recognized, till a humble individual in the Alpine fastnesses of Switzerland, whose mind embraces thoughts as grand as the mountain scenery by which he is surrounded, developed a new idea, and idiots began to have their wrongs unfolded, their neglected condition narrated, their feeble bodies cared for, and their imperfect glimmerings of reason guided by his genius. This was but an experiment, but it is now acknowledged to have been successful, and idiots are hereafter, while civilization endures, to have their share of the world's sympathies and bounty. Dr. Guggenbuhl, of Adenburg, on the top of a vast mountain, three thousand feet above Interlaken, and under the frowning brow of the Joun Frau-a snow bank towering to the sky is quietly carrying on the laborious occupation of developing the feeble intellect of idiots. He seeks no applause, covets no renown, and yet distant nations relate his achievements for humanity. All other schools organized for the instruction of this unfortunate class of children, either in Europe or America, are but imitations.

This brings us to the consideration of an often propounded question, what is doing in New England, or the United States in general, for idiots ? Massachusetts appropriates, annually, a specific sum for carrying on a course of systematic discipline and instruction; and New York State has organized a State Institution for the same very benevolent purpose. Beyond these, we have no knowledge of any public efforts, in this direction. There is one private asylum, under the care of Dr. Brown, at Barre, Mass., distinguished for its good order and training, at which parents and guardians may place unfortunate children of this description, with the certainty of having them kindly treated.

An important query, in connection with this subject, deserves attention. Is there any period when a pupil can leave the idiot school and return home, so elevated and instructed, that his habits of cleanliness and deport ment may be considered permanently established, and a course of personal industry and propriety expected? Our own observations, made on a visit to Dr. Guggenbuhl's establishment, led us to the conclusion that in the most favorable cases, the children require the vigilant attentions of instructers, to keep them up to a point of propriety necessary to make them tolerable in a family. An institution, therefore, should rather be designed for their constant home, than as a hospital for cure or a temporary residence. No efforts, however well directed or persistent, can change the organization of the cranium, or create in the brain organs which are missing. The process of developing suspended powers is a tedious one, and the laws by which it is accomplished seem to be imperfectly known. Still, since nothing is really impossible in regard to the progress of knowledge, subsequent ages may greatly advance upon the present limited attainments of physiologists and phrenologists, in the management of idiots.

With these views, it strikes us that it would be an act of sterling benevolence, and in accordance with Christian legislation, to have State Asylums for these unfortunates. The number of idiots in Massachusetts is much larger than is generally suspected, and many of them have poor parents, who are unable to provide for their every-day necessities. A public establishment would ensure comfort and order, and some degree of moral culture, and relieve those who are not able to bear the burden of maintaining them. If the incurable insane are thus furnished a home for life, it is equally imperative that idiotic children should be looked after. A house and grounds, somewhere in the interior, would not be expensive, and the propriety of the step would hardly be questioned even by the sturdiest political grumblers in the land.

Longevity. Some men live longer than others who are exposed to the same circle of influences, and whose bodies are nourished by the same kind of food. Neither regimen, therefore, nor the mental or physical activity of individuals, can alone very essentially modify the length of days of any one. The world abounds with persons who have battled with the elements, with poverty, hunger and oppression, and are still fighting their way in extreme old age, vigorous as ever. Donald McDonald, at the age of one hundred and seven, some years since, was sent to the House of Correction, in Boston, for being quarrelsome and a drunkard. And yet we are accustomed to speak of the hardships that abridge life. On the other hand, thousands who walk with the utmost propriety, violating neither physical nor statute laws, die long before reaching their three score and ten years. The quakers, in their extreme moderation and subjection of the passions, are selected as eminent examples of long life, the result of personal training in virtue, temperance, and honesty. But longevity is not exclusively their lot. On the deserts of Arabia, near the borders of Palestine, old, dried-up specimens of humanity are numerous, who have smoked, drank strong coffee, and played the robber, yet have passed through more. than one hundred and twenty years, without a day of indisposition, without the loss of a tooth, a dimness of the eye, or an abatement, as it was said of Moses, of their natural forces. Where, then, shall the medical philosopher look for the causes of longevity, or those of premature death?

