MEDICAL BOOKS.

THE gradual in-dropping of strictly medical books, which the open. ing of the Winter Session in the London schools has given rise to, has caused an accumulation of professional works without any direct bearing upon temporary subjects, or any ever-general interest —as digestion. Still we will endeavour to give such an account of them as shall convey an idea of their scope and cheracter ; pre- mising that the length of any particular notice must not be taken as a measure of the value or importance of the work, but merely of its available points for popular review.

I. Spinal Diseases, with an Improved Plan of Cure. By Jolts HEY ROBERTSON, M.D.

2. A Treatise on the Nervous Diseases of Women. By TuostAs ',AYCOCK, M.D.

3. Tlw Elements of Materia Medico. By JONATHAY PEREIRA, Member of the Royal College of Surgeons, &e. 4. Human Physiology. By Jon ELLIOTSON, M.D. 5. A Peeetiea/ Tecoti.5..m on time Cure of StrabiNinus or Squint. By P. BENNETT LUCAS, of the linytil College of f:Reegeons in London. 6. Ronarhs is the New Operation for the Cure ed '5/rebid:a:is. By EnwAno W. DUFFIN.

I. Dr. ROBERTSON'S Spinal Diseases. The number of publications on this subject, arising apparently from the frequency of the com- plaint, having led us 'already to give a general account of time vertebral column or spine, as well as to remnark upon the enrollee principle of time recumbent plans of treatuc it, we shall confine ourselves in the notice of' Dr. lionmersox's book to such facts and opinions as appear new or striking. It is commonly held that females, more especi..11y in the middling or higher classes, are the chief sufferers front spinal affections. To the former opinion Dr. ROBERT3ON only yields a modified assent. The facts within his own experience give a proportion of three males to four females under ten years of age ; from ten to forty years the female preponderation greatly increases, being in the ratio of two to one ; between forty and fifty, a time of rill, particu- larly trying to women from the constitutional change which then takes place, it rises to Ibur to one; beyond this period the liability of the male exceeds that of the female in the proportion of four to three. It must be borne in mind, however, dint this is only an individual experience, and that the cesea are only the fbet hundred in his note-book. Dr. Ronmersos also attributes to affections of the spine many disorders that have not been generally traced to that origin.

Our author altogether dissents fromn the opinion that the poor

are exempt from spinal affections : out of sixty-six eases of females, he finds thirty-eight are engaged in sot iic! humble occupation, twenty-eight of them being employed in fitetorhe,, or as milliners, straw-hat-makers, and bookbinders. These, however, are Glasgow poor, and perons whose occupations were IS little favourable to health and strength as the over ease and indulgence of the upper classes : but six out of' Dr. ROBERTSON'S eases were front the country. To all there, however, our last observation will apply that this practitioner includes many cases in affections of the spine which have hitherto been excluded. Some appearance of distortion, or approaching distortion, has generally been required to range a disease under this head; but Dr. RonmersoN attributes many com- plaints to affections of the spinal nerves—as anxiety, difficulty of breathing, pains in the breast, and many other symptoms of "ner•

MECHANICAL BANDAGE SURGEONS.

Sonic time ago, being dissatisfied with most bandages I saw, I waited upon certain makers, and said fled having many patients with weak and diseased backs, I would he hems), to send them to them, provided they could show me any pattern, plan, drawing, or made bandage, that I could conscientiously ap- prove of as likely to he of service to those intrusting their crises to ray care. I was much surprised to find that they had neither pattern nor bandage made, plan to describe, nor drawing to exhibit. 'Upon expressiog my wonder, they bade use scud the patient to them, and never trouble myself about the matter! 6, It was very strange if they had been so many years in busduese, and could not invent see! that Doctors — told —, (miming, of course, highly-respeetahle practitioners,) were in the habit of sending pauents there, and ni rye looked up, r (lam"! After haviug frequently seen persons wearint, their " inventions," and know- ing that during the time they did so they pst daily worse, it was not very likely that I sheuld suhroit to have my professional judgment superseded in this cool was by that of it mere mechanic ; one too who had gisen me no evi- dence that Ise cull do what he pretended, or that lee WISE in any way acqoainted with the laws that govern the production of disease or restoration to health. Nor had the at:tontine:spent of the imposin,g names any further impressioa than to make me set this down too as one of their "invenCons"; ns, considering the high . importance of the subject to thc patient and her friends, told the chances that the cumbrous and expensive means adopted to hnprove new reader her worse, it is scarcely to he credited that any medi-al geetleman Amid in this slovenly way tern patients over to persons who, whetever their adroit- ness as mechanics, were unable to tell me any one principle upon which they

proceeded.

