moved on division of a band which retained them superiorly. The fever and other unfavorable symptoms quickly subsided; to prevent adhesion of the parts, a piece of sponge, moistened with some aromatic decoction, was introduced into the vagina. The vaginal portion of the uterus now became adherent to the upper edge of the vagina, while the lower remained free, and a new canal was formed, being merely somewhat shorter than the original vagina. The woman recovered perfectly, and the functions of the uterus were soon restored.-Provin. Med. Jour., July 2, 1842, from Orvosi Tár, or the Hungarian Magazine of Health.

Injury to the Cartilages of the Ribs-Removal of a portion of them, and Cure.-M. L., aged twenty-eight, was admitted into the University College Hospital, February 21, under the care of Mr. Liston. On the night of the 20th, he took sixpenny-worth of laudanum for the purpose of self-destruction, but finding no effect from it, he took a dinner-knife, sharpened the point as well as he could on the hearth-stone, put it to his left side, rested the handle on the bed, and fell upon it. Says he tried to pass the knife between the ribs, but could not. There was some bleeding at first, but it soon ceased, and he tried several times to renew the bleeding, by passing the knife into the wound, and moving it about. He was brought into the hospital at three, P. M.

1

He is a tall, powerful man, good conformation, sanguine temperament, light complexion, and red hair. Has a wound three-quarters of an inch in length in the left side of the ensiform cartilage, not far from the attachment of the diaphragm. The bleeding had ceased; the wound was dressed with waterdressing. Ordered to have a purgative pill, followed by a dose of castor oil.

1

Feb. 22. Medicine has not operated; pulse 96, full, and rather inclined to be hard; breathes somewhat quicker than natural; great thirst; tongue covered with a white fur; wound painful, increased by coughing or lying upon his right side; mind much agitated; bowels open at four, P. M.

23. Pulse 104, soft and compressible; complains of pain in the wound on inspiration; less fever.

24. Improving; the wound has begun to suppurate. 26. Attacked in the night with violent pain in the side and dyspnea; bled to forty ounces with considerable relief.

28. Health much improved; the wound discharges a dark

colored matter, supposed to be the breaking up of a large co-, agulum. Made an out-patient on the 7th of March.

March 12. Returned to the hospital to-day, complaining that the wound of the side discharged a great deal on walking; walking and other exertion very much affected his breath, and caused a pain in his side, rather lower than the situation of the opening, Dressed with water-dressing, and a broad bandage to be applied round the chest.

14. Discharge continues very profuse; pressure on the parietes of the chest produces no increase of discharge, though it may be seen to ooze out of the wound during a forced inspiration; his health remains good; tongue clean.

16. Mr. Liston passed a probe to the depth of at least two inches into the wound. A collection of matter is supposed to exist somewhere about the attachment of the diaphragm to the cartilages of the last true ribs. Ordered opening med icine.

18. Mr. Liston made a T-shaped incision, passing through the original wound, and on dissecting back the flaps a small opening was seen passing through the cartilages of the ribs where they were united together, to the left of the ensiform cartilage, through which the matter was seen to proceed. A circular portion of two cartilages, nearly the size of a shilling.. was removed with a strong blunt-pointed bistoury, half an inch of the point being broken off, and a large quantity of healthy looking matter gushed out. The bleeding was restrained by lint dipped in cold water, and the wound afterwards dressed with water-dressing.

19. No unfavorable symptoms; the wound discharges freely. 20. Complains of pain on inspiration, and uneasiness around the wound. Ordered three grains of calomel and one of opium every three hours.

22. Pain relieved; slight cough; bowels open.

25. Pain entirely gone, the wound contracting and granulating very nicely; health good; appetite voracious; tongue clean. Allowed to walk out every day.

30. Still improving in every respect.

April 8. Discharged cured.-Phil. Med. Examiner, from the London Lancet, May 14, 1842.

On the Influence of the Nerves on Muscular Irritability. By M. LONGET.-M. Longet found that when a nerve of voluntary motion was cut across, on the fourth day thereafter, the

muscles to which it was distributed could not be excited to contract by irritating the nerve by means of a weak galvanic current. The muscles, however, supplied by this nerve, contract immediately on the application of the slightest stimulus to themselves, even at the end of fifteen days. Even after the lapse of a month, direct stimulation causes them to contract slightly, and may be recognised at the end of seven weeks; no irritation of the nervous twigs, however, excites the slightest motion after the fourth day. From the seventh week, the muscular fibre, already much blanched, seems to undergo a complete degeneration, and soon ceases to contract in the slightest, even with the most powerful stimulants. It is only then in consequence of a lesion of its nutrition that muscular fibre, in losing its organic characters, loses also its essential characteristic, irritability, which, however, as has been seen, remains a long time after all nervous influence has been sup pressed.-Edinburgh Med. and Surg. Journal, from Comptes Rendus des Seances de l'Academie des Sciences, July, 1841.

tunic

are.

