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to aguish attacks whenever exposed to cold or damp. Heowed much to his own good sense, for he carefully avoidedeverything that he perceived to be injurious. By persistingin the use of chalybeates, by travelling, and by regulatedexercise, he at length completely recovered his health, andwas enabled to return to his duty in India at the expirationof his furlough.

Reviews and Notices.

On the Use and Abllse of Alcoholic Liquors in Hecclth and Dis-ease. Prize Essay. By WILLIAM B. CARPENTER, 1B/I.D.London: Gilpin.

(Concluded from p. 532.)AFTER the Phenomena, we have the Pathology, of AlcoholicIntoxication, and the Remote Consequences of the ExcessiveUse of Alcoholic Liquors. This occupies eighty pages, andit is both easy reading and easy writing-the latter, because itconsists, to a great extent, of references to, and quotationsfrom, the writings of others. In this way the subjects ofApoplexy, Epilepsy, Insanity, &c., are discussed. These pagescontain but little to interest the professional reader, and lesswith which lie is not already acquainted. We shall thereforepass on to the consideration of the matter advanced in replyto the second principal question-" Does Physiology or Experience teach ees that Alcoholic Liquors

should form part of the ordinary sustenance of man, particu-larly under circumstances of Exposure to Severe Labour, Extremi-ties of Temperatu1’e? ? or, on the other hand, is there reason tobelieve that such use of them is not sanctioned by the Principlesof Science, or by the Results of Practical Obsertation?"The treatment of this part of the subject occupies just onehun- ,

dred and eight pages. We believe that every intelligent man,professional or otherwise, has long ago answered these questionsfor himself, with at least the accuracy of Dr. Carpenter, andcertainly with much greater brevity. The physician, the phy-siologist, and the man of education, all bear in mind the greatfundamental principle, that action and reaction are equal; thattherefore you cannot stimulate powerfully the system at onetime, without inducing a proportionate amount of subsequentdepression; and this is the prime fact to keep in view in consi-dering the subject of the use of alcohol: this remembered,the solution of many of the questions becomes easy andnatural.We have said that the general reader would probably reply

to the above questions with more than the correctness dis-played by Dr. Carpenter: let us see whether this statement isborne out by facts.The fundamental error seems to lie in the notion that

copious perspiration, in itself, really weakens the system,whilst it is, in fact, nothing else than the means by which theexternal warmth is prevented from raising the heat of thebody above its normal standard. The determination of theblood to the skin, which that heat excites, appears to causean unusual transudation of the watery part of the bloodthrough the thin-walled capillaries of the sweat-glands,-just as certain diuretic medicines increase the quantity ofwater in the urine, by causing an increased determination ofblood to the kidneys; but with this large amount of wateryfluid very little solid matter passes off,--none, in fact, butwhat is purely excrementitious."Now, we object to the whole of the statements contained in

this quotation. We believe that excessive sweating anddiuresis, like excessive purgation, do weaken; we furtherare of opinion that sweat and urine, unnaturally produced;do contain something more than excrementitious matter

Lastly, Dr. Carpenter is most undoubtedly wrong in statingthat sweat is nothing else than the means by which the ex-ternal warmth is prevented from raising the heat of the bodyabove its normal standard.In proof of the weakening effect of diuretics, we cite om

own personal experience-we refer to established medical practice and to positive observation. Many diuretics, administerecin a full dose, will give rise to strangury and bloody ancalbuminous urine. That copious perspiration, artificially an(

violently excited, has also an exhausting effect upon theanimal frame is likewise proved by the universal testimonyand practice of the medical world, by reasoning, by analysis,and by direct observation. If sweat were water only, whatneed of the beautiful and extensive apparatus of sudoriferousglands, the functions and importance of which Mr. ErasmusWilson has so well pointed out. Water is neither a secretionnor an excretion, and requires no elaboration, and therefore nocomplicated organization of glands.