vousness." He has seen cases of spinal affections treated as con- sumption, &c.; the symptoms being regarded, instead of the cause. The great test of our author seems to be the development of pain by pressure on the back. His chief novelty in treatment is acu- puncture and dry cupping,—that is, exhausting the air in a cup, and sucking up the flesh, without attempting to draw blood, or even penetrating the skin. The curative principle is no doubt that of counter-irritation ; but it produces, in our author's hands, results which would not a priori be expected of the means employed. Spinal Diseases being a work designed for popular circulation, the general anatomical descriptions are clear, and the whole book is readable. But it has literary merits beyond this : with much of the zeal which attends the promulgator of a new plan, and of the "nothing-like-leather " disposition that characterizes the class, Dr. ItonmersoN also displays the powers of an origioal observer—of a man who, whether his views are true or false, has formed them st from looking at nature for himself, and not spun them from his fancy or drawn them from books. His work also furnishes indications of life, as well as discussions of medicine, especially in the glimpses it gives us of the sad condition of humble poverty, reduced to disease by its occupation acting injuriously upon a predisposed constitution, but condemned by necessity to toil on fOr bread, the labours of the day undoing the efforts of the physician. From the more extractable matter of Dr. itOlifitiSON we will take a few quotations.

THE TAILOR'S STRUT.

This latter occupation (tailor) is probably not so productive of spinal disease as might be supposed. Those of them who are originally well made, and not decrepit or diseased, walk remarkably eruct—so notch so as to have the appearance of a strut, a kind of caricature of a walk which, upon examiration, w UI be found to ler the natural effect of the strong action of the muscles of their backs, reedered powerful, in comparison to those in front, from the positien lit whiels they usually sit, and the IR re3sity for sustaining and pulling upwards and backwards their head and shouldere:.

This is not given as a specimen of an individual, but of a class spoiled by an ignorant and overweening sense of their own importance, and possitily by being left le- some influential members of the proressiou too much to themselves.

EFFECTS Cr BANDAGING.

If it be asked why these contrivances are called alisued, I answer, because they treat the hack of a human being as if it were a piece of dead matter. The great muscles of the hack :tee not very numeroes, but they ere large and very powerful ; and their mosl impurtant use is to support aril essi•I the back, head, and upper parts of the 1 mly in their vicious motions. Now, if you eau con- ceive these nuts:des hound up in a string iron cuss, in\ vented from exerting themselves. and the head and shoulders receivit-,s that support from another quarter which it was the business of these museles to give, you coaceive the case in qeestion ; and any one, when he knows that the structure of a muscle is impaired bv (flames and compression, can understand Low this supporting of the One Shoold,r is :shout as had as pressing dawn the oil: or would be—how the backs of tlifeie mismanaged persons must get weaker and wcal:cr. the iarts that Intl ire put there for the purpose of supporting them Ileving been disabled by the very means taken to improve them. Nor is this all; Mr after these machines have been worn for some time, it is with the greatest difficulty, sometimes not at all, fists they eau be laid aside. All the petisnts that I have Inued wearing them have assur.11 me, that though thsy dia 1,0t red comflirtalile with the al n. they yet had a degree of support from thou, and felt the went of them on their icing laid aside.

I. :G HT SEATS IN rim URCH Very many of the th-us or patients who are during the week enortged in some occupation employing most of their time, Iteve fissured 7110 that they could not attend church on Sunday itom the palms and fitieme xperienced there; but were obliged to lie in bed the greater part or that day, to recover from the fatigues of the preceding week, and to cradle that to besr those of that to come. The absurd epr!nlit position of the Leeks of seats in most a our churches is one eflOSO Of this. Were they niece ihclined backwards, as in new churches they could easily be made, and holeed is many are how making, it Bold'', lost only be productive of much comnart to mativ, at present comtent attenders upen lit would enable 111:111V to iii ci thire who at psesent catmot remina so long in the all bat uprigIvit pesitien, without a contietted sensation of fatieue suet nein, thllowed by difficulty ot. breathing, swelling in the throat, letting- of the heart, ringing in the eats, giildieess, and ultimately fainting.

