additions by Dr. Reese, in the American edition, nearly 2500 pages of ordinary print, was sufficient to have transmitted his name to posterity.

Cooper's First Lines of the Theory and Practice of Surgery, was originally designed as an elementary treatise on the subject, and as a text book for students attending his lectures. As this is only an improved edition of a work long and favorably known to the profession, no review of it is expected at our hands. From an examination of the notes and additions by Dr. Parker, we are disposed to think, they have considerably enhanced the value of this edition. We commend it to all desirous of keeping pace with the improvements in Surgery, both theoretical and practical.

The Principles of Surgery. By JAMES MILLER, F. R. S., C. S. E., Professor of Surgery in the University of Edinburg, Surgeon to the Royal Infirmary, &c. &c. Philadelphia: LEA & BLANCHARD. 1845. pp. 519.

This work is very favorably, noticed by our exchange Journals. It was first issued last year in the city, in which the author is a professor, in 12 mo., pp. 716. It is gotten up in a very creditable manner by Messrs. Lea & Blanchard, to whom the profession is so greatly indebted for valuable publications, both original and re-prints. Prof. Miller's work commences with an historical notice of Surgery, in 38 pages. Chapter 1., is devoted to Perverted Action of the Blood ves'sels. Chapter II., to Perverted Action of the Nerves. Chapter III., to Perverted Actions of the Absorbents. Chapter IV., to Suppuration. Chapter v., to Ulceration. Chapter vI., to Mortification. Chap. ter VII., to Perverted Action in certain Tissues. Chapter VIII., to Perverted Action occurring in Bone. Chapter IX., to Diseases of the Joints. Chapter x., to Diseases of the Arteries. Chapter XI., to Affections of the Veins. Chapter XII., to Hemorrhage. Chapter XIII., to Affections of the Lymphatics. Chapter XIV., to Affections of Nerves. Chapter xv., to Tumours. Chapter xvI., to Wounds. Chapter XVII., to Burns and Scalds. Chapter xvIII., to the Effects of Cold. Chapter XIX., to Fracture. Chapter xx., to Dislocation. Chapter XXI., to Sprain and Rupture of Muscle and Tendon. Chapter XXII., to Bruise.

The reader can now judge of the character of the work, and we fully accord with those who have recommended it, as the best book yet published on the Principles of Surgery.

A Treatise on the Diseases and Special Hygiene of Females. By Colombat De L'Isère. Translated from the French, by Charles D. Meigs, M. D., Professor of Midwifery and Diseases of Women and Children, in the Jefferson Medical College, Philadel phia, &c, &c. Lea & Blanchard: 1845. 1 vol. octavo, pp. 720. The medical profession is much indebted to Prof. Meigs, for his excellent translation of this valuable work. Some idea may be formed of the immense labor and research of its author, when it is. understood that he has cited more than one thousand authorities, and has given the opinions and practical methods of the most celebrated practitioners of ancient and modern times. The notes of Professor Meigs, included within brackets in the body of the text, and constituting nearly one-seventh part of the volume, impart additional value to the work, which we feel no hesitation in saying, should be in the hand of every student and practitioner.

A Practical Treatise on the Diseases peculiar to Women, illus. trated by cases, derived from hospital and private practice. By SAMUEL ASHWELL, M. D., London. With Notes by PAUL GOD. DARD, M. D. LEA & BHANCHARD: Philadelphia, 1845. 1 vol. 8vo. pp. 520.

We are much gratified to see this complete edition, with notes, by Dr. Goddard. With no work are we acquainted, in which the pleasant and the useful are more happily blended: It combines the greatest elegance of style with the most sound and valuable practical information. We feel justified in recommending it, in unqualified terms, to our readers, as a book from which they can scarcely fail to derive both pleasure and improvement. It is truly a model for medical composition. We are pleased to see that Dr. Goddard has not placed his name on the outside of this book. It is humiliating to our national pride to observe so many able and eminent American physicians, whose ambition might well have soared higher, attempting to ride to distinction, upon the backs of transatlantic authors. They should scorn, like satellites, to borrow light from distant luminaries, but in the noble strife for fame, aspire to deck their brows

"With honors all their own."

J. A. E.

Remarks on the Influence of Mental Cultivation and Mental Excitement upon Health. By AMARIAH BRIGHAM, M. D., Super. intendant and Physician of the State Lunatic Asylum, Utica, N. Y. Third edition. LEA & BLANCHARD, 1845. 1 vol. 12mo. pp. 204. We are pleased to find that this useful work has passed to a third

edition. Its value is acknowledged abroad as well as at home, the work having been re-published in London, Edinburgh and Glasgow. The facts and reasonings of Dr. Brigham shew conclusively that "early mental excitement will serve only to bring forth beautiful but premature flowers, which are destined soon to wither away, without producing fruit." We commend the book as well to parents and teachers as to physicians.

PART III-MONTHLY PERISCOPE.

