EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
596 
emphysema; and also because it is evident that the inspiratory 
or expansive power of the chest is exactly limited by its capa- 
city, and that even when a portion of lung is impervious to air, 
as in hepatization, the inspiratory force can no more distend the 
air-cells to the degree observed in emphysema than it can do so 
in the normal state. The fact will appear more clear from the 
following observations. 
It appears to me that none of the writers on this subject have 
clearly apprehended, or at least clearly expressed, the single 
obvious condition which is necessary to the mechanical com- 
pleteness of the inspiration-theory of emphysema. Emphysema 
is, according to this theory, a complementary lesion, dependent 
upon the previous existence of some form of occlusion of the 
vesicles, and invading the remaining sound portions of lung. 
Thus far it corresponds with all that we have hitherto seen, to 
an extent certainly not anticipated by Dr. Williams, when, after 
enunciating his own view, he brings forward Laennec’s theory 
to account for residual unexplained cases. But there is yet 
another condition necessary, besides mere occlusion of the air- 
vesicles in a part of the lung : this is partially diminished bulk; 
• — in other words, collapse or permanent atrophy of a portion of 
the lung. 
From Dr. Gardiner on the Pathological States of the 
Lung connected with Bronchitis . 
THE VETERINARIAN, OCTOBER 1, 1851. 
Ne quid falsi dicere audeat, ne quid veri non audeat. — Cicero. 
GRAND as the “ Great Exhibition” is, admirable as it is, and 
even useful as it may turn out to become, medicine can boast 
but little of the part it has played in the Crystal Palace, and 
veterinary medicine still less. The professions, it is true, as 
contra-distinguished from the trades, are not of a nature to admit 
of their science being displayed to much advantage in a public 
show ; though the branch of medicine we call surgery , from the 
hand being the agent through which, with the aid of instruments 
and appliances of various kinds, operations are performed of vital 
service to mankind, creates an interest in the arts which the 
public, as well from curiosity as from sympathy, evince by their 
encouragement of it. People are curious to see the instruments 
used in amputating limbs, and extracting stones, and trephining, 
