fice still open, put in a pea of her own accord, which caused no pain or bleeding; and in the course of two or three days, an issue was completely established. QUESTIONS. 18. What is the cause of the difference of climate in countries situated in the same parallel of latitude? Confining ourselves to Europe and America, what a vast difference do we perceive: on this side of the Atlantic, colder winters, warmer summers, a drier atmosphere, and clearer sky! Is it owing, as some have supposed, to our ex tensive forests, our immense lakes, and the extent of uncultivated land; that from Maine to Virginia, our cities, all much lower on the scale of latitude than any in England, are far more rigorously dealt with in winter than these! (If so, why!) And are we to attribute to her being surrounded with water, England's superiority in fogs, clouds and rain, (all islands we believe are not so blessed!) The Sun has been known in England to withhold his cheering beams for many weeks together,- -as was the case in one of the visits of our countryman Franklin, who upon his reappearance doffed his beaver from respect and joy at again seeing an old friend. We hear too a great deal about the delightful climate of Paris; if by this is meant the weather, that which is called "falling" is by no means so unpopular as one might think. But to revert to the question:-If, cæteris paribus all countries in the same degree of latitude should have like climates, then in this the cætera are not paria. Now whence this difference? or in what does it consist? VARIETY. 1767, January 24,-" One Patrick Redmond having been condemned at Cork, in Ireland, to be hanged for a street robbery, he was accordingly executed, and hung upwards of twentyeight minutes, when the mob carried off the body to a place appointed, where he was, after five or six hours, actually recovered by a surge on, who made the incision in his wind-pipe, called Bronchotomy, which produced the desired effect. The poor fellow has since received his pardon.”—Gent. Mag. v. 37. p. 90. In Vol. 38, p. 616, of the same work, is a long account of one Ambrose Gwinnett, who was executed for a murder that was never committed; he was brought to life again, and escaped into a foreign country, where he lived many years; until he accidentally met with the man for whose supposed murder he had been hung. An interesting deduction may be undoubtedly drawn from a knowledge of these facts, viz. "The body was discovered by a very singular experiment, (singular indeed, and unique, for we presume it will never occur again)—which was as follows:--After diligent search had been made in the river for the child, to no purpose, a two-penny loaf, with a quantity of Quicksilver put into it, was set floating from the place where the child, it was supposed, had fallen in, which steered its course down the river upwards of half a mile, before a great number of spectators, when the body happening to lay on the contrary side of the river, the loaf suddenly tacked about, and swam across the river, and gradually sunk near the child, when both the child and loaf were immediately brought up with grablers ready for that purpose." UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA. The Committee of the Trustees, appointed to distribute the tickets of gratuitous admission to the course of Medical Lectures which will begin in November next, agreeably to the foundation established by the Medical Faculty, give notice, that applications in writing, under seal, addressed to the above named committee, to the care of the Secretary of the University of Pennsylvania, may be made at any time before the first Monday of September next. It is required that each application be acaccompanied by a respectable testimonial of the good character of the applicant, and of his being in such restricted circumstances as entitle him to the benefit of this foundation. It must also appear that he has attained the age of eighteen years, is possessed of sufficient literary acquirements, and of studious habits. On the first Monday of September next, the committee will open and decide on the applications, and immediately give notice to the suc cessful applicants, and return to the others their applications and testimonials, their names not to be disclosed by the committee. May 29, 1824. BENJAMIN CHEW, WM. MEREDITH, JAMES GIBSON, Committee of the Trustees. COMMUNICATION. Mr. Editor,-In Dr. Eberle's New Medical Journal, notice is given of the use of Sulphate of Quinine in large doses, by a foreign practitioner, in such a way as to induce the belief that such doses were novel. I am able, however, to state, that quite as large portions have been frequent ly exhibited in the vicinity of Philadelphia, and with the happiest results. I have in a number of instances, where I had but little time for the favourable exhibition of the remedy, given ten grains in the course of three hours. To a delicate little girl of about ten years of age, I recently gave six grains in the course of one hour, and with the best success, no untoward symptom supervening. Two reasons have operated to elicit these remarks: first, a desire that medical men may be assured of the safety of the remedy in large doses; and secondly, that we may enjoy the credit, if any there be, of being as enterprising in the use of the Sulphate, as any of our distant medical brethren. THOS. D. MITCHELL. I am, with respect, Frankford, July 14, 1824. We publish the preceeding communication from Dr. T. D. Mitchell, from a wish, as much as in us lies, to extend the knowledge of the perfect safety of so valuable a remedy as the Sulphate of Quinine. We cannot, however, doubt the fact