2. Dr. LArcocK's Treatise on the NOTOUS Discasrs of Women, reminds one oh' the good Old times wlsen learned issen not only treated of the subject in hand, hut discussed all its cognate branelses. Attributing hysteria, or female nervousness, to the peculiarities of the sex, Dr. 1..svcocK considers the sexual ditThrences and charac- teristics, not only in oval, but in all animals, and maks almost all circumstances. Birds, the lion, the mare, the hind, insects, frogs,

and fishes, are but specimens of his extended survey, applied not merely to the organs of reproduction, but to the voice, to the cu- taneous secretions, to the influence of the seasons, and to many

other topics which it is needless to enumerate. The reader who peruses Dr. LAYCOCK'S VOlUIlle Will find a great deal of curious

reading and odd fiscts, stated in a style whose scholastic and mea-

sured cast receives a pleasant touch of quaintness from the cha- racter of the writer's mind. had Dr. LAYCOCK, however, stripped

his work of much of its cognate or perhaps its collateral matter, his medical conclusions would have been received snore easily and clearly by the reader, and have made a stronger impression.

3. Mr. PEREIRA'S Materia Medica. This second volume or it part " contains the medicines whose basis is animal or vegetable matter, and ccmpletes the work ; which now can be truly said to form the " most complete compendium of the subject we have seen," and one that is indispensable to the medical man who wishes to study this branch of the subject, or to have a work of reference to consult upon any particular medicine. Besides a brief botanical or physiological description of the medicine according as it is a plant or animal, there is a passing sketch of its history, an account of its habits and characteristics, a receipe for its pre- paration when it has to be prepared, with full descriptions of its physiological effects its modes of administration, and its antidotes if poisonous. Prefixed to the work, is a " Tabular View of the History and Literature of the Materia Medica"; which gives in the compass of a few pages a coup d'wil of the progress of medicine, and notes upon its most distinguished professors in every country. A single example from the " dark ages" will show the characteristic brevity with which it is done ; though Mr. PEREIRA is rather hard upon

PARACELSUS.

1493-1541. PARACELSUS.—A vain, ignorant, arrogant, drunken quack, fanatic, and impostor. Ile burnt publicly the works of Galen and Avicenna, declaring that his shoe-striegs possessed more knowledge than those two cele- brated physicians ; and asserted that he possessed the elixir of life. He was a cabalist, aetruloger, and believer in the doctrine of signatures. Ile cooferred several important benefits on medicine ; Ile overturned Galenism, introduced chemical medicines, (employed mercury in syphilis,) and substituted tinctures, essences, and extracts, for various disgusting preparations.

Some extracts from the snore quotable matter in the medical part of the work may not be without interest for their facts; whilst they will serve IIS specimens of the manner of Mr. PEREIRA, and the way in which he picks up facts and opinions.

now. WERE THE PROPERTIES OF BARK Discovmmea ? Ilisrony.—The precise period and manner of the discovery of the thera- peutic power of cinchona is euveloped in mystery. It is very doubtful whether

the Indians knew it previous to the Spaniards. Geottroy (Mot. ii. 181) says. that the Indians were acquainted with this medicine long prior to the arrival of Columbus; but from the implacable hatred which they conceived against the Spaniards, they kept it a secret for many years, until, in fact, an Indian, grateful for seine favours received from the Governor of Loxa,imparted

to him the secret of this valuable specific. Humboldt, (Lambert's p. 220 however, disbelieves these statements; for in Loxa and other parts far around, he found the notives ranked cineliona among poisons, and were totally unacquainted Nridl its uses. " In Malaeatis only,' says he, " where many bark .peelers live, they begin to put confidence in the cinchona bark." 17,110a (1".oe. tie i. 271) also asserted that the Peruvians were igno- rant of the medical uses of cinchona. The traditions, therefore', of the sup- posed discovery of the remedy by an Indian being cured of an ague by drink- ing at a pool into Whiell some einchuna trees hail fallen, (Geotfroy, Introd. ad Mat. p. 4S,) as well as the snore impronable story told by Condamine, pia,. Arad. Sc. de Paris, 1738, p. fnetio ef the Indians observing lions ill with ague eating cinchona bark, must be inlitilous. The assertion, s Hum- boldt, that the great American lion, (Fells c■,;ohlor) was subject to fever, is as

