compression, which, while it is free from all the objections mentioned, is philosophical in principle, and possessed of peculiar practical excellences. His apparatus consists of a spring, an air-cushion supported by a flat resisting frame or shield, a pad, and two belts. The spring, which is of steel, is the compressing agent,—its strength being varied with the amount of pressure it may be desirable to obtain. The shield varying in shape somewhat with the circumstances of particular cases, is generally slightly convex on the external surface, of circular or oval outline, and formed of a rim of strong wire, connected at two opposite points by a flat piece of iron, which serves for the support of the spring, screws, &c., the whole being covered with jean. To the rim of this shield is sewn a sort of conical cap of soft linen, designed to receive the air-cushion, to keep it constantly slack, and prevent it from slipping about when applied. The air-cushion thus kept slack, fashioned into a sort of double night-cap, lying in apposition with the inner surface of the shield, and sufficiently filled with air to prevent the latter from pressing directly on the part, receives within it the tumour to be compressed. One end of the spring is attached by screws to the external surface of the frame, and the other end to a solid but soft pad, placed wherever the counter-pressure is to be made. The straps are used to keep the apparatus steadily fixed. Let us suppose that the breast is the region to which the instrument is to be applied; the position of its various parts will appear, as they are represented in the figures. The spring may either be passed over the shoulder or round the waist; the latter mode of application suits best, when the tumour is seated towards the external border of the breast, and inclined to slip towards the axilla. "The mechanical advantages of this mode of compression are, that the movements of the thorax are not interfered with; that the amount of pressure may be regulated to a nicety; that the whole morbid mass undergoes constant, equable, and uniform pressure; that the part is protected from external injury, (a point of serious importance;) and that, unless in a very few exceptional cases, the apparatus may (either with the shoulder or waist-spring) be very easily arranged. It is necessary that the amount of pressure should be low at first (say 2lbs.,) especially in the cases of nervous, irritable people,-in fact, that the instrument should rather supply a support for, than exercise pressure on, the part; that the entire morbid structure (as well as any connected loose soft parts, which might be injured by accidental pressure of the rim of the shield,) should be included within the cushion; and that in all cases there be a distinct thickness of air-cushion between the shield and the skin. "The effects produced by pressure are removal of existing adhesions, total cessation of pain, disappearance of swelling in the communicating lymphatic glands, gradual reduction of bulky masses to small, hard, flat patches or rounded nodules (which appear to be, both locally and generally, perfectly innocuous,) and in the most favorable cases total removal of the morbid production. The relief of pain afforded by the instrument is, without exaggeration, almost marvellous; this effect is insured by the peculiar softness and other properties of the aircushion, the medium through which the pressure of the spring is transmitted to the surface. Females unable to obtain sleep even from enormous doses of laudanum cease instantaneously to suffer on its application; and sleep thenceforth, as though they were perfectly free from the disease. "There are certain conditions which either interfere altogether with the use of the instrument, or reduce it to a merely palliative agent. These conditions are, more particularly, excessive bulk of the new growth, and such localizations of this structure as place any portion of it beyond the reach of pressure. Persons of irritable skin and temperament, and prone to become oedematous or anasarcous, are with some difficulty manageable. Less is to be expected in cases of encephaloid cancer than of the other species, and in cases of infiltrated than of tuberous accumulation. If the morbid mass be extensively softened, ulcerated, or in a state of fungous vegetation, palliation is all that can be fairly hoped for. Adhe sion to the skin is of untoward influence. As a means of controlling and averting hemorrhage, the slack air-cushion pressure is of high utility. "Pressure, on Dr. Arnott's system, is applicable to cancerous tumours in every situation where a bony or other solid support exists behind the growth, and where a point for counter-pressure can be had. The mamma, the limbs, the surface of the thorax or cranium generally, are the seats in which the mode of treatment is most readily applicable. I see no reason why cancer of the testicle might not be treated thus; and gentle pressure on this plan deserves a trial in certain cases of cancer of internal parts (it would surely relieve pain), provided the general functional relations of those parts do not interfere (and they will often not do so) with the adoption of such pressure. "The system of pressure now described, useful as it is independently of all other treatment, may be rendered more efficacious by the association of other external means and internal remedies. The following case exemplifies the power of such combinations. Case of Cancer by Dr. Walshe. "I was requested (March 3d, 1843) by Mr. Langley to see a lady affected with scirrhus of the breast, which it was proposed to remove with the knife. Exactly five months and a half ago was attracted by slight pain to the right breast and found there a lump about the size of a small hazel-nut, not tender to the touch, unattended with soreness or discoloration of the skin; it increased but little in size till the last six weeks, within which time it has enlarged to its present bulk; suffers scarcely any pain in the tumour itself, but has lancinating pain above the nipple in the indurated part of the