adverted to. According to one they naturally exist as particles of living tissue, and thus take part, uot only in morbid processes, but in the performance of the normal functions. According to the other they are originally morbid, and are imported into the body from without, being derived either from the tissues or organs of other infected individuals, or produced by the transformation of the contents of the reproductive cells of the parasitic fungi inhabiting the higher plants."

The objection will no doubt be made to Dr. Sanderson's discoveries that they are purely physiological, and that their recondite character places them beyond the scope of the legislator or of the taxpayer. Yet the abstract experiments of Black on the nature of caloric, of Ersted on the conversion of electric into magnetic force, and of Priestley on the nature of gas, have led to the three great discoveries of modern times, the practically operative steam-engine, the electric telegraph, and the lighting of towns. So, again, the discovery of Trichine in pork, although at first apparently an insignificant fact, has led to the most important municipal regulations in certain German towns. The proof of the migration of the Cysticercus has led to the demonstration of the origin, history, and development of the tapeworm; the mode of the reproduction of the Guinea-worm attracted some years ago the special notice of the scientific departments of the Admiralty; and a multitude of topics exist which at first sight appear to be solely interesting to the microscopist or the abstract theorist, but which in course of time make good their claim to practical consideration.

"Although, perhaps, the whole subject [of this review] is in a certain sense botanical, inasmuch as it raises questions relating to the properties and specific character of plants, yet the nature of the investigation is such as to bring it almost entirely within the sphere of experimental pathology. The only purely botanical question involved in it is that of the origin of microzymes from either higher forms of parasitic fungi. Even here, when the issue is brought within its narrowest limits it will be found to be more chemical than mycological; for it is not disputed that Professor Hallier has actually seen microzymes produced at the expense of the protoplasm of the large reproductive cells of certain endophytes: but it is alleged by those who are opposed to his views that this phenomenon is a result of chemical changes in the protoplasm itself, to which it is subject, not as being contained in a particular cell, but as being putrescible matter."

The relations of the present subject with what has been called Biogenesis and Abrogenesis cannot now be discussed. The laws which influence the production of microzymes must eventually be discovered, and Dr. Sanderson's experiments are the first and most important steps thereto.

III.-Chambers on the Indigestions.1

LIKE other works proceeding from the pen of Dr. King Chambers, this present one is characterised by its essentially practical character. It is made to teach the pathological and therapeutical lessons it enforces by records of cases, briefly but sufficiently detailed for the purpose. The style in which it is written is colloquial and facile, and, at the same time, vigorous and calculated to keep up the attention and interest. The author has decided opinions, and advances them unhesitatingly, and his practice is marked by like decision. He exhibits great power in seizing upon the distinctive features of cases, and in so impressing them upon his reader that he carries him along with him in his exposition of morbid states, and of the treatment those conditions require. He does not plunge into recondite pathological disquisitions, and leave the reader mystified; but whilst appealing to the admitted doctrines of modern physiology and pathology, evolves from them conclusions and principles which, if not always beyond dispute, at least commend themselves to respectful consideration.

He has treated his subject from a functional point of view, and examined the "indigestions" associated with the several classes of food, with pernicious habits and with collateral disease; has passed under review the symptoms of dyspepsia, connecting them with their causes; and has inquired into the various conditions provocative of "the indigestions." This mode of treatment of the subject renders the work particularly valuable to the practitioner, whilst it equally detracts from its value to the student concerned in preparing for examinations, and who is required rather to show his knowledge of the theory of practice than practical knowledge, and must be able to describe, not "the indigestions" as interpreted among patients, but the various real or supposed gastric lesions with which dyspepsia and functional disorders of the digestive organs are associated.

With these prefatory observations we will now turn to the book itself. In so doing it behoves us first of all to state that this treatise had a just claim to notice a long time since. From inadvertence and the demands upon our space always exceeding the possible supply it has been neglected: but the issue of a third edition in Philadelphia, in consequence of its well-merited popularity in America, calls, even after the lapse of time it

1 The Indigestions or Diseases of the Digestive Organs Functionally Treated. By THOMAS KING CHAMBERS, M.D., &c. Second Edition. Loudon. Pp. 337.

has been allowed to repose on our shelves, for a review of the work.

The second English edition is, in reference to the first one, entitled Digestion and its Derangements,' almost a new work; but the edition lately published in America, although modified, especially in the arrangement of some of the subjects discussed, and in the composition of many paragraphs, and illustrated by additional cases, differs in no essential particulars from that first named.

The introductory chapter has been rewritten, but not much added to. The third changes its title, "Habits of Social Life leading to Indigestion," for that of "Causes of Indigestions," and various minor changes are met with in the arrangement of matters in the other chapters. But the most material change, and, we would add, improvement, is in the introduction of a chapter on "Indigestions, Acute and Chronic," in which various comments and cases distributed among other sections in the English edition, are brought together into natural alliance.

The leading principle in the teaching of Dr. Chambers is, "that all disease is for the physician essentially a deficiency of life, an absence of some fraction of the individual organization of force, and that all successful treatment must aim at a renewal of vital action." This main point in the physician's consideration so insisted on is, therefore, a reiteration of the idea conveyed by the phrase "Renewal of Life," which served as the title of the first two editions of his clinical lectures; and he now avers that he is "more than ever convinced, as years roll on, of the soundness of the principle, and of the safety of applying it to practice."

