ΤΟ With respect to the composition of the present favourite gout medicine, conjectures only are offered. It seems to contain, in a vinous solution, a purgative ingredient in a very small quantity of matter a [slightly bitter ingredient; and perhaps a narcotic or sedative one, The foxglove was early suspected as one of the articles, and although many trials seem to have disproved its existence in this preparation, some persons still are of opinion that it is one of the ingredients. Tobacco has been proposed, but on no just gronnd whatever. Toadstool has been named, on account of some similarity of colour and smell, and exhilarating effects. The purgative ingredient has been suspected by some to be scammony, by others to be elaterium. I have just had a bottle of the Eau Medicinale shewn to me which has been twenty-five years in London; it was administered at that time but gained no credit. It is not intended by these observations to discourage prudent trials of the medicine in question, for certainly the evidence in its favour is quite enough to justify them; but, as it is of importance that the truth be determined as soon as possible, medical practitioners may probably be assisted by the above observations. Case of Rupture of the Gall-Bladder. An athletic man, about forty years of age, after violent and protracted sufferings from a remittent fever, was for many weeks afflicted with symptoms of derangement of the stomach and chylopoietic viscera. He had a fixed pain at the pit of the stomach, constant nausea, and a short time after eating, the food was generally rejected in the form of chyme. The bowels were very torpid, and his stools untinged with bile at length he became jaundiced, and for many weeks suffered all the aggravated symptoms of that disease in a violent degree. One morning, whilst raising himself in bed, he was suddenly seized with a most violent pain in the right hypochondrium, which in a very few minutes extended throughout the whole abdomen. The pain rapidly increased ; the belly almost immediately became tense and much swollen; the pulse was quick, contracted, and intermittent; his respiration was difficult; his extremities cold; his countenance ghastly, and he had constant vomiting. These symptoms increased for forty-eight hours, when the abdomen was as much swoln as in an advanced state of ascites. The pain and tension were excessive: he became delirious and died.` During this time fomentations were applied to the abdomen; he was repeatedly bled, and anodyne glysters were injected, with very little and but temporary relief. Upon dissection, upwards of three gallons of yellow serum mixed with flakes of lymph were first drawn off. The peritoneum lining the muscles and covering the anterior surface of the intestines was universally inflamed, and of as deep a scarlet colour as the conjunctiva in the most acute stage of opthalmia. The bowels were collected in the posterior part of the cavity, and glued together by a layer of coagulated lymph, which adhesion bounded the inflammation, for it did not in the least degree extend between their convolutions, although extreme on their anterior surface. They were much distended with air, and the pelvis was filled with maases of lymph. The edge (No. 144.) 2 B of of the right lobe of the liver adhered firmly to the beginning of the arch of the colon; and between the concave surface of the liver and the arch of the colon a large cyst was formed, which had burst by an ulcerated aperture, about as large as a sixpence, into the cavity of the abdomen. When pressed externally, a quantity of thick bile issued from this aperture: when cut into, it was found to be of sufficient size to hold a quart of fluid, and contained the gall bladder, which communicated with the cyst by an apparently ulcerated opening of considerable size, a little above its fundus. Thus the gall bladder had first given way, and the issued bile had caused this èpanchemen between the liver and colon, which had ulcerated from distention, and the effusion of its contents into the cavity of the abdomen had produced this fatal inflammation. The pancreas formed a tumor as large as an orange, a section of which exhibited the membranous bands peculiar to the schirrous struc ture: the pressure had obliterated the ductus communis choledicus, and communicated by a ragged ulcerated surface with the cavity of the duodenum. The liver and other viscera were natural.