honesty enough openly to avow, and this it is believed he does in all latitudes; or the anatomo-pathologist abandons the anatomical basis of treatment, and endeavours to relieve human suffering by studying and analyzing symptoms, and observing the effects of remedial agents. Since, therefore, the public in the north-eastern portions of the United States has been reduced to the desperate necessity of selecting between homœopathy and medical expectation, and as, from a full trial of both, it has been constrained to decide in favour of the former, it must appear to every intelligent and reflecting individual, at all acquainted with the complaints that result from malaria or intense heat" [neither of which is known, of course, in the north!] "the most preposterous of all absurd ideas, to send young men to the northeast or west, in order to prepare them for the practical duties of the profession in the south-west." p. 36.

We have before adverted to the fact, that the editor was a strenuous advocate, at one time, for the appointment of a north-eastern teacher to the chair of Practice of Medicine in the Transylvania Medical School. It now appears that such professors, and all western professors, are not only absolutely unfit, but must forever remain unfit for any such office in the south-western schools. Speaking more especially of Louisville, Cincinnati, and Lexington, he says:

"In neither of them can a teacher be found by whom the pathological and therapeutical principles, on which the treatment of south-western maladies is regulated, are taught. This every sensible man must regard as a great defect in the organization of the faculties of these institutions, for at least one-half their alumni are destined to find homes and to seek their fortunes in the lower latitudes of the Union. Nor is this all, or the most mortifying or discouraging part of the truth on this subject. Whenever an occasion has arisen which put it in their power to reflect honor and distinction by promotion to the dignity of a professorship, they have almost invariably preferred northeastern men, who know nothing of western, and especially of south-western maladies. That such persons are unfit for the functions they are expected to perform, we have already shown; that they will always remain so we assert from personal observation, as we know it to be impossible to divorce the confirmed and committed anatomo-pathologist from his great pathologica and therapeutical principles."" p. 37.

And moreover:

"The reasons why they" [south-western physicians]"have not ceen permitted to take a more distinguished part in the teaching

of medicine in the United States, are obvious and intelligible. They observe and reflect more but write less than the physicians of the large cities of this Union; because what they do write" [the editor for example!] "is for the instruction of the profession, and not to sustain some 'great pathological principle of universal application;' because they aim to become practically useful as practitioners, and, if need be, teachers, and not to win conspicuous stations by becoming voluminous compilers of the results of other men's experience; because they have less book but more clinical knowledge; and finally, because the trade of criticism is exercised by north-eastern men almost exclusively. The result is, north-eastern books and north-eastern men are praised with little reference to their intrinsic merits, while southwestern books and south-western men are overlooked and neglected or condemned." (?) p. 38.

In no way can this altogether supposititious evil-a creation of the author's own prolific brain-fearfully prolific in such conceits--be successfully rectified, he thinks, except "through their own schools and journals of medicine--through the instrumentality of which the ablest of themselves" [iterum ego !] "are the teachers, and in publications for which the most industrious, observing and talented of them are the writers." p. 39.

But the profession of the south-west require no such absurd vindication. We can affirm, most positively, that the kindest and most liberal sentiments are entertained towards them in this portion of the Union: it would be ridiculous to suppose that it could be otherwise; but if any thing were calculated to break in upon this most desirable harmony of feeling, it would be such loose, gratuitous, and indiscreet statements as those we have just quoted. We do not believe that they will have such an unfortunate effect upon a solitary 'north-eastern' individual, but we will not say what estimate they may cause to be put upon the head and heart of him from whom they emanated. In our opinion they certainly are not creditable to either the one or the other. It is idle, too, for the editor to refer to the difference which he fancies to exist between the physicians of the northeastern cities, and those of the south-west, in the former writing more, but thinking less than the latter. He himself is, perhaps, the most voluminous medical pamphleteer that the whole Union could furnish; and as for the amount of thought-well directed

and useful thought-contained in his pamphlets, all we shall say is, that the extracts we have given are amongst the most favorable specimens of his various polemical sheets, and fragments of sheets, which have been inflicted upon us. Of the gross illiberality that pervades the "Discourse," almost every page furnishes one or more examples, and where the object is to vent illiberal feeling, the language certainly savours, at times, too strongly of hyperbole. Thus, in speaking of the school, once highest in his favour-the one at Lexington-the south-western neophyte of one year's standing remarks:

"Lexington, which does not contain over eight thousand inhabitants, had for many the second, and for some years the third medical institution in the United States, although, at present, from causes to which it is now useless to advert, it has sunk so low as to be, we believe, the tenth or twelfth of the Union.

Where is the authority for this? We know of none.

