A second number of the American Druggists' Circular and Chemical Gazette abounds in useful articles. The proprietors have had such satisfactory encouragement that they consider it established. Success to the enterprise! Every apothecary and druggist in the country should subscribe. 601 THE MEDICAL WORLD. BOSTON, FEBRUARY 25, 1857. PROGRESS OF CRIME.-There are seasons when frightful violations of human and divine laws are infec tious. It has been so the present winter. It has been charged upon the Puritans that they dealt in poison. In gious bigots in New England, gratify their revenge by other words, the descendants of the old stock of relithe cruel subtlety of arsenic and other deadly potions. But this assertion cannot be sustained by historical evi The residence of Dr. James Rush, of Philadelphia, was entered on Friday night, and robbed of eight articles of jewelry of the most valuable character, consisting of diamond and pearl necklaces, bracelets, earrings, breast pins, &c. A reward of $1000 has been offered for their recovery. Small-pox has appeared at new points in sev-dence. Surely, there are no more atrocious crimes eral States within the past few weeks. There committed in New England than elsewhere. is but one way of limiting its fearful progress, -vaccination. In time of peace, prepare for Protect those who have not been vaccinated, whether small-pox is approaching or not. war. There is a general calm in the practice of medicine. A time of health is recognized. Scarlet fever is gradually disappearing, and no other epidemic has taken its place. While men are without the fear of God, and imagine that happiness can be secured by a violation of the laws of a Christian country, there will continue to be startling examples from one period to another, of the awful tragedy of murder. No kind of death-penalty, even when accompanied by torture, has sufficiently restrained those who put the laws at defiance, from dreadful acts and ferocious plunges into human blood. Intellectual philosophy throws no light on the mysSeveral instances of longevity, quite re-tery of the contagiousness of crime. Even the phremarkable, chiefly of women, have been no-nologists, who are really the most critical in their reticed recently by the press. Physicians have searches into the constitution of the mind, have failed remarked that those who have been mothers of to demonstrate that a diseased cerebral action exists large families of children, actually have the and yet they have not hesitated to apologize guardedly”, longest lease of life. Small-pox is not yet extinct. Correspondents give vivid accounts of the excitement prevailing where vaccination has Îected. been neg for those who perform dreadful feats, because it must have transpired in a paroxysm of insanity. low that plea to excuse a criminal from a penalty, due The people do not believe in moral insanity, nor alto a wilful violation of ordinances that were framed for the security of life and property. There are times when incendiaries abound. Fires The Marine Hospital, now drawing to completion at Chelsea, near Boston, is a command- are set at all points of the compass, and even the exeing edifice. It will probably be the most per-cution of those caught in the act, does not deter others fect in its internal arrangements, of any hos- from committing precisely the same outrage. The pital in this country. The Marine hospital at fear of death weighs nothing with them. So it is in Portland, Maine, also makes a fine appearance, regard to murder. Then again there are seasons when seen from the city. From the amount of suicide is contagious. money expended on it by the government, Unquestionably, the circulation of the news of crime it will undoubtedly be an admirable establish ment. The trustees of the Female Medical College have petitioned the municipal authorities of Boston, for assistance to enable the institution to purchase the Lying-In Hospstal,-at present closed,-being without funds or pa tients. Dr. William W: Gwin, has been re-elected U. S. Senator from California, for the short term. Small pox has recently appeared in one of the large towns of Georgia, but it will be controlled very readily by vaccination. with all the attendant circumstances, awakens a dispo- This would be one of the direct advantages of withof the worst and most heart-rending scenes in the doholding from the multitude, circumstantial accounts main of bloody deeds. Some years ago a young man by the name of Carter, was hung in Massachusetts for rape. On the very day that the loss is far greater to ourselves than the learned of the execution, a brother of the wretched criminal body from whence the work emanated. It has been a committed the same great crime. This was clearly an matter of proud satisfaction, that the collections of paillustration of the proposition entertained in these ob-pers published under the authority of that excellent inservations, viz., that some crimes are infectious; and those that are so considered, singular as it may appear, belong exclusively to the catalogue of those most heinous and revolting in the annals of jurisprudence. OPIUM-EATING.