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ANOTHER brochure, purposing to bring under notice thephysiological and remedial value of carbonic acid in the humansystem, appears in the shape of a little work on

" Change of Air, and Fallacies regarding it,"By JOHN CHARLES ATKINSON, Esq., M.R.C.S.E.

Mr. Atkinson combats the practice of sending consumptivepatients to the sea-side, or to elevated situations, for the sakeof " pure air," or, in other words, an atmosphere highlycharged with oxygen, or other stimulating elements, which hemaintains accelerates the progress of the malady that it wasintended to arrest. He considers that the close and depressingatmosphere of cities is rather salutary than otherwise toindividuals suffering from tuberculous disease of the lungs ;and he defends even sulphuretted hydrogen from the chargeof being prejudicial to health, contending that it and moisture(and, by implication, perhaps carbonic acid, on which heproffers an eulogium as a " really beneficial gas ") tended tokeep off from Holland an attack of cholera in its last visitationof Europe.Mr. Atkinson advocates, on the other hand, the seeking a

stimulating air for persons subject to scrofula, (enlargement ofglands, &c. ?) in which he maintains that the conditions of thesystem are widely different from those in phthisical disease."There is one peculiarity connected with scrofula which

draws a striking line of demarcation between it and tuber-cular consumption, viz., that the former is commonly deve-loped without the presence of tubercular matter; and there is,in consequence of its absence, a widely different radial pulse.compared with that which is found in phthisis.’-p. 51.But we learn from Laennec (Herbert’s ed. p. 308), thai

tubercular consumption is much less rife on the sea-coast thaiin large towns; and from the same work (p. 333, Notes, p. 803et passim), that it is closely connected with scrofulous manifestations.

Reviews.

Beriptural Authority for the Mitigation of the Pains of Labourby Chloroform, and other Anaesthetic Agents. By PROTHEROESMITH, M.D., &c. London: Highley. 1848. Pamphlet.DD. 52.

DR. PROTHEROE SMITH has deemed it incumbent on him toexamine the question of the artificial removal of pain in areligious point of view, and to combat the objections whichhave been absurdly raised, on theological grounds, against theproduction of anaesthesia in labour. For our own part we donot consider it necessary to examine the subject at all in thismanner: we admit, however, that Dr. P. Smith’s argumentsamply expose the futility and inconsequences of any oppositionto the production of anaesthesia based upon a partial considera-tion of Scripture. The Appendix consists of a recent letter toDr. Protheroe Smith from Professor Simpson, some passagesfrom which we shall here introduce, as we did not notice theProfessor’s original production on the same subject:-

" I regret to hear from you, that, in London, the progress ofanaesthetic midwifery is impeded by any groundless allegationsas to its unscriptural character; and I can sincerely sym-pathize with you in your exertions to annihilate these scruples.Here, in Edinburgh, I never now meet with any objections onthis point, for the religious, like the other forms of oppositionto chloroform, have ceased among us."-p. 43."The Hebrew noun, ’etzebh, distinctly signifies the muscular

contraction or effort, and the nouns, hhil and hhebhel, as dis-tinctly signify the sensations of pain accompanying theseefforts; and as you are aware, (as I have elsewhere, fullyshown,) it is not the latter, but the former of these nouns, thatis used in the language of the primary curse : In sorrow(’etzebh) shalt thou bring forth.’ Now, I repeat, the efforts ormuscular contractions (the ’etzebh of the curse) are, as I havejust stated, left in their full and complete integrity under thestate of anaesthesia; while the pangs or sufferings (or hhil)against which the language of the curse does not bear, arealone annulled and abrogated."-p. 45.

