an increased secretion of bile. We have thus an additional provision made in the arrangements of the system to prevent an undue accumulation of carbon, an element which, when it exists in excess, appears to exert a positively deleterious influence. But with respect to azote and hydrogen, the case is different. Although we must conceive that an excess of these elements is more or less inconsistent with the maintenance of the healthy state of the system, yet it is not so immediately injurious, and we, consequently, have no compensating organs, by which such excess may be removed, in defect of the due operation of the kidney and the liver.

With respect to the oxygen, there appears to be no depurative process by which it is removed from the blood. Probably the continued expenditure of this element, in almost every operation of the system, when either the muscles or the nerves are called into action, may prevent its undue accumulation, and, even should we admit of the existence of a'hyperoxygenized state of the blood, we are not aware that any immediate evil would result from it. We may also conjecture, that when the blood contains an excess of oxygen, this redundant quantity becomes united to a portion of carbon, so as to form an oxide, which we may conceive to be less deleterious than the carbon in its uncombined state.

ARTICLE II.-Case of Hydrencephalocele; with Observations on the Operation of Puncture in that and similar Diseases. By W. LYON, one of the Surgeons to the Glasgow Royal Infirmary, and Lecturer on Surgery in the Portland Street Medical School. (With a Plate.)

(Read before the Glasgow Medical Society, December 1841.)

William M'Nicholl, aged eleven days, was admitted June 16, 1841. Situated on each side of the upper part of the nose is a tumour; that on the right side is about the size of a small plum; that on the left of a small almond. The tumours have a glossy appearance, and are spotted, as if dusted with oat meal, and have numerous small vessels ramifying over their surfaces. The tumours have a spongy feel, and can be easily reduced in size by pressure. When the finger is pressed upon them, there is an indistinct feeling as if it entered some vacuity, which is most evident on right side. The palate is entire: and the child is said to have breathed through his nostrils with ease previous to an attack of nasal ca tarrh, which still continues. Pressure on the carotids, or their branches, does not appear to influence the size of the tumours. The tumours were discovered the day after birth, at which time