April i, i88o]' 



NATURE 



511 



for disease, of so fundamental a character, that it may 

 with reason be called revolutionary. The change, how- 

 ever, is one which so far is but little "undcrstanded of 

 the people," is one, in fact, of which they are almost 

 entirely ignorant. If the question were put to the several 

 members of either House of Parliament, What reasons 

 determine a doctor to give such and such a drug for such 

 and such a disease, and what led to the drug being first 

 used for such a purpose ? the answer would in all but a 

 few exceptional cases run somewhat as follows : — " A 

 doctor gives a particular drugin'a particular case, because 

 he knows from the experience, either of himself or of others, 

 in similar cases, that it is more likely to do good than 

 anything else (or than nothing at all). As to the first 

 use of a drug, that I believe is in most cases lost in 

 obscurity ; and I am told that the use of more recent 

 drugs has either been stolen from some village crony or 

 borrowed from some savage, or suggested by the instinc- 

 tive actions of some domestic or wild animal. I understand 

 that some doctors are fond of ' making experiments,' i.e., 

 of giving new drugs in this or that disease to see if they 

 can cure it. I don't know what reasons lead them in a 

 particular case to experiment with a particular drug, but 

 I suppose they have some reasons. I dare say accident 

 sometimes suggests a possible cure, and I have a sort of 

 an idea that very often one remedy after another is tried 

 at random, in the hope that one of them at least may 

 prove beneficial." To judge from the speeches and 

 writings put forth at the time of the framing of the Vivi- 

 section Act, neither the legislators themselves nor even 

 the more intelligent and educated doctrinaires who 

 pressed for legislation, to say nothing of the common 

 ignorant agitators, had any conception that the u=e of 

 many popular and successful remedies was the result of 

 the recent labours of able and zealous men who had 

 devoted themselves to the scientific investigation of the 

 action of drugs and other agents on the animal economy. 

 In former times undoubtedly therapeutics were to a 

 large extent purely empirical and indeed traditional. 

 But, in spite of the ignorance of the ruling classes and 

 public in general, in spite of the obstructions caused by 

 a clumsy legislation, a great change is taking place. 

 It can no longer be said, as was once said, that a 

 doctor is '' one who puts into a body, of whose actions 

 and powers he knows little, a substance of whose actions 

 and powers he knows less." While physiologists in 

 general have been gaining fuller and fuller insight into 

 the mysterious working of the living economy, a number 

 of men have for years past been investigating, with the 

 help of the most exact methods and appropriate instru- 

 ments, and with all the light afforded by modern chemistry 

 and physics, the more special problems, still, however, 

 physiological in essence, concerning the nature of the 

 changes induced in living bodies by the substances known 

 as drugs or poisons. Already even many precious hints 

 as to therapeutic utility have thus been gained ; already 

 many previously obscure bodies have thus become popular 

 remedies, and in a double sense "in everybody's mouth.'' 

 Sufficient has been done to show that for the new remedies 

 of the future we shall have to apply, not to some wandering 

 gipsy or sagacious dog, but to the experimental pharma- 

 cologists, whose duty it will be to subject to a rigorous 

 inquiry every newly-discovered chemical body or natural 



product, with the view of estimating its therapeutic 

 promise. 



It cannot of course be said that the science of pharma- 

 cology or of therapeutics is at present ripe and complete ; 

 the knowledge is as yet in the early fermentative stage ; 

 a great deal of the work done is of a tentative, preparatory 

 kind ; and the results cannot as yet be fairly judged. 

 But to those who know what has been done and what is 

 being done, the importance and greatness of the change 

 in therapeutics which is thereby being inaugurated, 

 seems almost incapable of exaggeration ; they look 

 forward with confidence to a future, and possibh 

 distant, mastery over disease, compared with which the 

 practice of to-day will seem hardly more than blind 

 stumbling. 



Distinguished among English workers in this line of 

 inquiry is Dr. T. Lauder Brunton ; and in the present 

 little volume, which consists of the Goulstonian Lectures, 

 delivered before the Royal College of Physicians in the 

 spring of 1S77, he lays before his readers a sketch of 

 therapeutics past and present, with the view of showing 

 "how the progress of therapeutics is aided by a:i exact 

 knowledge of the action of drugs obtained by experiment." 



Though addressed primarily to the medical profession, 

 the w-ork is written in a gra;eful popular style, and might 

 be read with pleasure and profit by laymen. Th: first 

 few chapters are occupied with a survey of the progress 

 of medicine in the past, and though agreeably written, 

 and suitable for the purpose intended, viz , as introductory 

 to an understanding of the true method of therapeutic 

 research, are somewhat slight and sketchy. In one or 

 two po ; nts we should feel inclined perhaps to dispute Dr. 

 Brunton's criticisms and judgments. The rest of the work 

 is taken up with a more or less detailed and expository 

 account of the mode of action of certain drugs, such as 

 strychnia, urare, casca, digitalis, &c, the methods of 

 investigation being described with characteristic clearness 

 and the therapeutic indications of the results being 

 judiciously discussed. The book is one which may be 

 studied with benefit by all medical men, and those not 

 belonging to the profession who desire to have an insight 

 into some of the tendencies of modern medicine will find 

 it a trustworthy and intelligent guide. 



THE COM STOCK LODE 

 The Comsiock Lodes *'& Formation and History. By 

 John A. Church, ato. (i\"e.v York: John Wi 

 Sons, 1879.) 



THE great interest attaching to the mines of the Corn- 

 stock lode has led to their being carefully and minutely 

 studied by competent observers at different times. Pro- 

 minent among these is the original investigation of Baron 

 von Richtofen, published at San Francisco in 1866, who, 

 bringing to the task an unusual knowledge of the class of 

 volcanic rocks in which the lode is inclosed, was enabled 

 to sketch out the broad features of the subject in so 

 masterh a manner as to leave little more for later explorers 

 than the filling in of details. These were supplied in 

 very full measure in the magnificent volume of Clarence 

 King and James D. Hague, forming part of the United 

 States Survey of the 40th parallel, copies of which, by the 

 enlightened liberality of the United States Government 



