the city from the country a person experiences, in an instant, a very considerable change of temperature. In consequence of this arrangement too, Rheumatism and catarrhal affections are very com:non; and perhaps, to this sudden alternation of cold and heat, may be attributed, indirectly, that females are so subject to the goitre or bronchocele; their mode of dress, which leaves the neck exposed at all seasons and all temperatures, giving great effect, in that part, to the action of those sudden changes, and these cross currents of air." P. 335.

These particulars may be interesting to the British profession, as Geneva is now the residence of very many English families and as all travellers pass through this celebrated city on their way to "Latium's velvet grounds."

We e are reluctantly compelled to pass over the sections on coup de soleil, phrenitis, hydrocephalus, rheumatism, ophthalmia, and other inflammations, as we perceive that our limits will be overstepped. These sections contain many highly valuable observations, which well deserve the tropical reader's attentive perusal.

The 15th chapter, which is a very long one, embraces an extensive review of the history and treatment of tetanus, which is a severe scourge between the tropics, and too often baffles the powers of medicine in Europe. We are sorry to say that no satisfactory conclusion results from our able author's learned researches. His own experience leads him to trust more to depletion and mercury, as the principal agents in the methodus medendi, than to any other plan which has yet been proposed or acted on.

The same remark may be made on Dr. Chisholm's section on hydrophobia-a still more indomitable disease than tetanus. Our author, however, has brought forward into a focus all that is known of the pathology and treatment of this direst of all afflictions, and left his readers to judge for themselves, as to the most eligible plan to pursue. His own judgment inclines him to venesection and mercurial ptyalism, as the surest means of checking the hydrophobic inflammation.

From the concluding part of this chapter, in which some cases and observations are introduced on the subject of catalepsy, and cataleptic, maniacal, and hepatic hysteria, we shall make a short extract.

"These diseases seldom, indeed, occur within the tropics: nor should I have introduced them into a work confined to the history and treatment of tropical diseases, had I not experienced the beneficial effects of the depletory and mercurial treatment of them since my return to England; and had they not thereby furnished additional illustration of the propriety of that treatment, in the two im

portant diseases which constitute the subject of the two preceding sections of this chapter. Catalepsy and cataleptic, maniacal, and hepatic hysteria, have been cured by a similar but much less rigid process. Only one case of the first, six of cataleptic maniacal, two of maniacal, and, at least, forty of hepatic hysteria, having been cured by moderate bleeding and purging in the first instance, and afterwards by mercurial ptyalism. These diseases, which there is every reason to believe depend on a similar but less intense inflammatory diathesis, and a similar locality of that diathesis, as that observed in tetanus and hydrophobia, are arrested in their progress by these means, and the cure has been completed by mild tonics combined with anti-spasmodics, in the following form. B. oxyd. zinci, gr. ad gr. iss, assafoetidæ extract. rad. valerian.-Hyosciami āā gr. iss. m. ft. pilulæ duæ pro dosi sumendæ 3 vel 4 in die." 157.

Some very interesting cases are introduced in illustration, for which we must refer to the work itself.

The volume concludes, as we before stated, with an excellent abridgement of the author's former work on the pestilential fever, commonly (but he thinks erroneously) called the yellow fever. Whatever discrepancies of opinion may exist as to the etiology and nature of the disease, all must allow that Dr. Chisholm has handed down to posterity a very valuable history and description of the discase and its treatment—a series of facts which must stand, however doctrines may revolve, rise, and sink again. This part of the work, therefore, will prove an important document in the hands of the young tropical practitioner, and to his careful perusal we recommend it.

Having fully expressed our opinion, in a former article, of the merits of the work, and of the character and talents of the author, we need not here repeat that opinion; but we cannot avoid introducing Dr. Chisholm's pious, zealous, and affecting farewell to his professional brethren, before we close the book.

"Having now finished what I proposed to offer for the guidance and instruction of the young and unexperienced in the diseases of tropical climates;-and having with this manual, for ever quitted the practice of my profession, I affectionately take leave of them, and of my medical brethren in general, assuring them of my most sincere respect, and of my most cordial wishes for their happiness and prosperity; and wishing them to be persuaded, that, if ever any remarks, or any language of mine, have given pain, or offence; if ever I have betrayed animosity in the maintainance of my own, or asperity in the consideration of another's opinion;-fully aware of the absurdity of a conduct, which the frailty of human nature, and the limited capacity and knowledge of man, can give no sanction to; I here solemnly abjure, and entreat pardon for. And now I most Vol. III. No. 10.

3 D

earnestly and fervently implore the true, the Almighty Physician to shed the influence of his blessed Spirit on these my labours; most humbly and devoutly trusting that, should it please Him to make me, thus, an instrument, by which a ray of light may be thrown on the dark path of Tropical Pathology, He will be graciously pleased to render that light more vivid, and those minds it is intended to illumine, still more open to receive its impression; so that a more clear perception of the obstacles, difficulties, and dangers, they have to encounter in their road, may be established; thereby giving that road more smoothness, more safety, and more simplicity, in conducting them to the grand object of our united efforts, the preservation of health, and the cure of disease, in a country where the former has been uncertain, and the latter too often impossible, under existing circumstances." 233.

Geneva, May 1821.