" The accoucheurs and surgeons among you who object tothe use of chloroform, on the ground that it goes, in their

opinion, against the object and end of the primaeval curseupon woman, strangely forget that the whole science andwhole art and practice of midwifery is, in its essence andobject, one continuous effort to mitigate and remove the effect

of that curse. By warm baths, aperients, regulated diet, &c.,they attempt to destroy the intensity of the approaching painsand penalties of childbirth; during labour, they use counter-pressure on the back to relieve the intense pains there; theyuse unguents, perinseal support, venesection, &c. &c., to easethe pains, and insure the safety of the mother." ..... if,on religious grounds, your obstetric friends object to relievingentirely a woman of her worst pains, (now that they have themeans of doing so,) they must, on the very same grounds,refuse to relieve her imperfectly and partially of these or anyother pains and sorrows connected with parturition; theymust, or at least ought to abstain, in fact, from all obstetricpractices whatsoever; they should, in short, give up theirpresent profession as a profession of sin."-p. 46." Some thoughtlessly argue, that the employment of anws-

thetic means, and the abrogation of pain in labour, must beirreligious, because it is ’unnatural.’ They seem to thinkthat it looks as if we fancied that nature, or, rather, that theGod of Nature had made the function of parturition in somerespects imperfect or improper in its mechanism. These sameindividuals strangely forget that they themselves do not thinkit’unnatural’ to assist and supplement other physiologicalfunctions of the body. They wear clothes to assist the pro-tecting influence of the skin, and do not think that’ unna-tural.’ They use cookery and condiments to aid the functionsof mastication and digestion. Is this because they think thatnature has left the functions of mastication and digestion im-perfect in their formation or mechanism 1 They constantly

’ ride in coaches, &c. Is the function of progression imperfect’ in man ? *How unnatural,’ exclaimed an ’Irish lady to me

lately,-’ how unnatural it is for you doctors in Edinburgh to; take away the pains of your patients when in labour.’ ’Howl unnatural (said 1) is it for you to have swam over from Ireland, to Scotland against wind and tide in a steam-boat.’"Ňp. 49. "

Foreign Department.On the Influence of the Revolution of February, 1848, and the In-

, surrection of June, on Developing Insanity in Paris.DR. BRIERRE DE BOISMONT, physician to one of the best con-ducted private asylums of Paris, has addressed to 71 UnionMédicale the following letter, remarkable both for the facts itcontains, and the kindly and sensible tone in which it iswritten

Hardly had the last shots been fired, last February, when Ireceived in my establishment several victims of that revolu-tion, which, as M. Goudchaux, minister of finances, justlysays, has been effected much too fast. These first patientswere generally sad, melancholic, and despondent. Theirfancies were of a heart-rending description, as they expresseda constant fear of being slaughtered and assassinated. Oneof these, a man of great learning, and the author of severalscientific works, motionless, and with a fixed stare, hardlyuttered a word; he was under the impression that he wasgoing to be cast into a sewer, and there stifled. Another wasever exclaiming, " Here they are; they are breaking down thedoor; they are going to seize me and shoot me !" Othersfancied they heard threatening voices, telling them that theyshould be guillotined along with their families; or they con-stantly heard the reports of fire-arms. The patients of thisclass mostly belonged to the respectable trading part of thecommunity; and many of them had, by industry and per-severance, succeeded in amassing some property, which peoplenow wish to possess without taking any trouble at all. Inorder to escape the misfortunes they dreaded, some of thesepatients tried to destroy themselves, and the most carefulwatching was necessary to prevent them from doing so.

Several, perceiving that they were closely watched, resolvedto die with hunger, and persisted in their purpose with a sortof wild energy. Out of six of these, who all thought them-selves great criminals, or ruined and betrayed by their neigh-bours, two died in spite of the employment of the cesophagealtube. One of these two laboured under one of the strongestdelusions which I ever observed. He had persuaded himselfthat his oesophagus had been walled in, and that no food could

t pass. " How is a man to live, (he used to say,) when aliments arethrust into his windpipe; you are choking me, and I shall soon) be dead.’ But some time afterwards we received specimens of. another description of patients, whose derangement might be) fairly attributed to the working of the new political ideas.1 These were not dejected and sad; on the contrary, they had1 proud, gay, and enthusiastic looks, and were very loquacious;

they were constantly writing memorials, constitutions, &c.,

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proclaimed themselves great men, the deliverers of the coun.try, and took the rank of generals, members of the govern.ment, &c.

