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ADVERTISEMENTS.

RETAIL DRUG STORE.

ENRY WHITE would inform his

Hriends and the public, that he has now established himself as a retail druggist, at No. 188, Washington Street, opposite the Marlboro' Hotel, where Physicians and Families may depend on the most strict and personal attention to their orders.-No Medicines will be put up unless of the first quality.

N. B. Medicines delivered at any hour of the night.

OR, SPIRIT OF THE ENGLISH MAGAZINES.
FOR SEPTEMBER 1, 1827,
TUST published by John Cotton, 184
Washington St. corner of Franklin St.
CONTENTS.-The Rod and the Stream;
A Discourse of Angling-The Exile of Flo-
tence-My Mother's Grave--Elephant
Hunting-The New Ministry-The Grave
of a Poetess. By Mrs. Hemans-The
"Manimalinga-Voda"--Song of Emigra-
tion. By Mrs. Hemans-The Guerilla Bro-
thers-John Kimber, the Bibliomaniac
Farmer-Varieties-Curious Discovery-
Petrifaction-The Late Lord Chancellor
-Mrs. Jordan's "Old Habits"-Original

HE following medical works are for Anecdote of Dr. Baillie-Anecdote.

CURE FOR INTEMPERANCE.
EED & HOWARD have succeeded

Tale at this Office.
THE
FR, devoted to the Cause of Physical R in preparing a Medicine for the cure

THE BOSTON MEDICAL INTELLIGENC

Education, and to the Means of Preventing and of Curing Diseases, Vol. 4th,

bound or unbound,

A Treatise on Verminous Diseases, preceded by the Natural History of Intestinal Worms, and their origin in the Human Body. By V. L. BRERA, Professor of Clinical Medicine in the University of Pavia, &c.

BICHAT on the Membranes.

Discourses on Warm and Cold Bathing.
A Dissertation on Medical Education,

and on the Medical Profession.

Remarks on the Dangers and Duties of Sepulture.

The LANCET, a weekly London publication.

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of Intemperance. It has had the advan-
tage of repeated and successful experi-
ments, by physicians of the first respecta-
bility in this city, and is confidently
brought before the public, as a remedy in
no respect inferior to any which have
been offered for the purpose. A gentle-
man who has employed much of Dr.
Chambers', and has witnessed the opera-
tion of this, in several instances, has ex-
pressed his preference for their prepara-
tion. They have been politely favored
with the following certificate from Dr. J.
B. Flint of this city.

Messrs. REED & HOWARD,

Gentlemen,-I have witnessed the
operation and effect of your medicine for
the cure of Intemperance in several cases,
and am very willing, at your request, to
state, that it has generally produced a de-
cided aversion to ardent spirit, in those
who had previously been excessively fond
of it; that the health of the patients has
and that, in my opinion, it is a safe, salu-
uniformly been improved by its operation,
tary, and commendable medicine, for the
purpose for which it is designed.

Your friend, JOSHUA B. FLINT.
Boston, July 11, 1827.

For sale by REED & HOWARD, 44.
Hanover street, at the head of Elm street,
Boston. Price dols. 2,50 cts.

We are personally acquainted with the Apo-
thecaries and Physician here named, and know
them all to be men of talents and integrity.
Edit. Med. Intel.

Published weekly, by John Cotton, at 184, Washington St. corner of Franklin St. -The price of this paper will vary with the time of payment. If paid on subscribing, or within 3 months after, the price will be 3 dollars per annum; if paid after 3 months but within the year, it will be $ 3,50; but if not paid within the year, it will be 4 dollars. No paper to be discontinued till arrearages are paid.-All communications relating to the present or future concerns of this paper, to be addressed, always postpaid, to John G. Coffin.-Advertisements, 1 dollar a square.

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MEDICAL INTELLIGENCER.

JOHN G. COFFIN, EDITOR.

DEVOTED TO THE CAUSE OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION, AND TO THE MEANS OF PRE-
VENTING AND OF CURING DISEASES.

VOL. 5.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1827.

THE APOTHECARY.

AMONG the various causes which are constantly acting against the public health, one is the propensity and habit of many people, of consulting and obeying persons who are not qualified to give medical advice. They avoid the regular practitioner as an object of suspicion, and run with eagerness and confidence to the pretender and impostor. Some of these depredators on health, property and life, appear as the venders and administrators of patent medicines, infallible, though secret remedies, and infallible because secret. Others set themselves forth as the curers of the jaundice, the piles, corns, cancers, &c., according to their several endowments and abilities, each being sole judge of his own qualifications, whether natural or acquired. The Apothecary too is not unfrequently consulted in this way, and inspired by the prospect of gain, often feels sufficient confidence to act in a new capacity thus cheaply bestowed on

him.

