duty rather to pay attention to the subsequent pages than to criticise the first.

As to reading these two quarto volumes, we make no pretensions to have done so; for who ever read a Dictionary, except to revise the proofs? but we have opened them in numerous places, and have made many references to their columns, and we are enabled to speak very favorably of their contents.

A complete English Species Plantarum, brought up to the present day, was much wanted, and this Mr. Don promises to supply as far as the Ferns. Had the object of this work been to form an analytic scale, our approbation of the plan must have been, however unwillingly, withheld; but, as a history of plants, the scheme of natural affinities is decidedly the best to be pursued. The facility, likewise, of a dictionary reference is gained by the alphabetical index prefixed to each volume, and, we should hope, would be still further insured by a general index to the whole.

In the second volume, the editor has inserted entire the catalogues of the varieties of pear and apple, which are but just published by the Horticultural Society. This appropriation of their labours roused the ire of the Fellows, and an injunction against the sale of the volume was applied for, and obtained. We think it would have been but courteous in Mr. Don to have asked permission to copy the catalogue; but we think it far below the objects of literary associations to be so very jealous of their trading concerns. The Transactions of learned Societies are always regarded as public property, and, the more use can be made of them, the more fully are the purposes of such institutions attained: we are, therefore, glad that the injunction has been withdrawn. Still we think it would have more honourable if the Society had not noticed the circumstance, than, without any benefit even in a pecuniary point of view to themselves, to have thus put the editor to the expense of forty pounds, and, after shewing the malus animus, to have feared to perpetrate the mala acta.

In the introduction, it is proposed to conclude this work with the Ferns. We trust that decision is not irrevocable; or, if it does resemble the laws of the Medes and Persians, which alter not, that Mr. Don will be persuaded to complete the species of the vegetable kingdom, by publishing an appendix, in which the Mosses, Fungi, and Algæ may appear.

On looking through these two volumes, forming half the space allotted to the work, we find that so much less than half of the task proposed has been completed, that we think it impossible it can be finished in four volumes: we trust that the learned editor will not suffer a desire of not exceeding that space to lead him to condense unduly the remaining portion of his labours.

The editor states that THE natural system is followed in this work: we should have felt obliged if he had informed us what natural system; for, as so many THE natural systems are in vogue, we think the indefinite more fitting than the definite article. We,

however, suppose that it is De Candolle's version here adopted, with variations; for it certainly is not Jussieu's. In the Jussieuan arrangement, the simplest plants were those the first described, and the series ran from these through more and more elaborate developments; but why De Candolle, Don, and others, commence with Ranunculaceae, and why to Clematis all other plants should yield the post of honour, we never could divine.

HOSPITAL REPORTS.

WESTMINSTER MEDICAL SOCIETY.

A Case of Epilepsy, of twenty years' standing, detailed before the Westminster Medical Society, by JOHN EPPS, M.D.

A. B., aged thirty-four, a married man, having had nine children, six of which are now living, has been afflicted with epileptic fits since the eleventh year of his age. These fits occurred, at first at intervals of a month, more lately of a fortnight, and still more frequently some time before coming under my care. He consulted me, when on a visit to Manchester, in the month of September of the year 1830. He had, as may be supposed, been under the care of several men of decided talent. One celebrated physician declared that the fits arose from a too great determination of blood to the head. Bleeding with leeches on the temples and the neck, and other means to diminish, according to the idea entertained, this determination, were adopted. Another celebrated practitioner considered the fits to be dependent upon the presence of the tapeworm. The Oleum Terebinthinæ retificatum was prescribed; but with no effect in relieving the disease. Other less noted practitioners treated the fits as dependent upon different causes, but without success. One eminent practitioner had the courage, the moral courage, to refuse to undertake the case; I say moral courage, because I consider it an act of high moral courage to refuse to undertake a case, when the refusal to undertake the same is founded upon the fact, that he, the practitioner, does not see the nature thereof.

Not having experienced any permanent benefit, and having tried so many plans, A. B. had given up all hopes of cure. This gentleman, however, knew a little of phrenology, and having heard of me as a phrenologist, as well as a physician, thought that I might, from the aid of phrenology, be better acquainted with the nature of his complaint than those physicians whom he had consulted, and who were either ignorant of, or unbelievers in the science; and as, in addition, the old axiom is very generally received, even beyond the sacred boundaries of our brethren's studies, that "a knowledge of the disease is half the cure," A. B. imagined that, perchance, some means might be discovered for the

cure of his complaint, to him peculiarly troublesome, his pursuits being intellectual in their character. On these accounts he consulted me.

After examining minutely into the case, I told him that, though many symptoms militated against the hope of recovery, more symptoms seemed to justify that hope; and that, such being my opinion, I would undertake the case. His friends, and he himself, looked upon this as the last trial to be made.

I may, advantageously perhaps, briefly state the condition of the patient. A severe dyspepsia affected him; excessive nervousness; frequent and severe pains in the head, attended with soreness of the muscles of the neck. The fits occurring as before stated.

It appeared, therefore, that there were two objects in view, namely, to relieve the dyspepsia, and to remove the cerebellic affection.

To relieve the dyspepsia, I ordered the following mixture: R. Acidi Hydrocyanici, ad formulam Domini Scheele, gtt. xxx.; Sulphatis Quininæ, 3ss,; Sulphuris Præcipitati, ziss.; Confectionis Aromaticæ, gr. xv.; Aquæ distillate, fiij. He was ordered to keep the mixture carefully excluded from the air and the light, and of it to take a teaspoonful three times a day.

