was brought strongly under our author's notice, in a CASE of fungus hæmatodes of the eye, which was afterwards published by Mr. Wardrop, in his original and valuable work on that disease, which, as it is scarce, we shall probably soon retrospect. The optic nerves were, in this instance, very dark coloured, but though this dark colour extended behind the joining of the nerves, it was confined wholly to the left side of the nerves, the side of the diseased eye. The nerve of the right side was of natural colour and structure, and only attached to the left nerve by cellular shreds. In this case, then, the optic nerves did not cross. When STRICTURE OF THE LACHRYMAL DUCT is suspected, a probe should be passed along the floor of the nostril into the duct, taking care not to take up a fold of the nasal membrane, and never to use force. The author, in such cases, sometimes made a lancet puncture into the lachrymal sac, provided no external inflammation was present, and was successful, the puncture healing kindly, without much eschar. If inflamed, such puncture will heal with difficulty. Some very interesting cases and observations on fungus hæmatodes will perhaps come more in our way in a subsequent paper, and are here therefore omitted. IN OPENING THE TEMPORAL ARTERY, or the internal maxillary, where it passes the zygoma, press it firmly, a little higher up than the point you fix upon, with the fore finger of the left hand, and lower than this point with the thumb, which will keep the canal distended with blood. Cut the integuments for about half an inch, then puncture longitudinally. If this is attended to, failure will seldom occur. If not held firm, it will roll from the lancet, and if cut across, it will not bleed. Anastomosing aneurism has been erroneously supposed to arise from the opening of the temporal artery. The CAROTID ARTERY sometimes requires to be tied in suicide, and this can best be done where it is superficial, and covered only by the fascia, the platysma, and its own sheath. Its place will be found by insulating a triangular space with threads, one from the mastoid process to the junction of the horn with the body of the os hyoides; another along the inner edge of the sternomastoid: and a third from the side of the body of the os-hyoides to near the centre of the clavicle. The artery along this space is accompanied by nerves and the jugular vein. Lower, it is covered by the sterno-mastoid, the sterno-thyroid, and omo-hyoid muscles; and higher it sinks behind the angle of the jaw. We perform BRONCHOTOMY either to remove a foreign body from the trachea, or to inflate the lungs. In the CASB of a child, in which a horse-bean had got into the glottis alternate fits of coughing-of strangulated breathing-and of ease, preceded death. The child was evidently killed by not operating. In another CASE, a young woman had a plumb-stone enter the windpipe, in which it could be perceived to move up and down in the act of breathing, and produced a tickling sensation, but could not be expelled through the rima. This illustrates the fallacy of the opinion, first experimentally disproved by Favier, that we cannot operate with success where the foreign body is below the point of incision; for in such cases, cæteris paribus, expiration will force the body through the opening. Our author inclines to Desault's opinion of rather inflating the lungs through the nostril, by means of a flexible tube, than performing bronchotomy for this purpose. Mr. S. Cooper, however, in his criticisms on his proposal, thinks that bronchotomy will save time, as it may safely be performed with a penknife, and by a surgeon of very ordinary skill; while Desault's flexible tube may not be at hand. We expect soon a valuable paper on this subject, from our correspondent, Dr. De Sanctis, who has made it the subject of many ingenious experiments. Consistent with our plan of giving our Journal as much variety as we can of keeping up a fair proportion of Medical as well as of Surgical papers-and of affording space for our new departments-the ENCYCLOPEDIA and the CRITICAL CHARACTERISTICS Of Books, we cannot here afford room for the numerous observations of (we may say) secondary importance, which copiously abound in the work. We have been anxious to give ALL that is of the greatest interest, and to condense, in the fewest possible words, the valuable practical observations of the author, even when not altogether new. It is one of his faults, indeed, to be too wordy-a fault which leads him sometimes into trifling obscurities-as is incident to most writers who are , called eloquent; for, in the care to polish and round their sentences, or to ornament them with fine words and figures, the idea meant to be conveyed is often lost sight of. The practical writer should always avoid the pretty art of sentence-making, and keep close to his subject in clear, pointed, and short periods; and he should never give into the silly and affected pedantry of bristling over his pages with new or uncouth Greek terms. Such are only the resort of those who try to conceal their small genius, and smaller learning, by a foolish and unintelligible jargon of what may justly be called medical cant. We may say of useful practical information what Thomson says of genuine beauty, that it "is, when unadorned, adorned the most.". By keeping this principle in view, (though we are well aware it is not so easy to follow it up as to state it) we shall be able, we hope at least we shall endeavour-to condense into our pages six times the quantity of information which we could give, were we only to make unabridged extracts from the books reviewed, or to indulge ourselves in our own speculative remarks, which we might, no doubt, think very ingenious-as self-flattery would not fail to whisper-but, which might be of no use whatever to our readers, when called to a patient's bed-side, or into a court of justice. Court of Appeals. "Index damnatur cum nocens absolvitar." Motto to THE Edin. Review. DR. HASLAM versus THE New EDINBURGH Review. We seek for truth, and are of no party. We seek for justice -impartial and unbiassed justice-towards