THE MONTHLY GAZETTE OF HEALTH; OR, POPULAR MEDICAL, DIETETIC, AND General Philosophical Journal. BY RICHARD REECE, M. D. OF LONDON, AND SEVERAL EMINENT PHYSICIANS, SURGEONS, AND CHEMISTS, IN AMERICA, SOLD BY SHERWOOD, NEELY, AND JONES, PATERNOSTER-ROW; AND ALL BOOKSELLERS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM. 1821. [Price 12s. 6d. in boards.] ΤΟ THE FIFTH VOLUME. ON concluding the Fifth Volume of this Work, the Editors have great satisfaction in expressing the sense they entertain of the Patronage it has received from the most respectable families and scientific characters in Europe and America. For the three first years of their labours, they had to contend. with the opposition of nearly all their professional brethren in this kingdom, in consequence of their having dared to expose the trade of Regular Medicine, and the medical education and qualification of a certain set of Practitioners, who, in this metropolis, presume to denominate themselves Regular Physicians. Within the last two years, this spirit has been so rapidly declining, that, at this time, they can boast of the Patronage of the most eminent Physicians and Surgeons of the United Kingdom; and such has been the increasing demand for the Work, in consequence of the recommendation of the leading Lecturers on Medicine and Surgery in this metropolis, that the Editors have no hesitation in asserting, that the period is not far distant, when it will entirely supersede all the periodical works on Medicine in this metropolis. At this time, the extent of its circulation, and the high respectability of its Patrons, warrant them in declaring it to be the leading Medical Journal of Europe. In return for these most flattering marks of public and professional favours, the Editors assure their Readers, that no exertion on their part shall be wanted, to render every succeeding Number more worthy the honour of their Patronage; and that no threats of prosecution from any quarter, or even conviction of having published a libel, when that libel was the truth, shall deter them from unmasking every species of Quackery, or exposing Ignorance and Fraud, although under the specious protection of a regular diploma, His Majesty's Letter Patent, or, a Licence to vend and prepare Nostrums, within the jurisdiction of the Royal College of Physicians, or elsewhere. Since the publication of their Fourth Volume, the Editors have undertaken to expose a system of Literary Quackery, or Book-making, which has greatly contributed to check the progress of Medical Science, and to bring the practice of Medicine into discredit with the part of the community capable of distinguishing fine-sounding words from sound reasoning and judgment. The Authors of such Works, which, unfortunately for credulous invalids, are but too numerous, are even more impudent than the Advertisers of universal remedies; and the facility with which a friendly Review may be obtained in some minor Journals, have hitherto enabled them to practise their impositions on ignorant invalids with impunity. By dint of advertising such Books with an extract from a puffing Review, Practitioners have been brought into notice, whose professional knowledge does not extend beyond technicalities. The object of such Writers is merely to advertise their names; and the little addition of a pithy extract from a friendly Review, has the effect of inducing the Readers to suppose, that the Authors really possess some superior knowledge of the discases on which they treat. Some of those scribblers, the Editors have ascer tained to belong to certain periodical works, and that they really wrote the Reviews of their own Books, which they have had the effrontery to quote in their public advertisements !!! By exposing this disreputable traffic, the Editors are aware they will bring against them another formidable set of scribblers; but the Augean Stable must be cleansed, and they are resolved to exert themselves to the utmost of their abilities, to accomplish that most desirable object. The present Volume, the Editors flatter themselves, contains much useful information. The Biographical Sketches of living Physicians cannot fail to prove instructive to young practitioners. They may be considered as so many Indices in the Medical World, directing them in the road which leads to honourable fame, and pointing out that which leads to dishonour. Those articles also emphatically acquaint their non-medical readers with the real state of Medicine, and enable them to distinguish the practitioners in whom they may place implicit confidence when afflicted with disease, from the mere trader in visits and fees. Among the discoveries of remedies of importance, may be noticed the virtues of Cubebs (Saturated Tincture of), in cases of Gleet, Muscular Debility of the Bladder, Fluor Albus, and the Indigestion of Elderly People. The salutary Effects of the Colchicum Seeds, in cases of Rheumatism, Gout, Asthma, Constitutional Cough, and Incipient Consumption, by Dr. Williams, and others; and of the carbonate of iron in Tic Doloureux, by Mr. Hutchinson, are discoveries equal to any that have been made in this department of Medicine since the period of Hippocrates. The Prussic Acid, as a direct sedative, is also a valuable remedy in cases of Inflammatory Excitement. Of the original Communications, the Editors have great pleasure in referring their new Subscribers to the very valuable Contributions of Surgeon Walker, of Oxford, on the Practice of Medicine, which are credi table to him as a man of science and a Christian. The Communications on Indigestion, by Chiro-Medicus; on the beneficial Effects of Galvanism, by Mr. La Beaume, in Cases of Torpidity of the Liver, Stomach, and Intestines, will also be found highly interesting, The Editors request their Readers will bear in mind that this Work embraces a variety of subjects, besides those connected with Medicine, as Agriculture, Diet, Domestic Economy, Veterinary Medicine, &c. &c.; and that communications on any of them will at all times be very acceptable. 170, Piccadilly, December 28, 1820. |