It has long been maintained, that madness often bears thEimprint of pride. I declare that I never saw this fact sc

forcibly borne out as with the patients whom the revolutionof February drove mad; particularly those who, imbued withsocialist, communist, and regenerating ideas, believed them.selves destined to play a conspicuous part in the world,

Going through the wards, a few days ago, with one of my pro-fessional brethren, we stopped with one of those patientswhose disposition was originally of a kind and peaceful de-scription, but who had grown restless and enthusiastic, bybeing torn from his usual and regular occupations by theexcitement of the times, and flung into the street, the clubs,and amidst the working classes. He spoke as follows, afterhaving discussed two points which have been much debated oflate:-" I perceive that people want to make it appear that Iam mad, but I am proud of the glory which will be shed onmy name when posterity will do justice to me, and ask, withpainful astonishment, how the author of such useful and phi-lanthropic views could ever have been thought mad! Whyshould I grieve at this injustice, however; was not Tasso lockedup under the same suspicion?"The terrible insurrection of June has already begun to bear

its fruits. I have received more than twenty patients already,and I know that the proportion is equally large in other esta-blishments. Among this number there were several cases ofmania; those who were thus maniacal, were threatening tokill, shoot, massacre everybody; they were constantly callingout murder, and help, and were, in fact, in a state of inde-scribable excitement. I have been told that a patient thusaffected, and lying in an hospital for a wound, said, " I wantto eat the flesh of a national guard, soaked in the blood of agarde mobile." Although I do not vouch for the truth of thisreport, I can state, that what I heard in my establishment isfully as bad as this savage wish. The excitement caused bythe firing of the musketry and artillery even seized uponwomen. One of them, who was brought to this asylum, afterhaving been removed from a barricade where she was holdingforth in a furious manner, told me that she had left her husbandwithout knowing what she was about, and that she remem-bered neither the words nor the acts which were attributed toher. This lady, who has a cultivated mind, is full of talent,and writes excellent poetry, seems to me to have been underthe influence of a febrile over-excitement, brought on by theagency of terrible events upon a naturally sensitive andnervous disposition. But the greater number of these patientsbelong to the melancholic form of the disease. Like theFebruary patients of the same category, they talk of death,the guillotine, ruin, pillage, fire, &c. &c. The terrible sceneswhich they have had under their eyes have plunged them intoa sort of stupor. A lady, inmate of the asylum, was tellingme yesterday" Before this dreadful revolution I was of acheerful disposition; but how is it possible not to go mad,when one is in constant apprehension for the life of one’schildren, for one’s property, and where the certainty of beingstripped of everything stares one in the face? These fearfulevents have plunged me into this wretched state. I am a

prey to constant frights-the least movement, the lest noise,makes me shudder. I endeavour to reason myself into acalmer state, but I feel powerless." It should be noticed,that our civil discords have not been the direct cause of de-rangement with all the patients. There were some amongthem who, for some time previously, had shown symptoms ofaberration of mind, and in whom the revolution has hastened ithe appearance of the confirmed disease. Others had hadanterior attacks; but about half of them had been in the fullenjoyment of their mental faculties, and their madness hadno other cause than our fearful political commotions.The effects of those great shocks do not appear immedi-

ately; there are, at first, but a few isolated cases, but themajority take three weeks or a month before the diseasebecomes manifest. This progressive order is probably owingto the fact, that the period of incubation escapes the attentionof the family, and perhaps also that the latter try to combatthe complaint at home, and only apply to the physician whenthey cannot help doing so. But it cannot be too often re-peated, the chances of cure are the greater, the sooner thetreatment is begun. Almost all those who were brought earlywere cured in a few days, by our prolonged baths and ourcontinuous irrigations; whereas those who had been kept at rhome, and who had been already physicked, have, in general, Iderived less benefit from the treatment. One of the most idistressing consequences of these events is, that many of those I

