358 OnFormulce expresst7ig the relative Importance of Boroughs. 



kidneys be in this way induced to do their duty and renew 

 the secretion of urine? And might not the whey-looking matter, 

 which is thrown out of the body by vomiting and purging, 

 and which obviously consists chiefly of the serum of blood, 

 cease to be thrown into the stomach and intestines ? Were a 

 current of galvanism passed for a few hours at a time through 

 the lungs, it is probable that such a change would be induced 

 in the blood as would lead to the restoration of health. The 

 symptoms of cholera are very similar to those from poison, 

 and are probably connected with the same cause, namely, lesion 

 of the nerves of respiration. It is not improbable that a gal- 

 vanic current passed through the lungs might produce bene- 

 ficial effects in cases of mineral poisons : at any rate, the effect 

 of it in such cases deserves a fair trial- 

 All the medicines tried in cholera in Glasgow were of little 

 or no value. Emetics, opium, stimulants, heat and blood- 

 letting, were tried in vain. Galvanism, which I consider as the 

 most promising medicine of all, was scarcely attempted ; yet 

 it surely deserves a fair trial, and seems to me more likely to 

 produce beneficial consequences than any other mode of treat- 

 ment hitherto proposed. 



L. On the Formula; for expressi7ig the relative Importance of 

 the Boroughs. By A Correspondent. 



To the Editors of the Philosophical Magazine and Annals. 

 Gentlemen, 

 T^HE article in your Journal for March last, " On the 

 -^ Formula for the Boroughs," is a very learned production. 

 Most probably it was a ruse contrived by some anti-reformer 

 to mystify and suggest objections in order to lengthen debate, 

 and delay the progress of the Bill through the House. The 

 scientific talents of the author are displayed in the investiga- 

 tion of a rule for the relative importance of two boroughs. 

 Now let us apply the rule to the case of three: — arrange these 

 in any three ways so that each shall stand first in its tui'n ; 

 then, in every separate order, compute by the rule the im- 

 portance of the first borough relatively to the other two, and 

 we shall find three different scales, instead of one scale, dif- 

 ferently arranged. The rule of the two boroughs may there- 

 fore be set aside, and in effect it is lost sight of by introdu- 

 cing a supposititious borough equal in amount of houses and 

 taxes to all the boroughs ; by which ingenious device the scale 

 demanded is at last found by adding the respective numbers 

 in two lists, one proportional to the liouses, and the other pro- 

 portional 