gland to be presently described. In its general outline the right breast is double as large as the left (it has always been somewhat the fuller of the two;) the subcutaneous veins more visible than on the opposite side; at the axillary border of the gland is an excessively hard, solid, defined, rather moveable tumour; the finger may almost be slipped behind this, but at its inner edge it is continuous with another indurated mass, obviously a portion of the mammary gland itself in a state of infiltration; the tumour is finely knotted on the surface, the infiltrated part somewhat more largely so; besides this, the substance of the gland is indurated and knotty, especially above the nipple; the nipple is less prominent than on the healthy side, but is not actually drawn in; the areola is unaffected; there are no adhesions of the skin or alterations of its texture; no enlarged glands in the axilla, but slight thickening and hardening of some of the absorbent vessels leading thither; no discharge of blood ever from the nipple; when the tumour examined, not painful, but a short while after became so. Measurements: whole breast 4 inches broad, 3 inches vertically; tumour 1 inches broad, 1 inches vertically. The soft parts about are flaccid and yielding. I recommended the following pill: R. Arsenici ioduret. gr.j. extract. conii ij. in pill. xvj. dividend: j. bis die s. Light nutritious diet; moderate walking exercise. March 8. Applied the slack air cushion (diameter of bag 64 inches, pressure of spring 34 pounds;) the whole mass of the breast included, except about half an inch at the left superior angle, where merely cellular tissue. No annoyance of any kind experienced by the patient, except slight impediment to respiration, which ceased in a few minutes March 10. Pain totally removed; size of general mass of breast somewhat diminished, but the tumour is only rendered more prominent and apparent by this. No inconvenience is experienced from the instrument except in the back; the patient being thin, the pad presses uncomfortably on the spine. March 12. Tumour appears very distinctly reduced in bulk, more elastic, less stony in feel, less pointedly knotty on surface, less sharply defined: all these changes are to a very small amount, but they are nevertheless positive. Catamenia for last two days. March 30. Tumour (which has been gradually decreasing) is now scarcely more than half the original size; some slight indication of absorbents with tenderness of the skin, and slight redness; nothing in axilla; (instrument much disturbed yesterday in the carriage, and edge pressing against skin.) "From this period until the middle of August the progress of things was slow and interrupted; twice, at the menstrual period, the tumour enlarged slightly, without however becoming painful. I gradually increased the force of the spring (which had always been carried over the shoulder) to six pounds, and diminished the diameter of the bag 3 inches, by which a great increase of pressure was obtained; and, at the date named, the tumour was about one third only of its original size, had become freely moveable under the skin, and the general knottiness and hardness of the gland had almost disappeared; patient had lost altogether the headaches which used to torment her. I now lost sight of the patient (first through my own, and then her absence from town) till the middle of November. During all this period the instrument had been more or less neglected, and not applied at all for the last month; the use of the pills had also been interrupted. November 23, 1843. The tumour is now at least half as large again as when I first saw it; it is more painful than ever, and has reacquired all its original characters; it is, however, still non-adherent. I reapplied the cushion, of the diameter first used, and within a week a favorable change had taken place; the tumour continued thenceforth to diminish in size, until it was reduced to the size of a hazel-nut. This little nodule appearing immoveable, I (at the close of January, 1844) directed the iodide of lead ointment to be smeared on the part twice daily, the pressure being at the same time continued. The effect was almost immediate, so much so that the patient, after the lapse of a fortnight, requested to be allowed to use the inunction without the pressure: the impulse to absorption had been given; the tumour steadily decreased in size, and had totally disappeared at the close of April, 1844. I have within the last few days (August, 1845) examined the breast, and found it in every respect like its fellow, without a vestige of tumour or induration of any kind. "Here then was a tumour, which (though it had so far not given rise to any of the more terrible evils appertaining to cancer) yet possessed in the clearest and best defined manner the sum of characters assigned by universal experience to growths pursuing the common course of that disease; and this tumour disappeared completely under the persevering use of the means described. Had the growth been removed with the knife, the chances (as will fully appear in the sequel) are extremely strong that, within the present period, the disease would have reappeared, and perhaps destroyed its victim. But from the very perfection of success in this and similar cases an objection may arise in some minds. It may be urged that, as in such cases a mass, composed of indefinitely vegetating cells, is removed from its original site by absorption, the displaced cells may in some new abode germinate and flourish. But the objection is a fallacious one. The absorption effected in such cases must, on physiological grounds, be considered of the kind I have termed unproductive (see p. 105;) and clinical experience, so far as it has yet gone, corroborates, in the non-reproduction of tumours thus dispersed, the justness of the physiological principle." (pp. 207-14.) In the original work, Dr. Arnott's apparatus and its mode of application are illustrated by a woodcut. And we may here observe, that the volume also contains one beautiful copper-plate, exhibiting the general phenomena of the pathology of cancer, and several other woodcuts devoted to the same object. ART. XXI. 1. Organon der Heilkunst. Von SAMUEL HAHNEMANN. Dresden, 1819. 