persons whose minds have become deranged under the influ-ence of desponding ideas, and who constantly repeat that theyare ruined and undone, will really find themselves so whentheir convalescence has arrived. Every year we are obligedrequest from the authorities the removal of patients, whosemeans are exhausted, to the public asylums. Since the revo-lution of February, we have been obliged to make applicationsevery month; and matters have been so bad, that there wereremoved, not long ago, in one month, as many as heretofore inone year. If those who bring about revolutions could onlyforesee the calamities these violent commotions cause, andthe thousands of victims they make, they would try to obtainthe reforms which the onward course of the human mindnecessitates, by all the legal means in their power, instead ofhaving recourse to brutal force, and shedding human blood intorrents. When political ideas have attained a certain matu-rity, they will assuredly prevail in spite of all opposition, butthose which are forced, hot-house speed, soon wither and die.

State of the Blood in Inflammation.In nine cases of acute inflammation of divers kinds, Dr.

FRICKE found the fibrin above the normal standard, except inthe case of a strong and stout young man affected withcynanche, who was very feverish, and had taken a greatquantity of alkalies. The maximum of fibrin was 10.337 percent. The amount of iron has always been in exact propor-tion with the globules, giving a fraction very near the normalquantity-viz., 0.582. The same gentleman examined the-blood of eight patients affected with tubercles, four of whomhad crude tubercles, and the rest softened ones and vomies.These two groups presented very great differences: in thefirst (crude tubercles) the fibrin was pretty normal in amount(2.766;) in the second, as originally shown by M. Andral, thequantity of fibrin was greatly increased (4.114.) With allthese patients, the albumen was more abundant than in thenormal state.-American Journal.

Adulteration of Wheat.M. MALAPPERT, an apothecary of Poitiers, maintains, in a

letter to the Jou°aal de Ghimie ltTedicale, that the decision ofthe supreme court, (come de cassation,) declaring that a mancannot be prosecuted for selling wheat mixed with the seedsof bishop’s wort, (St. Catherine’s flower, nigella arvensiscornuta,) is contrary to sound views of hygiene, as the planthas been found to be poisonous. Experiments have beenmade on animals by M. Bonnet, the author, and several otherpersons, and they have confirmed the suspicions which hadbeen produced by several alarming symptoms which occurredupon some persons in three localities, who had eaten breadmade with flour thus sophisticated. The analysis of this breadand some of the suspected flour was made by order of theauthorities, and the saponine, the poisonous principle of thebishop’s wort, was found to have been changed into esculioacid. The only thing to be ascertained now is to see whetherthe esculic acid is or is not a venomous substance.

jif. Gannal, the Entbalnier.Who would believe that amidst the scenes of slaughter and

desolation which shed such a deep gloom over Paris, any onecould be moved by any feelings but those of horror for thecruelties committed, and deep-felt sorrow for the awful sacri-fice of human life ? Yet there was a man in that capital,who so eagerly and so constantly visited the hospitals, thathe might have been taken for an ardent lover of surgicalscience, or for a clergyman, as he was always to be seen bythe bedside of the dying. This man was no other thanM. Gannal, the embalmer, who, knowing well that peoplebelonging to wealthy families had, after being wounded,been carried to the nearest hospital, was carefully watchingand noting the ravages of death, in order to create plenty ofopportunities for the practice of his art, with which, startingfrom a grocer’s shop, he has found means of amassing verygreat property.

British and American Medical Journals.MODE OF REDUCING DISLOCATIONS OF THE HCMERPS.

Mr. MORGAN describes as follows, in the Provincial Journal,a mode for effecting the above object, which he states to befound convenient and useful in the practice of the BristolInfirmary.