quence will be that at the first the ratio of cures of recent cases will be essen tially, and of old cases immensely greater than at the latter under identical facts! So if those dismissed from an institution in a convalescent state are entered in the register of one institution as much improved,' while at another, if they are heard of as sound before the end of the year, they swell the list of cured, it is manifest that the same facts make a widely opposite report.

"The two great points in relation to recovered' patients, on which an approximation to accuracy would be peculiarly desirable both for popular and professional information, are the degree of integrity to which the sufferer arrives in his intellectual powers, his moral sense and his affective sentiments, and the number of attacks to which he may have been previously subjected. We have never attempted to go fully into these our American institutions; we have not only not essayed to tabularize them, but have not often ventured general expressions of opinion. For aught which has been reported, the public is justified in supposing that in all cases 'recovered,' a state of original integrity is attained, while melancholy experience too strongly demonstrates that this is far from being uniformly the case; the temper, feelings and intellect of the sufferer, perhaps previously ill-balanced or ill-regulated, feel the influence of a decided attack of disease in augmented irregularity and eccentricity.

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The register too of any institution will not fail to present many instances of recovery,' which have recovered' before, and that perhaps repeatedly, cases often of periodical disease arriving at a certain stage of soundness perhaps complete, but not permanent. It is possible that a single case of this kind might constitute several recoveries in a single year! This would readily happen if the sufferer's residence were so near an institution that he could be removed when in his rational stage from its care, and be replaced when a paroxysm of excitement or depression supervened. Every Asylum has its proportion of these frequent comers. If entered anew each time of relapse, and discharged as recovered' in the ratio or per centage of recoveries, especially in an institution discharging not more than fifty or a hundred patients annually, the effect would be ludicrously obvious.

"A single illustration in this matter of statistics will show how easy it is to keep the word of promise to the ear, but break it to the sense.' An eminent English naval officer in his book of travels in the United States, shows his estimate of the high character of our institutions for the insane, by referring to the statistics of one where the ratio of recoveries is given as 913 per cent. This statement was doubtless literally accurate. Every work on insanity since issued from the press abroad, comes to us repeating this fact without comment. Will it be credited that this ratio, apparently so precise and minute as to descend to fractional parts, was based on the event of twenty-three cases, discharged in one year, (recent cases too, not of a year's but of six months' standing), twentyone of which recovered! Percentages were deduced from less than a quarter of a hundred units.

"I make these explanations in order that the few returns of a statistical similitude which I have presented the past and present years, may pass with the profession and with the public for their exact scientific worth. In the first years of my direction here, following the customary plan which I found existing, I made the attempt with as much care and candour as I could bring to my aid, to offer some more extended statements than have been since tried, and even held out the promise in the Report for 1838, to give a general return of the varied circumstances relating to the cases for the first twenty years of the institution. After labouring with the amplest records before me for many weeks, the project was abandoned, as neither capable of an accuracy to render it interesting to the community, and as certainly of little value to the profession. In truth, I was apprehensive that conclusions drawn from facts so uncertain, would partake quite as much of error as of truth. Unfounded opinions are of comparatively little permanent mischief in medical science, when presented merely as opinions; published with a numerical aspect, they may as false facts be of infinite injury.

Twenty-fifth Annual Report of the Friends' Asylum, near Frankford, Pa.1

This report exhibits, that this valuable institution continues to proceed as successfully as ever in its course of usefulness. Ninety-seven cases were under care during the year; of these, thirty-nine cases were admitted within the year, and the same number have been discharged.

"Of the eighteen Asylums," says the Report of the Physicians, "exclusively for the insane, in actual operation, at the present time, in the United States, that which is under your supervision was established at an earlier period than any other, with the single exception of the one at Williamsburg, Virginia. A quarter of a century has elapsed since the Friends' Asylum was opened for the reception of patients. During that period, the population of the country, and with it, the number of the insane, has been greatly augmented; that revolution which had then just commenced, in the management of those who are suffering under mental alienation, has been completed; the law of true kindness, and correct principles of physical or moral treatment, have superseded the employment of excessive corporeal restraint, coercion and punishment; with increased resources by the means of which to prosecute a practical benevolence, that true philanthropy which recognizes every fellow being as a brother or a sister, has brought into existence numerous institutions, in which the poor, as well as the rich, are made partakers of the comforts of life, and furnished with every means which may contribute to the restoration of health.

"In the improvements of Asylums corresponding with this general progress, it is believed that the one under your care, has, in a good measure, kept pace with those which have more recently been established. There are few institutions of the kind, in which the facilities for an enlightened moral treatment are superior, if equal to those of the Asylum near Frankford.

