the guaiacum, the potass. iod. may be given two or three times a day in sarsaparilla with liq. potassæ, and the bowels regulated by an alterative or laxative pill at night; or, if it be desirable to promote diaphoresis, by a dose of Dover's powder. "There are few remedies which keep up a healthy action of the liver so well as the taraxacum, especially when preceded by a dose or two of mercurial medicine. In most of the affections under consideration, where it is important to maintain this function in due activity, and yet where the constant use of mercurials is highly inexpedient, taraxacum becomes a valuable adjunct. It is prepared under a variety of forms, but I prefer the extract as being the most certain and convenient; half a tea-spoonful at night, dissolved in a little warm milk, forms a by no means disagreeable cocoa-like drink; or it may be taken with milk and lime-water if necessary. Besides its ordinary effect on the liver, and therefore indirectly upon the bowels by supplying them with healthy bile, I have reason to think that it also acts upon the skin like sarsaparilla, and for this purpose may sometimes be advantageously combined with it." 69. A good many cases are narrated by our author, in illustration of the foregoing principles; but these we need not introduce here. We have taken much pains to concentrate the chief points of theory and practice in this volume, which is full of valuable materials, and is evidently the result of close observation, ample experience, and sound judgment. Dr. Rigby's work is one that we can most conscientiously recommend to all classes of our professional brethren. MANUEL D'ANATOMIE GÉNÉRALE APPLIQUÉE A LA PHYSIOLOGIE ET A LA PATHOLOGIE. Par L. Mandl, &c. &c. Manual of General Anatomy applied to Physiology and Pathology. By L. Mandl. Paris. Bailliére, 1843. THE importance of a knowledge of General Anatomy to the scientific medical, and surgical practitioner, is at the present day so universally admitted, that to say more on the subject seems entirely unnecessary. In the preceding number of this Journal, we took the opportunity, when reviewing a work on General Pathology, of entering somewhat fully into the great importance of a knowledge of that branch of medicine. We there endeavoured to point out the advantages which must result to the practitioner from those general views of disease, which an acquaintance with general principles must present to him, and the vast superiority which a practitioner, furnished with such general principles, must possess over the man who, confined within the narrow precincts of mere specialities, is obliged, when called on to treat a case of disease, to have recourse to his nosology, in order to find a name for it, before he can bring himself to prescribe the proper treatment. The arguments we then adduced to prove the great utility of a knowledge of general pathology, will hold equally strong, mutatis mutandis, in establishing the vast importance of General Anatomy, as a branch of medical study. Before we commence our analysis of the work now before us, we beg leave to say a few words on the subject of General Anatomy and its peculiar objects. The study of Special or Descriptive Anatomy, which must precede that of General Anatomy, shows us that many of the circumstances which belong to any one organ, belong at the same time to several organs, and that thus several individual circumstances are common to many organs. Of the membranes, for instance, of which descriptive anatomy shows us the stomach is composed, some are common to it and to the intestines, to the bladder, to the uterus, &c. In like manner, in respect to any one of these membranes, a careful examination of its structure shows that, in many points, its organization is exactly similar to that of all other membranes an extension of this view leads to further important and interesting results. All the arteries of the body, whatever their situation or size, are found to be composed essentially of the same substances, disposed in nearly the same order and form-the same may be said of the veins. All the absorbent vessels, all vessels of every kind-all the bones, muscles, and nerves-the whole external covering of the body, widely as their various structures differ from each other, present no material difference, as far as regards the organization of each particular class. Hence, various organs of the body are disposed into what are called common systems, which common systems are said to consist of common tissues. Thus, all the vessels are collected and arranged under one common class, called the vascular system, and so on. The material that enters into the composition of each of these systems, consists of a substance of a peculiar nature; but as this substance is more or less generally diffused over the whole body, entering as a constituent element into the various organs, it is termed a common tissue. Now, as the various tissues constituting the body differ from each other with respect to their vital properties, and as diseases are nothing but alterations of those vital properties, it is at once evident that an acquaintance with the tissues and their vital properties is indispensable to an accurate knowledge of the diseases with which such tissues may be affected. We know that in every organ composed of several