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slower in an inflamed part,-whether the capillaries are contracted or dilated,are questions, therefore, of little moment, in comparison with those which affect the actions of Nutrition and Secretion, to which the fluid, in its passage through the parts in question, ought to be subservient. The same may be remarked of those productions which have been termed heterologous transformations of tissue; but which are rather to be regarded as new growths, that have appropriated the nutriment designed for the support of the proper tissues, and have therefore become developed at the expense of these. It is quite as absurd to attempt to account for the growth of Schirrus, Carcinoma, &c., by any peculiar action of the vessels of the part, as it would be to attribute the secretion of fatty matter by the cells of one tissue, or of phosphate of lime by those of another, to the peculiar distribution of their vessels. The progress of research obviously leads to the conclusion, that in every part of the living body there is an inherent and independent vitality, which enables it to grow and maintain its normal structure and constitution, so long as it is supplied with the requisite materials; and that changes in the character of the tissue can be referred to nothing else than to alterations in its properties, resulting from external agencies, or to alterations in the materials supplied for its renewal. Of these two morbific causes, the latter is undoubtedly the most frequent; and the tendency which is now gaining ground to seek in the Blood for indications of pathological changes, when there is an obvious general disturbance of the system, will probably lead to a greatly-increased knowledge of the real nature of diseased states; in spite of the opposition which any return to the Humoral Pathology is sure to excite, in the minds of those who regard it as an exploded and pernicious system." 601.

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On the subject of animal heat, Dr. Carpenter does not assent to the prevailing chemical doctrine of the day, which assimilates calorification to combustion. He nevertheless takes a chemical view of the process which, in our opinion, is precisely that justified by the facts which are known. At present," he says, it may be stated as a general fact, that the production of animal heat is due to the various changes in chemical composition that are continually taking place within the system; of which changes, the absorption of oxygen, and the disengagement of carbonic acid, are the two chief external manifestations :-and that the degree of caloric liberated bears a close relation to the activity of these changes, either in regard to the body at large, or to any portion of it." p. 611.

The concluding Chapter, on Reproduction and the Development of the Embryo, contains nothing original, but gives a succinct view of the actual amount of knowledge on these subjects.

We must now take our leave of Dr. Carpenter, and, in so doing we have much satisfaction in declaring our opinion that his work is the best systematic treatise on Physiology in our own language, and the best adapted for the student existing in any language.

Periscope;

OR,

CIRCUMSPECTIVE REVIEW.

"Ore trahit quodcunque potest, atque addit acervo."

Notices of some New Works.

ON SPASM, Languor, PalSY, AND OTHER DISORDERS, TERMED NERVOUS, OF THE MUSCULAR SYSTEM. By Arthur James Wilson, M.D. Physician to St. George's Hospital, 8vo. pp. 200, Parker, Strand, 1843.

THIS is the product of a talented physician, who has (and who has not?) some peculiar opinions-especially respecting the blood. The little work is dedicated to the memory of his father, the late James Wilson, Esq. whose accurate anatomical knowledge will long be remembered by those who studied in Windmill Street, at the beginning of the present century.

Our author considers that the muscular fibre-" the ever busy self-moving fibre," has been too much overlooked in tracing the pathology of diseases, in the same way as the state of the blood was neglected. One cause of this neglect, he thinks is the fact that muscular structure does not present such evident changes after death, as glandular and other structures. The muscles, too, have been despised, as being entirely excited by the nerves supplying them.

"From within, as from without, from the air we breathe, from the food we swallow, as from the inmost recesses of the most distant structures, there is a channel by which, more directly than by its nerve, most of what influences the muscle is received into its fibre. It is by the continuous universal blood, which, while it bathes the fibre, touches the air and mixes with the foodit is by the blood in mass and in current, that the muscle maintains its great and constant relations with the external agencies of matter as with the elementary texture of every organ in the body.

"Let us, therefore, in the enquiry we propose, be content to approach the muscle with the material of its circulation, rather than from the distant sources of its so-called 'nervous energy.'

"In rational medicine, as in the physiology of health, the blood, we shall ever find, is our one helping clue. From the blood deficient, from the blood in excess in the muscular structure, a prejudice to its function invariably follows. Spasms, the most frightful, may be induced by the addition of certain principles to the blood; and from the absence of others, the faculty of self-contraction in the fleshy structures may be entirely suspended.

"In the explantion of such agencies of the blood upon the muscle, there is no need for the intervention of the nerve. The effects are direct upon the muscle; and, therefore, upon the nerve, as being one of the parts of its entire organized structure. States of the muscle are necessarily implied by states of the blood. And, upon the blood, let it be remembered, not only in the composition of its material, but upon the blood organized and discharging functions many and various; upon the blood in its habits as it lives,' the muscle is made

to depend. Its lively function at once ceases under any great vice of the blood."

