and as modifying the course of ordinary maladies, more particularly when the moon is in conjunction and opposition; while Dr. Hewson, of this country, has written on the value of the barometer as a guide in the choice of the time for, and the prognosis in, surgical operations. Further facts and observations are needed to elucidate various points relating to the matter. Whether the polarized light of the lunar ray can unfavorably affect the sleeper exposed to it, or whether the moon when in its syzygies, and drawing our atmosphere into feeble tides similar to the tides of the ocean, can affect the human economy, or in any other ways, are subjects worthy of investigation. Possibly future researches will throw new light upon the text of Scripture which we have before quoted, and illustrate the fact that the observations of the ancient physicians were as lucid concerning lunar as concerning solar influence. While the earlier writers of our profession have very accurately described many of the disorders which we now encounter, it is somewhat singular that no mention is found of one malady which is at present frequently observed, the etiology and nature of which it is not difficult to decipherI allude to delirium tremens. The cause of this disease we recognize in the abuse of alcoholic stimulants. Wines are known to have been in use from a remote antiquity. The Scriptures speak of their employment, and give the Divine anathema which was pronounced upon the drunkard. Profane history records many a bacchanalian orgy, and represents the gods as revelling in nectar. Postprandial intoxication is not a modern species of debauchery. Homer describes the feast at which were gathered the Trojan heroes, and thus reports the speech of the royal Ulysses : "Hear me, my friends! who this good banquet grace, 'Tis sweet to play the fool in time and place; The grave in merry measures frisk about, And many a long-repented word come out! Let wit cast off the sullen yoke of sense.' While drunkenness was common in ancient times, no allusion is made to mania à potu. The first tract relating to the subject emanated, I believe, from the pen of Dr. Samuel Burton Pearson, in 1801; but the malady had been recognized during the latter part of the last century. Are we to attribute the silence of the old authors to a presumed fact that the disease had not made its appearance in their day? Has the nervous system become so sensitive in modern times that it is peculiarly impressed by stimulating liquors? It seems probable that the disease was overlooked by our early predecessors, or was confounded with some other malady. The present successful management of the disorder exhibits the confidence which our profession can at times repose in the power of nature. The opium treatment, so long strenuously advocated, is now abandoned as unnecessary, and as liable, occasionally, to induce mischief. The recent experiments of Lallemand, Duroy, Perrine, and Anstie, have shown that alcohol is partly decomposed in the body and partly eliminated through the lungs, skin, and kidneys. Viewing acute alcoholism as a case of poisoning, we are instructed to aid nature in eliminating the offending agent, and in doing so we are not called upon to employ very potent drugs. Improvements in natural philosophy and its collateral branches have aided the medical man in more thoroughly understanding the human organism, and also have enlarged his power to prevent and cure disease. Galileo, towards the commencement of the seventeenth century, was led to the construction of the microscope from that of the telescope. It was ordained that the telescope should reach perfection before the microscope. If Galileo, Kepler, Newton, Halley, and Herschel were appalled at the wonders of infinite space, what would have been their astonishment could they have beheld the infinitesimal microcosms revealed during the present century. The science of optics has proved an handmaid of Hygeia and an ally of Therapeia. It has been said: "Diseased nature oftentimes breaks forth In strange eruptions; but modern lenses reveal the fact that numerous cutaneous affections are of local origin, dependent upon the presence of cryptogamia, epizoa, etc., and are amenable to local treatment. To say nothing of various other vegetable and animal parasites which infest the human body, we have comparatively recently detected, by aid of the microscope, the loathsome trichinæ. We are not only enabled by the means indicated to form a diagnosis, but also are made competent to find the sources of these worms in articles of food. Aliment containing such insects can be destroyed. Disease and death can thus be averted by the scientific application of that instrument which in a simple form was conceiv ed by the illustrious Galileo. Possibly our search in regard to the precise composition of alimentary substances had better be avoided, unless such articles are known to be provocative of disease. We should probably find them so loaded with life as rather to prefer to die from inanition than to live on hemi-demi-semi-quavering vibriones. The vegetable kingdom is not exempt from its peculiar parasites. The Scriptures say, "I smote you with blasting and with mildew." This scourge of crops has induced famines among the ancient Jews and Romans, during the middle ages and in modern times. The farmers, in their homely nosology, employ the terms smut, bunt, rust, and mildew to the more common diseases of vegetation. Modern science has not confined its attention to animal pathology, but has paid regard to the disorders of the sister kingdom of nature, and it is found that "blasting and mildew" are conditions induced by innumerable vegetable parasites, not a plant cultivated by man is free from such fungi. The Ustilago segetum, the Ustilago maydis, the Puccinia graminis, the Trichobasis rubigo vera, etc., the more common enemies of the cereals, are as readily recognized as are the cysticercus and trichina. -- I have not the time to allude to the numerous elucidations of pathology and therapeutics which have been made by the microscope. Ever inquisitive, our profession has not been tardy in its investigations with the means at its command. From necessity it has had to wait patiently until the nineteenth century, when it has been presented with improved optical appliances with which to make the more minute observations. The science of Meteorology, which has so materially aided the elucidation of Etiology, more especially that of the epidemic disorders, has only within the present century assumed any degree of importance. Theophrastus, Aristotle, Virgil, Pliny, Lucretius, and others had written on the subject; but the ancient philosophers very imperfectly understood meteorology, for they were unaided by apparatus which accurately exhibited atmospherical vicissitudes. It was not until the seventeenth century that the air-thermometer was invented by Sanctorius and Drebbel, and the spirit-thermometer described by the Florentine Accademia del Cimento; while the mercurial thermometer was not in use until the early part of the eighteenth century, when it was first constructed by Réaumur and Fahrenheit. Torricelli invented the mercurial barometer; he died shortly after, in 1647, in his thirty-ninth year, and unfortunately before the world had appreciated the importance of his discovery that the atmosphere possessed weight. Pascal, at Rouen, repeated the experiments of the Italian philosopher, and employed, in addition, water and wine barometers, and in 1646 laid his conclusions before the public. His views were at the time received with derision, but the prejudices of an alchemistic age could not prevail against the truths of science, and now for more than two centuries the barometer has been regarded as an |