painful part, descrying a country practitioner at some distance--under whose care she had formerly been, and whom she had not seen for some considerable time--addressing him by name, and requesting that he might not leave town without seeing her.” Since the period to which the writer just quoted refers, Dr. Simpson, of Edinburgh, has discovered a substitute for sulphuric ether--chloroform, or the perchloride of formyle. It is stated to possess over sulphuric ether the following advantages:--1. A greatly less quantity of chloroform than of ether is requisite to produce the desired effect. 2. Its action is much more rapid and complete, and generally more enduring. 3. The inhalation and influence of chloroform are far more agreeable and pleasant than those of ether. 4. The use of chloroform is less expensive than that of ether. 5. Its odour is not unpleasant; nor does it exhale in a disagreeable form from the lungs of the patient, as so generally happens with sulphuric ether. 6. Being required in much less quantity, it is much more portable and transmissible than sulphuric ether. 7. No special kind of inhaler or instrument is necessary for its exhibition. A little of the liquid diffused upon the interior of a hollow-shaped sponge, or on a pocket-handkerchief, or a piece of linen or paper, or held over the mouth and nostrils, so as to be fully inhaled, generally suffices, in about a minute or two, to produce the effect. This agent, however, requires to be used to annul pain under the direction of a judicious medical practitioner; it may otherwise be productive of serious consequences.