34 Dana — American Journal of Science, 1818-1918. 



carry it into effect, there needs only an immediate appeal on a 

 sufficiently large scale, to experiment ; reason has done her part, 

 when experiment does hers, nature will not refuse to sanction the 

 whole. Aerial navigation will present the works of nature in 

 all their charms; to commerce and the diffusion of knowledge, 

 it will bring the most efficient aid, and it can thus be rendered 

 serviceable to the whole human family." 



A subject of quite another character is the first discus- 

 sion of the properties of chloroform (chloric ether) and 

 its use as an anaesthetic (Guthrie, 21, 64, 405, 1832; 

 22, 105, 1832; Levi Ives, 21, 406). Further interesting 

 communications are given of the first analyses of the gas- 

 tric juice and the part played by it in the process of 

 digestion. Dr. William Beaumont of St. Louis took 

 advantage of a patient who through a gun-shot wound 

 was left with a permanent opening into his stomach 

 through which the gastric juice could be drawn off. The 

 results of Dr. Beaumont and of Professor Kobley Dungli- 

 son, to whom samples were submitted, are given in full 

 in the life of Beaumont by Jesse S. Myer (St. Louis, 

 1912). The interest of the matter, so far as the Journal 

 is concerned, is chiefly because Dr. Beaumont selected 

 Professor Silliman as a chemist to whom samples for 

 examination were also submitted. An account of Silli- 

 man's results is given in the Beaumont volume referred 

 to (see also 26, 193, 1834). Desiring the support of a 

 chemist of wider experience in organic analysis, he also 

 sent a sample through the Swedish consul to Berzelius in 

 Stockholm. After some months the sample was received 

 and it is interesting to note in a perfectly fresh condi- 

 tion; it is to be regretted, however, that the Swedish 

 chemist failed to add anything to the results already 

 obtained in this country (27, 40b, 1835). 



The above list, which might be greatly extended, seems 

 to leave little ground for the implied criticism replied to 

 by Silliman as follows (16, p. v, 1829) : 



A celebrated scholar, while himself an editor, advised me, in 

 a letter, to introduce into this Journal as much "readable" 

 matter as possible : and there was, pretty early, an earnest but 

 respectful recommendation in a Philadelphia paper, that Litera- 

 ture, in imitation of the London Quarterly Journal of Science, 

 &c. should be in form, inscribed among the titles of the work. 



