" ART. 17.-Observations on a case of zona; on the cow-pox; and on angina pectoris. By Dr. Olbers, physician, at Bremen. Communicated to Dr. Duncan, junior." In the observation on cow-pox he remarks, that chronic eruptions, and glandular swellings, which almost always terminate in suppuration, have. been often observed to follow it, by him and other physicians of the place. This is perfectly contrary to experience in this country. "ART. 18.-Extract of a letter to Dr. Duncan, senior, from Mr. James Anderson, senior, surgeon, in Edinburgh, concerning the use of the mild muriat of quicksilver, in the cure of croups." In this communication the author confirms his former experience of the good effects of calomel in croup, and says, that of seven cases, in which he employed it during the last two months, not one has died. In a patient of three years of age, he gave eighteen grains in the space of twenty-four hours, in doses of two or three grams every hour, according to the urgency of the symptoms. "ART. 19-Observations on a case of diabetes insipidus, with an account of some experiments on the urine. By Mr. Thomas Jarrold, from Essex, student of medicine at Edinburgh. 66 In this case (of a female,) the urine, though without any sweet taste, was often found to amount to upwards of fifty pounds in the space of twenty-four hours, sometimes even to sixty, and one day to seventy-two pounds; and, from excessive thirst, she employed nearly an equal quantity of liquid by way of drink. After a trial of different remedies, her urine and drink were reduced to between ten and five pounds in the day, under the use of the powder of galls and link-water, and she was dismissed from the hospital in good health about the middle of August." From some experiments made upon the urine, the author is inclined to think that there was a quantity of mucilage contained in it. "ART. 20.-Observations on bilious disorders. Extracted from a letter, dated from the river Ganges, in September 1770, written to a friend in London. By John Sherwen, M. D. formerly surgeon in the service of the Honourable East-India Company, now physician at Enfield. Communicated to Dr. Duncan, senior." The author refers the bilious remitting, and continued fevers, the dysentery, and the cholera morbus, all to the same occasional causes; and these causes he divides into three classes: viz. the effect of climates: irregularity in diet; and passions of the mind. On each of these heads he makes some useful and pertinent, but at this time not new, observations. Madras, on the bilious disorders of that "ART. 21.-Letter from Dr. Paisley, of climate. Written in 1771. Communicated to Dr. C. Smith, of London. "In general," says the author, "I will venture to affirm, that, in this country, the grand source of health and disease, is cen tured in the natural or diseased condition of the liver, and that every chronic and lingering illness arises, in a considerable degree, from some defect there. In many acute disorders, it has also its share; but, in every kind of sickness, whether local or general, that is peculiar to this country, it is material to examine it; for no perfect cures can be made, nor relapses prevented, without having a strict eye to it." These observations he applies to fluxes, which he thinks are, for the most part, attended with obstructions either in the liver or mesentery. His practical remarks are made on the history of a particular case, which came under his own management. He first emptied the bowels, then gave mercurials, and after the symptons had abated "gentle bitters of the least astringent kind." He dissuades from the use of opiates in fluxes, and is of opinion, that coughs and agues often originate from obstructions in the liver, and are, therefore, to be cured in the same way. "ART. 29.-Letter from Mr. Young, relating to his own case, in which an enlarged spleen was cured by the application of an actual cautery." The application of the actual cautery is very common among the natives of Bengal in many other complaints besides this, such as obstinate head-aches, hydrocele, and even confirmed ascites. In the present instance it was performed by a Bengalay in the following manner: "He took out," says the author, "a kind of lancet, such as the people of the country pare their nails with, and, pincing up the skin over the spleen, gave it several slices; and then applying the horn to the scarification, drew, by suction, about a wine-glass of blood, in the nature of cupping. When it would no longer flow, he next applied common oil to the parts where he intended to apply his irons: they were heated to a red heat: he first took out the one of a hook-like shape, which he applied to the left side, over the body of the spleen, in three places, holding it on a few seconds each time. He next took out a round-headed one, and burut me in like manner, first in the centre of the angle made by the former; then a few inches above the first; next on the pit of the stomach; and lastly, on the right side,, over the region of the liver. "The operation was made on my well day. He also gave me a lixivium made of some sort of ashes, to take daily, which I found so excessively nauseous, that after swallowing one dose, I would take no more. I