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1M pulse retnrning. The cuppingmay be repeated in a short time; and ort

each occasion the pulse generally becomesmore Iree, the heart contracting less forei-by and thus admitting a greater quantityof blood into its cavities. Thus by de-crees, the circulation is restored, andblood, (if necessary) may be taken froma vein. This is a state of disease in whichI tolerably large dose of opium would belikely to be serviceable, by lessening theuntability of the heart, and, of course,its tendency to contraction.

Slow or chronic carditis is of very fre-quent occnrrence; sometimes taking placealone, bnt mostly in combination withpnlmonary disease. The symptoms,though milder, are of the same charactera.; in the acute form ; and it is induced bythe ·ame causes. The treatment also isin all essential points the same, being inboth cases simply antiphlogistic. The

uulity of small and repeated bloodlettingsin these cases, aided by the digitalis, andconfinement to the horizontal posture formany weeks, is very striking. In severalinstances that appeared almost hopeless,and in which I had given a most unfa-vourable prognosis, supposing that thedisease had already occasioned fatal dis-organization, the patient has neverthelessperfectly recovered. In a few extraor.dmary cases, of which I have preservedthe history, the patient has been bledsixty or seventy times, and even more,within the period of two years that thedisease lasted, and yet has recoveredperfectly. The patients in these cases

have become exceedingly pallid, but haveretained a tolerable share of fullness ofhabit, without showing any tendency todiopsy. They have generally felt so muchrelief from the bleeding, as to call for itof themselves, and often more frequentlythan 1 have been disposed to allow of.

Of course, in these instances, the injurysustained by the parts was less than hadbeen apprehended, which is an en-

couragement to persevere steddily in ourendeavours to cure; since we can haveno certain knowledge of the actualstate of parts, and onght therefore totake the most favourable view of the sub-ject.

SKETCHES OF THE SURGICALPROFESSION IN IRELAND.

No. XI.

MERCER’S HOSPITAL.

Characters, &c.[Continued from page 506.]

THE echoes of the combat, however,had scarcely died away, when the hilarityof the scene was again revived by one ofthose ludicrous exhibitions that sometimesoccur in a Dublin Hospital during the ex-amination of that singular compound ofcunning and simplicity, the Irish intel-lect. I copy the circumstances fromrecollection, and claim indulgence for theerrors of a memory more sensitive per-haps than tenacious of its impressions.On the consulting " tripod" sat, at thetime, a diminutive personage of a verycurious aspect. His dress of gaudy tinthad evidently seen some service, andmanifested as little familiarity with thebrash as his matted locks, plumed with thedown of the pillow, did with the applica-tion of the rack comb. His countenancewas tinged with such an intenselychlorotic hue, and contracted into sucha medalic pettiness of circumference, thatit might have been mistaken for a bass-relief sculptered on a gall-stone. His eyestared through a halo of misty light, asrayless as the moon through an autum-nal haze, and his beard, which was black,and of more than one day’s growth, stoodout from his chin in grisly luxuriance, asif imploring the assistance of some chari-table barber. His lips were kept by com-pression alone, from expanding into aperpetual yawn ; and his whole featurespartook of that dreamy expression whichthe face assumes when the senses, halfawakened by the morning-beam, strug-gle to shake off the lethargy of sleep.I was startled, I confess, by such an

apparition, and almost believed that thegenius of the " Sheriff’s Prison" had

come to play the doctor in mockery of mynotions of the dignity of that character.The wandering of my fancy was soon re-called to reality, by the entrance of a

gigantic hawker of fish ; her mouth, inthe effort to say something, spasmodicallythrown open like the jaws of a gasping cod.Are you costive ? exclaims the little

Pæon, in a husky baratone, as if aousedby her formidable appearance:

" Och!your honour ! in troth I don’t well knowwhat is’t that ails me," the hem of therespondent’s nether garment touchingthe boards in a profound com tesy : " Howmany motions, then, have yon in the day,

