source of new prosperity. Unfortunately these expectations were not realized, and it is but too true, that, after the death of Paré, as is well observed by professor Richerand, the surgical art made a retrograde movement.

Paré was at once too virtuous and too superior to his age, not to be frequently the butt of calumny and envy. But, if he had to contend against unjust adversaries, to repel the continued assaults of ignorance, prejudice, and calumny, how ample were his grounds of consolation in the flattering suffrages of confidence and attachment which were heaped upon him by his countrymen of all ranks. Raised to that degree of consideration and celebrity, beyond which the most ambitious man could not have aspired; he was nevertheless assiduous in the performance of the duties of his painful and honourable profession. Although attached by his title and functions to the person of his sovereign, he was nevertheless the friend of the humblest individual in the army, or, in his country at large; or rather he was the friend of civil and military surgery at large.

Foreigners envied France the possession of such a man, and frequently required the aid of his talents, which he never refused. Mons and many other famous cities were indebted to him for prolonging the days of many of their wounded heroes; and, in the midst of their public rejoicings, have loudly proclaimed their grateful recollection of the name of Paré. So true it is, that men, eminent for splendid talents and active benevolence, are born less for the ornament than for the real happiness of the world.

Ambrose Paré found in his own genius the means of restoring, and perhaps of creating, surgery; and, in his good and sensible mind, an instinctive benevolence, an irresistible desire for diffusing it, and a zeal indefatigable, which knew no bounds but those which moral and physical limits prescribe. His frank, noble, and generous heart, his just and firm mind, his inexhaustible good nature, are depicted in his works, which attract, doubly, from their real merit, and from the

charms which they derive from the simple and concise language in which they are written.

Manes of Ambrose Paré, be pleased to regard with satisfaction this learned and illustrious assembly! If ye are sensible to the accents of admiration, respect and gratitude, receive the public and solemn homage of to-day! Deign to smile upon our efforts, after two centuries, to revivify the titles of your glory and of your immortality!

MEDICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL INTELLIGENCE.

THE emperor Napoleon having offered a prize to the medical schools of Paris, for the best account of the nature and cure of Croup, M. Double has obtained it for a dissertation, in which, in catarrhal croup, he recommends repeated emetics, particularly ipecacuanha, for the purpose of giving an increased degree of sensibility to the trachea, to assist in the expulsion of the mucous and membranous concretions. Stimulant liniments and blisters to the neck and other parts of the body, dry cupping and irritating clysters, he used to answer the same purpose. Carbonate of ammonia and of potash he also found serviceable. Calomel, he says, would be an excellent remedy in this species, because it is a moderate stimulant of the lymphatic system and mucous membranes, if its action was not too slow to counteract the rapid progress of the disease. Seneka root is also of some utility in this species of the disease only, from its irritating action. Bleeding, he says, is injurious. He found sulphuret of potash to succeed in the cases in which he has given it a trial. Bleeding, general and by leeches, is the appropriate mode of combating the inflammatory croup. Refrigerants, as nitre and simple oxymel, and gentle laxatives, internally, with emollient poultices and fomentations to the throat, should be used. Emetics do no good. In nervous croup, M. Double enumerates the whole class of antispasmodics, assafoetida, musk, camphor, opium, æther, castor, hemlock, amber, oxyde of lime, &c. Some cases have appeared to derive much benefit from the liberal use of milk. As M. Double before recommended stimulant liniments to increase the irritability of the trachea, &c. so he would now employ them to take off the spasm of the same parts. The inhalation of vapour, medicated with æther, opium, or cicuta, and pediluvia rendered a little irritating by the addition of mus tard, are also said to be serviceable.-Lond. Monthly Mag.

M. Deschamps, an agriculturist and botanist of Lausanne, has announced to the Society of Agriculture, Natural History, and useful Arts, of Lyons, some interesting experiments on the culture of the tea plant of Japan, and which convinces him that it will succeed perfectly well in Europe, if care be taken to sow it in a proper soil and climate. M. Deschamps, accompanied his paper with directions to gather and prepare the plant for use. Having analysed it, he discovered that it contained neither tannin nor gallic acid, principles which common tea contains, and to which is ascribed the property of affecting the nerves, and occasioning tremulous sensations. The disagreeable taste which some persons find in the tea of Japan, has also been corrected by M. Deschamps, by throwing boiling-hot water over the leaves, pouring it off in two or three minutes, and then infusing them in boiling water in the usual way. Lond. Monthly Mag.

On Thursday, 26th May, 1814, a paper, by Sir Everard Home, bart. on the effect of different Injuries in the Brain upon Sensation, was read before the Royal Society. The attempts to determine the functions of the different parts of the brain not having been attended with success, Sir Everard conceives that it would promote the advancement of physiology if medical men were to collect together, and arrange the effects produced by different diseases or injuries of the brain. The present paper contains the result of his own practice. It is divided into ten sections. 1. On the effect of water accumulated in the ventricles. Water accumulated in the ventricles, even to the amount of six and a half ale pints, does not destroy the faculties, provided the bones of the cranium be not united, and the head enlarged according to the accumulation. A curious case was related of a young man whose head had increased enormously, and who retained his faculties entire, except some inconveniences from the size and weight of the head. He was in his nineteenth year, and the head was thirty-three inches in circumference. When the bones of the VOL. V. No. 18.

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cranium, being united, prevent the head from enlarging, the accumulation of water in the ventricles destroys the faculties, and produces idiotism and death. 2. On the effects of concussion. It occasions nausea and vomiting, giddiness and apoplectic fits, which return at intervals for some time. 3. On the enlargement of the blood vessels of the brain. It occasions violent headaches, watchfulness, and disorders of the bowels. The beating of the arteries of the brain has been supposed essential to the exertion of the senses; but John Hunter retained his senses after the heart had apparently ceased to beat. 4. On the extravasation of blood. It produces similar effects as the accumulation of water; coma, nausea, apoplexy. 5. On the effects of the formation of pus. It occasions melancholy, lowness of spirits, and mania, with incessant talking. 6. On the effects of external pressure. The depression of the scull occasions loss of memory, the incapacity of using the proper conversation, &c. all which disappear when the cause is removed. 7. Internal pressure from tubercles produces similar effects. 8. Hydatids in the brain occasion bowel complaints, and a comatose state of the rectum and bladder. 9. Wounds in the brain occasion no symptom whatever, nor the destruction of any of the faculties. When a fungous excrescence of the brain takes place through a hole in the scull, the esophagus becomes so sensible as to prevent the swallowing of solids, from the pain which they occasion. 10. Injuries of the spinal marrow in the neck, occasion paralysis of all the parts of the body below the injury.

An account of the diuretic powers of the Pyrola umbellata of North America, was read at the last meeting of the Medico Chirurgical Society. This plant has been long since used by the Indians, in cases supposed to arise from defective secretion of urine, and promises to be a valuable acquisition to the materia medica. It has the property of increasing the appetite, and has been found serviceable in some cases of dropsy.