against you; it is the tallest feather in your cap; it was by the same rough road that Dudley and Caldwell and John Hunter, and many a shining light in the profession throughout the great West, elbowed his way to an honorable distinction. Be not ashamed, or if your cheek will redden, if your eye will seek the ground, blush that you had it in your heart to close against the poor but enterprising student of the future that portal through which you made your own way to your present greatness. pause while the door is yet ajar; among that hard-handed, hard-headed throng, with uncouth raiment but resolute countenance, whom you would shut out, reflect, there may be a second N. S. D. Ah, your hand falters, have reflected; he, too, may become Professor of, etc., etc., Member of, etc., etc.

you

Ah,

FIVE ESSAYS. BY JOHN KEARSLEY MITCHELL, M. D., late Professor of Practice of Medicine in Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia, etc. Edited by S. WEIR MITCHELL, M. D., Lecturer on Physiology in the Philadelphia Association for Medical Instruction. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co.

These Essays are doubtlessly published mainly for the perusal of those who are acquainted with the ingenious theories and speculations of Professor Mitchell through having attended his lectures, or associated with him in the scientific reünions where these opinions were first presented to the profession. But there is much in them suggestive of thought to the general reader, whether he may adopt or reject the conclusions arrived at.

They are upon the following subjects:

1. The Cryptogamous Origin of Malarious and Epidemic Fever. 2. Animal Magnetism; or Vital Induction.

3. On the Penetrativeness of Fluids.

4. On the Penetrativeness of Gases.

5. On a New Practice in Acute and Chronic Articular Rheumatism. The first essay, though dissenting toto cœlo from its conclusions, we have read with much gratification, from the various and interesting information bearing upon the malarious class of fevers; and, while we feel bound to record a verdict of "not proven," we are free to confess that out of the thousand and one other theories of malarious fever, we know of no other better supported.

The next paper, on Animal Magnetism, we find written with singularly good judgment. It is a most trying subject for any but the best

balanced minds to grapple with, environed as it is with the Scylla and Charybdis of Vulgar Credulity and Vulgar Incredulity. It has fallen, with a few rare exceptions, (and Dr. Mitchell is one of them,) into the hands of the irrational believer, who believes simply because it is marvellous; and the irrational skeptic, who disbelieves for the same reason. In the rarer case of the philosophical observer, the marvellous only operates so far as to excite attention, and by the time that reflection has had time to exercise itself, all that is merely marvellous falls down, because unsustained by reason; while what is retained as rational ceases to be marvellous, because it takes its place in that vast and mutually dependent series of facts which constitute the system of created nature.

We are glad to find that Dr. Mitchell concludes, what we have long believed ourselves, that what is established in the mesmeric or magnetic state, as also in somnambulism, dreaming-we will add insanity-is not any thing superadded to the ordinary psychological condition, but simply a negation of the ordinary operation of reason and volition, leaving the intellect passive to the impressions of the senses, or of the memory, artificially excited, and deprived of the controlling and correcting influence of the higher faculties. In other words, to adopt the calculus of physiology, the phenomena of the mesmeric state are simply automatic results of sensori-motory and ideo-motory impressions.

The two papers on the penetrative powers of fluids and gases show that Dr. M. is as ingenious in physical experiment as in abstract speculation. It would be presumptuous in us to pronounce upon the conclusiveness of the experiments without a personal repetition of them, for which we have neither time nor opportunity; they seem to have been satisfactory to the learned bodies before whom they were performed.

We can only conclude our notice by recommending all who desire food for reflection to buy this interesting little work and read it through. [Per W. T. Berry & Co.]

IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY OF LEGAL MEDICINE. A Lecture introductory to the Course on Medical Jurisprudence at the New York Medical College. By JAMES WYNN, M. D., Lecturer on Medical Jurisprudence in the New York Medical College. H. Balliere, of New York.

An important subject well pressed upon the increased attention of the profession.

MEDICAL HEROISM. Address before the Philadelphia County Medical Society, delivered February 24, 1859. By JOHN BELL, M. D., at the close of his official term as President.

