parents, it is true, send them to these seminaries of learning in or der that they may store their minds with useful knowledge; but they do not intend that in so doing they shall take from their bodies. They do not send them from their healthy homes to make themselves sick by constant application to their books. They expect of their instructers that they will not only see that they study, but that they will also see that they exercise for the promotion of their health. A wise parent would surely rather see a hearty and robust child of little learning, than a puny, slender child of great learning. For the former has constant opportunities of increasing in knowledge, while the latter may be cut off from existence before he can use the knowledge that he has. How happy, and joyful, and acceptable a thing must it then be to a parent to see in a child a vigorous and well stocked intellect united with a sound and healthy body. And this is what parents expect, and what they have a right to expect. And experience has shown in our own country, as well as in Germany and other foreign countries, that no exercise is so well calculated for students as that of the Gymnasium. And now, sir, in view of what has been said, I will conclude this already too much protracted letter by suggesting to your consideration, or to that of any of your correspondents, the following question. Would it be expedient in our Colleges and Seminaries to make the Gymnastic Exercises compulsatory? that is, to make them a regular duty? This is an important question, and I am aware much might be said in fa vor as well as against it. I think it would prove an interesting question, and it is one which I should like much to see discussed. This I suppose, sir, to be consistent with the objects of your journal, as it relates to the promotion of health. G. F. Sept., 1827. BACON, HAMS, TONGUES, &c. The usual composition of nitre and culinary salt has been found to preserve meat much better when a small quantity of a mixture of the nitric and muriatic acids, in equal proportions, is added. A teaspoonful of this mixture is sufficient for a pound of culinary salt, with the usual proportion of nitre. We are informed that beef, mutton, pork and tongues, salted in this manner during the hottest days of summer, though slightly tainted, have kept as long as pig's meat that was salted in the common way during cold weather, and that the flavor of the meat is superior to that of the best hams. The composition is very similar to the superchlorate of soda, which is as powerful a corrector of tainted meat, as the chloruret of sodium, or potass. If it be desirable to impart a fine smoky flavor to the meat, a dessert spoonful of the impure pyroligneous acid may also be added to each pound of salt. Gaz. of Health. THE CHART OF HEALTH, by Dr. Lawrence. Published by E. Lacey, and Cowie and Strange.What a glorious chart would this be, if one could ascertain by it the true longitudes and latitudes where the shoals of disease and the rocks of pain could be avoided, and the meridian of health and vigor be happily reached! But it is a different sort of publication. On the face of a large sheet, in columnar form, are arranged-1. All the diseases incident to poor humanity-2. Their causes-3. Their symptoms-4. Their medical treatment-and, 5. Observations. It seems to be a very useful table; but it is a fearful thing to look on so many ills at one glance, and, like Macbeth we exclaim, "We'll see no more !"--London Lit. Gaz. Treatment of the more Protracted Cases of Indigestion. B. A.W. PHILIP, M.D. pp. 86. pp. 86. London, 1827. "WHO shall decide when doctors disagree?" The present little treatise of Dr. Philip appears to have been called into existence by some shades of difference between Dr. Paris, in his able work on Diet, and the author, as to the proximate sources of indigestion. So far, however, as we can judge, the observations of Dr. Paris are more especially directed to the prevention, while Dr. Philip's object is that of pointing out the most eligible means of cure, in the several forms of this complicated class of diseases. Patients laboring under dyspepsia in its advanced stages will therefore probably feel indebted to Dr. Philip for the additional light he has thrown on the subject.-Ib. Natural History.-At a late meeting of the Society of Natural History at Paris, a paper was read containing a description of a female who has three nipples, one of which is inguinal. It is with this last mentioned that she gives suck. Her mother had also three nipples; but they were all on the breast. In old times they would both have been burnt as witches. IMPURE PYROLIGNEOUS ACID. A correspondent at Hamburgh informs us, that he has found the vapor of the impure pyroligneous acid, the acid as it comes over with petroleum during the destructive distillation of wood,in cases of the tubercular and membranous varieties of pulmonary consumption, spasmodic asthma and chronic cough, much more efficacious than the vapor of tar. He recommends the air of the chambers of consumptive and asthmatic patients to be slightly impregnated with it, by boiling it in a panican over a lamp or candle.