August 26, 1871.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
175 
lion of organic bodies occurring in the living state are 
not the less chemical because they are different from 
those observed in inorganic nature. All chemical ac¬ 
tions are liable to vary according to the conditions in 
which they occur, and many instances might be adduced 
•of most remarkable variations of this kind, observed in 
the chemistry of dead bodies from very slight changes of 
■electrical, calorific, mechanical and other conditions. 
But because the conditions of action or change are infi¬ 
nitely more complex and far less known in living bodies, 
it is not necessary to look upon the phenomena as essen¬ 
tially of a different kind, to have recourse to the hypo¬ 
thesis of vital affinities, and still less to shelter ourselves 
•under the slim curtain of ignorance implied in the ex¬ 
planation of the most varied chemical changes by the 
influence of a vital principle. 
Zoology and botany were the next subjects in the 
order of discussion, and were followed by some remarks 
on the teaching of natural science in schools. The 
speaker expressed his opinion that the introduction of 
instruction in natural science into the primary schools 
was feasible, and said that a mind which is entirely 
without scientific culture is but half prepared for the 
•common purposes of modern life, and is entirely unqua¬ 
lified for forming an opinion upon some of the most 
■difficult and yet most common and important questions 
■of the day, affecting the interests of the whole com¬ 
munity. 
In conclusion, Professor Thomson adverted to the 
-subject of spiritualism, an aspect in which he said it 
might be thought that the appreciation of biological 
■science has taken a retrograde rather than an advanced 
position. In this he did not mean to refer to the special 
cultivators of biology in its scientific acceptation, but to 
the fact that there appears to have taken place of late a 
considerable increase in the number of persons who be¬ 
lieve, or who imagine that they believe, in the class of 
phenomena which are now called spiritual, but which 
Rave been known since the exhibitions of Mesmer, and 
indeed, long before his time, under the most varied 
forms, as liable to occur in persons of an imaginative 
turn of mind and peculiar nervous susceptibility. He 
admitted that extremely curious and rare, and to those 
’who are not acquainted with nervous phenomena, ap¬ 
parently marvellous phenomena, present themselves in 
peculiar states of the nervous system,'—some of which 
states may be induced through the mind, and may be 
made more and more liable to recur, and are greatly 
‘exaggerated by frequent repetition. But making the 
fullest allowance for all these conditions, it is still sur¬ 
prising that persons, otherwise appearing to be within 
the bounds of sanity, should entertain a confirmed belief 
in the possibility of phenomena, which, while they are 
-at variance with the best established physical laws, have 
never been brought under proof by the evidences of the 
senses, and are opposed to the dictates of sound judg¬ 
ment. He denied the truth of the assertion that scien¬ 
tific men have neglected or declined to investigate the phe¬ 
nomena with attention and candour. From time to time 
men of eminence, and fully competent, by their know¬ 
ledge of biological phenomena, and their skill and accu¬ 
racy in conducting scientific investigation, have made 
the most patient and careful examination of the evidence 
placed before them by the professional believers and 
practitioners of so-called magnetic, phreno-magnetic, 
-electro-biological and spiritualistic phenomena; and the 
result has been uniformly the same in all cases, when 
they were permitted to secure conditions by which the 
reality of the phenomena, or the justice of their inter¬ 
pretation, could be tested,—viz., either that the experi¬ 
ments signally failed to educe the results professed, or 
■that the experimenters were detected in the most shame¬ 
less and determined impostures. The phenomena are 
in great part dependent upon natural principles of the 
human mind, placed, as it would appear, in dangerous 
.alliance with certain tendencies of the nervous system. 
They ought not to bo worked upon without the greatest 
caution, and they can only be fully understood by the 
accomplished physiologist who is also conversant with 
healthy and morbid psychology. The experience of the 
last hundred years tends to show that while there are 
always to be found persons peculiarly liable to exhibit 
the phenomena in question, there will also exist a certain 
number of minds prone to adopt a belief in the marvel¬ 
lous and striking in preference to that w-hich is easily 
understood and patent to the senses; but it may be con¬ 
fidently expected that the diffusion of a fuller and more 
accurate knowledge of vital phenomena among the non- 
scientific classes of the community may lead to a juster 
appreciation of the phenomena in question, and a reduc¬ 
tion of the number among them who are believers in 
scientific impossibilities. 
Dr. B. W. Richardson read the ninth of a series of 
reports “ On the Physiological Action of Organic Chemi¬ 
cal Compounds.” The series was commenced at New¬ 
castle in 1863. The substances described in the present 
report were chloral hydrate, anhydrous chloral, meta¬ 
chloral, bromal hydrate, nitrite of amyl, nitrate of ethyl, 
sulpho-urea, and hydride of amyl, called briefly hydra- 
myl. He considered the question of what was a dan¬ 
gerous, and what a fatal dose of chloral hydrate, fixing* 
the maximum dose at 140 grains. He stated that, in 
instances where chloral hydrate was producing dan¬ 
gerous symptoms, threatening to be fatal, warmth, food 
and artificial respiration were the great remedies; and 
he explained the dangers that were arising in the com¬ 
munity from the practice of taking chloral hydrate as a 
narcotic luxury, like alcohol or opium. He strongly 
warned people against this practice, and stated that the 
habitue to this influence became a diseased person, and 
sometimes an unintentional suicide. Of nitrite of amyl 
the author mainly tried to show the action on the lungs ; 
it caused paralysis of the blood-vessels, and produced 
congestion, and in the lungs changes were brought 
about analogous to some of those attending pulmo¬ 
nary consumption in the human subject. On the other 
hand, it produced a curative effect in certain diseases. 
The last substance named was chlor-hydramyl, a light, 
volatile fluid, intended to produce rapid insensibility to 
pain in short operations.—A brief discussion followed, 
in which Drs. Donkin, Marcct, Sharpey and Brunton 
took part. 
Professor Balfour submitted some observations on the 
cultivation of ipecacuanha in the Edinburgh Botanical 
Gardens for transmission to India. A short time ago 
Mr. James M‘Nab, of the Botanical Gardens, had dis¬ 
covered that by cutting the root of the plant under the 
ground surface, numerous new shoots could be got, and 
the plant so propagated much more easily and plenti¬ 
fully. They had thus been able to send out a number 
of healthy plants to India, which it was hoped would be 
there equally successfully cultivated. 
farlianwntarg ani> fato frottttags. 
Action against a Medical Practitioner for 
Negligence. 
TROTTER V. DOWNES. 
An action for damages against a medical practitioner 
was tried at the recent Croydon Assizes before Mr. 
Baron Bramwell. 
It appeared that Mr. Downes, the defendant in the 
case, is a medical practitioner residing in Southwark. 
He has three assistants, two of them being pupil assist¬ 
ants and one senior. On the 5th of June last, the plain¬ 
tiff, a working woman, called at his shop, and asked one 
of the junior assistants, as she said, for “ Rochelle salts, 
but, as he said, for “Rochter salts,” for which he ga\ e 
