside in the blood only, but primarily in the agency on that fluid of the solids through which it passes in the capillary vessels—he thinks this appears from the limitation of inflammatory disease to a certain locality, from its easy reproduction at a subsequent period. The appearances, he says, attending the stagnation of the red corpuscles are such as might be supposed to be the effect of a suspension of the conditions by which, in the natural state, the red corpuscles keep in the middle of the stream, neither adhering to the walls of the vessels nor to each other, and not readily entering the smallest capillaries; the effect, in fact, of the establishment of an attraction between the red corpuscles on the one hand and the walls of the vessels on the other, as well as among the red corpuscles themselves, instead of the absence of attraction, or of the actual repulsion which naturally exists. Emmert, by way of explaining this attraction, indicates some of the conditions attending the operation of the attraction—he points out that constriction of the capillaries (small arteries) and the attraction between the parenchyma and blood-corpuscles are in antagonism—that when the constriction of the capillaries is great, the attraction between the parenchyma and blood is small; hence no congestion. When, on the contrary, there is relaxation and dilatation of the capillaries, the attraction is great between the parenchyma and the blood; and hence accumulation and stagnation of the red corpuscles.

Mr. Jones, before expounding his theory, claims the following postulates: 1. That the constriction and dilatation of the calibre of the small arteries at least, if not of the capillaries, is owing to contraction and relaxation of their walls in virtue of their contractility or tonicity, which is dependent on the nervous system. 2. That the ordinary tone of the vessels is determined by the moderate discharge of nervous influence. 3. That the relaxation, atony or paralysis of the walls of the vessels on which their dilatation depends, is owing to the suspension of nervous influence. 4. That the relaxation with dilatation of the vessels from suspensions of the nervous influence is the precursor of the stagnation. The theory which Henle has formed of the mode in which the exciting cause of inflammation determines the suspension of nervous influence is this: the exciting cause acts primarily on sensitive nerves, exalting their activity. The motor nerves of the vessel which have sympathetical relations with the excited sensitive nerves, are secondarily affected—this affection of the motor nerves which supervenes by reflex action on the excitement of the sensitive nerves, is one of depression, or suspension of action; of paralysis—this form of sympathy is called antagonism.^[4]

With respect to the inflammation of an organ occurring after section of some part of the sympathetic, Stilling refers it to paralysis of the walls of the vessels.

Exudation.—This commences immediately after or during the stagnation of the blood—it is at first serous, and afterwards pure plasma. So long as the vessels are entire, none of the corpuscles of the blood pass out or escape. With exudation is completed the inflammatory process, properly so called.—Med. Chirurg. Review.

M. LOMBARD’S REMARKS ON SOME OF THE COMPLICATIONS OF TYPHUS FEVER.

Intestinal Hæmorrhage.—This should rarely, if ever, be regarded as a critical or salutary evacuation. It should, therefore, be checked without delay. One of the best remedies for the relief of this accident is unquestionably the acetate of Lead—in doses of one or two grains, with a quarter of a grain of extract of opium, every six or eight hours. Enemata with Goulard solution may also be administered. The extract of the Rhatany root, or of Logwood, and the decoction of the latter, will also be found very useful in many cases. Ice is one of the best things that the patient can take. He should remain very quiet and cool, and avoid every thing that is likely to excite the bowels.

In the Diarrhœa, too, that is not unfrequently a most dangerous complication of Typhoid fever, the remedies now mentioned may generally be used with advantage. Sinapisms to the bowels also are often of great utility, when the relaxation is obstinate, and the debility of the system great: they should be kept applied, till considerable irritation of the skin is induced. The oxyde of Bismuth with Opium has succeeded in some inveterate cases. The Nitrate of Silver, and the Sulphate of Copper, have also been given with benefit.

In the Pneumonia and Catarrh, which not unfrequently complicate the course of Typhoid fever, the white oxyde of Antimony has been employed by us with almost uniformly good effects; it generally serves to allay the fever, to encourage perspiration, and also promote the expectoration of the sputa. In some cases, where the debility was very great, and there seemed to be a tendency to rapid exhaustion, we had recourse to the decoction of Polygala with subcarbonate of Ammonia, Musk, and Camphor; and witnessed, unquestionably, good effects from the treatment. When the Catarrhal Mucus was very abundant, and the expectoration difficult, the Muriate of Ammonia with Paregoric Elixir may often be given with benefit.^[5]

The low Delirium, that is so frequently present in the progress and advanced stages of Typhoid fever, is best combated by the use of Camphor and Opium, along with an occasional blister to the neck. This latter remedy will generally succeed in removing that intense headache which not unfrequently afflicts Typhus patients, during the convalescent stage.

