1847]

Lee on Mineral Waters, &c.

557

came; but even when a spring appears to the practitioner to be more particularly indicated, it would be unreasonable to expect that its administration is always to be attended with benefit, as various circumstances, such as the idiosyncracy of the patient, the state of the disease, error on the part of the practitioner in the recommendation and management of the course, or on the part of the patient as regards mode of living, &c., may occur to prevent a beneficial action." P. 63.

Dr. Lee gives a general view of the different diseased conditions of the economy which these various waters and baths are usually employed for the correction of; and to which we can refer practitioners who are about to send patients abroad for much useful information, especially as the author's practical acquaintance with the true characters of the various climates, enables him to add much incidental information upon that head. The diseases of the economy specified as those in which an intelligent recourse to mineral waters may prove useful are1. Various chronic disordered states of the Digestive Organs, (the repleted condition of the abdominal venous system being, according to the German pathologists, a chief cause of many of the chronic diseases for which mineral waters prove the best remedies). 2. Gout and Rheumatism. 3. The Waters of Vichy in Calculous Disorders. 4. Scrofula. 5. Pulmonary Disease. 6. Chlorosis. 7. Various disordered states of the Nervous System. 8. Chronic Cutaneous Diseases. 9. Chronic Discharges, as Leucorrhoea, when not dependent on organic mischief. For these various conditions the different waters are pointed out with much discrimination.

Mr. Lee speaks of the utility of artificial mineral waters more favourably than many do, which is gratifying from so competent an observer, as these are so accessible at Brighton, within the compass of even a Cockney-trip. Their great expense, however, quite precludes their employment as baths, while in many affections the bathing is a far more essential means of cure than the mere ingurgitation of the water.

"When drinking is the more essential part of the treatment, artificial waters have, in some respects, the advantage over natural ones, such as being available during the greater part of the year, instead of their employment being restricted to a few months in the summer, as is the case at the various baths: they may also in some cases be used as a preparatory measure, or subsequent to the use of the natural springs. Several of the most powerful waters being collected together in one establishment, if one which appeared to be indicated did not suit, recourse might be had to another; at all events the disappointment would not be so great as where a person had been induced to make a journey of several hundred miles to a spring, and found it unsuited to his case; a circumstance of not unfrequent occurrence, and often depending upon the adoption of the advice of those who are but little acquainted with the properties and effects of the different springs, or who are prejudiced in favour of particular ones; though it must be admitted that patients occasionally suffer disappointment from the difficulty which even experienced practitioners have in forming an opinion, in obscure chronic cases, as the means most likely to be of service; from the intractableness or incurability of the complaints; from the idiosyncrasy of individuals, &c., in consequence of which the effects of a mineral spring cannot always be estimated before trial has been made; as is likewise seen to be the case with many remedies in the ordinary practice of medicine, when medicines apparently indicated disagree, or do not produce the effects anticipated." P. 121.

Mr. Lee completes the volume by stitching into it a re-print of his little brochure upon the Cold Water Cure. He is no enthusiastic admirer of its virtues, but freely admits the errors and mischief which have resulted from its so general adoption in Germany. With ourselves it is evidently on the wane. What is to be the next fashionable medical delusion?

NEW SERIES, NO. X.—v.

P P

ON THE CORRELATION OF PHYSICAL FORCES. By W. R. Grove, Esq. M.A., F.R.S., Barrister at Law. 8vo. pp. 50. Highley, 1846.

THE present Essay is the substance of a course of Lectures delivered by Mr. Grove at the London Institution, and most properly published at the request of the Proprietors. We believe we are correct in saying that the views herein unfolded have met with the acceptation of some of the leading observers in physical and natural science; and to our own minds the reasoning of the author carries conviction.

