VOL. II. will appear on the 1st of January, 1846.

Books, &c., for notice, to be sent as soon as published (carriage free) to Mr. CHURCHILL, Princes Street, Soho, or to the Editor, Bury St. Edmunds.

THE

HALF-YEARLY ABSTRACT

OF THE

MEDICAL SCIENCES:

1828-11

BEING

A PRACTICAL AND ANALYTICAL DIGEST of THE CONTENTS OF THE PRINCIPAL BRITISH
AND CONTINENTAL MEDICAL WORKS PUBLISHED IN THE

PRECEDING SIX MONTHS.

TOGETHER WITH

A SERIES OF CRITICAL REPORTS ON THE PROGRESS OF MEDICINE AND
THE COLLATERAL SCIENCES DURING THE SAME PERIOD.

EDITED BY

W. H. RANKING, M.D. CANTAB.

PHYSICIAN TO THE SUFFOLK GENERAL HOSPITAL.

Apparatu nobis opus est, et rebus exquisitis undique et collectis, arcessitis, comportatis.

CICERO.

VOL I.

JANUARY-JUNE 1845.

1

NEW YORK:

J. & H. G. LANGLEY,

8, ASTOR HOUSE, BROADWAY.

G. B. ZIEBER & Co., PHILADELPHIA; JORDAN & WILEY, AND REDDING & Co., BOSTON.

MDCCCXLV.

PREFACE.

Apparatu nobis opus est, et rebus exquisitis undique et collectis, arcessitis, comportatis. CICERO.

To keep pace with the advance of medical science, by the perusal of the numerous works which are continually proceeding from the press, is a matter of difficulty even for the man of leisure; for the busy practitioner to do so is next to an impossibility. The latter individual, however, is precisely the one to whom a steady and progressive acquaintance with the practical improvements and discoveries of the day is most necessary, as it is he who is the most frequently placed under circumstances requiring a ready fund of therapeutical resources. To render this, under ordinary circumstances, impossibility, a matter of comparative facility, is the object of the present publication. It is intended therein to place before the profession the practically valuable information gathered from the records of all countries, in a form so condensed and tangible, that the man in active practice, to whom economy of time is of the utmost consequence, shall be able at a glance to make himself familiar with the discoveries, new doctrines, and improvements in each department of medical science, the seeking of which in their original sources would have involved such a sacrifice both of time and money as few would think themselves justified in encountering.

The value of similar undertakings to the present has long been recognized on the Continent, as is evidenced by the extended reputation of the Jahrbücher of Germany, and the Encyclographies of France and Belgium. It is the Editor's ambition that he may produce a work which shall occupy, in the estimation of the British practitioner, the same honourable position. In order that he may deserve the accomplishment of this his anxious wish, no amount of toil or expense has been spared by him. Not only is every periodical work of note published in Great Britain, America, France, and Germany, subscribed for and personally consulted, but every standard publication and monograph which can be obtained is analysed as it may come to hand. The Editor flatters himself that by this extensive labour he is able to offer to the profession an analysis of the real pro. gress of the medical science more complete than has to his knowledge ever been attempted, as each volume of the " Half-yearly Abstract" will embrace every department of that science.

It is with peculiar satisfaction that the Editor is able to state, as a guarantee for the correctness of the work, that he has secured the assistance of men respectively eminent in the departments which have been intrusted to them; and whatever may be the opinion of the portion of the work which has fallen to his own immediate share, he feels convinced that the labours of his coadjutors will meet with a favourable reception.

The Editor scarcely deems it necessary to dilate upon the abstract necessity of being acquainted with the progressive medical literature of the day. The mere practical man, as he delighted to call himself,-in other words, the man who knows and wishes to know nothing more than falls under his own narrow sphere of observation-is, fortunately for science as much as for the public, nearly obsolete. Both the public at large and the profession itself have long discerned, that for one man who by his own unaided experience arrives at anything like eminence, a hundred remain for ever in an inglorious mediocrity, and both recognize the fact, that for a man to be a safe and a conscientious practitioner, he must be a constant and an indefatigable student. It is then in the humble hope of being able to offer increased facilities towards this necessary acquaintance with the results of the experience of others, that the Editor offers the present publication to the patronage of the profession; and he looks with confidence to the love of science which is the characteristic of the medical practitioner of the present day, for that support which his extensive engagements requires.

A few words as to the plan which has been adopted may not be out of place. The usual productions of the medical press are of two kinds; the one, simply practical, the other, though not in so direct a manner applicable to practice, such as is nevertheless necessary for the formation of those principles of treatment, without which, the hand that exhibits a medicine or wields an instrument, is as guilty of gambling as if it held a dice-box. It has been the Editor's endeavour, while he includes both species of information, to give a prominent place to that which is directly available at the bedside; for which reason, he has devoted to it a large portion of the work. The "Reports," which form the concluding part of each volume, are intended to comprise a survey of communications and works of the second kind, and at the same time to point out the practical bearing of each. It will be observed, that in certain departments of the Medical Sciences, as Anatomy and Physiology, Chemistry, Forensic Medicine, and Materia Medica, no separate abstracts have been made. This has been determined upon after careful reflection, as it was thought that the subjects contained in those departments might with greater effect be embodied in the " Reports."

In now committing the result of much labour, expense, and anxiety, to the ordeal of public opinion, the Editor is willing to confide solely in its real merits for the success which he is anxious to obtain; but he at the same time requests his readers to make some allowance in this, the first volume, for the difficulties and drawbacks of which no one who has not attempted a similar undertaking can form an adequate idea.

BURY ST. EDMUNDS, June 1845.