"Fourthly, The wounds, and even the scratches must be cauterized with some one of the caustics pointed out, (Section 75;) the butter of antimony, the hot iron, or oil of vitriol should be preferred to others. The cauterization should be deep and carefully made; if it is slight, it will not be sufficient to prevent the disease, and no danger is to be apprehended from cauterizing too much. When the wounds are numerous, it is necessary to cauterize them in succession, beginning with those on the head and face, and leaving the interval of a day between the several applications of the caustic.

"Fifthly Six or seven hours after this operation, a large blistering plaster, the composition of which is given (Section 100,†) should be applied over the eschar. It should be removed twelve hours afterwards, and the raised cuticle be cut with the point of a knife; the surface is to be dressed twice a day with the leaf of a beet or cabbage besmeared with butter or the cooling cerate, (Section 101,‡) or with a cloth covered with beeswax and oil.

"Sixthly --When the eschar is detached, which takes place from the fifth to the eighth day, the sore should be brought to heal and skin over, if it is perceived that the cauterization has been carried deeper than the wound made by the teeth of the animal; should this not be the case, the caustic must be applied anew; and when the eschar falls, suppuration must be maintained for forty or fifty days, by putting into the sore a pea or bean, or, what is better, a small piece of orris-root or of gentian, and by dressing with the vescicating salve, (Section 100.§)

"Necessary Precautions.—If the wound is on the head, all the hair should be shorn off, in order that all the bitten parts may be seen and cauterized. If a swelling and inflammation of the scalp are produced by the cauterization, emollient and resolvent fomentations must be employed, and the sore be dressed simply.

"Wounds of the lips, cheeks, and eyelids, ought to be cauterized very deeply, and suppuration be maintained for a long time. The applicacation of caustic to the eyelids requires some care; they ought to be raised and separated from the eye, and the edges of the bite be burned with the caustic laid on a small brush or pencil. If the froth of the saliva of the animal has touched the ball of the eye, it is necessary to pass the pencil, armed with caustic, lightly over it; the only inconvenience that will follow, will be a little inflammation and a more or less considerable flow of tears; and to relieve these, the eye may be washed with water, in which flaxseed, or the root of mallow (atthæa officinalis) or gum has been boiled, and to which are added a few drops of laudanum. If the wound is in the mouth, this should be washed with vinegar and water, and afterwards cauterized with the hot iron, for liquid caustics will mix with the saliva, and thus be applied to sound parts of greater or less importance. When the bite is near an artery, and the pulsation of this may be seen, or may be felt by the finger laid

Also lunar caustic, caustic potash, and a paste of soap and lime.

+ Made by melting slowly together four ounces of wax, six drachms of turpentine, and one and a quarter ounce of olive oil, and adding, while the fluid is cooling, three ounces of powdered cantharides and two drachms of mastich.

Consists of one ounce of white wax, two of olive oil, and two of spermaceti. 6 As in the above note.

upon the wound, the surface only must be touched lightly with the butter of antimony on a pencil; thus the artery may be avoided and the danger of hæmorrhage, which might otherwise attend the separation of the eschar, need not be apprehended. But even this slight application of the caustic will be hazardous, if the artery, instead of being covered by some portion of muscle or of cellular tissue, is laid bare; in this case, the only application which can be made, is that of powdered cantharides or of some acrid ointment.

"If the wound is not recent and is entirely healed, and if it should be ascertained that the animal was mad, it is necessary to open the wound without delay by means of a bistoury or pointed knife, to cauterize it, and excite it to suppuration." Enaux and Chaussieur.

