Chirurgical Society of London owes its formation, a body, which, for a few years, promised to contribute greatly to the improvement and respectability of the profession. The volumes of the Transactions of this Society, which have been published within the last two years, clearly show that Dr. Marcet, although the chief founder of it, has had little influence in the selection of papers for publication. The death of a member, whose name added to its respectability, and who was so capable of communicating valuable matter, together with the late great loss in the literary support and countenance of Dr. Granville, will, we suspect, be seriously felt by those members of the council, whose office consists in selecting the most valuable papers for publication.

Dr. Marcet was a leading member of the Royal Society, and for some years had been one of the council. He was also a member of the Geological Society of London. In all these associations, to which he was introduced by that which should be the only passport to all scientific societies, viz. his own merit, science, and extensive information, his talents, liberality, and unassuming conduct, gave him a just claim to that high distinction, which, to the honour of our country, he enjoyed. In such estimation were the Doctor's abilities held in his native city, that he was elected honorary professsor of chemistry, &c. The Doctor's death, being very sudden, was attributed to apoplexy; but there was no appearance, on dissection, confirmatory of that supposition, or in any part of the body, to account for his dissolution. Having experienced a spasmodic affection of the stomach, some time previously to his death, and having been subject to a spasmodic affection of the heart, some of his medical friends have attributed his death to irregular gout attacking a vital part.

The editor of" Authentic Memoirs of eminent Physicians and Surgeons of Great Britain," prefaces his sketch of Dr. Marcet, with the following just remark:-" Though medicine is properly a branch of philosophy, it is seldom cultivated by the professors of the healing art. The bustle and hurry of professional life does not suit the calm contemplative mind of the philosopher. The present respectable individual, however, is a rare exception to this, for he unites to a philosophical turn of thinking, and deep research, much professional knowledge, experience, and observation."

EMETICS.- Doctor Sutton, of Greenwich, has published the following remarks on the means of limiting the operation of an emetic to the stomach." Antimonial emetics (emetic tartar, &c.) almost uniformly act upon the bowels as well as the stomach; and we cannot always assure ourselves that ipecacuanha will operate solely by exciting vomiting. I have frequently, however, met with cases which rendered the operation of a vomit only desirable upon the stomach, and when I have wished to avoid its extending its effects to the intestines, so as to cause looseness. Dr. Sydenham had an idea that a certain sort of diarrhoea was caused by an emetic, but his emetics were antimonials. It would have best answered his intention, if he could have relied on a vomit which would confine its operation to the act of exciting vomiting only. Several circumstances have come under my observation, which clearly assured me that opium, or preparations from it in small quantities, did not hinder the operation of an emetic. Later observations have rather convinced me that it may render an emetic of ipecacuanha upon the whole more severe, as it prevents the latter from running

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off by the intestines. In some cases I have found that a moderate dose of ipecacuanha will not excite vomiting, which, when joined with opium, will answer the intention; and for this purpose I have often joined it with emetics of ipecacuanha. Thus, when I wish a more limited operation of an emetic to the stomach, I recommend five or six drops of tincture of opium in an emetic draught, and a quarter of a grain in a powder, with such a dose of ipecacuanha or its preparation, as is judged fit for an adult, and in proportion to younger persons. And when I wish a very moderate operation of an emetic, I give a smaller quantity of ipecacuanha with the opium, and have generally been satisfied with

the result."

In most cases of acute or even chronic diseases, the operation of an emetic substance on the intestines is desirable. In inflammatory fevers particularly, an emetic medicine always acts more beneficially when it excites diarrhoea. In the last stage of typhus fever, where the strength of the patient is much reduced, and in some cases of nervous asthma in elderly subjects, attended with oedematous swellings of the legs, or effusion of serum in the chest or belly; and in the last stage of pulmonary consumption, it may be desirable to "limit the operation of an emetic to the stomach." Opium may prevent its disturbing the intestines, but that it will also promote vomiting, is contrary to our own experience. Opium does not obviate the aperient effects of an emetic by preventing the emetic article passing into the duodenum; but by diminishing the irritability of the intestines, and by producing the same effect on the stomach, instead of promoting the operation of an emetic, either of an antimonial preparation, ipecacuanha, or any other emetic article, it absolutely diminishes it, and this fact, we believe, is well known to every apothecary. Opium, given with an emetic dose of tartarized antimony or ipecacuanha, by diminishing the sympathy between the stomach and the diaphragm, abdominal muscles, &c. often occasions the most distressing nausea, the stomach not having the power, without their aid, to eject its contents*. In inflammatory fevers, opium, by disturbing the brain, (which in such cases it never fails to do), may occasion inflammation of that organ, and this effect we have observed to follow the use of Dover's powders, which is a composition of opium and ipecacuanha.

