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The red spots had now become confluent, and assumed thecharacter of patches, which covered the greater part of thebody. The congested skin was slightly raised above thelevel of the unaffected parts, and the colour presented theraspberry hue of measles.

13th.--Through the kindness of Mr. Marson, I had an

opportunity of examining the case to-day. The patient’s eyeswere still somewhat congested, his lips were swollen and dry,the mucous membrane of the mouth was thickly covered withred spots, the fauces were red, his,tongue was coated with awhite, moist deposit, which was beginning to separate inflakes, leaving the surface beneath quite smooth, and heuttered occasionally a short, mucous cough.The efflorescence had a decidedly rubeolous hue, but

offered some variety of appearance on different parts of thebody. On his face, which was somewhat swollen, the patchesof redness were irregular in form, and diffused.On the trunk of the body, and particularly on the abdomen,

the effioresence presented the ordinary rubeolous appearanceof common roseola.On the arms and legs the red patches had run together, so

as to cover the greater part of the skin, and form a dull, redground, which was studded all over with spots of a dark redcolour. These spots, which I have assumed as the specificcharacter of the eruption, were the original red points bywhich the efflorescence commenced. They presented adeeper red than the rest of the surface, were about two linesand a half in diameter, and were dark, and slightly raised inthe centre. The redness was partly the effect of congestion,and partly of the transudation of the colouring principle ofthe blood, and in some few situations, as around the ankles,and upon the back of his shoulders, where the weight of hisbody rested, there was a decided ecchymosis from the lattercause. It was obvious that these red points represented thefollicles of the skin, in which the inflammation commenced,and the elevated centre was the pore raised above its naturallevel, as a joint effect of the congestion of the capillaryvessels and effusion into the meshes of the vascular net-work.On the neck, the efflorescence appeared in the form of

patches distinctly circumscribed, slightly elevated, more orless circular in figure, and of an average size of half an inchin diameter. On careful examination, these patches wereseen to be formed bv the confluence of a number of small cir-cular congested spots, each taking its rise around the apertureof a follicle, and many of these separate spots, of about a linein diameter, were sprinkled in the interspaces of the patches.In several of the larger patches, there were one or moreyellowish spots, which, at first sight, gave the idea of the ele-vations of urticaria, but which the changes succeeding on thefollowing day, proved to be fading points indicating the declineof the congestion. The increase of these pale spots graduallyconverted the patches into rings, (roseola annulata,) and thelatter finally disappeared. I must remark that the spotsabove referred to were quite distinct from the deepercoloured and stain-like spots on the arms, which suggested thespecific name " punctata," which I have given to the dis-ea.Hf

14th.—The eruption is now on the decline. The efllores-cence is of a duller hue; the spots have more the characterof stains than yesterday; and the patches on the neck areconverted into rings; on the abdomen, chest, and thighs, theefflorescence is fading away, like ordinary roseola. The thinskin of the penis has a remarkable appearance, from its beingcovered with deep rose-red stains.On Friday, and the two following days, the general symp-

toms improved, while the efflorescence continued to fade, andon Monday he was sufficiently well to be re-vaccinated, and toleave the hospital.The treatment of this affection is the same as that of

common roseola-namely, mildly antiphlogistic at first,followedby tonics. In the case which fell under my treatment, I pre-scribed gentian, with nitro-muriatic acid; the hospital casewas treated with bark and sulphuric acid.Upper Charlotte-street, Fitzroy-square.

BIONOMIA; OR, THE LAW OF LIFE.BY &PHgr;I&Lgr;&Agr;&Lgr;&EEgr;&thgr;&EEgr;&Sgr;.

SECTION I.Lii?F is a creation, and none can comprehend its essence. It

is the expression of the Divine will. Its laws alone can bediscovered.

Why this seed of the Triticum Indicum, or Indian wheat, onwhich the pollen has fallen, shall, if put into the ground, be-come a beautiful and useful plant, and this other, to which nopollen has had access, shall undergo decomposition, who cansay? Who will attempt to explain why those "divinæ parti-culse aurse," which exist in the form of pollen, alone canvivify these ova ? Who can say what there is in this seed,and what in that pollen-for two such powers are required-which excite development and growth and form, under theappropriate circumstances ?

, But the laws of life may be detected, and their detectionand investigation constitute the legitimate objects of philo-sophical inquiry.