In order to understand how far the American apothecary is prepared to exercise the office of physician, we must enter a little into his education, objects and pursuits.

If an apothecary, after suitable previous instruction, acquires such a

No. 17.

knowledge of botany, mineralogy and chemistry as to be a judge of the properties of the numberless substances and preparations used in the treatment of diseases; and if he is sufficiently versed in practical chemistry and pharmacy duly to prepare, preserve and issue all the articles of the Materia Medica,-he is a welleducated apothecary, and if he faithfully and accurately exercises his profession, and confines himself to it, he is a valuable, useful, and of course, an honorable member of society. That there are amongst us many such exceptions to the tenor of what follows, and which is said against the majority of the dabblers, and dealers, and venders of drugs and medicines in this country, we are happy to believe and to know. We all know that there are occasionally regular and reputable physicians who prepare and sell medicines, and this in many places they are compelled to do because there is no apothecary near them worthy of trust. But these gentlemen do not come within the scope of our remarks. The best informed and the best disposed apothecary will be the least of his class inclined to step out of his own province and intrude himself into that of the medical practitioner. He will be most ready to

perceive the limits within which his duties terminate, and least prone to pass beyond these, where he may deservedly lose his own reputation and usefulness by injuring another. The English apothecary is a different character; he is often a wellbred physician and practises medicine accordingly. It is a little singular too that in England the apothecary, like the surgeon, is called Mr., while here he is most absurdly and preposterously styled doctor. Now if the title "doctor" means anything correctly in medical language, it implies either that he to whom it is given is a practitioner of medicine, or has taken a medical degree. Who is chargeable with all the blunders committed and the daily mischief done by our apothecary doctors? The fault must be divided between those who place the stumblingblock in the way, and those who are thus made to fall; in what proportion we leave the parties concerned, or the casuists, to determine.

In the meantime it may be said that no man or woman of understanding, who has a just regard to the order and wellbeing of society, to put personal prudence out of the question, would offer a bribe to an apothecary to commit a serious fault, and to put his own safety at hazard. May the folly and suffering of the past, admonish us for the future. We close these facts and brief hints intended for those most likely to need them, by the following extract from a medical discourse read at a meeting of the Mass. Med. Society, June, 1822.

"There is an agent in society, standing as a medium of communication between the physician and his patient, whose occupation is too important to be any longer trusted to unskilful hands; I mean the apothecary,-whose duty it is to prepare, issue, and occasionally to administer medicines agreeably to the physician's prescriptions. What should be the qualifications of an individual who He should in the first place, poswishes to become an apothecary? sess a knowledge of the English and Latin languages; then of the materia medica and pharmacy, including chemistry, and a competent acquaintance with botany, mineralogy and zoology. The disastrous consequences of percompound and sell medicines, mitting unqualified persons to must be too obvious to need any further notice.

No one among us who has been disposed to assume the office of an apothecary, has yet been restrained, by any law of the state, from exercising its functions.

But this is not all, the catalogue of evils is not yet fully unfolded.

The mere druggist has been allowed to intrench on the province of the physician.

The spectacle is at once ludiwhat is daily practised in many of crous and deplorable to witness our apothecaries' shops. A man comes in, and addressing himself to one of the establishment, says, "Doctor, I'm sick, or my child has a certain complaint, and I wish you to give me something to cure it."

The opifer per orbem,* willing

* Inventum medicina meum est; opiferque
Dicor, et herbarum subjecta potentia no-
per orbem

bis.

OVID. Met.

1

to act in conformity to the profession and title thus gratuitously conferred, and too prompt in his zeal to serve his customer, to admit of any scruples or delay in a choice of means, immediately puts up the desired remedy; and here the matter between the buyer and seller commonly ends; but not always so satisfactorily between the patient and the remedy. But of consequences we are not often informed, for if the child is injured or deprived of life, the parent, on reflection, is likely to find the fault to be quite as much his own, as his doctor's, and instead of honestly admonishing his neighbor to avoid the error into which he had fallen, keeps his own secret, and thus permits the mischief to go on.'

Lectures on the Theory and Practice of Physic. By Dr. CLUTTERBUCK, of London.

