ject of the affection of the heart, he says,

"I have seen plenty

of cases of great affection of the heart having been relieved by putting the bowels to rights. There was a chere amie of one of my pupils here, whom he asked me to see; and upon my word, I thought she had an organic affection, and I said, "Pray, ma'am is there not any particular time at which you find your heart get worse?" Oh, yes; always after breakfast." "Pray what do you take for breakfast?" "Tea." "O don't take tea any more; I would never take into my stomach that which seemed to provoke the complaint." This led to a little lecture on diet, and the result was, that she was to take bread and milk; however, I thought it was a lost case. It was about a year after this time that I was going up the street, and just about to turn the corner, that I met a man; he took off his I took of mine. He looked, and I stared. We gradually approached each other. He asked me how I did, and I hoped he was well. We talked a little about the weather-at last I recollected him, and said, “Pray, sir, may I be allowed to ask how the young lady is?" "Oh, sir, you have cured her, perfectly cured her, by causing her to take bread and milk for breakfast." "Many a man feels a pain in the heart, when there is no disease there; but I never knew any one who was labouring under an inflammation of the heart, who complained of pain in the part actually affected; they either did not coin plain of pain at all, or referred it to some other part not in the. region of the heart. I have known them complain of pain in the region of the liver."

hat;

In lecturing on fractures, he related the following curious case. "A lunatic in attempting to escape from a wall, fell, and produced a compound fracture of his right leg; the bone projected a little through the skin. The opening was enlarged, and the bone reduced. The fracture was secured, first by a many-tailed bandage, then by splints, the wound carefully closed by plaister, and the surgeons who had the management of the case went away consoling themselves on the nice apposition of the bones. The man paid particular attention to the manner in which they had applied the apparatus, and as soon as they were gone, he took into his head to remove the bandage and splints from the injured leg and set them on the other. He discovered a hole in the feather bed on which he was lying, and he thrust his fractured leg into the middle of it. When the surgeons arrived on the following day, they were much pleased with the cut of the limb; they said, How straight it lies! it appears not to have shifted in the least from the position in which we placed it; what little swelling there is! indeed there is scarcely any. They came from time to time to see the patient, and finding every thing going on well, they did not disturb the limb. After the usual period had elapsed, they took off the bandage; the wound in the skin has healed so nicely that they could not even discover the scar. Every thing appeared extraordinary. A friend present said, 'Oh, this is not the leg that was broken!' Certainly it was," said the surgeons. However, the other was examined-at first it could not be found-at last, after a long search, it was dis

covered buried in the feathers; and when they pulled it out, egad! it was crooked enough, like a cockatoo; yet the wound had healed, and the bone united!"

A young lady with a waist of about ten inches in circumference, having asked Abernethy's advice respecting a difficulty of respiration, which she felt, he thundered out, " Go miss into the next room, unlace your stays, and walk a dozen times up and down the apartment." The young lady, terrified at his look, did as she was bidden; went into an adjoining room, loosened her stays, and walked up and down the required number of times, on re-appearing before the "immortal John," he asked her "how she felt?" to which she faintly replied, “a little better," "only a little better! return miss, to the room, unlace the remainder of your stays, and walk fourteen times up and down, and come back to me." The young lady implicitly obeyed the mandate; and on the question being again put to her, she answered "much relieved." "No wonder you should feel relieved," rejoined Abernethy, "for know miss, in that diminutive space you confined six-and-thirty yards of intestines: therefore how could you feel well?"

THE SECRET OF SUCCESS IN THE MEDICAL
PROFESSION.

[Vol. i. page 152]

MANY students are led away by the notion that to obtain

eminence in their profession it is necessary to have a genius for it; and that success in life is always commensurate with the degree of natural talent and aptitude possessed by the individual. It is not our intention to unite with those who deny altogether the existence of such a thing as genius; neither is it our wish to fall into the opposite extreme, and ascribe everything great to natural talent, placing out of our consideration the influence of industry and application. There can be no doubt that there is a difference in the constitution of men's minds if care be taken to compare the different progress of persons following the same pursuits, and who have enjoyed the same opportunities of improvement. It was this genius which Celsus alluded to, when he observed that there ought to be in a physician a certain quality which can neither be named, nor easily understood. "I have read the prognostic of Hippocrates as thou hast," said Martianus to Galen when they met at Rome, "why then cannot I prognosticate as well as thou?"

Genius, says Dr. Johnson, is but another name for industry, and Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his admirable discourses, goes still further and attributes every thing great and noble in literature, science, and art, to hard, unwearied and assiduous application. In the science of painting where we should consider a natural taste and delicacy of touch almost indispensable, he considers it in the first instance as unessential, and capable of being acquired.

Whatever difference then we may detect in the original constitution of men's minds, it cannot be denied that much will depend upon culture, and it is equally true that this mental

cultivation can be employed with much more advantage in the early than in the later period of life. It is with the mind as with the physical frame, the powers of both are in creased by judicious exercise.

"The faculties of the soul," says the great Locke," are improved and made useful to us just in the same manner as our bodies are. Would you have a man write or paint, or dance well, or perform any other mechanical operation dexterously and with ease, let him have ever so much vigour and activity, suppleness and address, yet nobody expects this from him, unless he has been used to it, and has employed time and pains in fashioning and forming his head and other parts of the body to these motions. Just so it is with the mind. Would you hear a man reason well, you must use him to it betimes, exercise his mind in it, observing the connection of ideas and following them in train."

"The seeds of future reputation," says Wardrop, "are sown at a much earlier period of life than is usually supposed; and the latter years are occupied in digesting and arranging the previously collected knowledge. It is a most erroneous doctrine to inculcate into the minds of youth, that they must trust to age and experience for the acquirement of useful knowledge The period of education is to be considered the most important in their lives. Medical students must not rely too much on their talents, or flatter themselves that they can be qualified to practice their profession without a severe course of study. In no department of life do men rise to eminence, who have no undergone a long and diligent preparation; for whatever be