large doses evert the action of the stomach, and produce an emetic effect, generally quickly, and without debilitating the system. Others act more slowly, and produce long-continued nausea, with the depressing symptoms which accompany such a state, and which are known to favour absorption. These are, therfore, as well as from their slow action, not suited to cases of poisoning. With both the act is accompanied by a series of concussions which favour the excretion and secretion of the biliary, pancreatic, and intestinal fluids, causing a determination to the skin. But this very concussion makes them dangerous when there is a determination to the head, or in advanced stages of pregnancy, in hernia, &c. But it makes them useful before the accession of an Intermittent, also in bilious Fever, likewise in Asthma, Hooping-cough; or they may be used for merely evacuating the stomach.

"Direct Emetics, acting quickly.

"Ammoniæ Liq. 58. Ammonia Sesquicarb. Liq. 64 (f3ss.-f3j. of either taken in a glass of cold, followed immediately by some warm water). Sodi Chloridum, 96, or common Salt is usually readily available.

"Zinci Sulphas, 151. Cupri Sulph. 154. Cupri Ammonio-Sulph. 155. Ærugo, 157.

66

Sinapis nigra, 274. S. alba, 276.

"Indirect Emetics.

"Antimonii et Potassæ Tartr. (Tartarum Emeticum, D.), 177. Vinum, 180. "Antimonii Oxidum, E. 172. Sesquisulphuret. et Oxysulphuretum, 175, 176. Ipecacuanha, 433. Pulv. Vin. et Syr. 436. Emetine, 435. Viola odorata,

66

278.

"Scilla. Pulv. Tinct. et Syr. 594, 595. Asarum, 548. Euphorbium, 558, but is too acrid.

"Anthemis, Inf. et Dec. comp. 458: assists vomiting.

"Tabacum, 518. Lobelia inflata, 467; but both are unsafe as Emetics.

66

Ipecacuanha and Tartar Emetic are often combined together, or the latter may be prescribed with a Cathartic, forming an Emeto-Cathartic." P. 675.

We cannot, however, conclude without expressing our warm approbation of the volume as a whole. It will certainly not detract from the author's high reputation. If we have expressed in very decided terms what we think is the defect of the volume, it is because we are deeply impressed with the importance of rendering every facility to both student and practitioner in the application to the purposes of daily practice of the information which treatises on Materia Medica are intended to convey, and because we have long felt it to be a crying evil that in such works, the therapeutic department should be neglected for mere chemical and botanical details. The author will, we are quite sure, add greatly to the obligations he has already conferred, if, in a future edition (which will undoubtedly soon be required), he will devote more space to the therapeutic department. We must not omit to observe that the utility of the volume is enhanced by an excellent Index. We have given a few of the drawings as a specimen of the excellent illustrative wood-engravings.

(Figure 64 is a representation of the Melaleuca Cajuputi; Figure 69 represents a specimen of Narthex Assafoetida, grown in the H. E. India Company's Botanic Garden at Saharunpore; Figure 78 of the Olea Europœa; and Figure 83 of the Hyoscyamus Niger.)

1847]

Bushnan on Hydropathy.

245

Bibliographical Notices.

I. OBSERVATIONS ON HYDROPATHY, WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE PRINCIPAL COLD WATER ESTABLISHMENTS OF GERMANY. By J. Stevenson Bushnan, M.D. 12mo. pp. 170.

Churchill, 1846.

II. A REVIEW OF HOMEOPATHY, ALLOPATHY, AND YOUNG PHYSIC. By L. M. Lawson, M.D. Professor of General and Pathological Anatomy and Physiology in Transylvania University. 8vo. pp. 33. Lexington U.S., 1846.

In the first of these works we have another example of a regularly-educated physician coming forward as a warm advocate of hydropathy. As, however, he resides in that town of baths, and general resort of dissipated idlers, Wiesbaden, he is more excusable than are others nearer home. If the dedication of his work to Sir James McGregor, with the ardent hope that hydropathy will be introduced into our military hospitals, is authorised, we are indeed surprized and grieved: we prefer, however, until better informed, to regard it as a piece of gratuitous impertinence. In the work we find nothing that has not already been stated upon the subject, the author indeed, having himself had very little experience in this mode of treating disease, seems to have collected his materials chiefly from the gossip of those he met with, and books already published.