All living beings, from the worm to the eagle, possess aproperty which may be designated excitability, and are placedin contact with agents which may be termed excitants. Onthe relative play, action and reaction, of this property, andthese agents, life, with all its varied phenomena, essentiallydepends.The degree of excitability, and the quantity of excitants,

maintain a relative proportion to each other; but this propor-tion is inverse; the greater the degree of excitability the lessthe quantity of excitants, and vice versâ. Such is the Law ofLife.The mode of life varies with the quantity of excitant: as

this is augmented, life is more active; as it is diminished, lifeis more reptile. The bird, with excitants in the highest de-gree and the lowest degree of excitability, mounts into theregions of the atmosphere. The eft and the frog, endowedwith the highest degree of excitability, and urged by the lowestdegree of excitants, move slowly in our marshes or pools, andin the winter season, when the excitants are still further re-duced, become absolutely or nearly inactive.Such are the modes of life ; such the law of their existence;

such their rationale.There is another topic which may be slightly touched upon

in these preliminary remarks-the form of living beings. Butthis question is, I believe, beyond the powers of the humanintellect. It is the expression of the Divine "fiat," and callsfur our admiration, not for inquiry. Why this acorn isdestined to produce the oak, and why this egg is destined tobecome a bird, the Creator only knows. The laws of the forms,like the laws of the modes of existence, can alone be sub-mitted to investigation.But what is this excitability, and what are these excitants,

whose mutual action gives origin to the phenomena of life ?In replying to this question, I must lay before my readercertain facts with which he may not be familiar; but they areelementary, and only require to be witnessed, or well appre-

, hended.. If we decapitate a frog, in order to remove all sensation, all, faculty of suffering, and then detach a limb, we readily observe

the white cords termed nerves, and the substance of the limb,technically denominated muscles. Now, if we irritate either

- of these by means of a needle, or the galvanic current, we ob-serve the muscles to contract: the nerves are excito-motor, the

. muscles are motor, organs. These principles of action aretermed excitor in the nerve, irritability in the muscle, and

. both together are designated excitability,—that is, both are

. excitable under the impression of excitants. The nerves arediffused, 1, over the surfaces, and then the action is reflex; 2,in the muscular tissue, and then the action is direct.But what are the excitants of the living being ? These are

principally air, oxygen, and food, to which heat, moisture,,

electricity, &c., are subsidiary.- Excitability in the living being-excitants in the surround-

ing external world,-these, the reaction of these, such islife ;-these, the reaction of these in varied inverse ratios-such is the source of the varied modes of life. All animated

f Nature, from the monad to the condor, consists of these.But how is this play of the excitants upon the organs of

. excitability, in the varied forms of animated or living being,brought about ? That an egg, or a seed, exposed to warmth,or warmth and moisture, may be excited, may absorb oxygen,may spring into life, is obvious enough. supposing them en-dowed respectively with excitability, and the creative prin-ciple of form, or of metamorphosis. But how do the more

complicated forms of being become endowed with the actionsby which air and food are taken into the system?-and howdo these conspire and co-operate to form and maintain theliving being, animal or plant ?Wonderful indeed are the forms and devices for effecting

this object in the different and varied species of living being,and for so effecting this object as to maintain in its integrity,and in all its variations, the Law of Life.

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Throughout animated nature, in all the varied forms andmodes of life, from the bird which soars in the heights of theatmosphere, to the reptile which creeps on the surface of theearth-this is the Law of Life: the quantity of excitants isinversely as the degree of excitability.

In the bird tribes the quantity of food and air imbibed isextreme, the degree of excitability extremely low; in thereptile tribes the quantity of excitants is small, the degree ofexcitability very high.The following formula may serve to express this general

fact:

And if the degree of activity were the same in all classes,this formula might be of universal application. But to explainthe greater activity of the bird and the inactivity of thereptile, a modification of it is required, which may be thusexpressed :-

So that while the inverse ratio is preserved between thEexcitants and excitability, generally speaking, that of th<former augments more rapidly as we pass into the morEactive forms of living being, than that of the latter diminishesand thus the bird flies whilst the reptile only creeps.In speaking of the quantity of excitant, as represented b3

that of the quantity of food taken, one must bear in mind thekind of that food, and its convertibility into calorifacient ancnutrient principles. Insect food is of all kinds of food perhaps the most excitant, vegetable food the least so. It mus1also be a question how much of this food is converted, anchow much is excreted, unconverted and unassimilated.The quantity of excitant derived from respiration is denotec

by the quantity of oxygen which disappears, being eithe]converted into carbonic acid gas and exhaled, or fixed ancassimilated. This can only be ascertained by careful experi-ment.With the quantity of converted food and air the tempera-

ture of the living being accurately coincides, denoting thEdevelopment, as it were, of an innate excitant. The thermo,meter becomes, therefore, a measure of the quantity of excitants, and inversely of the excitability, in the varied formsmodes, and tribes of animated nature or living being.