Lastly, we maintain, in opposition to Dr. Carpenter, thatsweat does do more than assist in regulating the temperature ofthe body. We believe that it co-operates with the kidneys inregulating-entirely independent of temperature-the amountof fluids in the body ; that the sweat is often vicarious andcompensatory, taking the place of the urine to a certain

extent, not merely in states of confirmed structural disease,but in cases of mere functional disturbance.We must confess the astonishment we feel at the fre-

quent occurrence in this work of such loose and unsustainedstatements, opposed to all sound physiology and pathology,coming as they do from one who has written much, who musthave thought much, on physiology, and who is a recognisedteacher of the science.The transition from Teetotalism to Hydropathy seems easy

and natural; we find no evidence to show that it has beenotherwise in the case of Dr. Carpenter. This convert to oneform of modern quackery thus expresses himself on the sub-ject :-

" All travellers who have tried the Russian baths, speak ofthe feelings of renovation which the copious perspiration andthe subsequent plunge into cold water produce on the weariedframe. And those who have given a fair trial to the hydro-pathic treatment, in appropriate cases, are unanimous in thesame testimony. The writer has himself been in a stove-roomin which delicate females were accustomed to remain for halfan hour or more, when it was heated to a temperature of from140° to 170° Fahr., their wrappers becoming saturated bycopious perspiration, the material for which was supplied bythe water administered to them internally from time to time;and he has had ample assurance to the effect, that this pro-cess, when followed by the cold plunge, had usually an invi-gorating influence."

In answer to this we would say, that no "delicate females"

(women !) over whom we had the slightest control should everbe subjected to such violent and unnatural treatment, andwe hold the opinion, that the practice of inducing suchenormous sweatings, to the extent of quarts, is a most un-justifiable remedy, and one calculated to annihilate the rightand proper structure and functions of the sudoriferous

organs.At page 203, we read-

’ The whole tendency of modern pathological research has

’

been, to show that the human frame, if endowed with an ordi-nary amount of inherent vigour, is no otherwise incident todisease, than as it is in various ways subjected to the agency

of causes which produce a departure from the normal play ofits functions; and that, although old age and decay are‘

inevitable, diseases are not, being preventible, in the precise proportion in which we are able to discover and indicate their’ causes."

This, practically speaking, is mere verbiage. Is not man

daily exposed to natural agencies, such as cold, heat, wind, and

r rain, any one of which is capable of exciting disease in eventhe healthiest frame ? And in what do many of the phenomena

’ of old age and decay differ from disease ? This is mere specialr pleading.’_ The third great interrogatory, which forms the subject of

the third chapter, is thus expressed-"Are there any Special Modifications of the Bodily or Mental

Condition of Man, short of actual Disease, in evhicla the Occasionalr or Habitual Use of Alcoholic Liquors may be necessary or bene-- ,ficial ?"d To this Dr. Carpenter replies as follows-cl " There appear to be three classes of cases in which re-d course may be had with temporary advantage to the use of

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alcoholic liquors: those in the frst place, in which there is ademand for some extraordinary exertion of the animal powers,and in which the occurrence of subsequent depression maynot be an adequate objection to the employment of a stimulusthat enables the system to meet it; those in the second place,in which there is a deficiency of proper sustenance, and inwhich alcohol serves as a heat-producing article of food; andthose in the third place, in which there is a want of sufficientvigour on the part of the system itself to digest and assimilatethe aliment which it really needs for its support :’These admitted cases of the use of alcohol are exceptional,

and scarcely to be regarded as admissions for its use in health;the last has decided reference to pathology.Now, the question of the use of alcoholic liquors appears to

as to stand thus :-In cases of perfect health, where the appetite is good, and

where the functions of nutrition and secretion are in properorder, there is certainly no necessity for the use of alcohol inany form, and habitual indulgence therein may very possiblylay the foundations of disease.But where do we find any number of men in a perfectly

healthy and natural condition ? Not in towns and cities-notin London, certainly, where life is one of continual over-excitement and over-exertion, where the body is exposed to avariety of contaminating and depressing influences; here,weak digestion and incipient disorders of nutrition and secre-tion are the rule, and not the exception. Now, it is in theseand analogous cases, as well as in those cited by Dr. Carpenter,that the occasional and moderate use of some mild form ofalcohol is often beneficial, and even necessary. These ad-mitted cases of the use of alcohol allow to nearly all mankindits occasional employment, and hence the so-called principle oftotal abstinence, viewed, not as a matter of mere expediency andexample, but as a question of abstract right, is seen to haveno real foundation.As our author in this work has not furnished us with any