After adverting to the impossibility of our correctly applying the term cause otherwise than in a mere secondary sense, as indicating antecedent forces, it being predicable of no physical agency that it is abstractedly the cause of another, the author thus states the object he has in view :

"The position which I seek to establish in this Essay is, that the various imponderable agencies, or the affections of matter which constitute the main objects of experimental physics, viz., Heat, Light, Electricity, Magnetism, Chemical Affinity, and Motion are all Correlative, or have a reciprocal dependence. That neither, taken abstractedly, can be said to be the essential or proximate cause of the others, but that either may, as a force, produce or be convertible into the other; thus heat may mediately or immediately produce electricity, electricity may produce heat; and so of the rest.

"The term Force, although used in very different senses by different authors, in its limited sense may be defined as that which produces or resists Motion. Although strongly inclined to believe that the five other affections of matter, which I have above named, are, and will ultimately be resolved into, modes of motion, it would be going too far, at present, to assume their identity with it; I therefore use the term Force, in reference to them, as meaning that active principle inseparable from matter, which induces its various changes."

66

In pursuance of this idea, the author enters into a detailed demonstration, which the facts already acquired by science enable him to do, that each of these affections or properties of matter is convertible into the five others. Thus, in respect to Motion, bodies impinging on each other, according as they may be homogeneous or heterogeneous, elicit heat or electricity. Heat and Electricity so produced will produce magnetism. Light, again, may be produced directly during friction, or mediately by means of electricity. Chemical affinity too, will result from electricity, which has initiated in motion. Lastly, motion may again be reproduced by the forces which have emanated from motion: thus, the divergence of the electrometer, the revolution of the electrical wheel, the deflection of the magnetic needle, are palpable movements reproduced by the intermediate modes of force, which have themselves been originated in motion." So, too, if Heat, Light, Electricity, Magnetism, or Chemical Affinity, be taken as the starting point, the whole series may be induced. We regret that our limits prevent our following this demonstration in detail, as it is well deserving of our doing, especially as there is incidentally introduced some important speculations upon the non-existence of latent heat. We, however, cordially recommend the work to the notice of our readers as the ablest attempt of our time to simplify our views of physical science; and content ourselves with quoting a few of the concluding observations.

"The sense I have attached to the word correlation, in treating of physical phenomena, will, I think, be evident, from the previous parts of this essay, to be that of a reciprocal production or convertibility; in other words, that any force capable of producing or being convertible into another may, in its turn, be produced by it,-nay, more, can be itself resisted by the force it produces, in proportion to the energy of such production, as action is ever accompanied and re

1847]

Prichard on the Physical History of Mankind.

559

sisted by reaction; thus, the action of an electro-magnetic machine is reacted upon by the magneto-electricity developed by its action.

"The evolution of one force or mode of force into another, has induced many to regard all the different natural agencies as reducible to unity, and as resulting from one force which is the efficient cause of all the others: thus, one party writes to prove that electricity is the cause of every change in matter; another that chemical action is the cause of everything; another that heat is the universal If, as I have submitted to you, the true expression of the cause, and so on. fact is, that each mode of force is capable of producing the other, then any view which regards either of them as abstractedly the efficient cause of all the rest is erroneous; the view has, I believe, arisen from a confusion between the abstract or generalised meaning of the term cause, and its concrete or special sense,—the word itself being indiscriminately used in both these senses.

"Another confusion of terms has arisen, and has, indeed, much embarrassed me in enunciating the propositions sought to be proved in these pages, on account of the imperfection of scientific language; an imperfection in great measure unavoidable, it is true, but not the less embarrassing.

66

Thus, the words light, heat, electricity, and magnetism, are constantly used in two senses, viz., that of the force producing, or the subjective idea of force or power, and of the effect produced, or the objective phenomenon. The word motion, indeed, is only applied to the effect, and not to the force,-and chemical affinity is generally applied to the force, and not to the effect; but the other four terms are applied indiscriminately to both, for want of a distinct terminology."

By James Vol. V. 8vo. pp. 570.

RESEARCHES INTO THE PHYSICAL HISTORY OF MANKIND.
Cowle Prichard, M.D., FR.S., M.R.I.A.
Sherwood, 1847.

