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of two ounces. The internal membrane of the urinary bladder was in one instance covered with a thin layer of black matter, similar to that which is seen lining the abdomen of some fishes.

The distinctive pathological appearance in yellow fever is the matter of the black vomit; which Dr. A. assures us is always discernible after death, in every case of this disease, whether any vomiting of this fluid has occurred or not. Many experiments were made by him on this substance, all of which serve to prove that it is not bilious, but formed from effused blood. It was found to be separable by the filter into two parts; the first being a clear chesnut-colored liquor, soapy to the touch, and possessing a nauseous sweetish or styptic taste:- while the second was black and viscid, resembling soot mixed with mucus, and having a faint odor.

A yellow color in the skin was perceptible in the great bulk of cases before death, though in some it did not take place till after the fatal event; and, in a few, nothing but an increased darkness of color could be seen either before or after dissolution. In explaining the cause of the yellow color, Dr. A. is led by his investigations to reject at once the idea of the absorption of bile: he compares it, as an eminent northern physician did long ago, to the discoloration produced by contusion of soft parts; and he considers it as of the nature of ecchymosis.

The theory of yellow fever which Dr. A. has offered is not very clear or satisfactory, He supposes that the matter of contagion acts first on the mucous surface of the stomach, that congestion follows, and then effusion of entire blood; and to the irritating properties of this extravasated fluid, he refers the appearances of inflammation discovered after death, as well as many of the symptoms which present themselves during the progress of the disease. That the stomach is the grand centre of irritation in yellow fever is now established beyond any doubt: but we do not agree with Dr. A. in believing that its morbid contents are productive of those effects which he has ascribed to them.

With regard to the treatment of the fever by Dr. AUDOUARD, we find as little promptitude and vigour as we formerly remarked in the Report of the Spanish physicians: his practice appearing to have been limited, in the great proportion of cases, to infusion of tamarinds, barley-water with honey, camphorated oil rubbed on the belly, and camphorated enemata. The only case in which he employed leeches, and it was towards the close of the disease, proved fatal. Venesection was not tried by the author; and he states that, when

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it was employed by others, the patients were cut off with uncommon rapidity; but he is led, by the observation of a case in which a cure followed a copious hæmorrhage from the tongue and mouth, to ask whether early blood-letting might not prove beneficial? - Purgatives are mentioned by him as likely to produce advantageous effects: but none of greater strength than tamarinds and cream of tartar seem to have been administered; calomel, or mercury in any shape, not appearing to have been once used in the practice of the writer. Several instances are detailed, in which the patients were cured by the administration of cinchona: but two cases, in which sulphate of quinine was given, terminated fatally.

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A monk of the order of Minims, named Constans, appears to have been more successful in his treatment of the disease than any of the faculty in Barcelona. He began by administering oily emulsions, and then gave copious draughts of warm diluents, so as to produce a profuse perspiration, Of nine diseased persons among his brethren of the convent, he lost only one; and, according to the reverend father's assertion, that one would have been saved if he had consented to drink abundantly. In estimating the success of M. Constans, it is deserving of remark that his patients were all placed under his care during the incipient stage of the fever, and that they were of regular habits, accustomed to discipline, and with minds much less likely to be agitated with alarm for their situation than those of the commonalty. We may add, also, that their accommodations and attendance within the convent were such as to favour, in a remarkable degree, the chance of recovery.

The latter part of this volume, which indeed forms a large proportion of it, is dedicated to the consideration of the means best adapted for limiting the diffusion and effecting the suppression, of yellow fever. These are very nearly such as are recommended by all writers on contagion, and more especially by those who have written on plague. Entertaining, as we do, sentiments somewhat different from this author on the subject of the contagion of yellow fever, we do not conceive that the very severe measures which he has recommended are altogether necessary.. Precautions, no doubt, are imperatively requisite in order to limit the extension of the disease, wherever there is reason to believe that it has assumed, or is likely to acquire, a contagious character: but the grand point, above all others, is to urge earnestly and perhaps to compel emigration, even to a short distance from the affected city. Dr. AUDOUARD states a fact, before known to us from the Report of the Spanish physicians, (already cited,)

which ought to give great confidence in the efficacy of such a measure: viz. 'The country-houses and villages within the cordon, although crowded with inhabitants, were spared by the disease. The yellow fever shewed itself in these situations at distant intervals: but such cases were extremely rare, and it is ascertained that they were not multiplied by contagion, except in two or three instances.' (P. 457.) The only occurrence of this kind, which is here given, is that of an inhabitant of the village of Sans, who died of the fever, and whose wife was seized with it two days afterward, and died also: but neither the children nor the servants, nor any of the neighbours, are stated to have caught the disease; which we should have expected, had it been of a highly contagious character.

The style of this publication is in many passages eminently French, and the language has occasionally drawn from us a smile: but the labours of the author form a highly valuable accession to our knowlege of yellow fever, as it has appeared in Europe; while they present a most pleasing and laudable spectacle of disinterested professional enthusiasm, sacrificing for a time comfort and happiness, and placing even life in peril, for the love of science and humanity. His merits cannot fail to be duly appreciated; and, if he has not the art or the opportunity to convert his professional talents to the purposes of gain, we trust that the government which he has so well served will place him in competency, secure against the changes of fortune.