new facts in science, he has not even succeeded in developing,by the combination of the facts and observations of others,any new or unacknowledged principle. ,The fourth and last chapter is devoted to the consideration I

of the questions- I" Is the Employment of Alcoholic Liquors necessary in the Prac-

tice qf Medicine ? If so, in what Diseases, and in what Formsand Stages of Disease, is the use of them necessary or beneficial ?"To this division of the subject, the most interesting and im-

portant to the medical practitioner, the space of eighteen pagesonly is devoted.’We have already had occasion to cast something more than

doubt upon Dr. Carpenter’s medical orthodoxy; we will nowgive one or two other quotations, illustrative of the accuracyof our suspicion.

" But we have seen reason within a recent period to denyor doubt the efficacy of many systems of treatment of chronicdiseases which long-continued experience appeared to havesanctioned, and to believe that the vis medicatirx of the systemis often itself the great restorer, when time is given for itsoperation, and other circumstances concur to favour it."And, again, a little further on-" We may keep our patient in town at his usual occupation;

practise all kinds of experiments upon his stomach; recommendfat bacon, or lean chops; prescribe blue pill and senna draught,or quinine, or calumbo, and ring the changes upon all thewines, spirits, and rnalt liquors which the cellar can furnish,without effecting any permanent benefit. Whereas if he canbe induced to give himself a complete holiday; to betake him-self to some agreeable spot, where there is sufficient to interest,but nothing to excite; to inhale the fresh and invigoratingbreezes of a mountainous country in place of the close anddeteriorated atmosphere of a town; to promote the copiousaction of his skin by exercise, sweating, and free ablution; towash out his inside, and increase the tonic power of hisstomach with occasional (but not excessive) draughts of coldwater; and to trust to the natural call of appetite alone, in preference to artificial provocatives,-we shall be giving him the best possible chance of permanent restoration to health. i" There I a, perhaps, no class of cases in which the benefits of

the hydropathic treatment are so strikingly displayed, espe-cially when it is carried on in a spot where all other aidsconcur to make it most effectual; and reasoning from analogy,the writer is strongly inclined to believe that it would be of asimilar efficacy in re-invigorating the system exhausted byother forms of chronic disease, and would, in most cases, bepreferable to any form of alcoholic stimulants for procuringan increase of digestive and assimilative power. So far as thewriter is acquainted with the results of comparative experience,they are decidedly in favour of the hydropathic treatment,moderately and judiciously applied, especially in cases ofchronic gout and rheumatism."

Really, Dr. Carpenter, you are a very fit person for the editorof a quarterly review on "practical" medicine and surgery, andfor a teacher of legitimate medicine!We are happy to say that we are now drawing to the con-

clusion of this notice, for we are heartily tired of our task, inthe execution of which we have met with nothing to rewardus, no original facts, but, on the contrary, the pertinaciousadvocacy of bad physiology and worse practice.

In the appendix, a sketch of a case is given, copied from theBristol Temperance Herald; this is, however, too long to bequoted entire, but the chief particulars can be very brieflyrelated.One Rebecca Griffiths was accustomed to take daily, as a