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Ma’am?" with increased emphasis, andall eyes now turned to the rencontre:" An that’s beyant countin, honey, foram’nt I runnin up and down the townde live long day wid dat ould basketdere on my head." " Why you confoundedold witch, I want to know how often doyou go to stool?" " Jist as often as Ican, jewel, and dat’s not very often, onynow and den at a jintleman’s hall dooror de likes, whilst shellin de pays, or

opinin de oysthurs." " Curse yourpeas and oysters ! tell me how often areyour bowels open?" " Little enow, doc-thur dear, bud aboud a couple a hundredor dere aways, since de riz de price of deCarlingfords on de creturs, God helphuz." " Out of my sight, yourself andyour infernal oysters, I’m talking aboutopening your bowels." " God’s blud-an-ouns, what’s this for! Arrah ! patience, arich-ma-chree, an don’t be angry wid apoor cretur of my sort, for sure if it’s demyou’d be talking aboud, it’s just tree daysto-morrow since de war opined, wid deblessing of God."The gravity of philosophy itself could

scarcely resist the influence of the spec-tacle, and I added my mite of laughter tothe general chorus, while the enragedPæon was dismissing the confounded

nymph of Ringsend, with a pill or a mix-ture, quite regardless of the " Key-Letters" of Paris. While this storm ofpleasantry was at its height, it was curi-ous to observe how the sound of merri-ment subsided into the silence of respectfor talent and dignity, in the approach ofthat master-spirit of the scene, thelate president of the College, AlexanderReid, I had almost said " Alexander theGreat;" for saving the difference be-tween holding empire over the satraps ofa hospital, and the princes of the earth, Iperceived that the plenitude of his

sovereignty in his own sphere was as per-fect as that of his imperial namesake.But omitting a comparison of the " Au-tocrat" of Mercer’s with the " hero ofthe Granicus," I was struck by his de-meanour and appearance, and inquiredinto his history. I learned with some

surprise, that a man of his stoical deport-ment was at one time a "first rateswell;" set the fashion to half the pro-fessional " bloods" on town; could boundover any church-yard-wall in a case ofsurprise ; and pommel half a dozen of"charleys" to his own suit in a resur-rection spree. But of the elastic limb,light heart, and fashionable addictions,the rheumatism and official cares haveleft us but the shell, if I may say so, inwhich these juvenile attributes once ef-fervesced. At present a stick supports

his painful steps; his manner of address,to one unacquainted with him, might seemto border more on the condescension ofmisanthropy than the mere reserve ofpolite civility ; and his dress might nowbe described as negligently elegant, ifthe Gordian convolutions of muslin intowhich his neck-cloth folds across hisbreast did not betray some lingeringdevotion to the goddess of bon ton. His

features, in a state of quiescence, werepeculiar rather than expressive of thepredominancy of any particular faculty ofthe mind ; but when excited by thought,a grim dissociation of the lips unveinga liberal surface of ivory, a stein fixed-ness of look, and an inspired rigidity ofattitude, communicated to his delivery ofa prognosis the character of a Sardonicrevelation. Though holding his appoint-ment, I believe, for many years, he isstill a young man ; and the peculiar ad-vantages which he possessed,seem to hatebeen cultivated with success. His ob-servations on disease were highly indi-cative of an ingenious mind. In cases ofdoubt, no hesitation of acknowledgingthat nothing was to be known; in ob-vious matters, no catering to self import-ance by mystifying the plain truth; indifficulties, no delusion ; in certainties,information alone. He seemed in suchinstances above the paltry artifice ofbeing accounted clever on the chances ofa guess. A patient investigator of nature,he is a competent pilot to the inexperi-enced, and I was gratified by observing,that when advice was sought with be-

coming zeal, it was invariably impartedwith good will, and he was consequently afavourite with every student capable ofappreciating so liberal a guide. His

general conversation, from being en-

riched with much of the matter-of-fact

acquisitions of experience, and having anagreeable flavour of books along withthe style in which he spoke, led me tosuppose that the materials of instructionnot only float in his mind, but that healso possesses the power of reducingthem to an available form. To the

qualities of an accomplished surgeon, headds, in a superlative degree, the know-ledge exclusively claimed by the physi-cian ; and in the management of thatmultifarious burthen on the memory, the"Materia Medica," I have rarely seenhim surpassed by any professor of hisown art. Neither are the moral princi-ples of the man exceeded by the atta-ments of the surgeon. His st ad-herence, indeed, to the letter of pr opty.struck me as throwing a shade of the"Heantontimorumenos" into his con-

duct, which, with every respect for the

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cause, will sometimes force a smile fromthe spectator, as it did from me on thisoccasion. For while passing through thewards some person vociferated "whiskey,"another cried " tobacco," (luxuries in-