SUICIDE-Dr. Falret, (whose work on suicide we quoted when we noticed the lamentable case of the late Marquis of Londonderry) after commenting on the opinions of various writers respecting" the seat of suicide," or on what derangement it depends, asserts, 1st, That it depends no more upon affections of the abdominal organs than on other disorders: 2d, that it can only have a place in those organs which are engaged in the intellectual and moral faculties: 3d, that it very rarely happens that the affections of the other viscera can be the remote cause; consequently that the brain is always primarily disordered, and is the source of the affection." The Doctor proceeds next to display

* A full dose of ipecacuanha or emetic tartar, by bringing these muscles into action, operates more mildly than a small dose, which will not excite vomiting without the efforts of the patient.

the order and succession of the symptoms of suicide, by means of the detail of various cases, which at the same time evinces the treatment that was employed, which appears to be very judicious. He afterwards enters upon the particular consideration of the method of cure. After some observations respecting the practice of Awenbrugger and Leroy, who, like the liver-doctors of this country, recommend remedies to be directed to the liver and spleen, Dr. F. very properly observes, the curative indications ought to be taken from the symptoms indicating the state of the circulation in the brain, and the means of cure directed to its condition. The pain and uneasiness in the head, the want of rest, the state of the vessels of the brain, as evident by the pulsation of the carotid arteries, and the character of the eyes; the sensation of constriction and tension, and the appearances observed on dissection, evince the propriety of frequent abstraction of blood, especially in the immediate vicinity of the brain. Exercise and manual occupations, especially in the open air; active amusements; horseback exercise and hunting; the visiting of watering places and frequented promenades, during a dry state of the atmosphere; gentle purgatives, combined with sedatives; the exhibition of an emetic in some cases; blisters, setons, dry cupping, and derivative applications to the nape of the neck, or the region of the stomach; antispasmodics, sedatives, and after depletion has been largely employed, tonics, as the Peruvian bark, &c. are severally recommended by the Doctor. He afterwards treats of the remedial agents which ought to be directed more immediately to the brain itself; these chiefly consist of moral and intellectual means, which must be varied according to the circumstances of the case, the disposition of the patient, and the exciting causes. Amongst the remarks which are offered respecting the means of repression, the cold affusion, the shower bath, and cold applications to the head, especially in delirious suicide, deserve attention. The preservative plan of treatment comprehends, in addition to the agents we have enumerated, the removal, as far as it may be accomplished, of the occasional causes.

The Doctor considers suicide too exclusively as a disease, and more especially as the result of a morbid state of the vessels of the brain, and its membranes. That it is frequently a disease, and the result of vascular disorder in those situations, will be readily granted; but that it is essentially and exclusively such, admits of great doubt. It ought to be considered, that the causes, and the intellectual and moral phenomena which lead, in either a distant or more immediate manner, to the adoption of ideas concerned in the production of self-destruction, cannot be shewn to be the result of vascular action, or diseased structure in the brain; although, by means of the intimate relation existing between the mental and corporeal operations, they often lead to such a derangement. On the other hand, it ought to be admitted, and the eyes of the prac titioner ought to be open to the fact, that incessant application to study, to business, to political events, to the interests and views of political parties, to the anxious discharge of public duties, or to the support of public measures, in addition to numerous causes, will so far overturn the equilibrium of the circulation as to occasion a degree of plenitude of the vessels of the brain, or its membranes, verging on inflammation. Such a condition of this organ may betray itself by a slight delirium, or

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mental alienation, by slight and irritative nervous fever, or by a burning head-ache, with little other disturbance of the system; and it may evince itself by a peculiarity of manner, by the unusual direction of the ideas, or by the state of the temper. If, during this condition of disorder, the ideas should be led to self-destruction; or if any circumstance, whether domestic or public, should occur, which, by exciting the temper or affections, may suddenly increase the organic derangement, as well as the subsequent resolution, suicide may be the consequence: or if, either after or before the particular class of ideas prompting to a vio lent death has been induced, the individual should be placed in a state of comparative inactivity, and his opinions be allowed to flow in that direction most likely to suggest or to confirm the idea of suicide; the event, although more maturely contemplated, will not be the less certainly accomplished.

