fuse the vision in a similar manner when prescribed for muscular palsies. In the treatment of epilepsy and many other spasmodic affections, this substance may be advantageously combined with the sulphate of quinine. I have, notwithstanding this, on several occasions, been obliged to intermit its use, from the pains of which the patients complained while taking it; and this led me to make trial of the remedy in rheumatism, which, in some instances, it cured.

SILVER. A consideration of the occasional beneficial influence of Nitrate of Silver in epilepsy, led me to try its effects in other disorders of the spasmodic kind, such as asthma, cramp, &c., and I am glad to have it in my power to bear testimony to its very great value in all of these affections. It is a powerful chrono-thermal medicine-and like every medicine of this class, it can produce the disease it can cure.

Tremor, spasms, palsy, we have seen, differ but in degree. In all these disorders, Silver may be advantageously substituted for bark, prussic acid, &c. While engaged in prosecuting my researches upon the medicinal effects of Silver, I found it to be one of the most powerful diuretics in the Materia Medica; a circumstance not altogether unobserved by the older authors, particularly Boerhaave, who was accustomed to prescribe it with nitre in dropsy. It has, nevertheless, the power to suspend the urinary secretion. There is an affection to which young women are remarkably subject-a periodic pain of the side or stitch. This disorder has been maltreated under a variety of names, according to the notions entertained by attending practitioners, as to its origin and nature. If practitioners would only take the trouble to ask the patient whether the affected side be colder or hotter than natural, I do not think they would be so forward as they usually are, to order leeches and cupping-glasses. In ninety cases out of a hundred, the sufferer will tell you that that side is always chilly! This at least might convince them that Inflammation is not the "head and front of offending." Such pain is the result of spasm of one or more of the intercostal muscles, which pain, when the patient is told to inspire, will assuredly increase. Beware of adding to it by bloodletting! In numerous cases, it will yield to half-grain doses of nitrate of Silver-failing which, prussic acid, quinine, or arsenic, may be successively tried; and to one or other of these, it will prove, for the most part, amenable. In pain of stomach after eating-also a disease of the spasmodic kind-I have found silver particularly valuable. In all varieties of cough and catarrh, I have derived advantage form its employment; and I am sure it has, in my hands, contributed to the cure of indubitable phthisis. Let it be at the same time remembered, that I do not exclusively rely upon this medicine in any one form of disease;-for, unless it be sulphur for psora, I do not know a specific in physic.

There is a disorder to which aged individuals and persons who have suffered much from mental anxiety are liable-a disposition to faint and fall— often mistaken, and fatally mistreated, under the name of "tendency to apoplexy." The employment of Silver in this affection has, in my practice, been very generally successful. I have found it also decidedly advantageous in vertigo, and in many cases of mental confusion.

Nitrate of Silver has great influence over the spine and spinal nerves; for, patients sometimes complain of pains like lumbago, sciatica, and rheumatism while taking it. I have occasionally known it produce shivering and fainty sensations, but these inconveniences were merely temporary, going off upon the discontinuance of the medicine. It has cured them all when produced by other causes. You are aware that blueness of skin is an occasional effect of nitrate of silver; and I must here explain to you the reason. Most of you have seen, doubtless, the pictures produced by light on paper saturated with nitrate of silver. Before the nitrate of silver could turn the human face blue, the skin, as in the case of the paper employed in that process, must be completely saturated with the preparation for how otherwise could the

light affect the face in that manner? Though I have myself prescribed nitrate of silver thousands of times, I never witnessed the slightest tinge from its use, nor would any other, practitioner have to complain of it in this respect, if he had not employed it in too large doses, or too continuously. Who, then, would reject a valuable remedy, because its abuse has produced, in rare instances, a peculiar colour of skin--seeing that every remedy, if improperly applied, may occasion the far greater calamity, death itself!