"We are indebted to Dr. Marochetti for many important observations, which we take this occasion to communicate.'" "After the bite of a mad animal, one or more pustules of various size are seen to arise at the sides of the frenum or bridle of the tongue, and upon the lateral parts of the lower surface of that organ. The ordinary size of these pustules is about that of a lentil or of a millet-seed; touched with a probe, they give the sensation of a fluctuation: the time of their appearance cannot be exactly fixed; ordinarily, they show themselves from the third to the ninth day after the bite, though sometimes they cannot be seen until the twentieth or even the thirty-fourth day. If the virus, which these pustules contain, is not destroyed within twenty-four hours, it is absorbed into the system, and the symptoms of madness burst forth. The lower part of the tongue of a man who has been bitten should be carefully examined therefore, and the examination be repeated many times in the day for six weeks: if, in this time, the pustules do not show themselves, we may be assured that the person has not been infected by the virus. If the pustules do appear, they must be opened and cauterized freely and completely; for an insufficient burning is worse than useless. Nevertheless, it may happen that the pustules, of which we are treating, do not arise, either because the virus was completely destroyed when the bite was cauterized with the hot iron, or because the animal's poison was exhausted at the moment of his biting." Moniteur, of August 16, 1824.

"While we wait for experience to decide the exactness of these observations, we deem it proper to insist upon the necessity of cauterizing the wounds made by rabid animals, recommending at the same time and equally the cauterization of the sublingual pustules shortly after their appearance. There would be no inconvenience in making use, as accessory means, of gargles made of a decoction of broom (genista ;) and of the tops of this plant administered in a ptisan or in powder, as has been recommended by M. Marochetti.

"The employment of Chlorine.-M. Brugnatelli has related many facts which tend to prove that chlorine (oxymuriatic acid) applied to the bites of rabid animals, prevents the occurrence of madness. Long before, Cluzel had announced that the same remedy, taken internally, had saved many persons who were bitten by a mad wolf. Until experience has fully decided on the worth of this remedy, it is of the high

est importance to continue to cauterize the wounds, according to the preceding directions.

"Internal Treatment of the Bite of Rabid Animals.-During the first days, perspiration is to be promoted by means of the drink mentioned (Section 76 ;*) when the wound is greatly inflamed or very painful, a decoction of mallow or of flaxseed, or Dover's powder, may be substituted. The patient should be bled if the pulse is hard and full. Tartarized antimony and purgatives are administered if the stomach is loaded, and the tongue covered with a yellow coat, and the mouth is clammy. Mild food, that is easy of digestion, and moderate exercise are to be prescribed. The regimen should be more strict if the patient is feverish."

After giving several formulæ, some of which we have stated in notes, the author proceeds to the following observations on the

"Treatment of Madness in Beasts.-The bite of a mad animal produces in cattle, sheep and horses the same symptoms which it does in man, but these proceed with greater rapidity.

"If the wound is in the tail or the ear, the part should be cut off, and the stump be cauterized with a hot iron; afterwards, it should be dressed with the digestive ointment described below.

"If the bite has been suffered in a part which cannot be removed, the hair must be cut off, the wounds be washed, enlarged with a bistoury and deeply cauterized, and then dressed with the digestive ointment; the sores should be stimulated from time to time with powder of cantharides, or with caustic potash, and not be allowed to heal for some weeks.

"The animal ought to be kept separate from others; and the person who dresses him should remember to wash his hands with soap, or vinegar and water. It is equally necessary after the death of the animal, to take care not to skin him, for fear of catching the disease.

"Terebinthinate Digestive Ointment.-Mix of turpentine, two ounces; olive oil, two ounces; two yolks of eggs. When it is wished to promote suppuration, a half drachm of caustic potash, in powder, may be added."

Success from the internal use of chlorine or any other remedy, has been exceedingly rare, but any thing is worth a trial. We conclude our quotations with the following judicious re-. marks from the Appendix, on the report as it should be given by the physician.

Of the Report.--In cases of poisoning, the reports should always present three distinct parts:-1. The protocol, or formula, which contains the name and designations of the person to whom the investiga

cup.