-All persons regard the growing vice of opium-eating with alarm. And well they may, for in this climate, those who habitually indulge in the daily use of that wonderful drug, in any form, are doomed beings. They cannot withstand the temptation, when the system has been a few months under its potent influence. Very large quantities are consumed in this country-but not one-fourth of the importation is presumed to be prescribed by physicians. They are cautioned by ardent temperance reformers to give it as sparingly as possible in practice, lest it should in some develop an appetite for the bewitching gum. De Quincey's account of the manner he has luxuriated on that powerful article of the materia medica without affecting him otherwise than agreeably, according to his own representations, is calculated to do incalculable injury to society. Under an erroneous impression that the splendid author of the Confessions must know far more about the bane and benefits of opiumeating than those who never swallowed a partiele, weak-minded men and women of active imaginations, uncontrolled by sound judgment, will be very apt to copy his habits with an expectation of being mentally exalted. Mr. De Quincy, now upwards of seventy, for fifty consective years has been under the constant influence of opium; and when charged to the highest bearable point, has been writing with a splendor and prodigality of thought absolutely amazing. He has been charming the world by the purity, beauty and grandeur of his style and sentiments. He contends, we believe, that it prevents consumption by keeping up an insensible perspiration which relieves the lungs. This, however, is not the theory of a medical philosopher. Let no one in his senses be seduced by the false reasonings of that gifted genius, nor conceive that he can at will thrust the charm away. Physicians occasionally partially fall under the sin of opium-eating. There is no valid apology for it, and a premature decay of body and mind invariably exposes the curse that has blighted their prospects. AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION.-Since the statement made from an official source at the Suffolk District medical meeting, that the whole medical profession of Massachusetts, thus far, had taken but nine volumes of the late transactions of the National Association, we have come to the conclusion stitution were such as would do the country honor wherever they were circulated. Probably no purely medical writings are more carefully prepared, or could be more safely trusted to as precedents. Certainly the surgical instruction to be gathered from the series may be always followed as sure guides in practice. If we have no national medical literature, no one in his senses would think of asserting there are no competent authors in the United States. But if we ourselves are indifferent to the prosperity of the Association, whose special object and mission, are to give character and elevation to the medical profession, and do nothing towards encouraging good writers to communicaté their facts to a central fountain, to be distributed for the common advantage, it is not at all strange that the publishing committee express surprise that Massachusetts has had but nine volumes, when a fair inference would have been, from the high scientific reputa. tion of the medical gentlemen of the Commonwealth, two hundred, at least, would have been promptly solicited. Without being considered obtrusive, we take the liberty of reminding those who have not procured this important volume, to address Dr. Caspar Wister, of Philadelphia, for a copy. GENERAL PUBLIC HEALTH.-Notwithstanding the intense severity of a part of the winter, and the consequent suffering that resulted from not being prepared to meet the varying changes of weather, the general health of the country is remarkably good. With the exception of an occasional prevalence of scarlet fever at a few points, there has been no raging epidemic, nor any outbreak of disease to excite and terrify the people. There will always be casaulties so long as the ordinary affairs of life require human hands; and sporadic diseases will be met with wherever there are habitations. Hygienic laws, on which the stability of the public health essentially depends, are well understood by medical men; and influenced by them, legislative and municipal ordinances and regulations are established with reference to this great and all-important point, viz., the preservation of the public health. Where there is a hereditary tendency to phthisis, the sudden changes of temperature, in passing from warm apartments to the open air, while the mercury was rising and falling in an unusual manner, the lungs have been severely tried. It is to be feared that many such may find themselves in waning health, from this prolific source of pulmonary disease. If ladies could be persuaded to clothe themselves in a proper manner to resist the destroying influences which sudden exposes in the fitful climate of New England, the bills of mortality would not present that melancholy majority of deaths by consumption, which like a man who has studied physicians as well as men, now annually characterizes the necrological records of and in this felicitous address, their duties, aims, retown and country. sponsibilities, and the elements of success in medical At this particular period, towards the close of Febru-practice, are clearly defined. He has analyzed all the ary, there is a general good health of the United different orders of practitioners peculiar to this prolific States. The pestilence that walketh in darkness age, and the following extract shows what is thought and wasteth at noon day, is not recognized on the of each of them. continent. SINS OF CITIES.