COPPER, like Silver, is now seldom used but in epilepsy. Fordyce, nevertheless, thought so highly of it as a remedy for Ague, that he ranked it with the Peruvian Bark. Boerhaave, Brown, and others, esteemed it for its diuretic power; and accordingly they prescribed it in dropsy. In the same disease, and in asthma, I have had reason to speak well of it, and I can also bear testimony to its salutary influence in chronic dysentery-a form of disease so frequent in the East Indies, that while serving there, I had many opportunities of testing Dr. Elliotson's favourable opinion of its value. That it can produce all these disorders is equally true; for where it has been taken in poisonous doses, "it excites," according to Parr, " a pain in the stomach, and griping in the bowels, tenesmus, ulceration, bloody stools, difficult breathing, and contractions of the limbs." A universal or partial shiver will be found to precede or accompany all these symptoms. Copper was a favourite febrifuge with the older practitioners.

IRON is a very old remedy for ague-perhaps the oldest. Stahl particularly dilates upon its virtues in this affection. Much of the efficacy of a medicine depends upon the constitution of the season and climate-much upon the constitution of the patient. This metal, like every other remedy, has consequently had its supporters and detractors in every form of disease. It is, at present, one of the principal remedies for Hysteria, and other female disorders-disorders which we have already shown are mere variations of Remittent Fever. The water in which hot Iron had been quenched, used to be prescribed by the ancient physicians as a bath for gout and palsy. In skin diseases and cancer, ricketts, epilepsy, urethral stricture, &c., Iron has been vaunted by numerous modern practitioners. The ancients recommended it in diarrhoea, dysentery, dropsy, hectic, vertigo, and headache. Now, in all these affections, it has served me much like other powers-ameliorating or aggravating the condition of the patient, according to peculiarity of constitution. Some pseudo-scientific physicians have amused themselves with witticisms at my expense, on the subject of Iron. Finding it in some of my prescriptions for Phthisis, they have accused me of mistaking this disease for dyspepsia. How long will men deceive themselves with such puerile absurdity? When will they learn that the human body, in disease, as well as in health, is a TOTALITY,-not a thing to be mapped into parts and portions, like a field of rice or corn! Let them take a lesson from St. Paul, who, in his first epistle to the Corinthians, has these remarkable words :-" And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it: or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.” With

ZINC, BISMUTH, and their preparations, I have occasionally succeeded in prolonging the remission in many cases of disease, where the other principal Chrono-Thermal medicine's had been ineffectually tried. Generally speaking, however, they are less to be relied upon for this purpose, than those I have had so frequent occasion to mention in the course of these lectures. The successful employment of

ARSENIC by the natives of India, first, I believe, induced European practitioners to try its effects in ague, and also in diseases of the skin. The happy effects of this medicine were found not to be confined to these disorders. Not only has its judicious administration been attended with success in epilepsy, and numerous other forms of convulsive disorder, but it has been advantageously employed in the treatment of structural change. Like every other remedy, Arsenic has its advantages and disadvantages. Inquire of miners,

exposed to the fumes of this metal, and you will find that FEVER, tremor, spasm, palsy, and sores, compose almost the sum-total of their sufferings. In the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, there is an account of five cases of poisoning by arsenic. Among the symptoms mentioned by the narrator, Mr. Marshall, were vomiting, pain, and burning of the stomach, thirst, crural and abdominal spasms, purgings, headache, dimness of sight, intolerance of light, palpitation, chills and flushes, epilepsy; all of which, proceeding from other causes, I have successfully treated by Arsenic. The first case of epilepsy in which I ever derived benefit from any remedy, was cured by this metal; the disease was principally brought on by hard drinking, and the fit came on at a particular hour, every alternate night. Now it is worthy of remark, that after an attempt at suicide by Arsenic, detailed by Dr. Roget, periodic epilepsy was among the effects produced. The subject of it, a girl of nineteen, had also chills and heats, which, if you please, you may call Intermittent or Remittent Fever, or anything else you can fancy-for it is not my custom to quarrel about names!

As a remedy for skin disease, I have every reason to speak highly of Arsenic, even when complicated with much structural change. Some cases in which it had very great effect, I will detail to you. The subjects of them were sepoys, or Indian soldiers, who had suffered in the Rangoon war, from bad climate, defective food, and the usual privations of men in the field. These patients were under my care for a fortnight only; and to that period the treatment refers. All of them, be it remembered, had had "the Fever."