bold as that made by the inhabitants of the peetileetial Gealla

near Quito, that even the vultures ( Vultur aura) in their neighbourhood were subject to tint disorder. Marcus ir, in the cinch iona. foreets, lions are not foiled, though the puma (Felis undicoto of Humboldt, the petit lion de Volcone de Piehincha of Condamine) has been met 2,300 Wises (15,000 feet) above the level of the sea.

Ilumbeldt (op. cit. r 23) tells us of an old tradition, current in Loxa. that the Jesuits having accidentally discovered the bittermes of the bark, tried an infusion in tertian ague, and in this way became acquainted with its valuable properties. This he thinks a much less imprnbahle tradition than that which ascribes the discos-cry to the Indians. The period when bark was first intro- duced into Europe is usuelly stated to be 1640; but Sebastian Badus (quoted by Bergen, slionogr. 84) gives au extract from a letter of a Spanish phi sician, D. Joseph Villeruliel from which it appears that it was imported into Spain in 1632, though no trial was made of it until 1639. The statement of Condamine ('p. cit.) that the Countess of Chinehon, wife of the Viceroy of Peru. brought some bark to Europe on her return from Smith America, in 16:i9, is nut improbable ; aud from this circumstance it ac- quired the mimes uf the Gnu-Omni Bard mot the (lento ss's Powthr (Pulvis coma Ahem tin years after it it as brought by the Jesuits to Home, and by them distributed among the members of the order ; who carried it to their ic spective stations, and used it with great success it. neues. Among those mest active in promoting its employment was Cardinal de hog,. irs t his Way it zlequir,d the name: s Li it, PidriA Parma, .1 si a Powder,(Pulvis ,Ic.,nitien,,,) ?Idris S'ardinalls id Lugo, ems. (Ceoffroy. Mot. .W0 It fell, howe‘er, into disuse ; hut was again brought into vogue in France,hy Sir Ho- bert Tallier, who acquired great reputation for the este ef intermittents by a secret remedy. Louis the Fourteenth purchased Ins seieet. (which proved to be einehotta.) and made it public (Talbor, Eng/ish /Si sway, 168.2.) Hence it became known in France as Tilt•oe's Pouolcr, or the Lootish Remido.

WINE-MAKING.

The mannfitcture of wine deserves a passing notice. Grape-juioe does not ferment in the grape itself. This is owing. not as Fahroni (De t tief tire le Fin, Paris. 1Sil ) supposed. to the gluten loing contained in dietinet cells from those in which the saccharine juice is lodged, but to the exclusion of Minis- epherie ox■ gen ; the contact of %shish, Gay Lussae (Ana. de Ch:ni lxx vi. 245) Las shown, is necessary to effect sonic change its the gluten, whereby it is en- abled to set up the process of fermentation. The expressed juice of the grape, called must, (must on),) whose composition has been already stated, (sec p. 1217,) readily undergoes the vinous fermentation when subjected to the tem- perature of between 60 degrees and $O degrees Fahrenheit. It becomes thick, • Spectator, No. 548, 29th Dec. 183$; Notice of the First Part.

insatiable cupidity and gluttony of man, which descended into the evidently such as to render him a very unsound authority. Gifted bowels of the earth after gems and precious metals, and ransacked with considerable powers of exposition, and a manner which carries n search of delicacies: what would they have said of readers along, he will be followed with pleasure and profit whilst the deep i

him had they seen the toil and cost undergone to supply us with he is explaining the acknowledged truths of physiology, or such leeches? Would they have added it to his offences, or taken it as views of his own as happen to be true. But as the student is an example of retributive justice? rarely able to pronounce accurately upon this point for himself, a

COMMERCE OF LEECUES.