-A pamphlet has been put into our hands recently, which is of no every-day kind. It treats medically and morally of the peculiar festerings of vice in cities. It probes, with a bold and searching energy, the damning sin of commercial towns; and if it does not confess that the enlightened, Christian age in which we live, is as bad as any in the annals of ancient humanity, the inference is irresistible that it is no better. Philanthropists may propose remedies, and the good and virtuous preach and deplore the depravity which invariably accompanies the highest intellectual conditions of society; but no changes are accomplished through the efforts of law, the force of example, the appeals of the mother, the magistrate, or the bolts of prison doors. Medical practice " of the old school," as it is sometimes termed, certainly in its philosophical principles, is too old and too well established to be ever superseded or overthrown. It is not the sudden fabrication of ignorance, but the results of the labors and studies of the most thorough scholars, and of experiments, observation, and deductions of ages. And yet, can it be demonstrated that no accessions, and valuable accessions to its pharmacy and its practice can be made by the discoveries of the less scientific "Botanist? Look at the disciple of Dr. Thompson. Is there no virtue in hot water? no power and energy in steam? Gentlemen, this is an age of steam! It should not be entrusted to the hands of the ignorant, we admit; but who will assail it in terms of indiscriminate and unmeasured condemnation ? Then there is Hydropathy, reaching its pail of cold water and crash towel over here from Germany. Is there matter for ridicule here? It is the water of life to many a sloven! Fortunately for our pride, no statistics of the actual state of city corruptions, in the United States, are given. Police returns in New York, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Baltimore, Boston, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Chicago, and some others, enable those who are curi-cendentalism, that it is impossible there should be any ous in such matters, or wretched in proportion to their knowledge of the sins of cities, to infer the amount of misery that clings to each of them. Of London, Paris, Vienna, Berlin, Amsterdam, and most, if not all the principal cities in Europe, much more is known than revealed, in regard to the great specific curse in the wake of civilization. No ingenuity has lessened the evil, abated the nuisance, even under circumstances favorable for the exercise of despotic power, in the attempted suppression of the undermining "vice of vices,-still it exists in unabated hatefulness, and it will, while man inhabits the earth, and woman is unconscious of all the rights and dignities which are her birthright. The pamphlet relates to the universal crime of prostitution,-which defies the united efforts of both Church and State, either to limit or eradicate it. A great subject is therefore to be discussed, by-and-by, -but not with the expectation of purifying cities, which are charitably supposed, necessarily, like volcanoes, to require safety valves to prevent the contami nation and utter destruction of the race. And then there is Homœopathy (for we have spoken of that,) and will you consign it to the shades, or brand it as at most an absurdity? Is it not safe, however? And where it does not cure, does it injure or kill the patient? But, it is said, it deals in such minutiae of good things-such medical transis this so, however? Is it destitute of sound philosovirtue in the system. On a calm philosophical view, phy? Here, for instance, is the gouty epicure, gluttonous and bloated. Day by day he has accumulated the " adipose," till the channels of life are clogged, and nature labors and "wheezeth heavily." He must Can there be anything more strictly rational, more have help, or die. What says reason in this case? soundly philosophical than to bid that man diet on the shadow of a broiled chicken? ACCESSIONS TO THE PROFESSION.