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cal science," together with a large share of tender-heartedness, which totally unfitted him for the melancholy scenes incidental to the profession of physic, induced him to relinquish a business, from which he "could hardly expect either fame or fortune," for "others of a literary nature, more congenial with his own feelings," and under the East India Company's protection. 'Having thus devoted the prime of youth and manhood of his existence" to other avocations, all his medical cunning was lost, except "a few elemental reminiscences," which we are informed have been very useful to him during a long season of personal suffering. He expresses the philanthropic wish that he may still live "until the public shall reap the whole of the advantages proposed to be derived by mankind at large through the medium of this earnest appeal," the object of which is to point out the very wonderful effects of "a new system of physic," which is no other than that of which we have all heard, namely, Dr. HAHNEMANN's, or the Homœopathic Doctrine.

Mr. Gilchrist is mistaken in supposing it necessary to give a particular description of the creed which he so warmly espouses. Every body knows, as well as he does, the peculiarities of the Hahnemannian belief, although few, perhaps, believe so implicitly in their rationality. There may, however, for aught we can declare to the contrary, be some very worldly motive in informing us precisely at whose shops the "homeopathic publications" may be purchased; but, as we are very unwilling to stop even the transfer of a sixpence to those honest worthies the booksellers, we forbear from descanting upon the probable motives that have induced Mr. G. so particularly to specify their "whereabouts." Come we now to some of the sober eulogies in which John Borthwick Gilchrist indulges. We shall mark his phrases by inverted commas, and only take the liberty of interposing here and there a connecting link, when we wish, like the schoolboy, to skip a little, and cut short a rather long and weary task. "Gra titude," says J. B. G., "bids me hail the new system as the gospel of medical salvation, whose genial balm of Gilead may be collected from Hahnemann's organon, which I at least may justly call the New Testament of my medical faith." It appears, that for "six revolving summers" Mr. G. was "under the hands of very celebrated and generous Allopathists, but all in vain:" in as many weeks, the "Homœopathic remedies acted like a spell, though the dose taken, once in eight days, is not so much as a very moderate pinch of snuff," and, "from a constant state of low spirits, he became all at once as light and gay in body and mind as a skylark," and now "feels himself hourly soaring on the pleasures of hope!" being rescued from " a long string of horrors, nicknamed blue devils." Mr. G. assures us, that "how, when, where, and why" the potent little doses act, he cannot tell. He never saw the physician who prescribed for him. Every thing was affected by letter; the medicine was sent by post; and all he knows of it is, that "its nature is antisporic, the colour white, the taste sweetish, its bulk a pinch of snuff," and that it is to be taken once a week. Such were the happy effects of the "sweet, white pinch," that, after "being virtually for several years buried alive, for the most essential purposes of exisence," Mr. G. "actually feels like a man risen from the dead," and, "instead of being still charged with gloomy misanthropy, his whole frame glows with the most expansive benevolence," and he “could, with delight, if able to do so, fly on the wings of the morning, or, like the fearless eagle, from east to west, and north to south, that he might enjoy the supreme felicity of making all the sick well, and all the sad happy." "As one proof of boundless philanthropy, I hereby (concludes our correspondent,) cheerfully forget and forgive every offence which any person has ever committed against me; and I moreover conjure whomsoever I may have offended, to evince the same charitable disposition towards me."

So much for the effects of the homeopathic treatment upon Mr. J. B. Gilchrist. From the letter itself, we certainly should never have imagined that he had jumped from physic to literary pursuits, if he had not very kindly so informed us; and, as his punctuation and style of writing are any thing but sound, we advise him to take another " pinch" of the sweet white powder; for who knows but that the remedy may cure the maladies of his pen, as it has those of his body.

LITERARY INTELLIGENCE.

We have been favored with a sight of a very ingenious and useful work, which will soon be published by Mr. SPRATT, entitled "Obstetric Tables," the object of which is to illustrate elementary works on midwifery. It will contain twelve coloured plates, representing in layers the anatomy of the parts engaged in labour, and also the various positions of the fœtus, and the mode in which instruments are to be applied. The price is moderate; and we think it cannot fail to be successful.

Preparing for publication, A Translation of the Practical Treatise on the Diseases of the Uterus and the Appendages, of Mme. Boivin and M. DUGES, by G. O. HEMING, of Kentish Town, Member of the Royal College of Surgeons; with additions.

MONTHLY LIST OF MEDICAL BOOKS.

[Medical Works cannot be entered on this List unless a copy be sent for the purpose, the titles of Books having frequently been sent to us as published, which have not appeared for weeks, or even months, after.]