-Lond. Med. Rev. The Spring Courses of Lectures at St. Thomas's and Guy's Hospitals, will commence the 1st of February, viz. at St. Thomas's, Anatomy, and the Operations of Surgery, by MR. CLINE, and MR, ASTLEY COOPER. Principles and Practice of Surgery by MR. ASTLEY COOPER. At Guy's, Practice of Medicine, by Dr. BA. BINGTON, and Dr. CURRY.-Chemistry, by Dr. BABINGTON, Dr. MARCET, and Mr. ALLEN. Experimental Philosophy, by Mr. ALLEN. Theory of Medicine, and Materia Medica, by Dr. CurRY, and Dr. CHOLMELEY.-Midwifery, and Diseases of Women and Children, by Dr. HAIGHTON.--Physiology, or Laws of the Animal Economy, by Dr. HAIGHTON. Structure and Diseases of the Teeth, by Mr. Fox. DR. WATT, of Glasgow, will begin his summer course of Lectures on the Theory and Practice of Medicine, on Monday the 6th of May. Dr. HOOPER, and Dr. AGER, will re-commence their Lectures on the Theory and Practice of Physic, Chemisty, and the Materia Medica, at the Theatre in Cork-street, Burlington Gardens, on Monday, February 4, 1811, at Eight o'clock in the Morning. Dr. MILLAR, of the University of Glasgow, has in the press, Disquisitions on the History of Medicine, exhibiting a view of Physic, as observed to exist during remote periods, and among nations not far advanced in refinement. Mr. WHITE has nearly ready for the press, the Flora of the counties of Northumberland and Durham, of which the Botanist's Guide through those counties may be considered as the Prodromus. It will comprize about two thousand indigenous plants, and be illns trated trated by some coloured engravings, from drawings made by ! Sowerby. Sir George Alley, M. D. of Fermoy, Ireland, is engaged in arJanging for the press, a work to be entitled "Reports of the Utility and Employment of Mercury, in the Treatment of Inflammatory, and other diseases, in which the exhibition of that remedy has been neglected, or considered as inadmissible." As this publication will necessarily embrace many important medical subjcts, the author earnestly solicits the assistance of the respectable practitioners, civil and military, of Great Britain and Ireland, and will be happy to acknowledge any communications with which he may be fa voured. MONTHLY CATALOGUE OF NEW MEDICAL PUB LICATIONS. Osteologia, or an Anatomical Description of the Human Bones: illustrated by fourteen accurate engravings, designed for the use of students. 12mo. Cox. Anatomical Plates of the arteries of the Human Body, accurately coloured, and reduced from the Icones of Haller; with concise Explanations. Second Edition. 8vo. Cox. Observations on the Act for Regulating Mad-Houses, and a correction of the statements of the case of Beniamin Elliott convicted of illegally confining Mary Daintree; with remarks addressed to the friends of Insane Persons. By James Parkinson. 8vo. Sherwood and Co. Additional Cases with further directions to the Faculty, relating to the use of the Humulus Lupulus, or Hop, in Gout and Rheumatic Af fections. By A. Freake. 8vo. Highley. MONTHLY BOTANICAL REPORT. The BOTANICAL MAGAZINE for last month contains, Aloe radula of Jacquin, the attenuata of Haworth. Of the smaller alöes, which are better suited to the size of the work, Mr. Edwards has given some excellent specimens of his superior skill as an artist. Indeed we have seldom witnessed any thing superior, even in the splendid botanical productions of the Paris Press. Alöe saponaria (B.latifolia ;) one of the old varieties of perfoliata; a very large species, but of which a good idea is given by the insertion of a diminished outline, representing the habit of the whole plant. Mr. Ker has in this, as in all the tribe, taken great pains to elucidate the confused synonimy. He informs us that the smaller variety of this (minor) is the umbellata of Decandolle, excluding all his synonyms, which belong to A. picta; and is also the picta (minor) of the new edition of the Hortus Kewensis, as far as regards the synonym of the late edition, but that those quoted from Lin nxus næus and Dillenius belong to A. picta. Although this species has been called American alöe, and Carolina alöe, it is not a native of America, but of the Cape. Tamus eliphantipes. A female plant of the Cape Bryony, from Mr. Knight's collection, in the King's-road, Chelsea. A male plant flowered in 1783 in the Kew garden, from which M. L'Heritier had a drawing taken for his sertum anglicum; the engraving, how ever, though quoted in books, was never published; nor is there any figure of it, that we know of, extant. To those who have never seen this very singular plant, Mr. Edwards's outline sketch behind the flowering stem, will not be easily understood. It represents the curious root stock, which rises above the surface of the ground, and somewhat resembles a