count of climate, or race, or laws. The Hindoos are gentle, because they abstain from flesh, the carnivora are fierce because they eat flesh, not because they must eat flesh, and so on with a hundred examples. The sixteenth chapter, headed "Diet considered in its relation to population and the moral progress of man," is the most curious in the book. The following extract will show its bearing: "In the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland there are at present about twenty-eight millions of inhabitants, and about double that number of acres of land in cultivation; consequently, two acres for each individual. Were all living on a full animal diet, the land could only supply food for five millions six hundred thousand inhabitants; on the greatest delicacies of fruits, grain, and roots, one hundred and twelve millions; on grain and other vegetables (where, according to Lord Lauderdale, one acre will support four persons,) two hundred and twenty-four millions; on potatoes and common fruit, five hundred and sixty millions; without including the extra produce from improved culture. Or let us suppose that, in Great Britain and Ireland, there are (in round numbers) eighty millions of acres, of which sixty millions are arable, or capable of being cultivated. Let half of these be appropriated to the production of the finest fruits, flowers, and timber; and to the support of cattle, sheep, and other animals, for the production of milk, wool, &c.; we shall then have thirty millions of acres for potatoes, wheat, and other grain. Let one half of this remnant be sown with wheat, and the remaining fifteen millions planted with potatoes: then15,000,000 of acres of wheat, at 3-qrs. per acre, will feed 45,000,000 inhabitants, 15,000,000 of acres of potatoes, at 10 persons per acre, 150,000,000 Total. . 195,000,000 ditto Which is equal to seven times the present population, and more than thirty times the number that the land would support on flesh alone, without taking into consideration the produce of the thirty millions of acres appropriated to fruit and other delicacies. Many useless trees now stand on hedge-rows by the side of common roads; if these were replaced by varieties of apple and pear trees, not only would they be more ornamental, but the owner and the hungry traveller would be supplied with many delightful repasts." (pp. 391-9.) From this it appears that the euthanasia of the United Kingdom will be consequent on the general adoption of a vegetable diet: that when we have returned to a state of nature," and live on fruits and farinacea, we shall be a warm snug family of one hundred and ninety-five millions, each living to be as old as the pythagorean centenarian of the College of Physicians. A slight allowance ought have been made for the ground their houses would occupy. If this argument be not sufficiently attractive, Mr. Smith holds out his terrors. Mankind will be suffocated at some future period, unless it take incontinently to fruits and farinacea. "I may here briefly notice another reason for supposing that man will, in future ages, have recourse to a vegetable diet; though it refers to a period so distant, that it will be deemed worthy of little attention. It is a well ascertained fact, that while plants decompose the carbonic acid contained in the air, and liberate the oxygen, all animals (except the microscopic animalcules) consume the oxygen, and restore the carbonic acid to the atmosphere. Combustion also diminishes the oxygen, and increases the amount of carbonic acid. Now, in proportion as animals multiply, and vegetation decreases, the constitution of the atmosphere must be altered, and rendered less fit for the respiration of man. But it has been shown that, on vegetable food, man requires less oxygen than on animal diet; therefore, by increasing the growth of vegetables for his food, and contracting the numbers of other animals, he preserves the purity of the atmosphere for an increasing human population, and for the continued existence of his species. An exclusively animal diet for man, however, is not advocated by any person; and the calculations are only introduced here for the sake of a comparison." (p. 395.) Our descendants will certainly want all the fresh air they can get, for if neither wars nor disease interfere with the law of increase of the population for the next two hundred and fifty years, Mr. Smith observes that "eight hundred and ninety-six millions will undoubtedly be the population of Great Britain and Ireland," just about the whole population of the globe! In conclusion, we have to remark that Mr. Smith believes the millenium is not an improbability, and concludes " that all will then resort to a fruit and farinaceous diet, which is also best adapted to all the wants of the human economy." "No longer now He slays the lamb that looks him in the face, Although we shall still enjoy a quarter of lamb, we wish Mr. Smith all health and happiness on his fare of fruit and farinacea. He writes like a modest, and well-meaning man, and we are sure his book will be useful to wine-bibbers, gluttons, and riotous eaters of flesh. If such wish to know their folly, and to learn wisdom, let them read Mr. Smith's amusing volume. ART. XI. Traité philosophique et clinique d'Ophthalmologie, basé sur les principes de la Thérapeutique Dynamique. Par M. F. ROGNETTA, Docteur en Médecine et en Chirurgie, &c. &c. A Philosophical and Clinical Treatise on Ophthalmology, based on the principles of the Dynamic Therapeutics. By F. ROGNETTA, M.D. Paris, 1844. 