ing the skin may, for want of a better term, perhaps be denominated-that Dieffenbach occupies in Berlin in the Rhinoplastic department. AUSTRIA. AFTER leaving Dresden I proceeded to Prague, where meeting with nothing of special interest in a professional point of view, we continued our route to VIENNA, the famous capital of Austria. In this great and beautiful city, one of the most charming in Europe, and one to which the admiring world have been for ages attracted by its renown as the seat of all the refinements of civilization and the elegant arts of life; that capital where music has held its undisputed throne, and where the greatest composers have lived and flourished under imperial patronage, the graver sciences, also, and that of our own profession, have risen to commensurate importance. The most distinguished man in Ophthalmic Surgery in Europe, Mr. YAEGER, resides here, and also his colleague, Mr. Rosas; and in no part of Europe is this branch of surgery cultivated and practised with more success than in Vienna. Yaeger has given an elevated character to it which it nowhere else enjoys, and his celebrity as an operator upon all affections of the eye is without any parallel. Such, in truth, is the just renown of the ophthalmic school which he has founded, that students of medicine from all countries now properly resort thither to complete their education. There is an immense civil general hospital connected with this school, and it is, in my opinion, the best regulated, the most perfectly neat and admirably ventilated, and the most practically useful in all its arrangements, of any establishment of the kind in any part of the world. They have adopted a practice there deserving of imitation everywhere. It consists in placing at the head of the bed of every patient a label, with a brief history of the case, and all the prescriptions which are addressed to the malady. This gives great facility to the student, and to all professional persons who visit the hospital, thereby enabling each not only to see the name of the disease and the method of treatment pursued, but sparing also the patient from the annoyance of harassing interrogatories, one of the greatest evils to the sick in public institutions. We trust this practice will sooner or later be universally adopted. The hospital, including the ophthalmic department, is composed of no less than twelve spacious quadrangles, and accommodates about four thousand patients, which will give some idea of its astonishing magnitude. Yet, besides this, there is also a large military hospital, with a rich, extensive, and most beautiful museum, altogether furnishing, with the civil establishment, unsurpassed opportunities for professional instruction, and made admirably and usefully tributary to the University, one of the most flourishing in Europe. Though this University is not distinguished for the promulgation of any particular doctrines in medicine, nor for having struck out any new path in operative surgery, the professors nevertheless are eminent in their respective branches; and though they have, for the most part, not wandered far out of the usual routine of practice, still their course has been pari passu with the great improvements of the day; and as an evidence of the reputation they enjoy, they attract to the capital from six to eight hundred pupils annually. In addition to the superior advantages enumerated, which are had by the medical pupils at the Austrian capital, there is also the choicest collection of wax preparations to be found in the north of Europe, and called the Josephum, in honour of that munificent emperor, Joseph the Second, whom every true-born Austrian is so justly proud to name. He ordered this costly assemblage of anatomical preparations to be made in Italy; and such was the enormous expense thereby incurred, that he never permitted the amount to be divulged to his subjects. It is perfect and complete in all its details. There is no part of the human body but what is here faithfully and most beautifully represented in all its varieties; and the collection may be studied with equal interest by the professional man as by the painter and sculptor. I would name this fascinating capital as one peculiarly calculated for the residence of invalids during the milder months of the year. The hours glide peacefully and agreeably along in the midst of its literary and scientific treasures, in its polished society and refined amusements. There is no metropolis, containing so large a population, where the invalid may lead a life of so much tranquillity and repose, and have at his command so wide a range of rational gratifications. For it is here that the ameliorating influence of the imperial protection, conceded to the cultivation of all the elegant arts of life, has exerted a happy and most benign moral power over the relations of society and the domestic charities of the heart, and been, no doubt, a principal and controlling cause of the practical results of that in fluence which we behold in the foundation of such noble and ample institutions for the relief of suffering humanity. Among others of our profession at Vienna who are ably endeavouring to advance the reputation of sound medical science on the only secure basis upon which it can march, that of practical experience at the bedside, and in autopsic examinations, we must, before concluding our visit to this capital, not omit to mention Professor Rokitansky and Dr. Akoda. The former [Rokitansky], professor of pathological anatomy, availing himself of the wide field of inquiry which his position gives him, has, after years of the closest and most diligent application, recently published a work, than which none was more wanted by the profession; and which, being a faithful description of what he himself saw in more than twelve thousand dead bodies, and a well-digested theory of the greater number of morbid processes, which he has minutely traced throughout their stages, will form a most invaluable accession to pathology and therapeutics. Akoda, now Primarius in the General Hospital of Vienna, has, after a number of years of the most laborious application to the subject of percussion and auscultation, brought out a great work on those modes of applying the principles of acoustics to the illustration of pathological phenomena, which probably will give it the precedence over all others. It is founded wholly on his own observations on the living subject, confirmed by numerous post-mortem examinations. Akoda believes that he has succeeded in reconciling nearly all the phenomena of respiration, circulation, &c., with the laws of physics as observed in inanimate matter. I am gratified in being able to announce that my friend Dr. Arthur Fisher, an American physician, now abroad, is engaged in translating both the above works into the English language. The streets and houses of Vienna are more uniformly fine than those of any large city we have yet seen. There are no splendid palaces, as at Paris, and the imperial residence called the Palace of Schoenbrunn is far eclipsed by the Tuileries; but this city is far cleaner, far more cheerful in its general aspect; and infinitely better paved than the capital of "La Belle France." The shops remind us, however, of those on the Boulevards, but generally have a large painting in front characteristic of the trade or occupation. Nothing strikes the traveller so forcibly as the immense extent and number of the public gardens, which, as wholesome respiratory organs and ventilators, contribute largely, with the unusual cleanliness, to the superior health of this capital. The Prater is the most considerable. The whole city, in fact, is surrounded by a belt or zone several hundred yards wide, which is truly a "cordon sanitaire," and thickly planted with trees, completely separating the town from the suburbs. This is merely called, however, with great modesty, a Parade, as the Viennese, with so many other superb parks to adorn their city, will not dignify this with the name of garden. The Vaux Gardens I think the most beautiful, though less extensive than some others. The evening we were there it was crowded with the élite and fashion of Vienna. The display of variegated and illuminated lamps eclipsed all I could have conceived of beauty in that way. They were wreathed around columns and statuary, suspended from tree to tree, and worked in the form of necklaces representing the colour and brilliancy of all the precious stones. Nothing but music was wanting to make it a complete fairy scene, and that was there |