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Our author goes on to say that, as the blood influences the muscle, so the muscle, in its re-agency, influences the blood. The muscle is not to be considered as merely the organ of motion, but "collectively and in the mass, as the most extensive of living structures," constantly acting upon and "elaborating the great common material of the body, and preparing it for circulation elsewhere." Dr. Wilson gives his definition of " MUSCLE as "the living flesh, in its combination of many parts, with the blood predominant in all;" and by muscular action, he never means less than a result of the triple agency of nerve and fibre with the blood." There is a depth-perhaps a certain degree of obscurity-in some of Dr. Wilson's reasonings or theories, which induces us to pass on to their application to practice or facts.

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"In the practical application of these principles to the treatment of muscular disorder, we find that great advantages are actually obtained by addressing our remedies to the muscle through the wide current of the blood that pervades its entire texture, rather than by seeking to influence the structure through the exclusive agency of its nerve. Medicine and disease work, it is ever found, on the same living materials by the same means of living action; and thus it follows, that sometimes by extending the supply of blood to the muscle, sometimes by reducing it, by removing hurtful principles from the circulation, or by restoring those which are inherently wholesome, we do in truth best control the symptoms of muscular disorder."

The disorders, he observes, incidental to the voluntary muscles, are principally expressed by undue violence or contraction-by slowness or irregularity of movement-and by suspension of motion. Cases, he avers, of palsy and chronic spasm, "hopeless, if assumed to depend on organic disease of the brain or spinal marrow, are not unfrequently cured," by means addressed to the blood and its purification. In such cases, large bleedings (" the routine practice of the day ") and strong mercurial poison are, of course, condemned.

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"Even where the muscle is least in fault-when its function is impaired by lesion, not of its own structure, but of the brain or spinal marrow-even under these effects of distinct and distant nervous injury, we must in our management of the case still depend on the blood for all that we hope to secure of improvement in the muscle."

Our author makes several apt remarks on the state of the voluntary muscles in various diseases. Thus the poison of fever, through the medium of the blood, soon prostrates the strength, and affords important indications in the way of prognosis. The expression of the countenance, on which we so much rely, is formed entirely by the state of the muscles. "In the convalescence of fever, the restoration of the muscular power is the completion of recovery."

SPASM.

This is, as Dr. W. observes, a vague term in medicine. It is applied to the involutary muscular fibres, as well as to the voluntary-nay, it is applied to structures where no muscular fibres have yet been demonstrated. Dr. W. however, applies the term spasm only to those muscles which are under the influence of the will.

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"It is not, however, by organic disease of the brain, or by tumors pressing on the nerve, that spasm is for the most part explained. The worst forms of spasm seem to have least to do with the nerves of the affected muscles, and are compatible with the soundest state of their structure. Indeed, when spasm kills, we rarely learn, by dissection of the Nervous System,' how death is brought about.

No. LXXVII.

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"On the other hand, large portions of the brain or spinal marrow may be slowly disorganized with no effect of spasmodic contraction in those muscles of which the nerves are continuous with the damaged portion of the medullary column."

Spasmodic affections at the commencement of fever, are often indicative of an eruptive complaint, as all experienced practitioners must have observed.

Dr. W. confesses that he cannot easily account for cramp or true spasms: but, in his own practice, has always found it accompanied by some "constitutional disturbance." He will not admit the theory that cramp depends on pressure or irritation of the nerve of the affected muscles," or from sympathy with other nerves.

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"It is from what offends the blood in the fibre, that spasm of the voluntary muscles is for the most part induced. By no contrived irritation of the gangli onic nerves can we directly induce spasm in the voluntary muscles; let, however, but a few drops of the solution of extract of the nux vomica be injected into the current of the living blood, and tetanus is the certain result. There are no cramps so severe as those of which poison mixed with the blood is the direct cause. Can we refuse the inference, that always in the muscles, when thus disturbed, there is a prejudice of the blood by composition or in function ;—and by the blood's function how much is implied!-how much more than the little we know of it by its material composition, or in its mechanical relations! This has not been enough considered. The blood not only lives, but its life predominates over that of all else in the system."

The sense of weight and constriction under the ensiform cartilage, together with the anxiety and other sensations during a paroxysm of “ spasm in the chest" (we suppose Angina Pectoris) give evidence, our author thinks, that the blood is in undue volume, or of unfit quality in the large vessels.

