ordered to be given. The patient complained of being hungry-drank a few spoonsful of gruel, and sucked an orange during the day.

Wednesday evening, 6 o'clock. Found him in most respects very much improved-pupils not so much dilated-intellectual faculties restor ed-a bilious operation had been procured-the tongue, which at first was clean, retained a bluish appearance, which had been produced by the blue mass; pulse about 70 in a minute, with a quickness of pulsation and a slight febrile excitement. The patient had slept several hours during the day. The quinine solution was continued as before, every two hours, and the ether mixture reduced to half the strength of the previous one, given on the alternate hour. The febrile excitement, which was barely perceptible in the evening, continued to increase until about 12 o'clock at night; the patient became very restless, groaning and beating the bed, in the greatest anguish; when it was ascertained that the patient had lost the powers of speech and deglutition, but retain. ed his intellectual faculties perfectly. He attempted to make signs with his fingers; when a slate and pencil being handed him, he wrote very distinctly: How long will it take the doctors to cure me, so that I can speak? It was found impossible for him to swallow, in consequence of which the medicines were suspended.

Thursday morning, 8 o'clock. Visited the patient, found him laboring under all the symptoms of incipient apoplexy-stertorous breathing, slow, full, cerebral pulse, vessels of the head turgid-powers of speech and deglutition entirely suspended-making a moaning noise, and every few minutes raising forcibly up in the bed, and then falling back againpupils of the eye very much dilated. His temples were immediately shaved and a cup applied to each of them, by which three or four ounces of blood were extracted. Both sides of the head were then extensively shaved and two large blisters applied, covering the whole of the temporal and parietal regions, extending as far back as the occipital, and forward so as to cover a small part of the frontal region on each side. The blisters were allowed to remain until they drew well, and the following enema ordered to be given and repeated every three hours-half a pint of gruel with two drachms of the oil of turpentine. In a few hours the remedies had a very happy effect, the speech and deglutition restored— the pulse became soft and the pupils not so much dilated. In the evening, the patient complaining of pain in the bowels, an enema of starch, with a few drops tinct. opii. was administered, which soon relieved the pain.

Thursday evening, 5 o'clock. Symptoms improved-powers of speech and deglutition restored-intellectual faculties perfect-pulse about 70 in a minute and soft, temperature of the skin uniform. The patient was restless and could not sleep; to subdue these unpleasant symptoms, the following prescription was given

B Extract hyosciami gr. xij.

Pulveris glycyrrh. q. s. M.

Make 6 pills. S. Give one pill every two hours.

This had the effect to quiet the restlessness, and procured for the patient a good night's rest.

Friday morning, 8 o'clock. Found him very much improved-pulse soft and regular, about the healthy standard. He was a little restless;

the hyosciamus was ordered to be continued in the same dose as before, occasionally until the restlessness was quieted. Towards the middle of the day the hands and feet became cold-the nervous agitation greatly increased-subsultus tendinum and the powers of speech and deglutition again partially suspended. The following enema was prescribed to be repeated every four hours-quiniæ sulphatis gr. v., tinct. opii. gtt xx., starch f3 jv. M. Under this treatment the unpleasant symptoms soon disappeared; gruel was allowed for diet.

Saturday morning. Patient improving-pulse regular and soft, anx. ious for food-gruel and chicken water allowed in small quantities, and the quinine injections continued.

Sunday morning, 21st. Clear of fever-pulse natural, soft and regular-appetite good-symytoms all improved. Cold infusion of cinchona was prescribed to be given in the dose of a wine-glass full three or four times a day. The patient continued to improve, and was speedily restored to health.

This case presents several anomalous and very interesting features; not only that the patient should have been arrested several times as it were from the very grasp of death, when hope itself seemed almost to have fled; but that in the different stages and phases which the disease assumed, remedies of a diametrically opposite character had to be used and varied, to accomplish the object in question. In the first place, to relieve the congestion of the brain, cupping and cold applications were used; as soon as this was accomplished, the vital energies of nature were found to be sinking and giving away so rapidly, that stimulants of the most powerful and diffusible kind had to be resorted to, and pushed to their utmost extent to sustain the sinking energies of life, until the powers of nature could rally and a reaction be brought about. No sooner was this object accomplished, than nature seemed determined to run into the opposite extreme, and again we were compelled to resort to depletory means, to subdue and relieve the cerebral compression. It appeared as if life were sporting between two extremes.

The case was interesting from other causes, as proving conclusively and irresistibly, in different stages of the disease, the power of certain portions of the brain to preside over distinct functions, and exhibit entirely different physiological actions.

