Equity, is the object of Mr. Lubé. He does not propose to warn the litigant; and, for this reason, he omits to describe the power of a bill to attract pounds, shillings, and pence, in its course: but he furnishes much useful and compendious information to the student; he gives the history of a suit, from the petition to the decree and executive measures. The absence of technicalities, and the perspicuity, which pervade the work, adapt it even to the unprofessional reader. The title above explains its contents sufficiently, to render their enumeration unnecessary. Their arrangement is orderly, and the space allotted to each division just; the style is simple and the topics well connected together; it displays experience and an attentive consideration of the subject, and will, we conceive, repay the perusal either of the professional or the general reader.

MEDICINE AND SURGERY.

On the Nature and Symptoms of Cataract; and on the Cure of that Disease, in its early Stages, by a Mode of Practice calculated to prevent the Occurrence of Blindness, and to render unnecessary the Operations of Couching and Extraction: illustrated by Cases. By John Stevenson, Esq. &c.-8vo. 8s. Whittaker.

THIS work contains manifold symptoms of its being written more for the purpose of bringing the author's name before the public, than of imparting knowledge. The advertisement in the title-page is admirably framed ad captandum." We naturally expected to find some account of the author's mode of practice, but were disappointed. We are too well acquainted with the operation referred to (an operation neither new nor peculiar to Mr. Stevenson), not to be able to dispense with his information; but the young surgeon, who is obliged to pay eight shillings for the book, will have a right to complain of so wilful

an omission.

The professed object of this treatise is to recommend the removal of cataract by the absorbent practice; and to perform the operation as soon as the existence of the disease is sufficiently evident. For the purpose of showing the prosperity of this treatment, in comparison with the older methods of couching and extracting, the author points out, and, we think, judiciously, the various objections incident to these operations. For example, couching, the most ancient, and the most commonly performed, is frequently found to produce no more than a temporary relief; so that, Professor Raw, in his lectures, considered it one of the most uncertain operations in surgery. Heister, and also other surgeons anterior to the time of Pott, speak of the troublesome ophthalmia consequent upon depression, and the uncertainty of its success. These inconveniences, however, it must be admitted, has, of late years, been materially lessened, by improvements in the practice. The depression of the lens cannot always be effected without such derangements of the iris and ciliary processes, as may terminate in the disorganization of the inner parts of the If it be depressed without its capsule, the anterior part of which

eye.

remains entire, the latter may become the source of secondary cataract. If, on the contrary, it be imbedded in the vitreous humour, with its capsule entire, absorption cannot take place; and it remains as a foreign body, with a tendency to promote the absorption of its bed, and ultimately to press upon the sensitive retina. In particular states of the vitreous humour, where, for instance, it has become fluid, the movements of the lens, after it has been depressed, are unimpeded; and it has been known to impinge against the iris, or escape through the pupil into the anterior chamber, giving rise to

considerable irritation.

An accident of this kind first suggested the operation of extracting the cataract; its practicability having been discovered in a case where the lens had made its way into the anterior chamber. The numerous inconveniences resulting from couching, naturally led to its adoption, It will, however, to say nothing of the difficulty of its performance, be found extremely defective, and uncertain of success. This operation, the author observes, can only be proper where the opaque lens is hard; and, even in such cases, "where neither the form of the eye, nor the accompanying symptoms, forbid its removal through a section of the transparent cornea." Where the vitreous humour is in a fluid state, extraction has been universally admitted to be useless; and, unfortu→ nately, this state of the eye is one which cannot be previously ascertained.

Long before we had any knowledge respecting the nature and use of an absorbent vessel, the fact had been repeatedly witnessed, that a cataract, broken up by the surgeon's knife, would ultimately disappear, although suffered to remain in the axis of vision.

CELSUS, in case of the reascension of the lens after depression, directs us to cut it into pieces, "si subinde redit eadem (cataracta) acu magis concidenda, et in plures partes dissipanda est." In fact, the lens, deprived of its capsule, and thus divided, is taken up by the absorbents. Precisely the same effects ensue, if the anterior portion of the capsule be removed, or extensively lacerated, so as to allow of the action of the aqueous humour upon the lens.