expected my ague fit the next day, but happily it did not recur, and came no more. The whole region of the stomach and abdomen became exceedingly sore and in flamed; nor could I move without turning my whole body for several days. The glands of my groin and axilla on the left side likewise grew sore, inflamed and hard, which extended up the neck, and down the muscles of the thigh and leg, to my ankle. This gradually subsided, and the sores, from the cauterizing, dried up, and healed without any application whatever, nor was there any suppuration or discharge worth mentioning." In less than six weeks the author's health was completely restored. Having finished our account of the original communications of this volume, we now come to the section of medical news, with which it is, as usual, concluded. The most important of those articles have been long before the world in other publications, and as the remainder are not of a kind to arrest the general attention of readers, we do not think it necessary to notice them. We cannot close our account of this volume without noticing the very great dearth of original, and valu able communications, which appears in it. To this circumstance we attribute the insertions among the medical obser vations, of many papers not sufficiently new or important to merit a place as separate articles. ART. XVII. The Edinburgh School of Medicine; containing the preliminary or fundamental Branches of Professional Education; viz. Anatomy, Medical Chemistry, and Botany. Intended as an Introduction to the Chemical Guide. The whole forming a complete System of Medical Education, and Practice, according to the Arrangement of the Edinburgh School. By WILLIAM NISBITT, M. D. Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. 4 vol. 8vo. WORKS like the present are of use in assisting the inquiries of the tyro in medicine; but they are apt to mislead when depended upon too much for the accuracy, or the extent of their information. The one before us appears to be too prolix for a compendium, and scarcely comprehensive enough to merit the title of forming, with a prior publication of the author, to which it is intended as an introduction, a complete system of medical education and practice. The author deserves credit, however, for the pains which he has taken in his selections from the ablest modern writers, on the various subjects which come under his view; and his work will, therefore, be found to contain a great variety of useful matter, and to present a general idea of the present state of the sciences introductory to the practice of medicine. The two first volumes are occupied with anatomy and physiology; into them the author introduces the chemical analysis of the secretions, the art of making anatomical preparations, and a general view of morbid anatomy, principally abridged from Dr. Baillie's work. In his wish to reduce the terms of anatomy to an English form, the author has been induced to deviate in a manner somewhat ridiculous from the usual language of the science. As instances of this, we remark the substitution of the grotesque names of sacred bone, nameless bone, boat-like bone, and pea-shaped bone; for the well-known, and universally admitted appellations, os sacrum, os innominatum, os naviculare, and os pisiforme The third volume contains the principles of medical chemistry and pharmacy, according to the arrangement of the late Dr. Black, with the modern additions made to them, and the pharmaceutical preparations of the London and Edinburgh Colleges annexed. The fourth and last volume gives a general account of the physiology and arrangement of plants, particularly such as are used in medicine. ART. XVIII. A Treatise on the Means of puritying infected Air, of preventing Contagion, and arresting its Progress. By L. B. GUYTON-MORVEAU, Member of the National Institute of France, Sc. Translated from the French by R. HALL, M. D. 8vo. pp. 248. NO pains are requisite on our part to call the attention of our readers to the highly-important subject of preventing the contagion of malignant distempers; it has of late engaged the most ardent and zealous enquiry in this kingdom, and we have every reason to expect that the most flattering success will be the fruit of these laudable endeavours. The work before us is a very valuable document relating to the use of acid vapours in purifying infectious air, and it also contains the account of several experiments, together with many observations which tend to throw light on the subject of contagion. We, therefore, think it proper, both from the high reputation of the author, and the importance of the subject, to consider its contents somewhat in detail. The following statement we may venture to give, as an impartial history of the employment of the vapours of the mineral acids to purify foul and infected air; and those who feel an interest in rendering due praise and honour to the discoverer of useful inventions, will attach some importance to such a his tory. The practice of fumigation, in order to correct the foulness of putrid or infected air, may be traced to the very earliest records of physic, and, as in many other instances, the precise mode adopted by the ancients was long followed with scrupulous exactness, whilst