state of intoxication. About ten weeks after his admission into this Hospital, he was attacked with gout in both knees, for which he was bled both generally and locally with very marked and decided relief. On his admission, 6th of December last, his lower extremities a second time became edematous, for which he took the following pill:-Take of Mass. pil. hydrarg., 12 grains; Pulv. fol. digital. 4 grains. Mix. Formed into a mass, and divided into 12 pills. One to be taken thrice a day. - night, there is some puffiness about the face; increased swelling, accompanied by smarting pain at the edges of the wound. Let him take Infus. Sennæ, 2 ounces; at 3, P. M., bowels have been opened.--Take of Pil. colocynth comp., 2; Calomel, 2 grains. Mix. To be taken immediately. 20. Swelling of the face greatly dimininished; tongue clean; bowels have been opened several times. 21. Swelling of the face quite gone; bowels regular; to have a little broth today. January 10. No alteration of importance has taken place in the state of the patient, sufficiently interesting to continue a report; of late the wound has begun rapidly to fill up by healthy granulations, and there is every reason to conclude that the object of the operation in producing a cure has been completely accomplished.—Ib. Operation. Today, Mr. Wardrop made the incisions, considerably beyond what appeared to be the limits of the disease; leaving such a portion of sound integuments as was likely to ensure the success of the operation. Considerable hemorrhage took place during the performance of this operation, but only one vessel was tied. A small piece of lint moistened with water, was the only dressing ap- ON THE EFFECT OF HEAT, IN FAplied to the wound. Immediately after the operation, the patient became extremely faint, was put to bed, and two grains of opium administered. At 4, P.M., complained of thirst, with stiffness in the wound. To be kept on tea and water gruel. 18. At 10, A. M., has passed a pretty comfortable night, but complains of headache; pulse 90, softer than on the preceding day; tongue white, thirst increased; has had no alvine evacuation during the last 24 hours. Take of Infus. Sennæ, 2 ounces; to be repeated every three hours, till the bowels are freely opened. 9, P. M. The bowels have been opened twice, headache nearly gone, pain in the wound increased. 19. Has passed an indifferent From the Franklin Journal. CILITATING THE CUTTING OF A MR. EDITOR.-It has been asked ! Let any one shave with a cold razor and examine it before wiping, he will perceive a wall of waxlike matter along the edge, which limits its free action to a mere line, similar to the edge of a double iron plane; this wall is made soft by heat, and is removed by each succeeding cut. A razor, then, in addition to its property of cutting the beard freely, requires that of discharging the adhesive matter scraped up from the skin; this last property is very conveniently acquired, by dipping in hot water. Yours, &c. COGITATOR. Remarks by the Editor.-We have long been convinced, that the cause assigned by Cogitator is the true one, and have repeatedly given a similar solution. We have also met with the same explanation in one of the English journals, probably in the London Mechanics' Magazine. In order to test its truth, we have shaved with a cold razor, which, during the operation, was repeatedly dipped into cold water, and wiped on a napkin, and are certain, that the keeping of the edge clean in this way was advantageous. With respect to those who have doubted the correctness of the opinion, that warmth facilitates the cutting of a razor, we think that they have neither tender chins, nor stiff beards; otherwise, their doubts would have been removed with the removal of the latter. POWER OF VEGETABLE LIFE. A branch of the Cotyledon coccinea was presented to Professor Gazzari in Jan. 1824. Though it had been separated from the mother branch more than sixteen months, during which time it had been wrapped up in a paper, and set aside by accident in a dark, dry place, yet it was full ef vegetation, affording a strong illustration of the vital power of some plants. The celebrated physician, DuмOULIN, being surrounded in his last mohis profession in Paris, who vied ments by the most distinguished of with each other in their expressions of regret at his situation, "Gentlemen," said he, "do not regret me so much,--I leave behind me three great physicians." On their pressing him to name them, each supposing he might be of the number, he added, "water, exercise, and diet," to the no small discomfiture of his disappointed brethren. In New York last week, a female, being told by the clerk of the court to hold up her right hand to plead to an indictment, insisted that that was wrong, "she was left handed!"" At the same court, an Englishman, who was indicted for an assault, pleaded his own cause, but not having learned our republican ways, he lords and gentlemen of the jury!" began in the English fashion :-"My Mr. Gilbert Burns, brother of Scotland's immortal poet, and whose letters stamped him, if not a man of genius, at least one of a strong and reasoning mind, died on the 8th of April, at Grant's Braes, aged 67 years. Precepts are of great weight, and a few useful ones at hand do more towards a happy life than whole volumes of cautions that we know not where to find.-Seneca. The American Farmer.-The "Essay on Dress-No. 1.," in a late number of this paper, was taken from the Boston Medical Intelligencèr, into which it was copied from the London "Literary Gazette," and for which due credit was given. The concluding remark was made by the Editor of this paper. HAS received by the London packet, his Spring supply of DRUGS, MEDICINES, & SURGEONS INSTRU MENTS,-making, together with those in store, a complete assortment,-among them are-narcotine, morphine, acetate of morphine, sulphate of morphine, solution of acetate of morphine, extract of opium deprived of morphine; emetine, iodine, hydriodate of soda, hydriodate of potash, hydriodate of mercury, hydriocianic acid, colchicum seeds and rootsi extract of elaterium, extract of belladona, extract of henbane, extract of hops, extract of hellebore, black drop, croton oil, blue pill, pneumatic nipple pumps, silver, ivory, wood, lead, glass, and gum elastic nipple shields, &c. Strict personal attendance paid to Physicians prescriptions, and medicines delivered at any hour of the night. 6w ADAMS' PATENT, SWELLED BEAM BEDSTEAD. CNNTENTS.