Cronian Lectures on the Colon. 167 



months after, and she frequently vomited blood. On opening the 

 body after death, the internal coat of the stomach was discovered 

 inflamed. During my examination, I was asked by the court whe- 

 ther the appearances would not occur without the ill-treatment she 

 had received ; upon my affirmative answer, that such appearances 

 sometimes occurred from constitutional causes, the judge directed 

 the jury to acquit the prisoner, who was on his trial for murder. 

 Dr. Yelloley's excellent paper on this subject was not then pub- 

 lished. Medico-Chirurg. Trans. Vol. iv. p. 371. 



The absolute necessity of a previous knowledge of anatomy to 

 the judicious practice of physic, is apparent at first sight, and needs 

 no illustration, yet the most accurate acquaintance with it is insuf- 

 ficient to explain the phenomena exhibited in the animal body ; 

 the study of physic is the study which qualifies a man for being- a 

 physician. He should be acquainted with midwifery and surger)', 

 for the study of physic includes these, though not for manual practice : 

 but this is not a dissertation on the qualifications and duties of a 

 physician. The subject is a very interesting one, particularly at 

 the present period, but any further indulgence in it would be a 

 departure from the matter of these lectures. 



Proceedings of the Royal Institution. 



The weekly evening meetings of the Members of the Royal Institu- 

 tion were resumed for the season, on Friday, the 25th of January. On 

 this occasion the subject brought forward for illustration was the dis- 

 covery of the vegetable salifiable bases, and more especially of those 

 alkaline substances which form the active principles in opium, and 

 in the different species of cinchona. Mr. Brande observed, that 

 these discoveries were not only curious as chemical investigations, 

 but of the highest importance in their applications to medicine ; 

 he traced the history of the discovery of morphia, or the active 

 principle of opium, and gave the credit of its discovery (and of 

 the train of inquiry dependent upon it, so ably followed up by 

 Pelletier and Caventou) to Sertuerner. The methods of obtaining 

 morphia were described, specimens of it, and of some of its salts, 

 were exhibited, and the properties of narcotine, another proximate 

 principle of opium, but not salifiable, were adverted to. These in- 

 vestigations were chiefly dwelt upon as being the origin of subse- 

 quent discoveries in this difficult department of chemistry; but 

 Mr. Brande observed, that in regard to their practical application 



