i88i.] 
Analyses of Books. 
613 
Annals of Chemical Medicine, including the Application of 
Chemistry to Physiology , Pathology , Therapeutics, Pharmacy , 
Toxicology, aud Hygiene. Vol. II. Edited by J. L. W. 
Thudichum, M.D. London : Longmans and Co. 
Here, as in the former volume of the work, we find an assort- 
ment of memoirs, which, in their thoroughness, and freedom from 
unwarranted assumptions, are deserving of recognition and 
imitation. 
One of the most interesting of these papers is entitled 
“ Anaesthesia by Volatile Alkaloids, as illustrated by Opium 
Smoking.” Here, the author not merely shows the value of this 
much-denounced practice in pulmonary consumption, especially 
when attended with diarrhoea and blood-spitting, in bronchitis, 
neuralgia, pneumonia, carbuncle, &c., but exposes the sensa 
tional statements indulged in by the “ Friend of China.” It is 
certainly strange, if, as is sometimes said, we “ force ” opium 
upon the Chinese, a large and increasing quantity of this drug — 
not less than five million lbs. yearly — is grown in China itself! 
A paper on “The Fate of Morphia in the Body ” is also im- 
portant. Even if injedted into the subcutaneous tissues it is 
soon decomposed after it finds its way into the blood. This fadt 
is the more significant because the attempt was made, not very 
many years ago, to define poisons as bodies which, if introduced 
into the system, remained in it for a time unchanged, and were 
finally, if not taken in fatal doses, eliminated as such. Now, as 
morphia is an admitted poison, the definition which, we believe, 
was originally proposed by the “physiologists of temperance,” 
falls to the ground. 
In a memoir on the “ Sources of Urea in the Body,” Dr. 
Thudichum considers that there are many and weighty physio- 
logical objections to the hypothesis that all albuminous matters 
in the course of biolysis in the body are split up in the same 
manner as by chemolytic means out of the body. 
The paper “ On the Decrease of Hsemochrome in the Blood 
in Diseases and under Insalubrious Influences ” is a valuable 
summary. 
A memoir on the “ Phosphorescence of Organic and Organised 
Bodies ” contains many facts which must be borne in mind by 
those who are inquiring further into the distribution and the 
significance of this phenomenon in the organic world. It would 
appear that the phosphorescence of living beings is attended 
with an increased consumption of carbon, and therefore, of 
necessity, with increased heat. Fabre observed that the fungus 
Agaricus olearius gives off much more carbonic acid when phos- 
phorescent than when dark. Almost all observers agree that 
both for plants and animals the presence of oxygen is necessary 
for the manifestation of phosphorescence. Panceri, Secchi, and 
