Combes) there are very few men who apply themselves with diligence to the patient investigation of details upon any par ticular subject of inquiry. Most of the physicians have adop ted certain general principles of medical doctrine, and on these they base their practice. Hence it is that almost all their treatises assume the synthetic form, and that, even in their works of elementary instruction, the exposition and description of details are too often sacrificed to the abstract generalities of an ingenious dogmatism.

But let it not be forgotten that we are talking of a country which has produced a Spallanzani, a Morgagni, a Scarpa, &c., and can still boast of Bellingeri, not to mention other distingnished names of medical literature. Yet, in spite of these eminent exceptions, it cannot be denied that many of the branches ef professional knowledge have made but little progress, for very many years, on the other side of the Alps.

Physiology has retained pretty generally a purely dynamic character; the classical work of Medici does not even mention a vast number of well established facts, and the same remark holds true of Professor Martini at Turin. If such be the state of physiology, or that branch of medical science that treats of the functions of the body in a state of health, we cannot be surprised that those of pathology and of clinical medicine are very faulty and defective in many respects.

"In some districts of Italy, and especially at Naples and Modena, Hippocratism is altogether prevalent. In the latter city, indeed, the Faculty of Medicine may be considered as an association less for instruction in modern medicine than for the perpetuating the doctrines of the Coan sage. The or thodoxy of the school is based upon them; everything is redolent of antiquity; the students are taught to regard the Aphorisms as the oracles of medical truth; and when they aspire to the doctorate, they are called upon to expound and illustrate one or more of these pithy sayings; and it is with their hands laid upon the works of the old Greek that they take the oath upon the day of their inauguration.

"While the doctrines of the Hippocratic medicine, more or less liberally interpreted, are almost universally received through the whole of the south of Italy, the northern half of the Peninsula has been long agitated by the disputed tenets of Contra-stimulism. Turin, Pavia, and especially Milan, are at the head-quarters of this school. Rasori, its founder, started, it is well known, as a disciple of the Brunonian doctrines, and was the translator of the Scotch physician's work. All the phenomena of disease he strove to reduce to one.

simple morbid action, viz: excessive or deficient stimulation; and like every other advocate of an exclusive system of pathology, he fell into the most egregious blunders, which proved to be injurious alike to sound theory and to safe practice. All diseases he considered to be systematic or general; and local inflammations therefore he looked upon as mere complications or accidental phenomena-the very reverse of the Broussaian creed. Professor Tommasini, of Parma, adopted a sort of intermediate doctrine between these conflicting systems. Assenting to the general principle of his fel low-countryman Rasori, he was too sagacious not to observe that local irritation, when extensive or long continued, is apt to give rise to constitutional diseases. Let us not deprive this distinguished physician of his due; it is right to acknowledge that he clearly enunciated the importance of local affections, as the cause of many diseases, before Broussais had published a line upon the subject.

Italy

medical

stry. T medicin

or no p

writings

What w

thing, i

eral wa

"Ita

than F

annou

separa eral u

"One of the most eminent physicians of Italy in the present day is M. Buffalini of Florence. His clinical lectures draw a large concourse of students, and his fame nearly equals that of his distinguished rival of Parma, Tommasini. He is generally regarded as 'un medicin organicien;' and yet his lec tures and practice savour strongly of the Essentialist school, In commenting upon any case of fever, he pays minute atten tion to every appreciable alteration alike of the fluids and of the solids, and he does not hesitate to acknowledge openly that the changes observable, either in one or in the other, are by no means uniformly in accordance with the severity of the constitutional affection, or can be considered as the proper causes of it. In many respects he is a decided Humoralist; but while leaning strongly to the opinion that most fevers are attributable to certain changes in the circulating fluid, he on the whole does not trouble himself much with prying into the nature of morbid individualities, but contents himself with scrutinizing their exciting causes, the various symptoms which they exhibit, and with devising the means best fitted for their relief. Every one, who has had an opportunity of witnessing his practice, speaks in high terms of it: avoiding the pernicious errors of Contra-stimulism, (which he has contributed in no small degree to throw into discredit,) he shows great discretion and tact in the use of his remedies. He has published an able work entitled 'Des fondemens de la Pathologie Analytique.' *