dulged in by the inmates of hospitals tothe great risk no doubt of the fire-enginesbeing brought into requisition,) with theintention of bringing the subject underhis notice. The perfume of the latterdrug threw his sensorium into a convul-sion, and he really looked as if the flameshad already made some progress in thedevastation of the edifice, while he enun-ciated " Mr. Booth", with a syllabic em-phasis truly awful. The meekest of God’sapothecaries, after a pause, entered withthe face of a truant and a passive hu-mility of expression, as if not unaccus-tomed to similar calls, and forciblyreminded me of Goldsmith’s school-boy as he turned in dumb compassion totowards the querist, yet somewhat anxi-ous to trace " The day’s disasters in hismorning face." The nurse was next

summoned, and a Mrs. Somebody madeher bow. Of the alarming seriousnessthat followed, during an investigation inwhich I momentarily expected the stickwould have inforced the logic of passion,I could not hope to give any idea, unlessI could print the faces of the parties, andset their tones to music ; while thehumour of the scene was considerablyenhanced by observing the unruly,wag, who had given the false alarm,thrust a filming cigar into his pocket.Such, however, was the gentleman

whose glances as he passed the " BoardRoom," stilled the noisy worship ofComus, and called all hands to work.His merits, indeed, may have been mag-nified by the medium through which theywere seen, as light acquires additionalbrightness from being viewed in the dark;but virtue, like the diamond, is increased invalue by its scarcity : and in this instanceI may well be excused for rating hisworth at a famine price.

I had now an opportunity of seeinganother of these personages who wieldthe scalpel of Mercer’s. He advancedtuwards us in double quick time, as ifon some important errand, his thumbsimpacted into the arm-holes of his vest,and his brows corrugated into an habitualfrown. The pitted cicatrizations of hisusage indicated an era in the history of

anterior to the discovery of Jenner,and the aristocratic inflation of his airwould lead one to believe that the daysof "Feudalism" had not yet expired.He nodded to some indentured vassal,as if conferring a boon, buried his headbetween his shoulders in a shrug, and,

with the clutched satisfaction of thefeline race, purred something about thepedigree of the new Member for Dublinin a guttural compound of the English,Irish, and Scotch accents. Though shortof stature, he seemed to stand very highin his own opinion; and understandingthat he had taken to give " Lessons inElocution," I thought I might as wellwitness the expansion of his mind as Ihad the turgescence of his person. I there-fore followed on to the scene of action ina back-house of the hospital, where, be-fore a table covered with scarlet cloth,he commenced reading some surgical" pic-nickery" on urinary complaints, pro-duced, as he observed, by affections of themind, such as grief, fear, and tetanus!and proceeded at such a rapid pace thatI was not at all surprised, when at theconclusion he remarked, with a sweep ofthe head, (the atlas making many a fullrevolution on the dentata,) " that in-deed he had not yet acquired the tact ofknowing how much matter would sufficefor an hour’s perusal, but he hoped thatwould be sufficient for that day.So thought I too, Mr. Ainleek, as I

mused on the metastasis of tetanus tothe mind, a discovery that surprised me,not less than perhaps the transition ofthe scene from a lecture room to Mor-rison’s hotel, may startle the reader.But so it is, that a very sensible customprevails in this hospital, compelling everyyoung gentleman on being bound anapprentice to one of the surgeons, to en-tertain his fellow students at one of themetropolitan taverns, with a splendidbreakfast, or in case of non-compliancewith this salutary usage, to undergo the

penalty of every variety of the " practicaljoke ;" such as stealing his hat, improvingthe tint of his cloth with lint and

spermaceti; and of being pasquinadedin all manner of ways that playful male-volence can suggest.

