[385 ] 



LXI. Notices respecting Nens Books. ^* 



'The Elements of Medical Chemistry ,- emhracing only those 

 Branches of Chemical Science which are calculated to illus- 

 trate or explain the different Objects of Medicine -, and to 

 furnish a Chemical Grammar to the Author'' s Pharmacologia. 

 Illustrated by numerous Engravings on Wood, By John 

 Ayrton Paris, M.D. F.R. & L.S., Fellow of the Royal 

 College of Physicians of London, &c. London, 1825. 

 Svo. pp. 586 : with an appendix of tables. 



T^HIS work, Dr. Paris informs us, — in a spirited "dialogue 

 -*- between the author and a practitioner who is about t J 

 direct the medical studies of his son" which serves as a preface 

 to it, — is founded ujron the notes from which he formerly lec- 

 tured. " And as my pupils were entirely medical," he observes, 

 " it was my care to collect all the chemical facts of professional 

 interest, to conduct the student to a knowledge of their 

 princi})les by the shortest path, and to remove from his road 

 every adventitious object that might obstruct his progress, 

 or unprofitably divert his attention." 



Li these objects, we think*Dr. Paris has been eminently 

 successful in the work before us : it is an excellent and ad- 

 mirably arranged selection of facts from the best authorities 

 on the subjects of which it treats, combined and applied in 

 such a manner as evinces the author to be a master of the 

 science of" Medical Chemistry." Nor is it deficient in ori- 

 ginal views, where alone in such a work they were to be ex- 

 pected, — on the relations of chemistry to physiology and pa- 

 thology : and we cannot do better, perhaps, than quote, as 

 a specimen of the author's style and manner of treating his 

 subjects, part of his statement " In what manner Chemistry 

 is subservient to Medicine," &c. After stating the specious 

 objection to the utility of chemical science in physiology, 

 founded upon the axiom " that animated bodies are not only 

 enabled to resist all the laws of inanimate matter, but even to 

 act on all around them in a manner entirely contrary to those 

 laws," he enters into the following examination of this argu- 

 ment and some of its bearings : — 



" 8. Nor must it be forgotten that in some of the functions 

 of th<; living body, the vital energy would seem rather to cor- 

 respond in its action with chemical affinity, than to oppose 

 or supersede its influence ; and several of the senses may be 

 said to owe their energies to the perfection of organs which 

 are entirely constructed upon philosophical principles. Thus 

 re the laws of optics and acoustics in active operation during 



Vol. 65. No. 325. May 1825. 3 C the 



