PROFESSIONAL ADVERTISING. An immense exhibition of horror is exhibited by those priding themselves on their professional respectability, when a member of the brotherhood, in good moral standing, notifies the public that he attends to any particular branch of practice. Various lofty expressions of astonishment that a man, pretending to the character of a gentleman, should make a descent so disreputable to himself and degrading to the profession are not of uncommon occurrence.

With a view to preventing derelictions of that hei

nous kind, by seasonably making it odious and a degradation to the individual, and also most dreadful to

contemplate, as though it were a crime without a penalty, various resolves and wise laws stand upon record, intended to act as a check-rein upon personal ambition.

If there is no parallelism between a merchant and a physician, in regard to the value of advertisements, it will be conceded without a demurrer, that both do more business by advertising. Is there any more moral turpitude in one case than in the other? Not a whit, to our apprehension.

Let us reason together, by commencing with substantial facts, which cannot be denied, and then look dispassionately at the results.

tution. When a few quarter sections of land were set language simply means, their own craft is in danger.

apart by the government, for the support of schools and colleges, in the early settlement of some of the western territories, no one imagined they would become so exceedingly valuable in less than forty years.

DEMAND FOR NOSTRUMS. Immensely large warehouses in all the principal cities of the United States are stored with all imaginable preparations for mitigating human sufferings; and the vast capital employed in this branch of trade, which at no period will yield a better profit than at the present moment, throws ordinary mercantile operations quite into the shade.

Very few if any of the large importing firms have ever accumulated fortunes by the regular processes of tra le, in a long life of enterprising commercial activity, or amassed such prodigious estates as one or two bold pill makers, sarsaparilla manufacturers, and hair restoratives venders have retired upon in the short time of five, six and ten years. Philadelphia and New York possess the stateliest edifices in the world for carrying on these extraordinary plans for botching up frail humanity. And stranger still, notwithstanding a perpetually increasing demand for these various secret, mis-called remedies, not one of them possesses a single reliable property. Those who take them are in the end made worse, instead of better by them.

Legislation has availed nothing, and it never will. People delight in this perverse mode of medication. Have it they will. The national appetite is hereditarily strong for this kind of food, hence any further attempts to deprive the people of their regular rations. of medicine, unless prescribed by a physician, must be abortive.

It would be an exciting scrap of medical intelligence to know whether educated medical gentlemen are ever interested in the nostrum trade. Where is the remedy? That is the question. Can a check ever be given to the manufacture and sale of quack medicines ?

PEDANTIC USE OF TECHNICAL LANGUAGE.— A plain, unostentatious learned man, is consistent in every thing. He never opens his mouth for the utterance of technicalities in the presence of those who would not understand their meaning, for the sake of astonishing vulgar minds. The real medical lights of the present day are distinguished for their simplicity of manners and conversation.

It is one of the frailties of young medical practitioners, occasionally, to be exceedingly voluble in the use of immensely hard words. In the company of their peers, it is proper enough; but even then it is in bad taste. That the uneducated mistake sound for substance, is susceptible of proof, and hence, to save one's self from ridicule in a circle of superiors, no thing is lost by a prudent use of language.

Wit, harmlessly displayed, is always relished. Some persons, unwilling to acknowledge their ignorance, assent to propositions as absurd as possible. A silly fellow, prodigiously excited, ran to a clergyman and told him there were spots on the sun, and he believed the world was coming to an end.

"Oh, don't be afraid," said the good minister, "it's nothing but a phantasmagoria."

Take this astounding fact in connection with another, that men of the first medical distinction, in whom the public repose unlimited confidence, have never omitted warning the people of the danger incurred by patronizing those unknown mixtures from irresponsible sources, by lecturing, writing, and exhortations in season and out of season, without having stopped the sale of a single box of Brandreth's pills, or a phial of Davis's Pain Killer, since the batteries of scientific indignation opened the first broadside. A mortifying result, - but it is too true to be denied. That is not all. Resolutions solemnly promulgated under the au-away quite relieved. thority of grave societies; appeals to the understanding, and a portrayal of the awful consequences that must inevitably follow, sooner or later, from the destructive effects of nostrums, have never weighed a feather, influenced a single mind, or retarded the wheels of this most profitable of all trades.

If the ignoran', the underwitted and unconscious were the victims of patent medicines, we should have some hope of reaching that class of minds at last, by unceasing appeals and unrelaxing labor in developing their sensorial powers. But the patrons are the educated; the rich the knowing ones; and the clergy every where give the weight of their clerical influence, without stint, by an array of certificates that must provoke the proprietors to laugh in their sleeves. Physicians have certainly been on the wrong track in their hostility. The masses entertain an opinthat their warnings are nothing more nor less xhibitions of selfishness, which in rude

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Would than

"Is that all?" said the frightened man, and went

The principle is amusingly illustrated in another instance, where a lawyer is represented to have lost a suit for a client, who had high expectations of triumphant success. But it went against the honest man. Addressing Mr. Pettifogger very earnestly,

"I thought you told me we should certainly gain that suit."

