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of the vessels: this fact appears to be of some importance, for it must be inferred that the pus was not absorbed, but formed in the blood.

If it be objected to some of the foregoing views, that pus and extravasated blood are often absorbed without any ill effects, and that no constitutional disturbance may ensue after inflammation and the consequent effusion of fibrine-it may be remarked, first, that pus and blood are probably absorbed in a modified state; and secondly, that a small quantity of pus, like other poisons, gradually added to the circulation may not be productive of bad symptoms. The sixth and seventh experiments may be cited in illustration. It is probable that the degree and type of the fever induced by the presence of pus in the blood may be found to depend on the extent to which it may be contaminated."

He adds:

"I cannot conclude this paper without expressing a hope that it will lead to a still more careful and extensive examination of the blood in various diseases than has hitherto been attempted. The microscope may become as important an instrument to the pathologist, and even to the medical practitioner, as the stethoscope. If my results should be confirmed, it is hardly too much to expect that some important discovery, particularly in diagnosis, may be made by a patient investigation of the blood in many malignant diseases, such as cancer: it is not long since the urinous fever, as it is called, was found to depend on the accumulation of urea in the blood."

We think it would be premature to offer an opinion on these facts. They call for further investigations, for we are probably only on the threshold of our knowledge of the morbid alterations of the fluids. Mr. Gulliver appears a very zealous young surgeon, and deserves all possible encouragement.

ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE LAW OF LUNACY. BY A BARRISTER. We wish that none of the laws of the land were in a worse condition than the LAW OF LUNACY! A great cry has lately been made against this law on account of some individual and solitary abuses-accidents to which all laws, however wisely framed, are liable. Let us see what the law is :—a person supposed to be of unsound mind is subjected to the separate examinations of two medical men. If then two men are of opinion that the individual is deranged, he can be sent to, and received into a licensed lunatic asylum, where he is, from time to time, visited by the commissioners of lunacy, whose duty it is to see that no man is confined an hour after he evinces symptoms of sanity. Oh, but say the croakers, the two medical men may be ignoramuses, and incapable of distinguishing between a sound and unsound mind! No doubt there are many ignorant men in our, as well as other professions. But allowing that the two who sign a lunatic certificate are ignoramuses, how many lives must be annually jeopardized by such practitioners, and yet we have no outcry against these, or even against arrant quacks! But they may be bribed to give false evidence. This is a very likely story. The detection of their ignorance or knavery would immediately follow, and then they would be liable to prosecutions and be ruined for ever! But the croakers have many strings to their bow. Although the commissioners may prove a salutary check on the confinement of sane persons by unprincipled friends and falsifying doctors, yet the temporary imprisonment, between committal and the visitations of commissioners, must drive sane men mad! Was there ever such a statement put forth by people who were actually sane themselves?

From long acquaintance with the subject, and mature reflection on it, we are convinced that, for one sane person who is illegally, of course, committed to a lunatic asylum, there are one hundred insane persons, from false delicacy, or

amiable prejudices, permitted at large, till their property is injured or their own lives destroyed by their own hands. Every multiplication of the forms to prevent improper confinement will only multiply the number of suicides, increase the destruction of property, and extend the sphere of domestic misery. Those who fix their eyes on a few isolated cases of misdemeanor, on the parts of keepers of asyla, entirely overlook the far greater evil of deterring friends from restraining the actions of insane persons, involving their families in ruin, and ultimately winding up the drama by suicide. The reflections that are thrown so Javishly on the testimony of medical men, in their certificates and on the cruelty exercised in lunatic asylums towards the insane, are, for the most part, false, and the rest are grossly exaggerated. In the course of twenty years of extensive observation, we have never met with a single instance of either of the above delinquencies in this country at least. Men, whether in or out of the profession, are apt to study their own interests. The physician seldom tries to keep his patients ill by way of increasing his fame and fortune-the grocer will not be ready to insult his customers, on whom he depends for support-nor will the tavern-keeper maltreat the guests who are dining or drinking under his roof. Neither will the medical man risk his reputation and livelihood by signing a false certificate of insanity, knowing, as he must, that the first visitation of the commissioners may blast his professional character for ever, and even subject himself to a prosecution. Nor will the keepers of lunatic asylums—who are themselves in a state of sanity-harass or irritate their inmates-or impose restrictions that are more than necessary for the safety of those committed to their charge. And this humanity is dictated by prudence-or, if you please, by SELF-INTEREST. For, assuredly, whoever act otherwise, (and some will do so, as in other departments of life) will very soon have empty-walls instead of well-filled apartments. In fine, the whole outcry is founded on morbid sensibility, false views of human nature, want of experience and observation-or love of notoriety and propensity to blunder.

LAW OF LUNACY. THE MONTHLY CHRONICLE.

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We have been gratified by the perusal of the leading article in the above able journal, for December-entitled the TREATMENT OF INSANITY IN ENGLAND." The following extract will shew how completely the writer coincides with the sentiments which we have stated in a short article on this subject in the present number of the Journal.