Of Hemoptysis, or Spitting of Blood.-Hemoptysis, or hemorrhage from the lungs, is deserving of your attention, more on aceount of the alarm which it occasions, than from the real danger of the disease; for, in itself, it seldom proves fatal. The danger arises rather from the disorganized state of the lungs, on which, in most cases, the hemorrhage depends, than on the mere loss of blood, which is seldom so great as to endanger life. This hemorrhage is liable to be confounded with hematemesis, or vomiting of blood, where the blood comes from the stomach; but the distinction is, in general, sufficiently easy.

In hemoptysis, the blood discharged is generally fluid, and of a florid hue; it is often frothy, likewise, from the intermixture

of particles of air. In hemateme sis, the blood is generally coagulated, and grumous or dark colored. The attendant symptoms are also different in the two cases. In hemoptysis, the blood is brought up by coughing, and there are generally other signs of disease in the chest; such as pain and difficulty of breathing; but in hematemesis, there is commonly pain and other signs of disorder in the stomach and neighboring parts.

In

Theory of Hemoptysis.-There are many varieties of this affection, depending chiefly on the part from which the blood flows. It may take place from the mucous membrane, as in cases of catarrh, from the rupture of a small vessel during the violence of coughing; or possibly in the way of secretion from the membrane. this case, the quantity of blood lost will be small. Or it may take place from the lungs themselves, when the quantity of blood lost will be larger, though in very different degrees; and it may occur under different circumstances. Thus, it may take place from mere fulness of habit; or from violent exercise, which acts by increasing, inordinately, the circulation through the lungs; or, it may be vicarious with some other habitual discharge that has been accidentally suppressed, as in deficient menstruation. In these cases, it is difficult to say whence the blood proceeds; whether from the bronchial, or the pulmonary artery. Judging from the very florid appearance of the blood, it would seem to come from the extreme branches of the latter, or, possibly, the pulmonary veins; the blood appearing as if it had recently undergone its destined changes. Hemorrhage from the

lungs also is frequently a mere symptom or effect of ulceration in these organs; and hence, frequently takes place from time to time, in pulmonary consumption. Hemoptysis, lastly, may arise from the bursting of an aneurism into the bronchia; this is likely to be followed by instant suffocation, and will be preceded by the usual signs of aneurism, in the chest. The prognosis in hemoptysis, is very different, according to the circumstances inducing it, as I have just pointed out. If it takes place without any actual disease of the lungs themselves, as when it occurs from mere plethora, or from violent exercise, or is vicarious with some other discharge, it is attended with but little danger; but, in the greater number of cases, it is preceded and accompanied by a diseased state of the lungs, which is the real source of danger, and not the mere hemorrhage. This, on the contrary, generally gives relief, by diminishing the tendency to inflammation. If there has been cough previously, or pain in the chest, or difficulty of breathing, with emaciation, the worst results may be expected, however trifling the loss of blood.

The treatment of hemoptysis is varied by the circumstances already mentioned, and from which it proceeds. It is varied also by the habit, and other circumstances of the patient. Thus, if it is merely the consequence of plethora, the treatment is simple and obvious; consisting chiefly in abstinence, and in extreme cases, bloodletting. If it arises from the suppression of habitual discharges, these, if possible, should be restored. When it is a symptom merely of diseased lungs, this is

the object of practice, the mere hemorrhage being in general, a matter of no importance.

The ordinary treatment of hemoptysis is not sufficiently discriminate. It is usual to bleed in all cases, and that very largely ; repeating the evacuation as long as the hemorrhage continues; while, at the same time, the patient is kept shivering with cold, and almost everything but cold water is denied him. This prac tice is seldom proper; at least, when carried to the extent that is commonly done, and in many cases the reverse treatment is required.

:

When the habit is robust, and febrile action exists where the pulse is hard, as well as strong, and the tongue furred; there is no question of the propriety of bloodletting to a moderate extent. In different circumstances, this remedy is not required, but is rather injurious, by inducing that laxity of the solids, which is favorable to a continuance of the hemorrhage. In cases where the patient is weak, the pulse soft, however full, and the solids altogether flaccid to the feel, instead of bloodletting, astringents, or tonics, as they are called, and even active stimulants, are indicated. I have frequently employed, in such cases, the ammonia, spices, and even the oil of turpentine, with the best possible effect.

The application of cold, in the extreme degree that is usually practised, is injurious, by constricting the external vessels, and throwing the blood back on the heart and lungs. The extreme abstinence practised on these occasions, has always appeared to me both unnecessary and injurious; by lessening, as bloodletting does, the contractility of the ex

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