different authors who have written of late upon the subject, will enable him to apply his remedy in the most efficient form, avoiding cumbrousness, unpleasantness of taste as much as possible, and above all, avoiding incompatibility.

The work before us is, we think, admirably fitted to fulfil the purpose for which it is designed. It opens with an introduction containing full tables of the weights and measures of France, England, and the United States, and their proportions and relations to each other, together with a great deal of valuable information upon the specific gravities of different substances, a glossary of Latin terms used in prescribing, and sundry matters of interest to the physician and pharmaceutist. Following this is the main body of the work containing a vast number of valuable formulæ among which the physician may find the most approved form of giving any medicine he wishes to use. The work contains a most valuable index both of the formula and the diseases for which they have been advised.

THE SCIENCE AND ART OF SURGERY. By John Erickson, Professor of Surgery in the University College, and Surgeon to the University College Hospital, London, 1854.

This department of medical science has been advancing with rapid strides in the few past years, and its literature keeps pace with the other improvements. Among the recent valuable contributions the above work stands prominently forward. It is edited by John H. Brinton, M. D., of Philadelphia, who has contributed largely to its value. Few works are written in a style so clear and perspicuous, and the three hundred and upward illustrations render the text still better understood. The pathological changes in the blood in inflammation, the condition of its white and red particles under the different stages and changes, are well described and represented.The colorless corpuscle adhering to the walls of the blood vessel, the continued movement of the red globules and their accumulation and arrest, are clearly enough described in the text, but are further shown by the illustrations in connexion.

The chapter on operations should be perused by all whether by

those who make pretensions to the use of the knife or the tyro whose ambition looks in that direction. The author gives a wise and judicious caution in the use of chloroform, and the American editor concludes his remarks upon it by a note at the close of which he says: "The numerous fatal consequences, however, which have attended and are daily resulting from the employment of chloroform in Europe have led to the almost entire abandonment of its use in this country." He gives a preference to well washed ether as an anæsthetic and maintains that it is less dangerous. The work is a valuable contribution to medical literature and should be found among the other standard works in the physicians' library. The ear and the eye have no part in this work, from the fact that they have been made the subjects of so many special treatises.

This work, one among the best extant, contains 902 pages, and is published by Blanchard & Lea, Philadelphia, 1854.

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHARMACY. Edited by Prof. W. Proctor, of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy.

In calling the attention of our brethren to this work so valuable to the profession, and so honorable to this department of science in the country, we feel that we are discharging an obligation imposed upon us by our position. We feel too that it would be unnecessary to say more than that such a work is demanded by the wants of the profession, and that this periodical meets these wants. We have gleaned from its pages some valuable practical thoughts which we have profitably reduced to practice. We shall add to the interest of our Journal by freely extracting from it in future. We can cheerfully recommend it to the favorable consideration of the profession.

THE DUTIES OF THE MEDICAL STUDENT.

Extract from the recent Introductory Address.
BY FREEMAN KNOWLES, M. D.,

*

Prof. Theory and Practice of Medicme in Iowa Medical Department. * Let thoughts of honorable ambition ever fill our minds, and the loftiest eminence of scientific and professional character guide us, as the beacon star in all our efforts. Let us toil for it, and live for it, and the day will come in looking back over the journey of life, when we shall be surprised at the amount of labor performed, the obstacles overcome, and the good attained.

sea.

There is hardly any limit to the achievements of energy, combined with determined perseverance. Like the faith spoken of in the scriptures, it removes mountains, and casts them into the It made Demosthenes the prince of Grecian orators.It enabled Julius Cæsar, although crowned at the early age of eighteen Priest to Jupiter, to win the brightest laurels on the fields of Mars. It enabled Cicero, by fixing his eye upon his great Master, to achieve the reputation that placed him side by side before the world with his Athenian predecessor, and made him the first of Roman Orators. It has made the brightest ornaments in our profession, that the world has ever produced. Germany, that land of scholars, folios, lexicons, subtelties and metaphysics, is indebted for its literary character, more to industry and determined perseverance than to any hereditary aptness in the German mind. Sir Isaac Newton, after transcribing with his own hand his famous work on chronology no less than thirteen times, remarks if he has attained any distinction over his fellow men, it has been more from industry and patient thought, than from any mental superiority.To this untiring energy and determined perseverance, he world has VOL. II. NO. II.-1

been indebted for all the improvements that have benefited mankind, and shed immortal honors upon their inventors.

