Notices 7-especting New Books. 443 



judgement of professional men and medical critics, we shall confine 

 our attention to the scientific part of the work, with the remark only, 

 that we observe among the names of the contributors to the former, 

 that of one of the best anatomists and physiologists of Ireland, Mr. 

 Hart, whose assistance, we presume, will be a guarantee for the abi- 

 lity and attention with which this department of the Dublin Journal 

 will be conducted. The editor of tue Journal, we are informed, by a 

 memorandum on the copy we have received from the publishers, is 

 R. J. Kane, Esq., M.R.I.A., Professor of Chemistry to the Dublin 

 Apothecaries' Hall. 



The Number is divided into three sections, viz., " Original Commu- 

 nications," " Bibliographic Notices," and " Scientific Intelligence." 

 In the first section we have to mention four articles. The first of 

 these, on the " Effect of Prussic Acid on the Tipula or Crane- Fly," by 

 Maurice Scaulan, Esq., does not require particular remark : the 

 author found the prussic acid to excite the oviposition of the insect, 

 by which means he was enabled to examine the mechanism of the 

 ovipositor, which, he states, is not described by Kirby and Spence. 

 The second scientific communication is by the Editor himself, and is 

 entitled, " On the Composition of the Urine and Blood in Diabetes Mel- 

 iUus." Having examined this paper with some attention, we regret 

 that we are compelled entirely to differ from Mr. Kane in our esti- 

 mate of the conclusions to be "drawn from his analytical experiments 

 on diabetic urine; while those he has given on the composition of the 

 blood in that disease do not afford any new information on the sub- 

 ject; the non-existence ot sugar in such blood having been long ago 

 determined by Dr. Wollaston and other chemists. On the former sub- 

 ject, however, we must make a few remarks. Mr. Kane's analyses, 

 he states, have led him to the conclusion that, in diabetes,— so far from 

 that alternation in quantity of sugar and urea in the urine, according 

 to the greater or less aggravation of the disease, really taking ))lace, 

 which Dr. Prout has designated as one of the most remarkable facts in 

 medicine with which we are acquainted, — " the urea is not at all 

 diminished in quantity, but a man secretes in a given time as much of 

 that principle while dying of the most severe saccharine diabetes, as 

 he does in a state of the most perfect health." Now we infer, on the 

 contrary, from the analyses of diabetic urine given by Mr. Kane, that 

 the prevailing view of the subject is the true one ; or that if this be not 

 the case, his results do not support an opposite view. Dr. Front remarks 

 that in diabetes "the quantity of urea is almost always very much 

 diminished, though," he continues, " I have never met with a speci- 

 men in which it was entirely absent." (Inquiry, &c., 1st edit. p. CI.) 

 Mr. Kane's analyses fully substantiate this remark, and this is all that 

 can be deduced from them, as a proper comparison of them with the 

 results of the analysis of healthy urine by Bcrzelius will evince. We 

 have not room to enter further into this subject. — The next scientific 

 paper is a translation of M. Dumas's interesting " Observations on 

 Isomerism" from the Aiinales de Chimie, but oddly enough introduced 

 into the section headed "Original Communications." We have to 

 remark that the translation of this i)aper i.s very indifferently executed, 



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