nostrum-monger line. This worthy member of the College of Surgeons had the effrontery to publish a book on a secret remedy, and dedicate that wretched performance to the late President of the College of Physicians! Nay, he had the audacity to address the President in terms of familiarity, as "My dear Sir," and use other expressions that might lead the public to conclude he was actually acquainted with Dr. Latham, or that Dr. Latham had given him permission to dedicate this puff to him! Sir Astley Cooper's name is also protaned by the draw-cansir knight.

We have said before, that some degree of sanction or precedent has been given to the nostrum-monger, by certain imprudent members of the regular profession pretending to peculiar, and, in some instances, concealed modes of relieving or curing diseases. We are decidedly averse to all such pretensions, as being not only derogatory from the dignity of a liberal science, but calculated to draw ridicule on the profession itself. It is painful to us to notice these aberrations from prudent and dignified conduct; but we deem it a duty to throw out these hints, and hope they will be taken in a proper quarter.

We shall here also make a few reflections on the subject of suppressing quackery, and restraining irregular practitioners. The College of Physicians have been blamed for permitting Charlatanism to flourish under the very eye of the College. But we really know not how that body can undertake the dirty and Herculean task of cleansing this Augean stable, while the Government lends its sanction towards the accumulation of the filth. We observe, with grief also, that almost every Charlatan in London belongs, or asserts that he belongs, to the COLLEGE of SURGEONS! Not one of them dares to make the same use of the College of Physicians. Here then is a most convincing proof of the great utility which has resulted from the rigorous laws of the latter body, since not a single member of that College has disgraced himself by empirical conduct. So far, indeed, from wishing to see the College laws relaxed, we sincerely hope they will be made still more inflexible. We are quite satisfied that were the facilities of entering the portal of Warwick Lane as great as those attending the passing under Machaon and Podalirius in Lincoln's-Inn-Fields, we should soon have every newspaper teeming with advertisements of secret remedies invented and sold by "Members of the Royal College of Physicians of London." Let the College of Surgeons ponder on these things; and let the College of Physicians watch, with a jealous eye, the admission of members who have shown any disposition towards secret remedies, or concealed processes in the healing art.

There is yet another subject to be noticed, and that isthe toleration by the College of several medical gentlemen (regularly educated, but not members of the College) within the metropolis, who officiate as physicians, and take the title of doctor. Reflection and observation induce us to think that it is both wise and liberal in the College to abstain from every thing in the remotest degree resembling persecution, or, what would be the same thing, prosecution of the said gentlemen. The present state of society, intellectual and moral, would render any such measure both odious and nugatory, even were the college inclined to exercise it, which we believe they are not. The College very properly stands on the defensive, and says" Thus far shall ye come, but no farther," unless ye fulfil the prescribed conditions. We shall take no step to prohibit your practice, but we will not consult with you, nor acknowledge you as members." It is abundantly evident that no man can hope for any thing like practice, as a physician, in London, with such a millstone round his neck. And if a man chooses to practise midwifery, or surgery, or pharmacy, or all three, and yet retain the title. of M. D. conferred by another university, we do not see why the college of London should entangle itself in lawsuits to compel these individuals to relinquish mere titular dignities which are not even the shadows of substantial benefit to themselves, or practical encroachments on the prerogatives of others. We repeat it, therefore, as our decided opinion, that the College is perfectly right, and perfectly politic, in abstaining from every other measure than the veto of consultation, in the cases under consideration. And knowing, as we do, the high respectability and superior attainments of some of the individuals thus circumstanced, we consider it both unjust and ungenerous, in any of their brethren, to hold up that as a stigma on their professional character which the only proper authority, the College itself, has not thought proper to visit with its censure.

The fucus helminthocorton, the subject of the present Essay, need not detain us long. It seems that, in a conversation between Mr. Farr and Mr. O'Meara, the latter recollected some observations of Napoleon, (a pretty medical authority truly!) expressive of his surprise that "Mousse de Corse," which was employed on the continent merely as an anthelmintic, should not be employed also in the dispersion of tumours, as he had seen instances of its efficacy in the Island of Corsica. This hint was not to be lost, and accordingly our author procured the helminthocorton, which, as a matter of course," has more than answered the expectations he had at first formed." P. 13. Mr. Farr acknowledges Vol. II. No. 8. 5C

that open cancer is not to be cured by the new remedy. It is only applicable to some forms of "occult cancer." We shall occupy our readers' time no longer on this subject; for it is hardly worth while to "prognosticate prognosticate a prophecy," as the Morning Chronicle used to say, respecting the fate of the helminthocorton.

III.

A Series of Lectures on the most approved Principles and Practice of Modern Surgery; principally derived from the Lectures delivered by Astley Cooper, Esq. F. R. S. &c. &c. &c. at the united Hospitals of Guy and Saint Thomas, and in which will be found some of the Opinions of the most celebrated Surgeons, from the Time of Hunter, to the present Moment: interspersed with numerous Cases. By CHARLES WILLIAM JONES. Second Edition. By CHARLES M.NGAY SYDER, Surgeon. One vol. 8vo. pp. 448. London, Highly, 1821.