to have been long familiar to our medical brethren, since scarcely a journal of England or France, appeared without a reference to it. So far back as July, 1821, it had been given in doses of six to eight grains repeatedly through the day, -and since that period many other instances are recorded: yet, although safe, such doses, it is to be remembered are not often necessary; and personal experience must probably decide the relative doses that individual cases may require. PUBLISHED (EVERY THURSDAY) BY ROBERT DESILVER, NO. 110, WALNUT STREET, PHILADA. At $3 per annum, payable in advance. R. Wright, printer. THE ARS LONGA, VITA BREVIS VOL. I. EDITED BY SEVERAL PHYSICIANS. PHILADELPHIA, THURSDAY, JULY 29, 1824. OF PANACEAS! It is our intention to give an occasional view of some of those boasted remedies, by which, at different periods, mankind has been so grossly cheated, under the name of a Panacea-an Alexipharmic-a Catholicon, and so forth. We begin with the Viper in our paper of today. The fate which this celebrated agent has experienced, after being the idol of regular and irregular practice for upwards of fifteen hundred years, will serve to depict that which awaits every other of the class, either of the present or of future times. No. 7. lepra græcorum, it was regarded as the prime antidote, and, indeed, as the only one able to grapple with that most formidable and loathsome disease; in purifying the blood, and the removal of scrofula in all its most distressing forms, so great was its estimation, that it might proudly say to those of recent origin, "Ye little stars hide your diminished rays." Galen, enlarging upon the singular benefits of the Viper, in subduing Leprosy, acquaints his reader, that its first discovery was by accident: and what was intended by the giver of it, for certain destruction, proved providentially the recovery of the receiver; as appears by the two following relations, among others, which he has set down.* "Being a young man, (says he) I remember one of my companions keeping company with a leper, was at last infected, and thereby smell, insomuch that an apartment was built rendered of a terrible aspect, and offensive. * Lib. XI. de Simp. Med. facult. for him near the village, from whence he was furnished with sustenance. In the time of harvest it happened that some wine being brought out to the reapers, and set carelessly by; after some time when one of them was about to drink, that he might mix it with some water, the wine was poured forth of the vessel into the drinking cup, and therewith a dead Viper: the harvest-men, astonished at the sight, and apprehending danger, chose rather to quench commiserate to the poor leper near adjoining, as believing it were better for him to die than live longer in that miserable condition, in regard whereof they offer him the wine, without taking notice what had befallen it; and he, soon after the drinking thereof, was, to a miracle, restored to health; his hard and scaly skin peeling off, and a more smooth and natural one appearing underneath." their thirst with water: however, they were so The other is of "a leper going to the baths for help, and slighted by a courtesan he was desperately in love with: she attempted to poison him by giving him wine in which a viper accidentally falling, had been drowned: but which, as the former, intended for his death, proved luckily the means of health." During a period of nearly sixteen centuries, had any person presumed to call in question the panaceal powers of the poisonous reptile, ten thousand pens would have leaped from their standishes, to maintain the reputation of this Galenical nostrum! Had oaths been wanting to substantiate its cures, oaths in abundance might have been attained; and oaths (unlike too many of those of the present day, on like occasions), founded on a firm belief of its asserted virtues!-we have, however, given, and shall continue to give, evidence of the facility with which the mind is diverted to a wrong direction, by interested persons; and that nothing is more readily acceded to, than tales of wonder-working nostrums, even in those, whose scepticism leads them to doubt the miracles recorded in the sacred writings!-Such has been, in fact, the case with Panaceas of every age; the few who are interested in their success, keep up a constant display of their virtues before the public; but, as in general, that public has its own immediate con cerns to attend to, no one thinks it his duty to stem the torrent; and at length, by dint of importunate and continued arrogations of misrepresented cases, the public is persuaded of their truth! and finally yields implicit belief in every idle tale related of the article. Did those who thus prostitute the name of panacea, understand its meaning, they would, perhaps, acknowledge, that it but partially applied to their favourite; for certainly, not one article of regular or irregular practice, can ever deserve the title.-It is the mystery in which they are shrouded, and the extravagant price at which they are charged, that gives to the far greater number, all their celebrity!-for the promulgation of their composition instantaneously dissolves the charm. To return to the subject of the viper, let us learn its panaceal powers by the following extract from Salmon's Dispensatory, p. 253, printed about one hundred and fifty years ago.