"The garden, park, woods and fields in summer, the carpenter's and the basket maker's shop, and a course of lectures on Chemistry in winter; the library, circular rail-road and horses and carriage, at all seasons of the year, afford adequate means for occupation, recreation and amusement. In warm weather, so general is the resort to these, that during the past season, it was not an unfrequent occurrence for twenty-five of the thirty men-patients, to be entirely away from the Asylum building, distributed in the fields, at the library and elsewhere. Manual employment still proves, as heretofore, the most effectual of the 'moral means,' for the promotion of a cure in the curable, and in making those more comfortable and contented, in whom the disease appears to have become permanently established. But, while this pre-eminence is accorded to useful labour, we cannot entirely overlook the evident utility of recreation and innocent amusement. During the past season, a patient labouring under the agonizing delusions of the most abject melancholy, was admitted into the Asylum. In his opinion all mankind had been brought to ruin and destruction,' by the acts of himself alone. To him, the smoke ascending from a chimney, indicated the commencement of a general conflagration of the universe; a conflagration imposed upon all created things, in retribution for the sins which he had committed. By long persuasion, he was induced to assist in raking leaves, in the grove; but to his mind he gathered them for no good purpose. They were the funeral pile upon which he was to be immolated.

"The first smile which was won from this unfortunate patient, appeared while he was playing at ball, a game in which he had been induced to engage, after repeated and prolonged entreaty. From that time, his progress to recovery was constant and u nusually rapid." P. 21.

1 Twenty-fifth Annual Report on the State of the Asylum for the Relief of Persons deprived of the Use of their Reason, 8vo, pp. 30, Philadelphia, 1842.

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Proceedings of the Medical Convention of Ohio.1

It is only of late that we have received the Proceedings of the Medical Convention of Ohio, whose meetings are likely to be productive of much advantage to the profession of the West, not only by reason of the interesting papers that are read before it, but of the good fellowship that cannot fail to be engendered between the members of the profession. The highly respectable Dr. Geo. W. Boerstler, of Fairfield county, presided: and Drs. Kreider and Awl were appointed Secretaries.

Besides the proceedings of the Convention, the pamphlet before us contains sundry interesting papers read before it: viz. 1st. On diseases induced by mercury, by Dr. J. P. Harrison. 2. Report on auscultation and percussion, by Drs. Mendenhall, R. L. Howard, and C. D. Brayton. 3. Address on medical education, by Dr. J. P. Harrison. 4. Florula Lancastriensis, or a catalogue, comprising nearly all the flowering and filiform plants, growing naturally within the limits of Fairfield county, with notes of such as are medicinal, by Dr. Bigelow. 5. An address by Dr. Dawson on a form of fever which prevailed in the eastern part of Green county, &c.

Third Book of Natural History-Ornithology. By Ruschenberger.2

The third book of Natural History is worthy of being placed alongside the first and the second. Of those we have already spoken; and we may now, we presume, congratulate Dr. Ruschenberger and the publisher, that sufficient encouragement has been received to induce them to continue this interesting and instructive series.

Squarey's Agricultural Chemistry.3

This work is not strictly medical, yet it is on a department of science of which no physician can, with propriety, be ignorant. Many of our physicians, too, are compelled to be practical farmers, and to them Mr. Squarey's work will be especially useful. It is concise, clearly expressed, and contains a vast amount of valuable matter in a very small compass, and at such a price that no one can plead poverty as an excuse for not possessing it.

1 Proceedings of the Medical Convention of Ohio, held at Columbus, on the 5th, 6th, and 7th of May, 1841; with Papers on several subjects, read before that body; 8vo. pp. 84, Columbus, 1841.

2 Ruschenberger's Series; Ornithology; the Natural History of Birds: Third Book of Natural History; prepared for the use of schools and colleges, by W. S. W. Ruschenberger, M. D., &c. &c., from the text of Milne Edwards and Achille Comte, &c., &c., with plates; 12mo. pp. 125, Philadelphia, 1842.

3 A popular treatise on Agricultural Chemistry, intended for the use of the practical Farmer; by Charles Squarey, Chemist: 12mo. pp. 156, Philadelphia, 1842.

Bibliographical Notices.

Kane's Experiments on Kiesteine.1

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This paper exhibits the results of careful and accurate observation on a subject which required a series of well conducted experiments, and which we have long desired to see instituted. Dr. Kane has amply exhibited, that he was fully competent to the task, and has carried it through in a manner which will do him credit both now and hereafter; for his paper cannot fail to be cited by all who may hereafter wish to be considered on a level with the existing state of knowledge on the interesting and important department of our science of which it treats. The results of all his labours are summed up by Dr. Kane as follows: "1. That the Kiesteine is not peculiar to pregnancy, but may occur whenever the lacteal elements are secreted without a free discharge at the mammæ. 2. That though sometimes obscurely developed, and occasionally simulated by other pellicles, it is generally distinguishable from all others.