beverage, some kind of intoxicating drink, until her eighty-ninth year, and at the end of that time she was induced todiscontinue this practice on account of a sore upon one of herlegs. After a while the sore began to diminish, and " wassoon perfectly healed." Being, however, very much reducedfrom an attack of influenza, she again had recourse to wine,"when the wound in her leg again opened," and on her oncemore discontinuing the wine, the sore again healed up:’ Lastly,the old lady died at the age of ninety-three, in " the full pos-session of all her faculties." The italics are the author’s, notour own. Now we put it to the candid and intelligent reader,could a more quackish case have been adduced in support of afavourite theory by Holloway or Morrison, or the veriest andmost unblushing quack that ever practised upon the credulityof an ignorant public ? The language and the italics are bothquackish; and yet this case is quoted by, and finds an approverin, a qualified physician and physiologist. Did it not occur toDr. Carpenter, or was his judgment so obscured-ay, blinded- by preconceived notions, that the very case which he has socited admits of interpretation in complete variance with thatwhich he wishes should be put upon it. Thus the regular andhabitual use of alcoholic liquors to the advanced age of eighty-nine shows, that if poisonous, as Dr. Carpenter- regards them,they are at least very slow poisons, and that their use is quitecompatible with good old age. Again, in very old persons anopen. sore is deemed by many to be rather salutary than other-wise, and prudent practitioners would think twice before theyadopted means to heal it up. The fact of its healing at allmay be accounted for on the supposition, that, deprived of itsaccustomed stimulus, the system no longer had the vigour tomaintain the habitual discharge. It is tolerably evident, wethink, that this case does not add much weight to the argu-ments already adduced in favour of total abstinence.

This observation brings us to the end of the essay.On turning over the leaves once more, however, we count,

in 283 pages of letter press, upwards of sixty quotations, ex-clusive of very short extracts and more than 100 referencesto the writings and statements of others. We do not quotethese numbers in order to blame Dr. Carpenter; in the ab-sence of original observations of his own to offer, the bestthing which he could do was to give those of others; neitherdo we condemn Dr. Carpenter for having so frequentlyemployed the very words of the authors cited; the exact lan-guage of original writers has, in our view, much importanceand interest attached to it; on the contrary, we commend Dr.Carpenter for the free acknowledgment of the sources fromwhich he derived his information; we regret only that he didnot sooner adopt this course, and that he should for so long

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have followed in the wake of other compilers, and haveacted on the avowed maxim that all scientific matter once

published becomes the property of the public, to be used by itwith or without acknowledgment, as may best suit its purposes.We deem such conduct to be most ungracious and unfair,on the part of many writers, and consider that when they findit useful or necessary to avail themselves of the writings andinvestigations of others, they should at least render to thoseto whom they are so much indebted full and fair acknowledg-ment, and that approbation which too frequently constitutesthe sole reward and encouragement of original investigators.In Dr. Carpenter’s " Principles of Human Physiology" we findthis practice of appropriation to which we have referredcarried so far, that in the explanation of the figures, (nearlythe whole of which are copied from the works of others,) thename only of the author is mentioned, the reader being leftto find out the title of the work, from which the figures so ex-tracted have been obtained, as best he may; by this pro-ceeding he is actually frequently cut off from consulting theoriginal sources from which the information proceeded, andmade to put up with a mere compilation.We have bestowed this long notice upon Dr. Carpenter’s

Essay, first, because we think it right that every work treat-ing of an important subject should be judged according to itsmerits; and, secondly, because Dr. Carpenter is now the editorof a medical periodical, remarkable for the extreme partialityand injustice of its reviews. It therefore becomes an act of

simple justice that Dr. Carpenter should himself be made topass through an ordeal of some severity, but one infinitelymore just than that to which he so frequently subjects ablerand better men than himself, hence his own doings as a

writer and as a man of science should be somewhat closelyexamined. Through this ordeal we have caused the Essaybefore us to pass; and whether we have done so in the spiritof truth and fairness the reader is himself in a position to

. judge, for he will perceive that we have seldom made anycomments without previously quoting the author’s own wordsas the text of those comments and strictures; we have adoptedthis course, at the sacrifice of some space, purposely, in orderthat the reader should be put in possession of the facts neces-sary to form a correct and independent judgment.In conclusion, we feel bound to observe that this work is

wanting in everything which is necessary to stamp it as theproduction of superior knowledge or talent: thus it is not anoriginal work; its physiology is often bad, and its practice exe-crable and quackish, and en this account, it is offensive and in-sulting to the profession at large. The same want of originalityextends through all the writings of this author, and we wouldadvise Dr. Carpenter, that if he be really desirous of taking hisstand amongst scientific men, not to rest satisfied with a merescissors and pen-and-ink reputation, but to write less, thinkmore, and to seek out sources of original investigation andinquiry.

