effects of Lolium temulentum is examined, all the lesions which characterize the action of narcotico-acrid poisons are observed. The mucous membrane lining the stomach and intestines offers traces, more or less marked, of irritation-these sometimes occupy a large surface, and in other cases are very limited. The liver and spleen are gorged with dark-coloured blood, and all the venous system is filled with a similar-tinted fluid, which is likewise noticed, but in smaller quantity, in the left side of the heart and the principal arterial trunks of the body. The nerve-centres are also congested; the vessels on the surface of the brain and spinal cord are distended with blood, and, when the nerve-tissue is incised, the sections appear dotted with reddish points which look like so many minute apoplectic clots. The Lolium temulentum, in the form of grain or flour, does not appear to have much effect upon herbivores or poultry; and to produce any marked symptoms on these creatures, it is necessary to have recourse to the administration, in large doses, of the active principles contained in the seed. Nevertheless, Baillet and Filhol succeeded in destroying a horse at the Lyons Veterinary School in 1820, by giving it two kilogrammes of Lolium temulentum. The symptoms then observed were, great dilatation of the pupils, vertigo, staggering gait, partial tremblings in different parts of the body, and peculiar undulating movements commencing in front and passing to the hinder extremity of the trunk. The animal afterwards fell; its body was cold; the limbs were extended and rigid; the respiration was difficult; the pulse slow and small; and there were convulsive movements of the head and legs. This state continued until the next day; the animal became rapidly feeble, viscid saliva flowed from the mouth, and death took place in thirty hours after the commencement of the experiment. At the autopsy nothing more was found than traces of irritation in the small and large intestines. In 1860, Baillet and Filhol undertook a series of researches on this grain. The first thing they did, after assuring themselves of the reality of the foregoing facts with regard to this plant, was to discover, by chemical analysis, if it contained only one or several active principles. This analysis led to the following results. One hundred parts of the grain contained The starch is white, and has neither taste nor odour; it has no perceptible action on the economy, even when it is administered in very large quantity; and it possesses all the ordinary chemical characters of the fecula from other grains. It is noticeable, however, that the starch-grains of Lolium temulentum present a physical VOL. XXI.-NO. II. T peculiarity. They are polyhedral, like those of maize, but differ from these in their very much smaller size. Nothing particular is to be observed with regard to the dextrin, albumen, bran, or ash, except that the last are remarkably rich in phosphates-equally so to wheat. With respect to what is termed the "green oil" and the yellow and extractive matters, the two first of which are obtained from the grain by the action of ether, particular attention is drawn to them by Baillet and Filhol. The flour of Lolium temulentum yields to ether a fatty substance of a greenish-yellow colour, which has almost the consistency of lard. Treated in the cold state with alcohol at 85°, it is resolved into two substances, one of which, dissolved in the alcohol, has a fine orange tint, while the other, which is insoluble, is green. The yellow matter obtained by the evaporation of the alcohol is solid, and of the consistency of somewhat soft wax. The green substance is fluid. Since the year 1860, the experiments of Baillet and Filhol have shown that the fatty matter extracted from the darnel by ether is an energetic poison for the carnivora; but it remained to determine what the toxic principle was which gave this matter its redoubtable properties, and the following was the course pursued to attain this object:-After mixing a certain quantity of the fatty matter derived from treating the meal of lolium by ether with soap ley, the mixture was kept at a mild temperature for two hours, after which it was left for eight days to allow time for its complete saponification. At the end of this period this soap was dissolved in distilled water, and the solution filtered. There remained on the filter a yellow substance, soluble in alcohol and ether, and analogous to that already mentioned. The watery solution, having been agitated several times with ether, yielded a fresh quantity of the orangeyellow substance, which was easily obtained by evaporating the ether. This substance was repeatedly washed with boiling water, until it did not manifest a trace of alkalinity, and was no longer saponifiable. After isolating the yellow matter, the soapy solution was boiled in order to expel the ether it still contained, and it was then decomposed by tartaric acid; by this means a greenish oil was developed on the surface of the liquid. This oil was removed, and its weight determined, when it was found to form about two-fifths of the matter extracted from the meal by the ether, the yellow substance forming the other three-fifths. The green oil thus separated has no action on animals, but the yellow matter is very active. Nevertheless, this yellow matter does not represent the completely isolated active principle; the latter is associated with xanthin, which gives it its peculiar colour, and another substance, afterwards found to be crystallized cholesterine. The green oil owes its colour to traces of chlorophyll. (To be continued.) THE BRITISH MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. THE meeting in Edinburgh of this Association during the month is an important event, which well deserves some attention. When it last met in Edinburgh, about sixteen years ago, under the presidency of the great and good Dr Alison, it was an inconsiderable body; now, under the presidency of our first physician, Sir Robert Christison, it numbers above 7000 medical men. Were the meeting solely for friendly social purposes, it would be of the greatest importance. To form or to renew acquaintances, to cement friendships, to interchange civilities, to see our greater brethren, to see our lesser brethren, are all objects which alone would be worth all the trouble and expense which the Association meeting involves. In addition to fulfilling these purposes, the meeting affords much valued opportunities for contributing to the progress of science, for discussion of difficult medical questions, whether theoretical or practical, for promoting reforms, and for generally diffusing professional intelligence and zeal. In all of these respects, the instant meeting promises to at least equal any former one. The various presidents, the orators, the announced papers, the entertainments, the numbers expected, the great preparations, constitute a very imposing