"The first trials which I made to apply the daguerrean method to the reproduction of microscopic objects will be recol· lected. Four years ago I had the honour to present to the Académie des Sciences a daguerreotype microscope, by means of which I had obtained the images of several objects of natural history, and of certain tissues, such as the osseous and the dental. Since then, these trials have been resumed by a young savant, a distinguished amateur of photography. The results obtained by M. Léon Foucault with the daguerreotype microscope, not only on solid objects, but on the intimate particles of fluids,such as the blood corpuscles of different classes of animals, the globules of milk, mucus and pus, zoospermes, &c., are truly most remarkable, and all give a special value to our Atlas. Our collection of designs is not yet complete, but what we already possess permits us to announce to micrographers results altogether worthy of their attention and interest."

The atlas before us is the one promised in the "Cours," and certainly the promises are well fulfilled. The representations of the fluids microscopically examined are beautiful, and their truthfulness cannot admit of question. Portions of the objects seen in the field of the microscope have not been selected; the whole field is given as it presents itself to the eye of the observer, and hence a much more correct idea is formed of the object— than if as in the case of the blood corpuscles-detached portions were selected.

The plates are twenty in number, and afford varied and well executed representations of the blood corpuscles of man and certain animals; the circulation of the blood in the frog's tongue; mucous globules; epidermic cells; vibratory cells of the mucous membrane; pus globules; crystallization of healthy saliva; crystals of cholesterine; globules of yeast, and of fermenting diabetic urine; crystals of nitrate of urea; the crystallization resulting from the evaporation of the urine of a patient affected with typhoid fever; crystals of uric acid; divisions of the micrometer; pulverulent crystallization of urate of ammonia from the urine; minute crystals of uric acid proceeding from the decomposition of urate of ammonia by acetic acid; crystals of oxalate of lime from the urine, and of ammoniaco-magnesian phosphate; white fila. ments, such as are found in the first drops of healthy urine at each emission; blood corpuscles presenting the annular form which they affect when in contact with urine; zoospermes of man

and certain animals; crystallization of healthy urine evaporated on a plate of glass; ovulum of the rabbit in and out of the Graafian vesicle; ovula of the frog and salamander; globules of cow's milk; casein coagulated owing to the decomposition of milk and mixed with milk globules; globules of healthy human milk and of that of the ass and goat; the colostrum of the human female; milk of a woman delivered eight days, and not giving suck; muscæ volitantes; globules of potatoe starch; blood corpuscles of the salamander; and pollen grains of the flower of the mallow.

Great variety of illustration is presented; and both "Atlas" and "Cours" ought to be in the possession of every histologist and microscopist.

Address to the Graduates of Geneva Medical College, deliverea January 26th, 1847. By CHARLES ALFRED LEE, A. M., M. D., Professor of General Pathology and Materia Medica in Geneva Medical College, etc. etc. Published by request of the Gra

ter.

duates.

This is an able address, and admirably suited to the occasion on which it was delivered. The valedictory address of a professor to his pupils, is almost necessarily monitory in its characIt is like the parting words of a parent to his son, pointing to his moral responsibilities and the great ethical rules by which he should be governed, and hence we rarely look for anything original, argumentative or ingenious; but it is something to express ordinary truths in language befitting the occasion, and calculated to win the attention, engage the affections, and persuade the judgment of the hearers. In these respects Dr. Lee has certainly been successful. We have room for only one or two extracts, which we select, not for any novelty in either the subjects or the sentiments, but for their importance and truthfulness.

"For some time after commencing your professional life, you will probably have some leisure time on your hands, which you can turn to profitable account by devoting it to study. Be not discouraged at the want of speedy success; your merits will eventually be known, and you will be rewarded accordingly. Justice will sooner or later be done you, and if you aim at eminence, and your efforts are well directed, you will attain it. Aim first at the establishment of character and reputation, with the full assurance that all desirable consequences will follow in their train.

Turn not aside into any of the devious, albeit fashionable, paths of quackery, so rife at the present day, by whatever specious name they may be known; sacrifice not your prospects and your good name by becoming the adherents of any partial and exclusive systems of medicine, for you may rest assured that they will all speedily disappear like the baseless fabric of a vision.' Belittle not your honorable title of PHYSICIAN by prefixing to it any distinctive or diminutive epithet, be it Thomsonian, Homœopathic, or Hydropathic; for why should you do this? Is not he who stands upon the broad platform of catholic medicine more likely to be better armed for attacking disease, than he who occupies some insignificant redoubt, or petty loop-hole. Is there any want of freedom of opinion in our profession? Is not every one at liberty to construct his own articles of faith, drawing from every system whatever portion of truth it may contain, and shape his practice accordingly? Medicine is not, as many seem to suppose, a system of rules and doctrines handed down from teacher to pupil, admitting no change, a set of formulæ which you are bound to sustain, and from which it were heresy to swerve; but it is a progressive and constantly improving science, and every true and sincere votary of it will employ all the remedies, means and resources within his reach, which accident or science has discovered, and observation and experiment verified. Away, then, with your partial systems which inevitably and professedly limit these means, and virtually nullify these resources. There is, indeed, Gentlemen, a sad relaxation of principle at the present day, even in some who are regarded as among the most distinguished members of the profession, as manifested by their patronage and recommendation of patented and secret remedies; a course of conduct which is obviously incompatible with every sentiment of moral duty, and every principle of sound medical ethics. To keep from the world any discovery calculated to benefit mankind, as connected with the preservation of hunian health, or its restoration when lost, is such a dereliction of duty, as to have met with the reprobation of the wise and good in every age of the world; and when this is done, as it generally is, for the sake of pecuniary emolument, the mind instinctively revolts at it, as an exhibition of selfishness and insensibility to human suffering disgraceful to our natures, and derogatory to the character of those who belong to a profession, whose foundation is philanthropy, and whose crowning glory is benevolence. Give not, then, the slightest encouragement to remedies of this description, or their inventors; frown indignantly upon all attempts to render our glorious art a mercenary trade; disgrace not your Alma Mater and your own reputation, by countenancing, in the slightest degree, any unworthy proceed