It is the possession of these qualities that constitutes the Philosopher's Stone, that has replaced ignorance with knowledge, and dullness with activity; that has changed the old Broadhorn and Keelboat on our rivers, to the magnificent Steamer, the old rickety stage coach, to the snorting iron horse, and the space-annihilating rail-car. This has harnessed the lightning, and compelled it to do our bidding as a carrier boy; has disarmed the portentous thunder-cloud of its forked terrors, and imprisoned the struggling steam, compelling it to toil as a slave for us, to furnish the motive that drives our giant steamers across the pathless ocean, and speeds the flying locomotive along its iron course.

To this same undying energy has the world been indebted for the annihilation of that dreadful scourge of humanity, which annually slew its tens of thousands of victims, the Small Pox, through the agency of vaccination. It has continually been making improvements and discoveries, that annually relieve a large amount of suffering, has lessened nearly two-thirds the period of treatment in some of our miasmatic diseases, and diminished their mortality in almost the same ratio. It has enabled the Surgeon to overcome difficulties in his art, and to treat successfully a great variety of diseases and injuries, that a few years since were considered incurable, thus rendering the surgeon more and more a blessing to mankind.

How important then, that the medical student should be furnished with a well cultivated mind, an energy of character and an indomitable will that knows no such word as failure. With students of that character, the difficulties of professional and scientific studies will flee as the tiny crystals of frost before the rising glories of the morning sun.

But alas for that student (and we fondly hope that we have none such here) who all the time doubts his success. He is very much like a general advancing into an unknown country, who makes more provision for achieving a good retreat, than for overcoming the enemy, should he meet him; continually warning his men of the dangers ahead, and of the importance of being always ready to run away rapidly in case of danger. Such students and such an army are more than half conquered, before the conflict

begins. Without complete reformation, such a student may fag on at the foot of his class, but he will always have a character in the profession for stupidity. To such students I would say in all kindness, you have mistaken your vocation and had better turn your attention to some other employment better suited to your habits and capacity, for the profession and the public have a right to expect that he who enters the portals of the temple of medicine shall be no laggart, but earnestly devote whatever of talent and ability God has given him, to the best interests of the science and of his race.

There is however in some minds a great distrust of medical science and medical men, from the fact that discrepancies of opinion exist among the latter, and this is taken as conclusive evidence that there is no certainty or even safety among them, or in any thing they may prescribe. Such persons do not consider that perfection is not the lot of humanity, and that every thing around us partakes of this imperfection; even our nearest friends and most sacred relations participate in this same fundamental defect.

Suppose we were to judge of Law and Divinity by the same rule, how would these professions stand? for they are all based and find their need of activity and usefulness in this very imperfection, so much found fault with in Medicine. Theology is based upon the spiritual imperfections of our race, for if man perfectly comprehended and obeyed all the requirements of his spiritual being, there would be no need of a clergy: they that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick, is the language of holy writ. We may say the same of the profession of law; it is based upon the social imperfections of our human nature, upon the rivalry of human interests and the zeal of human passions, and hence in civilized life, some means became necessary to settle these conflicting interests, and of this necessity courts of law were born, and have been continually verging towards maturity and perfection. But no one will say that courts of law and equity are useless appendages of society because they are imperfect. When we consider the immense advance which courts have made since the days of Howard, when corruption stalked abroad at noon day, and justice was too often measured by the size of the bribe the parties were enabled to offer, we must be perfectly satisfied of its onward march towards truth and the best civil interests of mankind. So of the profession of medicine; as luxury and a general departure from the