Elder-flower or chamomile tea, with a few drops of spirit of hartshorn in each

tion is committed; the authority which ordered the visit; the day and hour of the visit; the attitude, and external and apparent state, in which the subject was found; the objects which surround him; and to this is added, a short exposition of the accidental or accessory circumstances. "2. The description of the condition of the subject, and of the different alterations and lesions which may be discovered; the age, and the space of time which has elapsed since death, are indicated, mention is made of whatever may be found on the surface of the body; the state of the visceral cavities, and of the organs contained in them, and especially of the organs of digestion, is described.

"3. The conclusions or direct consequences, which may and ought to be deduced from the description of the circumstances observed in the visit; and no conclusion should be presented, which is not drawn from the most certain facts and founded upon the most constant laws of nature and the principles of art.

"We have contented ourselves with a brief exposition of these precepts, the detail of which will be found in technical works; and we conclude these general observations with repeating what cannot be repeated too often, that the fact of poisoning is never certain, unless the poison has been found. Beyond this, all is conjecture, and simple suppositions and probabilities are not sufficient to decide the fate of the honours and lives of men."

From these specimens, and from the title of the work, an idea of its character may be formed. While it avoids all unnecessary technicalities, it never degenerates into any thing unscientific; and is, upon the whole, a very good and convenient manual for those whose pursuits do not allow them to enter into extensive investigations in toxicology. We would recommend it, in conjunction with some of the popular manuals of chemistry and physiology, to every lawyer. Some gentlemen of the bar will smile at the connexion of chemistry and physiology with their profession; but in the course of practice they will have not unfrequent occasion to feel the importance of both these sciences, in the most responsible cases with which they may be entrusted. The one will enable them to appreciate the testimony and opinions of the chemist, in all cases of supposed poisoning, the other will be equally serviceable in the investigation of almost innumerable questions concerning the health, death, &c. of individuals. On these two sciences, indeed, is founded, in a great measure, that of legal medicine or medical jurisprudence; a most important and interesting science, the cultivation of which is equally incumbent on the lawyer and the physician, in which the two professions mutually assist each other, but which, it must be confessed, is on all hands strangely overlooked. This should not be, when the "Medecine legale" of Foderè, the "Toxicologie generale" of Orfila, and the "Systems of Medical Jurisprudence" by Paris and Fon

blanque, and by Beck, are within the reach of every inquiring reader. England, too, has furnished a valuable contribution to legal medicine, in the work of Dr. Christison on poisons. In a notice of this work, and of those of Orfila, which we propose hereafter to criticize, we shall have room to demonstrate the absolute necessity of the sciences which we have here only mentioned. The more, indeed, the human mind extends its researches, the more numerous and intimate are the relations which it discovers between subjects, which, to common observation, seem to present nothing in common. If, at last, the mind is wearied and discouraged by the extent and complexity of its pursuits, let the candidate for eminence accumulate all within the compass of his powers; seeing first that he has mastered that which he professes, with all the advantages to be obtained from the more immediately collateral brauches of knowledge.

ART. III.-1. 1572, A Chronicle of the Times of Charles the Ninth. Translated from the French of Prosper Merimeé. Author of "Theatre de Clara Gazul," "La Jaquerie," "Matteo Falconi," &c. New-York.

1830.

2. La Sainte Ligue, ou la mouche, pour servir de suite aux annales du fanatisme, de la superstition et de l'hypocrisie. Par PIGAULT-LEBRUN. Paris. 1829.

No nation has manufactured and consumed works of fiction more largely than the French. While they have deluged Europe with their works of this class, they have not been less anxious to receive from every quarter in return. They have translations of all the Greek and Roman novelists, of Boccacio, the tale-writers and canzoni from the Italian, of Goethe, Pichler and Vandervelde, from the German; of Richardson, Fielding, Smollett, Scott, Bulwer, Cooper, &c. from the English, not to mention those from the Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and recently, by the labours of M. Remusat, from the Chinese. It is, we think, in this class of literature that the French tongue has always maintained its true character and exhibited