On Dreams 295 On Flagellation 312 On Life and the Blood 317 Of the Homoeopathic Doctrines 337 Doctrine of Signatures 365 Coffee 370 Aqua Tophania 374 Plica Polonica & Human Hair 377 Animal Magnetism 384 Poisonous Fishes 397 Memory & the Mental Faculties 404 Affections of the Sight 420 Hellebore 426 Sympathies and Antipathies 428 The Archeus of Van Helmont 439 Monsters 443 Longevity 453 Cretinism 472 Temperaments 476 Solar Influence 482 Sweating Fever 485 Smallpox 491 Drunkenness 507 Decapitation 516 Mummies 518 Hydrophobia 527 Rise and Progress of Medicine 534 Medicine of the Chinese 552 Experiments on Living Animals 559 CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE. OBESITY. Various are the opinions concerning the cause of excessive corpulence. By some it is attributed to too great an activity in the digestive functions, producing a rapid assimilation of our food; by others, to the predominance of the liver: while indolence and apathy, such as is commonly observed in the wealthy monastic orders, are considered as occasioning a laxity of fibre favourable to this _embonpoint_. Boileau has thus described one of these fat lazy prelates, who Muni d'un dejeuner, Dormant d'un leger somme, attendait le diner. La jeunesse en sa fleur brille sur son visage; Son menton sur son sein descend a triple etage; Et son corps ramasse, dans sa courte grosseur, Fait gemir les coussins sous sa molle epaisseur. It is certain that exercise, anxiety of mind, want of sleep, and spare food, are circumstances opposed to fatness. This fact is illustrated by Shakspeare, when Caesar says to Antony,