Case 1.-Jan Khan, havildar, (Native Sergeant,) had diseased thickening of the skin of the legs and arms. His nose was enormously enlarged, and his whole appearance unhealthy. He ate and slept badly, and his tongue was foul and clouded. After the operation of an emetic, the liquor arsenicalis was administered in six drops thrice a-day, and its effects at the end of a fortnight were wonderful. The nose had then become nearly of the natural size, and the disease of the skin had gradually lessened. He then slept and ate well, and expressed himself much pleased with the improvement he had received from his medicine.

Case 2.-Daud Khan, sepoy, had pains of the bones and joints, white patches all over his skin, and an irritable sore of the scrotum, from which a fungus, about the size of a chesnut, sprung up. He complained also of a burning sensation in his feet. When I first saw him, he was so weak, he could not rise from the floor without assistance, and his countenance indicated extreme wretchedness and debility. Having removed the fungus, the lunar caustic was applied, and arsenic internally administered, as in the previous case. In a week, there was great amendment of the sore. The patient, since then, rapidly gained ground; of the pains of the bones he no longer complained, and the eruptions on the skin gradually disappeared; the ulcer at the same time closed, and I expected he would soon be fit for duty.

Case 3.-Setarrum, sepoy, had large sores of the leg, sloughy, ill-conditioned, and spreading in different directions. He had also eruptions, like the last mentioned patient; and his appearance and strength, though not so wretched, were yet sufficiently miserable. Pure nitric acid was applied to the whole surface of the sores, and a poultice ordered. The arsenic was given as above. On the separation of the dead matter, the leg was supported by Baynton's bandage. The sore gradually healed-the eruptions disappeared and the patient regained complete health and strength.

Case 4.-Subryah, sepoy, had had his leg thrice amputated, the last time in the middle of the thigh, but the bone had been left with only a covering of skin. The stump was in an ulcerated state when I first saw him-and the probe, upon being passed through one of the sores, found the bone carious, (abraded,) and denuded as far as it could reach. The patient was altogether

out of health, not one function being properly performed. It was proposed to amputate at the hip-joint, as it was not believed that any other treatment could do good. To this step, however, he would not submit. A trial was given to Arsenic, and the sores, beyond expectation, at the end of a fortnight had nearly healed. The patient then slept and ate well, and looked comparatively strong and healthy.

Case 5.-Vencatasawmy, sepoy, had disease of the skin, and an ill-looking sore over the breast-bone, which bone was perfectly carious; the probe could be passed through it to the depth of three inches in the direction of the mediastinum. The patient was weak and irritable, and could neither eat nor sleep; his pulse was rapid and small, and his appearance altogether miserable. Arsenic was resorted to as before. The ring-worm under its use, disappeared; the sore began to look clean; the probe, when he went from my hands, only passed to the depth of an inch, and the patient's health was rapidly improving.

These cases were intrusted to my care by Dr. Gibb, of the Madras Medical Staff, while he himself was on "sick-leave," and were afterwards reported by him to the Medical Board of that Presidency.

Do I now require to tell you the principle upon which arsenic proved so efficacious in the treatment of these various structural changes? It acted simply by its power of controlling REMITTENT FEVER, under a chronic form, of which these unfortunate sepoys were all suffering-the structural changes being mere features or developments of the general derangement.

Gentlemen, we have now established, indisputably established, even by the cases of the schoolmen themselves, that fear, or any other given passion, bark, or any other given chrono-thermal medicine, has each cured a HOST of MALADIES, which the authors of nosological systems not only put down as separate and distinct disorders, but to which the profession usually ascribe a difference of cause and nature; some, according to their views, being diseases of debility; some, nervous, some, inflammatory. Now, connecting this with the fact, that the subjects of all these apparently different ailments have fits and intermissions, and have each a greater or less number of the symptoms or shades of symptom constituting the particular type of disorder, so well known to the vulgar by the term AGUE; for which, the same vulgar are aware, there are no powers so generally applicable, as bark and the passion fear; to what other conclusion can an unprejudiced person come, than that all disorders are variations of this one type-that, abstractedly speaking, there is but ONE DISEASE! If this, then, be true-and its truth may be easily tested in every hospital in Europe-am I not justified in believing that the notions (for I will not call them principles) which have hitherto guided, or rather misguided, physicians in their treatment of disease, are a mere romance of the schools; that their views of its cause have, for the most part, been as erroneous as their modes of cure are defective; and their nomenclature and narrations throughout, little better than unmeaning jargon!