The expediency of an early operation is very properly urged, in opposition to those surgeons who ridiculously imagine, that a cataract is not in a fit state until, as Mr. Guthrie observes, "the lens has become so opaque, as to prevent the patient seeing sufficiently to find his way about, and to render him incapable of distinguishing any thing more than the shadows of objects." Why Mr. Guthrie supposes that cataract ought not to be removed at the instant of its formation, we know not. The very continuance of the disease is sufficient to impair the retina, and produce incurable amaurosis. By our author, the reasons adduced in support of the advantage of delay are successfully refuted.

A Translation of the Pharmacopoeia of the Royal College of Physicians of London. With Notes and Illustrations. By Richard Phillips. With Diagrams. 8vo. pp. 326.

FROM the nature of this work, only the language and notes can be objects of criticism. In respect to the former, although Mr. Phillips

Crit. Gaz. Vol. 1. No. 1.

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is a chemist by profession, and, therefore, accustomed to the use of an artificial and peculiar nomenclature, differing from the common language of the world, he has, we must in candour say, given a paraphrase rather than a translation of the Pharmacopoeia.

Thus, in the great majority of instances, the College, instead of employing the common Latin names of the parts of vegetable substances used in physic, have chosen to express them by a periphrastic definition; as, for cinnamomum, cinnamom, they say, cinnamomi cortex, the bark of the cinnamon-tree; for canella alba, literally, white cinnamom, they say canella cortex, the bark of the laurel-leaved canella; for terræ Japonica, Japan earth, they say catechu extractum, the extract of the areca nut-tree; for jalapium, jalap, they say jalapa radix, the root of the jalap plant; for piper negrum, black pepper, they use piperis nigri bacca, the berries of piper negrum, according to our usual method of adopting the Linnean botannic names of plants, without alteration. And as, in all these cases, and, indeed, nearly throughout all the drugs from the vegetable kingdom of nature, the peculiar name of the vegetable is evidently to be taken from the vulgar, or in some few instances from the botanic, names of the plants, and ought to have been so expressed in the translation; so it must be supposed, that, in the preparations, the names of the plants are to be taken in the same sense; and, as the wood cinnamomum necessarily signifies the cinnamon-tree, and not the spice called cinnamom, in cinnamomi cortex, so it must also signify the same in aqua cinnamomi, spiritus cinnamomi, tinctura cinnamomi, and pulvis cinnamomi compositus, contrary to the usual practice of the ancients, and of those moderns who do not belong to the college. And that this is the true signification of the words denoting plants, in most of the preparations, is evident, from those cases in which the names have been altered, evidently for this purpose; as, for example, the syrupus e succo mororum, the syrup from the juice of mulberries, of the editions 1745, into syrupus mori, whereas mori bacca means the berries of the mulberry-tree; so this name must mean the syrup of the mulberry-tree; and, in like manner, the college has changed the name of the old conserva rosarum rubrarum, into confectio rosa Gallica, in which the term rosa Gallica, in the singular, must signify the whole plant, and not the petals only, as implied by the old name, which was plural.

This leads to the observation, that Mr. Phillips has not paid the equally necessary attention to the grammatical number of some of the new names; thus, for cantharis, in the singular, he gives the old Latin plural, cantharides, although the College have rejected that word ever since 1788. In like manner, he translates, if translation it can be called, the singular, cubeba, by the plural, cubebs. Yet it cannot be said, that the College does not attach some importance to the grammatical number of the names; for they have, in this edition, restored the old plural, galla, gall-nuts, which, in the 1788 edition, and the following ones, had been altered into the singular, galla.

Of these peculiarities of language, which run through the whole book, Mr. Phillips takes not the slightest notice; nor, indeed, does he seem to be aware of the College-language being any way different

from the common Latin tongue or that of their predecessors before the year 1788, when these periphrastic definitions and references to the whole plants were introduced, instead of the names of the parts in

use.

It cannot be supposed, that this is owing to carelessness and neglect; yet the translator has fell into the same glaring verbal error as the College itself, and given myristica nuclei, as the College name, both of nutmegs, and of oil of mace.

However erroneous the mere translation of the work may be, Mr. Phillips, as might be expected, explains the changes which take place in the chemical operations, mentioned in the Pharmacopoeia, in a very clear manner; and, to most of the chemical preparations, gives the mode of detecting certain adulterations; and also, under a distinct head, the substances which, when mixed with the article under consideration, cause a sediment to fall down in all which points, he displays a great knowledge of chemistry; but the chemical history of the articles of the materia medica is not at all mentioned by him; and that of the preparations is very seldom introduced; and even when spoken of, very slightly mentioned.