THIS Volume, containing the Ethnography of the various people of the innume-
rable islands of the great Southern Ocean (the Oceanic Nations) and of the
American Continent, completes the magnificent work which has been so many
years in progress. From the very nature of the materiel this portion of the
work is less interesting than some of its predecessors; but it is worked out with
the same keenness of perception and indefatigable research, bestowed by the
author upon them. Having completed his great undertaking, of which our
In the
country and profession may well feel proud, Dr. Prichard very modestly, and
in our opinion far too briefly, reviews the ground he has passed over.
first volume he had, from a consideration of the anatomical, physiological, and
psychological characteristics of the various races of mankind, announced his
conviction that their diversities did not amount to specific differences, but only
to mere varieties of one species. The histories of the various races of men in-
habiting our globe successively undertaken in these volumes, have furnished a
mass of facts corroborative of the analogy deducible from the contemplation of
the habitudes of the other portions of animated nature, and converting it into a
positive demonstration. At least this is our conviction, and we believe that of
most persons who have taken interest in the question since Dr. Prichard com-
menced its investigation.

ON THE MECHANISM OF RESPIRATION. By Francis Sibson, Esq. (From the Philosophical Transactions, Part 4, 1846.) 4to. pp. 40. Plates. THIS is an elaborate Essay from the pen of an able observer, of whose former labours in the same field we have had much pleasure of speaking favourably on another occasion. Mr. Sibson's object is to distribute the respiratory muscles in a somewhat different order, as regards their inspiratory and expiratory action, to that now adopted. To this end he has minutely examined the anatomy in a great variety of animals, as reptiles, birds, mammals (some, we regret to say, by means of vivisection), and by a comparison of these with that of man, offers a new explanation of the mechanism. We regret that, with our limited space, and deprived of the aid of Mr. Sibson's beautiful engravings and ingenious diagrams, we despair setting his conclusions fairly before our readers, and must be content to refer those who feel interested in the subject to the work itself, easily accessible as it is, in forming a portion of the Philosophical Transactions.

THE LONDON AND PROVINCIAL MEDICAL DIRECTORY, 1847. pp. 600. Churchill.

THIS, now conjoined work, promises to be of great utility to the profession. The proprietors, we believe, spared neither pains or expense to acquire accurate information, and, as far as the metropolis is concerned, the Directory may be regarded as nearly perfect. If it is, however, to be made an annual paying publication the price must be reduced, which may be easily accomplished by leaving out the immense proportion of matter utterly irrelevant to the true purposes of a directory, and by employing abbreviations, which now seem studiously avoided. In this way a half-crown annual might be easily constructed, which would be purchased, not by a few hundreds, but by many thousands. But for this, the platitudes of the anonymous arbiter elegantium concerning medical etiquette, the ridiculous self-chronicling of works, papers, or other forgotten literary claims to notice, and in fact all extraneous matter whatever, save that which as advertisements pays for its place, must be swept away; and a simple announcement of name, address, and qualification alone retained.

At the end of the work an analysis of its contents, giving something like a synoptical view of the existing classification of the profession might be given. Upon a small scale we have attempted this as regards the metropolis portion of the Directory; and find it furnishes the following numbers: Consulting Physicians 301, of whom 30 practise as Physician-Accoucheurs: Physicians holding legitimate degrees, but yet engaging in general practice also, 133: Consulting Surgeons, including the leading dentists, 176: Practitioners only holding the College of Surgeons' Diploma, 468: Practitioners only holding the Apothecaries' License, 275: Practitioners holding both license and diploma, 990. Besides these, 70 practitioners have returned their names as practising before 1815. We have not counted the Erlangen, Giessen, &c. degrees, but referred their holders to their English qualifications. These numbers give us a total of 2413 authorized practitioners, besides which there is a list of more than 360 persons (!) who have returned no qualification, and who, it is but fair to suppose, possess none. We have not analyzed the country list, believing it incomplete; but we make the sum total of its names amount to 8,286, which added to those of London, gives 10,699 for England and Wales.

* Med.-Chir. Review, No. 83.

Bibliographical Record.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.