Malformation of the Heart.-The Gazette Médicale of 15th February last, contains the description of an interesting case of malformation of the heart, by M. Aug. Valette, of Strasburg. The subject, Julie Rieder, died at the age of six years and twelve days, from an attack of acute Bronchitis. During the first six weeks of her exist. ence her health was good, and nothing indicated any malformation; but she was then suddenly seized with dyspnoea, accompanied by marked cyanosis of the skin. When six months old an attack of convulsions occurred, which left her right side paralysed. From this she gradually recovered, and enjoyed pretty good health subsequently. The cyanosed condition of the skin persisted till her death, was increased by active exercise, but was always more decided on the side affected with paralysis. The dyspnoea also continued. By auscultation of the heart, a double bellows sound was heard. Intellect normal.

Post-mortem inspection revealed the almost total absence of interventricular septum, the orifices of the aorta and pulmonary artery being separated only by a small spur of the remaining portion of the septum. The aorta was about double the size of the pulmonary artery. The auricles communicated freely with each other by means of the unclosed foramen ovale and of another large opening beneath this. There was but one auriculo-ventricular orifice, which was large, protected by a triangular valve, and which consequently com. municated equally with both ventricles. This heart, therefore,

although presenting the vestiges of a double organ, was in reality reduced to the condition of that of the Batracians. Notwithstanding the intimate admixture of the venous and arterial blood which must necessarily have taken place in this case, the individual's life was prolonged much beyond what is usually supposed possible under such circumstances. It is suggested by the writer that the increased, cyanosis, manifested in the paralysed side, inay be attributed to the slower return of venous blood from this side, and that this fact should probably lead us not to attribute cyanosis too exclusively to the mere admixture of the two bloods in the heart.

D.

Vaccine.-M. M. Dumiril, Magendie, Breschet, Roux, and Serres, having been appointed by the Academy of Sciences, of Paris, a Committee to investigate several questions relating to Vaccine, made a partial Report on the 24th February, 1845, from which we glean the following conclusions:

1st. That rather more than one third of those attacked with smallpox in France had been vaccinated; and that the proportion of deaths among these was very small. That the results are about the same in England, Sweden, Denmark, Italy, Malta, Geneva, &c.

2nd. That, in general, vaccination insures exemption from variola in a direct ratio with the recentness of its performance. The statis. tics derived from the various parts of Europe, show conclusively that until nine years after vaccination, children are rarely attacked with small-pox, and that this disease occurs most in such as have been vaccinated ten, fifteen, twenty, or even thirty-five years before. On the other hand, those who have been vaccinated more than thirty-five years, are rarely affected with variola, a fact that may be attributed to the diminished tendency to eruptive diseases in general at this age.

3rd. That vaccination may be regarded as procuring complete exemption from variola for five or six, and even for ten or cleven years. That after this age, and especially during the prevalence of epidemics, a portion of the vaccinated, become subject to the smallpox. And that the majority of the vaccinated are permanently exempted.

4th. That the intensity and protecting influence of the vaccine virus are greatest when it is most recently taken from the cow. And that exemption is not proportionate to the degree of local disease induced.-Condensed from the Gazette Médicale of 1st March, 1845.

D.

Scarification of the Gums during Dentition. By MARSHALL HALL, M.D., F. R. S., &c.-There is no practical fact of the truth and value of which I am more satisfied than that of the effect and efficacy of scarification of the gums in infants, and not in infants only, but in children. But the prevailing, I may say the universal idea on the subject is, that we should lance the gums only when the teeth are ready to pierce through them, and only at the most prominent parts. of the gums, as the occasion to which I have referred may require; and no idea of this important measure can be more inadequate to its real value. The process of teething is one of augmented arterial action and of vascular action generally; but it is also one of augmented nervous action; for formation, like nutrition, secretion, &c., generally, is always one of nervi-vascular action, and of this the case in question is, from its peculiar rapidity, one of the most energetic. Like other physiological processes, it is apt to become, from that very character of energy, pathological, or of morbid activity. It is obviously, then, attended with extreme suffering to the little patient; the brain is irritable, and the child is restless and cross; the gums are tumid and heated; there is fever, an affection of the general vascular system, and there are, too frequently, convulsions of various degrees and kinds, manifested in the muscles which move the eye-ball, the thumb and finger, the toes; the larynx, the parietes of the respiratory cavities; and the limbs and frame in general; affections of the excito-motor part of the nervous system, and of the secretions of the liver, kidneys, and intestines; affections of the ganglionic division of that system.

What is the precise cause and source of these formidable effects? Can the mere tension and irritation of the gum situated over the more prominent part of the teeth be the cause of such extensive morbid actions? I think not. The real source of these phenomena is in the entire dental system, in which actions of unusual energy and extept are going on-sub-inflammatory they might be called, were they not in reality of an essentially different nature and origin. This undue action takes place in the fangs and sockets of the teeth in their whole extent, with their connections, vascular, nervous, and membranous. But the focus from which the nervous actions ema. nate is, I believe, not as is generally imagined, the nerves of the mere gums seated over the prominent parts of the teeth, but the nerves which may emphatically be termed the nerves of the teeth themselves, the nerves which enter into the very fangs and substance of the teeth. It is to the base of the gums, not to their apex merely, that the scarification should be applied. The most marked case in which I have observed the instant good effect of scarification was one in which all the teeth had pierced the gums!

This view of the subject may assist in removing the futile objection of some who have, without due consideration I am convinced, opposed my plan of frequent, often daily, scarification of the gums, to whom I would say, as my sole reply-Better scarify the gums unne