New Mode of Treating Hydrocele. By J. PANCOAST, Prof. of Anatomy, Jefferson Medical College, Philada.-Hydrocele in children, even where the opening has been closed, that led from the tunica vaginalis to the cavity of the abdomen, is a disease of frequent occurrence. In early infancy strong discu tient lotions will usually suffice for its cure. But after the second year, some more efficient means are required to produce this result. Mere evacuation of the serum with a common lancet or trochar, or a number of punctures made into the sac with a large needle, so that the fluid may escape into the cel lular tissue of the scrotum, and be subsequently removed by the absorbents, are the modes of cure commonly relied on. But I have found them so uncertain in their result, success in many cases being attained only by a repetition of the process, that I have latterly adopted the following plan of treatment, which in three cases that I have tried it in has proved perfectly successful.

whi

can

scrot

ter, a

I puncture the swelling, in front and below its middle, with a common thumb lancet. When the serum is discharged, a little pressure causes the serous or vaginal tunic to protrude in the form of a small cyst. This I lay hold of with a pair of forceps, and draw it out, as far as it will admit. I then divide the lower half of the cyst next the skin with a pair of scissors, and traction again being made upon the pedicle, still more of

the tunic may be drawn out from the upper portion of the scrotum, which is nipped partly off and treated in like manner as before. I repeat this process while any portion of the vaginal tunic can be made to protrude readily at the opening, so as to be laid hold of with the forceps. I then surround the side of the scrotum and the testicle involved with strips of adhesive plaster, after the manner of Fricke of Hamburg for the cure of hernia humoralis. By this means, the cellular tissue of the scrotum (the tunica vaginalis reflexa having been removed, to a considerable extent, with the forceps and scissors) is brought directly into contact with, and ultimately becomes adherent to that portion of the vaginal tunic which is closely attached to the fibrous coat of the testicle.

The child is allowed to run about as usual, and in a few days is perfectly well. Excepting as regards the puncture of the skin, the operation is entirely devoid of pain.

This plan of cure will, I think, be generally found applicable in children. It is certainly more speedy and certain in its results than any measure short of injection of the sac, which is not usually practised in children.

It would also, I think, be found successful in the recent hydrocele of adults, before the tunica vaginalis reflexa has become so coriaceous, or been so thickened by disease, as to prevent its being drawn out in the form of a cyst through a narrow opening. In one instance, where the puncture or palliative process had been several times tried without success, and in which I feared I might find a thickened membrane, I made the puncture through the skin with a curved bistoury, and pushing it on to the top of the sac, divided with the point of the instrument as I withdrew it, the anterior wall of the tunic, laying open the sub-cutaneous cellular tissue of the scrotum, but not cutting the skin. Subsequently, no difficulty was encountered in drawing out the tunic and removing it with the scissors,

April 20, 1842.

Since writing the above, I have operated upon another case in the same manner, in which the passage leading to the cav iy of the abdomen had remained open. The cure in this instance has been slow and gradual, occupying about a month, and without the aid of a truss. The fluid re-accumulated in the tumor during the first week, but it was gradually absorbed, adhesion beginning below and proceeding upwards, until a radical cure was effected.-Am. Med. Intelligencer.

June 8, 1842.

First Introduction of Syphilis into Scotland.-At the Medico-Chirurgical Society of Edinburgh, Professor Simpson read a communication relative to the history of the first introduction and diffusion of syphilis in Scotland at the end of the fif teenth century. He cited official edicts of the Aberdeen Magistrates, and of the king's privy council respecting the new 'infirmitez,' issued during the currency of 1497, with various casual notices of the distemper from the contemporaneous writings of Dunbar, Lyndsay, Inglis, &c. In these early times the disease passed in Scotland under the various names of grand gore, gorre, pockis, spanie pockis, French infirmitez, &c. Dr. S. alluded to an entry in 1502-3 in the privy purse expense book of Elizabeth, Queen of Henry VII., as containing the earliest notice of the disease in England, that he had been able to meet with. The first Scottish edicts were made with a view of arresting the progress of the disease, and or dained the application of a hot key of iron to the cheek, as the punishment of those who infringed their regulations. The Aberdeen edict was dated only four years and a month after the return of Columbus from his first voyage to Hispaniola. This edict was remarkable as being founded on the idea that the new malady disseminated itself by impure sexual intercourse while, as is well known, it was not for several years afterwards, that this opinion of its mode of propagation, was adopted by the medical men and authors of these times. The Edinburgh regulations pre-supposed the disease to be commu nicable even by the persons that took the cure upon them; although these persons were themselves uninfected. Lastly, Dr. S. proceeded to show from the old data which he had adduced, that syphilis was new to this part of Europe, at the date of the edicts, that it was hence different on the one hand from gonorrhoea, and on the other from the leprosy of the middle ages, both of which affections were well known in this country be fore the era in question.-N. Y. Lancet, from Lond, and Edinb. Monthly Jour. Med. Sci..

Clinical Lecture on Delirium Tremens. By GEORGE BUDD, M. D., F. R. S,, Prof. of Medicine. Delivered at King's Col lege Hospital, Nov. 20, 1841.-The case of Embleton is a fair specimen of the delirium brought on by excessive drinking. During the years I was physician to the Dreadnought, I had constantly cases of this kind under my care. The fre quency of delirium tremens in sailors is very readily explained. When a ship returns from a long voyage, the crew are paid