Carpenter's Physiology.-The new and enlarged edition of this work gains upon the reader at every fresh perusal. Limited as man's acquaintance is with the laws of life, it is both gratifying and instructive to contemplate, in a work like this, the immense labor achieved, and the knowledge gained, by modern physiologists. They have narrowly studied each and every function within their ken, and so closely interpreted nature, that if they have failed on some points, in others nothing bas escaped them. The nervous system is now the field for exploration. Those slender white threads, creeping along the muscles; the spinal cord; and, lastly, the brain, even with the flood of light that has been thrown upon its organization, still put the anatomist at defiance, and perplex the physiologist, notwithstanding the aid derived from microscopical research. Carpenter is in no way behind the age, and his book certainly embraces all that is really known as physiological truth. Rich as our libraries are in researches connected with physiology, this colossal volume from the Philadelphia press should be added.

Introduction to Clinical Medicine.-A small volume, embracing six lectures, on the method of examining patients; percussion and auscultation ; the use of the microscope, and the diagnosis of the skin, by John Hughes Bennett, M.D. &c., Professor of the Institutes of Medicine in the Univer. sity of Edinburgh, has been received direct from the Scotland publishers, Messrs. Southerland & Knox. This is the second edition, improved, which we trust will be published here, because it is precisely the kind of work to be purchased. There are some good wood engravings, which very much assist the student in his examinations and explorations. It would be an idle expenditure of time to comment on any production from the pen of a man like Dr. Bennett, whose reputation needs no props in any country where medicine is taught. When a treatise has been the

subject of examination by us, we like to inform the reader where copies of it may be had, especially if it possesses the weight of character and utility which belongs to this; but, unfortunately for the profession, Dr. Bennett's work is not yet to be had in America, though it should be reprinted by some of the enterprising houses engaged in medical printing.

Medical Miscellany. - George Cleney lately died near Germantown, Ohio, at the age of 108 years and 17 days.-A new medical college edifice has been commenced at Charleston, S. C.-Dr. S. Hume, of Lancaster, Pa., who died lately, bequeathed $2000 towards erecting an asylum for the reformation of drunkards.-Louis Derby died at New Orleans, at the age of 120 years, on the 2d of Jan. He was a native of Africa.-A strange disease is reported to be doing the work of death at Galena, Illinois, and at Dubuque, Iowa.-Dr. John S. Butler, physician of the Retreat for the Insane, at Hartford Conn., sailed recently for Europe, being in ill health, and unable to attend to his official duties.-Dr. Redfield has been lecturing in New York on physiognomy, with illustrations.According to the official returns, twenty-six hundred and fifty persons died of cholera at St. Jago, Cuba, in October, November and December last, out of a population of 30.000 to 35.000 souls. During the height of the pestilence, a terrible earthquake occurred, which destroyed many of the best buildings in the city. The New York Tribune says that David E. Buss, the young medi cal student who was stabbed by his room-mate and fellow-student, Wm. Erwin, on Tuesday afternoon, still lies in a critical situation at his boarding. house. The difficulty is said to have grown out of a dispute relative to the ingredients necessary to the compounding of a certain medicine.-Dr. Geo. W. Kittredge, of N. H. is nominated for Congress in that State. The Suffolk District Medical Society continues to meet the last Saturday of each month. in Boston, at the Masonic_Temple.-The cholera was raging dreadfully at the last accounts from Persia. One thousand deaths occurred daily at Tauris.-A homeopathic hospital is to be opened in London.— The Legislature of Alabama has passed a law requiring all homeopathic practitioners of that state to possess a diploma from a homeopathic college, or they will not be considered regulars. The deaths in London for the week ending Dec. 11th, were 1012- only two of them by smallpox.

ca.

MARRIED, Samuel Fultou, M D., of Pontiac, Michigan, to Miss H. C. Fisher.

DIE,-At Astoria, N Y., Dr. Junius Smith, the first to introduce the growing of tea in Ameri He was a man of great energy and enterprise.-At New York, Walter Jardine, Esq., an English surgeon, by suicide, growing out of extreme poverty and destitution, 35.—Dr. Charles Chandler, of Andover. Vt., 81.-At Charleston, S. C., of yellow fever, Dr. John A. Cleveland. -Mr. Alex. Walker, the ingenious author of a work on the Nervous System," and others on "Beauty," ‚” “Woman," "Intermarriage," &c., which displayed much original research, died at an advanced age at Leith, on Tuesday, December 7th.-At Old Aberdeen, Dr. Rodrick M'Leod, late one of the physicians of St. George's Hospital.