In the lectures alluded to he has largely developed and illustrated this view of discase being always deficiency in vital power; and, in our opinion, the whole tendency of modern pathology is in its favour. The hypothesis of disease being, in any malady, an exaggeration of vital activity, cannot be maintained. There may, indeed, be augmented growth and increased vascular activity, but the prelude to one and the other is some deficiency or loss in power.

To return, however, to the work on "The Indigestions":

"The link [writes the author] drawing into one class the morbid phenomena which are the subject-matter of this volume is a partial defect in the necessary supply of that of which the body is built up, before it arrives at the medium of distribution. . . . . . The essence of digestion' consists in absorption from a canal communicating with the external air into a closed system of tubes, wherein is contained the nutritive fluid. Preparatory to this absorption is solution, aided by nerves and muscles; and the end of it is assimilation, or the con

version of the substance received into a like nature with the fluid they float in. Till this has been done they cannot be used for the nutrition of the body."

Descending from the higher aim he at first contemplated,—of seeking an anatomical basis for the grouping of the cases of indigestion that presented themselves in practice, but of which he discovered the impracticability, he has fallen upon the oldfashioned division of indigestions as slow, defective, or painful.. And with respect to the refined distinction into essential, idiopathic, and symptomatic morbid phenomena, he expresses himself convinced that it leads to dangerous practice. A so-called "mere symptom " is often the cause of death; and in chronic pathological states it will happen that the whole duty of the physician is comprised in discovering and relieving some functional disturbance, the curable something in the otherwise incurable condition, and one which, " in a majority of patients, may be found in functional impediments to the entrance of nutriment into the medium of assimilation; and when once nutriment can be got in, a cure is begun." Healthy assimilation must be the basis of improvement or recovery in diseases generally; and, to secure this, healthy digestion and nutritious suitable food must be first sought.

In the opening of his chapter on 'Indigestions, Acute and Chronic,' Dr. Chambers takes occasion to re-assert the meaning of the terms acuteness and chronicity as understood by the Greek physicians who adopted them; and to remark that the word chronic is not expressed by the Latin equivalent longus' used in the Nomenclature of Disease,' published by the College of Physicians. Acute diseases

"Meant such as have a tendency to progress in a circle towards the recovery of health; each process, however dangerous and abnormal it may be, being a step towards the final arrival at that result, if only the patient's strength held out. While of chronic,' the natural road is straight on from bad to worse, unless from the interposition of some extraneous circumstances of accidental or designed origin foreign to the phenomena of the disease itself. . . . This division of diseases is of the most essential importance when we test the value of remedies. Nearly all the fallacies which overload our pharmacopoeia, not to mention a variety of theories ending in 'pathy,' which crop up from time to time, flow from watching the acute element in disease as the index of the effect of a drug. A very moderate portion of medical logic will suffice to show that it is only from the numerical comparison of the experience of many public institutions, for many years, that an opinion can be formed in acute disease concerning that effect. While, by observing its action in chronic disease, one cautious man may, from a very moderate number

of well considered cases, come to a rational conclusion as to the value of any really active medication.'

These remarks of Dr. Chambers deserve to be carefully noted; not as something never insisted upon before, but as conveying so lucidly the necessity of attending to what has, in more pretentious phraseology, been termed the natural history of disease; of watching the natural course of acute disease when no active medication is pursued. Some investigations have already been followed out in this direction, sufficient to show the mischief resulting from drugging patients in accordance with preconceived notions of what is to do, or should do good, on the assumed action of this or that drug on the functions of the body, either in sickness or in health.

The treatise presents throughout most valuable hints and suggestions to those called upon to deal with disease as witnessed in every day medical experience. Many such might be collected and put before the profession as a volume of medical aphorisms that should have a place in each professional head. The following extract, taken from the author's account of acute dyspepsia resulting from overfeeding, and particularly, from overtaxing the stomach after great fatigue, supplies an example of Dr. Chambers' style and teaching:

"Such attacks as these are not evidences of bad health, for they arise only in consequence of unnecessary exertions. The medical treatment consists mainly in saying, 'don't.' That, however, is more often required than would be supposed; people have a notion that great outgoings demand great immediate incomings, and load their stomachs in proportion to the exercise they are taking. This is wrong; a night's sleep should always intervene between weariness more than ordinary and the reception of even the usual quantity of food. A tired stomach is a weakened stomach. No persons more require this warning than Londoners, even medical Londoners, out for their annual holiday. They make violent muscular efforts, and then eat and drink as usual, till they are really debilitated by a succession of slight indigestions, and return to work weaker than they left it."

Who that has had experience cannot endorse this teaching? The like to it, moreover, applies to the feeding of those suffering from sickness in general, or who are recovering from it, and every day's observation adds to the examples of the injury following upon errors as to the time, quality and quantity of food given to patients.

Dr. Chambers, in the introductory remarks to the section on chronic indigestion, takes pains to re-impress upon the reader's mind his apprehension of what is acute and what chronic in