ings of this kind, for by so doing you will justly forfeit all title to respect, and take rank with the Brandreths and Moffats of the day. The time is not distant when such a deep stain of disgrace must inevitably attach to patentees and proprietors of secret remedies in our profession, that neither the waters of Lethe will be able to obliterate, nor the exhibition of Letheon' to bury in oblivion.

Should any of you, then, hereafter discover a remedy calculatep to benefit the world, publish it upon the house-top, imitate the goodness of Providence, and make it free as the air we breathe; for the consciousness of having done a good deed for humanity, the gratitude of an intelligent community, and the praises of a liberal profession, shall prove a most satisfactory reward.

There is one duty which you owe to yourselves, to the sick who may be entrusted to your charge, and to society, by whose favour and confidence you are to be sustained, and this is-to shun the use of intoxicating drinks. I urge this upon you, Graduates of Geneva College, by every consideration of duty, of honour, of interest, and of philanthropy; I charge you, as you value reputation, usefulness, success, and an approving conscience, ever adhere to the strictest rules of temperance. You owe this to those who have sustained you thus far, and furnished you with the means of obtaining a medical education; you owe it to your teachers who have labored to instruct you in the various branches of your art, and who feel an anxious desire for your prosperity; you owe it to the beloved Alma Mater, who sends you forth with pride this day, to carry health and virtue and gladness to those who come within your influence; you owe it to the profession whose bright escutcheon must never be soiled by your example; you owe it to society in whose ranks you are now to be enrolled, we trust among its most valued and respected members; you owe it to your hopes of usefulness here, and of happiness hereafter; you owe it to a reformed and enlightened public opinion; and, lastly, you owe it to your God. As you go forth, then, upon the serious errand of your lives--an errand requiring the keen eye, the cool head, the steady hand, the sound judgment-take this, my solemn and affectionate warning, along with you; carry it into the social circle and the recesses of pri vate life; take it into the hospitable mansions of the rich and the lowly dwellings of the poor; remember it in the hour of tempta. tion and trial; heed it when the syren voice of pleasure beckons you along her flowery paths; so shall your lives flow equably along; your cup of happiness be filled; your days crowned with usefulness, and your names with honour."

THE MEDICAL EXAMINER.

PHILADELPHIA, APRIL, 1847.

APPLICATION OF REMEDIES TO THE INFLAMED SURFACE IN CHRONIC LARYNGITIS.

We observe in certain of the Medical journals somewhat intemperate discussions in regard to the first employment of topical remedies to the inflamed surface in chronic laryngitis; and great credit is given to Dr. Green of New York for having been an originator of the practice. Dr. Green's work has not been sent to us, and therefore we know nothing of the facts and arguments which he employs, but no reader of the productions of the day ought to be ignorant, that the works on the Practice of Medicine published in this country in 1842 contained details of the method advised by MM. Trousseau and Belloq, to whom the main credit is due for the introduction of topical agents into the larynx. The first edition of Dr. Dunglison's Practice of Medicine, published in 1842, and therefore written some time previously, refers to it, and so does Dr. Bell's edition of Stokes's Lectures, published in the same year. An injudicious exercise of friendship is often most detrimental to the cause which it is intended to support, and we think that Dr. Green has had ample cause to exclaim--"Save me from my friends!"

INSENSIBILITY DURING SURGICAL OPERATIONS.

In a former number, we mentioned that a patent had been taken out by two gentlemen in Boston, for the discovery of a mode of rendering patients insensible to the pain caused by severe surgical operations. It was then spoken of as a "compound gas," and since called "letheon." Misled at the time by the name given to the substance employed, we conjectured that it was an ethereal solution of some narcotic. It is now ascertained by numerous experiments, that sulphuric ether alone posseses the virtues claimed for the "letheon" or "compound gas," and hence much of the mystery with which the subject was sought to be enenveloped is dispelled, and as we believe it is generally conceded, both in this country and Europe, that the patent is invalid, the repugnance we felt towards any extended notice of the matter is removed, and we