In one stage of the disease the cerebral lobes being involved, the intellectual faculties were entirely suspended, whilst all other functions remained perfect; in a different stage of the disease, the matter was reversed; the medulla oblongata being involved, that portion of the brain from which originated the hypoglossal or ninth pair of nerves, distributed to the organs of articulation and deglutition; those functions were suspended, whilst the intellect remained unimpaired.

In conclusion, I would remark, that in the sinking stages of conges. tive fever, I have prefered to depend upon the liberal use of French brandy, or a combination of camphor and carbonate of ammonia, as being diffusible stimulants of a more permanent kind, and with success ; but in this instance, from the peculiarities of the case, it was deemed best to trust to a combination of camphor and sulphuric ether; and with the success of the remedies and the result of the case, we have had every reason to be pleased.

III.-Remarks on Dr. A. W. Ely's "Examination of the Riddellian Philosophy." Published in the July number of the New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal. By J. L. RIDDELL, M.D.

1. Dr. Ely has done me the honor, to publish a courteous and well written article, fourteen pages long, purporting to contest the tenability of certain views, advanced by me in the March number of this Journal, respecting the Constitution of Matter. In acknowledging my obligations to him, for the notice he has seen proper to take of my memoir, I will avail myself of the fit occasion to subjoin some remarks, upon certain matters wherein I conceive he has misapprehended my meaning; or put forth in opposition, doctrines and arguments which I believe to be

erroneous.

2. His main object appears to be, to protest against the sacrilege of an attempt to subvert, what he miscalls the Newtonian Philosophy. I have incontrovertibly shown, that the phenomena of gravity cannot arise from any occult, inherent quality of matter. By so doing, I have provoked him to allege, that I have "no very great veneration for the theory of the immortal Newton." Dr. Ely is not alone in the error of misnaming the absurd hypothesis of inherent gravitation, the Newtonian theory. The truth is, Newton himself entertained no such idea. Witness his own words: "That gravity should be innate, inherent, and essential to matter, so that one body may act on another at a distance, through a vacuum, without the mediation of anything else, by and through which their action and force may be conveyed from one to another, is to me so great an absurdity, that I believe no man, who in philosophical matters has a competent faculty of thinking, can ever fall into." (Vide, Harper's edition of Mill's Logic, p. 461.)

3. From my language in ¶ 45, upon the absurdity and inconceivableness of inherent gravitation, Dr. E. makes a sweeping and unwarranted inference; for he says (ET 3.), "the position assumed by Professor Riddell is, that whatever is inconceivable, is an absurdity." Now, the true position virtually assumed by me, is equivalent to this: that if we admit certain attributes as predicable of a subject, it is absurd to predicate other attributes of the same subject, which cannot co-exist with the first. In other words, that it is absurd to affirm and deny the same attribute of the same subject. I affirm that matter is inherently inert, and possesses no primeval attributes, but extension and passive mobility; (Vide, ET 8 iv. vi.), the truth of which, Dr. E. says (E ¶ 13.) "all admit." The propositions, side by side, read thus :

A. Matter possesses no primeval B. Matter possesses the primeattributes but extension, inertness, val attribute, inherent gravitation. and passive mobility.

Now, since inherent gravitation is not equivalent to, nor deducible from inertness, extension or passive mobility, it is clear that if proposi tion A be true, which Dr. E. has virtually admitted, (ET 8, iv. vi.), proposition B must be absurd; false and inconceivable. It is certainly inconceivable, that two contradictory propositions can both be true. To affirm them true is an absurdity.

4. There are many phenomena in nature, whose specific modes of

production, our limited knowledge has not yet enabled us satisfactorily to imagine or conceive. The mechanisms productive of such phenomena, though not yet truly conceived by the human mind, on account of its limited range of perception, and limited stock of relevant truths, cannot be said to be in their nature inconceivable. Unimaginable at the present time, to us they may be; but inconceivable if clearly developed and set forth, they cannot be; unless we admit that truths can be inconsistent with each other; or that a thing can exist and not exist at the same time.