it continued to be the fashion to bear implicit reverence for every thing that carried the authority of a Greek or Arabian physician. Hence, the aromatic gums, balsams, resins, and woods, have constantly been burned for the purpose of destroying pestilential air by their fragrant smoke. The vapours of certain acids also have long been highly commended, the acid fume of burning wood, and especially of heated vinegar, have been distinguished by peculiar commendation, and when the pungent acetous acid, or radical vinegar, was discovered, one of its earliest uses, under one form or other, was as a corrective of contagion. The first notice which we have of the employment of the mineral acids, is in a treatise published by the late Dr. James Johnstone, of Worcester, in the year 1758, who employed with success the vapour of the muriatic acid to correct the contagion of a very malignant typhus fever, which prevailed at Kidderminster at that period. It was the fate of this, however, as of many other useful discoveries, to be only partially noticed, and the experiment, probably, would not have been pursued, if it had not been taken up anew in a different quarter. This leads us to the narrative contained in the work before us. In the year 1773, the sepulchral vaults of the principal church of Dijon were SO completely filled with bodies recently buried, that it became necessary to remove them. During this process, the air of the place became so insupportably infected, that it was found necessary to shut up the church. A great variety of fumigations had been employed without any material advantage, and a contagious fever began to appear in the neighbourhood. The author of this treatise, M. Morveau, who had before been eminently distinguished as an excellent chemist, was then consulted, and he recommended fumigation with muriatic acid vapour. To this he was led, as he himself observes, (and there is not the smallest reason to doubt the assertion) by the strong affinity which the muriatic acid gas was known to have for ammoniacal vapour, and by the very extensive diffusibility of this aeriform acid, on the one hand; and on the other, by the well ascertained fact of the production of the volatile alkali in the process of putrefaction. This ingenious suggestion was immediately put in practice, the acid vapour disengaged from common salt by means of vitriolic acid, was diffused over the whole infected atmosphere, and this remedy proved so effectual that on the next day no vestige of the putrid odour was per ceptible. An account of this interesting discovery was published in the Journal de Physique for that year, vol. i. p. 136. Towards the end of the very same year a violent jail fever made great ravages in the prisons of Dijon, and the acid fumigation was again resorted to with the most complete success. An account of this was published by M. Maret, in the Journal de Physique for 1774. Would it be supposed that a discovery, sanctioned by the event of two such striking experiments, should again fall into neglect? Such, however, was the case, for from this time to the year 1795, no fair trial of acid fumigation appears to have been made in any part of Europe. How ever, the memory of the two abovementioned experiments at Dijon was not forgotten, for in 1780 the French academy of sciences having been consulted on the best means of correcting the insalubrity of prisons, very warmly recommended the muriatic fumigation as employed by M. de Morveau; and again, in 1794, the same recommendation, together with full instructions, was repeated by a public board of health at Paris. In 1795, the public attention was called to an experiment of acid fumiga. tion, performed at Sheerness, on the suggestion of Dr. Carmichael Smyth, by Mr. Menzies, in the Russian hospital ship lying at that harbour, to destroy the contagion of a very alarming fever, which prevailed on board the fleet of our allies. The acid employed in this instance was the nitrous, the method of fumigation was perfectly simple, being very exactly the same as in the above mentioned experiments at Dijon, only substituting nitre for common salt; and, as our readers may probably recollect, the success attending this, and other subsequent trials, was so striking, as to induce the British parliament to bestow a very liberal remuneration on Dr. Smyth, as the discoverer of this excellent process for destroying contagious effluvia. The year 1800 was calamitously distinguished in several parts of the south of Europe by a highly malignant fever. It appeared particularly in Genoa, and in the province of Andalusia in Spain, and raged with such violence at Cadiz during its blockade by the British fleet, as almost to threaten to depopulate the Common fumigations were used abundantly here, but with little success, and the disease seems to have run its course almost unchecked. At Seville, however, where the fever was rapidly spreading, the nitrous and muriatic fumi gations were at last employed, and the success appeared to correspond with the expectations that had been formed. So much for the history of this discovery: let us now proceed to the work before us. The third part of this treatise, at which the narrative ends, begins with a series of experiments