1824.] Medical 



matter of the Lampyris noctiluca, or 

 Glow-worm, read at the Liuiuuaii So- 

 ciety, after detailing tlic opinions of 

 various naturalists on the nature and 

 cause of the light of the glow-worm 

 and other luminous insects, proceeds 

 to relate his own expcrimeuls, which 

 show that this light is nut connected 

 with the respiration, nor derived from 

 the solar light ; tiiat it is not affected 

 by C0I4, nor by magnetism, nor by 

 submersion in water. Trials of im- 

 mersion in water of various tempera- 

 tures, and in oxygen, are detailed. 

 When a glow-worm v as immersed in 

 carbonic acid gas, it died, shining bril- 



Rcport. 79 



liantly : in hydrogen it continued <o 

 shiue, and did not seem to sufTer. Mr. 

 Murray infers that the luminoiisness is 

 independent not only ot'tlie respiration 

 but of the volition and vital principle, 

 home of the luminous matter obtained 

 iu a detached stale was also suijjeeted 

 to various experiments,' from wliich it 

 appears to be a sui^^'iio-albumiiious 

 substance mixed with muriate of soda 

 aud sulphate of aiumine and potash, 

 and to be couiposed of spherules. The 

 light is considered to be permanci:t, 

 its occultations being caused by tlic 

 interposition of an opaque medium. 



MEDICAL REPORT. 



Report o/" Diseases a/irZ Casualties occurring in the public and private Practice 

 of llie Pkysician who has the care of the Western District of the Citij Dispensary. 



stractcdiy are nothing but inert substance, 

 are, when nnited with ilie active portions 

 of the same medicinal, capable of bringing 

 out, as it were, these properties into 

 more powerfid manifestation. Sarsapa- 

 rilla, for instance, respecting wliicli so 

 much has recently been said, and thought, 

 and done, if it possess any virtne at all, 

 possesses it as a whole, (hat is, in combi- 

 nation with its woody fibre, and not as an 

 inc;cnioii3 manipulator of the present day 

 seems to suppose, by a particnlar clement, 

 disunited from the fibre ; and, when the 

 writer hears talk of Blorphiu and Qiiinin, 

 and hundreds of ins and outs besides, he 

 thinks of Gallic ingenuity and imposing 

 Gallimatia, rather than of absolute im- 

 provement and practical good.* 



But, while we reject the specious, 

 merely, of proposed innovations, let iis 

 be'careful at the same time not to be in- 

 fluenced by objections which may ori- 

 ginate in party spirit, or indolence of 

 disposition. In medicine, as in other 

 matters, we must, trying all things, hold 

 fast to that which is good ; out, at the 

 same time, not he blown about by 

 every wind of doctrine that might impede 

 onr steady course iu the straight-forward 

 paths of science, good sense, and unbi- 

 assed observation : from the subtillies of 

 high-flown speculation on the one hand, 

 however, and vltl-woman common-place on 

 the other, may be occasionally selected 

 wholesome 



J I 'HE prevailing disorder of the month, 

 •■- especially in some of the districts in 

 which the Reporter practises, has been 

 scarlatina; and occasionally a sort of in- 

 ternal tendency, if it may be so said, has 

 been manifested in the character of the 

 specific poison upon which the distemper 

 depends, thus aflecting the membranes of 

 the brain and the sensorial fniirtions, 

 rather than fully developing itsiilf in its 

 more usual and less formidable locality 

 — the external surface. It is in these 

 rases that the carbonate of ammonia, to 

 the excellencies of which the writer has 

 more than once before adverted, proves so 

 conspicuously applicable; and in defiance 

 of the common principles which regulate 

 prescription, in respect to chemical com- 

 bination, the writer has even found his 

 account, in employing what has been sug- 

 gested to him by a friend, viz. the union 

 of the carbonate of ammonia with the 

 sulphate of magnesia. 



It may uot be amiss to emb'ace the 

 present occasion of saying, that fhemical 

 Jaws, in respect to medicinal agency, have 

 been looked up to, and acted upon, rather 

 too much in the abstract; and this ob- 

 jection, in some measure, applies asainst 

 the principle of concentration, that has 

 recently been proposed and adopted, par- 

 ticularly by the French school and its 

 JJritiih partizans. It has been the aim of 

 the cliomico-medical philosopher to de- 

 tect the especial something upon which 

 the virtue of a given substance depends : 

 to extricate this something from its atlach- 

 mcnt to other poitions of the material, 

 and thus to concentrate the virtues and 

 simjilify the action of therapeutic agents ; 

 but m these closet speculations, bedroom 

 facts have b(!(n too nmch overlooked ; 

 ami it is a substantial truth, that several 

 parU of a plant, which in sc and ab- 



* A condjination, rather than separation 

 of remedial powers, appears to the Re- 

 porter to be in the general way of most 

 importance, in order to insure full eflicacy. 

 How often do we find, that a union in one 

 recipe of three or fo4n- of the vegetable 

 narcotics, will prove more op(!ralive in 

 allaying irritation than the s:ime or even 

 a larger quantity of a single uiatciial. 