Suicide, viewed in this direction, the only one in which it can with propriety be considered as an organic disease, may become the lot of the strongest and most accomplished minds: it is under these latter circumstances, like other mental alienations, the result of vascular derangement in an organ, which holds a close relation to the state of the mental and moral operations. We cannot, therefore, be surprised when we perceive individuals, subjected to the most important duties and undertakings, as well as anxieties, to suffer in that organ which becomes the medium or instrument of such harassing operations; and that the consequences resulting from them both to the organ itself, and to the faculties related to it, should be exactly those which such causes are most likely, both from theory and from experience, to produce. proof of these positions, we have only to adduce those distressing instances of suicide which have, within these few years, occurred in this country.

In

The prevailing opinion as to the influence of climate in producing a disposition to suicide, Dr. Falret considers entitled to little or no credit. The climate of the North of Europe, he observes, is much less agreeable than that of England, and yet an indifference as to life is less frequent there than in this country. The Dutch live under physical conditions nearly similar to the English, and yet suicide is much less frequent among them. Cabanis says, that autumn, especially when a humid cold and variable state of the atmosphere, and especially when preceded by a warm dry summer, is more fertile in voluntary deaths, than any other period of the year. In England, suicides were formerly more common in the month of November; but of late years, this has not been the case, which some attribute to the air being more free from vapours, in consequence of the draining of the marshy land.

The almost total disappearance of ague in this country, in consequence of the draining of marshy land, shews that the air has been rendered more salubrious by it. Dr. Falret denies the truth of the assertion made by Dr. Burrowes, that suicide is less frequent in England than in France. He attributes the frequency of it in this country, to the number and enthusiasm of religious sects, political commotions, the range given to social passions, the hazards and losses in mercantile speculations, the indolence resulting from wealth, habits of dissipation, the importance attached to public opinion; to which he might have

added, the ruinous expence attending an appeal to the laws, and the uncertainty of the result, or the success of villany, which the legal sophistry of the day allows, under the guidance of unprincipled pettifoggers, and the sanction of an impudent barrister, whose knowledge does not extend beyond the chicanery of the law, and who is, in fact, as devoid of generous and honourable feelings as the attorney and his wretched client, who have no other object in view than to rob or entrap the defendant. Many thousands of honest tradesmen have been ruined or driven mad by the protection which the sophistry of some courts, (where law is in opposition to justice) affords to villany. We leave this subject to Mr. Cullen, who has, no doubt, the power of detecting villany from honesty, and who will, no doubt, treat it with impartiality in his announced dissertation on the duties of an arbitrator. After giving an excellent description of the phenomena which precede the various kinds of violent death, Dr. F. considers how far the commission of it may be regarded as an act of courage. This chapter, he concludes, in the words of Montaigne, that it is more courageous to endure ills or misfortunes than to run from them.

TUMOUR.-M. Dagorn, a French surgeon, has published an account of some extraordinary large tumours of the steatomatous kind, arising from the trunk of a female about eighteen years of age, the largest of which, he says, weighed forty-six pounds!! The following is a translation of his description of them:

"The subject, Emilie Seve, weighed 167 pounds, although somewhat lean, and of an ordinary stature. The posterior surface of the trunk, towards the nape of the neck, presented two tumours, eight inches long and three broad, uneven and covered with small whitish spots. A third, very small round and soft, was situated on the back part of the right arm, near the arm-pit; the fourth, which arose from beneath the inferior angle of the right blade bone, was one foot three inches long, and six broad; the fifth was beneath the insertion of the preceding, and was six inches long and five broad; the sixth was larger than a man's head, and was situated at the external part of the right hip bone; the seventh was smaller, and seated above the trochanter of the same side; and the eighth had its origin at the left side, and reached as low as the calf of the leg, being two feet long, and three feet one inch round its base. All these tumours were of the steatomatous species, soft, uneven, of a loose cellular tissue, and entirely isolated from the internal orgaus and muscles." M. Dagorn being satisfied that the disease was confined to the integuments and cellular tissue, determined on removing the larger by the knee. The operation was performed by M. Dagorn on the 20th of July, 1819, in presence of several physicians. The largest tumour was removed by making two flaps, and from the extent of the wound and the flaccid state of the skin, the twisted suture was employed. The tumour weighed 46 pounds; the integuments were very thin, and the cells filled with transparent serum, mixed with yellowish fatty flakes. From the summit to the base of the tumour the trunks of an artery and vein were visible, which ramified over the surface and into the substance of the tumour.

The wound healed in the course of two months and six days, after which the other tumours, which had remained stationary, increased con

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