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the right anterior lobe was also sound, it ought to havealso supplied the place of the destroyed lobe.On the other hand, it is quite possible to explain the

case, and all similar ones, without reference to ideas oflocalisation. We may, for instance, admit that thereason the faculty of speech is often alone injured isbecause it is the most complex of all our faculties, the onewhich requires, to the greatest extent, the integrity of thebrain. In paralysis it is often the first function to suffer,and the last to recover. In the above case not only wasthe voice but also the power of producing sound annihi-lated, which seems to indicate that the muscles whichact on the vocal cords were paralysed, and consequentlythat the spinal nerve was paralysed. The absence of thevoice and of articulate sounds, also accounts for the lossof speech without our invocating the lesion of an organof language." ON THE USE OF LARGE DOSES OF NITRATE OF POTASS.

BY DR. DESPORTES.—(Bulletin Général de Thérapeutique.)M. Desportes published, in 1820, a "Conspectus of

Pharmacopoeias," in which he stated that the nitrate ofpotass may be given in doses varying from one drachm tohalf an ounce in the course of the four and twenty hours.Since then M. Desportes has given nitre in large doses, insixty-one cases, beginning by two or three drachms dis-solved in about two pints of water. When administeringnitre in large doses, says M. Desportes, no other beverageand no acid should be administered, the salt appearingto act with the greatest efficacy when introduced aloneinto the human economy, without any substance calcu-lated to exercise any other influence.

In phlegmonous inflammations, in pneumonia, andcatarrh, M. Desportes says that he has obtained a remark-able remission of all the symptoms from as soon as thesecond or third day of the administration of large dosesof nitre. In the thoracic inflammations the action ofnitre is similar to that of tartarised antimony ; but itseffects are slow and less evident than in rheumatism,gout, in haemoptysis, in molimen hsemorrhagicum. M.

Desportes has even used large doses of nitre in the treat-ment of cerebral haemorrhage, with plethoric old menwho refused to submit to bleeding. He always observedin the patients to whom he thus administered nitre, theeffects of contro-stimulating agents; that is, firstly, de-crease of the heat of the body, and then of the frequencyand force of the pulse. With some he observed disturb-ance of the digestive functions, with others gastralgia,more or less intense.M. Desportes remarks that certain states of the atmo-

sphere, not yet determined, seem to interfere with theaction of nitre on the economy. Thus, in 1832, t835,183(i, and 1837, he did not find it as efficacious a remedyas in the preceding or following years. May not nitre,he asks, be possessed of some intimate chemical property,such as that which is possessed by antimonial prepara-tions, and certain salines that contain an elementary sub-stance to which their special action is to be attributed?

May not also some day organic chemistry be able to iso-late this elementary agent from contro-stimulant medica-tions ? To us the idea itself, of M. Desportes, appearsobscure, and the hope Utopian.

BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNALS.

ON THE FUNCTIONS OF THE TRUE SPINAL SYSTEM.

A WRITER in a late number of the Medical Gazette,suggests some points in Dr. Marshall Hall’s views of thefunctions of the true spinal system, which seem to requireexplanation. The correspondent of the Gazette says-"In some instances, slight irritation of a palsied ex-

tremity will excite it to involuntary twitchings and con-tractions ; in other cases these symptoms cannot be pro-duced. Sometimes the limb is found permanently rigidand contracted, in other instances it is relaxed and ex-tended. Dr. Hall explains these circumstances by sup-posing that the convulsive motion of the limb, or its rigidcontractions, arise from the controlling influence of the

brain being lost, and the muscular movements aban-doned, as it were, to the true spinal system. He furtherconcludes, when the reflex functions cannot be excited,that the true spinal system is itself the seat of morbidaction."Those conclusions of Dr. Hall are deemed erroneous by

the writer, and he expresses his belief--« That the true reflex functions, when exhibited, show,

not that the cerebral influence is destroyed, but that itis merely perverted, and that when the brain ceases tohave all influence over the palsied parts, the reflex func-tions cannot be excited, although there is no reason tosuppose any alteration in the condition of the spinalmarrow."In support of this opinion he appeals to three classes

of facts :-1. 11 To certain cases in which the reflex phenomena

were present so long as the paralysis was incomplete ; solong, in fact, as some cerebral influence was retainedover the palsied limbs; while as soon as this influenceceased, and the paralysis was complete, the reflex func-tions were at the same moment rendered inactive."