*

*

*

*

*

Conse

try; i

dang

Arst

the

coul

dona

Cran

is th

gina

me

G

"Italy is far behind France in many of the departments of medical science, and certainly in none more so than in chemistry. There are no good laboratories for the preparation of medicines, in almost any part of the country; and hence little or no progress has been made in toxicology, although the writings of M. Orfila have been long highly appreciated. What will probably surprise most travellers, as much as anything, is to find that no correct analysis of the numerous mineral waters of Italy has been made by any native physician. "Italy possesses more journals of medicine and pharmacy than France does; (we certainly were not prepared for this announcement); but the division of the country into so many separate states places a great bar to their diffusion and general usefulness. The medical press suffers much from the consequences of the general political organism of the country; it has not a few obstacles to overcome, and a good many dangers to avoid. Thus, for example, when Homœopathy first made its appearance at Milan, under the patronage of the Austrian Government, the subject, it was soon found, could not be discussed in all its bearings with perfect freedom. The whole business of journalism is fettered and cramped by restrictions and vexatious annoyances. Hence it is that scarcely any of the periodicals bear that stamp of originality and freedom of opinion, which constitute the main utility of such publications; and that their chief contents are mere compilations from the French, English, and German journals. As long as such a state of things lasts, we cannot look for that energy and devotedness in the cause of professional advancement which we find in the writers of France, Germany, and Great Britain. Surely medical science may fairly be regarded as a free and open field for unlimited boldness of speech and inquiry; but alas! it has always been found that tyranny is never satisfied until it has brought everything under its iron yoke."-Bulletin of Medcal ScienceGazette Medicale.

We think it highly probable, that a few of our readers may feel disposed to quarrel with us for bestowing so much time, and so many pages of our Journal on mesmerism, which, by many, we know, is esteemed an exploded humbug, unworthy of any further investigation. In justification of our course, we must be permitted to say, that to many of the first minds of the age mesmerism does not so appear that it has found warm advocates among the most intelligent men of every community where experiments have been made in it—that it has been thought worthy of investigation by many learned bodies in our own times, and was examined by a commit. tee of the French Academy, in the last century, at the head of which was Franklin. A subject, said to present so many strange and wonderful phenomena, is assuredly entitled to the consideration of the philosopher. And as a physiological subject it has peculiar claims to the attention of medical men. If not examined by them, who will investigate it carefully, so as to separate all that is false in

the

P

the h

nome

whic tion.

verv

miss

an

it from what may be true? The report contained in our last number will appear tedious to most readers; but it presents a mass of testimony which was collected with great care, and which in the minds of the unprejudiced must go a good way towards settling one of the disputed points in mesmerism.

The article in the present number, by Professor Drake, is a commentary upon the facts set forth in the report. We need not bespeak for it the attentive perusal of our readers. No one will fail to read that, and we venture to say that no one will rise from the perusal of it without a strong conviction of the plausibility of the hypothesis advanced. If Dr. Drake has not explained the phenomena attending mesmeric somniloquism, he has offered a theory which strikes us as coming wonderfully near to a satisfactory solution. At all events, it will not be denied that he has produced a very able and interesting paper on the subject, and with it we dismiss mesmerism for the present.

Y.

LUNATIC HOSPITALS,

We take a deep interest in the reports of these benevolent insti tutions. Their statistics are consolatory to suffering humanity— among the proudest trophies of the healing art. We have before us, at this time, three annual reports from lunatic asylums, of which we shall give a short account. The first we shall notice is

The Fifth Annual Report of the Ohio Lunatic Asylum, at Columbus. Extensive additions have been made to the buildings of this asylum, by which it will be capable of accommodating, when all are completed, about three hundred and forty-five patients, which, it is supposed, will be equal to the wants of the insane population of that state. "The number of patients," says the report, "who have been inmates of the institution since the 15th of November, 1842, is 207-males 105, females 102, all citizens of the State of Ohio. The number of patients remaining in the asylum at the close of last year was 142-75 males and 67 females. During the past year 65 patients have been admitted, viz: 32 males and 33 females. The number discharged in the past year was 59, viz: 30 males and 29 females. Of these 38 were discharged recovered, 7 improved, 10 stationary, and 4 by death. Two others are

con