especially of the powders of active vegetables liable to deterioration from being kept, as those of Digitalis, &c. THE TIME OF THE DAY at which remedies should be administered deserves likewise some attention. Evacuating Medicines ought to be exhibited late at night, or early in the morning. It would seem that during sleep, the bowels are not so irritable, and consequently not so easily acted on, which allows time for the full solution of the substance; the same observation applies to Alterative and other medicines which are liable to suffer from a vexatious irritability of the bowels; it is on this account eligible to exhibit Guaiacum, Pilula Hydrargyri, &c. when they are not intended to purge, at bedtime. On the other hand, where the effects of a remedy are likely to be lost by perspiration, as is the case with Diuretics, many of which are by external heat changed into Diaphoreties, it may become a question with the judicious practitioner whether he cannot select some more favorable period for their exhibition. In fevers, it is important to consult in all respects the quiet and comfort of the patient; Dr. Hamilton, therefore, in his valuable work on Purgatives, very judiciously observes, that on this account, the exhibition of purgative medicines should be so timed, that their effects may be expected during the day. In some cases, the time of administering a remedy must be regulated by the stage of the disease; thus, in fevers, a dose of opium will either increase the heat of the body, augment thirst and restlessness, or occasion tranquillity and sleep, according to the temperature of the body at the time of its administration; for this reason Dr. Currie advises us not to give the evening dose of opium in typhoid fevers, till very late, or about one or two o'clock in the morning, when the heat is subsiding, and moisture is coming on. Eme tics administered for the cure of the slighter cases of pyrexia should be given in the evening, as their operation leaves a tendency to sleep and diaphoresis, which it is useful to promote. Remedies that require to be absorbed will probably be more efficient in the morning after sleep; the old custom of giving medicines on a morning fasting, is not quite so absurd as some modern practitioners have beer. led to suppose. we THE INTERVALS BETWEEN EACH DOSE must be regulated by the nature of the remedy, and that of the objects which it is intended to fulfil, and whether it be desirable or not that the latter dose should support the effects of the preceding one, or whether there be any fear of a reaction or collapse taking place after the effect of one dose has subsided, unless immediately repeated; thus the effects of diffusible stimulants, such as ammonia and ether, are very evanescent; they should therefore ' be repeated at short intervals; the same may be said of Diaphoretics, especially the lenient ones; ought not to allow the period between the doses to be so remote as to occasion any striking abatement in the impression: so opium, where its primary and stimulant operation is required, as in diseases of debility, such as fevers of the typhoid type, should be given in small doses at short intervals, so that it may enkindle and sustain a uniform and regular state of excitement: but where the object is to mitigate pain, allay irritation, and produce sleep, ought to be exhibited in full doses, at distant intervals. There is a caution also which it is very necessary to impress on the practitioner, respecting the power which some medicines possess of accumulating in the system; this is notorious with regard to lead and mercury, and probably with the preparation of arsenic, and some other metallic compounds. Dr. Withering has observed, that the repetition of small doses it of Digitalis, at short intervals, till it produces a sensible effect, is an unsafe practice, since a dangerous accumulation will frequently take place before any signals of forbearance present themselves. CONSTITUTIONAL PECULIARITIES, or IDIOSYNCRASIES, will sometimes ren der the operation of the mildest medicine poisonous. I have seen a gen eral erysipelas follow the application of a blister, and griping pains of the bowels, no less severe than those produced by the ingestion of Arsenic, attend the operation of purgatives composed of Senna! In some constitutions antimony has been known to produce a ptyalism; Dr. James assured Sir George Baker that he knew six instances of it, though the patients thus affected had neither their teeth loosened, nor their breath made offensive, The peculiar susceptibility of certain individuals to the effects of particular plants, is also very singular: Murray relates that unpleasant symptoms have been experienced by merely keeping Aconite for some time in the hand or on the bosom. I am acquainted with two persons in whom the odor of ipecacuan always produces a most distressing difficulty of breathing there are some idiosyncrasies so singular and incredible, that nothing but unimpeachable testimony could sanction our belief in their existence. Schenkius relates a case in which the general law of astringents and cathartics was always reversed. Donatus tells us of a boy whose jaws swelled, whose face broke out in spots, and whose lips frothed, when ever he ate an egg. Education and early habits certainly establish very extraordinary peculiarities in differ ent countries with respect to various objects of diet and luxury: what shall we say of the refinement of the ancients, who regarded the flavor of the citron with disgust, while the odor of putrid fish was deemed by them so exquisite, that they carried it about in caskets of onyx