374 
EDITORIAL. 
The  Southern  Journal  of  the  Medical  and  Physical  Sciences.  Nashville, 
May,  1853.  No.  3. 
This  Journal  contains  an  elaborate  report  to  the  Tennessee  Medical  So- 
ciety, "  On  the  Adulteration  of  Medicines,  Chemicals,  Drugs,  etc.,  by  Dr. 
R.  0.  Currey,"  which  will  do  good  by  awakening  the  attention  of  druggists 
and  physicians  to  the  subject.  "We  are  glad  when  reports  of  this  kind 
represent  the  actual  state  of  the  drugs  in  the  United  States.  Not  what 
has  been,  but  what  is.  Any  dictionary  of  adulterations  will  show  the 
former.  Nothing  but  a  watchful  scrutiny  on  the  part  of  qualified  physi- 
cians and  apothecaries  will  detect  the  latter. 
The  Amazon  and  the  Atlantic  Slopes  of  South  America.  Being  a  series  of 
letters  published  in  the  National  Intelligencer  and  Union  newspapers,  under 
the  signature  of  "  IncaJ'  By  M.  F.  Maury,  LL.D.,  Lieut.  U.  S.  Navy. 
Revised  and  corrected  by  the  Author.  Washington :  published  by  Franck 
Taylor,  1853.   pp.  63,  octavo. 
Lieut.  Maury  in  the  above  pamphlet  has  undertaken  to  show  that  the  At- 
lantic Slopes  of  South  America,  which  include  the  vast  basins  drained  by 
the  Amazon  and  the  La  Plata,  and  their  tributaries,  constitute  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  regions  of  the  globe,  viewed  in  relation  to  its  geological 
formation,  the  immense  extent  of  its  water  courses,  the  amazing  fertility 
and  productiveness  of  its  soil,  the  delightfulness  of  its  climate,  and  its  ad- 
mirable adaptation  to  support  a  numerous  population.  Being  to  a  large 
extent  intra-tropical,  and  constantly  irrigated  by  the  never  ceasing  equa- 
torial currents  blowing  from  the  ocean,  its  seasons  are  perpetual.  The  fact 
that  these  rivers  are  navigable  for  thousands  of  miles,  even  into  Bolivia, 
Peru,  Eucador,  and  Venezuela,  through  their  main  trunks  and  branches,  at 
once  exhibits  their  immeasurable  capabilities  for  commerce,  when,  like  our 
own  western  waters,  they  shall  have  become  the  pathways  for  the  never- 
tiring  steamer.  The  object  of  Lieut.  Maury,  in  delineating  the  extraordi- 
nary features  of  this  vast  garden  wilderness,  is  to  prove  the  propriety,  nay 
even  the  necessity,  of  the  great  maritime  and  commercial  powers  of  the 
North  combining  their  influence  to  compel  the  Brazilian  government  to 
abandon  its  "  dog-in-the-manger"  policy,  by  which  this  vast  region  is 
S)aled  against  foreign  traders,  at  the  same  time  that  its  own  subjects  are 
not  encouraged  to  develope  its  resources.  In  1851  the  Government  of  the 
United  States  dispatched  Lieuts.  Ilerndon  and  Gibbon  to  Peru  and  Bo- 
livia to  descend  the  head  waters  of  the  Amazon,  flowing  through  those  coun- 
tries to  the  main  stream  and  thence  to  the  ocean,  to  examine  their  capacity 
for  internal  navigation,  and  also  the  agricultural  and  commercial  capabili- 
ties of  "the  country  adjacent.  The  former  has  returned  after  a  most  tedious 
and  laborious  voyage,  mostly  in  canoes,  of  3600  miles,  and  has  been  since 
engaged  in  preparing  his  report  for  the  press.  The  latter  officer  is  yet  on 
his  perilous  journey.  When  Lieut.  Herndon's  Report  (of  which  10,000 
copies  were  ordered  by  Congress,)  comes  to  hand,  we  shall  have  the  testi- 
