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cine are usually dry recapitulations of certainphenomena, symptoms and modes of cure,which, although, probably, quite applicableto the disease in its most independent andcharacteristic form, yet fail to supply anydata by which unexpected secondary, anddistant effects are produced. There can beno question that such works may be founduseful and invaluable records for occasional

reference ; but as they conjoin in their de-lineations of disease, none of the physiolo-gical characters by which morbid affectionsof certain parts are accompanied, they ceaseto interest the mind, and to supply it withsubject for thought and reflection. More-

over, from their very nature, works of merepractical detail must necessarily be dry anduninteresting, well stored with facts, excel-lent dictionaries of disease, but still avail-able only in the majority of cases as worksof occasional reference : nor, indeed, is it

possible in any disease, however simple initself, to follow out the endless chain of

sympathetic phenomena, without a deeperacquaintance with the laws of vital action

and vital sympathies than such works af-ford.With this view, Dr. Laycock has aimed at

producing a fire-side companion, a treatisewhich shall interest in its reasoning, as wellas instruct in its more practical materiel; ;and for the purpose of aiding in the fulfil.ment of his wishes, he has had recourse tothe noble and rich fiold which physiologyunfolds to the scientific cultivator of medi-cine. Nothing can be more dignified andennobling than the science and practice of

medicine combined ; and we conceive thatthe author of this work is entitled to the

approbation of his fellow-members of ourprofession, for striving to introduce a moreelevated consideration of the science ofdisease and human suffering than has

hitherto been the habit, and for endeavour-ing to lead the practitioner to reflect uponthe causes involved in the daily routine ofhis duties.

Scientific medicine, observes the author,has a much wider range of immediate prac-tical usefulness and prospective benefit thanthis mere practical medicine: its rules areless applicable to individual diseases thanto the infinite variety of individual cases.It gladly makes use of empiricism; hut itstudies symptoms to demonstrate their causes,and relieves the former by removing the

latter; or counteracting their effects) and

when science fails to guide, it is still ableto apply empirical knowledge with preci-sion and effect.

Dr. Laycock’s work will he perused withmuch interest; and we doubt not that itwill fan into life the spark of philosophicalreasoning present in the minds of manyof our professional brethren, but wantingsuch a stimulus as the treatise before us to

develop its presence.

Popular Cyclolrccdia of Natural Science:Vegetable Physiology. Published by theSociety for the Promotion of Popular In.struction. Tanner, Brothers.

THE treatise before us, on Vegetable Physi-ology, is the first of a series proposed to bepublished by a Society for the Promotion ofPopular Instruction. If we may judge bythe present number, we should augur wellof the undertaking; the treatise is well

written, and is stored with useful and valu-able information. It is intended that the

subjects shall be treated upon the same

general plan, to be executed by the samewriter, so that the necessary connection andharmony may be maintained between them.The list of subjects for future essays are,

mechanics, astronomy, hydrostatics, hydrau-tics, pneumatics. Sound, heat, light, elec-tricity, magnetism. Chemistry, and its ap’plication to the arts. Mineralogy and geo-logy. Vegetable physiology, botany, zoo-logy, animal physiology, the habits andinstincts of animals ; and the series will beconcluded with a volume on natural theology.

DR. ZECCHINELLI. *

* We are indebted to one of Dr. Z.’s dis-tinguished countrymen, now in London, forthis brief notice, which we give in his ownexcellent English.—ED. L.

ON the 18th of February, 184!, died, atPadua, one of the most learned and cele-brated physicians of Italy, Dr. G. M. Zec-chinelli. He was born in Grantorro, a littlevillage in the vicinity of Padua, in the yeer1776. At the age of 15 he became a studentof the university of that city, and took hisdegree in medicine in the year 1795, havingthen completed his 19th year. Throughoutthe course of his studies he always evincedreat talent ; a rare perspicacity and a re-markable firmness of purpose. Aloof fromthe dissipations by which, at his age, so

many are led away, he spent his life amonghooks, furnishing his mind with a store of

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erudition, from which his works were after-wards richly adorned.Immediately after obtaining his degree,

he commenced the practice of medicine inWoventa, as assistant to his father; at whosedeath (from typhus in the year 1801) he re-turned to Padua, where he devoted himselfentirely to the practice of physic, and to hisvarious studies. He was entrusted, togetherwith Professor Montesanto, with the exami-nation and arrangement of Count Carbure’slarge library; and he held at different pe-riods a variety of oflices at the university, aswell as at some of the public medical insti-tutions of Padua and its province. In the

year 1839, when the Institution for Science,Letters, and the Arts, was founded, he waselected one of its first members. Nearlyevery Italian and a great many foreign aca-demies and scientific societies honoured himwith their diploma, owing to the numberand merit of his publications, of which wewill mention only the most important.