3. That where pregnancy is possible, the exhibition of a clearly defined kiesteinic pellicle is one of the least equivocal proofs of that condition; and 4. That when the pellicle is not formed in the more advanced stages of supposed pregnancy, the probabilities, if the female be otherwise healthy, are as 20 to 1 (81 to 4) that the prognosis is incorrect." P. 18.

On the Relations of the U. S. Medical Corps.2

This is an exceedingly temperate and well written exposé of the condition of the medical officers of the Navy, whose grievances are ably stated, and, we should hope, require but to be stated to be redressed. The pamphlet cannot fail to attract the attention of the Secretary of the Navy to the subject. The position of the naval medical officer when he first appears on shipboard, it need scarcely be said, is very different from that of a youth who first enters the service as a midshipman. The one has acquired an amount of essential knowledge, which enables him in private life to assume a station not inferior to any one; and this fact should be borne in mind in the regulations of the naval and military service; yet, hitherto, it has scarcely been heeded. The author of the Exposition is evidently one of those educated gentlemen, and his statements are worthy of all attention.

New England Quarterly Journal, No. I.3

The first number of this new Periodical impresses us favorably. The Editors are gentlemen, and medical scholars; and they are supported by a long train of able co-laborers. It contains papers by Drs. Thomas Gray, jr., E. Warren, D. Humphreys Storer, E. Hale, jr., J. B. S. Jackson; Joseph Sargent, of Worcester, Geo. Hayward, J. Mason Warren, and Geo. A. Bethune with Reviews,

1 Experiments on Kiesteine, with remarks on its application to the diagnosis of pregnancy. An Inaugural Dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Medicine, by Elisha K. Kane, M. D., of Philadelphia. Published by the recommendation of the Faculty of the University of Pennsylvania; 8vo. pp. 26.

2 An Exposition of the unjust and injurious relations of the U. S. Naval Medical Corps, by a member; 8vo. pp. 22, Baltimore, 1842.

3 The New England Quarterly Journal of Medicine and Surgery. Editors, Charles E. Ware, M. D., Samuel Parkman, M. D., No. I July, 1842; pp. 156, Boston, 1842.

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Miscellaneous Notices.

Bibliographical Notices, Scientific Intelligence, and Extracts from Foreign and American Journals.

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Surely a Journal so well supported, and supplied with excellent materials, under the guidance of able editors, cannot fail to receive every encouragement.

MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES.

[Through our friend, Professor J. K. Mitchell, we have been favored with the following announcement of the forthcoming publication of Liebig, which every lover of science will be anxious to see.]

Liebig's new work on Organic Chemistry and Physiology.-The appearance of this work is looked for with great interest by the medical profession in England, but has been delayed in consequence of new experiments and researches in which the author has been engaged. It is understood by letters from Professor Gregory of Aberdeen, who has translated the work, that it had been found necessary to cancel several of the pages, for the purpose of correcting serious errors, and of incorporating the results of the new experiments. The publication of this work under the supervision of Professor Webster, of Harvard college, at the request of the author, will be completed immediately on the reception of the corrections and additions from Dr. Liebig. In a letter from Professor Gregory, of 14th May, he says, "In my opinion this work will mark the commencement of a new era in Physiology. In translating it, I have experienced the highest admiration of the profound sagacity which has enabled Liebig to erect so very beautiful a structure on the foundation of facts which others have allowed to remain for so long utterly useless, and of the logical structure and extreme cogency of his arguments. There is hardly a point in physiology accessible to chemistry (I mean, of course, those on which experiments have been actually made) on which he has not, by the mere force of his intellect, thrown the brightest light. In short, we now feel that physiology has entered on the true path, and the results, before long, will, I prophesy, be altogether astonishing." The work is to appear in England, under the editorship of Dr. Gregory, and in this country, under that of Professor Webster, at the same time.

Castleton Medical College.-The Catalogue for the Spring Term, 1842, contains the names of seventy students: whereof there were, from Lower Canada, 3; from Massachusetts, 3; from New York, 29; from New Hampshire, 1; from Pennsylvania, 2; from Vermont, 31; and from Wisconsin, 1.

Necrology. We notice, in the foreign and domestic Journals, the deaths of several distinguished members of the Profession, whose names are well known to all our readers. For example: of Sir Charles Bell, the eminent physiologist and surgeon, at the age of 67; of Dr. Yelloly, who was at one time in great eminence in London, and subsequently settled in Norwich; of Hann, of Berlin; and of Fricke, of Hamburgh, of Devergie, of Paris; of Dr. Blake, the author of a work on Delirium Tremens; and of Dr. Oliver, lately professor in the Medical College of Ohio, and the author of a work on Physiology, which is in its second edition.