as a favorite perfume-Pharmacologia. GYMNASTICS. From "A Guide to Gymnastic Exeṛcises; as practised in the various London Gymnasiums. Ir may be truly said, that the revival of Gymnastics, so long buried under the ruins of antiquity, is one of the greatest advances yet made in the science of education, and not among the least conspicuous improvements of the present enlightened age. Every one who reflects,--every one who knows any thing, knows, and by experience, how intimate a connexion there exists between body and mind,-how invariably the healthy or sickly temperament of the one influences that of the other: that when the body is strong, healthy, and active, so is the mind cheerful and elastic, and that when the former is sickly and diseased, so is the latter languid and depressed. The ancient Greeks and Romans understood this; and their education was accordingly directed to the developement, not only of the mental, but also of the corporeal powers; and this corporeal branch of education was termed Gymnastics. In the middle ages, however, when education got into the hands, and was at the sole disposal, of the monks, it is not surprising that Gymnastics altogether disappeared. The lords of the soil indeed, knights and princes, contended at their splendid tilts and tournaments; but the mass of the people were degraded and enslaved, the more effectually to administer to the pleasures and the pride of their oppressors. This age of chivalry, as it was termed, passed away however in succeeding ages; even these knightly games became extinct, and Gymnastics gradually losing ground, were at length reduced to the very name, known possibly to some musty philosophers who might have stumbled on it in their insane, because indiscriminate, enthusiasm, for whatever might bear the stamp of barbarism or antiquity. In modern times, however, more practical men have sprung up amongst us-men who not only have detected, but pointed out, and, as far as in them lay, supplied the deficiency. To these men-Professors Saltzman, Gutsmuth, and Jaho, &c.--the merit of the discovery and revival of this long lost art,-"this relic of an age gone by"-is more particularly due. After a careful examination of the structure of the human body, they devised numerous exercises, arranged them in a well adapted series, and again restored Gymnastics to something like their former rank and importance. In many towns of Germany and Switzerland, Gymnasiums were es tablished. The youth, and even grown men, soon derived more pleasure from exercises which fortified, than in pleasures which paralysed, the powers of their bodies. By the consciousness of increased vigor, the mind too became powerfully excited, and strove for equal perfection, and the constant ambition of every pupil was to verify in his own instance, the truth of the adage, “Mens sana in corpore sano,-A sound mind in a healthy body." Even the naturally indolent were irresistibly carried away by the zeal of their comrades; persons, diseased and weakly, recovered their health, for the restoration of which these exercises were possibly the only effectual remedy. The certificates of physicians wherever Gymnastics were introduced, concurred as to their healthful tendency, nor were the highest testimonials from parents and teachers found wanting. Indeed, all young men who cultivated them, were acknowledged to have improved in health and morals, and to have acquired an open, free, and graceful deportment. For three or four years past, Gymnastics have been also introduced into England; and for so limited a period have met with decided success. They have been patronized by the Government-have been adopted in the army; in the Royal Military, and Naval Schools; besides the Charterhouse, and many private es In London, the birthplace as it were of invention, where the labor of her inhabitants is more exclusively mental than in any other locality, it is evident that a provision for maintaining something like an equilibrium between the energies of body and mind must be supplied, before their proverbially careworn faces and emaciated frames cease to excite the commiseration of the philanthropist,-before "The languid eye, the cheek shall cease to reproach, not their That this institution is, and has long been, a desideratum in this huge metropolis, will be obvious to all who reflect on the impossibity of persons whose employments are sedentary, attaining, after the confinement and anxiety of the day, a requisite portion of healthful exercise and excitement to recruit and "exbilarate the spirit, aud restore the This detone of languid nature." sirable object, it will be admitted, is not accomplished by the dull, monotonous, and even the pernicious practice of listlessly strolling about the streets without a definite or a useful motive; still less, by dissipating the remnant of their already abused faculties in the unhallowed atmosphere of the tavern or the club. To the clerk, this course will but accelerate the mischief arising from eight or ten hours' "dry drudgery at the desk's dead wood;" to the artisan, it is not calculated to ensure peaceful slumbers, and to enable him to meet the duties of the morrow "with nerves newbraced and spirits cheered." In hypochondriacal, and all other melancholy disorders, people are too apt to acquire the notion, that mind alone is concerned; whereas, the body will usually be found to own at least an equal share, if not indeed the original, of the evil. There is a mutual reaction between them, and by lessening it on one side, you diminish the pain on both. The blood of a melancholy man is thick and slow; that of a lively man clear