Granting for a moment that two medical men could be found who would thus, for a consideration, put their reputation in jeopardy, and destroy for ever their professional respectability, is it likely that, however little they might care about their character, they could be readily drawn into an act, the commission of which would subject them to be indicted for a misdemeanor? Our own impression is, that medical men are too well aware of the responsibility of their position to allow themselves to be led into any such dilemma, and still less to become participators wilfully in such a fraud; but, for the sake of argument, let it be assumed that the wicked relation has succeeded in procuring two abandoned instruments to assist him in his nefarious project. What follows? The supposed lunatic is carried to an asylum. Now, the proprietor of the asylum, or the regular medical attendant of the asylum, must also be drawn into the plot, or it fails just at the point when its completion is nearly effected. The ingenuity, therefore, and the corrupt influence of the chief mover of this complicated drama must be fairly irresistible if he can succeed in gaining over his new adherent, without whose aid all that he has previously effected goes for nothing. But her again to give the utmost latitude to circumstances-let us suppose that he

has gained his ends, that he has borne down the scruples of two professional men, and of the proprietor or medical attendant of an asylum, and induced them all to place themselves in a situation of serious danger, for the sole purpose of helping him to effect his iniquitous object; he has yet to overcome the greatest difficulty of all. After he has gained over the medical men to sign a false certificate, and then prevailed upon the proprietor or medical superintendent of an asylum to receive and detain the individual against their conviction of his sanity, he must get three commissioners in lunacy (not even having the power of selecting them, as the case must be decided in the order of visitation, of which he cannot, by any means in his power, acquire any previous knowledge) to sanction the unhallowed transaction !"

It is to be recollected, however, that the guards and fences against unlawful and unnecessary detention respect public and private "ASYLUMS" only. There is a great flaw-a great oversight in the Act, which permits the friends of a certified lunatic to be kept in private lodgings, without any surveillance of the commissioners, and without any return being made to the commission, till twelve months after the date of confinement! Here is the grand grievance in the law of lunacy! We cannot better describe this evil than in the words of our talented contemporary :

"In the asylum there is a perpetual check upon the attendants; and there is constant variety of some sort to break the uniformity,-new faces, a succession of incidents marking the progress of time, and supplying topics to divert and carry off the speculations of the lunatic out of himself,-all of which are essential to his restoration. In the private lodging there are no resources of any kind, except the visits of a physician, brief, perhaps, and irregular: the same face, identified for ever with unchanging stupor, distraction, or coercion, is constantly presented to the unhappy invalid: he looks around for relief in vain ; he languishes for something to give a fresh aspect to the scene; and, in this terrible want, cast in upon himself, he feeds upon his delusions, and grows wilder and more intractable day by day, or else sinks into utter imbecility. His keeper, left alone with this demented man, adopts, partly in fear, and partly for his own ease, a system of unnecessary restraint. To him it is an existence of continuous deprivation. He longs also to be at liberty, and may possibly snatch an interval of escape, every now and then, taking care in the meanwhile to make such provision for the safe custody of his charge as shall effectually prevent any accident from occurring. But the uninterrupted intercourse of a sane and an insane person, thus confined to a single room, is productive in the end of fearful consequences. The keeper, after exhausting whatever benevolence he may possess in fruitless attempts to reconcile the patient to his situation, becomes morose, jaded, and harsh-perhaps vindictive. His nature has not been practised in self-subjugation-an authority is entrusted to him over a superior-he has the whole management in his own hands-and how far he may abuse his trust depends upon his moods and his constitution. Sometimes it occurs that keepers so circumstanced gradually take the tone of the despairing solitude, and lose their power to meet the exigencies of their position; and instances have actually happened in which they were removed in consequence of visible evidences of approaching madness.

From this outline the choice between the two existing modes of providing for the insane may be determined. If the asylums, in the loose phraseology of the day, may be designated mad-houses, the isolated retreats of individuals may, with great propriety, be described as mad-lodgings."

We are free to admit, also, that, even in the licensed asylums there is room for improvement in the laws that regulate them. Thus it is to be feared that the visitations of the commissioners are not sufficiently frequent-and more especially as relates to the first visit after confinement-which should, we think be within seven days after the restraint on personal liberty. The qualifications,

too, of the keepers of asylums are not sufficiently inquired into. It is needless to expect perfectibility—or rather perfection, in these or other functionaries; but, at present, there is no standard by which to test their knowledge of the disease, their experience in its treatment, their education, moral character, &c. &c. It would also be a judicious enactment, that the keeper or proprietor of an asylum should reside within its walls, or in immediate contiguity, instead of delegating the supervision to other and irresponsible agents. The number of patients, too, ought to be regulated, not by the dimensions of the mansion, but by the number and efficiency of the attendants. This limitation of patients would be productive of vast advantages, as conducing, among other things, to more accurate statistical details than have hitherto been obtained.

We recommend a perusal of the article alluded to, most strongly to our professional brethren.

HEMATOPHOBIA, OR THE BEAUTIES OF CONTINENTAL PRACTICE.