THERE was some doubt of the legitimacy of the first edition of this work, but the present is dedicated to Sir Astley Cooper, and acknowledged to be taken almost entirely from the lectures of this distinguished surgeon. We took an opportunity, however, of consulting Sir Astley on the appearance of this edition, and he has been kind enough to inform us that the facts in the title page are substantially correct; but that very many of the notes have beeen carelessly and even erroneously taken. Still he acknowledges that the work before us contains a broad but very imperfect outline of his lectures, as delivered in St. Thomas's Hospital. This statement will no doubt induce the majority of our surgical brethren to possess themselves of a book containing the opinions and practices of the first surgeon under (we might say on) the crown.*

*The following anecdote we have reason to believe authentic :-When Sir A. had removed a steatomatous tumour from the head of a king, His Majesty asked Mr. C***e what was the name of the tumour? Mr. C. replied, that it was called a "steatome,”— -"steatome! steatome!" observed his Majesty; "by G-d I hope it will stay-at-home in future, and not pay me annther visit."-Rev.

The work consists of thirty-five chapters or lectures, embracing, in fact, almost the whole circle of surgery. It cannot be expected that we should attempt any regular analysis of an elementary volume like this; and yet, as coming from such an authority in surgery, we may well be permitted to freight a moderate proportion of our pages with matter of such high import. We shall also occasionally advert to what we consider as misconceptions on the part of the gentleman who took down these notes. We may remark, in limine, that the whole of the matter in this work is exceedingly interesting, though, partly from the mode of delivery and partly from the imperfect notation, it appears very unconnected, and the transitions from subject to subject, exceedingly abrupt in many instances.

We shall pass over the first lecture, with the exception of a glance at two cases related to show how wounds or accidents are modified by irritability or inirritability of constitution. A man who lived intemperately was bled by Mr. Saunders, two days after which he was taken ill. On the fifth day the arm was inflamed, and pus discharged from the wound, the pulse 120, with delirium. Opium, purgatives, and other medicines produced some mitigation, but the patient died on the ninth day. On dissection, the skin was found mortified round the arm, the cellular membrane inflamed, but the vein which had been opened was uninjured. As a contrast to this, Sir A. relates the case of a brewer's servant, who was run over by a dray, his elbow joint being opened, the bones fractured, and the artery separated from the bone. The man would not consent to amputation, so the wound was closed. It soon healed, and the man perfectly recovered. Many amputations, we are convinced, are unnecessarily performed.

"To relieve constitutional irritation, when excessive, or arising from the injury of any vital organ: 1st. take away blood, in proportion to the strength and plethoric disposition of your patient. "2dly. Restore the secretions of the liver, kidneys, skin, and intestines.

"In children give calomel and antimonials, for nineteen diseases in twenty in them are inflammatory, and this is the best medicine to restore perspiration, &c.; bathe the feet in warm water: by these means you take off the momentum of the blood, and give a healthy action to the secreting organ.

"In adults, it will be better to give calomel at night and saline purges the following morning.

3dly. Lessen the nervous irritability by opium, combined with some sudorific.

"And, 4thly, Guide your patient's diet and regimen." 13.

The second lecture opens with one of those blunders which the student has so often fallen into in taking down the statements of the lecturer.

"The swelling in a tumour proceeds from the dilatation of the vessels from the effusion of coagulable lymph into the interstices of the cellular substance."

The above passage is rendered not only absurd but erroneous, from the want of "and" between "vessels" and "from." How could Mr. Jones imagine that the dilatation of vessels arose from the effusion of coagulable lymph into neighbouring cells?

Here the lecturer takes occasion to caution us against cutting on any inflamed part in amputation, since independent of the excruciating pain given, "the stump will hardly ever do well." As a general rule we believe the above is good; but naval and military surgery presents innumerable cases where we are obliged to cut through lacerated and even inflamed parts in operation, and yet the stumps do well in the majority of instances. The subject of inflammation affords much interesting matter in Sir Astley's lectures; but we can merely notice a point here and there. Alluding to the gangrene which sometimes takes place in the parts pressed upon in fevers, or where blisters have been applied, he recommends the calomel and lime-water forming the black wash, as a very beneficial application, exhibiting the cinchona internally, with generous diet.

The proximate cause of inflammation puzzles our excellent lecturer, as it has puzzled all preceding ones. He looks upon the process itself, as generally a salutary effort of nature to rectify some unnatural state of parts. Sir A. observes, that there does not appear to be any evident action in the vessels of an inflamed part on the blood which they receive. "This action would appear to be in the surrounding parts." "If this be an important part, (an important fact,' as the reporter absurdly has it,) it extends to the cens rium and heart itself, and causes the constitution to sympathize in severe injuries." 24. We perfectly agree with Sir Astley, that the first link in the ratio symptomatum of inflammation is an irritation or increase of susceptibility in the nerves of the part, which soon draws after it the affection of the sanguiferous and seriferous vessels. In the treatment of inflammation a great variety of admirable rules are laid down by the lecturer. We cannot but attribute to the prurient imagination of the notator such sentiments as the following.

"Another mode of lessening inflammatory action is by perspira. tion, by which the edges of the crassamentum being drawn towards