A Comparative View of Fever and Inflammatory Complaints, with Essays illustrative of the Seat, Nature, and Origin of Fever. By T. Mills, M.D. 8vo. 6s. Longman and Co.

WE cannot more properly commence our remarks on this publication, than by asking Dr. Mills whether there be any essential difference between phrenitis and typhus? which question, on a slight review of the characters and symptoms of each, he will answer in the negative. The doctor makes comparisons between each of the following disorders and typhus-erysipelas, ophthalmia, pneumonia, enteritis, puerperal fever, peritonitis, hepatitis, gastritis, gastric, and intermittent : all of which are considered as possessing symptoms in common with typhus, so as to justify the belief that their proximate causes are alike. The divisions of fever into continued remittent and intermittent is deemed erroneous; a fact particularly noticed by most writers of repute on the diseased in tropical climates.

The author next enquires, what are the remedies most commonly employed in cephalic or typhus fever, even by those who deny its inflammatory character? and determines on assigning precisely the remedies which, in the lesser degree, would be applicable to inflammatory disease;-cool air, cool drink, iced caps, antimonials, purgatives, effervescent saline draughts. If to this catalogue we add bloodletting, local or general, according to circumstances, the reader will have an epitome of the treatment here recommended.

The question, Whether typhus be contagious,-is discussed, and very properly decided in the negative. The belief in contagion has been attended by the most pernicious consequences. In the Barcelona fever, for example, by confining patients to the spot which engendered the disease; when, had they been removed from the poisonous miasma which produced the complaint, to a healthy situation, its malignity would, at least, have been materially diminished. The attempt to cure epidemic or endemic fever on the spot which engenders

it, is no less irrational than would be the attempt to recover a man poisoned with opium while the drug itself continued to be administered.

Symptomatology, or the Art of detecting Disease. By Dr. Alex. P. Buchan. To which are added, Tables of Symptoms. 12mo. pp. 190. THIS is a lecture which was occasionally read by the author to the pupils of the Westminster Hospital, while senior physician to that Institution; and, considered in the light of an earnest exhortation to pay the greatest attention to the study of the symptoms which denote the presence of disease, its nature, and probable termination, it was certainly beneficial to the parties for whose instruction it was designed. It explained to them the advantages of studying this part of medical science, as well as anatomy and surgery, for which two latter, they are too apt to slight the other branches of medicine. To the actual practitioner, it presents nothing but what is familiar to his mind. Dr. Buchan observes, that,

"Doubtless, there exists a pathological physiognomy well worth the attention of the industrious practitioner. Every internal disease of a serious nature imprints upon the countenance of the patient a certain cast or air, from which the attentive physician may derive an important diagnostic."

And again, in the next page, he very justly says,

"The possession of this discriminative faculty in perfection constitutes what has been termed the scientific tact, and forms, perhaps, the ultimate perfection of medical talent.” Yet, we doubt whether his little work will do more than shew the student the road he is to pursue, if he possess the happy gift of medical discrimination; we call it a gift, for certainly no study can infuse it into the minds of those who are not inclined to it by nature.

At the end of his lecture, Dr. Buchan gives several sketches, copied from the Semeiatice Pathologica of Gruner; and which are intended to render the perceptions indicated by the pulse obvious to the eye. Much, we think, cannot be said in favour of this attempt.

These are followed by a table of symptoms, chiefly copied from Berkenhout's Symptomatology; in which the symptoms are ranged in an alphabetical order: thus,

"Abscess forming in the legs, in diseases of the lungs, beneficial."

"

Anxiety, in acute diseases, frequent, and, if extreme, always dangerous."

This adoption of a single mode of arrangement is evidently erroneous; symptoms which are to lead the practitioner to judge of the approach of any disease, must, of necessity, be thus arranged; but, when the disease is actually present, the symptoms by which it is distinguished from other cognate diseases, or that indicate the mode to be followed in curing it, or its probable termination, ought undoubtedly to be arranged under the head of each disease.

A Treatise on Syphilis, exhibiting the Advantages of large Doses of the Submuriate of Mercury in the Cure of that Disease. Also, an Enquiry into the Modus Operandi of Mercury. Illustrated by Experiments. By James Boyle, Esq.-8vo. pp.,166. 6s. Callow and Wilson.

MORE than twenty cases are adduced, in proof of the efficacy of the mode of treating syphilis. The submuriate was administered in doses