insufflateur. The rapid co-operation of this mixture admits of charging the atmospheric air which this instrument drives into the Eustachian passage.

"Phenicated Vinegar, Dr. Quesneville.

"Take Common Vinegar.

Phenic Acid

4 parts 1

"Recommended by Dr. Quesneville instead of the aromatic vinegar so much used for the toilet; half a teaspoonful in one half pint of water is enough to destroy all miasmatic emanations.

"We have seen that fatty substances modify the properties of phenic acid. Yet, I believe, this pommade may be serviceable in affections of the skin. But it must not be supposed that 1 gramme dissolved in 100 grammes of water, or incorporated in 100 grammes of lard, will produce the same effects. The one cannot replace the other.

"Coal-Tarred Earth.

"Take Common Earth passed through a sieve 100 parts

Coal Tar

"Mix them thoroughly.

2 ""

"Phenic acid, mixed with earth, evaporates rapidly under the influence of the sun. Water also imbibes it very easily. The mixture of which coal tar consists retains it much longer. We have also seen that aniline and benzine possess some of the properties of phenic acid that makes one prefer coal tar earth for certain applications. It is to be used as a disinfectant and to rid plants and trees of certain noxious little animals, and to preserve grain from their attacks underground.

"It is as yet on trial for preserving vines and potatoes from their respective diseases."

"In conclusion, many a reader will be glad to hear that these remedies, coal tar and phenic acid, are available for veterinary purposes, and that our valuable friends the horse, ox, dog, cat, &c., can be rid of their parasites, with cutaneous and other ailments, on easier terms than formerly."

A New and Comprehensive System of Materia Medica and Therapeutics, arranged upon a Physiologico-Pathological basis, for the use of Practitioners and Students of Medicine. By CHARLES J. HEMPEL, M.D., second edition, revised and considerably enlarged. 2 vols.

The work of Dr. Hempel, whose somewhat ambitious title we have transcribed above, is by this time well known to British homœopathists. The new edition, besides being more convenient in form, presents several improvements. The first volume, which comprises the remedies ranked by Dr. Hempel as polychrests (in some instances, as Helleborus, Opium, and Ferrum, very questionably) is substantially unchanged. But in the second volume there are many additions. Enlargement, more or less considerable, has been made in the articles on Asafoetida, Agaricus, Asarum, Artemisia, Berberis, Camphora, Capsicum, Carbo vegetabilis, Cina, Crocus, Clematis, Cyclamen, Croton, Euphrasia, Indigo, Kreasote, Ledum, Magnesia, Menyanthes, Millefolium, Natrum carbonicum and sulphuricum, Nux Juglans, Oleander, Ranunculus bulbosus and sceleratus, Ratanhia, Rhododendron, Ruta, Sabadilla, Sambucus, Senega, Tabacum, Taraxacum, Terebinthina, Thuja, Valerian, Verbascum, and Zincum. Copaiba, Coccus cactus, Coccionella, Manganum, Iatropha, Naja, Sumbul, Thea, and Urtica Urens are treated of for the first time. Three cases of gangrene are cited in the article on Lachesis, to which Dr. Hempel formerly denied any curative virtue. Lastly, the index has been much enlarged and serves the function of a repertory to the two volumes. These changes have unquestionably much enhanced the value of the work; and may well induce those who do not already possess it to add it now to their libraries. The faults which, to our thinking, still remain will be discussed. further on.

We have no intention, in the following review, of giving any account of the contents of Dr. Hempel's book. But we shall endeavour, to the best of our power, to exhibit its merits, to point out its faults, and to estimate its value on the whole as a contribution to homœopathic literature.