Anasarca and Ascites are occasional consequences of fever. One of the best remedies is the Chlorate of Potash, in doses of 15 or 18 grains every four or six hours. Covering the dropsical limbs with oiled silk has seemed to promote the good effects of internal medication. We have rarely used Digitalis or other diuretics, as the chlorate has generally proved quite sufficient for the cure of the disease; it has this great advantage over most remedies, that it generally improves, rather than impairs, the digestive functions.

Salivation is apt to be a troublesome consequence of the administration of mercury in fever, at least in certain constitutions. No remedy has in our hands proved more useful against this distressing accident than the application of two or three leeches under the lower maxilla: the symptoms usually subside rapidly and effectually under this simple treatment. A gargle made with alum, or camphorated spirits of wine, will also be found very useful in many cases.^[6] Mild saline aperients at the same time may be given with advantage.—Med. Chirurg. Review.

CASE OF SINGULAR FORMATION OF CATARACT.

A merchant, aged 65, who had previously enjoyed good health, while sitting one day opposite a window was struck in the face by a sunbeam, and suddenly experienced a severe pain in the right eye. The pain soon diminished; but vision, which was previously perfect, was quite lost on that side. He was seen three days after by Fron-Müeller, who discovered a lenticular cataract of the right eye. On examining the window through which the light passed, Fron-Müeller discovered, in one of the panes of glass, two convex bulbs, similar in size and form to lenses, a circumstance which probably explains the occurrence.—Gaz. Medica di Milano, April, and London and Edinburgh Journal of Medical Science.

SPONTANEOUS CURE OF CATARACT.

A stone-breaker, who had suffered from cataract of the right eye from his youth, had the misfortune, whilst pursuing his occupation, to have his left eye struck by a splinter, which produced a violent concussion of the eye, and gave rise to inflammation and loss of vision. The man applied to Dr. G., who, on examining the eye, found, along with considerable inflammation, a completely formed cataract. He combated the former symptom by antiphlogistic remedies, and advised the patient, as soon as all irritation in the left eye should have disappeared to have the cataract removed from the right one, in which the power of vision had been lost at an early period. On this the patient applied elsewhere for advice, and consulted Dr. S. in A.

In order to examine the eye more minutely, the latter dropped into it a solution of the extract of belladonna; in consequence of this the pupil dilated largely; at the same time, the opaque lens fell into the anterior chamber; and, vision was immediately restored. The lens became absorbed by degrees, and the patient was cured.—Allgemeine Zeitung for Chirurgie.

HOMOEOPATHY IN EDINBURGH.

For sometime past there have been rumours of Homœopathy having found its way into the University Clinical Wards of the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. We are happy to understand that the Medical Faculty of the University, and the Managers of the Infirmary, have taken effectual steps to check this mischievous folly.—London and Edinburgh Medical Journal.

MEANS OF AVOIDING THE ELECTRIC CURRENT DURING A THUNDER STORM.

The place of greatest security is a railway carriage at a distance from the engine. The rails dissipate the negative charge. An individual is also perfectly protected in an iron vessel at sea. In a house, the most secure position is the most central point, if in an apartment without a flue the better. A cellar affords good security against the upward or negative current, whilst a bed affords the best security against the effects of the downward or positive current. To avoid danger, if an individual is on high ground, he should descend; if in a field, he should retire to a hedge; within twenty yards of a tree is a safe position and, if possible, lying down. It is better not to remain on horseback during a thunder storm, and those who are in carriages should keep the windows closed. At sea it is necessary to avoid the masts and forecastle of the vessel and to retire to a hammock. If in a boat, rear a wet oar near its head, retire to the stern and lie down. A position near a lake or stream of water is highly dangerous.—Turley on Thunder Storms: Medico-Chir. Review, and Boston Medical and Surgical Journal.

DIAGNOSIS OF GASTRALGIA FROM CANCER OF THE STOMACH.