their supplies from the nraine. " Having exhausted all the lakes of Siberia, LUCAS. Professor DIEFFENBACU of Berlid was the first surgeon Bohemia, and other more frequented parts of Europe, the buyers are now roll- who attempted the cure of squinting by dividing the muscles of big gradually and implacably eastward, carrying (lead, and desolation among the eye. Mr. Lucas claims the merit of having been the first to the leeches in their course, sweeping all before them, till now they have got as introduce the operation into this country, as well as to have effected far as Poltava, the pools and swamps about which are yielding them great cap- tures." (Bremer, 1.rcurs. in the Interior of Russia, vol. ii. p. 408, 1839.) some improvements upon the method of the German practitioner. . Leeches are sometimes imported in bags, but more usually in small barrels, The latter, in order to pull the eye from the socket, used to keep each holding about 2,000, the head being made of stout canvas, to admit the the eyelids apart by two hooks, each of which were held by an air. The best vessels for preserving these animals are unglazed brown pans or assistant ; a third hook, also held by an assistant," was passed wooden tubs. The dealers have a notion (and possibly a correct one) that the leaden glazing is injurious. These pans should be very little more than half through the conjunctiva, (the membrane which lines the posterior filled with soft water (pond, river, or rain-water.) This does not require surface of the eyelids, and is continued over the forepart of the changing so often as is commonly supposed. In very hot weather, or when the globe of the eye,) and to some depth in the subjacent cellular water has become bloody, or otherwise much discoloured, it should be changed tissue at the internal canthus, or angle formed by the eyelids next every day or so ; otherwise, in summer every four or five days or a sveck, in the nose. A fine double-hook was then fixed in the sclerotica- winter once a month is believed by large dealers to be sufficient. the outermost or hardest membrane of the eye ; by means of The consumption of leeches must be enormous. Some years ago it was stated that four principal dealers in London imported, on the average, 600,000 monthly, which the eye was drawn outwards, and the operation performed -or 7,200,000 annually. (Price, Treat. on Sanguisuct, p. 129, 1822.) Fed by cutting into the conjunctiva, penetrating more deeply by sepa- (Cours d'l list. Nat. t. i. p. 21) says, " It is estimated that 3,000,000 are an- rating the cellular tissue by the side of' the sclerotica, and then nnally consumed in Paris; and as the population of Paris is to that of the dividing the rectos muscle. By the improvements of Mr. Lucas, whole of France as one is to thirty-three, it follows that, independently of ex- only one hook is used; the eyelids being held open by the fingers portation, 100,000,000 are consumed annually, which is equivalent to three leeches annually for each person. Now, if we estimate the average price at of the assistant ; which are equally effective, more pleasant to the fifty francs per thousand, we shall have the enormous sum of five millions of eye itself from the softness of the skin, and of course much less francs paid for this one article of our materia medics." terrifying to the patient. yeast, p.589.) The wine is now drawn off intocasks, where it undergoes further No doubt she does laugh, and not without cause. changes. It is then racked off into other casks, where it is subjected to the Amongst the matters handled by the Doctor, some of which operation of sidphariny, (i. e. exposed to sulphurous acid, either by burning have no very intimate connexion with so large a subject as Human sulphur-matches in the cask or by the addition of wine impregnated with this acid,) to render the glutinous matter incapable of rekixoting fermentation. Physiology, the relative merits of Doctors Gam. and Seunzusrat, After this, the wine is usually clarified, or fined (i. e. deprived of those matters and Dr. ELLIOTSON'S feelings towards the latter may be mentioned; which render the wine turbid, and dispose it to undergo deteriorating changes.) together with some squabble with Mr. COMBE,—whom he attacks, Isinglass or white of egg (i. e. gelatine or albumen) is commonly employed for by the by, with a personal grossness rarely used in letters since this purpose. The first forms with the tannic acid, the second with the alco-

hol, reticulated coagula, which envelop and carry down the solid particles that

endanger the safety of the wine. Hunzan Physiology has of course much better things than these

The ancient satirists and philosophers declaimed against the

Human Physiology of 1840 partakes of three origins, and three .11r. LUCAS states in his work, on the authority of several of his characters,—the learning, labour, and research of Germany, some- patients, that the pain of this operation is trivial. A female of our what lumbering it may be,.but solid, accurate, patient, and pro- acquaintance, who underwent the operation, (to preserve the sight found ; the anatomical skill and artistical cleverness of France ; of the eye, which was that failing.) describes it as very severe during and the compiling facility, the disposition to theory and disquisi- the time the conjunctiva and muscles wele being cut. She also tion, the collection of striking facts, and the (easy) treatment of estimated the duration at somewhat longer than it most probably parts of a subject, which characterize the English practitioner, and was : but patients under the knife measure time differently from a

indeed the English literature of the present day. person looking on with a stop-watch in hand.