-Gaz. of Health. Mr. Abernethy, the celebrated Surgeon to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London, has resigned his situation in this establishment. A New Orleans paper of the 4th ult., notes the occurrence of two deaths there by yellow fever, on the 2d. A GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. number of the Western Monthly We are glad to see in the last Journal published by the Rev. Timothy Flint in Cincinnati, Ohio, that the editor is about to publish a Geography and History of the Western States. The author has already given satisfactory evidence that he is well qualified to accomplish a task of this kind. Such a work is much needed, and there can be no reason to doubt that it will be so executed as to fulfil the public wants and wishes on this subject. ADVERTISEMENTS. PATENT LAMP AND BOILER. HE Editor of the New England Far THE mer has invented and obtained letters patent for "a Lamp Apparatus for heating water, cooking, and other econo mical purposes." One modification of this invention has been found very useful to Druggists, as will appear by the following recommendations: "MR. FESSENDEN,-Sir, I have, for the last six months, made use of your quart lamp boiler. It is the most convenient, cleanly, expeditious and economical method I have ever made use of for preparing infusions, syrups, or ointments. I have made several experiments, and found that in ten minutes it will boil one quart of water. The quantity of alcohol consumed is but 1 ounce, the expense, 1 cent. I consider your apparatus, now I have become accustomed to it, as almost indispensable; it may be, I think, also very useful in a nursery, a sick chamber. or for culinary purposes. Your gallon boiler I have also used, and find it to answer equally well, where large quantities are to be heated. Your ob't servant, “JOSEPH KIDDER, Druggist. "Boston, Feb. 26, 1827." Here follow similar recommendations from most of the apothecaries in Boston. It was observed by Count Rumford in one of his Economical Essays, that "It is a curious fact, but is nevertheless most certain, that, in some cases, spirit of wine is cheaper, when employed as fuel, even than wood." This assertion will apply with more force, when alcohol is burnt in my apparatus, than in any method of consuming it described by Count Rumford, or known at the time he wrote. The boiler is set in a case of sheet iron, so constructed as to confine a current of hot air and flame to its bottom and sides, against which it is forcibly driven, forming an air furnace in miniature. and Benjamin Haynes, Charlestown, Tin Manufacturers, who only have a right under the patent to manufacture said implements. JEFFERSON MED. COLLEGE. THE next annual course of Lectures Tin this Institution will commence on the Wednesday preceding the first Monday in November next.-Candidates for graduation are required to have attended two full courses of Medical Lectures, one of which must have been in this Institution; also, to present certificates of having prosecuted the study of medicine for three years, including lecture terms, with some respectable practitioner; and, finally, to present a satisfactory thesis on some medical subject, and to undergo an exa mination on the several branches of Medical Science.-The fees for admission to all the public lectures amount to 90 dollars. The expenses of graduation are 15 dollars. There is no matriculation fee. JOHN EBERLE, M.D., Professor of the Theory and Practice of Physic-GEORGE MCLELLAN, M.D., Professor of Surgery -JACOB GREEN, A.M., Professor of Chemistry-B. RUSH REES, M.D., Profess of the Institutes of Medicine and Med Jurisprudence-NATHAN R. SMITH, M.I Professor of Anatomy-W. P. C. BARTO M.D., Professor of Materia Medica an Botany-JOHN BARNES, M.D., Profess of Obstetrics, and Diseases of Women Children. N. R. SMITH, Dean MEDICAL LECTURES-BOSTON. HE Medical Lectures of Harvar University will begin at the Medical College, Mason Street, Boston, on the THIRD WEDNESDAY IN OCTOBER NEXT; the time having been altered from the Third Wednesday in Nov,, when they formerly began. WALTER CHANNING, Dean of the Medical Faculty. THU SURGICAL INSTRUMENTS, AVID & JOHN HENSHAW & CO., Lamp boilers of the above description D 33, India Street, near the head of may be obtained at the office of the New England Farmer, 52, North Market street; Joseph Kidder, corner of Hanover and Court streets; Ebenezer Wight, Milk street, opposite Federal street; Richard A. Newell, Summer street, Druggists;and of William Howe, 7, Marshall street, Central Wharf, have for sale, a very large assortment of Surgeons' Instruments, Drugs, Paints, Dyestuffs, Window Glass, &c., at very low prices. Gentlemen wishing to purchase are respectfully invited to call. Aug. 21. 6mo. 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. MEDICAL INTELLIGENCER. DEVOTED TO THE CAUSE VOL. 5. JOHN G. COFFIN, EDITOR. OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION, AND TO THE MEANS OF PREVENTING AND OF CURING DISEASES. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1827. RIGOT AND TROUSSEAU ON PSEU DOMORBID APPEARANCES. Recherches Nécroscopiques, &c. Necroscopic Inquiries on certain changes which take place after death in the appearance of the Bloodvessels, Lungs, and the Pulmonary and Intestinal Mucous Membrane, in the Healthy State. By MM. RIGOT of Alfort, and TROUSSEAU of Tours. Archives Générales de Médecine, Octobre et Novembre, 1826. It is singular that amidst the general and minute attention which has of late been paid to morbid anatomy in France, and the daily additions which have in consequence been made to pathological knowledge, few have been induced, by the opportunities which that country affords, to institute a connected inquiry into the nature, causes and characters of pseudomorbid appearances. It must be apparent to every one, who has had occasion to consult extensively the pathological writings of the French, that they are in general but imperfectly acquainted with this important subject. Nay, it would be an easy matter to show, that the want of a due knowledge of the existence and characters of pseudomorbid appearances has been in a great measure the cause of the errors of a prevailing sect of Parisian No. 19. physicians, and of. the popularity which their doctrines have attain ed to. If in our own country the speculations and tenets of Broussais have met with a colder reception, it may be attributed partly to the sound portion of the practice which he has deduced from them, having long formed an essential feature in British physic; but it has evidently been also in part owing to a conviction that, in a large proportion of instances, the anatomical derangements referred to as the proof and foundation of the Broussaic doctrines, are really, as MM. Rigot and Trousseau have shown, the consequences of changes effected in the healthy tissues after death. Even in this country, however, the pseudomorbid changes, which the different textures of the body undergo after death, have not received the universal attention they deserve. We possess but one good English treatise on the subject, namely, a short memoir by Dr. Yellolay on one department of it,-vascularity of the alimentary canal, Med. Chir. Transact. iv. ; and though his remarks have lessened in some degree the laxity of British pathologists in pronouncing on the existence of marks of disease in the dead body,-much still remains to be done to diffuse correct ideas respecting their imitative or pseudomorbid signs. The authors do not lay claim to originality in pointing out the appearances which form the topic of their memoirs: much of what they have related they acknowledge is to be found in detached notices scattered throughout the works of modern pathologists. But they claim with justice the merit of being the first to lay down determinately the circumstances under which the appearances in question occur, and the causes by which they are produced. The results at which they have arrived are drawn partly from an extensive set of experiments on the dog and the horse, partly from careful dissections of the human subject after diseases in which the organ examined was presumptively in a state of health. We must add that, in their observations on the human subject, they have been anticipated on many points by an elaborate work by M. Billard on the healthy and diseased appearances of the alimentary canal, a work to which we shall refer occasionally in the present analysis. The first section of their inquiry treats of the Redness of the bloodvessels and lining membrane of the heart. Coloration of the inner membrane of the bloodvessels and heart has been laid down by many recent writers, not only as designating inflammation, but as explaining symptoms antecedent to death. The authors have quoted the works of Frank, of Bertin and Bouillard, of Andral, and of Tanchou for examples of the kind; others might easily be pointed out in the writings of their Countrymen; and though similar statements have not been made in any modern English work, we have repeatedly heard persons of experience and authority in this country make them in actual pathological dissections. The simple fact of the great variety of diseases in which this supposed inflammatory redness has been remarked throws doubt on the accuracy of those who have noticed it; for it has been found in cases of fever, smallpox, peripneumony, poisoning with arsenic, tetanus, hydrophobia, &c. Accordingly, the following analysis of the researches of MM. Rigot and Trousseau will prove that the redness in question is a mere pseudomorbid phenomenon. They set out with an account of the healthy appearance of the inner membrane of the heart and great vessels of the horse, as determined by twentyeight dissections immediately after death. In every case they found the lining membrane of the heart thin, white, transparent, and here and there of a pearly lustre ;—that of the arteries of a yellowishwhite, and that of the veins more purely white. In two instances only the aorta exhibited a few coppercolored specks. The appearances were not materially different if the examination was delayed till one, two, or four hours after death; and sometimes little change had taken place in five or ten hours, even when the circumstances were favorable to the production of pseudomorbid redness. But much more generally, both in the horse and in the dog if the examination was delayed till five, ten, or fifteen hours after death, the inner membrane of the heart and its great arteries and veins was found speckled or streaked with red stains, which, |