and quick. A natural conclusion, therefore, is, that the remedy would be found in putting the blood into action.. "By ceaseless action all that is, subsists." Exercise is the best means of effecting it, as the impulse given by artificial stimuli is too sudden, the effect too transitory, and the cost to nature too great. Plato had so high an opinion of the medicinal powers of exercise for disorders of the mind, that he said it was even a cure for a wounded conscience. CAUTION. Mr. Tolman, of Colerain, has for some years past labored under a severe complaint, which at times led him to believe that some living creature was in his stomach, which he made known to his friends and physician, who considered him rather hypochondriacal. He still persisted in his belief, and would frequently express to his family and neighbors that he could sensibly feel the crawling of something, till a few days since, when he was attacked with severe pains, great difficulty for the want of breath, which ended in coughing, and throwing from his stomach, to appearance, a living Evet, five and a balf inches in length, and something like three inches in circumference. His health is now improving, and he will no doubt be well in a short time. He thinks he must have drunk it more than ten years since, when drinking water at a spring in the night.-Greenfield Gazette. If Mr. Tolman, or any of his neighbors, who may in future be troubled with any species of worm, or other animal capable of inhabiting the living human stomach, will, after evacuating this organ, swallow a suitable quantity of camphorated spirits of turpentine, he will soon be relieved of his disagreeable in mate. VAPOR BATHING. An improved Mode of successfully Treating many obstinate Diseases, through the Agency of Fumigating, Warm Air, and Vapor Baths, with authenticated Cases, Observations, and Extracts, from the official Documents, directing this Mode of Treating Diseases, to be adopted in all the Hospitals in France, and which has rapidly been extended throughout the whole of the Continent of Europe. Dedicated to Sir Henry Halford, Bart. By JONATHAN GREEN, Member of the Royal College of Surgeons, London, and late Surgeon in His Majesty's Navy. Excepting for vapor, no water is used in these baths. The medicines employed, such as sulphur, camphor, mercury, &c., being converted by heat into the gaseons form, as in the case of air, rarefied by the same means; the high temperature causing the absorption of medicines through the skin, and producing such extracutaneous and constitutional action. as frequently to remove diseases which have been of long standing, and which had before rosisted the most powerful and properly directed courses of medical treatment. This mode of giving medicines is peculiarly useful, where the powers of the stomach and bowels are incapable of receiving the requisite remedies, or to assist their otherwise healing power. These baths, which are diffused over the whole European continent, are now generally patronized and prescribed by the leading medical men in this isl and: they are pleasant and simple in their use, so much se, as to be constantly taken as a mere affair of luxury; and in the removal of gout, rheumatism, diseases of the skin, scrofula, glandular and other swellings and obstructions, diseases of the joints, and those consequent on a weakened tore of the stomach, liver, and system generally, are of the highest value and importance.-Lon don Monthly. We have Mr. Green's book and drections, and are prepared to give his baths, every day, at 3, Central Court. The best time for the vapor, and other baths, is from 11 o'clock, 4 M., to 2, P. M. DEATH OF DR. BARCLAY. The professional world has lately ist one of its brightest ornaments, in e person of Dr. JOHN BARCLAY, the elebrated teacher of anatomy in dinburgh, who died at his house in rgyle Square, on the 21st of August. r. BARCLAY was originally destined r the Church, but turning his atntion to physic, he took his Docr's degree in 1796, and soon after remenced the teaching of anatomy id surgery, in which he was eminly successful. Few teachers ve left behind them a greater repation, and few authors more duraproofs of industry and talent. His rks on Anatomical Nomenclature, Mascular Motion, on Arteries, and on Tife and Organization, are too well known and valued to stand in need of our eulogy. The Nomenclature which applies to the same parts in all positions of the body, and in all animals, cannot be too highly prized, or too implicitly followed, if precision of language be desirable in anatomical disquisitions, whether human or comparative, in the lectureroom, or in books. Dr. Barclay's Museum, which, according to the Edinburgh Journal of Science, is given to the College of Surgeons of that city, "with a reservation in favor of his successor, Dr. Knox, is a noble monument of that zeal for the science he taught, with which he not only animated himself, but inspired his auditors." His age was sixtysix. A case of smallpox occurred in this city last week, which terminated fatally on Sunday. The young lady who was the subject of it had been keeping school, but how the disease was communicated is not known. We are informed that another case exists in York Street. We mention these facts as well for the purpose of cautioning others' as to express our astonishment that any person in this community should have arrived to years of discretion without having been the subject of vaccination, the only sure remedy for this dreadful malady. The ease and facility of vaccination leave no ground for excuse, and parents and guardians must lay to themselves the neg. |