"So I did," answered the lawyer, "but you see when I brought it up there before the judges, they said it was quorum non judice."

"Well, if they said it was as bad as that," replied the old farmer, "I don't wonder we lost it," and he paid the costs and a fee besides, without another murmur.

When a young physician announced to an anxious husband that his wife was actually in articulo mortis, the disconsolate man's fountain of tears was instantly assuaged, and he thanked the good doctor for such comforting intelligence; "for I certainly thought,” said

he, "before that great word was spoken, she was dying." of the stomach was imbedded in, and firmly adherent When students of medicine first commence their to, a large mass of diseased omentum, which formed a professional studies, they mistake long, almost unpro- perfectly distinct tumor, extending from the spleen nounceable names of muscles, like Crico-Arytenoideus- across the stomach and liver, occupying nearly one Posticus,-Levator-Labii-Superioris-Alaque-Nasi, or third of the entire cavity of the abdomen :-spleen for knowledge

Flexor-Ossis-Metacarpi-Pollicis,

When terms call up ideas, the object of them in language is attained; but the babbling of unmeaning words for effect, is intolerable. Model writers of text books should resort to the technicalities belonging to the branch to which their attention is given. Precision requires it. Anatomy could not be taught without its present nomenclature; no, nor chemistry. So of pro e-sors: it is their special province to teach the principles confided to the chair each one occupies, and in accordance with those who preceded them,-always expressing the subject in those particular terms which science requires to give a full and exact expression of the thought intended.

Under other circumstances, in the ordinary intercourse with society, any exhibition of professional terms, with well-bred people, is disgusting, and in the estimation of an accomplished physician, absurd.

CHRONIC PERITONITIS-EXTRAORDINARY CASE. -Some weeks since the following account was received, which is worth placing on medical record. It appears to have been at the onset beyond the reach of beneficial medication, and remarkable for the extensive morbid condition of the lining membrane of the abdominal cavity.

slightly enlarged, pancreas entirely concealed in the omental tumor; kidneys normal. The intestines were obstructed by numerous hard bodies, which presented the same appearance as the tumor. In the tumor was found a cyst containing about three ounces of fluid the same in appearance as that in the cavity of the abdomen. The gall bladder was enormously distended and its duct firmly compressed by a portion of the tumor. The disease was chronic peritonitis, and remarkable for the absence of pain, and its insidious progress to a fatal termination.

"It is pleasant to know that a tribute of melancholy admiration and respect has, at length, been paid, in this busy and utilitarian city, to a class of public benefactors too little recognized and too soon forgotten. I allude to the patient and self-devoted young men who annually fall victims to infectious disease, contracted by attendance at the hospitals. The chasms thus made in the ranks of our young physicians are filled up Gilbert Trass, of Fayetteville, N. Y., died a few only to be renewed by the same noble self-sacrifice. days since under peculiar circumstances, and a large It is honorable to the profession that martyrs are never number of the medical profession attended the post- wanting in this sphere of Christian benevolence; but mortem examination. It appears that about a year it is a reflection on our common nature, that they pass since Trass complained of a fuiness about the stomach, away so comparatively unhonored, while military and which was more disagreeable than painful. This political heroes are canonized by funeral display and never left him, although he went about his usual eulogistic obituaries. From a marble yard in Broadbusiness, enjoying, with exceptions, apparent health. way, a striking object presents itself to the careless About the first of April he was taken with vomit-eyes of the plodders and the butterflies of that crowded ing after eating. He now soon began to exhibit symp- thoroughfare, in the shape of a tablet, on which, in toms of dropsy, and about the first of May was tapped, and some 12 or 14 pounds of water, mixed with bile and blood, removed. He soon refilled, and in about three weeks another 14 pounds of water was removed. A short time previous to this the entire surface of the body became yellow. Baffling the skill of his physicians, the disease went on with rapid strides, and the present confort of the patient required that he should the third time have the water removed, which was done about ten days since, this time there being more blood and a constant hiecough. The post-mortem re- "While on the subject of medical interests, it is a vealed the following: Entire peritoneum inflamed, curious fact that this same class of public servants, and thickly studded with a gelatinous substance, vary-whose labors are so incessant, and whose remuneration ing in size from that of a small pea to that of a wal- is so precarious, have recently been made the subjects nut. The liver slightly enlarged, stomach much diminished in capacity, its coats five or six times their natural thickness, and capable of containing not much more than five or six ounces. The greater curvature

freshly-cut letters, appear the names of fourteen young medical students who have, within a brief period, thus died at their posts of wearisome, hzardous and gratuitous duty. It is a precedent worthy of record and of praise."

