372 Analysis of Scientific Books. 
sight of ; among these the diminution of power induced by the 
protracted use of a medicine, and the relative degrees of power 
between the system and the remedy, are important. _How much 
the activity of opium is influenced by habit, is too well known 
to require more than mere mention. And again, when a patient 
has been exhausted by protracted and severe suffering, a dose 
differing from one at the commencement of the disease will, 
probably, be requisite. The variable activity of a medicine 
should also be appreciated, and the practitioner should cau- 
tiously feel his way when employing active but uncertain reme- 
dies : foxglove is particularly in need of this caution. 
The time of day at which remedies should be administered 
also deserves attention, especially where the quiet and com- 
fort of the patient are essentially concerned: in fevers, for 
instance, purgatives should be so timed as to operate in the 
day, in order that the quiet of the night may not be infringed 
upon; and emetics, in similar cases, should be exhibited in the 
evening, because they induce a tendency to sleep and perspira- 
tion, which it is useful to promote. 
Lastly, constitutional peculiarities, or zdiosyncrasies, should 
always be borne in mind. There are habits in which opium 
produces no rest, but great excitement ; in which a small dose 
of calomel is followed by obstinate salivation; in which a 
single grain of James’s powder is succeeded by vomiting and 
repeated faintings ; and we remember the case of a woman who 
was seized with sickness and tenderness of the bowels, and for 
whom an emetic, a purge, and a blister, were prescribed; the 
latter produced gangrenous erysipelas, and she sank under con- 
stant vomiting and a diarrhea which could not be checked. 
The conclusion of this volume treats “ of the particular forms 
of remedies, and the general principles upon which their con- 
struction and administration are to be regulated.” 
In speaking of powders, we think Dr. Paris correct when he 
says that the impalpable form is injurious to cinchona, rhubarb 
and guaiacum, in consequence, of an essential part of their 
substance being chemically changed by the operation. Had 
such an opinion come from us, our author would have called us 
ultra-Chemists. 
The suggestions respecting the changes in form and compo- 
sition which some substances suffer on mixture and trituration, 
should be carefully perused by the practitioner: the liquefaction 
of dry salts, under these circumstances, is not unfrequent ; and 
the physician, by inattention to such circumstances, ‘ will be 
often betrayed into the most ridiculous blunders ; an instance 
of which very lately came to my knowledge in a prescription for 
the relief of cardialgia and constipation in the case of dyspepsia ; 
it directed sulphate of soda and carbonate of potass, in the form 
of a powder, but the /iat of the physician upon this occasion 