-Large numbers of medical graduates will leave the colleges the present spring. The lecture season is drawing to a close, and the question very naturally propounded is this-Where can they all find employment? without something to put into it." It would be a disA Chinese proverb says "there never was a mouth couraging condition of the country, if there could be no place found for the exercise of their vocation. The talent will always be sustained. Very many who have field is certainly becoming more circumscribed, but studiously prepared themselves for practice, enter immediately upon other and more remunerating pursuits, on taking their degree. They are certainly wise in At the thirty-fourth. Commencement of the Berk-doing so, if one of the objects contemplated is to seshire Medical College, a discourse was given by the sional services before the individual is venerable for cure a competency, which cannot be done by profesRev. S. S. N. Greely, of Great Barrington, Mass., that has special claims on the profession. He writes › ELEMENTS OF SUCCESS IN MEDICAL PRACTICE. age.. Dr. Joseph E. Cox, and his nephew, Robert C. Traylor, left Petersburgh, Va., on Sunday afternoon, 25th ult., for the purpose of visiting the father of the former. The storm was raging fearfully, but they reached the residence of Dr. Grymes, son-in-law of Dr. Cox, in Chesterfield County, about 24 miles from Petersburg, just before night. An effort was made to prevail on them to remain till morning, but Dr. Cox insisted on going forward at once. They had proceeded only about one hundred yards when the buggy broke down, and Dr. Cox got out to repair the damage, and started for the house to procure assistance; but his progress was cut off by the snow drifts, and he had no alternative but DEATHS. In Boston, Edward Payson, only son of M. C. At Chicopee Falls, Mass., Dr. J. W. Lawrence, 50. Dr. Tack Shackelford died at Courtland, Alabama, on Tuesday of last week, in the sixty-sixth year of his age. He participated in the Texan struggle for independence, and achieved a name for gallantry truly enviable. In London, Andrew Ure, Esq., a celebrated author, chemist, &c., well known in every civilized country, by his scientific writings. to remain there all night. On Monday some persons At Chelmsford, Eng., Dr. Geo. A. Gepp, senior at the house saw the buggy, and went to ascertain what fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, and also senior was the matter. They came upon Dr. Cox lying in-member of the Livery of the Society of Apothecaries, sensible in the snow, and on proceeding to the buggy, found Mr. Traylor also in a hopeless condition. Dr. Cox died in about an hour. Mr. Traylor's limbs were frozen, and if he recovers at all he will have to suffer amputation of his hands and feet. 87. DEATHS REPORTED AT THE CITY REGISTRAR'S OFFICE, FOR THE WEEK ENDING FEBRUARY 14. Peter Healy, 15 mos., Margaret McCarty, 10 do., Michael W. Doyle, 17 do., Clarabel Wilson, 11 do., Charles G. Bidwell, 16 do., Honora McGrath, 12 do., Catherine Elwood, 12 do., James E. McKay, 5 do., Andrew Collins, 18 do., Mark Edelman, 5 do., Charles F. V. McCarty, 2 do., Francis Collins, 14 do., Herbert G. Chapin, 2 yrs., Joshua Sears, 65 do., Maria W. Henderson, 18 do., Margaret Garvey, 2 do., James Keller, 42 do., Ann Madden, 3 do., Mary Furber, 3 LIVING WITHOUT SLEEP. As far back as about 1843, or perhaps later, a Scotch gentleman was residing at the Malboro' hotel, in Boston, who communicated a paper for publication, in which he declared he had not slept for some years. Being a man of education and high intelligence, we could not gainsay what he stated.do., Charles Madden, 21 do., Mathias Kelly, 6 do., We afterwards met him in Edinburgh in 1850. He was then in fine health, but still suffered for want of sleep. A few weeks since he again arrived in Boston, called to renew the acquaintance, and still being as sleepless as ever, promised to continue the history of his condition through all the nervous phases to the present period. Business demanded his presence in Canada West, from whence a pleasant letter was received from him a short time ago. On his return to Boston early in the spring, we are hoping to be furnished with a narrative from himself, which, physiologically considered, will contain some curious and unexplained phenomena. FEMALE PHYSICIANS IN BOSTON.-There are not far from twenty of them,-and several are in excellent business. They confine themselves generally to midwifery and the diseases of their own sex. Their success in the former branch tends to establish them firmly in families. The number will probably be gradually on the increase since they are beginning to be employed in the neighboring cities of Charlestown, Cambridge, Roxbury and adjacent towns much more than formerly. MARRIAGES. In Winston county, Mississippi, John. T. Suttle, M. D., to M. L. Pettigree. Dr. I. D. Mansfield, of South Reading, Mass., to Miss S. Merrill. Susannah Siders, 82 do., Wm. I. Remick, 8 do., Mary Lawton, 26 do., Honora Mortal, 3 do., David N. Pratt, 85 do., Jacob F. Stodder, 56 do., Catherine Higgins, 16 do., Julia Randels, 2 do., John Hurley, 32 do., Mary French, 75 do., Edward J. Keeler, 2 do., Rebecca Austin, 90 do., Matilda Readdy, 30 do., Rose Cook, 40 do., Effie L. Holden, 4 do., Ellen Croston, 5 do., Ellen M. Tucker, 4 mos., Mary Pond, 9 do., Egan, 12 do., Margaret Mullin, 18 do., Mary A. McEugene Owens, 11 do., Geo. T. Mason, 13 do., Wm. Laughlin, 15 do., Matthew Murray, 1 day, Elizabeth Hart, 