tissues, one tissue may be impaired without any disorder of the othersfor instance, a single tissue is frequently diseased in the eye, whilst the other tissues entering into its structure continue healthy. It is Bichat who has said, the more deeply we study diseases and their phenomena after death, the more forcible and impressive must be our conviction of the necessity of considering local diseases, not with respect to the viscera, the whole of whose structure they do not attack, but with respect to the different tissues which are separately affected. For the distinction of the animal body into separate kinds of texture, we are mainly indebted to the labours of Malpighi, De Graaf, Ruysch, and several others. All these persons, however, confined their attention to anatomy and physiology. It is to the Hunters and to Cullen we are principally indebted for the application of this distinction of tissues to pathology. A still more successful effort to apply Histology to Pathology, was made by Dr. Carmichael Smith, in 1790. Some years after, Pinel, in his celebrated Nosographie Philosophique, made the distinction of the membranes and other animal tissues the foundation of his pathology. A little time after, Bichat, in his Traité des Membranes, and subsequntly in his Anatomie Generale, gave the most perfect arrangement, and most comprehensive view of the different organic textures of the human body, that had yet appeared. The use of the microscope has established a new era in the study of General Anatomy, or, as it may be now styled, Minute Anatomy, or Histology. Bichat and his predecessors contented themselves, for the most part, with analysing the several organs into the various tissues into which they were capable of being divided. By the use of the microscope, however, a great deal more has been attempted, viz. to unravel the very tissues themselves into their minutest structure. And no doubt much good has resulted to physiology, and much, it is hoped, will result both to physiology and pathology, from this minute investigation of the various structures and elements of the body. On this subject, however, we shall take the liberty of making a few remarks. The men who are now so zealously engaged in prosecuting microscopical observations, should remember, that the present is not the first time the microscope has been employed for anatomical purposes; they should bear in mind what has been the fate of the discoveries of the microscopical observers, with some few brilliant exceptions, and, holding this in remembrance, they would do well to consider what may have led to such a fate. All that the microscope can do is to discover particular facts; now the discoveries of particular facts, which are the immediate result of observation, are in themselves uninteresting and valueless, unless they are combined so as to lead to some grand general result-the mere isolated facts of minute anatomy, or of botany, or of any other science-can never be available in advancing such science, unless the reasoning powers be exerted so as to give them a shape and form, and unless the judgment be employed so as to ascertain their imports and relations, and the place they are fitted to hold in that department of science to which they properly belong—it is one thing to be a microscopist, and another a physiologist-no microscope, however good, or however cleverly it may be used, can afford a dispensation from the labour of thinking. Whatever credit is conveyed by the word "discovery," is well deserved by those who skilfully select and judiciously combine known truths, so as to elicit important and hitherto unthought of conclusions-theirs is the master-mind-whereas, men of very inferior powers may sometimes, by immediate observation, discover new facts empirically, and thus be of use in furnishing materials to the others, to whom they stand in the same relation, as the brick-maker and stone-quarrier to the architect. The microscope should be to physiology what the telescope is to astronomy. We know that by means of the telescope Galileo discovered the Satellites of Jupiter-but by the application of mind to this isolated fact a grand principle in physics was attained, viz. that the propagation of light is progressive and not instantaneous; by a further application of mind these little bodies have been converted into very pretty little chronometers, and so employed for determining longitudes-one instance more of the application of mind to an instrumental discovery. Dr. Bradley by means of the telescope ascertained, that the fixed stars changed their places in the heavens in the course of the year, that is, that the fixed stars were not at all fired-this was a puzzler and would have remained so, had he not set himself to work in order to account for it, After many fruitless efforts the happy idea occurred to him of combining the effects of the progressive motion of light, ascertained by Galileo, with the motion of the earth in its orbit, and he found to his great delight, not only that there was no anomaly in the thing, but that the phenomenon of this apparent motion in the stars afforded one of the most satisfactory arguments in proof of the Copernican system. Here we have conclusive evidence of the indispensable necessity of employing the powers of the mind, when we wish to