vious to my visit, playing with a box of percussion caps, and they supposed she had swallowed some of them, as signs of acute suffering were exhibited soon after.

The little patient appeared to be sinking very fast. The eyes had a hollow, glazed appearance; there was great heat in the epigastric region, and coldness of the extremities; there had been eight or nine discharges from the bowels in an hour, and her general aspect denoted approaching collapse. Before my arrival free emesis had been produced by some domestic remedy, yet I continued the vomiting by administering ipecac. and large draughts of warm water, (of which the patient greedily drank,) with the hope of discharging at least a portion of the offending matters. The discharges became so debilitating, however, that I threw up an injection of eight drops of laudanum, suspended in starch mucilage, and immediately afterward gave a large dose of calcined magnesia. An alkaline purgative was selected for the purpose of neutralizing any acid which might be found in the stomach or intestines, and thus prevent any chemical change in the copper. In the course of an hour, the child became perfectly composed, and fell into a pleasant slumber, though it had previously suffered excuciating pain, attended with spasms. Dr. Spilman, the family physician, now took charge of the case, and applied counter-irritation to the abdomen, On the next day four caps were discovered in the faecal matter, which were found to be devoid of their fulminating powder. The child is now enjoying very good health.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES.

Medical Botany; or Descriptions of the more important Plants used in Medicine, with their History, Properties, and Mode of Administration. By R. EGLESFELD GRIFFITH, M. D., Member of the American Philosophical Society of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, &c., &c., [with a motto,] with upwards of three hundred illustrations. Svo. pp. 704. Philadelphia, 1847.

Illustrations of Medical Botany: consisting of coloured figures of the plants affording the important articles of the Materia Medica, and descriptive letterpress. By JOSEPH CARSON, M. D., Professor of Materia Medica in the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy; Member of the American Philosophical Society; of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia; Fellow of the College of Physicians, &c. The drawings on stone by J. H. Colen. Vol. 1, Fol. pp. 28. Twenty Illustrations. Philadelphia, 1847.

What a change has occurred in the mode in which scientific subjects are taught in the schools at the present day from that which was common twenty or thirty years ago! Dry descriptions unaided by graphic illustrations are now uncommon, and the teaching, in any department of science, which does not address the eye as well as the ear, is properly deemed imperfect. Every thing is now rendered as demonstrable and demonstrative as possible, and it may be safely said, that the medical student has now much greater facilities for obtaining a due insight into an intricate branch of science than he had formerly. Nor ought this to be forgotten when an estimate is made of the present condition of medical education as compared with the past.

Of botanical works treating of general and medical botany, and illustrated by wood-cuts or copperplates, we have had numerous examples. Some of the oldest "herbals" are of this character, and in modern times excellent treatises have appeared, both in Europe and in this country, on medical botany more

especially. Those of Woodville of England, and of Roques of France, were well adapted to the objects had in view by their authors; whilst those of Barton and Bigelow, on the vegetable materia medica of the United States, were admirable, and are still worthy of all commendation; but they are no longer attainable; and moreover, many excellent and energetic articles from the vegetable kingdom have been added to the lists of the Materia Medica since these works were issued.

It is well, then, that individuals who-all must admit-are fully competent to the task and the occasion-Arcades amboshould have directed their talents and acquirements to the botanical history of those articles of the Materia Medica, which, here and elsewhere, are properly esteemed amongst the most valuable agents employed by the practitioner.

