[1]. The College of Physicians may now be said to possess one of the most complete collections of Materia Medica in Europe. That collected by Dr. Burgess, and presented to the College after his death by Mr. Brande, to whom it was bequeathed, has lately been collated with the cabinet of Dr. Coombe, purchased for that purpose. Its arrangement has been directed by a feeling of convenience for reference, rather than by any theoretical views relative to the natural, chemical, and medicinal histories of its constituent parts. Under proper regulations, it is accessible to the studious and respectable members of the profession.

[2]. A late foreign writer impressed with this sentiment has given the following flattering definition of our profession. ‘Physic is the art of amusing the patient, while Nature cures the disease.’ This is a sarcasm which can only be equalled by the churlish and ill-humoured apostrophe of our own Dr. Samuel Johnson, who, in speaking of the profession of physic, exclaims ‘It is a melancholy attendance on misery; a mean submission to peevishness; and a continual interruption of pleasure.’

[3]. Observation, says professor Leslie, is the close inspection and attentive examination of those phenomena which arise in the course of Nature; Experiment, as the term implies, consists in a kind of trial, or artificial selection and combination of circumstances, for the purpose of searching after the remote results.

[4]. The refractive power of an inflammable body bears also a proportion to its perfection, whence it may be sometimes used as a test of its purity; thus Dr. Wollaston found that genuine Oil of Cloves had a refractive power of 1.535, while that of an inferior quality did not exceed 1.498.

[5]. Elizabeth Woodcock, who was buried in the snow for the space of eight days, in the neighbourhood of Cambridge, and whom I frequently visited, died in consequence of the stimulants which she could not resist, and which in her peculiar state of excitement she was unable to bear. In the first volume of the Memoirs of the Philosophical Society of Manchester, a case of a Miner is recorded, who after remaining for eight days without food, was killed by being placed in a warm bed, and fed with chicken-broth.

[6]. For this purpose it appears that the toad was baked alive. The following is the receipt in Colborne’s Dispensatory; ‘Bufo Præparatus.’ “Put the toads alive into an earthen pot, and dry them in an oven moderately heated, till they become fit to be powdered.”!

[7]. The application of the reeking entrails of a recently slain animal, appears to have been one of the earliest methods adopted for the relief of pain.

[8]. The words ‘Incantation,’ and ‘Charm,’ appear to have been derived from the ancient practice of curing diseases by Poetry and Music. (Carmen) Thus Cœlius Aurelianus, decantare loca Dolentia. Democritus says that many diseases are capable of being cured by the sound of a flute, when properly played. Marianus Capellus assures us, that fevers may be cured by appropriate songs; Asclepiades actually employed the trumpet, for the relief of Sciatica, and tells us that it is to be continued until the fibres of the part begin to palpitate, when the pain will vanish.