Whether this contains any thing after the fourth page which is good, bad, or indifferent, we are unable to say; after we had read that far, we found that the orator was getting upon the now trite and hackneyed cant about the never-to-be-sufficiently-abused medical colleges; and there we shut the book, and never expect to open it again. We refuse to be nauseated by any more harping upon this string. Speaking of medical colleges, he says:

"They who wish to obtain the full or rather a liberal measure of medical attainments must prosecute their studies outside of college walls. Within these walls they cannot expect to receive methodical instruction in hygiene, public and private, botany, pathological anatomy, pathology in its large and recognized meaning, medical jurisprudence, medical biography, including the history of medicine; nor, finally, in medical bibliography."

Now a great part of this is simply untrue-many of these branches are as well taught in our medical colleges as in any institution in Europe devoted to the same purposes, namely, for the instruction of those who are to become the general practitioners for the people at large-and that which is not directly false is simply trifling; it is merely asserting the truism that a man cannot be eminent as a profound medical scholar without learning a good deal more than can be included in a regular college curriculum; this is true all the world over as well as in America. To require of a student, as a prerequisite to his receiving a diploma qualifying him to practice on half-a-dozen farms in Tennessee, that he should have had systematic instruction in the branches we have given in italics, would be downright insanity; and would, if acted upon, shut up every medical college in the United States-or in Europe either.

The author continues to say a little lower down:

"It may be grating to our national vanity, which certainly is not small, for us to be told that, in the matter of medical education, Young America has yet much to learn from Old Europe; but, unfortunately for us, the averment is undoubtedly true."

The direct reverse of this is much nearer the truth; most important improvements are at this moment being introduced into the French hospitals in the treatment of fractures, from the usage of the American hospitals. Dr. Bozeman has been among them teaching them to cure vesico-vaginal fistula; and if Dr. Bell will read a recent number of the Westminster Review, or some papers analyzing it in the New York

Medical Press, he will find that what is substantially the American system of education is earnestly advocated as the only practicable cure for the heterogeneous shams and abuses of the existing practice of England.

The men who thus delight in prostrating the American profession at the feet of that of Europe, are generally disappointed aspirants after the academical chairs, which they spend the rest of their life in abusing. We are sick of them, and are glad to find that the profession at large are getting to be of our opinion.

What else may be in the book we don't know, having been satisfied to stop at the last passage.

We have also received an interesting paper by Dr. Samuel Cartwright, of New Orleans, which has been unfortunately mislaid. The subject is the Diptherite, now prevalent in various parts of Europe and lately in California. This disease Dr. C. endeavors to identify with a variety of epidemies described in various ages by eminent medical writers, from Hippocrates to Bretonneau. He also makes it the occasion for recommending his favorite stimulant treatment as appropriate to this disease when occurring under the debilitating influence of Southern latitudes.

The subject is treated with much learning and ingenuity, as is every thing which proceeds from the pen of its author.

Editorial Department.

A CHANGE will be observed in the title-page of this number, the occasion of which will be partly explained by the following card from Dr. Currey :

With this number my connection with the Nashville Monthly Record of Medical and Physical Sciences, as one of its editors, ceases. Residing at a point distant from the place of publication, it has been impossible for me to bestow any attention upon the getting up of the Record, these duties necessarily devolving entirely upon Dr. Wright. Under these circumstances, it is but fair that whatever of credit and responsibility may be attached to such duties, he, to whom they properly belong, should sustain both. Holding in grateful remembrance the many expressions of approbation extended to me by the readers of the Southern Journal of Medical and Physical Sciences, and more lately by those of the Monthly Record, I bid you adieu, at least for a season.

KNOXVILLE, June 7, 1859.

RICHARD O. CURREY.

We have long been conscious of fulfilling our duties as editor of this Journal imperfectly through the want of resident editorial assistance. Dr. Currey's recent resignation of the chair of Chemistry in Shelby Medical College has precluded all expectation of his removal to Nashville, and it has been determined by all parties that an editorial change of this nature was a necessary consequence. The readers of the Record will derive the benefit of a much more efficient performance of the editorial function through the valuable assistance we shall derive from Professors Callender and Maddin, the large increase in the eclectic department of this number being, we trust, one specimen already before them of our increased efficiency in this respect. The editorial and review department