I was much pleased with the idea ofbegining the toils of the profession in sorational a manner, and the courtesy ofinvitation (for none are admitted of rightto these banquets but apprentices) beingextended to me, I proceeded in companywith my young host on one of these oc-casions to witness his social inaugurationin the joint rites of Esculapius and Api-cius. It was a most solemn and imposingspectacle. Only conceive about thirtyempty stomachs whetted by the expec-tancy of a sumptuous repast to a latehour of the day, and then imagine a tablesuch only as Morrison could supply,covered over with rosy slices of Wicklowham reposing on beds of parsley, cold fowlof most tempting plumpness, and frosted

526

over with crystals of picromel, steaks, thegenuine incarnation of the shamrock,flanked by mountains of sallelun, but,deficuent vires, I must leave you to guessthe fearful conflict of knives, forks, andmastication that instantly ensaed, havingall the sublimity of a battle, without thedanger. I had here the pleasure of see-ing some others of the medical officers ofMercer’s in their proper places, as theyshould have been on so important a festival.Amongst these there was one with regularfeatures of Grecian outline, but withoutthe animation of that school of beauty,and for whom my fancy, ridiculously per-haps, found a comparison in the metamor-phure of a " Venus" into the other sex.The rounded contour of his form, and thefeminine delicacy of his manner, pecu-liarly fitted him for the duties of an ob-stetrician ; and I learned, with some self-gratulation on the correctness of myviews, that Mr. Michael Daniel had con-secrated his talents, in conformity with theindications of his person, to the serviceof Lucina. But the person who had at-

tracted the greatest share of my atten-tion, was an old man, who I understoodto be Dr. Hill, and physician to the es-tablishment. By accident be was dressedin the fashion ; his coat, to the cut of whichhe has inviolably adhered for sixty years,presenting then as great a space betweenthe hip buttons, as the most " exquisite"of his neighbours. He talked of theGreek and Arabian lights of medicine, ofRhazes and Avicenna, and the rest of theFudge-family, and on entering the room,I thought that one of the figures of Ho-garth’s " Examination at Surgeon’s Hall"had descended from the wall, to conversewith us on the topics of his day. Heseemed to enjoy the repast with muchzest, and it was truly consolatory to hisjunior friends, with the prospect of oldage still before them, to behold successivecargoes of every thing on the boarddescend into the hold of an octogenerianvessel that had sailed in safety acrossthe quicksands of all the climacterics,and whose timbers still promised towithstand the assaults of many anothergale.

Highly edified by the festivity of thescene, I gave God thanks, beckoned thewaiter, and pledging the " memory ofMary Merce," in a libation of " Nantz,"departed in silence to my home.

ERINENSIS.

FOREIGN DEPARTMENT.

Uber das Wesen der Wassercheu. VonDr. A. A. Berthold, Privat docent ander Universitat Gottingen, s. 64. 1826.

On the Nature of Hydrophobia. By Dr.A. A. Berthold, Prtvate Teactter ;o theUniversity of Gottingen, pp.64. 1825.(Hecker’s Annalen, Nov. 1825.)

THE frequent occurrence of hydrophobiain Germany, no less than 1666 havingbeen affected with this disease in Prussia,from 1810 to 1819 inclusive, has enabledthe Germans to investigate this com.

plaint on a more extended plan than anyother nation in Europe. The result of

their investigations has unfortunately beenproductive of no JlJlprovements In thetreatment of this disease when once

broken out, a circumstance which has sti.mulated medical men in all parts,andparti.cularly the veterinary surgeon-,to examinethe causes which produce this disease indogs. The respective governments havedone every thing to promote the inquiry,and it is to be hoped that ere long somesatisfactory information will be oblainedon this important point, Different opi.nions exist as to the causes which pro-duce this disease in animals : some thinkthat it is produced by a suppression utthe salivary secretions ; some from an

unsatisfied desire for coiiiiexinii, atiti

others, from the animals being kept with-ont a sufficient quantity of water. Thefirst of these opinions is advanced hy theauthor of this work, who says, that hydro.phobia, which comes on of it.sel., i, produced by a snpprt-ssion of the ralivarysecretion from external causes, pa ticu-

larly bad food. According to this theory,a particular metamorphosis of Ihi. sup-pressed secretion takes place, which. M-erting an inflnence on the fluid andsolids of the body, disturbs the blood, andoperates prejudicial y on the solutthat if some fortunat .v cumstance doesnot take place to produce the secretionof the saliva as well as the suppressedseminal fluid, general madness will bethe result. This humoral pathologicalview of the case is not new, since theimportance of the salivary secretions in

dogs, perspiration in the-e animal- nevertaking place, is apparent to all, and hasindeed been taken into account bv mostwriters on hydrophobia. The uncondi-tional and general power of suppressedconnexion, beat, and want of water, ncausing this disease, do not appear to the