I may here remark that not only is the proposed relatiorbetween the quantity of excitants and the degree of excitability in the varied forms of living being a fact but it is anessential fact in various points of view. The formula for anygiven animal may admit of change; but this change is subjec1to certain limits and laws, and must be effected slowly. Ifan3sudden change be attempted, it proves fatal. For example,-

If an animal, subject to a high degree of excitation, be de-prived of its excitants; or if an animal, endowed with greatexcitability, be exposed to undue excitants, it speedily dies,and this whether these conditions are permanent, being dependent upon form, or transient, being the result of mode oiexistence. Thus, a bird, deprived of its due quantity of foodor air; or a reptile, exposed to any unusual mode of excitation,as to water of the temperature of 100&deg;, soon perishes; the bat,taken in its state of activity, and placed in a limited portionof air, or taken in its state of hibernation, and excited, andcaused to breathe rapidly, speedily dies.In a word, let the due ratio between excitation and ex.

citability be broken, and the result is fatal. This ratio maybe modified within certain limits, but those limits cannot bepassed without danger to life.The Law of Life is this-that as the excitants are greater.

the excitability must be less; the degree in which one iEgreater, and the other less, may vary; but that variation haeits impassable limits.

It is true that augmented excitation produces diminishedexcitability, and vice vers&acirc;, great activity leads to augmentedrespiration, and this to diminished excitability, as repose orsleep leads to diminished respiration and renewed excitability.These changes consist of reciprocal cause and effect, they areessentially linked together. But they, too, have their limits,and cannot, except in a few rare instances, as in the case ofhibernation, proceed to a great extent.

I will here adduce an interesting fact in further illustrationof what has been stated. I placed some tadpoles of the ranatemporaria, or common frog, in pure water in a glass globe,supplying them with water-plants. As long as they re-

tained the tadpole state, being animals of high excitability,and requiring little excitation, they lived and prospered; butas soon as they became transformed into frogs, rising in the

scale of living being, and becoming animals of lower ex-citability, and requiring higher excitants, they were speedilydestroyed. They passed, in the moment of transformation, frombeing water-breathers, to being air-breathers-from possess-ing higher, to possessing lower excitability, and they perishedwhen the due inverse ratio between excitability and excitantwas destroyed.

SECTION II.

Animals undergo a twofold change: in the first, they becomechanged in form; in the second, they assume a new mode ofexistence. The former is designated metamorphosis, thelatter may be termed metabiosis.The structure of the lung, accurately tested by the micro.

scope, or the irritability of the muscular fibre accuratelytested by galvanism, would either of them give us the placeto which any animal belongs in the zoological scale.There is no subject so replete with interest as the circula-

tory apparatus-pneumonic and systemic-in themselves, andin the different orders of animated being.

This apparatus consists of-1, the minute arteries; 2, theminute veins; and 3, the intermediate blood-channels, or,as I propose to denominate them, the meth&aelig;matous, or blood-changing channels in each system. These vessels are speci-.fically distinct amongst themselves, and display a specific dif.ference in the two systems. These differences I will proceedto describe.The arteries, however minute, are still distinguished by a

direct course, and by continual subdivisions.The veins, however minute, are equally distinguished by s

straight, but retrograde, course, and continual unions intolarger trunks.The intermediate meth&aelig;matous channels have a varied

course, are less distinct in form, are of uniform diameter, andcontinually unite, divide, again unite, and again divide, amongsteach other. The least degree of observation detects thesepeculiarities under the microscope.The difference between the systemic and pneumonic forms

of these vessels is equally obvious and specific. In general,the minute arteries and the minute veins proceed in parallel,but opposite directions, in the systemic circulation; whereas,in the pneumonic, they are generally parallel, and proceed inthe same continuous direction. These peculiarities may beportrayed in this manner :-

