ANALYSIS OF CONTINENTAL JOURNALS. 
367 
the attention of the general public, and stimulating the ob¬ 
serving faculties and patient investigations of medical philo¬ 
sophers. 
With the increase of human beings and domesticated 
animals, it would appear that life and utility are yearly 
becoming more valuable in the advancement of mankind; 
while the prevalence and destructiveness of virulent maladies 
seem to out-pace this progressive increase of life, and to 
retard considerably the development of that state of well¬ 
being and happiness which should distinguish every stage 
towards the highest degree of culture and civilisation. 
Science, it must be confessed, with its manifold and ever 
increasing means of research, has as yet not made such 
rapid strides in elucidating the mysteries that surround the 
genesis, maintenance, and propagation of these diseases, as the 
aspirations of humanity would desire ; but it must be remem¬ 
bered that these mysteries are very profound—as profound 
almost as that of life itself—and that until quite recently the 
paths that should have been pursued were either ignored or 
unknown. Medicine started on the wrong track when it 
devoted itself wholly and solely to the cure of disease, instead 
of grappling with the problem of how to prevent it by 
seeking out the influences upon which its advent and main¬ 
tenance depend. This grave error has been remedied; and 
the devotion and energy that was until lately devoted to the 
study of symptoms and the methods of relieving them are 
now turned towards the elucidation of causes, and the means 
of counteracting or abolishing these. 
Foremost in this right direction is the distinguished ana¬ 
tomist and physiologist of the Lyon’s veterinary school— 
M. Chauveau, and his success in investigating the character 
of virus, and the intimate nature of virulent affections in man 
and the lower animals, has already procured him a world-wide 
renown, and exalted his reputation as a medical philosopher 
to the highest degree. Every step he has made towards the 
solution of some of the most subtle questions connected 
with the poisons that produce these diseases is pregnant 
with the deepest interest, as it has been of the highest 
moment to mankind. The results of many years’ researches, 
and the summary of several voluminous reports, have lately 
been given in a series of conferences and lectures before the 
Society of Medical Sciences of Lyons. A translation of 
these, from their high scientific character, the immense im¬ 
portance which attaches to them, the strictly logical basis 
upon which the results are founded, and the fact that they 
embody the achievements of one of the most distinguished 