the profession whose annals we are recording. We seek for facts rather than opinions; and when we meet with unsupported assertions, where we expect inductive conclusions, we must (and who can blame us?) throw them into the lumber-room of our inadmissable communications. When such assertions, however, are not only unsupported by fact, but put on the aspect of injurious detraction, we think it our duty, as professional men, to deal with them as they deserve ;-we think it right to give them publicity in our pages, but, at the same time, to accompany them with such befitting antidotes as may neutralize their impoisoned tendency, or destroy the venom of error and ignorance. A CASE Somewhat of this kind has just been pointed out to us, in the pages of a journal of high pretensions, but of humble execution, (The New Edinburgh Review),-one of the distinguishing"features" of which, we are told in the prospectus, -- is faithful and impartial criticism," and recording equitable judgment" on the "merits" of the works which it condescends to notice. Now we cannot doubt that these journalists intended most faithfully to keep to these promises; but neither can we doubt that this was beyond the range of their genius, at least -on medical subjects. Of other things we pretend not to judge, though we are told by no less a personage than Dominie Sampson, that these sages did" record an equitable judgment" on "Goldsmith's History of England, abridged for the use of Schools;"* and penned on this very novel work, as "faithful and impartial a criticism" as could have come from Jedediah Cleishbotham, the renowned schoolmaster of Gandercleugh. We should recommend them in future to confine themselves to school-books and Spurzheimism, and never again to intermeddle with such a work as Dr. Haslam's, which is fraught with too much plain good sense for the muddled metaphysical understandings of the North to relish. Let us hear this "faithful and impartial criticism" of our pædagogical Reviewers on the classical work of Dr. Haslam on Sound Mind. "We have hesitated," say they, "whether we should notice this publication, or allow it to sink into that state of oblivion to which we believe it is hastening, but [we] adopt the first part of the alternative, for a reason now to be explained." This reason turns out to be the very strange one, that as Dr. Haslam has had an excellent education, and no less excellent opportunities of observation, and besides has published some good works on insanity-his book on Sound Mind must contain a fair specimen of the knowledge of the human mind, generally possessed by medical gentlemen in the first quarter of the nineteenth century."-How we ask is this inference made out on what ground is Dr. Haslam thus made the representative of the knowledge possessed by the whole profession; but "viewed in this light," the Reviewer goes on the work is a kind of literary curiosity, and, in consequence [of its being a literary curiosity] deserves to have its career arrested!" Good, and impartial, and all to be performed by the schoolmasters of the New Edinburgh, who on opening the book, immediately discover, to their great disappointment, that Dr. Haslain has not bewildered himself in the mists of the question, concerning the connection of mind and matter, and therefore he could of course state nothing, but "a tissue of metaphysical * See New Edinburgh Review, No. 1. p. 441, for this profound, learned, and edifying Review of Goldsmith's well known school-book. absurdities, such as would disgrace a schoolboy," the writer, having probably just been flogging some shrewd pupil for not comprehending his incomprehensible predicables and syllogisms, or for some item of the endless Scottish catalogue of the faculties of the mind. Such things, we have heard, occur every day among stupid masters and clever pupils.* It is the grand omission, as we anticipated, of this catalogue of faculties, which most annoys our learned Boeotians of the Scottish Athens. "The author," he says, "confounds our knowledge with our faculties, and in consequence of this mistake, from the one end of the publication to the other, sets theory, and consistency, and sense at defiance. Again, "the author in treating of the faculties of the intellect, ought certainly to have elucidated the powers of the mind themselves;" and again, “instead of entering into a philosophical inquiry into the faculties of the mind," &c. &c. Our readers will no doubt be surprised to learn, that the whole of Dr. Haslam's work is employed in treating most philosophically, though not mystically of those very faculties, namely,-perception, memory, will, reflection, reason, and instinct. He does not indeed muster up a list of internal senses, nor does he rank among our faculties, generalization, attention, association, consciousness, and a hundred others, which on the Scots principles of classification and nomenclature, we could easily enumerate. Dr. Haslam besides is not a Spurzheimite, and does not give lessons to ladies on craniums done in Paris plaster, and marked with cabalistical numbers ;-and therefore it clearly follows, as a matter of course, that "the work throughout displays a total ignorance of metaphysics, an entire absence of any rational theory concerning the influence of the organs on the mental powers; and, moreover, indicates a mind not at all equal to such inquiries.' "There are a few, and only a very few, facts strewed here and there in the work, the knowledge of which is worth preserving; but any explanation is looked for in vain from the author:" The sections on Will, Reflection, Reason, and Instinct, are further said to be "so puerile and superficial, that we cannot [as they usually do afflict our readers by enlarging on them.' "On the whole," they conclude, "we can regard the present book ia no other light than as a lamentable proof of the author's ignorance concerning a sound mind.” Such is this "faithful and impartial criticism ;" and such the "record" of the "merits" of the book before us. To prove its injustice and its venomed * Sunt hie, as their motto says, præmia laudi. VOL. IV. NO. XIII. H |