8vo, pp. 724. THIS is a second and enlarged edition of Dr. Rognetta's 'Cours d'Ophthalmologie,' published in 1839, and forms a complete systematic treatise on the disorders of the eye and its appendages, in which the author does not give merely the results of his own experience, but analyses and criticises the writings of his predecessors in the same field. Without losing sight of the grand object of such a work, the rendering it as practically useful as possible, Dr. Rognetta has by no means evaded the discussion of disputed points in pathology and practice. On the contrary, he presents us with a lively and interesting account of the doctrines of all the celebrated ophthalmologists of the present age; and when he states his own opinion, assigns his reason for their adoption with a clearness and frankness which are peculiarly pleasing. We have no hesitation in recommending the work, as being not only one of the most minute, but also one of the most readable books on eye-diseases which we have met with, containing a vast amount of information, collected with great pains, put together in an honest, manly manner, and written in a clear and agreeable style. As for the claim which Dr. Rognetta sets up for his book, as being "philosophical and clinical," we cannot say so much. The school of Rasori, to which the Doctor belongs, seem one and all to fancy themselves philosophers. We might let this pass; but to assume the title " "philosophical" as peculiarly appropriate to their system, and as distinguishing it from all other medical systems, like the assumption of "physiological" by the school of Broussais, is more apt to make them appear ridiculous than to excite respect. Neither can we admit Dr. Rognetta's work as a clinical one, any more than other ophthalmological treatises in which numerous cases are detailed, but these chiefly borrowed from the writings of other authors, few of them personally and publicly treated by him, who, collecting them from various sources, illustrates by their aid the different topics which comes before him. The chief peculiarity by which the work of Dr. Rognetta is distinguished is, that the author is a follower of the school of Rasori and Giacomini, from the pathological and therapeutical principles of which he professes never to swerve. Our readers are sufficiently aware, that the doctrine of Rasori differs from the Brownonian chiefly in this, that while Brown considered every influence and substance in nature, capable of acting on the living frame, as a stimulant, Rasori supposes a numerous class of substances to act as direct sedatives, and they serve to depress the morbid excitement which may happen to exist in the organs of the body. Remedies, then, of this class Rasori calls contro-stimulants. Contrary to Brown, he regarded all diseases as sthenic; but from this doctrine Giacomini has departed, admitting diseases of debility, and in this he is followed by Rognetta, who refers (p.8,) to the ophthalmoid as examples of the sthenic class of diseases, in which "the morbid state of the living tissues is such that their vital force, their sensibility, their dynamism, in a word, is exalted," while as examples of the asthenic class he refers to certain of the amauroses, met with in those exposed to certain poisonous influences, such as the vapours of lead, mercury, &c., or debilitated by chronic hemorrhagies, the abuse of certain remedies, and the like,-causes which act upon the whole economy, and produce a morbid condition, which, like the former, is entirely functional or vital, and consists in a deficiency of stimulus. By way of introduction, Dr. Rognetta gives a sketch of what may be termed ophthalmic therapeutics. As this is the most original part of his work, and contains numerous statements well deserving of attention, it will be chiefly to it that our remarks shall be directed. He begins by observing, that since the time of Broussais, attention has been much concentrated on the study of the character of diseases. Hence the art of diagnosis has made immense progress, while the science which treats of those phenomena which follow the administration of medicines, and precede the restoration of health, has been almost completely neglected. A belief seemed to have gained ground, (but the remark must be understood as applying chiefly to France,) that the whole science of medicine consisted in pathology, and that therapeutics should follow pathological knowledge as an immediate corollary, which it would be sufficient to announce purely in a general way. To understand thoroughly the action of medicines was regarded as superfluous, and, with the exception of bleeding, abstinence, some few emollients, and certain substances regarded as possessing a calming property, medical applications were abjured as irritants and incentives. To judge of the action of medicines fell, as an accessory province, into the hands of mere naturalists and chemists. The former Dr. Rognetta accuses of minding only the local effects of medicines, and excluding from consideration the influence which they exercise after their passage into the circulation; the latter, of neglecting the dynamic action of medicines, their action, that is to say, on the vital powers, and of too often supposing the living body to resemble the retorts and other apparatus of a chemical laboratory. "To judge," exclaims he, "of the action of medicines, we must study their dynamic effects, according to the changes which they produce in the functions, and not according to their local effects, which can conduct only to false conclusions-a study new to France, imported from Italy by M. Mojon and myself, in our translation of the important work of M. Giacomini. In a dynamic point of view, the knowledge of the therapeutical action of substances is altogther independent of chemistry, and belongs to the domain of physiological observation and of clinical experience. Chemistry has to do merely with the preparation of medicines, not with their action." (p. 14.) Dr. Rognetta proceeds, in chapters fifth and sixth, to a review of the general and local medications used in the cure of the diseases of the eye. The former, he says, have been classed chiefly under three heads, viz. tonics, antiphlogistics, and revulsives; while others have been considered as specifics. This last class, as well as the three former, he merges into one or other of the two divisions under which he comprehends all ophthalmic medications, viz. hypersthenisants and hyposthenisants, in other words, stimulants and counter-stimulants, or excitants and sedatives. 