secretions, probably by exciting a great and rather dangerous agitation in the viscera."

At page 620 it is stated that Tobacco is a powerful stimulant narcotic— we think it very doubtful if tobacco has the least stimulant virtue whatever, except where it is immediately and locally applied-on the contrary, we believe that it is one of the most direct sedatives known.

Cicuta virosa is described as producing effects similar to those of Hydrocyanic acid, and of which we have also great doubts. It is amusing likewise to find the numerous virtues and powers which have been ascribed to many members of the vegetable kingdom, some of which, from the accounts which have been given of them, might be thought to be powerful rivals to the famed Ginseng of the Chinese, the Panar quinquefolium of systematic writers, and upon which Pere Jartroux says, that the most celebrated physicians of China have written volumes, affirming it to be able to ward off or to remove fatigue, to invigorate the enfeebled frame, to restore the exhausted animal powers, to make old people young, and, in a word, to render man immortal (this saving clause being however added)," if any thing on earth can do so." This wonder of the world, this dose for immortality, has been known to cost its weight in gold. For the "alexipharmic," "cephalic," "corroborative," and "aphrodisiac," &c. virtues of these vegetable miracles, our profession, however, and not Dr. Lindley, are bound to produce proof. Connected with the properties of plants, we are tempted to give the following extract from our author, to shew the fund of information which is to be obtained from his work, and to correct what we believe to be a very general error of opinion, that the natural family Fabacea or Leguminoseæ, only affords plants possessing little or no active or deleterious power when taken into the body.

"In a very large number of species narcotic properties have been recognized. The seeds of Lathyrus aphaca have been already mentioned. Those of Abrus precatorius, whose scarlet seeds with a black scar are commonly used as beads, Anagyris foetida and others, have a similar property. This is, however, positively denied in the case of Abrus, by Dr. Macfadgen (? Maclagen), who asserts them to be harmless, and merely indigestible. The leaves of Arthrolobium scorpioides are capable of being employed as vesicatories. The juice of Coronilla varia is poisonous. The roots of Phaseolus radiatus are narcotic, and so are those of P. multiflorus, the scarlet running kidney bean, which a year or two ago poisoned some children at Chelsea who had partaken of them. Both the Laburnums (Cytisus alpinus and Laburnum) have caused serious accidents to children who have swallowed their venomous seeds, and C. Weldeni is reported to poison the milk of the Dalmatian goats that browse upon its foliage. The dye called Indigo is a formidable vegetable poison. Schomburgh states that the violet blossoms of Sabinea florida are dangerous. The seeds of Ervum Ervilia, the Bitter Vetch, mixed with flour and made into bread, produce weakness of the extremities, and render horses almost paralytic. Andira inermis and retusa, and some Geoffroeas, especially G. vermifuga, and G. spinulosa, have an anthelmintic bark, with a disagreeable smell, and a sweet mucilaginous taste; the effects are drastic emetic, purgative and narcotic, poisonous in large doses, producing violent vomiting, with fever and delirium. A few years since, hundreds of sheep perished in the Swan River Colony, in consequence of their cropping the leaves of some wild plant there; according to an official report, it was a Burtonia that produced the mischief, but, according to Mr. James Drummond, the mischief was caused by a Gompholobium. Nothing, however, more

1847)

Properties of the Leguminosa, Porous Cells?

383

plainly indicates the venomous nature of Leguminous plants than their being used as fish poisons. The bark of the root of Pisidia Erythrina, a common Jamaica tree, is a very usual fish poison in Jamaica, and yields a most remarkably narcotic and diaphoretic tincture. Many Tephrosias are employed in the same way, especially T. toxicaria, the young branches of which, with the leaves pounded and sometimes mixed with quick-lime, are thrown into a pond of some mountain stream, and have an almost immediate effect. The fish are observed to become stupefied, and as it were intoxicated, and to rise to the surface, floating there with their belly upwards, so as to be readily taken by the hand. It has been remarked that the larger fish recover gradually from the effects of the poison, but that the younger fry perish. It has been suggested that, the action of the plant upon the human system would resemble that of Digitalis, and might prove, in a climate where that plant does not grow, a desirable substitute." P. 548.

Of Mr. Henfrey's work, we have as yet received but the first two parts-a third and concluding part having to follow. Unlike the work of Dr. Lindley, the great aim of which is to develop the characters and affinities of systematic groups of plants, this, of Mr. Henfrey, has for its endeavours an exposition of the general and special anatomy of vegetable bodies and the history of their functions. Much of the former of these subjects is of course found in the "Vegetable Kingdom," but, whilst there it is developed analytically, here it is exhibited synthetically.