-It has, at the present day, but few supporters; and serves to substantiate the mental hallucination, on which all these boasted remedies depend for an ephemeral existence. It is this hallucination by which the public is led to worship every catholicon that is placed before them. Like the Indian and his Fetiche, if one fails he applies to another; and if one head of the hydra be lopped off, two will spring up in its place. Whether it is correct to conform to the old adage, "Si populus vult decepi, &c.," we leave for others to determine;-for ourselves, we believe it every man's duty to expose deception, especially in his own profession; and in none more than that of medicine, which may be made a blessing or a curse to mankind, accordingly as it is pursued. Whilst we may be fully persuaded of the imperfection of our science, we cannot but believe, that all will admit the absurdity of supposing any one qualified to pursue a mere me chanical art, without having previously undergone a regular apprenticeship to that art! and that it is equally, or more absurd to imagine, that without a preparatory education and due apprenticeship, a man can suddenly, without trouble, and, as it were, by intuition. stumble upon panaceas for the cure of the most formidable complaints, and which has been in vain attempted by scientific research and the most extensive attainments of pharmaceutic chemistry. The fact is, that all these boasted panaceas are, for the most part, some prescription of regular practice, vamped up in mystery and concealment: and if occasionally useful, are more frequently in jurious, from being applied indiscriminately under all circumstances;-and this generally at a most extravagant price, far beyond that, which medicines of the most costly nature could possibly warrant. We would venture to affirm, that articles of this description, for which patients are compelled to pay dollars, would be compensated by fifty cents for the same amount. Whatever, then, may be their intrinsic properties, it is a pal. pable fraud on the public to demand a premium so infinitely beyond all bounds. "1. The head of the Viper is used as an amulet, to be hung about the neck, to cure a Quinsie. 2. The Flesh is hot and dry, and purges the whole body by sweat; and being eaten or drunk, it cures the French Pox, and the leprosie. 3. The Broth of them performs the same things, eating half a Viper at once, and fasting five or six hours after it; so also they cure all old ulcers and fistulas, clear the eye-sight, help the palsie, and strengthen the 3. The ashes of their Heads mixt with a quick decoction of bitter lupins, and used as nerves. an oyntment to the temples, stops rheums fall. ing into the eyes, and helps their dimness, and is an excellent thing against St. Anthony's Fire. The fat or grease mixt with honey, is an excellent thing to clear the sight. 6. The whole Viper in powder (the head and gall excepted) cures perfectly the gout, king's evil, taken twice a day to zij. or more. 7. Oleum Viperarum; it cures the gout, palsie, and leprosie, cleanses the skin, and helps all the defects thereof. 8. Viper wine. It is made by drowning live Vipers in the wine. It cures leprosies and the French pox. 9. Powder of Vipers compound. It is made as that of serpents, and has all the same vertues. 10. Quintessence of Vipers is very powerful against leprosies, the French pox, and all impurities of the flesh and blood. 11. Essentia viperarum. It is a most excellent medicine, dissolves all excrements and coagulations of humors, dissolving, putrifying, and cleansing like soap; carry ing out every ill by urine, sweat, or insensible transpiration, curing all sorts of gouts, the stone in both reins and bladder, leprosie, French pox, scurvy, melancholy, all obstructions and putrefaction, loss of strength, decays of nature and consumptions, so that, as it were, it even renovates a man by taking away what is con trary to nature, and adding what is requisite. 12. Spirit, oyl volatile, and fixed salt of Vipers. The volatile salt and spirit are wonderful medi cines, they resist putrefaction, open all obstructions, cure quartans and all sorts of fevers, given to allay the sharpness, as in the emulsion of an hour before the fit, in a convenient vehicle, almonds with a little rose and cinamon-water, and white sugar. Dose of the volatile salt is a gr. vj. ad x or xii. of the fixed ass adj or 3ss. to the Viper, that the celebrated George We shall only add further in relation Psalmanazar, one of the greatest liars that ever appeared, at a dinner at which stated of his grandfather, that he " he was present, is reported to have stated of his grandfather, that he "was 117 years of age, and as fresh, plump, and vigorous as a young man, occasioned by sucking the blood of a viper warm every morning."-Gent. Mag. 35, p. 79. MENTAL ALIENATION. M. Georget, physician of Paris, for ma ny years resident in the great hospital for the deranged, La Salpétriere, in 1820, published a work upon this subject, which contains much useful matter; though comparatively a young man, (being not yet thirty) he enjoys the esteem and consideration of his medical brethren, and is, from his talents and acquirements, as well as the peculiar advantages he has enjoyed upon this particular subject, to be regarded as pretty good authority. We have translated, and propose to give some idea of his work, as we are not aware that it is at all known in this country. One of his chapters, that upon the opening and examining of dead bodies, obtained the prize offered by M Esquirol, in 1819, and was then published. Speaking in his preface of his right to know something of the subject, he says, "Being in a situation for many years to observe mental alienation in a vast establishment, living, as it were, continually in the midst of twelve hundred patients, I have been very often witness of all the facts I have advanced, and I consider the opinions I put forth as sufficiently grounded in |