.160 Dispensatory of the United States. 



our authors have inserted a well written and valuable account of the 

 chemical and physical characters of pure water, the ingredients which 

 usually deteriorate its qualities, the mode of detecting them, with a 

 statement of the common distinct properties of spring, river, well, 

 lake and marsh water, and, what is very judicious in a work of this 

 kind, a brief account of the principal mineral waters of the United 

 States, and of some of the most celebrated in Europe. The article 

 terminates with some appropriate observations on the use of wat,er 

 as a bath. 



The article Hydrargyrum, with the various preparations of mer- 

 cury, occupies thirty three pages, and bears the marks of great care^ 

 skill and research. 



In the account of Alcohol, which is full and accurate, it is very 

 properly observed, that "physicians ought to be on their guard, not 

 to prescribe alcoholic remedies in chronic diseases, whether alone or 

 in the form of tinctures, for fear of begetting habits of intemperance 

 in their patients. As an article of daily and dietetic use, alcoholic 

 liquors produce the most deplorable consequences. Besides the 

 moral degradation which they cause, their habitual use gives rise to 

 dyspepsia, hypochondriasis, visceral obstructions, dropsy, paralysis, 

 and not unfrequently mania." 



Under lodinum, which takes up five pages, the physician and 

 apothecary will find a good account of a substance but recently in- 

 troduced into the materia medica, and which already holds a valuable 

 rank in the cure of glandular and other diseases. 



The account of the Leech we deem to be so well drawn up, and 

 furnishing withal an article so appropriate to a sciendfic journal, that 

 we cannot deny ourselves the pleasure of inserting it entire, although 

 at the risk of extending our notice of the present work beyond the 

 limits usually assigned to the review of a new book. 



HiRUDo Medicinalis. Dub. 



The Leech. 



Sangsue, JPV.; Blutegel, Germ.; Mignatta, 7^a/. ; Sanguijuela, Span. 

 HiRUDO. C/ass 1, Annelides. Or^^er 3, Abranchiata3. Family ^^ 

 Asetigerse. Cuvier. 



The Leech belongs to that class of invertebrated articulated ani- 

 mals called Annelides. This class contains the worms with red 

 blood, having soft retractile bodies, composed of numerous segments 