It will be observed, that we have entered into no vindication of the north-eastern schools against the attacks made upon them by the editor of the South-western Medical Advocate. It would be idle to answer that which requires no answer, and the object of which must be apparent to the most careless reader. We have been desirous only of shewing up the Journal and the Editor by his own shewing; to announce, in sporting language, "the name of the horse and the colour of the rider;" and the result must have been a desire on the part of every friend of the whole profession, and especially of south-western medicine, that this South-western medical Detractor, rather than South-western medical Advocate, should quit the course-that it should cease where it has begun, and that the prolific author should follow the example set him by Cid Hamet Benengeli, in the last chapter of Don Quixotte, and promise repose to his pen. Especially would we advise him—although we are satisfied that the office of adviser is, at best, but a thankless one, and that the advice will be wholly thrown away-to be a shining specimen, not of the Acarus Crossii, which has so much puzzled the naturalist, and whose precise position it has been so difficult to define, but of the south-western genus of physicians, as he describes them, "who observe and reflect more, but write less than the phy

sicians of the large cities of this Union, because what they write is for the instruction of the profession." Let him but succeed in this, and we shall be the first to herald and applaud the happy change.

A Treatise on the Practice of Medicine. By GEORGE B. WOOD, M. D., Professor of Materia Medica and Pharmacy in the University of Pennsylvania; one of the Physicians to the Pennsylvania Hospital; one of the Authors of the Dispensatory of the United States of America, etc., etc. 2 vols. 8vo. Grigg, Elliott & Co. Philadelphia, 1847.

Formerly, the appearance of a general Treatise on the Practice of Medicine was the event of an age; of late years, it is scarcely less than an annual occurrence. So numerous are they on our shelves, and some of them so complete, that one is at a loss to conceive of the occasion for a new one. Until lapse of time and the advancement of our science have added new facts, or shed more light upon what is already known, it would seem difficult for a writer to find materials out of which to construct such a work, without injustice to his readers, and to those from whom he derives whatever is valuable in his production.

Dr. Wood experienced the truth of these observations, and accordingly, in his preface we find the following apology.

"In adding another to the many valuable Treatises on the Practice of Medicine, the author may be reasonably expected to show, upon what grounds he has ventured to advance a new claim to the public attention, already so fully occupied. He has no other excuse to offer than this; that he has written in obedience to impulses which he could not well resist. Having been engaged, for nearly thirty years, in public and private practice, and, during that time, devoted an almost exclusive attention to the study of diseases and their remedies, he has accumulated facts, and formed opinions, which have been long soliciting expression, with an urgency to which he has at length yielded, though unfeignedly distrustful of their sufficient value."

What are the facts which have been accumulated, and whether derived from authors who have preceded him, or exclusively of his own discovering, and in relation to what subjects, is not stated in the preface, and consequently it is only after tracing them out by searching through the work, that we are enabled to ap

preciate them. From the connection in which the subject is presented, we infer that the facts alluded to are original with the author, although not so clearly stated, and if so, it is to be regretted, considering how few are the discoveries of this kind which it is the fortune of a single observer to bring to light, that time and further investigations confirm,-it is to be regretted, we say, that these, which ought to be the gems of the work, were not more specifically pointed out: it would at least have saved the reader the task of wading through two ponderous volumes to find them. The "Opinions" which the author, in the course of "nearly thirty years, in public and private practice," has formed, are neither so sparse nor so difficult to discover, and, after all, constitute the most interesting as well as original part of the work. Without dogmatism of expression, they are yet put forth on most occasions in a way that leaves little room to suppose that any doubts are felt of their correctness. When reference is made to the opinions of others, it is in a courteous spirit, and rarely for the purpose of criticism. On other occasions, dissent and commendation are equally withheld.

Dr. Wood has divided his treatise into two Parts, each divided again into sections, sub-sections, and articles.

Part I. is devoted to General Pathology and Therapeutics, and consists of four chapters; which treat respectively of the "constituent forms of disease, as disease of the fluids and disease of the solids; causes of disease, or etiology; symptomatology, or semeiology; course, duration, and termination of disease; diagnosis; prognosis; general therapeutics, embracing general indications and general therapeutic processes.

Part II. treats of special pathology and therapeutics, and is divided into three classes, under which are arranged general diseases, constitutional diseases and local diseases. Under the head of general diseases we have fevers-including plague, variola, vaccina, varicella, rubeola, scarlatina, and erysipelas; the class of constitutional diseases includes only rheumatism and gout; whilst that of local diseases, amongst a vast catalogue, embraces insanity and delirium tremens-epilepsy and chorea, hydrophobia, hysteria, etc.

In the yet unsettled state of pathology, all classification of diseases must be imperfect, and consequently arbitrary, but it