The Dissector. By R. D. FORSTER, Surgeon. Part I. Folio. Six Plates, coloured.Burgess and Hill, London.

The Demonstrator; being an Explanation of the Dissector of the Human Body. By R. D. FORSTER, Surgeon. In sixteen Parts. Part I.-8vo. pp. 50. Burgess and Hill, London.

This work deserves encouragement.

It will prove extremely useful to students, by recalling to their minds any anatomical facts which may have escaped their recollection; and it is admirably adapted to enable practitioners, who cannot attend the dissecting room, to keep up their anatomical knowledge at little expense of time or labour.

A Treatise on the Physiology and Diseases of the Eye: containing a new Mode of curing Cataract without an Operation; Experiments and Observations on Vision, also on the Inflection, Reflection, and Colours of Light. Together with Remarks on the Preservation of Sight, and on Spectacles, Reading Glasses, &c. By JOHN HARRISON CURTIS, Esq. Oculist; Aurist to his Majesty, &c.-8vo. pp. 222. Longman and Co., London.

A Treatise on Indigestion and its Consequences, called Nervous and Bilious Complaints; with Observations on the Organic Diseases in which they sometimes terminate. By A. P. W. PHILIP, M.D., F.R.S. L. and E., &c. Seventh Edition.-8vo. pp. 231. Renshaw and Rush, London.

Part III., March 1833. Principles and Illustrations of Morbid Anatomy; adapted to the Elements of M. Andral, and to the Cyclopædia of Practical Medicine (with which it will correspond in size). Being a complete Series of coloured Lithographic Drawings, from Originals by the Author; with Descriptions and summary Allusions to Cases, Symptoms, Treatment, &c. Designed to constitute an Appendix to Works on the Practice of Physic, and to facilitate the Study of Morbid Anatomy in connexion with Symptoms. By J. HOPE, M.D., ..., Physician to the St. Marylebone Infirmary, &c.-Whittaker and Co., London.

Outlines of the Course of Lectures on Military Surgery, delivered in the University of Edinburgh, by Sir GEORGE BALLINGALL, M.D., F.R.S. E., Regius Professor of Military Surgery, &c.-8vo. pp. 589. Black, Edinburgh; Longman, London.

On the Mind, and Nature of Human Knowledge; being the Substance of a Paper read to the Literary Society, Bromley House, by GEORGE Cox, M.D.-8vo. pp. 67. Simpkin and Marshall, London.

A Practical Appeal to the Public, through a Series of Letters, in Defence of the New System of Physic by the illustrious Hahnemann. Letter the First. By JOHN BORTHWICK GILCHRIST, LL.D. &c.-8vo. pp. 100. Parbury, Allen, and Co., London.

No. I. Hortus Medicus; or, Figures and Descriptions of the more important Plants used in Medicine, or possessed of Poisonous Qualities; with their Medical Properties, Chemical Analysis, &c. &c. By GEORGE GRAVES, Fellow of the Linnæan Society, Editor of the new Edition of Curtis's Flora Londinensis, Author of a Monograph on the British Grasses, &c.; and JOHN DAVIE MORRIES, M.D., Member of the Medico-Chirurgical, Royal Medical, and Plinian Societies of Edinburgh, &c.-4to. pp. 32; ten Plates. Black, Edinburgh; Longman, London.

352

APOTHECARIES' HALL.

NAMES OF GENTLEMEN to each of whom the Court of Examiners have granted
Certificates:

FEB. 28.

William Day, of Hull

Charles Dilke, Appleby, Leicestershire
Frederiak Disting Tothill, Exeter
Edward Joseph Weston, Kennington.
MARCH 7.

Peter Brown, of Thackley, Yorkshire
Thomas Bradley, London

Thomas Lambert Hinton, Daglingworth
Edwin Moss, Cheltenham
Robert Nixon, Wigton

Alfred Pett, London

John Phillips, Newmoat, Pembroke
John Simpson Rutter, Lichfield
Robert Holden Stone, Brasted, Kent
William Thomas, Minichinhampton.

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MARCH 14. William Carfrae, of Edinburgh

Douglas Dutton, London

Henry Whitworth Kerr, Manchester
Edward William Pollard, Brompton
James Yates Rooker, Darlaston
Thomas Sweeny, Market Street
John Wightman

Henry Wilson, Runcorn

Michael William Kansby, Abergavenny
MARCH 21.
John Grayling, of Canterbury

George Dowler Hastlewood, Bsrmingham
Thomas Goldson Irving, Portsmouth
Thomas Philbrick, Witham, Essex
Alfred Prentice, Essex.