The disposition to meet impostors half-way, and thus minister to the delusions of the public, whether manifested by medical writers or medical reviewers, is a painful subject of contemplation for the well-wisher of his profession. A degree of credulity in the reception of statements is sometimes exhibited by medical men, which certainly the better-informed of their patients are surprized at witnessing; and assuredly never at any period of our critical career have we felt so forcibly the urgent necessity of fortifying the minds of our students by careful preliminary discipline, so as to render them, when they enter their career of life, better able to detect the fallacies which will beset them, and discern the path which professional honor and the interests of mankind require them to follow. Because a number of chronic cases, frequently if not generally the consequences of idleness and debauchery, have benefited by the employment of cold water, and the accompanying (frequently the truly curative ones) conditions of its application, the means is forthwith invested with all the dignity of a general method of cure, and received with more or less favour, however empirically recommended, by certain members of our profession. These gentlemen endeavour to salve their consciences by the statement, that hydropathy must be employed as one of the instruments of medicine and by legitimate practitioners, adding that, cold water has always been a powerful agent in the hands of medical practitioners. It has so, and although Currie's reports of its efficacy by their exaggeration led much to its desuetude, yet it probably may be still more extensively employed with advantage. But does this furnish a reason or excuse for writing books or articles communing with the public upon the matter; or any pretext for sanctioning an extent of application implied by the erection of special establishments? Is it not certain that in such, many must be the cases treated with positive detriment to their well-doing, whether their treatment be conducted by ignorant quacks, or by ci-devant practitioners converted into mere specialists? Will not the spirit of system induce many a rash experiment to be tried which ought never to have been ventured on, and is not the list of such already alarmingly large? We maintain that, in the presence of the prevalence of these systems of

quackery, rigid abstinence from all means which may tend to their propagation is the bounden duty of every medical man: knowing, as he does, that however qualified his sanction might be, it would be received without its exceptions, and rendered the means of ensnaring numbers in proportion to the height of his reputation and the extent of his influence. The present co-partnership of regular practitioners, charlatans, amateur doctors and auto-doctors is mischievous and derogatory in the extreme.

Of Professor Lawson's brochure we can speak in the highest terms. It is a searching and unanswerable exposure of the fallacies contained in Dr. Forbes' pamphlet, commented upon in our last number. As several anonymous approvals from the United States of the doctrines advanced had been published, we are pleased to find so able a refutation from the pen of a well-known professor of that country. He adopts precisely the same line of argument we entered upon in the article alluded to, but with a degree of extension and illustration our space did not admit of. We have only room for one extract, but that is an important one. "Dr. Forbes surely could not have perceived the full force and bearing of his opinions, nor the exact import of the denunciations of the regular practice; otherwise, we are constrained to believe, his language and sentiments would have been more guarded, and less calculated to give offence to the profession and support to empiricism. We speak decidedly upon this subject, for we feel much : and whatever antithetical opinions we may express, must be ascribed to a strong sense of injustice, rendered peculiarly forcible by surrounding circumstances. "The United States, however much we may admire its institutions and economy, must be regarded as the very elysium of quackery. Here, unrestrained, they assume an equality, and in point of law possess it, with the most enlightened and scientific; and by fraud and deception too frequently triumph and grow rich, where wiser and better men scarcely escape starvation. It is no uncommon event to witness an outlandish homoeopath rivalling whole communities of the most enlightened and worthy practitioners; and this does not result from any defect of the common system, but depends more immediately on the gullibility of the world in general, and of our communities in particular. These practitioners, cunning and ever on the alert, have already seized on Dr. Forbes' concessions in favour of their success, and with triumphant jeers throw them into the very teeth of the regular school. The steam-doctor, and other grades of botanical practitioners (a class unknown in England) come in for a large share of glory, and these men, too, lug in Dr. Forbes's opinions to sustain their limber-jack, ricketty concern. The following language, extracted from an article just put forth, under the auspices of the Botanical Association, may serve to shew the state of things.

It has been clearly proved and admitted by the Editor of the British and Foreign Medical Review, that homoeopathy has been quite as successful in the treatment of every variety of disease as the orthodox system, and although he does not admit its superior success, there are many practitioners who have tried both systems, and who confidently assert its superiority. If the old system, with all its resources, cannot confessedly accomplish more than a system which is considered entirely negative and void of effect, it is surely time that our Colleges were looking out for reform. As a pioneer in his cause, we hail the new Cincinnati School.'

"It may be said, however, that Dr. Forbes is not answerable for these results: that he not only has the right, but it his imperative duty to speak the truth, regardless of the sect on which he may fall most heavily. This may be; but he has told not only the truth, but much more than the truth: and it is this superabundance of expression, and those ultra and unguarded opinions, that will work such unfavourable results for the profession. This ultra course will wholly fail to improve the profession, while it will do more to build up and sustain downright quackery, than half a century of labour by those friendly to these false systems. An opponent's favorable testimony is always laid hold of, and exerts inbounded influence."