We may, by the way, express our surprise, that amongst the various and often conflicting sentiments to which the Medical Convention recently held in this city gave occasion, nothing-so far as we know-was said by authority as to the importance, to the professional student, of his attaining some knowledge of botany or natural history, either during his office attendance or at an after period. The published sentiments of some of the reformers must have, indeed, been materially modified and mollified, when we find no remarks from them as to the necessity for the candidate for graduation to pass through a curriculum of study equal or approaching to that required in many of the European schools; and which he could not pass through unless such a curriculum were determined upon, and attention to it rigorously enforced. We confess we should have greatly preferred to see some recommendation to the practitioner, that he should teach, or cause to be taught, to his office student the elements, at least, of botanical and zoological knowledge, rather than that it should have been urged upon him to take care that a candidate for his office instruction should know as much Latin as would enable him to translate or write a prescription. We cannot help regarding it as a solemn farce to pronounce to the world, that the writing of a prescription, in the mode in which it is done universally in this country, implies any knowledge of Latin whatever, seeing that all who understand technical terms and the proper symbols can accomplish this without difficulty. Let us take any extempo

raneous prescription by way of elucidation. We write the following at random :

4

Tinct. Gentian. comp. f.3iij.
Syrup Aurant.

f.3ij.

M.

Let him take a fourth part four times a day.

To write such a prescription, we say, requires no knowledge of Latin. The technical titles of the officinal preparations are given in the United States Pharmacopoeia; and the abridgement of those titles assuredly demands no Latin. The symbols, too, are understood with equal facility, and with equal nescience of that learned language. It would be somewhat otherwise were the directions to be written in Latin. Then, instead of the English, given above, we should have

"Sumat partem quartam quater in die,"

and for this a certain acquaintance with the Latin would be necessary. This, however, is never done in this country, and consequently, we repeat, the writing of a prescription in our ordinary mode requires rather a knowledge of technical terms than of Latin; and hence every apothecary's boy soon learns all that is required of the professional student by the Convention, whether his attention at school have been directed to the humanities or not. We think that respectable body ought to have required-as we stated in a former number-"that the youth intended for the medical profession, should have the intellectual and moral training that befits the well-educated gentleman," and all will be prepared to admit, that the Greek and Latin languages form a necessary part of such training. Were it universal or common we should not meet with such a quotation as the following in a recent number of a respectable medical journal:-Romæ scribo et Ære romano❞—we give it literally-which "meaneth when literally interpreted"--" I write at Rome and in Roman brass," whereas the author wished to say, that he wrote in the "Roman air or atmosphere," (aere.) But we must not dwell upon this subject, especially as we do not yet possess a published report of the proceedings of the Convention, and may therefore unintentionally do it injustice.

As regards the utility of natural history and botany, and the

importance of their forming a part of medical education "prior to attendance on lectures," we borrow and adopt the following observations from a recent author:* "It is not"-he says"in its relation to materia medica, that the study of natural history ought to be esteemed most important. As physiology investigates the nature and functions of all living bodies, it is, necessarily, intimately associated with natural history. It is, indeed, indebted to this branch of physics more perhaps than to any other. A comparative view of the various gradations amongst organized beings has taught us to appreciate the nature of the several functions that characterize vitality; and has demonstrated, that in proportion as the structure is more complete the functions are more numerous and perfect. Repeated observations, and multiplied experiments on various tribes of animated nature, have elucidated many doubtful and obscure phenomena in the economy of man; and a continuation of this. method of research promises to place physiology on the firm basis of rational experience; and to enable us to reason-where only we can reason with safety-by a deduction from facts. The more numerous these facts, and the more satisfactory their arrangement, the more extensive and the more secure will be the foundation they afford for physiological conclusions.

Botany might seem to be of much more service to the physician than zoology, inasmuch as so many of our remedies are derived from the vegetable kingdom. At one time, indeed, nothing but 'galenicals,' as they were termed, were employed, and these were mainly of vegetable origin. We can imagine the importance of an acquaintance with the botanical characters of different vegetables, should destiny cast the physician on some unknown shore, where the sole sustenance may have to be derived from the vegetable kingdom, and where hundreds, perhaps, may have to be guided to a knowledge of the innoxious and the noxious by his decision. It might happen, too, that the physician may be so situated as to be unable to procure those indigenous productions, which are usually selected so carefully by the professed herbalist as to render it less necessary that they should be culled by him. In such cases his botanical knowledge would be called into play. Still, these are rare emergencies, on

*Dr. Dunglison, Medical Student, p. 165.