ed, to relieve the bowels; left the patient doing apparently very well.

In the evening the convulsions returned, and followed so fast one after the other that she had no moment of consciousness after sun-down, when I was called in consultation with Dr. Brantley, who took off all her hair, and the pulse being full and strong he bled her as much as she could bear, taking about forty ounces of blood. We then anointed the region of the axilla with a strong unguent of aconite. This was the most available method of adminis tering it, in consequence of her being unable to swallow, as she was in what might be termed a comatose state. After this, the convulsions did not occur so frequently; neither were they so violent. We continued the cold applications to the head, and the pepper water to the lower extremities.

May 11th. In the morning found the lady better. There was no show indicating miscarriage; pulse soft and regular; the patient able to swallow, but still not in the possession of all her faculties. Gave five drops of the tr. of aconite rad. in water, every two hours; and the bowels being still constipated, administered hydrarg. chl. mit., rad. rhi. pulv. aa. grs. xii., to be followed by small doses of the sulphate of magnesia every two hours, in order to produce free evacuations. We then left, and at 4 o'clock in the evening, with Dr. Brantley, I visited her again, and found a slight change for the better; the pulse soft, slow and regular; the skin moist and cool; the bowels open, there having been several operations since morning; stupor still continued; no spasm since morning. In consequence of the visible improvement in the case, which, however, was very slight, we continued our treatment, giving tr. aconite, with cold applications to the head, the warm bath to the feet, and another dose of hydrarg. chl. mit. and rad. rhi., to keep the bowels open-determined, however, to apply cups the next day and take blood locally, if the comatose state continued or the patient did not greatly improve by then. Saturday, May 12th. Together, we again visited the

patient; found her much better; symptoms decidedly favorable; the stupor had disappeared and entire consciousness was fully restored, having become rational early in the morning; the pain in the head still continued. Applied a blister on the back of the neck, extending up some distance on the osoccipitas and around on each side to the temporal bones; gave the aconite in smaller doses and at longer intervals; ordered the bowels to be kept open, and continued the cold applications to the head.

Monday, 14th. The patient was visited by Dr. Brantley and found to be greatly improved; was discharged, and in a few days she had almost regained her usual health and spirits, In this case we had no bad sequence. The patient rapidly improved, and although some time has now elapsed and she is in good health, yet she frequently has pain in the head, which must necessarily cause her a great amount of uneasiness,

Convulsions of this character, occurring in the early stages of gestation and entirely dependent upon the condition of the woman, (her being enceinte,) are not common; yet they do very frequently occur, particularly in cases of Primiparas, and are always alarming, not only in consequence of the great amount of interest and solicitude felt by all in reference to the peculiar condition of the female, but also because of the danger of attacks of this kind.

The plan of treatment which I consider as being gener. ally beneficial in these cases is as follows: Bleeding, local and general, to relax the system and relieve the congestion. Cathartics, to evacuate the bowels, and so relieve them. Sedatives, to diminish the force and volume of the circulation; and if miscarriage is threatened, I never attempt to prevent it. Counter irritants are also useful (after the most violent attacks have been subdued,) as preventives of inflammatory action.

Miscarriage is ofttimes the result of these convulsions. Frequently, and, in fact, generally, the patient is never permanently relieved until that takes place, or until she completes her full period of gestation and has given birth

to her child. Until then, she is in constant danger of a recurrence of these terrible and alarming attacks, which every physician should understand and be ready and able to treat with success.

What is Mind?

[A Fragment from E. C. Selected by.]