6 yrs., Honora Egan, 3 do., Sarah McLaughlin, 2 do., Julia F. Goodwin, 2 do., Margaret Wright, 2 do., Sarah W. Baker, 93 do., Ellen Craston, 5 do., James J. Power, 32 do., Nicholas Blosser, 30 do., Patrick Harrigan, 45 do., Jehiel C. Deman, 17 do., John Griffin, 50 do., Henry Condon, 4 do., Catherine Devine, 33 do., Henry A. Holman, 2 do., Philip Lyman, 55 do., Ellen Noonan, 40 do., Ann Cull, 34 do., Charles H. Stewart, 25 do., Laura A. Dunbar, 29 do., Ellen Desmond, 25 do., Cornelius O'Neal 29 do., Egan, 13 do., Abby Hallahan, 14 do., Lewis Tanner, Mary A. S. Kehill, 2 do., Wm. Dooley, 2 mos., Wm. 10 do., Margaret L. Ward, 2 do., Wm. H. Scott, 3 days, Lucella Haslam, 42 yrs., Rosetta Green, 5 do., Joanna Morrison, 18 do., Chas. F. Rice, 40 do., Thos. Le Ray, 64 do., Ellen Desmond, 30 do., John Wood, 40 do. DISEASES.-Burned, 2, consumption, 18, croup, 2, dropsy in head, 3, infantile diseases, 2, unknown dis eases, 4, typhoid fever, 2, scarlet do., 19, disease of heart, 2, inflammation of lungs, 8, old age, 4, teething, 5, other diseases, 1 each, 9. Total, 80. Males, 39, females, 41. 60 were born in United States, 15 in places. Ireland, 2 in British Provinces, and 3 in other foreign N. A. APOLLONIO, City Registrar. THE MEDICAL WORLD. VOLUME I. MARCH 4, 1857. DR. ANDREW URE, F. R. S. duced into almost every university and into many public institutions. To Dr. Üre belongs the honor of having taken the lead in a moveDr. Ure, one of the veterans of chemical ment which has had incalculable influence in science, a contemporary of Davy and Wellas-developing national wealth, and promoting the ton, of Gay Lussac and Berzelius, died on interests both of science and art. The influthe 2d inst., after a few days' illness, at the ence which in early life he exerted as a teacher age of 78. His name is associated with some he continued in later years as an author. His original and remarkable researches, but he will" Dictionary of Chemistry," and his " Dictionbe chiefly distinguished in the annals of science ary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines," have by his success in the application of chemistry passed through many editions, and have been to the arts and to manufactures. In this translated into the leading continental lanspecial department, both as a teacher and as a guages. No works have done more for directwriter, he was unrivalled; and with beneficial ing and extending the applications of science results not confined to his own country. It to the ordinary uses of life. was in consequence of an official report, by M. Dr. Andrew Ure was born at Glasgow, May (afterwards Baron) Charles Dupin, to the 18, 1778. He studied at the university of French Government, on the influence of Dr. his native town, and afterwards at that of Ure's tuition on the manufactures of Glasgow, Edinburgh. He took his doctorate in medithat new courses of lectures on the same plan cine at Glasgow in 1801, having previously were instituted at the Conservatoire des Arts obtained the degree of Master of Arts. In et Métiers, in Paris; one course "Sur la 1804 he was appointed Professor of Chemistry Mécanique Appliquée," under M. Charles at the Andersonian University, which had Dupin, and another, "Sur la Chimie Ap- recently been established under the presidency pliquée," under M. Clement Desormes. Dr. of Dr. Birkbeck. In 1809, when the GlasUre had then for many years superintended glow Observatory was about to be established, the practical school of chemistry at the An- Dr. Ure came to London, commissioned to dersonian University of Glasgow, his class at make the scientific arrangements. Here he one time numbering above four hundred. The met and acquired the friendship of Maskelyne, fruits of this tuition will be best appreciated Pond, Groombridge, and other astronomers, from the words of Baron Dupin's report. and also of Davy, Wollaston, Henry, and "L'Institution Andersonienne a produiet des other distinguished chemists of that day. He résultats étonnans. C'est une chose admira- was introduced to Troughton by Colonel, now ble que de voir aujourd'hui dans beaucoup Sir T. Brisbane, the President of the Royal d'ateliers de Glasgow, de simples ouvriers Society of Edinburgh. At the Glasgow Obposséder et dévéolpper au besoin les principes servatory, where Dr. Ure resided for several de leurs operations, et les moyens théoretiques years, he was honored with a most friendly d'arriver aux résultats pratiques les plus par-visit by Sir William Herschel. In 1818, a faits possibles. Le principal Professeur del'-paper was read before the Royal Society, and Institution Andersonienne, le Docteur Ure, published in the "Philosophical Transactions" m'a conduit lui-même dans toutes les manu- for that year-"New experimental researches factures importantes, et dont un grand nombre on some of the leading doctrines of caloric, sont dirigés par ses élèves." This was in particularly on the relation between the elas 1817. The teaching of the application of ticity, temperature, and latent heat of different chemistry to the arts has since been intro- vapors, and on thermometric admeasurement |