all the countries I have visited, there is no one in which so little attention is paid to this cardinal distinction in our profession as in France. The practice of depletion, I regret to say, even in the always more or less impure air and worn-out constitutions in their hospitals, is too often heedlessly pushed to a point of extreme and hopeless exhaustion, where it is obvious, from the universal indications of debility and consequent irritability present, that nutritious and tonic treatment alone would save the patient. I have witnessed with pain and surprise, and I regret that candour and truth oblige me to make the declaration, that after formidable operations, when the suppurative process had attenuated and wasted the system with hectic irritation and erythema, and that aptha of the mucus membrane had supervened, leeches and poultices to the epigastrium, even under the alarming symptoms mentioned, were too often pertinaciously persisted in, instead of the restorative means so urgently and imperiously demanded.

We are readily anticipated by our medical friends in stating that this deplorable system of therapeutics owes its origin to the monomania which the almost omnipotent influence of, and infatuation for, the doctrines of the justly-celebrated Broussais had exercised over the minds of the Parisians.

The fatal error in that doctrine was, not so much in its physiological axioms, which are generally based upon sound views of the organization, but in the pathological deductions of that great physician, in too frequently mistaking the effect for the cause, and therefore, by misdirecting the treatment, aggravating the evils which it was desirable to remove.

Though the pernicious results of the spread and propagation of the therapeutical recommendations of

Broussais are still at this moment, as we have said, seen in the treatment of diseases throughout France, the doctrine itself of physiological medicine, less objectional than its false application to treatment, is manifestly on the decline. The sun of its glory is sinking fast into that oblivion which sooner or later is the inevitable doom of every theory that begets erroneous and mischievous deductions.

This great and original physician had the misfortune to survive his own doctrine. He lived to see it entombed before him. He who had charmed, by the novelty and beauty of his theory, the thousands that thronged his amphitheatre and clinique at his famous hospital of the Val de Grâce, lived to behold the ranks of his followers thinned and decimated to less than half a hundred listeners, as I myself had the mortification to witness on several occasions; and, what must have been galling to the acute sensibilities and proud, imperial mind of this giant intellect, he daily saw that even these few scattered and reluctant attendants scarcely lingered to hear his concluding admonitions, but hastened with hurried step and eager curiosity to join in the pressure of the crowded multitude that rushed in to do homage to his successful rival and colleague, the indefatigable and talented Andral.

May I be permitted to hope that my friends will place a proper construction upon the criticism I have hazarded on the pathological misapplication of the doctrines of so profound and truly original a philosopher as the great Broussais ?

For fear, however, that some may misapprehend me, I will briefly add that the master features of the physiological system of Broussais, La Medicine Physiologique, as he called it, are without doubt strictly conform

able, in their anatomical sense, with the true and immutable principles of the animal organization.

In fixing upon the mucous membrane as the seat for the primordial evolution and final extinction of the vital forces, he has unquestionably struck upon the true track, in following out and opening up which we may at some future day hope to unravel the intricate mysteries of organic life.

In tracing out the structure and the functions of the mucous membrane, it will be found, that throughout all the varying plans of organization, and multitudinous groups and classes of animals, that this tissue, as it is the one which is most universally present, and that which can alone be detected in the extreme and ultimate simplifications of vitality, as seen in the infusory animals, and that terra incognita in which, through radiary and zoophytic tribes, they blend with the vegetable kingdom; so is it necessarily, therefore, that particular and ruling organic texture which is absolutely essential to, if not more indispensable than any other structure to animal existence.

In according every encomium justly due to this extraordinary man, we should not forget also the invaluable and original contributions to physiology made by his illustrious contemporaries Bichat and Beclard. These two latter, in fact, may be said to have laid the foundation of that ever-memorable system of physiological medicine deduced from almost endless and incessantlymultiplied anatomical investigations and dissections; which, like logarithmic calculations in astronomy, have brought us nearer and nearer to, and, in fact, almost in actual proximity with, the truth and with the knowledge of the exact character of the agencies which propel and regulate the machinery and mechanism of life.

That immortal triumvirate of physiologists, Bichat; Beclard, and Broussais, have established an era in medicine, and shed a lustre upon the laws of organic life, which will forever be the subject of admiration to the remotest posterity.

But we have to lament in this, as in so many instances of a similar kind, that the enthusiasm with which these doctrines and pursuits have been embraced and cultivated by their contemporaries, has led to the neglect, however paradoxical it may seem, of the important and paramount science of therapeutics, or the cure of diseases by remedial means; which is, in truth, the first and the last great object of all our professional inquiries. It must strike every observer who walks in the hospitals of Paris, that the great ambition of her medical men seems too much absorbed with the desire to verify the justness of their diagnosis and prognosis by the autopsies and post-mortem examinations of their patients, ra ther than scrutinizing and seeking sedulously with unremitted vigilance for remedies for healing the maladies of the sick.

But they are nevertheless laying a mighty groundwork in sound pathology, and their labours are justly the theme of eulogy and admiration in all countries, though we have not, from the causes stated, yet reaped the full fruits of them. Upon this platform, however, sooner or later will be reared the noblest superstructure of therapeutics that the world has ever beheld. We venture to predict, from our own observation, that ere long the scientific men of every country will award this just meed of praise to the great pathological school of Paris.

Before passing from the lamented Broussais, some interesting circumstances connected with the last moments

of so great a man, as they fell under my more immediate notice, may not seem misplaced.

I had often seen him, and often listened to his powerful eloquence, which spared neither friend nor foe, ancient nor modern man that stood in his pathway. He died only about a year since, and while I was at Paris.

If his fame for several years previous to this event had declined, and if there had been any lukewarmness in that impassioned admiration that the medical world entertained for him, that indifference in public feeling expired with him. For when his corse was brought out for sepulture in Père la Chaise, the streets were thronged with thousands to pay a last homage to his remains. Even the hearse was drawn by hundreds of medical students from his house to the grave, and in its route was stopped at the foot of the column of Napoleon in the Place Vendôme, in testimony of the admiration which the deceased when alive, and while a medical officer in the grand army, had ever cherished for the great Captain. A few days after his interment, I participated, by special invitation from my excellent friend Amusat, his attending surgeon, in a reunion of a few of his friends to hear and see the result of the autopsy.

Characteristic of the correct judgment of Broussais and the sagacity of his diagnosis, as well as of that of his skilful medical attendant, the morbid appearances were found to be in exact accordance with the detail and explanations of the symptoms as recorded in the diary of the deceased, as kept by himself up to the day of his death, and which I myself saw and examined.*

Immediately following his death, a bronze statue of this eminent physician, of the size of life, was cast by

* It was a cazcinomatous affection of the rectum.