crease of head-ach, from which she was hardly ever free. Her bowels were obstinately costive, and the urine was scanty, and deposited large quantities of lithate of ammonia. "She was placed on one of my invalid beds, which enabled her to remain in a state of uninterrupted rest; and aftor the repeated application of leeches, issues were made on either side of the dorsal spine, and subsequently in the lumbar region. The issues were kept actively open, and the strictest attention was paid to her general health. The spine very gradually became less sensible, and the power over the pelvic viscera and lower extremities slowly returned; still, however, her stomach was incapable of digesting any other food than bread and milk and water, her head-ach remained nearly unabated, and her breathing was habitually difficult. She was in this state when you saw her, and the galvanism was first administered (December 19.) "A trough containing plates of about three inches was employed. The positive wire was applied to the nape of the neck, the negative a little below the pit of the stomach. No sensation was at first produced by twenty plates; but after the sensation was excited, she could not endure more than twelve. The first sensa→ tion she experienced caused her to take involuntarily a sudden and deep inspiration. The galvanism was applied for about a quarter of an hour, at the end of which time, her breathing became much freer than it had been for many months. Of this she repeatedly expressed herself perfectly certain, at the same time she felt considerable uneasiness at the stomach. She was slightly hysterical, in consequence of the agitation she had experienced, but her breathing was tranquil during the whole evening. "With a view to remove the tenderness in the epigastrium, leeches were applied to the region of the stomach, and the whole plan of treatment adapted to the secondary stage of dyspepsia was resorted to. When the tenderness had somewhat abated, the galvanism was repeated with more decided relief to the breathing, and without causing much uneasiness at the stomach. "After several applications of it, the relief she experienced in her breathing lasted for two or three days, and at length it was only necessary to repeat it occasionally. The effect of its administration was uniformly the same; a most sensible and speedy relief from a state of anxious breathing to perfect ease and repose. Its beneficial effects were not, however, confined to the respiration; the powers of her stomach greatly improved, and she was able to digest a small quantity of meat or the yolk of an egg without pain. As her stomach improved, she lost the distressing head-ach, which had so constantly attended, as at one time to lead me to apprehend the existence of disease in the brain, having met with other cases in which scrofulous affection had existed in the brain and spine at the same time. Her progress from this time was uniform, and far more rapid than it had been before; and in about two months, the catamenia, which had been suspended from the commencement of the disease, returned. "The patient was sufficiently recovered to leave the hospital, and return to her friends at Dartmouth early in July; at which time she was able to walk with very little assistance, and without experiencing the least pain in her back. On reviewing the circumstances of this case, I have not the least hesitation in stating my decided opinion of the great benefit which was derived from the employment of galvanism, not only in affording temporary relief to the breathing, but in improving the secretions, and thus materially contributing to the ultimate recovery of the patient. I feel particularly happy that the patient was in a public hospital, and that the means were employed in the presence of many intelligent medical friends and pupils, who were all equally satisfied with myself of the essential and permanent benefit which she derived from the administration of galvanism. "It was employed in two other similar cases in the same hospital, those of Ann Baillies, and Maria May, in which it produced similar good effects, except that in one of these, the improvement of the general health, although not less than in the other cases, did not appear to have the same beneficial effect on the disease of the spine. It was tried in another case of spine disease, which was attended with fits of spasmodic asthma. These, as I was taught to expect, from the observations you have published on this subject, it failed to relieve. It is remarkable, that in the case of Ann Baillies, in which the pulse was from 140 to 150, and very weak, the use of the galvanism always rendered it stronger, and brought it down from thirty to forty beats in the minute. "From observing the good effects of galvanism on the secre-. tions of the stomach, I was induced to make a trial of it in a case of deafness, accompanied with a total want of secretion of cerumen in the right ear. Its first application produced a watery secretion, which by perseverance gradually assumed the taste and all the other characters of cerumen. The hearing was greatly improved in both ears, but how far this was to be ascribed to the restoration of the secretion is rendered doubtful, in consequence of a tumour having at the same time been removed from the tympanum of the left ear by the repeated application of caustic. "The foregoing facts you are perfectly welcome to make any use of, should you think them deserving of notice, and I am, My dear Sir, Very sincerely, yours, HENRY EARLE.' "It appears from the foregoing statement, that in disease of the spinal marrow, galvanism is not only capable of performing the function of the diseased part of this organ, by which the vital actions are restored to a state of health, and the patient's sufferings greatly mitigated; but that, it also, as might à priori be expected, by thus improving the general health, indirectly contributes to the cure of the spinal disease. With regard to the last case mentioned by Mr. Earle, in which the secretion of cerumen was restored by galvanism, this, it is evident, from what has been said, can only happen when the fault consists in a defect of nervous influence, and not in a diseased state of the vessels. "When we compare the foregoing report of Mr. Earle with the statements which I have already had occasion to make public, respecting the effects of galvanism in other diseases, may we not hope that if in so few years such has been the result of the employment of this remedy on the principles above laid down, a more extensive experience will still extend the advantages derived from it. I have repeatedly seen its