__ __

New InventionsAND

MEDICINAL PREPARATIONS.

Ferri Iodidi Saccharatum. J. F. DAVENPORT, Operative eChemist, Great Russell-street.

A SPECIMEN of this beautiful preparation has been forwardedto us by Mr. Davenport. In its new dress it has a very in.

viting appearance. We may mention that, hitherto, this saltwhich is a most valuable therapeutic agent, has not been obtained in a neutral state. It has always been very deliquescentspontaneous decomposition constantly taking place. The saccharated iodide, the preparation now before us, possessesqualities which obviate these objections. Several of our lead

ing professors of materia medica acknowledge that this preparation is the most perfect specimen of its kind. It is likelyas now prepared, to become very popular with the profession,

THE HUNTERIAN MANUSCRIPTS ANDSIR EVERARD HOME.

[IMPORTANT LETTER FROM SIR B. C. BRODIE, BART., F,R.S.To t7te Editor of THE LANCET.

SIR; In a memoir of myself contained in the last numberof your journal, (of which I can only say, that it gives memuch more credit than I feel to be my due,) it is mentionedthat the late Sir Everard Home had published a case of aperson poisoned by arsenic, taken from Mr. Hunter’s papers,without acknowledging the source from whence it was derived.In this there must be some mistake. I am not aware thatSir Everard Home ever published a case of the kind; but inmy second paper on the Effects Produced by Poisons on theAnimal System, at page 209 of the Transactions of the RoyalSociety for 1812, there is the following passage:-

" Mr. Home informed me of an experiment made by Mr.Hunter and himself, in which arsenic was applied to a woundin a dog. The animal died in twenty-four hours, and thestomach was found to be considerably inflamed."

Having this opportunity of doing so, I trust that you willexcuse me, if I trouble you with some further remarks, ex-plaining what I believe to be the real state of the case re-

specting Sir Everard Home and the Hunterian manuscripts.During a period of about ten years that I was in the habit,

conjointly with Mr. Clift, of assisting Sir Everard in his dis-sections in comparative anatomy, and in his other inquiries,and when I also assisted him in revising his papers, I do not re-member a single instance, in which I had reason to believethat he appropriated to himself any of Mr. Hunter’s observa-tions. He referred occasionally to Mr. Hunter’s manuscripts,but they contained little relating to the particular subjects on

which he was himself engaged; and if ever he did make useof them, I am satisfied that he always acknowledged thehaving done so. Indeed, it seemed to me that he was espe-cially anxious to do justice to Mr. Hunter’s reputation. In

making this statement I feel that I am but performing a dutytowards one from whom I received much kindness in the earlypart of my professional life.

In his latter years I am afraid that he certainly did committhe very great error of publishing some of Mr. Hunter’s obser-vations, as if they had been his own. That lie should have doneso is the more inconceivable, as I believe that I am correct insaying that the facts thus recorded were comparatively un-important, and could add little or nothing to the well-deservedreputation which he had acquired from his earlier investiga-tions. I can only explain the circumstance by supposing that

his judgment had become impaired as he advarced in life.That he should have destroyed the Hunterian manuscripts

was certainly a most calamitous circumstance for theHunterian Collection, and not less so for himself. Theywould have very considerably assisted Mr. Owen in hisarduous task of completing the Catalogue of the Museum, ofthe College of Surgeons. On the other hand, they containedvery little that could any how have been available for the

original researches in which he was himself engaged,-at thesame time that the destruction of them could not fail to pro-duce, on the minds of others, a very strong impression thathe had used them, for his own purposes, to a much greaterextent than was really the case.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,B. C. BRODIE.Savile-row, May 6,1850.

DRS. BIGOT and MIRAULT, physicians to the hospitalof Angers, and Dr. Goult, surgeon to the llth Regiment ofLight Infantry, received lately, from the hands of the Presi-dent of the French Republic, the Cross of the Legion ofHonour, as a reward of their exertions at the late catastrophe,which caused the death of more than 200 men of the aboveregiment, by the breaking of the chains of a suspension-bridge at Angers, on the 16th of April last.