Some points are more peculiar to Dr. ELLIOTSON. He displays 6. Mr. Derrnes Practical Remarks on the New Operation for a deficiency in sound logic ; concluding sometimes from conceits the Cure of Strabismus, contains a great number of cases, in instead of premises, so that if the opinion is true, it is not a de- some of which the operation for squinting was performed with- duction, but a conjecture. He also puts forth a confession of the out the desired result; and the aim of his book is to impress faith in Animal Magnetism. He disbelieves, at least he says he caution in selecting likely cases. The work is plainly and can has not seen, any of its miraculous marvels,—as speaking languages didly written, but the pith of the general advice (not of the surgical never learned ; or predicting the future, except as regards the and medical part) is contained in an extract from Mr. Gisnolose, a morbid condition of the person herself; or penetrating the minds of surgeon of Derby. " I trust you will, in your forthcoming volume, those with whom the magnetized are in magnctical communication ; caution practitioners against operating for the sake of numbers, in or seeing, save in one dubious instance, with the organs of touch. lieu of the prospective advantage of their patients. The operation He acknowledges that all the results are natural,—that is, that the is an excellent one, but I fear it will get into disrepute if proper symptoms evolved by the magnetizers are displayed in persons cases are not selected. It strikes me that the remote and prom not subject to magnetic influence. His faith, however, in the exist- mate causes of strabismus should be known previous to operations. ence of animal magnetism is still enough to move mountains. The In advanced life I should consider the operation would be very following is rich. The parties alluded to are the two girls who likely to fail."

were expelled the Hospital, we believe as impostors, and whom

Dr. Erdiomos; subsequently took into his house. They illustrate PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED. the proverb of "practice makes perfect." " Another beautiful set of experimeuta ivas made with brutes. If their hand BOOKS. was brought into contact with a brute, the rapidity and intensity of the effect Spinal Diseases : with an improved plan of Cure. Tcheling what are was always proportionate to the size of the ammal. If their fingers were and numerous Examp!e4, from placed under the wing of a peroquet, the effect was much inferior to what if upwards of one hunched mid fifty cases. By .lon St i i CV lt OR E wrsoN,

they were placed under the wings of' a cockatoo. If placed on the nose of a M.D., Surgeon of the Faculty of Physieians and Surgeons, Glesgow, &e.

small deer, the effect was inferior to what it was if placed upon a lama, or a

large deer." * s * Squinting. Illustrated with lithographic engravings. By Eowaen

meat. But the effects through them, when so managed as to prevent the pa- tient from knowing what is doing, are very satisfactory. Mesmerized gold or Secretary to the Admiralty in the 1{0:ins of Charles II. mid James II.

silver produces its effects more slowly in proportion as it is more wrappedu p ; Including n. Narrative of his Voyage to Tangier, deciphered from the

and is thus proved to have the power, because, if wrapped up and rubbed shoit -hand MSS. in the Bodleian Library, by the Reverend JOON against the patient, it is impossible for her to know what metal is used." SMITH, A.M., Decipherer of "Pepys Memoirs." Now first published

"Through glass the patient sees the pass made, yet the effect is always

weaker than it no glass is interposed. If I blow upou the back of the neck of Narrative of a Three Months' March in India, awl a Ilesidence in the either sister, when very susceptible, stupefaction and rigidity are instantaneous ; Dooab. By the Wife of an Officer in the Sixteenth Foot, With plates, if into the hair of the hack of the head, a few momenta intervene : if there is

book of Dr. ELLIOTSON'S is one to be read with caution.

we have been talking of; but the nature of Dr. ELLIOTSON'S mind is -