Our learned contemporary (the British and Foreign) has recently introduced us (in his peculiar laconic mode) to some German worthies, whose productions we shall probably take the trouble to examine next quarter, were it only from curiosity. These worthies are Messrs. Weitzlar, Schneider, and Simon. The works of the two latter are, as usual, only made known to us by name--but fortunately the titles alone of these tomes give us a tolerable insight into their nature. The one is called "Hæmatomania,”—-the other "The Vampirism of the Nineteenth Century."

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These titles speak for themselves. Dr. Weitzlar is less extravagant in his title-page, but apparently as unmeasured in his denunciations against the Lancet of England, and the Leech of France, as his hæmatophobic countrymen. The new Italian school (says our contemporary) and the active treatment of England are his peculiar aversion." The death of Mad. Malibran, by homœopathy, too, is brought forward as an illustration and proof of hæmatomania in this country!! We find no fault with our "Cousin-Germans," or our confreres of France, in denouncing the malpractices of their own brethren; but when they come to stigmatize the therapeutics of this country, without being at all acquainted with the physical differences of constitution between them and us, resulting from diet, climate, manners, &c. they deserve to be castigated and exposed for their ignorance. Who would have dreamt of exhibiting calomel and black-strap to the Bayaderes in the Strand, when they were indisposed? Yet there is scarcely more difference between the food and the physique of a German and an Englishman, than between that of a Hindoo and a European. The Germans travel very little in England-the English know more of Germany than the Germans themselves. Who that has rambled from Trieste to the Baltic-or over almost any part of that long route, can have failed to observe the physiological, or rather pathological effects of sour-crout, apple-wein, sausages, tobacco, garlic, rancid oil, and a thousand unutterable, or, at least, undigestible things, that are daily crammed down the throats of our German neighbours? And what are those effects? They are readily cognizable by two of the senses-sight and smell. The rows of German teeth are like rows of stockades half-burned down, and black, in most places, and often every second stake entirely demolished-long before the age of 40 years! The breath is a very compounded exhalation, redolent of garlic from the stomach, tobacco from the lungs, and putrid effluvia from carious teeth. The complexion is tallowy, but well adapted for the growth of mustachios, and the stature, in a great majority of the middle and lower classes, is stunted. For the fidelity of this portrait, we appeal, not to our Anglo-Germanic literati, who seldom travel beyond

the walls of their libraries, and who know about as much of Germany and the Germans, as they do of the dismal swamps in the centre of Australia; but to those who have actually visited the soil of our Saxon forefathers. Taking, then, the diet and constitutions of our continental neighbours into consideration, can we come to any other conclusion than that the same methodus medendi will not answer, at least in extent, for them and for the beef-eating Britons? The difference of constitution on the North and South sides of the English Channel is proved by diseases as well as by remedies. See the havoc produced by cholera in Vienna, Naples, Berlin, and Paris, compared with London and the great towns in England. Even in Scotland and Ireland, where the diet is not so good as in England, the cholera was more severe. We do not, therefore, quarrel with, or criticise, the practice of the Germans, in their own country, but we consider it a piece of great impertinence, complicated with ignorance, that they should set themselves up as censors of British therapeutics, seeing that they are either unable or unwilling to estimate the difference of climate, constitution, diet, &c. existing in the two cases.

If these observations be true, and we think it would be difficult to disprove them, we may appreciate the inutility, nay, the mischief, of attempting to import the practice of the Continent into this country, and vice versa. How our British brethren have fared in their practice amongst the Germans and French, we will not pretend to say. We suspect that small is the number of Napoleons and rix dollars which they have brought back to these islands. But this we are enabled to say, from pretty extensive observation-that not one in five of those who have studied or sojourned much on the Continent, have ever succeeded in this country afterwards. Of this fact we have seen such numerous and melancholy examples, that we have no doubt about it. We throw out the hint to those whom it may concern. To ourselves it is of no importance; but we warn the rising aspirants to transcendental physiology and pathology to take care how they imbue their minds with the timid and hæmatophobic therapeutics of our German brethren.

SARATOGA SPRINGS.

These waters have obtained a prodigious reputation in North America, and are resorted to by myriads of valetudinarians of all descriptions. We see that they are about to be imitated at Brighton, by that indefatigable chemist and mineral water manufacturer, Mr. Schweitzer.

The ingredients are potassa, soda, ammonia, lime, magnesia, strontia, proloxide of iron, ditto of manganesc, alumina, silica, carbonic acid, nitric acid, sulphuric acid, iodine, bromine, chlorine. This is certainly a splendid bill of fare, but it must be remembered that the dishes are of the most homoeopathic dimensions. Thus, in 1,000 grains of the water, there are only about five grains and a half of the aggregate medicinal agents-scarcely enough to give the waters a taste or flavour of physic. And of these 5 grains, 3 are composed of soda and chlorine-nearly one of carbonic acid-leaving about 14 grains for the whole of the other constituents. We have no doubt that all true disciples of Hahnemann will flock to this spring at Brighton, and direct their patients to take, each morning, a drop of this elixir diluted in six beakers of the natural element.

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