To relieve the cerebellic affection, (for I am forced to believe that epilepsy is connected with a diseased state of the cerebellum,) I prescribed the following liniment, to be rubbed diligently down the spine every night: R. Linimenti Saponis, f3i.; Linimenti Camphoræ comp. f3 ss.; Tincture Lyttæ, fziv.; Ol. Succini. rectificati, fzvi.

A. B. began attending to my regulations on Sunday, September 26th, 1830. During the first week, he had great pain and weakness in the back, (occasioned, A. B. thought, by the rubbing); also violent stitches and sudden pains through the day, darting from the spine. This latter circumstance seems to be worthy of remark. It is right also to notice, that A. B. had experienced an attack of the epileptic fit a few days before I saw him.

During this first week, already noticed, the nervous agitation was excessive, and on Monday, October 4th, he, in expressing the feeling in his head, compared it to "a whirlpool:" indeed, so peculiar was the feeling, that, though, as may be conceived, he had experienced an almost infinite variety of feelings, he asserts he never experienced so peculiar a feeling before. "Since that time," he states in his first communication to me, "I have felt much better;" and, "since Saturday," that is, the Saturday following the Monday specified, "I have felt so light and free from pain that I could fancy springs in my shoes when I am moving."

The occurrence of this peculiar feeling on the 4th of October may, in part, be referred to the circumstance of its being about the time of the bihebdomadal attack.

The rubbing on the back produced considerable eruption, which,

on account of the itching connected with it, was extremely troublesome; a circumstance I did not regret.

A. B. found that the effects described, as well as others not noticed, were so different from those produced by the modes of treatment previously adopted, that he was much encouraged to

persevere.

The dyspeptic mixture and the friction were used for a fortnight; the patient, in addition, bathing his feet alternate nights in hot

water.

Perceiving the effect I expected was in progress of obtainment, I wrote to desire him to desist from the use of the liniment for a week, and, at the expiration of that period, to have recourse to it again three times a week, for three successive weeks. The mixture was again ordered; but, as the dyspepsia was much relieved, only to be taken twice a day.

Believing that the disease was within the power of remedial means, and also that the diseased condition was a want of power in the nervous fibres, constituting the cerebellum, (and I may remark here, that I intended to show to the Society a preparation, exhibiting the laminated structure of that organ, but being unable to reach home before coming to the Society, I am not able,) I ordered, in addition to the means already noticed, a liniment, consisting of the alcoholic extract of Nux Vomica, dissolved in rectified spirit, to be rubbed upon the back of the head for eight days. The patient commenced the use of this liniment on the 17th of October. Three days after the commencement of this friction, the nervous agitation, before described, again occurred very severely; a recurrence, it will be observed, occurring about the bi-hebdomadal period. From this date to November the 6th, the patient felt little of it.

It may be proper to notice, that, during the week when the rubbing of the back was suspended, the shooting pains from the spine, before described, again occurred, and were troublesome; being removed, however, when friction was had recourse to. In addition hereto, it is necessary to notice that a heat and a pain at the back of the head were much relieved by the friction on that part.

Up to this period the patient had been free from fits; a time of freedom much longer than usual, as he himself observed.

In addition to these means, I recommended A. B., with the view to the tonic effect, to wash the chest and the neck every morning with cold water, and to rub dry with a rough, well-dried cloth. He was requested to disuse the head liniment for fourteen days, at the expiration of which period he was ordered to use it for seven days.

During the interval from the 28th of October to November 6th, the patient had been troubled with the formation of a boil just below, as he states in his letter, "what you call the organ of amativeness." This boil I considered as very useful, and gave me an 407. No. 79, New Series.

K

opportunity of still further encouraging him; for, it must be well known that the formation of boils is very often a very favorable index.

In reply to his letter of November 6th, I desired A. B. to take the following powder every morning: R. Sulphatis Quininæ, gr. iij. ; Pulv. Cinnamomi, gr. i.; and to rub the back every other week. This recommendation was attended to for eight weeks: and during this period, the liniment for the head was used twice for seven successive nights.

Between this and the 1st of January, A. B. was troubled with a severe cold, and with an attack of English cholera; the latter of which I am inclined to ascribe to the quinine, which acts peculiarly on the liver.

The patient, in his letter of January the 1st, expresses great gratitude that he has begun the new year under such favorable circumstances, not having had an attack of the fits since I prescribed for him. To obviate the injurious effect on the liver, arising from the too long continuance of quinine, I ordered a Seidlitz powder, with a teaspoonful of the best Cogniac brandy and water, to be taken twice a week; and the head to be rubbed with salt water; the back being rubbed with the liniment once a month for three nights successively.

It is a well-known fact, that, in the spring of the year, diseases, which have been lying dormant, often develop themselves, either in their former characters or under their modifications. A. B., in a letter, dated March 4, states "for the last two or three months, I have had a periodical attack every fortnight of vomiting in the night. It causes me to spring out of bed before it awakens me. The vomiting continues most violent for some time, and little, save a frothy matter, comes off the stomach." On one occasion, the patient awoke before the vomiting came on, and the sensation experienced was that of a round substance at the bottom of the throat, which went down gradually till it reached the stomach. The vomiting then began. After the vomiting ceased, this round substance seemed to pass into the bowels, and died away.

This curious modification of the disease attracted the attention of A. B. so much the more, because he had not, previously to this, been subject to vomiting.

Another evidence of the change assumed by the disease was that for three weeks, previous to the 4th of March, A. B. experienced a violent burning heat exactly at the crown of the head, occupying a hand's breadth, striking down the back of the head, and attended with a sensation of great weight on each side of the lower part of the brain. This was attended with great mental confusion; and so severe was this pain, that the least motion of the head to either side caused a sensation similar to that which usually occurred after an attack of the fits, namely, that of the muscles of he neck being strained.

Being convinced that the vomiting was periodic and spasmodic, I