but in their peevish and fretful moods to shake them in the faces of those whose liberties they would still gladly see restricted. And who needs to be told how often the stake-bound victim lifted up his eyes to heaven, through the flames that consumed him, according as rival sectaries were able, in their turn, to command the arm of the civil power? or how vigilantly and successfully the witch-finder magnified his office, and with what sage wisdom and holy indignation the legal functionary pronounced his verdict upon some wretch who was the subject of old age, decrepitude and mental imbecility, rather than the specially authorized "servant of Satan," long and many years after the New Testament had been recovered from its too careful conservators, and scattered far and wide among the people? But time works wonders; and as light diffuses the very footprints of the messengers of darkness fade from the face of earth!All we have attempted to show by these illustrations, is, that however sudden and effectual the first and great efforts that introduce reformations, still their final consummation is but a thing of gradual growth under favorable auspices.

Now, there is no reason why medical reformation should differ in its development and progress from those noted above. Medicine being purely founded upon facts and experience, must needs be more slow in advancing, and longer in coming to maturity: if indeed, such a thing as maturity can be predicated of a science, which must always change with every new disease, or with the new phases of old ones that must inevitably spring up among different races of men, as they change their climates, their habits of life and their occupations.

The reformation which, about sixty years ago, took place in our science, has been steadily progressing, in every respect, ever since; and seems to obey the laws, or yield to the necessities, which govern and modify all similar movements, whilst plodding its onward way through evil and good report; in spite of determined and often ungenerous foes without, and many imprudent and incompetent, though well-meaning friends and advocates within. As we look to the literature of a nation for its progress and history, so it is to the books of our school in this country we must look for the facts that lead to this conclusion. And as "the written letter remains," and our writings may any day be brought up in evidence for, or against our system, we believe we can do no better service to the cause, than by taking a retrospective glance at the records of our science since it was introduced into this country, and openly and candidly avowing how much can fairly be endorsed by us, and how much we feel bound, in self-justification, to disown and put aside, as forming no part of our literature.

There are so many examples of childish folly and silly superstition-demonstrating a total want of, and disregard to, sound medical science-in some of our earlier records, that we are almost daily made to blush for them by those opponents who are too much in the habit of overlooking great virtues and dwelling upon small vices. And to cut even this narrow ground of argument from under their feet, we have determined to take up our goose-quill and, with a few brushes of its feathers, wipe out, or nullify these exceptionable acts of old and partially enlightened legislators. And if they, their followers or their descendants, should feel aggrieved when we are compelled to raise a smile at their expense for that is all the mischief we mean them-they must forgive us for the sake of that good cause for which they, like ourselves, should be ready to sacrifice even a little feeling. But should they not meet us in this spirit, we shall try how we may outlive their frown, and survive even their malice-whilst we answer them and all objectors with this argument and apology :-" Not that I loved Cæsar less, but that I loved Rome more."-" I have done no more to Cæsar, than you should do to Brutus." And, as before remarked, if we may not at all times be able to suppress a smile, we shall be fair, candid and charitable, make full and ample excuse for human frailty and short-comings, and consistently with the just claims of our cause, which is above all,-pass over every thing but palpable error and downright folly. We must, according to our plan, first direct the attention of the reader to a small duodecimo edition, published at Allentown, Pa., in 1835, called "THE НОМЕӕОPATHIST, OR DOMESTIC PHYSICIAN," as we know of nothing produced in this country at a prior date-a circumstance not at all to be regretted, if, as may be naturally supposed, an earlier effort must needs have been more feeble. Taking the book as a whole, and making full admission for all it contains worth the perusal even of those for whom it was intended, it can only be a cause of sincere regret to our school at large that such a production should ever have gone into the world in our name. We doubt not but even the author himself will now agree with us in this opinion. But we must defer our special criticism of it till next month.

[TO BE CONTINUED.]

TRANSFORMATIONS AND PROPERTIES OF MATTER.

BY JOHN F. GEARY, M. D.

"Sunt quibus in plures jus est transire figuras."-OVID.

The varied capabilities of matter to mould and adapt itself, to be moulded and adapted to the infinite and wonderous forms, appliances and creations which spring in rapid and ceaseless profusion from the mysterious laboratory of nature, may well claim the frequent and close attention of the medical philosopher. To him, in an especial manner, "Nature is the kindest mother still!" It is only from her teeming and ever-open bosom he can reasonably hope to draw the nourishing and wholesome food which shall support and strengthen his professional existence, and enable him to minister life and vigour to those who must interrogate him as the priest who always stands before her altars. Her overt and palpable phenomena force themselves upon the observation of the most heedless, whilst her private workings and hidden wonders reveal themselves only to patient toil and searching scrutiny-aided by the nicest and most ingenious mechanical adjuvants to frequent and numerous experiments, whose failure and unexpected results often discourage the most persevering, and check the most indomitable. But those silent and unseen laws which bring about these wondrous results, are equally hidden from the mental vision of the sage whose mind is wearied and body wasted in labour, in watching, in fasting at the feet of his goddess as from him who

"Whistled as he went for want of thought."