use more successful than any other means in obstinate general nervous debility, in which transmission through the stomach and lungs has still appeared to me the best means of applying it. In certain species of fever, and other cases attended with deficient nervous energy, we have reason to believe that it will be found a valuable remedy. I may close these observations by observing, that when galvanism is not used to such extent as to occasion an inflammatory tendency, I have never seen any bad effect from it, except a sense of languor, similar to the feeling of fatigue, when its employment has been too long continued. The inflammatory tendency produced by it, according to my experience, is always easily removed; is never followed by any serious consequence; and, with a little care, may almost always be prevented. I have repeatedly observed that when the cure has advanced to a certain point, its judicious employment, so far from causing the inflammatory tendency, has, by improving the state of the secreting surfaces, relieved that caused by the disease." 115, In this article, as our readers perceive, we have been strictly analytical, convinced that by such course we would best promote the interests of science, and the well-earned reputation of the author. In fine, we have no hesitation in expressing our opinion that the various writings, discoveries, and experiments of Dr. Wilson Philip, deservedly place him high in rank among the most illustrious physiologists, pathologists, and physicians of the age in which we live. IX. A Treatise on Dislocations, and on Fractures of the Joints. By Sir ASTLEY COOPER, Bart. F. R. S. Surgeon to the King, &c. One Volume, Quarto, pp. 562, and 30 Plates. Price 17. 11s. 6d. London, October, 1822. THE short address to the "Students of St. Thomas's and Guy's Hospitals," prefixed to this splendid volume, excited a train of reflections in our minds, which might not be uninteresting, could we afford them space in this article. The address runs thus: "MY DEAR YOUNG FRIENDS, "This Work was composed for your use, and if you derive advantage from it, my principal object is fulfilled:-but I shall take this opportunity to express my gratitude to you, for the affectionate and respectful manner in which you always receive me as your instructor. Your parents and relatives, many of whom were my pupils, are also entitled to my most grateful acknowledgements:they fostered me in early life; and by their friendship and recommendation, have largely contributed to procure me a degree of success, I fear, beyond my merits, and a course of uninterrupted happiness which few have been permitted to enjoy. "Believe me always, "Your affectionate friend, If the life of a medical practitioner is not checkered with great events, his mind is too generally the theatre of anxious solicitude and conflicting emotions. The perplexing difficulties and heavy responsibilities of his avocations, put his reputation daily and hourly in jeopardy-while the rivalry of surrounding competitors is but too well calculated to engender and foster, in the human breast, a host of passions that contribute but little to either health or happiness. He then, who among the favoured few, has left rivalry almost out of sight behind him-whose reputation has become fixed in the minds of his brethren and the public, and, consequently, invulnerable by chance or hostility-whose word is law-and whose very oversights are but foils to his superior judgment, as exceptions prove general rules-he, we say, may be hap py, if his own natural disposition will permit. By his cotemporaries, such a man is designated as fortunate; though nothing can be more clear, than that he is generally the architect of his own fortunes. True it is, that extensive connexions and ample pecuniary resources, are powerful auxiliaries to talent, and the sine qua non, without it-but very many examples around us demonstrate, that talent, of a certain order, creates these for itself, and commands them to follow in its train. He is not always the most fortunate man, whose parents are the richest, whose legacies are the largest, or whose friends are the most numerous, when he first starts as a candidate for public favour. We consider it no trifling piece of good luck, in such circumstances, to be born with brains -we do not mean such brains as are daily demonstrated in the dissecting rooms, and which differ little, if at all, from those which we buy for eightpence a pound in a butcher's shop-we mean brains of that kind of texture, that capacitates them for receiving impressions from the external world with accuracy, retaining them with fidelity, combining them with ingenuity, and communicating them with precision. It is only with such a brain, that a man can expect to take the lead in any branch of medical science; and we suspect that it must have been with some such brain that the author of the work before us fought his way, single-handed, to the summit of his profession. It could not have been the attraction of ordinary merit that drew towards its possessor a tide, or rather a torrent of wealth and fame, unprecedented in any age or in any country-and that without the aid of a faction, the patronage of the great, or the inheritance of an ancestral reputation. By a rare union, in fact, of mental energy, physical force, and professional zeal, Sir Astley Cooper has more than realized all that youthful ardour could have anticipated -and that, we firmly believe, without making, or, at least, deserving, a single enemy. That such pre-eminence should be attained in the medical, or in any other profession, without exciting envy, is as little to be expected as a retrograde motion of the earth in its orbit round the sun; nor is it unamusing to the contemplative philosopher, to observe the symptoms of this moral malady, betrayed when most studiously concealed, and revealing its operation where its influence is denied. The following symptom we deem to be nearly pathognomonic of the disease in question. "Sir Astley Cooper is a very good surgeon, but, he is not sufficiently scientific." Dr. Johnson defines science to be-1st, "knowledge"-2dly, "certainty grounded on demonstration." So then, Sir Astley Cooper is a good surgeon-with the trifling exception that he is defective in the knowledge of surgery!On this point we have but two remarks to make. In the first place, were Sir Astley Cooper tried by a jury of his professional brethren in any spot of Europe beyond the sphere of his personal competitors, he would be unanimously acquitted -or, rather, the indictment would be at once thrown out by a grand jury. In the second place, we are confident, that |