! 8 2-1. J Medical Report. 533 



thus exposed, soon lost a sixth part of lying and ifs overlying strata (if any), 

 its bulk, and the remainder was tlierehy most probably will prove to lie itlentic. 



much improved in quality. The doefor 

 funnd paper, when used as the covering 

 of a jar, to liave jnst the contrary ellect 

 of bladder ; the spirit quickly escaped in 

 vapour through its pores, and lelt the 

 water behind. 



The distillation ojf palatable and fresh 

 water at sea has been elleeted by P. 

 Nicole, of Dieppe, by simply causing 

 the steam, arising from boiling sea- 

 water in a still, to pass through a 

 stratum of coarsely-ponnded charcoal. 



Chalk was not the Creia mineral of in its way to the condenser or worm- 

 ancient authors. Mr. Siebers, in the tub. 



account of his Travels in Candia, the Bleteorolites. — Mr. R, Tytler, a 



island in the IMediterranean anciently writer in a late Calcutta journal, speak- 



called Crefa, and from wlience the ing of two stones which lately fell from 



Iiatin writers derive their name for 

 chirik, asserts that there are no strata of 

 chalk on that island j but that a white 

 njarl, aboiiii,di!iig in shells, and in some 



the sky near Futtepore, mentions one of 

 them as not being a fragment from a 

 larger muss, contrary, as we believe, to 

 tlic invariable fact ; which in this case 



places indurated, so that possibly it is pretty clearly confirmed, by Mr. T.'s 



might formerly have answered some of own description of the shape of this 



the purposes of chalk, has been erro- stone: it "approaches in figure (says 



neously confounded therewith by modern he) to an irregular hexagon." lu the 



geologists. We trust th;it, ere lon^ 

 numerous series of all the s'lells or other 

 organic remains, from this Candian marl, 

 will reacli En>;land, and have their 

 species critically ascertained, in order 

 to their comparison with shells which 



Same paper, the exploded error is 

 attempted to be revived which referred 

 meteoric stones to our v(dcanoes ; and it 

 is mistakenly asserted, that stones of the 

 true meteoric character have been 

 ejected from Vesuvius, and found scat- 



Mr, Smith, Mr. Parkinson, Mr. Sowerby, tered in great numbers ou its sides. The 



and others, have shown to be charac- theory which considers our meteoric 



tcristic of particular strata in England; stones as ejections from Innar volcanoes, 



with some one of which strata, tliis marl is in all its parts fancifully absurd, 

 of Candia, and consequently its under- 



MEDICAL REPORT. 



Repoet 9/DiSEASES onJ Casualties occurring in the public or private Practice of the 

 I'hijsician wIm has the care of the IVestern District of the City Dispensary. 



'T'HERE is no part of medicine more quite as much of apparent reason, have 



-■- obscure than that which is most open been prescribing antispasmodics, or exhi- 



to fight and sense ; for it is not only in biting diobstruents. So that indolence of 



cutaneous malady, hut in cutaneous re- habit on the one side, and pride of reason- 



meiiy idso, that insuperable diffi'-ulfies ing on the other, may, unless much indi- 



assail our attempts to trace cause, or to vidual caution is exercised, give an inju- 



exi>litiu agency. rious bias to modes of thinking and princi- 



- It is perhaps on this account, and from pies of acting. 



a dislike to practise our art upon mere em- In the course of the last month the 



pirical principles, that medicinal applica- writer has witnessed beneficial effects 



lions to the skin, which were wont to be from plasters applied to the body's surface 



nuich employed by our forefathers, are at in cases where, without having been forced 



the present time in comparative disrepute, almost into their employment, by want of 



The inquiring disposition of this our day success in other means, he confesses that 



strctchi-s out from the pos* into the ;)ro;/<er he should not have thought of their use. 



Itoc, and observation itself is contemned Among several, he may mention three in- 



as a fallacious f;uide, unless we can follow stances in which the opium and cumin 



tile process, as well as arrive at the result, plaster of the Loudon Pharmacopceia have 



On the other hand, habit and fashion rule proved conspicuously serviceable. The 



the roast, in respect to remedial measures, first, a case of obstinate rheumatism, fixed 



beyond what would be suspected, or what upon the large mass of muscular fibres that 



indeed ouKht to be the case. Who is there are connected with the movements of the 



among us that does not find himself admi- 

 justeriiij; alteratives according.' to the diela 

 of the day, who, had he liveil in the days 

 Ok" Culleu ur ol liocrhaavc, would, with 



back and lower liud>s ; the second, one of 

 chronic inflaunuation of the membrane 

 lining the bowels; and the third, an iu- 

 slauceof atrophy, iu which the prevailing 

 irritation 