,

2. To cases in which there is paralysis of one side of thebody, and contractions of the extremities of the oppositeside. The contractions depending apparently on the

presence of a less amount of disease at the correspondingside of the brain than at the opposite, or paralysed side,showing-" That it is the brain itself which regulates the reflex

phenomena, a minor degree of disease in that organ pro-ducing perverted muscular action, a large amount of dis.ease occasioning the complete destruction of the reflexfunctions."

3. He alludes to cases of apoplectic seizure, in whichthe patient is suddenly deprived of sense and voluntarymotion, or with complete hemiplegia, no reflex phenomena being apparent in the affected limbs ; but after acertain period the limbs begin to contract, and afterwardsremain in a rigid state. He says-" This seems capable of explanation on two conditions;

first, when the effects of the shock on the brain havesomewhat subsided its functions become gradually, butstill imperfectly, restored. The consequence is that thelimbs become more or less contracted. In other casesthe same train of symptoms might be caused by a healthyprocess going on within the cranium after an apoplecticseizure."

We have frequently had occasion to observe the phe-nomena here detailed, and at the same time felt the ne-cessity of some explanation which would reconcile themwith the views of Dr. Hall. We cannot say that we are

, satisfied with that offered by this anonymous writer in

’ the Gazette. We would gladly hear Dr. Hall’s own views’

on the subject.. ACCELERATION OF PUBERTY IN THE FEMALE BY FACTORY. LABOUR.

This opinion was probably founded on the idea that theperiod at which maturity occurs in the female depends onthe temperature of the place of habitation. The idea

would, however, appear, from the researches of Mr.

Roberton, to be incorrect. Mr. Noble, from ample ex-perience among factories, entertains the fullest convictionthat it is unfounded.

ON THE SIGNS OF ACTUAL DEATH.

M. Deschamps endeavours to prove that the only signof death which can be depended on, short of the putre-faction of the body, is "a greenish or bluish colourationof the abdominal parietes." This sign, he says, is neverabsent in any case of true death, and is constantly want-ing in all those in which death is only apparent. Everyother sign by which authors have attempted to prove theloss of vitality may or may not be present, but this onenever fails, and may be perfectly relied on. This greenishcolouration of the abdomen generally came on with thecadaveric rigidity after the body has cooled, but is hastened by warmth and retarded by cold. In winter, he

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therefore recommends that the body be kept in a warmroom till the colouration is observed ; and, if the subjectbe old, to render the air moist by sprinkling water overthe apartment, as this hastens the process.-EdinburghMedical and Surgical Journal.

’

CHEMISTRY, PHARMACY, ANDMATERIA MEDICA.

IN our remarks prefixed to this department of THELANCET, page 225, we pointed out the element of un-certainty introduced into all scientific medical investiga-tions by the defective preparation of remedies. It was

chiefly to errors in chemical processes, and substitutions,arising from fraud or ignorance, in chemical remedies,that our observations were directed. No less haziness

and uncertainty hangs around all our vegetable remedies,especially those which are indigenous to this country.The compilers of systems of materia medica and dispen-satories, however great their diligence, their talents, andtheir desire to present sound knowledge to their readers,are, after all, but compilers. They cannot be expectedto verify the statements they make, but there is not onethat we are acquainted with who has fairly given theauthorities upon which his accounts of the effects of

vegetable remedies are stated. Nothing, therefore, is

more difficult than to discriminate between conflictingopinions, and no part of medicine, as it is known and

practised, is so badly represented in books. If thenatural philosopher or scientific chemist turns from hisown science to therapeutics, he would be led either toabandon his confidence in the uniformity and stability ofthe laws of nature, to which before he has implicitlytrusted, or to infer that the spirit of modern science hasnot yet animated the practical physician. There is nodoubt whatever that the tendency of all changes nowproceeding in the profession is rather to obstruct than toadvance the knowledge of remedies, to exalt otherbranches of knowledge merely collateral to the great endof physic-the cure of disease-at the expense of thetrue foundation, that is, a thorough acquaintance withremedial agents. The fine words of the College of Sur-geons, in their late Statement, strongly contrasts withthe practice of that body. How large a portion of theirfunds do they devote to zoology !-very properly so,