“In gastralgia the appetite is natural, impaired or increased, perverted, depraved, capricious, fantastic, irregular; liquids are digested with greater difficulty than solids: whereas, the reverse is the case in cancer; the digestive process is sometimes easy, and is always affected in the end, in spite of the discomfort and suffering which it frequently produces; the breath is free from bad smell, eructation of air, free from disagreeable taste, occurs frequently; pain at the epigastrium, often of greater severity than cancerous disease occurring in regular paroxysms, shooting to the shoulders and the walls of the chest, and diminishing instead of increasing under pressure, and on the ingestion of food; besides this, there are curious indescribable sensations felt at the epigastrium, and singular pulsations. In gastralgia the color of the patient’s skin undergoes no unhealthy change, and his strength and flesh do not [generally] give way. Gastralgia is frequently accompanied by hypochondriasis, cancer is not. Gastralgia affects distant organs by sympathy only. In cancer, other organs become affected by similar disease.”—British and Foreign Review.

Dr. Locock, first physician accoucheur to the Queen, has a fee of £1000 on the birth of a royal infant. Dr. Ferguson receives £500, and Sir James Clark the same.

INJECTION OF THE UTERUS

A farmer in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, son of a late eminent surgeon of that city, and well known to the editor of this journal, frequently had cows in great distress during their accouchement, and now and then perhaps, like other farmers, he lost a cow in the act of parturition. On one occasion, when a poor animal of considerable value had been suffering for a very long time, and there was every prospect of an unfavourable issue to the affair, as it seemed inevitable that the creature must die undelivered, the owner hurried into Edinburgh, distant about five miles, and took counsel with the veterinary professor, Mr. Dick, as to the course to be pursued.

At the suggestion of that gentleman, he, with all the expedition possible, threw into the uterus from six to eight quarts of tepid water, the animal’s hind quarters being previously elevated by a bundle of straw, so as to aid in preventing the return of the water. The instrument employed in the injection was the flexible tube (in fact, that used for the stomach pump), attached to Read’s patent syringe, which was easily introduced over the shoulder of the fœtus, the muzzle and forefeet of which had been ascertained to be presenting at the commencement of the labour. The liquor amnii had completely escaped at a very early stage, and it was fully twenty-six hours afterwards before Professor Dick’s excellent and ingenious advice was applied. But after the injection the calf was felt floating freely in the cavity of the womb. The animal, however, was so totally exhausted, that there still seemed no hope of the calf being expelled by the natural efforts. Nevertheless, within five minutes after the injection of the water, a vigorous pain came on, and the patient was speedily and safely delivered of a live calf, and sustained no other ill consequences than a few days’ weakness, the natural effect of her previous suffering.

Our friend mentioned this very ingenious plan to a neighbouring surgeon-accoucheur in large practice, who was so much struck with its simplicity and apparent safety, that he resolved to adopt it on the first favourable opportunity. An occasion soon presented itself, in a case where nothing but the long forceps could have effected the delivery of the sufferer; and shortly afterwards in a second instance, where turning and delivery by the feet would have been indispensable to save the patient’s life.

In both cases the injection of about a quart of tepid water was attended with complete success; the patients were both delivered of living children by the natural efforts, without any unfavourable symptoms ensuing.

We have gathered these particulars from the owner of the cow, the gentleman who, with his own hands, made practical application of Professor Dick’s valuable suggestion, believing that the procedure indicated is new, free from danger in itself, and likely in many cases to obviate the necessity for more formidable and painful operations.—London and Edinburgh Medical Journal.

CREOSOTE, A GOOD APPLICATION TO BURNS.

Creosote is one of the most valuable of those remedies which the ancient writers designated as incarnatives; i. e. promoting cicatrization. M. Mascharpa has drawn the attention of his countrymen (Gazetta Medica di Milano) to its excellent effects in this respect, as an application to many ulcers. He has used it also in several cases of burns with the most satisfactory results: it soothes the pain of the injury at the time, and accelerates the subsequent progress of the cure. The best mode of using it is in the form of lotion,—made by adding 20 or 30 drops of it to two or three ounces of water, and applied with pledgets of linen to the injured surface.

(The London Pharmacopœia, in its last edition, contains an “Ungentum Creosoti.” prepared with half a drachm of the oil to an ounce of lard; it is applicable for the same purpose as the solution of the oil in water.)—Med. Chir. Review for July 1844.

Correspondents are requested to address the Editors, and in every instance, prepay their communications.

TRANSCRIBER NOTES

Obvious printer errors have been silently corrected.

Inconsistencies, variations and possible errors in spelling and punctuation, including the accenting of French words, have been preserved, with the following exceptions:

The word following “prima elementa;” at the end of page 252 is unclear in the original document and was taken to be “imo”.

Occurrences of the prefix “M‘” in names such as “M‘Gill” have been changed to “Mc”.

[The end of The Montreal Medical Gazette, Volume 1, Issue 8 edited by Francis Badgley & William Sutherland]