inclined to the opposite shoulder, while a strong light is thrown into the meatus, which, if liable to discharge, should have been previously syringed. The artificial membrane is now moistened with water, and passed, by means of a silver wire, gently inwards, until it has reached the natural position. The test of the membrane having been properly placed, is the sensation of the patient, who discovers by the sound of his own voice, or that of the surgeon, or by the movement of his tongue and lips, that his hearing has suddenly been much improved.

EDITORIAL.

HONOR TO WHOM HONOR.

The following article has been circulating in the papers for some time past, headed

EXTRAORDINARY SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. A discovery has been made in Paris, by which any metallic poison, such as lead, mercury or arsenic may be extracted from the system, by the potent agency of electricity. The modus operandi is as follows: - A metallic bath is insulated on glass legs and partially filled with acidulated water, to convey more readily the electrical currents. The patient lies upon a seat in the tub insulated entirely from the bath. When gold, silver or mercury is in the system, nitric or hydrochloric acids are employed. When lead is suspected, the acid used is sulphuric. This done, the negative pole of the battery is put in connection with the bath, while the positive pole is in the hands of the patient. Now the work of purification commences. The electricity precipitates itself, hunts, digs, searches, and discovers every particle of metallic substance concealed in the most profound tissues, bones, nerves, and joints of the patient, resolves them into their primitive forms, and extracting them from the human organism, deposits them upon the side of the bath, where they can be seen with the naked eye.

It appears that this extraordinary discovery of some Parisian savan is now claimed by a gentleman residing in New York city, who has written to the editor of the Tribune the following note

SIR:-Having observed in your journal an article copied from a Columbus (Ohio) journal, which has also appeared since in several prints, describing a method for extracting metals from the human system, I find the process so much like the one I have been practising in this city ever since 1852, that I consider it proper to apprise the public that what the pretended inventor calls his discovery, not only belongs to me, but that the process therein described is not effective for the purpose so stated. The following is an extract from the Union Medicale in 1854, the circulation of which is very extensive in France, England and other countries

"The remedy was first introduced by Professor Vergnes, of New York, the backs of whose hands were seriously ulcerated, occasioned by the absorption of the nitrate of silver during the process of gilding and silvering by the galvanic battery, Mr. Vergnes having immersed his hands in an electro-chemical bath at the positive pole of a very powerful pile, a metallic plate of several inches surface was, in a quarter of an hour, covered with silver. A few baths proved sufficient to cure the ulceration, which had resisted the most active remedies. This trial was made in New York, on the 16th of April, 1852, and has since been successfully followed by many others, thus leading to the introduction of a new method for extracting metals from the human system."

The nature of the operation and process has been evidently misunderstood by both Youngman and Sellger, as the handle producing positive electricity should be of iron and covered with some acidulated linen. The body of the patient, when wholly in a bath, or when the feet alone are there, must be isolated from the metal of the tub or basin by a piece of board about an inch thick. They have also not correctly described the liquid to be used in the bath. It varies according to the nature of the metal to be extracted, which sometimes requires the use of bicarbonated soda for the purpose. 'Respectfully, yours, VERGNES.

We wish, in the first place, to ask Professor Vergnes whether any publication of the facts in this case has appeared in this country, except as copied from the French or transatlantic journals, and whether it would not be promotive of his true interests to prepare such an article as should embrace full details of all that is now known on a subject so full of interest to men of science, as well as to the medical fraternity.

2d. We wish to inquire whether such discoveries as these do not disprove the theories of those allopathic physicians who contend that the human organism can only be acted upon for the restoration of health by crude material doses, and cannot be affected by dynamic power, or by influences so delicately attenuated as to be imperceptible to sense.

We would ask these physicians to tell us in what form the nitrate of silver existed in the system of the professor. Was it held in solution? Did it pervade only the blood and the juices of the body, or did it pervade the whole organism? Could it be made sensible as it existed in these ultimate particles in which it was divided and subdivided so as to produce ulcerations and similar phenomena ?

Does electricity act by some crude material agency in eliminating from the system the various mineral poisons over which it appears to exert so wonderful a control? What is electricity itself-can you measure one of its infinitely attenuated molecules of matter so as to determine its length, breadth and thickness, or can you even determine that it is matter at all?

Until you can answer questions like these, it becomes you to be a little modest in your assumptions about the efficacy of attenuated medicines; to consider whether after all your crude doses of drugs, your raw materials of coarse and unprepared substances, are so essentially necessary to the restoration of health.

May it not be better, that they should be a little more attenuated, to bring them, previous to their administration, upon the same plane, or to approximate them to the same class of agencies, as the diseases they have to combat, as is illustrated by other operations of nature?

These questions it becomes you, gentlemen, to consider attentively, before you boast too much of your coarse material doses, or condemn too indiscriminately the Homœopathic attenuated remedies.

DURATION OF HUMAN LIFE IN WOUNDS OF

THE HEART.

From a pamphlet published by Samuel S. Purple, M. D., New York, containing statistics of 42 cases of wounds of the heart, the results appear to be, that in wounds of the right ventricle, the longest continuance of life was 29 days; the shortest, instant death;

the average, 9 days. In wounds of the left ventricle, longest duration, 66 days; shortest, 5 minutes; average, 13 days. In wounds of the right auricle, longest duration, 7 days; shortest, 24 days; average, 44 days. Two cases in which both ventricles were wounded, longest, 6 days; shortest, 4 days.

These cases are too few in number, and cannot probably be depended on, as forming any ground of correct inference in regard to the comparative danger from wounds in different portions of the heart. As statistics, however, they possess an interest, and especially as disproving the generally received notion, that instant death is a necessary result of wounds of the heart.

Philada., Sep. 17th, 1855.

TO THE PUBLISHERS OF THE PHILA. JOURNAL OF HOMEOPATHY:GENTLEMEN-My health having been such since the commencement of the present volume of the Journal, as to prevent me, in a great measure, from discharging my duty as assistant Editor, I feel compelled to relinquish the station, -I cannot consent to assume any part of a responsibility, to which, by force of circumstances beyond my control, I am prevented from bestowing that care and attention which in justice to your readers and patrons would be demanded of me. You will therefore oblige me by dropping my name from this date. Hoping that you will secure more able assistance, and a valuable acquisition to the post which I resign,

I am truly yours,

A. E. SMALL.

As only a few copies of the SYMPTOMEN CODEX, by Charles Julius Hempel, M. D., 2 vols., are on hand, the former price of $11 00 has been raised to $14 00. The price of the Repertory remains unchanged, $6 00. Those Physicians not already supplied with this valuable work will therefore do well to order a copy immediately.

New York, Sept. 1, 1855.

WILLIAM RADDE, Publisher.

TRACTS FOR THE PEOPLE.

The Publishers beg to announce that they will commence this month the publication of a Series of

POPULAR TRACTS ON HOMEOPATHY

for general distribution among all classes of the people. They respectfully urge this matter upon the attention of Physicians and the friends of the New School, as the best and most certain means of diffusing accurate information upon a subject in which every member of the community is deeply inte

rested.

Tract No. 1, (containing 8 pages, on the Progress of Medical Science,) is now ready, and will be furnished, free of postage,

At $2 00 per Hundred Copies.