whole, equally creditable to the Association, to the Reception Committee in Edinburgh, to the University, and to the College of Physicians. The success of the meeting is assured as far as can be rationally anticipated. It is very difficult to give a complete account of the utility and necessity of such institutions as the British Medical Association, nor do we intend to attempt it. The same difficulty is felt by the numerous apologists for Royal and other scientific societies, and for lectures. Meantime, we satisfy ourselves with what is called the logic of facts. Such institutions not only survive, but they flourish. They not only flourish; they also increase in number. While they increase in number, they certainly do not diminish in power. And all this is true, not only of Great Britain and Ireland, but of the whole highly civilized part of the world. For all men of common sense, this is enough in the way of argument for the value of these institutions. In each country, development goes on according to its history and peculiarities, and the genius of its people. For example, in this country and in America, there is an association exclusively medical, or nearly so; while in Germany, a much wider area of science is taken in along with medicine. It is worth noticing, that such associations arise and flourish chiefly in those countries which are the acknowledged pioneers of progress. We look forward with pleasure and hope to the meeting in Edinburgh, and bid our visitors and comrades-All hail! Part Second, REVIEWS. Cyclopædia of the Practice of Medicine. Edited by Dr H. VON ZIEMSSEN's work on the Practice of Medicine is one very well known to all readers of German, interested in the subject. It consists of a series of independent treatises by some of the most eminent clinical instructors in Germany, and is intended to embrace the entire range of special pathology and therapeutics, and will comprise-in the English edition-about fifteen volumes large octavo, of from 500 to 700 pages each. This most important work, of which about one half is already published in the original, is, by special arrangement with the German publisher and editor, now being translated into English, and published by subscription by Messrs Sampson Low and Co. The subscription price is one guinea for each volume, payable on delivery, and it is intended to publish four volumes per annum, so as to distribute the cost of subscription nearly equally over four years. So that for one guinea a quarter, in less than four years each subscriber will be provided with a practical Handbook of Medicine, which, for completeness of design and careful fulness of execution, will successfully vie with any similar work in any language, and will certainly prove a great boon to the English-speaking portion of the profession even more than it has already done for those for whom it was originally intended. It opens up new lines of thought hitherto unheard of by the average English practitioner, and gives him a compendium of scientific information, not only on the usual subjects comprised in a practical work on medicine, but also upon many important matters to which his attention as yet has scarcely been directed at all, and for which, when he requires it, as occasionally happens, he has now to look through scattered monographs, the very names of which are frequently undiscoverable till long after the occasion for their use has passed away. We cannot too strongly recommend subscription to this publication to our readers as the cheapest method of providing themselves with a complete repertorium of practical information upon all subjects of importance connected with medicine. Four years seems a long time to look forward to for the completion of the work, but those who read it and study it will find the time well spent, and will not consider it too long. And besides, no reasonable man will be disposed to quarrel over the time employed in issuing these volumes, when he reflects that the payment by instalments is thus made easier for his pocket, and also that the only English work which can at all compare with it-Reynolds's "System of Medicine "-has been already nine years in publishing, and its fourth and last volume is apparently no nearer the birth yet than it has ever been; while Copland's "Dictionary of Medicine," which is comprised in three volumes, took fourteen years to make its appearance. At the same ratio Ziemssen's work ought to occupy no less than seventy years in being hatched; so that we may really congratulate ourselves, that the influence of the age in which we live has at last succeeded in impressing itself even upon medical publications. The typography of these volumes leaves nothing to be desired, the illustrations are clear and accurate, and the editing has been most carefully done; so that though translations of German works emanating from America, as this mainly does, are usually very instructive examples of how not to do it, we can conscientiously recommend this one as a remarkable exception to this too general rule. Not that there is not in the very title of these three volumes a word which apparently gives the lie to all this praise; for no one would ever expect to find cholera, hay fever, or intermittent fever, reckoned amongst acute infectious disorders; and we think that most people will be considerably astonished to find anthrax, rabies, and snake-bite reckoned among the chronic infectious diseases. The use of this word being all the more likely to introduce confusion into the practitioner's mind, and to lead him to suppose that it is merely an indication of pathological progress in an unexpected direction, that with these, to him, novel illustrations of contagiousness, there are mingled many diseases ordinarily recognised as highly infectious, such as typhus, measles, scarlet fever, etc. Unfortunately, Infections-Krankheiten are not necessarily also ansteckend, and therefore, though they may be infectious or contagious in the usual acceptation of the term, they are not always so. Infective is probably the English word which most nearly conveys the idea meant; and as the error mainly affects the title-pages, and is a most important blot, we think it would be worth the editor's while to issue corrected title-pages for those who may wish to bind their volumes, with an editorial note to say that, where found in the body of the work, the word is to be correspondingly altered. Probably also the term Invasions-Krankheiten as applied to trichinosis, etc., would be equally well rendered by Invasive Diseases. The expression is quite as terse, and equally correct with infective, and does away with the use of such an awkward circumlocution as "Diseases from migratory parasites," which the editor has selected. It is obviously impossible within the limits at our command to review these collected monographs with that amount of care and fulness which their importance demands. They are not all, as we |