The first part is occupied with a consideration of elementary structures; the second, with an exposition of the organs of vegetation, and certain of the functions of plants. The chief object of the author being "to give a concise view of the actual state of our knowledge at the present time, to the exclusion of all hypotheses hazarded without sufficient ground or negatived by experience, the various points are treated as they rise progressively in complexity; by this means the development and morphology of structures and organs will be more easily explained, and at the same time will conduce to the simplification of the subject, by leading to the recognition of an unity of plan throughout the vegetable kingdom."

We readily bestow upon the author the merit of having furnished the student with a work more in accordance with the advanced state of the science of vegetable anatomy and physiology, as it exists in France and Germany, than any which he before possessed; and if no great originality, either of text or of illustration, is to be met with in his book, yet in it will be found a simple analysis of the writings of Mohl, Schleiden, Meyen, and others. There is great amount of information compressed into a narrow compass along with ample illustrations, though the latter, in our opinion, greatly differ from each other in merit of execution.

We must object to what appears to us a frequently loose application of terms met with in Mr. Henfrey's work-why, for instance, are such things as porous cells spoken of when no such structures exist? It is true that MIRBEL, some years ago, spoke of cells, "the sides of which are riddled full of holes," but this has long been shown to be an error, and the true nature of such pitted tissue properly demonstrated. Even Mr. Henfrey is afterwards obliged to modify his statement, admitting that, in the normal condition of the tissue in question, there is no solution of continuity of the primary membrane forming the wall of the cell, and that, consequently, no hole or pore can exist.

"In old cells the primary membrane has become absorbed, and the space

D D *

between the rings, convolutions, or reticulations, are thus converted into holes. It is probable that this does not take place until after all deposition has ceased, and the cells in such case may be considered as dead." P. 25.

"In their original condition they are always closed by the primary membrane, and their contents are only in relation by endosmosis." P. 27.

It may be our own fault, but we must confess we do not understand the following definition of one kind of our author's porous cells.

"B. Cells with bordered pores, arising from the presence of a lenticular cavity between two adjacent pores." P. 25-26.

In our opinion, the distinction between certain forms of underground stems and roots is not made by any means sufficiently clear to the student. At page 65, the turnip is alluded to as a root, whereas, from the researches of Turpin, there is no room to doubt that the turnip, the radish, the cyclamen, and the elephant-foot, are all distentions of the stem, either of the first internodium, or of the inferior prolongation of the stem below the cotyledons, and above the true root.-Vide Lindley's Introduction to Botany. Again, a tuber and a tuberous root are essentially different in their nature, yet Mr. Henfrey speaks of them as one and the same thing.

"These enlargements are called tubers, and the roots are said to be tuberous." P. 65.

At page 93, however, it is remarked

"There is occasionally some difficulty in determining the point, as in such subterraneous branches as those which form the tubers of the potatoe. The expansion of this branch here closely resembles the expansion of the roots in the tubers of the dahlia, &c. The eyes, as they are called, are however true buds, which develop branches above ground, while the aerial buds may be made to form tubers by burying them in the ground."

Now, we affirm there is not the least difficulty in determining whether the tuber of the potatoe be a root or a spheroidally developed subterranean stem, and the only analogy is in form between the potatoe and the dahlia. The development of buds by the tuber of the potatoe is at once decisive of its true nature. Mr. Henfrey applies both the terms nerves and veins to the reticulations of the fibro-vascular system of the leaf.

"The palmate nervation occurs sometimes as in adiantum, but the pinnate is the more common The terminal divisions of the veins, however, in either case, are bifurcations." P. 79.

At page 73 we meet with the term median nerve. This, to the student of medicine, is utterly destructive of the help otherwise derivable from bestowing the same name only on an organ or structure in one kingdom of nature which is like to, or performs the same offices as the organ bearing the like name does in another. There is nothing worse than this delusive application of terms, unless it be "the reprehensible practice of giving two names conveying different ideas to the same organ in the same kingdom of nature." The language of Linnæus cannot be always that of the present day, and we advise Mr. Henfrey to follow the terms and their application made use of by Dr. Lindley.

Our author speaks of solid bulbs. Dr. Lindley (Introduction), and we agree with him, says-a solid bulb has no existence. It is a contradiction

18471

Mayo's Clinical Facts and Reflections.

385

in terms, unless the so-called solid bulb-the cormus of modern writersbe a bud, the scales of which have become consolidated. But, as this hypothesis leads to the very inadmissible conclusion that, as the cormus of a crocus is essentially the same, except in size and situation, as the stem of a palm, the stem of a palm must be a solid bulb also, which is absurd."

Mr. Henfrey defines the bulb to be a form of stem. The bulb is not a stem at all—it is an appendage of a stem, or a subterranean bud, destitute of the latter.

