symptoms of _cholera_, offers a satisfactory proof of its spontaneous origin. Upon this point we would observe, that by violent and protracted retching a person may sometimes become jaundiced, a circumstance not unlikely to occur in cases of poisoning. The stomach, diaphragm, and abdominal muscles are, under such repeated efforts, very apt to be rendered eminently irritable, so that at each effort of the former to discharge its contents, the latter will frequently be simultaneously thrown into strong spasmodic contractions, and the liver, together with the gall-bladder, will be suddenly caught, and, as it were, tightly squeezed in a powerful press, in consequence of which the bile will regurgitate, and be carried into the _venæ cavæ_; for _Haller_ has shewn with what facility a subtle injection, when thrown into the hepatic duct, will escape by the hepatic veins; upon which _Dr. Saunders_ has made the following remark, “I know this to be a fact, for I have ascertained by experiment, that water, injected in the same direction, will return by the veins in a full stream, although very little force is used.” The fact of the bile becoming, under certain circumstances, highly acrid and deleterious, has been seized by the humoral pathologist as a powerful argument in support of his doctrines. Amongst the more distinguished authors who have fully treated this subject, and maintained that our secretions may thus become acrid poisons, we have _Galen_[160], _Aretæus_[161], _Fernelius_[162], _Morgagni_[163], _Hebenstreit_[164], _Hilchen_[165], _Hoffman_[166], _Baumer_[167], _Belloc_[168], _Alibert_[169], _Foderé_[170], _Mahon_[171], _De la Mettrie_[172], and _Tronchin_[173]. Some of the authors above enumerated have expressed their opinions in the strongest terms; thus _Morgagni_ (loco citato) “_Facile agnosco a prava ipsa corporis dispositione internum aliquando posse venenum gigni_;” and _Hebenstreit_ observes, “_Possunt omnino in corpore venena nasci, atque ipsi humores vitales vim vasa sua destruendi sæpe acquirunt._[174]” _Hilchen_, after attempting to establish a diagnosis between the effects of poison, and those arising from a morbid degeneracy of the fluids, exclaims, apparently in despair, “_Inquilinos corruptosque humani corporis humores, eum acrimoniæ gradum, eamque corrodendi vim acquirere posse, quæ eosdem edat effectus, quos venena corrosiva sistunt, eamdem sordium vomitu rejectarum putrilaginem, fætorem, haud dissimilem, et acerrimam, et pelves arrodentem acrimoniam certum est._” And _Plouquet_, after describing all the phenomena of poisoning, concludes by acknowledging “_Probe autem notandum hæc omnia etiam ex aliis statibus morbosis nasci posse._” _De la Mettrie_ also has observed upon this question, “_Il est prouvé que la bile se peut changer dans nos corps en espece d’Arsenic!_” Our own countryman, _Dr. Currie_[175], has furnished the public with an opinion upon the subject under discussion, and he states his belief