Amen! say we. And in the name of the profession (for we are sure our readers will silently but sincerely unite with us) we proffer to our venerable brother in retirement, the homage of reciprocal respect, esteem, and fervent wishes for his happiness. May he experience, amid the romantic vallies and majestic scenery of Switzerland,

"What nothing earthly gives or can destroy,

"The soul's calm sunshine, and the heartfelt joy ;'

resulting from the retrospect of a well-spent life here, and a confident anticipation of the joys of a world to come.

X.

Medico-Chirurgical Transactions. Vol. XII. Part I. 8vo, pp. 254, with plates. 1822.

THIS first part of the twelfth volume is certainly superior to some late parts of preceding volumes; and sincerely do we hope that the prize, which is now offered for the best paper annually, may prove an attraction for communications of sterling merit. "In selecting papers, say the council, for the prize, the choice shall not be confined to those written by members only, but it shall extend to all papers which shall have been read to the society." We have no doubt that the council are perfectly aware of the responsibility which they thus incur. Not only is their impartiality, but their judgment also is at stake, and the public are rigidly just censors on all such occasions. With due deference, we

humbly beg leave to question the policy of the council in resolving that the Society's transactions shall appear at stated epochs, viz. on the 1st of July, and 1st of February, of each year. They thus render their volume a kind of stage coach, which, by being obliged to start at fixed periods, is often obliged to run with scanty fares. This, indeed, is now well known to be the great draw-back on all periodical publications of original papers, and we are somewhat surprized that in multiplicity of council, where there is, of necessity, the maximum of wisdom, this obstacle should not have been taken into consideration. The Medico-Chirur gical Society should recollect that their transactions are now viewed, in foreign realms at least, as a tolerable scale or index of the state of medical and surgical science in this country. Surely, then, they should not voluntarily impose on themselves laws which are but too well calculated to draw a shade over their former lustre. But we shall not pursue the subject farther, as we are well convinced that 66 corporate bodies," (a term, by the bye, which we have always looked upon as a piece of tautology, for can bodies be incorporate 2) will very rarely listen to the advice of individuals, however conscious they may be of the propriety of the advice.

The volume before us contains twenty papers of very unequal extent and value,

Art. 1. Dr. Marshall Hall relates the cases of four children who had attempted, by mistake, to drink boiling water from the spout of a tea-kettle. "The effects of such accident," says he, "are not, as might be supposed, à priori, inflammation of the oesophagus and stomach, but of the glottis and larynx, resembling croup"-constituting instances where the operation of laryngotomy or tracheotomy may be necessary to prevent impending suffocation. We agree with our author, that it is hardly probable that any of the boiling water reaches the stomach. Its presence must throw the muscular fibres of the pharynx and oesophagus into such spasmodic contraction, as will effectually prevent its further progress in that direction.

* When we consider that the fauces, oesophagus, and stomach, are accustomed to have hot and solid substances daily applied to them, while the membrane lining the passage to the lungs is only accustomed to an aerial current, we cannot wonder that, in such accidents as the present, the larynx and glottis should be the principal sufferers. The first inspiration, under such circumstances, would convey burning steam to the tender and delicate tissue covering the air passages, and the severe consequences may be readily imagined.-Rev.

"Of the four patients whose cases are about to be given, one recovered from imminent suffocation immediately after violent screaming; two died from suffocation-one 10, the other 17 hours after the accident; the fourth was completely relieved by the operation of tracheotomy-survived 34 hours, but died, exhausted by the irritation produced by the primary affection." 2.

The first little patient, three years of age, had no assistance for three or four hours after the accident, during which in terim augmenting difficulty of breathing came on. A mixture of oil and syrup was recommended; but the dyspnoea continuing to increase, the little patient was bled from the jugular vein, without any relief. Suffocation now threatened, and leeches were ordered. But the sight of the leeches caused the patient to scream violently, and they could not be applied. The dyspnoea now subsided, and she was well in a week. The parents supposed, and with no mean degree of probability, that the screaming ruptured the vesicles which impeded the breathing and thus proved the unexpected means of cure.

The second child was but two years of age, and in four hours after the accident began to labour and rattle in breathing. He died from suffocation about seventeen hours from the receipt of the injury. The little patient had been bled, and took oily linctuses, but without benefit.

The third patient, of the same age, shared a similar fate in ten hours from the accident.

The fourth patient was two and half years of age, and our author saw the child five hours after the injury, when she was breathing with difficulty, and with a hoarse croupy sound. She was able to swallow without manifest pain or coughing. The tongue and all the internal parts of the mouth were blanched and blistered-pulse frequent-dyspnoea increasing. To prevent impending suffocation, tracheotomy was performed twelve hours after the accident. The relief was immediate. The little patient sat up, played, looked cheerful. The voice was, of course, extinct-the breathing free through the orifice. In six hours the dyspnoea had considerably returned-the face was pale, and the child appeared to be dying. In a few hours, however, the child rallied, and the dyspnoea had lessened. Next day the little patient was worse, and apparently sinking. She died at 2 o'clock, or about 34 hours after the operation.

"On dissection, there was observed a swollen, blistered, and corrugated state of the epiglottis ; and a similar state of the posterior fauces, tongue, and internal mouth. There was a little mucus in the larynx, but no perceptible morbid condition of the œsophagus