Sulla febre giallo, 1802.-Sull’ angina delpetto, vol. i., 1815, vol. ii., 1838.—SulleTermo Padovane, 1834.-Sul Tifo, 1815.-Sulla Pellagra ; Sul Colera; Il projetto percondotte mediche ; sull’ uso della mano

destra, a preferenze della sinistra; su i verimeriti dell’ Harvey ; sul suspirium di Sene-ca, &c. &c.As a writer he was particularly distin-

guished by his profound erudition, his clearjudgment, and moderate views. He was

deeply read in the medical classics; and heappeared to have inherited from them theirfine spirit of observation. It was this whichdirected his conduct as a medical practi-tioner, in which capacity he was esteemedamong the first, not only in Padua, butthroughout the neighbouring provinces,which he frequently visited in consultation.He was devotedly attached to his familyand to his country; and many difficult circumstances in which he was placed, wellproved how useful he could be by his coun-sels to the latter.

MEDICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON.

Monday, April 19, 1841.Dr. CLUTTERBUCK, President.

HYPOCHONDRIASIS.

MR. ROBERTS read a paper on hypochon-driasis, chiefly with the view of showingthat thefons et origo of the affection is situ-ated in the brain and nervous centres, whichare in a state of exhaustion, and that theaffections of the digestive organs were

merely symptomatic of, and not necessarilypresent in, the disease. In regard to thetreatment, he placed little dependence uponpurgatives ; mild tonics, cold affusion to thehead, and horse exercise, were the most

likely means of affording relief to the de-pressed condition of body and mind.As no discussion followed this paper,

Dr. CHOWNE related a

CASE OF VERY EARLY CADAVERIC

STIFFENING.

He said that he was induced to submit tothe society a case of extremely early « cada-veric stiffening," because he was notaware of any instance in which it has comeon so quickly, and under circumstances sopeculiar, and because, moreover, the subjectwas one of great interest in connection withforensic medicine, perhaps more especiallywith infanticide. The detail would occupybut a very brief space of time, the factsbeing few. He received a request in writingfrom one of the midwives of the Charing-cross Hospital, to give his assistance in anobstetric case under her care. Her notestated that the patient had haemorrhage, andthat the child was not born. Upon his ar-rival at the house in Market-street, West-minster, he found that vigorous natural effortshad terminated the labour, and that the childhad been born about three-quarters of anhour. The child was on the midwife’s knee;the midwife had put a cap upon it, and wasproceeding to put some other article ofwearing apparel on. He observed that onearm was a little raised, and the hands partlyclosed ; these circumstances giving it all theappearance of being a living child. Hefound, however, that it had been still-born,that the birth had taken place three-quartersof an hour before his noticing the state ofthe arm and hand, and that it had been partof the time in a warm bath. The other limbswere also stiff in about the same degree.He examined the stiffness carefully ; it wasunequivocal; there was no elasticity, as ifthe stiffness was the result of spasmodicmuscular contraction ; a joint being flexed,it remained flexed. The midwife informedhim, that she particularly observed the stiff-ness while the child was in the warm bath.The mother said the child moved very per.ceptibly to herself not long before its birth.Whether facts tended to weaken or to

strengthen existing opinions, they were ineither case useful, and must be equally in-

teresting to the profession. This case hesubmitted to the society, as one which mightwarrant a degree of circumspection with re-ference to some general views entertained onthe subject of cadaverous rigidity.Beck says, in speaking of coldness and

stiffness, "I may remark that their super-vention is far from being uniform ; the bodiesof the aged take them on much sooner thanthose of the young, and again the nature ofthe disease has a manifest inflnence."

In the work of Paris and Fonblanque,we find it stated as a general rule, that themore sudden the death, the longer is cadave-rous stiffness in taking place. This passage