Gentlemen, I shall conclude these lectures with a brief summary of the doctrines which have occupied us during the course. Their importance to the human race, if true, cannot for a moment be doubted; if proved to be false, I shall be the first to acknowledge my error; but, as I said in the outset, I will only appeal to results-to nature. I have proved, however, I hope to the satisfaction of most of you, that

1. The phenomena of perfect HEALTH consist in the regular repetition of alternate motions or events; each, like the different revolutions of the wheels of a watch, embracing a special PERIOD of time.

2. DISEASE, under all its modifications, is, in the first place, a simple exaggeration or diminution of the amount of the same motions or events, and being universally alternative with a PERIOD of comparative HEALTH, strictly speaking, resolves itself into FEVER-REMITTENT OF INTERMITTENT, chronic or acute :-every kind of structural disorganisation, from tooth-decay to

pulmonary consumption, and that decomposition of the knee-joint, familiarly known as white swelling, being merely "developments" in its course:Tooth-consumption-lung-consumption-knee-consumption.

3. The tendency of disorganisation, usually denominated ACUTE or inflammatory, differs from the CHRONIC or scrofulous in the mere amount of motion and temperature:-the former being more remarkably characterised by excess of both, consequently exhibits a more rapid progress to decomposition or cure; while the latter approaches its respective terminations by more subdued, and therefore slower and less obvious alternations of the same action and temperature. In what does consumption of a tooth differ from consumption of the lungs, except in the difference of tissue involved, and the degree of danger to life, arising out of the nature of the respective offices of each?

Disease, thus simplified, will be found to be amenable to a principle of treatment equally simple. Partaking, throughout all its modifications, of the nature of Ague, it will be best met by a practice in accordance with the proper principle of treatment of that distemper. When the doctrine of the Concoction of Humours held its baneful sway over the mind of the physician,, it was considered the greatest of medical errors to repel the paroxysm; each fit being supposed to be a friendly effort of nature, for the expulsion of a peccant or morbid humour from the body. Like the popular error of our own day, so prevalent in regard to "the Gout," it was deemed to be a salutary trial of the constitution. An ague in spring was said to be good for a king! That monarchs occasionally became its victims at this season, had no particular share in the revolution which has since taken place in medical opinion. So late as the time of Boerhaave, a physican asserted, that if he could produce a fever as easily as he could cure it, he should be well satisfied with his own skill! The consequence of such notions was, that the practitioner exerted his utmost to increase the heat of the body during the paroxysm, but the fearful mortality attending the practice had no other effect upon the mass of the profession, than to make them redouble their exertions in the discovery of means of increasing this heat, that they might thereby assist the unknown process which morbid matter was supposed to undergo! One hundred years have scarcely elapsed since the fever patient was wrapped in blankets, his chamber heated by large fires, and door, window, and bed-curtain closed upon him with the most scrupulous attention. The few that escaped this terrible ordeal, were said to be cured-and these CURES, like ignes fatui, only served to delude and blind the practitioner to the awful mortality which followed the practice!

Like the present treatment of the symptoms still absurdly called Syphilis, the practice proved infinitely more destructive to life than the disease itself— but, so far from opening men's eyes, the SENIORS of the profession, when the invaluable Bark was first introduced to their notice, opposed it with a violence and a virulence only since paralleled by the resistance they successively offered to the introduction of the variolous and vaccine inoculations. To bring forward any sweeping or useful measure in Medicine, requires a moral courage and perseverance that fall to the lot of few. The man who wishes to gain a ready notoriety, has only to puff off some inert or mystical mode of treatment, and his success is certain. He must beware of coming before the public with a remedy to which the stigma of POISON can be attached. Does not the quack constantly boast of the absolute safety of his remedy?-See with what pertinacity he contrasts his vegetable MEDICINE with the words mineral POISON; which last he uses for a bugbear, as if the vegetable world was all for a blessing, and the mineral all for a bane. And the wonderful part of this is, that it answers admirably, even with what are termed the educated public-if those can be educated who would swallow opium and hemlock in any quantity because they are VEGETABLES, and who appear not to know that table salt is a MINERAL-that coal or carbon is a mineral-that iron and lime are minerals, and that all of these mineral substances actually