hemispherical section of the trunk, or rather of a warty excrescence of some old tree. In this apparently lifeless state it sometimes remains many months, now and then putting forth climbing stems, bearing alternate cordate leaves, with here and there bunches of flowers in the axils of their footstalks, much in the same manner as the common black bryony. It is this shapeless, massive rootstalk that has occasioned its being called, by the inhabitants of the Cape, the Elephants-foot. Hermannia tenuifolia; a new species, which is probably lost to our gardens, as the drawing was taken in Mr. Curtis's time, and except an imperfect specimen in the Banksian herbarium, Dr. Sims has not been able to find any thing respecting its existence. Hermannia flammea; a beautiful little shrub from Mr. Knight's collection. Although we are presented with a good drawing of this plant, with flowers fully expanded, yet it is. rarely seen in this state, we could have wished that some of the flowers at least had been represented in their very remarkably light-twisted state, in which they look almost as if the tips had been rounded off with a pair of scissars. Mr. Andrews, in the Botanist's Repository, though his figure is otherwise very indifferent, has seized this peculiarity. The nocturnal fragrance of the flowers adds to the value of this plant. J Astragalus sinicus. It seems remarkable that this pretty little annual should never have been before figured, though it has been at times in our gardens for forty years past. Tropaeolum peregrinum. This is at present a scarce and consi dered as a tender plant, but being a native of the same country as the common Tropæolum majus, there seems no reason why it should not become as hardy as that, which is now almost naturalized to our clime; for Miller says, that this last will sow itself and come up spontaneously the following summer, in favourable situations. There are several species of this singular genus recorded in the Fiora Peruviana, and it is not improbable that distinct plants. have been confounded under the name of T. peregrinum; Dr. Sims doubts, if Feuilleés plant, cited as a synonym of this by all preceding writers, be the same. However this may be, there is no doubt respecting Jacquin's plant, well figured in his Hortus Schoenbrunensis. The The ENGLISH FLORA for last month offers to our notice: Rubus saxatilis, as a native of high mountains in the northern part of the island. The specimen from which the drawing was taken, was gathered by Mr. Borret, at Roslin, famous for its an tique chapel, and delicious strawberries. Brassica campestris. Dr. Smith remarks, that great uncertainty has existed among British authors, even from the time of Ray, res pecting this plant. Hudson's campestris is a mere yellow va iety of orientalis. Ae. cording to Mr. Edw. Forster, this is the common Wild Navew, growing abundantly by the sides of rivers, marsh ditehes, &c. and that the B. Napus of English Flora, is the rape or cole-seed, so commonly cultivated. Hieracium prenantboides. Brought from Scotland many years ago, by Mr. Dixon, and has been ever since in Mr. E. Forster's garden, from whence this drawing was made. Dr. Smith observes, that in the Flora Britannica he had confounded this plant with denticulatum. There continues to be great difficulty in settling the species of this genus. Dr. Smith believes, from the dried spe cimens he has received from Mr. G. Don, that the Scottish species are not yet all determined, but that the greatest attention to living plants can alone enable him to reduce them to order. When that is accomplished, he possesses ample materials for settling their synonyms Carex Micheliana, introduced into Dr. Smith's Flora Britannica, he is now convinced is only a variety of recurva, as which he first received it from Dr. Beattie of Aberdeen. The name of Micheliana being therefore superfluous, as Dr. Smith himself allows, ought not surely to have been suffered to stand as the title of this mere variety of recurva. NATURALIST'S MONTHLY REPORT. DECEMBER. Dead Winter Month. -Now joyless rains obscure Drive through the mingling skies with vapour foul; DURING nearly the whole of the present month the weather has been as variable as I almost ever recollect it. On the first and second the wind was Northerly, accompanied with sharp frost. From the 3d to the 6th it was westerly; North West from the 7th to the 9th; SouthWest on the 10th; North North East on the 11th; Westerly from the 12th to the 15th; North on the 16th and 17th; South West and North West on the 18th; Easterly on the 19th; South West and West |