384 
EDITORIAL. 
"  lint,  charpie,  cotton,  compresses,  sponge-tent,  adhesive  plasters,  collodion, 
poultices,  lotions,  cerates,  ointments,  liniments,  and  sponge."  Of  lint  the 
author  says,  "  The  French  surgeons  employ  an  admirable  sort  of  lint, 
which  they  term  <  Charpie/  "  It  is  now  very  generally  used  in  this  city, 
and,  indeed,  throughout  the  country  when  it  can  be  procured.  It  is  thus 
made  : — "  Linen  of  a  coarse  or  fine  texture,  according  to  circumstances,  is 
cut  into  small  pieces  a  few  inches  square,  and  its  tissue  completely  un- 
ravelled, thread  by  thread.  The  coarse  kind  of  charpic  may  be  made  of  old 
table  cloths  ;  the  finer  sort,  of  a  lighter  material.  Velpeau  gives  a  decided 
preference  to  charpie  made  of  old  linen,  as  being  much  more  absorbent, 
and  much  less  irritating  than  that  made  of  the  new  fabric." 
The  remarks  on  poultices,  bandages,  disinfectants,  fumigations,  topical 
bleeding,  including,  cupping,  leeching  rubefacients,  vesicants,  moxas,  and 
other  cauteries,  the  means  of  stopping  haemorrhage,  injections,  the  removal 
of  solid  bodies,  the  air  passages,  and  the  production  of  anaesthesia  for  the 
relief  of  pain,  are  well  worthy  of  study  by  the  apothecary,  who,  in  his  re- 
lations to  the  public  and  to  physicians,  is  often  called  on  for  information 
embraced  within  these  subjects,  and  we  believe  Dr.  Sargent's  book  will 
prove  a  useful  addition  to  the  library  of  the  pharmaceutist,  who  aims  at 
accomplishing  himself  in  all  the  details  of  his  profession. 
Report  of  the  Surgeon  General  of  the  Commonwealth  of  Pennsylvania,  for 
the  year  1861,  has  been  received.  It  is  a  small  pamphlet  of  11  pages,  and 
gives  an  account  of  the  organization  of  the  State  Medical  Corps  attached 
to  the  regiments  put  in  the  field  or  camp  last  year. 
Retrospect  of  Practical  Medicine  and  Surgery,  being  a  Half-yearly  Journal, 
containing  a  retrospective  view  of  every  discovery  and  practical  improve- 
ment in  the  medical  sciences.  Edited  by  W.  Braithwaite,  M.  D.,  and 
J.  Braithwaite,  M.  D.  Part  xliv.  January,  1862.  Uniform  American 
edition,  New  York,  published  by  W.  A.  Townsend,  1862.  pp.  382, 
octavo. 
Obituary. — Pierre  Berthier,  the  oldest  of  the  French  Mineralogists, 
died  of  paralysis  on  the  29th  of  August,  1861,  aged  89  years.  He  was 
born  at  Nemours,  July  3d,  1772,  entered  the  Polytechnic  School,  and  after- 
wards the  School  of  Mines,  which  he  left  in  1801.  His  early  and  celebrated 
work,  "  Traite  des  Essais  par  la  Voie  Seche,"  gave  him  reputation,  and 
proved  of  great  service  to  metallurgy  and  analysis,  and  led  to  his  appoint- 
ment as  a  Professor  in  the  School  of  Mines,  a  position  which  he  retained 
until  1845. 
Joubard. — This  noted  advocate  of  the  rights  of  intellectual  property  died 
at  Brussels,  Oct.  26,  1861,  aged  79  years.  He  was  born  at  Baissey,  a  village 
in  the  department  of  Haute-Warne,  in  1782.  He  was  Director  of  the 
Musee  de  V Industrie,  created  after  Belgium  separated  from  Holland,  1830. 
— (/.  Nickles,  Corr,  Sill.  Jour.) 