Deaths in Boston-for the week ending Saturday noon, Feb. 5th, 91.-Males, 35-females, 56. Inflammation of bowels, 3-congestion of the brain, 1-consumption, 20-convulsions, 2croup, 4-cancer, 1-dropsy, 1-dropsy in he d, 3-debility, 1-infantile diseases, 6-puerperal, 2 -erysipelas, 1-typhus fever, 1-typhoid do., 2-scarlet do., 21-hooping cough, 1-hemorrhage, 1-disease of the heart, 1-inflammation of the lungs, 7-congestion of the lungs, 1-disease of the liver, 1-marasmus, 3-old age, 2-pleurisy, 1-scrofula, 2-teething, 1-worms, 1.

Under 5 years, 44-between 5 and 20 years. 15-between 20 and 40 years, 16-between 40 and 60 years, 8-over 60 years, 8. Born in the United States, 74-Ireland, 15—British Provinces, 1-Germany, 1.

Veratrum Viride, as an Arterial Sedative. - Dr. W. C. Norwood, of Cokesbury, S. C., has been very successful in the use of the American hellebone in various affections requiring a diminution of the heart's action. Two extracts are given below, from a paper of his lately published.

"Called, in February, 1847, to see a son of Mrs. T., laboring under a violent attack of paeumonia, we put him on the use of veratrum viride every three hours. Although 12 years of age, his general slender health and deformed chest, having been severely afflicted with asthma, induced us to commence with a very small dose, that we might avoid any drastic effect of the remedy. The first portion given was two drops, to be increased one drop every portion until the slightest nausea was experienced, then to lessen or discontinue the remedy, as the case might require. On taking the third or fourth portion, Mrs. T. discovered that he was getting very pale, that the skin was cool and moist, and pain scarcely felt only on taking a full inspiration. The slowness of the pulse and the pallor and coolness of the surface alarmed her, and she sent for us. We found him pale, cool, moist, and with a pulse beating 35, full and distinct. When put on the tincture, in the morning. his pulse was 120 to 125, skin hot and dry, frequent and labored breathing, pain severe, great thirst. In the short space of twelve or fifteen hours the symptoms were subdued, and by continuing the tincture in doses of from two to three and four drops, there was no renewal of the symptoms."

In 1850 we first entered on a trial of the tincture of veratrum viride in the treatment of typhoid fever. It was due to our patients and to justice that we should proceed with caution. We accordingly, at first, gave it in mild and moderately severe cases, avoiding its use at first in all cases of unusual severity and malignancy. We first used it in the case of a negro boy of Mrs. W., which was uncomplicated and yielded readily. When called, on the third day of the disease, the bowels had been moved sufficiently by a cathartic of calomel, followed by repeated portions of camphorated Dover's powder, without abatement of the symptoms. The skin was hot and dry, great thirst, severe pain in the forehead; the eyes dull, heavy and ecchymosed; tongue covered in the centre with a dark, thin fur, tip and edges very red and dry; pulse 127, small, soft and with quickness in the stroke, that indicated greater frequency than really existed. The patient was ordered a 6 drop dose, to be increased till nausea or vomiting occurred. By mistake the dose was not increased. After continuing the treatment twelve hours, there being no abatement in the symptons, we were notified of the fact and wrote to increase until an impression was made, and that we would see the patient in twelve hours. During the absence of the messenger, Mrs. W. discovered that the dose was to be increased, and did so, and when this reached eight drops there was free vomiting, with a subsidence of all febrile symptoms, the severe pain in the head excepted. At the expiration of twelve hours, we found the boy with a skin cool and moist, thirst materially abated, and the pulse reduced to fifty-six beats. A blister was applied to relieve the unmitigated pain in the head, and the veratrum viride was continued four days without any return of the symptoms."-Southern Med. Journal.

Loose Sleeves of Ladies.-A celebrated German physician is about to publish, in Berlin, a scientific condemnation of the present loose sleeves worn by the ladies. He proves that they promote rheumatism and all kinds of complaints, and recommends a return to the long and close sleeves of a former period.

M.D., No. 21 Rowe street, or to the President, BojlKquantity of the above new remedy for Tape

JOOTS TREMOST ROW, BOSTON: 203
JOVES, WHITE & MCCURDY'S DENTAL PURE CONCENTRATED CHLORIC ETHER