A treatise on Materia Medica has hitherto been expected to give four kinds of information regarding the substances used in medicine. The first embraces their natural history, their physical and chemical characters, and so forth. The second treats of their physiological or pathogenetic action, so far as this is known. The third division consists of a history of their uses in medicine, and an estimate of their real value, according to the latest knowledge. The fourth comprises this mode of preparation for medicinal purposes, and the doses of the various forms under which they are administered. Until lately, at least, the physiological portion of the oldschool treatises on Materia Medica has been the least elaborated of the four, while, on the other hand, the "Materia Medica" in the mouth of a homœopathist, means the record of the symptoms produced on the healthy body by the various natural substances, that is, the physiological portion only. Were this record, indeed, exhaustive, it might be fairly argued that we had no need of the third, or clinical portion. The application of the rule "similia similibus" would in all cases enable us to select the proper remedy for a given case of disease, without regard to what others have done before us. But since the whole number of existing remedial agents has surely not yet been pressed into the service of medicine, and since, of even those we use we have in most instances but an imperfect knowledge, we are obliged to make large use of clinical observation in our choice of remedies. Even where the indications of pathogenesy are pretty plain, the usus in morbus is nevertheless a valuable verification. many cases it converts the merest hint into a solid fact, and in many more where pathogenesy is silent it is our only guide to the specific employment of our means. So that the clinical must go side by side with the physiological account of the elements of our Materia Medica as necessarily, though

In

in inverse proportions, as it does in that of the prevailing

school.

The feeling of this need is evidenced by the writings of Hahnemann himself. The brief therapeutic indications of the introductory remarks prefixed to each drug in the "Materia Medica Pura," have expanded into a long list of the symptoms which have been removed by each medicine in the "Chronic Diseases." It is seen in the compendiums of Jahr and of Noack and Trinks-the former indicating in his list of symptoms those which have been removed as well as caused by the drug, and inserting many which have merely belonged to the cases it has cured-the latter prefacing the article on each medicine with a catalogue of the forms of disease in which it has proved curative. And it has characterised well nigh all the post-Hahnemannian "provings," few of which have been published without an accompanying narrative of cases treated by the remedy in question.

In some respects, therefore, a homoeopathic treatise on Materia Medica differs little in form and order from such works as the English of Pereira, the French of Trousseau and Pidoux, the German of Dierbach, and the American of Wood. The disproportionate value, however, which we assign to our physiological portion causes a difference. The record of the pathogenetic effects of our remedies must ever stand alone. In its entire detail it can never form part of a treatise; and, that true homœopathic practice may become perfected, it is better that the materials for the pure application of our practical rule should be unmixed and remain apart. The action of the new American Publishing Society in this direction, is worthy of our best support. If successful, their collection will supersede all existing manuals and symptomen-codexes, and only need occasional appendices to be a standing pathogenetic cyclopædia.

Having this, what more do we need? Well, we need a clinical chapter on each drug. Its history as a therapeutic agent must be detailed, and its ancient and modern uses described. A full account should be given of all the recorded experience of its action in the hands of practitioners recogniVOL. XXIII, NO. XCII.-APRIL, 1865.

X

sing the rule of homoeopathy. To this should be added any cases in which its successful use in the hands of others has seemed to arise from its dynamic and specific properties. But, besides such a clinical account, we need certain work done in the physiological department of the subject.

First, a catalogue of pathogenetic symptoms, however well arranged, is to a true pharmacology what a description of a given disease is to pathology. The symptoms are only the phenomena; and it is the prerogative of science, and the necessity of the human intellect, to pierce beyond phenomena, to apprehend their meaning, to ascertain the laws and even the causes of their occurrence. Pathology does this with the phenomena presented by the body in disease. Pharmacology must do it with its phenomena while under the influence of drugs. Not otherwise can it form a worthy mate for its fellow-science, and with it produce the goodly offspringTherapeutic Art. Little has yet been done in this direction; and we cannot credit Dr. Hempel with much addition to our knowledge on the subject. But

Secondly, there is a work to be done for the Materia Medica corresponding with that which the lecturer on the Principles and Practice of Medicine does for disease. We do not turn our students loose into the hospital wards, with no previous acquaintance with the kind of phenomena they are to meet there. We know that they would be burdened and bewildered by the numerous forms of disease, and would probably shrink back in despair from the task of acquiring their knowledge. We bid them in the first instance attend a course of lectures on the subject. They hear therein the phenomena of disease classified and arranged. Certain definite groups of symptoms, of more or less uniform occurrence, are ticketed with nosological names. Other morbid processes of regular order and sequence are referred to the operation of certain morbid poisons. The facts of anatomy and the doctrines of physiology are used to illuminate the workings of disease, and the instruction is completed by an account of the remedial means in use for the various forms of disorder described. If the student stopped here, indeed, he would