make mere instrumental discoveries available to science. What Galileo and Bradley did in their departments of science, we say to the anatomical microscopist, "go thou and do likewise." Isolated facts, however numerous, can never form a science. It is only by the mental operation of comparing, combining and abstracting, that a science can be made out of this otherwise rudis indigestaque moles; when this is done, and only then, can it be truly said, Mens agitat molem et magno se corpore miscet. In the first six Chapters of his work Dr. Mandl lays down certain general principles regarding the physical and vital properties-Chemical Composition-the various structures and textures of the body, which, however useful and necessary in an elementary work on general anatomy, we shall pass over, as not likely to prove interesting to our readers. We shall therefore pass on to the 8th Chapter, wherein he considers the Development, Increase, and Regeneration of the Organic Systems. GENERAL LAWS OF DISTRIBUTION. The manner in which the organic systems are distributed in the human body, is subject to certain generalities, usually called laws. These laws drawn up into form by anatomists, have not always been the expression of the truth: the imagination, preconceived ideas, and material errors have frequently laid down laws of a very fragile character. The exact knowledge of these generalities is much more difficult than is supposed at first; we shall cofine ourselves in this place to the enumeration of the best ascertained generalities regarding the distribution of the organic systems. The body is constructed symmetrically. The most perfect is that of the two sides of the body or the lateral symmetry. But this analogy may be demonstrated also either between the different portions of an organic system, or between the different regions of the entire body, as well between the superior and inferior part of the body, which constitutes successive symmetry, as between the anterior and posterior surface, or the perpendicular symmetry. It may be remarked, in general, that this resemblance is never absolute; one side usually has more or less advantage over the other. The systems presenting most symmetry are the nervous, osseous, fibrous, serous, muscular and glandular systems; there is less of it in the vascular, and least in the serous system. The organs of animal life are arranged more symmetrically and more uniformly than those of organic life. Bichat stated positively that the organs of animal life are symmetrical, whilst those of organic life are not so; Meckel, however, proved the incorrectness of this opinion. The different similar and elementary parts composing an organic system are placed most frequently in a spiral line. We see this law exemplified in the vertebral column, which describes several curves. The division of the systems adopted by the author is founded on their distribution. First we have systems diffused over the entire body, and forming an uninterrupted aggregate, and others which appear only in certain parts; hence the division of the systems into two classes. Three systems compose the first class. The systems of the second class are characterised by the presence in greater or less abundance or by the absence of the systems of the first class, and especially of nerves distinctly visible and of capillary vessels. The following is the classification adopted by the author: Classification of the Organic Systems. A. General Systems, diffused uninterruptedly over the entire body. 1. Cellular System. 3. Vascular System. B. Particular Systems existing only in certain parts of the body. a. Destitute of nerves and of capillary vessels. 4. The System of the Cutaneous Appendices. b. Destitute of distinct nerves and of large capillary vessels, visible to the naked eye. 5. Adipose System. 6. Serous System. 7. Fibrous System. 8. Cartilaginous System. 9. Bony System. c. Provided with distinct nerves and large network of capillary vessels. 10. Muscular System. 11. Glandular System. 12. Cutaneous System. FORMATION OF THE ORGANIC SYSTEMS. The manner in which the tissues and systems of the human body are formed may be studied at two very different epochs : during fœtal life and after birth. In the foetus, the development of the organic system may be examined as a whole, or the development of the elementary parts constituting it, may become the subject of examination. In the body considered after birth, we may investigate the manner in which the increase, decrease and regeneration take place. By development of the organic system is meant the formation of the system in the fœtus. Every development in which isolated parts are produced, supposes an organising base which contains the germ; this base is called blastema. Every tissue has its particular blastema, the development of which, in the superior animals, depends on the development of the entire body. All the systems do not appear at the same epoch. The vessels and nerves are the first parts delineated in the blastema: the intestinal canal commences its formation nearly at the same time. The organs of the senses and those of generation present themselves at a more advanced period. Then the muscles, bones, and teeth appear, and last of all the cutaneous system with the tegumentary appendices. At first, the entire |