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The Physician's Guide, and Advice to People in general, with respect to their Health; being a popular Dissertation on Fevers, Inflammations, and all Diseases connected with them; comprising Observations on the Use and Abuse of Bloodletting, Mercury, Cathartics, Stimulants, Diet, &c. &c. By Adam Dods, M.D. Author of an Introductory Essay to a Series on Blood-letting, &c.--pp. 322. Worcester. 1821.

WE never like to see long titles fronting works, because we are led to expect a great deal, but are often disappointed. We not only dislike the length of the title of the present work, but we dislike the nature of it also; for if a work be perfect enough to guide physicians, it cannot be expected that " people in general" can well comprehend it. Medical subjects, in particular, should be treated either philosophically, or else entirely in a popular manner; because there is a great difference between enquiring minutely into the relations subsisting between cause and effect in the process of disease, and giving a popular and superficial view of some of its external characters. There is no branch of philosophy so abstruse as that connected with an enquiry into the changes which the living body undergoes while under the influence of disease, as it requires not only a knowledge of the laws which govern the agencies of tangible matter in general, but also an inductive knowledge of those which influence it in an insensible form, because neither disease itself, nor the principle upon which it acts, is a sensible object. As, therefore, it is expected that every member of the profession is in some degree acquainted with the laws which regulate the actions of disease; and, as it cannot be expected that "people in general" are capable of comparing the character of external symptoms with the changes which the internal parts undergo, from a want of knowledge of the relative situations and vital connections of these parts, a work which is worth the perusal to a medical practitioner, educated in the knowledge of the present day, can convey no great deal of intelligible information to those who have never studied the structure of the human body.

Dr. Dods commences his work with the subject of inflammation; and asserts, "that inflammation, or inflammatory excitement, is neither more nor less than excitement of nerves, with a distension of the blood-vessels, to which may be added a chemical change of the blood, especially if the nerves continue any length of time morbidly affected," &c.

It is very probable that no part of the body can undergo the process of inflammation without affecting, in some degree, the nerves of that part, so as to give rise to pain; but this admission

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