We had noted some other passages for comment, but enough has been remarked upon to prove to Mr. Henfrey that he may yet add to the value which his little book undoubtedly possesses.

CLINICAL FACTS AND REFLECTIONS; ALSO, REMARKS ON THE IMPUNITY OF MURDER IN SOME CASES OF PRESUMED INSANITY. By Thomas Mayo, M.D., F.R.S., Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, late Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford; and Physician to the Infirmary of St. Marylebone. Octavo, pp. 217. London, Longman & Co., 1847.

DR. MAYO has surely not the gift of lucid expression, if the reader may judge from the introductory remarks of his volume.

"The march of science in medical philosophy must follow the laws of the inductive process, and ascend from individual instances to general propositions. In the application of the proposition to general practice, the direction of thought is reversed. But we should err if we limited the science of medicine by this description of it: for pari passu with the proceeding there noticed, and subsidiary to the application of the principles so acquired, another highly scientific operation is required. Indeed, the march of science towards the formation and application of general principles will be practically fruitless, if the above-mentioned procedure be deemed all-sufficient; if an inquiry be not at the same time vigorously conducted as to the shades of difference which separate from each other cases of the same kind. In the first point of view in which I have placed this subject, we deal with facts in relation to their common points; but in this second point of view we have to deal with them in relation to their discrepancies. The first operation is statistical in its nature, and would lead to an undiscriminating practice. The latter operation unties the facts thus accumulated, and subjects them to an ordeal which is requisite to their exact use.

"I make the above remarks, in order to obtain its just place and importance for an enumeration of cases, either single or in groups. Thus individualised, they possess perhaps a less philosophical air than in their cumulative state. But their utility is obvious. Indeed, the practical character of the English mind has largely enriched our medical literature with cases contemplated in this point of view. We abound in valuable monographs. I am desirous of adding to their quantity, whatever may be the quality of my contributions." P. 2.

Such is the motive of our author's present appearance before the public. The bulk of his work is taken up with detached, and sometimes fragmentary, reports of cases, deemed to be illustrative of various forms of disease.

We shall briefly notice most of the chapters in succession. occupied with the history of three cases of Peritonitis.

Chapter I. is

In the two first, which occurred in children 8 and 11 years of age, purulent effusion was found to have taken place into the abdomen, without, as it would seem, any well-marked symptoms of abdominal suffering having been manifested during life. There is a morbid appearance, related in the account of the dissection of one of these cases, that is surely very uncom"The external coat of the peritoneum," it is stated, the muscles being dissected from it, was red and covered with apparent granulations secreting pus." Are we to understand from this that the external surface of the abdominal peritoneum had been secreting a quantity of pus?

mon.

The third case calls for notice only in consequence of the very slovenly and inaccurate manner in which the report has been drawn up. What, pray, is the meaning of the following prescription?

Sumat. pil. Hyd. Chlorid. gr. iv.; Morph. Mur. gr. ; bis quotidie Olei Ricini, 3ss. statim. Perstet.

The second Chapter is headed "Enteritic and Gastric Affections with Petechia-Petechial Fever." These affections are afterwards called by our author "Petechial Phlegmasia." Three examples are related. The second one stands nearly thus. A middle-aged man, subject to dyspepsia, was suddenly seized with pain at the stomach; and shortly afterwards with vomiting. The pulse became weak and faltering; and, within threequarters of an hour from the first moment of the attack, life was gone. What were the morbid appearances found on dissection?

"Petechia extensively spread between the coats of the stomach, the mucous membrane being perfectly healthy, and there being no appearance of inflammation in the spaces between these petechiæ.

"An ulcer in the posterior part of the aorta, without any aneurismal sac or dilatation, and which had not penetrated the coats of the artery.

"A relaxed and flabby heart, the walls of which tore easily." P. 14.

Now here was a case of serious Organic Disease of the Heart proving rapidly, as it often does, fatal, and in which traces of congestion were found on the coats of the stomach. It must surely require a rare tact for detecting resemblances to find out wherein such a case as the preceding can, in any way, be considered as having aught to do with a "petechial phlegmasia."

In the third case, the symptoms were these. A young athletic man was seized first with vomiting, and then with intense pain at the epigastric and umbilical region, increasing upon pressure. The tongue was clean, and the pulse quiet. Several large petechiae were to be seen on the arms, and his legs and thighs were covered with them. A blister was applied on the epigastrium, and three grains of calomel were given every six hours, with a saline draught in the intervals. Next day, after the bowels had acted freely, the petechia began to fade, and the patient was much better. On the following day, some blood was observed in the stools, and, after a turpentine enema, a very large quantity of blood came away. He rapidly recovered.

Such a case as this is by no means unfrequent. It is well known that