A small matter worth noting is the suggestion of M. Hager as to the bad effects of _impure glycerine_ which are occasionally met with. It appears that certain glycerines, which are locally irritant when applied to the skin, prove to contain formic and oxalic acid; the latter is more especially the irritating agent. Some interest attaches to a comparison instituted by M. Rabuteau between the action of sulphate of _soda_ and that of sulphate of _lithia_. The former diminishes or removes thirst and produces constipation; the latter increases thirst considerably, and causes copious liquid stools and watery vomiting. The soda salt _dries_ the alimentary canal, the other thickens the blood and pours out its watery element in abundant intestinal secretions. The chlorides of sodium and lithium present analogous differences. The former does not purge when introduced into the veins, though it does purge when given internally in similarly large doses. Its ormolic effects are like those of sulphate of soda. Iodide of sodium has similar differences of effect, according as it is given by the veins or the alimentary canal. In short, the purgative effects of salines would appear to depend on the metallic and not on the metall_oid_ element which they contain. We must finish this hasty notice with a _résumé_ of M. Rabuteau’s ingenious theory as to the cause of the constipation which so often succeeds saline purgation. According to him, if the dose of the saline be large almost the whole is directly eliminated by the alimentary canal; if it be medium, a part passes into the blood; if it be small, nearly the whole of it is absorbed into the blood. In the first case, purgation is violent; in the second it is slight; in the third it is _nil_, and there is even constipation. But as a certain quantity of the medicine may have been absorbed, even when there has been powerful purgation, there may be consecutive constipation from the presence in the organism of the purgative salt, which slowly eliminates itself from the intestinal surface. Rabuteau inclines to think, though it is impossible to affirm, that not merely saline, but other purgatives, show analogous differences of action. In concluding our notice of this _Annuaire_, useful and interesting as it is, we cannot but repeat the complaint we made last year. It is astonishing to what an extent the accomplished editor has ignored some of the most valuable therapeutic work done both in Germany and in England. We venture to say that he would have done better to attend to these matters, than to fill so many pages as he has done with a reproduction of his own papers on the etiology of saccharine urine, which is clearly beyond the proper work of his _Annuaire_. _De la Médication Antipyrétique. Thèse de Concours._ Par le Dr. A. FERRAND, Ancien Interne Lauréat des Concours des Hôpitaux, &c. &c. Paris: F. Savy, 1869. 8vo. pp. 90. (_On Antifebrile Medication._ By Dr. A. FERRAND.)