Still, under the guidance of these unseen and inscrutable laws, which baffle human genius, matter visibly yields with surprising ease and elasticity to wind itself into a planet, to congest itself into a chain of mountains, to organize itself to an elephant, refine itself to a diamond and reduce itself to the primary atom that is only revealed to the curious scrutiny of the microscope! Wherever we turn, or whatever we investigate, through the wide domain of the material universe, these restless, ceaseless changes meet our eyes and challenge our unbounded admiration!

Does the earth heave and roar beneath our feet, -shake a continent and swallow cities into its yawning abyss, does the restless ocean roll its billows to the stars and settle down into a tranquil calm, does the sun pour down his scorching rays and call the invisible vapours to the skies, do the clouds gather into dark restless masses, does the electric flash blaze from their bosom, the thunder crash and "terrify the nations," do the rains descend in torrents, does the hail sow the land with evanescent grain-cropsdo the snow-flakes glide upon the air and veil the sun till the fields have put on their wedding garment for glory and for beauty!-all is but matter assuming different forms, preparing to accomplish new destinies, glowing, fermenting, dividing, combining, attracting, repelling, dissolving to liquid forms, or crystalizing to adamant!

That Mighty Alchemist, the Genius of matter, is at work in his laboratory, presiding over his furnace! Shall we sit at his feet, watch a few of his experiments and receive a few of the great facts which fly, like scintillations, from every touch of his anvil and every stir of his crucible? He is demonstrating great truths for the good of the human family!

Sitting then at the feet of our Archididascalus, we see that under his hand matter yielding an unhesitating obedience becomes the creature of his will, and that whether it be his pleasure she should form granite boulders, coal-fields, or sand-stone, earth, water, or fire, it is done! Whether a ray of light shall gleam, or a fixed star become a way-mark in the heavens for ever, whether an ocean shall shut in the solid globe, or the poison-drop glisten on the sting of an insect; she is still obedient, plastic, all-sufficient! Whether he desire a comet to blaze and traverse the universe, to return after the lapse of ten thousand centuries, the ovum to burst from its mystic cell and grow into a philosopher or a hero, or a daisy to gem the turf, she, the great and prolific parent of all things, is his humble servant. So that whether we observe matter as a whole or in part, in masses sufficient to compose worlds, or in primary atoms, we see the same great laws rule, direct and determine the action of each individual particle to accomplish its mission with undeviating exactness and promptitude!

And when this great Master Spirit, which " controls the atom and aggregate of nature," desires the existence of that wondrous combination of matter with the still higher endowment of spiritual and intellectual being, deputes him to take a subordinate station in developing the powers of matter for new and different ends and to subserve widely different purposes, we see with equal astonishment that this journeyman of Nature evolves properties, uses, forms, existences and wonders, second only to those which the powers of the Master hand could call forth! Matter is as pliable and fruitful in the hands of Man as in those of the great Architect of the Universe, as far as the limited powers of the former can develope her hidden attributes. In the hands of the chemist and the mechanic matter undergoes those transformations by which we can demonstrate by analogy the stupendous wonders which take place in the laboratory of nature. In reasoning from the less to the greater we arrive at the conclusion, that in both cases she obeys the same laws and displays similar phenomena. But let us at present confine ourselves to two properties of matter, namely, division and combination, or the susceptibility of being divided and combined according to certain laws and by certain forces.

And, perhaps, there is no law in physics which has so close a bearing upon medical science, and which it is more important that the medical student should so clearly comprehend, than that which governs the divisibility of matter. Ours are not only days of rapid and mighty progress, but days of wild fanaticism and restless speculation. The student should clearly and fully understand how much he may reasonably expect from matter in all the changes it may undergo by division or combination:--and even when nature and art have united to evolve its latent powers, reason, experience and science only should be trusted to define the bounds beyond which he cannot safely travel, except in search of fictions and hypotheses which must end in delusion and disappointment. It is by such a rational faith, founded on the immovable basis of science, that he can be saved from stolid unbelief and ignorant scepticism on the one hand, and from unfounded aerial and fanciful theories on the other ;which are indeed but offspring of the empty ravings and wild excur