8vo, pp. 574. 2. Fragmenta de Viribus Medicamentorum positivis, sive in sano corpore humano observatis. A SAMUELE HAHNEMANN, M.D. Edidit T. F. QUIN, M.D.-Londini, 1834. 8vo, pp. 214. 3. Samuelis Hahnemanni Materia Medica Pura, sive Doctrina de medicamentorum viribus in corpore humano sano observatis, e Germanico sermone in Latinum conversa. Conjunctis studiis ediderunt Dr. STAPF, Dr. G. GROSS, et E. G. à BRUNNOW.-Dresde, 1826-28. 2 vol. 8vo, pp. 450, 378. 4 Die Chronischen Krankeiten, ihre eigenthümliche Natur und homöopathische Heilung. Von Dr. SAMUEL HAHNEMANN. Dresden, 1828-30. 4 Bände, 8vo, pp. 241, 362, 312, 407. 5. Pharmacopoeia Homœopathica. Edidit T. F. QUIN.-Londini, 1834. 8vo, pp. 164. 6. Homœopathy Unmasked; being an Exposure of its principal Absurdities and Contradictions: with an Estimate of its recorded Cures. By ALEXANDER WOOD, M.D. Edinburgh, 1844. 8vo, pp. 196. 7. An Introduction to the Study of Homœopathy. Edited by J. J. DRYSDALE, M.D. and J. R. RUSSEL, M.D.-London, 1845. 8vo, pp. 253. 8. An Inquiry into the Homœopathic Practice of Medicine. By W. HENDERSON, M.D., Professor of Medicine and General Pathology in the University of Edinburgh.-London and Edinburgh, 1845. 8vo. pp. 238. 9. Homœopathic Domestic Medicine. By J. LAURIE, M.D. Third Edition. —London, 1846. 8vo, pp. 576. ALTHOUGH the subject of Homœopathy has been but little adverted to, and never formally noticed, in the pages of this Journal, we have not been unaware of its claims to attention, nor regardless of its remarkable progress in every country of Europe, both as a system of medical doctrine and a system of medical practice. We ought probably to have noticed the subject long ago. At any rate, we can refrain no longer from doing sonow, when one of the publications whose title heads this article, shows that the new doctrine has found its way into the halls of one of our most estimable universities, and is openly advocated and promulgated by its professor of pathology. On the present occasion, however, we do not intend to examine the homoeopathic doctrine fully or systematically: this we may probably do on another occasion, and at no distant date. All that our other engagements and the space now at our command will permit, is, to lay before our readers some hasty sketches and some fragmentary views relating to the general subject, which have long occupied our thoughts, and which are now, as it were, forced from us somewhat suddenly and prematurely by the perusal of Dr. Henderson's book. XLL-XXI. 15 SAMUEL CHRISTIAN FREDERICK HAHNEMANN, the author of Homœopathy, was born at Meissen, in Saxony, in the year 1755, and died at Paris, only three years since, in the eighty-eighth year of his age. No careful observer of his actions or candid reader of his writings, can hesitate for a moment to admit, that he was a very extraordinary man,-one whose name will descend to posterity as the exclusive excogitator and founder of an original system of medicine, as ingenious as many that preceded it, and destined, probably, to be the remote, if not the immediate, cause of more important fundamental changes in the practice of the healing art, than have resulted from any promulgated since the days of Galen himself. Hahnemann was undoubtedly a man of genius and a scholar; a man of indefatigable industry, of undaunted energy. In the history of medicine his name will appear in the same list with those of the greatest systematists and theorists; unsurpassed by few in the originality and ingenuity of his views, superior to most in having substantiated and carried out his doctrines into actual and most extensive practice. Nor will the overthrow of his system, as a system, deprive him of his fame, so long as Paracelsus, and Stahl, and Silvius, and Boerhaave, and Brown, and the other hundred heroes of theoretical renown, are remembered by their successors in the schools of medicine. The thoroughly radical change in the theories and practice of medicine, propounded in the system of Hahnemann,—a change equivalent to a total reversal and subversion of almost all that had preceded it,-naturally roused great and general opposition to it in the minds of medical men. This, and the seemingly-monstrous extravagance of one of its main dogmasthat of infinitesimal doses-so abhorrent at first sight to common sense, and so obnoxious to the attacks of a facile ridicule-bas, up to this day, prevented common justice being done to the new system, and to its author and his successors. By most medical men it was taken for granted that the system was one, not only visionary in itself, but was the result of a mere fanciful hypothesis, disconnected with facts of any kind, and supported by no processes of ratiocination or logical inference; while its author and his apostles and successors were looked upon either as visionaries or quacks, or both. And yet nothing can be further from the truth. Whoever examines the homoeopathic doctrines as enounced and expounded in the original writings of Hahnemann, and of many of his followers, must admit, not only that the system is an ingenious one, but that it professes to be based on a most formidable array of facts and experiments, and that these are woven into a complete code of doctrine with singular dexterity and much apparent fairness. And it is but an act of simple justice to admit, that there exist no grounds for doubting that Hahnemann was as sincere in his belief of the truth of his doctrines as any of the medical systematists who preceded him, and that many, at least, among his followers, have been and are sincere, honest, and learned men. That there are charlatans and impostors among the practitioners of Homœopathy cannot be doubted; but, alas, can it be doubted, any more, that there are such, and many such, among the professors of orthodox physic? On these grounds, then, it appears to us reasonable, that the claims of Homœopathy, regarded as a system of medical doctrine, ought to be |