ART. VII. Archives des Découvertes, &c.; i. e. Archives of Discoveries and new Inventions in the Sciences, Arts, and Manufactures, both in France and in foreign Countries, during the Year 1822. With a Summary of the principal Products of French Industry; a List of Certificates of Inventions, Improvements, and Importations, granted by the Government, during the same Year; and Notices of the Prizes proposed or adjudged by different learned Societies, French and Foreign, for the Encouragement of Science and the Arts. 8vo. pp. 559. Paris. 1823. Imported by Treuttel and Co. Price 10s. 6d. s we have more than once adverted to this useful annual repertory, it would be unnecessary now to explain its general objects, or the plan on which it is conducted. The materials of the present volume, like those of its precursors, are distributed into the two great divisions of Science and

* See Review, N. S. vol. Ixiv. p. 524.; lxxi. p. 536.; and lxxvii. p. 484.

Arts,

Arts, between which the precise line of demarcation is not always very obvious. In a part of the arrangement, too, we observe Zoology and Botany aukwardly interjected between Geology and Mineralogy, and Optics between Electricity and Meteorology; which last, again, is removed to an immeasurable distance from Geology. The various subjects, however, are generally well selected, and stated not only with perspicuity and conciseness, but with an uniform regard to correctness and appropriation of style. The amount of information derived from British sources is more ample and important than heretofore: but the report of proceedings in other countries, with the exception of France, is still very scanty and meagre. Yet so diversified and multiplied are the contents of the publication, that we cannot pretend to exhibit even a bare enumeration of them. Besides, many of the articles are already so compressed as to be unsusceptible of more reduced analysis; and we purposely overlook those passages which have been extracted from British journals, or which are easily accessible to the English reader: especially as several of them have been already submitted to our cognizance, and others may come to be considered in the regular progress of our critical labors. Under these circumstances, then, it may suffice to glance at a few of the topics, as illustrative of the character of the work, or as conveying new or useful intelligence to our readers.

In the geological department, we find a distinct statement of M. Ferussac's researches into the formation of tertiary soils, from which he has been led to infer a change of temperature, and of the level of the waters, as well as the extinction of many sorts of animals and plants. We meet likewise with descriptions of newly discovered caverns in America, and of a remarkable subterraneous accumulation of ice on the north

west coast of that continent. A solitary instance is recorded of a remnant of Chamorops humilis, entombed in sand-stone, near Lausanne. - M. Moreau de Jonnès, having examined the repository in which the human skeleton was detected in Guadaloupe, is convinced that it is of recent origin; formed, as elsewhere on the coast of that island, by the agglutination of fragments of madrepores, and of other calcareous morsels, rejected by the tide.

Zoology is introduced by a reference to M. Delalande's examination of the skulls and skeletons of various natives of the south of Africa, which indicate peculiarities of organization, and, according to phrenological notions, an inferiority with respect to intellect. The same indefatigable traveller has added five tortoises to those already known; has communi

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cated some interesting observations on the entomology of Africa; and has prepared, often on the burning sand, or in the recesses of the forest, 122 animal skeletons: some of which were of great dimensions, particularly that of a whale, measuring 78 feet in length, stranded in False Bay. In the comparatively short space of two years, he has transmitted to Europe 13,405 articles, belonging to 1620 species of animals. Mention is made of a herd of swine, in the state of Vermont, drawn up in the form of a triangle, two sides of which consisted of the largest, stoutest, and the best furnished with tusks, while the base and the centre were composed of the young. This defensive attitude had been assumed in consequence of the advance of a wolf, which was gored to death, and the party then broke up. Mr. Kirkoff, a Russian officer, when in the neighbourhood of Bhering's island, had a near and an anxious peep of a sea-snake, with a red body, and huge eyes. Acephalocystis racemosa, a new species of hydatid, and found in the human uterus, is announced by MM. Desormeaux and Cloquet; and the latter also describes a new species of Ophiostoma, nine inches long, and only half a line in its greatest thickness. It was rejected from the stomach of an individual, who had been liable, for some years, to apoplectic seizures: but they ceased from the period of his getting rid of such a troublesome inmate.

We extract the ensuing passage the more willingly, because it is quite in accordance with information which we have received from very respectable quarters.

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On the Properties of the Guaco, a Sort of Climber, or Pliant Willow. By M. Leguevel. This shrub, which chiefly occurs in the warm and temperate regions of the viceroyalty of Santa-Fé, towards the 45th degree of north latitude, not only possesses the property of neutralizing the venom of the rattle-snake, and other serpents whose bites prove fatal in the course of some minutes, but it may be employed as a prophylactic; insomuch that several doses of the juice of the pounded leaves, suitably administered, will render a person invulnerable to the bite of these reptiles.

M. Leguevel carefully describes the botanical characters of this plant, which he has himself studied in Martinique, whither it was. transported in 1814; and he quotes several facts, attested by per sons worthy of credit and by the local authorities, which prove that persons bitten by the most venomous serpents have, by the juice of the guaco, been saved from any injurious consequences. He also informs us that he personally ascertained the extraordinary effects of the guaco.'

Enothera tetraptera has the property of flowering very rapidly, and only when the sun has nearly gone down. Its flowers are of a dazzling whiteness, and close with a sort of APP. REV. VOL. C.

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