5. The hypothesis of inherent gravitation, can have no foothold in a mind conscious of the true relation of cause and effect. Unfortunately, this subject is one, upon which philosophers and metaphysicians have generally entertained the most vague and erroneous notions. Thomas Brown, in his monograph on the relation of cause and effect, undoubtedly comes nearest the truth. Yet he affirms, that invariable sequence in point of time is the only connection subsisting between them. This, I admit, is all that mere observation can reveal to us. But in my opinion, the relevant meaning of the page of nature, if rightly interpreted, is something more than is implied by invariable sequence. The relation of cause and effect is that of necessary and invariable sequence, in accordance with the law of physical continuity, as exclusively subservient to the conservation of momentum, which is indestructible. The widely prevalent, yet erroneous idea, that an effect has no physical connection with its cause, has been the prolific source of absurd hypotheses in philosophy.

6. Like many other instances that might be cited, occurring with those who follow great names, my critic has carried the views of Brown, to an extent never contemplated by Brown himself. What he says on

the subject of cause and effect, will be sufficient exemplification: "What we call cause is but an antecedent of which the consequent is called the effect. The former is but the sign, and not the cause of the latter." (ET 15). By virtue of what reason or authority, can Dr. Ely assert that a cause is not a cause. The supposition is inadmissible, that any rational man would seriously contend that a steamboat is not a steamboat. I am therefore, in courtesy, bound to suppose, that Dr. E. really means, that no such thing as a cause exists. He would, hence, deny that there is continuity in the progress of nature, and affirm that each and every phenomenon is a disconnected, mystery-shrouded, independent event, and therefore a miracle. With the book of nature legibly before me, I can say for myself, that it is impossible to entertain a belief so unnatural. He who has imbued his mind with such doctrines, must have set out with the selfish and erroneous assumption, that nature's truths depend for their existence, upon the ability of the human mind to observe and appreciate them.

7. Dr. E. cannot brook the idea of the existence of a material interplanetary medium. He complains that I do not dwell upon this all important subject at all." "Let him take up this subject," he proceeds, "and if he can establish the existence of a resisting medium, he will then have some foundation for his theory," (E T 11). "In regard to the luminiferous medium, we are to bear in mind, that although it

affords a very satisfactory explanation of the phenomena of light, its existence is not proved." (E ¶ 12).

How any rational man, accustomed to reflect on philosophical matters, can for a moment doubt the existence of some kind of medium or sub. stance, which is the instrument of conveying to us the light of the heavenly bodies, I am unable to comprehend. As well might he doubt the ordinary evidence of sound as indicating the existence of the atmosphere; or of the waves of the ocean, as indicating water. I confess, I have scarce patience to reason with the full grown man, who contends that an absolute vacuum is maintained between the heavenly bodies. Light travels at a known rate, a determinate velocity. In an absolute vacuum there would be nothing to move, hence there could be no velocity. Every sane thinker must then admit the existence of a lumi. niferous interplanetary medium; a something occupying space, and therefore material.

8. I regret my critic has not thought proper to take up, comment upon, and disprove if possible, the specific topics and demonstrations which make up my memoir. I also regret that he has in many instances misconceived, and in his own language mistated my opinions. The lat ter he might easily have avoided, by making literal quotations, and desig. nating the same by double commas, as is customary. This he has done in two unimportant instances only, embracing together, some nine lines.

9. In short, I do not think Dr. Ely has, in this instance, written with his accustomed ability, which may in part be attributable to the haste in which his article evidently was composed. This I infer, from many small instances of vagueness, and even implied contradiction with which it abounds. As for instance, in denying the existence of a pondere. facient medium, (ET 10) he says, "of the existence of such a medium there is no satisfactory evidence whatever." In his first paragraph he cites La Place as having approved the Newtonian theory as he calls it, meaning the theory of inherent gravitation; while in his tenth paragraph he says, "the calculations of La Place would make the tenuity of the ponderefacient medium, fifty millions of times greater than that of the luminiferous medium."

10. Dr. E. admits, that matter is inherently and necessarily possessed of no qualities, unless its extension, mobility and inertness be called qualities. (ET 13). While in another place (ET 26) he sets about contradicting his own admissions, by contending that all matter is inherently possessed of weight; because, he says, "we can conceive of no matter destitute of weight." He first forms a pretty fair conception of such attenuated matter as necessarily could not manifest to us the precise phenomenon which we call weight; and then absurdly denies the conception he has formed.

11. It is evident from his remarks in E¶ 26, that Dr. E. has no clear idea of what he means by weight. Matter is so constituted and aggregated as to manifest as circumstances determine, two universal tendencies: expansion and contraction. 1. The translatory motion individually possessed by the integrant molecules of any substance, or medium, tends by centrifugal force and mutual mediate collision, to make the body occupy more space; hence repulsion and expansion : 2. The currents of momentum by collision from the atoms of far more