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relieved the pulmonary and the cardiac congestion which neces-sarily arises, in a greater or less degree, as a complication ofpneumonia. This is the only relief it gives; it frees the par-tially arrested pulmonary and cardiac circulation, and givesintense relief. Its benefits, therefore, are great and immediate,and its dangers all lie in the future. The greater the extentof the inflammation, the greater the asphyxiating congestion,and the more urgent the necessity for venesection; but, unfor-tunately, the greater also is the danger of the practice.Recollect, the lungs are the chief blood-making organs of thebody, and this all-important function is arrested in proportionto the extent of the inflammation. The loss of blood is, there-fore, under such circumstances, an irreparable loss. Heridicules the fear which many have of large losses of blood, andasserts that the body will lose such with impunity, providedthe lungs remain unaffected by disease-i. e., so long as thelungs can make fresh blood from the food to supply the wearand tear of the tissues. As a striking proof of this fact, he in-stanced the large haemorrhage borne by women in childbed-byfever patients with abdominal symptoms. As a corollary of hisviews of the indirect uses of venesection, it follows that it is anexcellent remedy in all those diseases, whatever their nature,which occasion a congestive condition of heart and lungs, asin pneumonia; and he instanced diseases of the heart, perito-nitis, and injuries of the head as cases in which this conditionof the pulmonary circulation obtains, and which require vene-section. The author concluded by stating, that if his viewsof the effects of venesection are accepted-viz., that it has nobeneficial influence over the inflammation per se, but only inthose cases in which pulmonary and cardiac congestion arises,it must follow that a very different signification from thatgenerally adopted must be attached to the remedy. It alsofollows, he thinks, that the remedy is now-a-days much lessfrequently resorted to than sane therapeutics require. The

change-of-type-of-disease theory in no way affects the positionhe here assumes as to the uses of blpeding. Whether that

theory be true or false, the action of bleeding in disease, be itgood or be it bad, must be physiologically the same. Thattheory can only affect the necessity or otherwise of our resort-ing to the remedy in given cases; it cannot alter its mode ofaction. He therefore thinks the discussion unnecessary.

Reviews and Notices of Books.A New and Rational Explanation of the Diseases peculiar to A New and Rational Explanation of the Diseases peculiar to

Infarrts and Mothers; with Obvious Suygestions for theirPrevention and Cure. By THOMAS BALLARD, M.R.C.S.E.,L. S. A., &c. pp. 128. London : Churchill.

NOT having had an opportunity of hearing the papers form-ing the basis of this work read before the Harveian Society,we were somewhat puzzled, as we glanced over the title-pageof Mr. Ballard’s volume, about the "explanation" we weregoing to receive. We confess that we looked rather shy uponthe affair, assuming the pages in our hand to afford only an-other example of working the present rather popular "dodge"of mourning over infants to catch "Rachels." We perusedthe book, however, and found ourselves mistaken. We had to

acknowledge to having received some useful information, manyvaluable hints for directing our clinical observation to an im-portant field of inquiry, and much matter for careful recon-sideration in our own minds. In fact, whilst out of Mr. Bal-lard’s 128 pages we expected to get only annoyance, we, onthe contrary,reaped from them much satisfaction. The authoris an acute, careful observer, and argues often convincingly,always ingeniously. But we cannot agree with him in hisextreme generalization. The particular cause of mischief headduces operates, we believe, to a considerable extent ; but wemust pause before accepting it as the chief worker of evilunder all the circumstances which he brings forward, whetherrelative to the child or the mother. But what is Mr. Ballard’s

theory? We let him explain it in his own words :-"Dr. Brown-Sequard, in his 1 Oth Lecture published in THE

LANCET, says-’ The excitation of the nerves of taste producesan abundant reflex secretion of gastric juice, and also a flow ofbile and nancreatic mica in the howels.’ The act of sucking

being, par excellence, the mode to induce this excitation, it isobvious that these juices must be secreted abundantly duringthe exercise of this act; and if at the same time a supply offood is received into the stomach, the solvent power of thegastric juice is exerted upon it, and the first process of ahealthy digestion results; but should the sucking have beenfruitless, or partially so, it will in all probability have beenforcible and prolonged, and therefore attended by an excessivereflex secretion of gastric juice, which, not meeting with a pro-portionate supply of food whereon to expend its solvent power,acts upon the mucous coat of the stomach and intestines, andcauses various degrees of injury thereto......The evidence ofthis process of injury to the intestinal canal being in operationis the presence of those symptoms which immediately resultfrom it-viz., abdominal pain and the frequent and greenstools, to which sucking infants are liable. A persistence ofthis morbid state causes many of those ailments which areusually attributed to teething ...... erythema, urticaria, andeczema ...... anæmia ...... laryngismus stridulus, convulsions,cerebral congestion, and hydrocephalus......invagination, tabesmesenterica-in short, all the diseases of infancy in which wecan recognise a failure of the processes of growth and nutritionmay be fairly attributed to fruitless sucking as a principal, ifnot the chief cause."-p. i.

Mr. Ballard thus not only traces most of the diseases peculiarto infancy to one common source, but endeavours to provethat many affections also of the mother during the puerperalstate are, either directly or indirectly, due to the effects of" forcible and prolonged sucking." Chapped nipples, mammaryabscess, after-pains, feverishness, milk fever, and " probablysome of the worst cases of puerperal fever," are believed byMr. Ballard to be due to the cause just mentioned. No doubt

many of our readers will smile at all this, and, as we havealready said, it is our own opinion that the author carries hisviews too far. But we strongly recommend judgment to besuspended, and the work itself to be carefully perused beforeforming a conclusion. One thing we are sure of, that to everypractitioner having much to do with infants and children, aperusal of Mr. Ballard’s volume will be attended with profit.We refer to the book itself, therefore, for all information re-garding the working out of the problem the author proposes,simply remarking that any exaggeration fallen into is fairlycompensated by the freshness of the truths undoubtedly ex-posed.

Journal de la Physiologie de l’Homme et des Animaux.Publiê sous la direction du Dr. BROWN-SÉQUARD. Tome III.No. IX. Paris: Masson. London: Baillire.

Tms journal, now firmly established throughout the scien-tific world, continues to increase in value as it advancesin age and popularity. The present number contains thirteenoriginal memoirs, including the remarkable paper of Robinand Magitot on the Genesis and Development of the DentalFollicles; Ollier’s further Researches on the Periosteum;three papers by the accomplished editor, Dr. Brown Séquard,on the Physiology of parts of the Nervous System, worthy ofthe most distinguished neurologist of the age; and others byGubler, Chauveau, Balbiani, &c. In the subsequent section oftranslated papers, extracts, abridgments, and summaries, acomplete view is afforded of the progress of physiologicalscience throughout the world. We regret to see that Englanddoes not hold a very prominent place in the phalanx; but wemay perhaps hope that now Dr. Brown-Sequard is domiciliatedamongst us, he may find the means of developing more fullythe English contributions to the science which the journalpromises ably to represent and notably to advance.

MEDICAL AUTOGRAPHS.-A sale of interesting medicalautographs is shortly to take place at Paris. Amongst themis one of Ambrose Pare, on parchment, in which he gives areceipt of 25 golden crowns for half a year’s dividend on thestock of the city of Paris. The bulletins respecting the healthof the Duchess of Berry and the Duke of Bordeaux, signed byDupuB tren. Also the autographs of Helvetius, the introducerof ipecacuanha; of Boerhaave, Berzelius, Magendie, Broussais,and others.