In the systemic circulation, the larger arteries and veins runcontiguously; in the pneumonic, they are placed at oppositepoints, or in opposite lines, in regard to each other.The blood in the systemic circulation is carried to and from

the part, to be nourished in the manner best calculated toaccomplish this object. The blood of the pneumonic iscarried through the lung, being spread over the greatestpossible extent of surface, with the obvious object of ex-posure to the influence of the atmospheric air. In the formercase, the meth&aelig;matous channels are more or less numerous,according to the quantity of tissue, and are therefore many insuch structures as muscles, and few in such membranes asthe mesentery; in the latter case, these channels are as nume-rous as possible, the very organ itself being constructed withthe express object of spreading the blood over an extendedsurface.The form and distribution of these metheamatous channels

are specifically distinct, and strictly adapted to the distinctpurposes of the two circulations; they are equally distinctfrom the minute arteries, from which they receive their blood,and the minute veins, into which they deliver it. These inte-resting distinctions are portrayed in the plates contained inDr. Marshall Hall’s " Essay on the Circulation of the Blood.". I have never observed, in all my researches, an anastomosisbetween a minute artery and a minute vein. It is plain thatif such an anastomosis did take place, the object of the circu-lation would be, pro tanto, frustrated ; the methsematouschannels would be excluded; and I may here observe, moredistinctly than I have done before, that it is in these channelsthat all the changes, in, by, and upon the blood, are effected.Artery and veins are but conduits. The intermediate me-th&aelig;matous channels constitute the field of operations. In thisfield the endosmosis and exosmosis of oxygen and carbonicacid take place in the pneumonic, and the change and repara-tion of tissues in the systemic circulation. With these objects,these methaemata are made mere channels, their blood being

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placed as nearly in contact with the atmospheric air, onthe one hand, and the tissues to be nourished, on the other, aspossible. The parietes they do possess (if any) are of the thin-nest and most permeable kind.These meth&aelig;matous channels present, as I have said, the

grand field on which all the objects of the circulation areaccomplished. As the arteries and veins are mere conduits,so the heart itself is but a forcing pump, or wonderful piece ofliving machinery. The detection and the demonstration ofthis machinery, in all its relations, a valve being the hiero-glyphic, were the achievement of the great Harvey, and willcarry his honoured name down to the end of time.But to return to my proper subject--the Law of Life. In

proportion to the surface of the lung on which the methsema-tous channels are spread, in proportion therefore to the com-plexity of the structure of the lung, is the quantity of respira-tion, and, inversely, that of the irritability of the muscularfibre; in proportion to the complexity of the lung is theactivity of the animal.The fish has a mere gill, the batrachian has a mere vesicle, I

with, or even without, subdivisions or sections. The lung ofthe triton is a mere vesicle; that of the frog and of the toad,a vesicle with its surface somewhat augmented by partitionscarried slightly towards the centre. The lung of the serpent,the tortoise, the tribes of the mammalia and birds becomesmore and more complex and extended. In the insect and birdtribes, the respiration extends over the general system, notbeing limited to one organ: in the insect, indeed, each articulatesegment is furnished with an analogue of the medulla ob-longata, the central nervous organ of the reflex function ofrespiration.Uf galvanism as the test of irritability, the other element in

the problem, I need not speak at any length. The less thedegree of this influence required to manifest the peculiarirrito-contractile property of the muscle, the greater the de-gree of irritability of the latter.The degree of simplicity in the structure of the lung, and

the slight galvanic power required to manifest the propertypeculiar to muscle, coincide, and are, together, exemplificationsof the Law of Life-that the degree of stimulus and thedegree of nervous and muscular susceptibility are inverse.Whatever the ratio between the quantity of respiration or

of food, and the degree of excitability of the nerve and

irritability of the muscular fibre, in any animal, it gives usthe precise force of galvanism which is adapted for experi-ments on the nervous and muscular tissues of that animal, ifwe would confine ourselves within the limits of physiology. Thisprinciple, then, must be our guide in such researches, a pointnot attended to by Signor Matteucci and others, who havetherefore mingled pathological with physiological results.The same law should guide us in experiments on other

physical agents. In the late Mr. Edwards’s beautiful work,we may observe the same inaccuracy, in regard to the limitsof temperature. Asphyxia is the more prompt as the tempera-ture of the water in which the batrachia (the frog, for ex-ample) are immersed is more elevated. But at a certainelevation of temperature, the very heat itself acts positivelyand, I need not say, pathologically, and the question is no Ilonger one in relation to mere asphyxia, but of a widelydifferent nature. Instead of being a question of the effectsof exclusion of atmospheric air, it becomes a question of thepositive effects of heat as a stimulus. The limits of physio-logy are passed, and the region of pathology is entered.Such is the value, in physiological investigations, of an

intimate and accurate knowledge of this Law of Life.In our experiments with galvanism on the batrachian tribes,

an apparatus consisting of the " couronne de tasses" is themost convenient. The power of this apparatus may be reducedso as to be within the physiological limit, however great theexcitability and irritability may be; and our results will be sotoo. We may augment that power, and trace its effects, too,but we must consider them as belonging to the domain ofpathology.