doubtless; but what do they bestow on chemistry andmateria medica? Yet surely it is as important to a sur-geon to know whether the drugs which he administersare properly prepared or not, to be aware of the natureof the substance he is prescribing with the hope of savinga patient from an erysipelas or tic douloureux, as it is forhim to know the anatomy of an infusorial animalcula.Surely it is, to say the least, a strange whim for a

scientific body to devote thousands of pounds to ascertainthe mechanical construction of fish, insects, &c., and yetto be utterly careless respecting the chemical constitu-tion of the several parts of the human body, of thesecretions in health and disease, and of the elementswhich compose the remedies upon which they rely intreating diseases in daily and hourly practice! Nay, theCollege of Surgeons scruples not to avow that its honoursare reserved for those who neglect these practical subjects,and confine themselves to the mechanical and the physi-cal, to the exclusion of the more useful, more profoundlyscientific inquiries now being pursued by the chemist.The College of Physicians have hitherto exclusively

attempted to define what substances are to be consideredremedial, and to give instructions for their collection,

preservation, and preparation. But this body has per-formed the task with an apparent reluctance, as if it

implied a condescension from its own dignified sphere.A critical examination of the Pharmacopoeia would reveala state of things in some degree explanatory of the un-certainty of medicine. So that the well-known sarcasticdefinition of the practice of physic, that it is 11 the

putting of drugs, of which we know little, into a body ofwhich we know less," expresses, as far as regards thechemical constitution of both, an incontestible truth.These remarks were intended to introduce the subject

of the uncertainty in which the remedial effects of ourvegetable materia medica are involved, upon which wehave much to say, and more especially as respects theindigenous plants used in medicine; but while reflectingupon this subject the following paper by Dr. Houlton cameinto our hands, and as it furnishes a very apt illustrationof the views we ourselves entertain, we cannot do betterthan recommend it to the attention of our readers. It

was recently read before the Medico-Botanical Society.

ON THE HYOSCIAMUS NIGER.

By JOSEPH HOULTON, M.D.Medical botany is a subject surrounded with more

difficulties than any one would suppose who has notbeen practically engaged in its pursuit ; to these diffi-culties should be attributed many of the errors existingin works on vegetable materia medica. The time,labour, and expense required to verify by personalobservation all that is expected to be said of the differentspecies of plants that enter into the materia medica, ismore than any one individual, in a professional point ofview, could possibly afford, 11 Nee prosunt domino gM<cprosunt omnibus artes." The probable return would be buta poor inducement. Transcendental views offer morereward than the simply useful.We want accurate descriptions of plants, good histories

of species, but such are likely long to be desiderata ; fewmen, competent to the task, have either time or pecuniarymeans to enable them to go over the plants even of ourown country. That distinguished botanist, Decandolle,laments the state in which he saw descriptive botany;he says that probably not one half of the known species ofplants have been described from living specimens; thatbarely a quarter of them have been sufficiently verified ; ;and that there is scarcely a hundredth part about whichone might not reasonably doubt whether they are speciesor varieties ; and such is, I truly believe, the case. How

important, therefore, is every endeavour to improveour knowledge of that which must be the foundation ofmedical botany, and without which it cannot exist as ascience, not having sound facts for its basis.

If there is any plant in the materia medica of thiscountry that one might expect to be well described it issurely HYOSCIAMUS NIGER. It is a large plant, and onethat is by no means rare ; tons of it are brought everyyear into the London market, and some preparation of itis employed by almost every practitioner. Some of the

species of this genus have been employed in medicinefrom the earliest periods of medical history, yet I cannotfind any work in which the species niger has beendescribed with the fullness and accuracy that is requiredfor practical pharmaceutical purposes. If any one hasbeen more fortunate in this respect I shall feel highlyobliged by the information, for I have not satisfied myown mind on all the points connected with its history.

It is believed by some, at least we may fairly infer sofrom their writings, that hyosciamus niger is the hyos-ciamus of Hippocrates, Dioscorides, Pliny, ’ &c. ; yet ifwe refer to these old writers we shall find that thehyosciamus niger was considered by them as a planttoo powerful to be safely employed in medicine. Dios-corides mentions three kinds, two of which were notemployed in practice in consequence of their deleteriousproperties ; that only was used which has white seeds ; ;he says, 11 niger ut de,,terimus imp1’Obatur.", Pliny mentions four kinds; the plant with white seeds?