on the effect of various re-agents on air, in which meat bas long remained in a state of putrefaction. We may observe by the way, that the author almost assumes it as a certain position, that the simple putrefaction of animal matter is the immediate cause of conta gious fever. This is far from being. proved, but the progress of putrefaction is, however, not the less interesting to the chemist. The substance of the author's experiments is the following: The Lime-water becomes instantly turbid in this vitiated air, shewing that much carbonic acid is generated by the putre faction of animal flesh. The fetid smell is unaltered by the lime-water. solutions of silver, mercury, and lead, become instantly turbid and darkcoloured, with an iridescent pellicle. The vegetable colours usually employed as tests of acid and alkali, indicate no ammonia in the putrid gas; but the water, over which it has stood, is sensibly impregnated with this alkali.— Those metallic solutions, and metallic oxyds, which are the most sensibly affected, and altered by the sulphurets and hydro-sulphures, experience no ma terial change in the putrid gas. Notwithstanding the extreme putridity of the air, the common eudiometrical tests shew no greater loss of oxygen than 3.4 in 100, so that the gas still retains about 18 per cent. of oxygen-a very important fact to be observed in attempting to explain what is meant by vitation of air, by means of putrescent matters! The above experiments appear only to approximate to accuracy. The author very properly lays the chief stress on the following circumstances : First, that much carbonic acid is gene. rated by animal putrefaction; secondly, that the removal of this acid gas by means of lime, does not correct the fetor of the remainder, and hence a practical inference may be drawn on the degree of confidence to be placed in the common practice of slacking lime, whitewashing, &c.: thirdly, that the cause of the change produced on metallic solutions by this air, which is an ap- Next follows an interesting series of experiments on the effect produced on known quantities of putrid air, by burning in it a variety of substances, such as are usually employed in fumigations. The chicf effect attended to, was to acertain the intensity of the putrid smell after the operation. Benzoin, myrrh, styrax, and the other aromatics, partly concealed the putrid smell, by mixing with it their own fragrant scent. The author remarks, that the putrid smell is modified, but not destroyed by these processes: this however is mere gratuitous assumption, for, without placing much confidence on the aromatics as effectual fumigators, we may observe, that if the degree of putrid odour alone is to be the test of insalubrity, it will be difficult to point out a decided difference between masking and correcting fetor. Vinegar and the weaker acids partly destroyed the putrid odour: gunpowder successively exploded in it, did indeed remove the smell, but obviously by generating a new gas which displaced that which was the subject of experiment. The mineral acids next engaged the author's attention,and their wonderful energy in destroying the putrid odour was immediately shewn in the most convincing manner. The vapour of burning sul phur, the liquid sulphuric acid, the nitric, the muriatic, and the oxy-muriatic acids all exerted a most striking corrective power. The author very properly observes, in another place, that the difficulty of comparing the force of concentration in the respective gaseous acids renders it impossible to institute any very exact comparison between these agents, but it appears to be probable that the muriatic and the oxy-muriatic acids stand the highest on the list of correctives of putridity, bulk for bulk, especially as their diffusibility is so great. We may add, that in the experiments on the acids, the change of colour in the solutions of lead and silver by the putrid gas, was carefully noticed. The author takes considerable pains to ascertain the truth of an assertion, of Mr, Keir of Birmingham, given in a letter to Dr. Symth. As a mere chemical enquiry, the subject is certainly curious, but it does not appear to us, to 815 bear much upon the question of the anti-contagious power of this acid. "I consider Dr. Carmichael Smyth's dishis process, are quite different from the covery to be very valuable. The fumes, in ordinary nitrous vapour in the distillation of aqua fortis, or from that which exhales in the solution of metals by nitrous acid; the latter is highly suffocating and noxious, and may be called the phlogistimade in Dr. Snyth's manner, if there is cated nitrous acid vapour. The fumes no metal employed in the vessel, &c. is highly dephlogisticated or oxygenated nitrous vapour, and is also mixed with a large quantity of pure dephlogisticated air, which is extricated from the materials; and these fumes are not only not suffocating, but have a very pleasant smell. If the distinction is not made between these two kinds of vaaccident, or in expectation of getting the níit is to be feared that some person, by pour, trous vapour more expeditiously, may use metal vessels or dissolve metals in nitrous acid." founding the red or smoaking nitrous thor with much satisfaction, we acs |