Physiologically, the direct current produces the tetanoidelectrogenic state on the nerves of the frog; pathologically,it may perhaps be said not to do so. Such is the view to betaken of Signor Matteucci’s results, and those of another phy-siologist.The " couronne de tasses," properly employed, may become

the test and the measure of the excitability and irritability inan animal, and so afford the means of comparing these withthe structure of the lung or the quantity of respiration.

This view of the subject has never been pursued by anyexperimentalist. The first step in the inquiry has not beentaken.

AnalysesOF

WORKS AND SUGGESTIONS ON CHOLERA.

, WE can no longer devote a separate review to each book orpamphlet which reaches us on the subject of cholera; for thename of these is legion. The most we can promise is, to givea brief sketch of the leading features of those which havelately reached us. The titles &c. of the several works onwhich our remarks are made, have already appeared in ourlist of books received.

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Dr. HENRIQUES, who states that he has practised in variousparts of the world, insists upon a resemblance between choleraand miasmatic congestive fever in their intrinsic nature, andhe presents his readers with a parallel of those diseases in atabular form. He divides cholera into three stages, and re-commends bark or quinine as the remedy most to be dependedupon, so soon as any of the prominent symptoms are deve-loped. It then, he says,"becomes imperative to suspend, that very instant, every

species of animal alimentation, as well as every class of vinouff,spirituous, and malt drinks, and ten grains of sulph. quinineis to be given immediately. The diet should consist entirelyof rice-water, to which should be added a sufficient quantityof table salt to make it palatable. Tea might be drank withthe smallest quantity of sugar, but without milk."He adds, in" decided cases of miasmatic fevers, of whatever form or

modification, that the Peruvian bark is the most efficaciousand successful remedy; hence, by analogy and induction, wehave been led to the administration of quinine in cases of &pound;cholera throughout all its stages; when, however, there doesnot exist any contra-indication, (those exceptional cases areof very rare occurrence,) and throughout the whole course of &pound;our experience, in no instance have we had to regret its em-ployment."

Frictions over the epigastric and abdominal regions, withstimulating embrocations; tepid baths in the earliest stage,but not afterwards; perfect rest, a blister on the epigastrium,injections per anum of decoction of bark, and friction of theextremities in the ensuing stage; and in the third, or reactionalstage, the continued administration of bark with an unstimu-lating diet, are the remedies on which he mainly depends.Depletion and purgatives he abjures; mercury he has neveremployed, except in conjunction with quinine; opium he con-siders contra-indicated as "injurious, by narcotizing thesystem, and so diminishing the generation of heat." As pro-phylactics, to ward off the disease, he recommends

, " A generous and slightly-stimulating regimen; a regular,

temperate, and sober mode of living; daily exercise; tepidbaths two or three times a week; damp clothing to be parti-cularly guarded against; two grains of sulphate of quinine tobe taken every morning for six or seven days, then to be sus-pended during as many days, and recommenced, and this planto be continued as long as the epidemic lasts."

Dr. KENNEDY, of Woodhouse, Leicestershire, who is nowengaged in a gigantic undertaking connected with the " His-tory of Medicine," published for private circulation, in 1832,a Lecture on Asiatic Cholera, delivered by him in the sameyear, and with a copy of which we have been favoured by a.valued correspondent. The pamphlet contains a learned andinteresting account of the history of the disease. The treat-ment recommended in it is mostly of a prophylactic nature:but on the invasion of the attack, camphor and laudanum insmall doses, fumigations of vinegar, camphor, and fragrantantiseptic substances; an anti-spasmodic poultice over thestomach, frictions of the extremities, with a liniment, of &pound;which the blistering fly is an ingredient, &c., are recommended.The inconsistency of practising venesection is inveighedagainst: the immission of arterial blood is considered "a morefeasible expedient."

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Mr. MICHAEL THOMAS SADLER, of Barnsley, has produced apamphlet, the most striking feature in which is the attemptto show that the source of the disease is terrestrial, or, in hisown words;

" That we have, from facts, very strong evidence to lead usto assign the specific cause of malignant cholera to some