What is mind? ask the physiologist and the anatomist. They are the followers of inductive and experimental sciences, they live in the investigation of man and his nature; but they are unable to furnish us with the required information. They scrutinize merely the external appearance, noticing the distinctions which separate race from race, peculiarities of form, structure and temperament, which, if they do not cause, are intimately connected with the mental aptitudes and dispositions of men; but still all their investigations are founded upon matter and its properties. They plunge the dissecting knife into the frame, explain the form and functions of the viscera, divide the muscles which were once the agents of power, tear up the nerves which were once the channels of sensation and the conductors of the current of will, anatomize the lungs where vital heat was once generated, trace all the ramifications of the vascular system through which from that powerful fountain, the heart, flowed the stream of life. But in all this there is nothing but matter and its operations; we lay hold of no trace of the mind, but the brain still remains, and in connection with mind that is the most important of all the organs. After ages of disputation, during which the feelings and intelligence of men have been placed in the heart and other organs, all men worthy of scientific reputation have concurred in recognizing the brain as the seat of the mind, and modern science, if it has not already recognized, has a tendency to hold to the theory that from the form of the brain may be inferred the mental powers and their specific direc on. Go, then, to the brain; let the keen edge of the ana mist's blade separate its fibres and dive into its

deepest recesses; notice its gray matter, its white matter and its cellular tissue; observe how its convolutions are disposed; mark how the nerves all tend here as to a common centre; those nerves, it is settled are the channels of those sensations which come to, and those volitions which go from the brain. Everything announces that this is the temple of intellect-the seat of the mind; but the structure is vacant, the occupant has fled; with life fled mind, with mind intelligence. We have here the mere physical organization which wedded to life produced thought; here, the highest conceptions of the poets, the most benevolent aspirations of the philanthropist, the profoundest theories of the philosopher had their rise and first become embodied as ideas,-now we see a mass of inert matter which does not bear upon it a trace of the noble uses which it has subserved. So, as a parallel, we may fancy with Hamlet, "Alexander's dust coming to stop a bunghole." The anatomist must tell you that all his researches end in the investigation of matter from the most gross to the most delicate of all tissues, from the massive muscles to the attenuated nerves; from the firm unyielding bones to the soft pulpy brain, all is matter still; the subtle essence, mind, which once pervaded it and made it the instrument of will, eludes all search and baffles all investigation.

In the performance of our duty, one feeling should direct us; the case we should consider as our own, and we should ask ourselves whether, placed under similar circumstances, we should choose to submit to the pain and danger we are about to inflict. Guided by this principle, and having collected all the evidence which applics to the case, we perform our duty without the reproaches of conscience which must await those who unnecessarily subject their patients to pain and danger.--Sir Astley Cooper.

Errors in Diagnosis-With Cases.

BY EDWARD B. HOOK, M. D., SANDERSVILLE, GA.

Being solicited to contribute to this number of the journal just prior to its going to press, we have not time to write an elaborate article upon a special subject. We have, therefore, concluded to report a few cases which have occurred in our practice, the object of which will be to show that no treatment can be successful which is not based upon a correct diagnosis.

"The diagnosis of disease constitutes the first part of the office of the physician in his actual visits to the sick. The sources of diagnosis are the history, the symptoms, or changes in function, (the physical signs,) the effects of remedies, and the morbid anatomy, or changes in structure." It is, however, principally from the symptoms, viewed in the light shed upon them by the history of the case, that we arrive at our conclusions. In studying and comparing symptoms, every thing, even the most apparently trivial, which could by possibility have a bearing in the case, must be strictly noted. It is, therefore, necessary that upon approaching the sick we narrowly examine the countenance, note the eye, study its expression, observe the gestures the apparently careless posture of the limbs, the manner of reclining-whether on the back, side, abdomen, or half reclining with the chest raised. To the experienced medical eye these things are taken in at a glance, and almost unconsciously; and they frequently throw a flood of light upon some otherwise obscure symptom. We must also bear in mind that diseases entirely distinct in their nature frequently have symptoms so much alike as to deceive those of great experience. It behooves us, therefore, to be cautious, and to leave no symptomatogical stone, so to speak, unturned. Marshall Hall says: "On considering the nature of experience in medicine, it is plain that it consists, in a great measure, in an acquired capacity for receiving and acting on general impressions induced in the mind by the repeated contemplation of disease. The inexperienced practitioner is incapable of receiving these