But we have followed our author through a host of spasmodic affections, on which he descants, but so often in a mysterious language and phraseology, that we confess ourselves unable to fathom his meaning on many occasions. That he attributes the wide class of ailments, referred to in this volume, to some morbid condition of the blood, we think is clear; but what that morbid condition is, or how it is to be remedied or prevented, we have been unable to learn from the author himself. Clearer and abler heads than ours may, probably, derive sound precepts and important information from Dr. Wilson's volume, and to them we recommend its attentive perusal.

We shall give one more extract, and it is one of the least equivocal in the volume.

"The mind is educated with the muscle,-lives with it, and by it; and in the body never survives its death; but muscle is not therefore mind. The beasts that perish have muscles like ourselves. That in man the mind should conform with, and be dependent on matter, is the law of his probationary existence. As a compound being, on the Creator's design, he is fashioned, taught, and tried. To distinguish mind, in man, from matter, is to unmake the man.

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'It is a common error with divines, and much scandal has arisen from the impossible attempt. Man's mind is not a necessary, or fortuitous result of his material life, but an imposed condition of its tenure. It is dependent, as we have seen, at all times, on the muscles for its expression. Mind, if anywhere in the body, is everywhere. How grossly do they err, who, fearing to acknow, ledge its close, constant, and entire connexion with every drop and particle of the living human frame, would limit its residence to certain parts, as to the brain!

"But, if thus localized in the brain; in which brain? for there are two; in which lobe, chamber, or convolution of the brain? for there are many. The brain is but the central union, by double junction, of all the nerves of all the

muscles; an appended system of parts, with partial relations, by function, with other structures, and capable of common influences, only through the blood. It, the brain, may, in truth, be regarded as the lungs of the nerves; for, in the brain, the nerves are spread out, universally and simultaneously, to the blood, fresh, full, and ventilated from the aortic heart. Without the adjuncts of blood and muscle, we cannot get a notion of the brain, either in structure or function.

"Thought and Memory attach to the brain, only as representing the several organs of the body, in combination, by their nerves. There is no more thought in one part of the brain than in another; than in the muscle, whose nerves are there expanded, or in the blood, of which the brain in all its parts consists. On the triple relation of blood and brain, by nerve, with the fibre, the expression of thought is made, in the muscle, to depend; and of thought, in its physical operation, this is all that we are permitted to know.

"That the soul, by which we feel and think, is essentially, now, and for ever, distinct from blood, brain and muscle, we are assured by a Law, which is not of the flesh. And yet, by the flesh, is the law to us made manifest. It has been written, spoken, acted,-still, by those muscles which have been our theme, and from which we now with awe retire. That the Word might to Man be Light, it became itself incarnate."

NUMEROUS CASES OF SURGICAL OPERATIONS, WITHOUT PAIN, IN THE MESMERIC STATE; with Remarks upon the Opposition of many Members of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society, and others, to the reception of the inestimable blessings of Mesmerism. By John Elliotson, M.D. 8vo. pp. 93. Bailliere, 1843.

THIS pamphlet is generally denominated "Dr. Elliotson's farewell to the profession." We are sorry to see it, for it is probable that before Dr. E. dies he will regret its publication. We never heard any one deny the talents, abilities, and industry of the author; but genius is very often allied to eccentricity—and the latter not seldom borders on delusion. There is no doubt that Dr. E. firmly believes in the truth of Mesmerism; but he ought to recollect the maxim of Hippocrates-" Judicium difficile experientia fallax." If experience be often fallacious, how much more so is experiment? When the generality of mankind differ from an individual on some particular point, it is a strong presumption that the individual is wrong, and he had better give way. Instead of this prudent step, the Mesmerist immediately points to Galileo, Harvey, or Newton,-forgetting the hosts of enthusiasts who considered themselves Galileos, but whose doctrines are now consigned to oblivion with themselves. Galileos, Harveys, and Newtons, are not the products of every year-nor of every century, whereas visionaries are as plentiful as blackberries, and often as transitory as that sable fruit. But, say the Mesmerists, "we have disciples among the highest and most learned classes of society." As for the higher orders, they are ten times more gullible than the middle classes-and among the learned, there will always be found credulous and superstitious individuals. Johanna Southcote did not want believers among the better classes of society. Even DOCTORS asserted that they felt the young Shiloh skipping about in the womb of a sexagenarian and flatulent old hag.

There is no question, as we before said, that Dr. Elliotson is sincere in his faith; but how he can so far blind himself as to suppose that Mesmerism, if true, would be an inestimable blessing to mankind, we cannot comprehend! What! the power, (not limited to the faculty, but open to all,) of casting man,

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