METEOROLOGICAL REGISTER,

By Messrs. HARRIS and Co., Mathematical Instrument Makers, 50, High Holborn

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The quantity of Rain fallen in February, was 1 inch and 7.100ths.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

Mr. BALLARD will excuse us for not publishing his remarks on the subject of "Medical Electricity:" we admit their ingenuity, but we do not think the facts are as yet sufficiently substantiated to admit, with propriety, of any hypothesis upon the subject. We shall always be happy to hear from Mr. B.

J. G.-A paper will soon be published in this Journal upon the subject, in which references will be given to various foreign and English authors who have written on it.

"

Medical and Physical Journal.

411, VOL. LXIX.]

MAY 1833.

[83, New Series.

For many fortunate discoveries in medicine, and for the detection of numerous errors, the world is indebted to the rapid circulation of Monthly Journals; and there never existed any work to which the Faculty in Europe and America, were under deeper obligations than to the Medical and Physical Journal of London,' Row forming a long but an invaluable series.”—RUSH.

ORIGINAL PAPERS.

THE EPIDEMIC CHOLERA.

A Treatise on the Epidemic Cholera; containing its History, Symptoms, Autopsy, Etiology, Causes, and Treatment. By ALEXANDER TURNBULL CHRISTIE, M.D., of the Honourable East-India Company's Service; Member of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, of the Wernerian and Royal Medical Societies of Edinburgh, &c.

(Continued from page 253.)

WE have already observed that the epidemic reached the most southerly point of the Peninsula of India in January 1819; and it was at this time it first appeared in the Island of Ceylon, where Colomba was the first town attacked by it. As usual, it gradually spread in all directions, broke out in Trincomalee in April, and in Point de Galle in July, and had visited almost every part of the island before the end of the

year.

It has been said that the town of Trincomalee was infected with the disease by the crew of the ship Leander, in July 1820, who were suffering from it before their arrival, and had caught it at Pondicherry; but there is little reason for supposing this to have been the case, the disease having already existed in the island for more than a year, and Trincomalee having been once before visited by it. It has been also supposed to have been introduced by means of contagion into the island of Mauritius, where it first made its appearance in September 1819; but it is sufficient to state, in opposition to this notion, that the medical commission appointed by the government of that settlement, to investigate the nature of the disease, gave it as their opinion that it was not contagious. It found its way to the island of Bourbon in January 1820. The government had taken all the precautions in their power to prevent its introduction into the island, and de411. No. 83, New Series.

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nounced the penalty of death against any person found clandestinely landing on its shores; but all to no purpose. It must be remarked, however, that it has been supposed that the disease had been introduced by means of a communication having taken place between a boat from the shore and a vessel named the Picvar, which arrived on the 7th of January from Port Louis, in the Mauritius, where the disease then prevailed.

We have now arrived at that part of our narrative which demands our most anxious attention, viz. which exhibits the disease spreading from India to the west, and thus approaching nearer and nearer to our own homes. In the summer of 1821, it raged with tremendous violence along both sides of the Persian Gulph, especially at Muscat, Bushire, and Bussorah, and at the latter place is said to have carried off 14,000 people in fifteen days. It reached Shirauz in September, and numbered among its victims the mother, one of the wives, and a child of the Prince of Persia, besides many Georgian females; and 6,000 deaths were counted out of a population of 40,000. It reached Bagdad about the same time; it then subsided considerably during the winter months, but burst forth with fresh fury in the summer of 1822, when it attacked Teheran, and spread all over Azorbijan. It was at this time that the Prince Abbas Mirza was carrying on the war against the Turks on the high table-land near the source of the Euphrates, when both armies were destined to suffer more severely from an invisible scourge than from the swords of their antagonists. The following account of the occurrence of the epidemic in the Persian army, after the battle of Toprah Kullah, is extracted from the travels of Mr. Baillie Fraser. "The Prince pursued his success as far as the pass of Deear, about three days' march from Topra Kullah, when the epidemic cholera, which had appeared in his camp even previous to the action, now broke out violently, and he thought fit to commence a retrograde movement to Khoace. From that moment the Persian army also appears to have been virtually dissolved; the men dropt off rapidly, and whole troops deserted to return to their homes, so that, by the time he reached Kooe, he had scarcely any army to dismiss. The loss by disease during this retreat was certainly great, but has been variously represented. The most probable accounts set it down at about four thousand men, or about a tenth part of the whole force; in some battalions three hundred out of one thousand died, and the rear of their line of march was strewed with dead bodies, as if it had been all the way in action." (P. 315.)

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