-The Parting Ship- Alice Ford: a Tale of 1558-On Evil-Speaking --Recollections of Turkey-Which Things are a Shadow-The Story of Abdulla, of Khorassan-War: its UsesMy Robin Redbreast-Death's DoingsOn the Picture of Death and the Warrior, by Mrs. Hemans-Lines by L. E. L. do. by D. L. Richardson-The Volunteer, by the author of "Whims and Oddities"-Buckingham's Travels in Mesopotamia-Laconics. DR. HULL'S TRUSS. THE very great superiority of this in strument over every other heretofore invented, as to convenience, ease, and comfort to the wearer, and its curative power, is shown by the testimony of respectable physicians, and the formal approbation of Medical Societies, but more than all by the actual cures it has performed. For a more particular description of this Truss, see the last Edition, 1826, of Thacher's Modern Practice. Ebenezer Wight, Apothecary, Milk Street, opposite Federal Street, has just received an assortment of Umbilical and Inguinal Trusses. March 6th. Соты NOTTONS & BARNARD have just published, A MILITARY JOURNAL DURING THE AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY WAR, from 1775 to 1783 : describing interesting events and Transactions of this period; with numerous Historical Facts and Anecdotes, from the Original Manuscript. To which is added an Appendix, containing Biographical Sketches, of several General Officers. By JAMES THACHER, M. D. late Surgeon in the American Army. Second Edition, Revised and Corrected. attempt to rescue from oblivion the words or "As Americans we hail with delight any actions of those whose names we have been taught to revere." April 10. Published weekly, by John Cotton, at 184, Washington St. corner of Franklin St., to whom all communications must be addressed, postpaid.-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. Advertisements, 1 dollar a square. MEDICAL INTELLIGENCER. JOHN G. COFFIN, M.D., EDITOR. THE BEST PART OF THE MEDICAL ART, IS THE ART OF AVOIDING PAIN. VOL. 5. TUESDAY, JUNE 12, 1827. LIFE AND ORGANIZATION. 1. Memoire sur la Structure Ele- Lues a la Société Philoma- THOUGH the term Physiology appears to have been primitively employed to denote an inquiry into nature in general, yet it has been long appropriated exclusively to an investigation into the functions of living beings. Organized bodies are distinguished from all other objects in nature, by the exhibition of peculiar phenomena, the whole of which taken together are designated by the term of life. To the properties which they possess in common with all material substances, other properties are superadded. It is not any one of these properties that constitutes life, but the combination of them. The only proper definition of life, therefore, consists in the enumeration of these properties; and the only mode of forming a correct and comprehensive notion of it is, to NO. 4. consider what these properties really are. The phenomena which characterize living beings, like the physical properties by which unorganized bodies are distinguished, can be ascertained only by observation. When we examine these phenomena we are able to distinguish five properties by which bediscriminated from all other obings endowed with life may be jects. The first is the power certain limits the operation of the they possess of resisting within ordinary laws of matter. The influence of physical agents, those agents which operate most powerfully and constantly on unorganized bodies by subverting their existing combinations, and by recomposing the elements they disengage in new modes and new proportions is, within a wide range, completely counteracted by living beings. The changes produced by air, moisture, and heat, for example, on unorganized substances, and on organized bodies themselves when deprived of life, cannot be effected in the living being, because the first, and obviously the most indispensable, operation of the energy, of life, is to resist such changes. The second character by which the living body is distinguished is the power it possesses of assimilating foreign materials to its own substance. Unorganized bodies consist of particles of matter which are held together by mutual attraction: they increase by the juxtaposition of new particles which are merely superimposed on the preexisting mass. The living body is endowed with the power of converting materials of exceedingly different natures into one homogeneous substance, and of elaborating from this substance the various solid and fluid parts of which it is composed. The plant putting forth its roots into the soil, and abstracting from it the nutrient particles it furnishes, converts them into the different substances and juices peculiar to the plant. The animal body receives into its interior the diversified materials from which it derives its nourishment, dissolves and decomposes them, recombines their elements, and thus forms all the tissues and all the organs of which, in the higher order of animals, its complicated structure consists. The process by which these changes are effected is termed in the vegetable, imbibition, in the animal, digestion. The conversion of the digested matter into the proper substance of the body is denominated assimilation, and the power by which this process is effected is so peculiar to the living body, that some of the most eminent physiologists have assumed it as the distinctive attribute of life. A third character by which the living body is distinguished, is the mode in which the materials of which it is constituted are disposed. Arrangement is the character of this disposition. The adaptation of one part to another is such as to force on the mind the conviction, that this disposition is truly arrangement. In general, the configuration which resuits from this order is that of a symmetrical disposition of parts. The arrangement itself is termed structure; the process by which it is effected is called organization, and the body in which it is found is said to be organized. This regularity of disposition is sufficiently apparent in vegetables; and the structure which results from it in the higher classes of animals is often exquisitely beautiful; but in a few species of animals which are placed at the very bottom of the scale of being, and which appear to consist only of a minute point of jelly, this character can scarcely be said to exist. On searching further into the economy of life, we discover additional phenomena, which are no less distinctive of it than those that have been stated: these relate to its origin and its termination. It is a general law that living beings derive their origin from preexisting living beings. The first origin of a new being is veiled in impenetrable mystery; but its first indications of life in general arise in what is termed a germ, that is, an organized substance the product of the parent animal. Living bodies form at some period part of other living bodies, from which they are subsequently detached, and derive from the living power of the bodies to which they originally belong, the degree of developement which renders them susceptible of independent life: consequently, the vital motions of living bodies arise in the parent stock; it is from the parent that the offspring receives the vital impulse; it is life that gives origin to life. It was formerly conceived that there |