With respect to the items below, the screws are turned too far, and the result will be that no returns of a reliable character can be expected. Pay the doctors, Mr. Corporation, for the information. A laborer is worthy of his hire.

of a very exacting municipal law in Gotham, requir ing them to send the authorities monthly returns of births and deaths which occur under their observation and practice, with a penalty of thirty dollars for each

omission. The regulation is a good one, and should been forced; but it seems rather hard that a class al ready victimized by inadequate laws against quackery, and constant demands for gratuitous service, should be thus made accountable, without fee or reward, and with the imposition of so heavy a fine in case of neglect. The fact is, a really honest New York physician-one that is conscientious, scientific, above tricks of trade, loyal to self-respect and professional dignity and a gentleman-is the least appreciated ornament and blessing of Gothamite civilization."

LUNATICS IN GREAT BRITAIN.-The number confined in asylums, hospitals, and licensed houses is somewhat startling in amount. There are in asylums, including private patients as well as paupers, 6298 males and 7525 females; in hospitals, 791 males and 837 females; in metropolitan licensed houses, 1105 males and 1486 females; and in provincial licensed houses, 1386 males and 1225 females; making a total of male and female lunatics so confined of 20,640. In addition to this large number there are 559 lunatic criminals, of whom 438 are males and 121 females.

The increase of lunatics in New England, independently of the other States, is calculated to excite inquiry into the causes. Politics, unsettled religious views, and a meddling disposition to make all the world do right, according to the unhappy individual's standard of right; together with his disappointment in not accomplishing the determined object that occupies the mind of the one-idea man, are among the

MEDICINE TAKING.-It is generally admitted that giving large doses of medicine is productive of serious injury to the patient. Of course the quantity must bear some kind of relation to the evil it is intended to remove; the age, sex, disease for which it is prescribed, and various other circumstances which are grouped together in the physician's mind. But the quantity productive sources of madness. given by some practitioners forty and fifty years ago, compared with the elegant prescriptions of these refined days of medical inquiry, are quite amazing.

There is a danger of erring on the other extreme, in not giving enough by the old school of allopathists, since the homeopathic system has become so generally popular.

PRICES OF MEDICAL BOOKS.-Were publishers and those who advertise medical works to append the prices, by the dozen volumes, single and for cash down, or six months' credit, it would particularly oblige those who are the patrons of such publications. PracNew-titioners located far in the interior would sometimes purchase several copies, and distribute them to remote acquaintances, if they had any guide to predicate an order upon. They would oftener send by expressmen and through the mail for newly announced treatises, were the cost given in advertisements. Correspondents not unfrequently write to ascertain this point. This may be considered a trivial matter, but when it is recollected that books are made to sell as well as read, it is a pity not to place them under circumstances most favorable for a market. Why are not the recent works to be had in Boston?

Some of the most successful physicians in England have been those who gave but little medicine. The great point is to know when not to give it at all. Had it not been for excessive medications by the physicians in their ordinary practice, homoeopathy never would have been so ardently patronized. It has now become a permanency, and modified the views of its opponents, and the old evil also of overdosing,

DRUG INSPECTION. When the American Medical Association proposed to the government an inspection of imported drugs and medicines, the object was creditable to the humanity of the profession, who hoped in that way to arm themselves with reliable materials for managing diseases. Beyond question, it was expected in connection with the enactment of the law, that men eminently qualified for the office in different parts would be appointed.

COFFEE CARRIERS OF BRAZIL.- Colored men are the beasts of burden in Brazil. They do their work, according to Mr. Ewbank, on the trot, with a load of 160 pounds of coffee on their shoulders. But the poor creatures are short-lived - seldom exceeding ten years in that particular labor, after once commenc What eminent qualifications have any of the incum-ing it. They are very frequently ruptured in conse bents possessed, from the first inspector to the last ? Have they been particularly skilled in their knowledge of materia medica or pharmacy? Which has most influenced the appointing power, politics or eminent qualifications?

Both druggists and physicians can speak for this part. Perhaps other cities have had inspectors who were members of the Association. Are medicines any better in quality than before the inspection law was What guaranty has the poor, cheated public, that whatever passes a satisfactory inspection is not adulterated in the hands of the wholesale purchaser ?

known?

quence of carrying such enormous burdens, of which they die. Negroes also carry coal, stone - and in fact take the place of horses, mules, and donkeys, in the city of Rio. Hence they become the worst of cripples in early life. Mr. Ewbank saw a wretched black whose thighs curved so far outward that his trunk was within fifteen inches of the ground; and several whose knees crossed each other, which set the feet preternaturally apart, as if a superincumbent weight had pushed the knees in instead of out. He saw some whose bodies had settled down very low, so that their legs were parallel at an angle of thirty degrees.