1. Under the head of tonics or excitants, Dr. Rognetta throws out a number of objections to the vulgar use of these terms, and to their indiscriminate application not merely to wine, brandy, and the like, but also to the acids, bark, nux vomica, gentian, iron, and zinc, substances which have few common properties to bring them under one class. "As the strength of the body depends on the integrity of the functions, whatever remedy re-establishes these in the healthy condition may be called a tonic. Bleeding will be a tonic, if it removes a pneumonia or an ophthalmia, and thus restores the lungs or the eye to its state of natural strength; and the same with tartar emetic, and a crowd of other antiphlogistic remedies. The patient is weak, it is remarked of one affected with scrofulous corneitis or chlorotic amaurosis; he requires tonics. He is weak, but why is he weak? Undoubtedly from the same cause that he is ill. Now, it is not by administering stimulants to him that his strength will be restored, but by re-establishing his organic functions; and if iron, or iodine, or bark attain this object, surely it is not by exciting the system. "There are very few substances really capable of raising the rhythm of the functions, or rather the organic force, above the normal type, or above the level at which it may be at the time. They are alcoholics, opium, cinnamon, and the others. These are true excitants, but not tonics. "The term tonic ought to be abandoned, or employed only in a wide sense, to signify a means capable of re-establishing the functions. Such a means is not always an excitant, nor are excitants always tonics. Thus, if alcohol, wine, or cinnamon be given to an ophthalmic patient, weak from scrofula, chlorosis, or intermittent fever, he will be rendered still weaker; the vital force, no doubt, or the organic sensibility will be raised above its former level, but, at the same time, • Traité Philosophique et Expérimental de Matière Médicale et de Thérapeutique. the normality of the functions, upon which strength depends, will not be restored." (pp. 17-19.) Bitter substances are accounted tonics, as bark, coffee, hops, chicory, burdock, chamomille, bitter almonds, orange peel, angelica, &c., but the assertion, according to Dr. Rognetta, is altogether arbitrary and false. Far from being excitants, these substances are hyposthenisauts, not because they are bitter, but because experience has shown this to be their dynamic action. Strange to tell, the only bitter substances the action of which is really excitant, such as opium, are not placed under this category. The reader must not, then, be surprised, when he finds the bitters prescribed by our author with a different intention from that which is usually assigned to them, or finds condemned those combinations of substances of opposite actions, the mixtures of which must become either totally inert, or of very equivocal efficacy; such as that of calomel with opium, opium with tartar emetic, bark infused in wine, camphor dissolved in alcohol, and the like. Dr. Rognetta observes that it has been thought that the nature of the dynamic action of a medicine might be changed, by administering it in a larger or smaller dose; that calomel and the acids, for example, might be antiphlogistics in a small dose, and excitants in a large one, and vice versa for other medicines. This he regards as an error. So long as the composition of the medicine is not changed, its action cannot be fundamentally different--merely the degree of its energy will vary with the dose. The primitive intrinsic action is invariable also, whatever be the nature of the disease for which the drug is prescribed. We think our readers will agree with us, that in his remarks on tonics, of which the above extracts and abstract afford a fair sample, there is more truth than novelty, and more puerility than truth. At the same time, the obvious conclusion to be drawn, we think, from the facts stated under this head by Dr. Rognetta, is in favour of more numerous and more minute subdivisions of the materia medica than those which he admits. 2. There are a few affections of the eye, observes Dr. Rognetta, which do not claim the aid of hyposthenisant or antiphlogistic medication. Its object is to diminish or destroy the morbid excess of organic force, and thus to re-establish the functions. It consists of several elements, whereof some are mechanical, and act indirectly upon the dynamism, that is to say, by removing mechanically a certain quantity of stimulus, of blood, heat, electricity, &c., by depletion, abstinence, bathing, cold applications, &c. The others are dynamics, and act directly by assimilation upon the functional force, or rather upon the ganglionic system which represents it; they lower the degree of this force, and if it be above the normal type, they bring it back to its natural point, and re-establish the functions. If their use is still continued, the vitality is brought still lower, and the symptoms are manifested of true asthenia. These last means offer the advantage of modifying directly the erethism of the organs, without taking away any of the substance; it is thus the counter-stimulants act, of which great use is made in the hypersthenic affections of the eye, (tartar emetic, nitrate of potass, calomel, belladonna, sulphate of magnesia, &c.) If there is a plethora, these means alone will be insufficient, for they combat only the dynamic condition, leaving the congestion, which, although now passive, is sufficient to prevent the resolution of the disease, and even to reproduce XLI.-XXI. 11 |