the spine is mainly required to fulfil, in the act of locomotion, and to which its alternating elastic balls of fluid, and semi-ossified bi-concave vertebræ, so admirably adapt it. To have had their entire skeleton consolidated and loaded with earth's matter, would have been an encumbrance altogether at variance with the offices which the sharks are appointed to fulfil in the economy of the great deep." Contrasted with the sharks are the sturgeons. "The sturgeons were designed to be the scavengers of the great rivers: they swim low, grovel along the bottom, feeding in shoals on the decomposing animal and vegetable substances which are hurried down with the debris of the continents drained by those rapid cur. rents. Thus they are ever busied, re-converting the substances, which otherwise would tend to corrupt the ocean, into living organised matter. These fishes are therefore duly weighted by a ballast of dense dermal osseous plates, not scattered at random over their surface, but regularly arranged, as the seaman knows how ballast should be, in orderly series along the middle and at the sides of the body. The protection against the waterlogged timber and stones hurried along their feeding grounds, which the sturgeons derive from their scale armour, renders needless the ossification of the cartilaginous case of the brain, or other parts of the endo-skeleton: and the weight of the armour requires that endo-skeleton to be kept as light as may be compatible with its elastic property and other functions. The sturgeons are further adjusted to their place in the liquid element, and endowed with the power of changing their level, and rising with their defensive load to the surface, by a large expansive airbladder." The myology of fishes is described in the seventh lecture; their neurology and organs of special sense in the eighth. The ninth is devoted to their digestive organs; whilst the two last chapters treat at length of their pneumonic and renal systems, their generative system and development. We must here close our hasty sketch, which we do with reluctance, feeling how little such a notice as the present can convey an adequate idea of the merits of the work; but we have at least the satisfaction of knowing, that it may have the effect of attracting attention to the volume itself, the perusal of which will repay any amount of time or labour bestowed upon it. deep-seated pain in the epigastric region, and deranged digestion and occasional vomiting. In September fever came on, and he became an in-patient of the hospital. On admission, his symptoms were those of the epidemic idiopathic fever, requiring stimulants. His reason failed for some time, and on recovery he directed attention to an abscess as large as a child's head, on the left side of the lumbar spine, presenting precisely the appearance of the common lumbar abscess connected with diseased bone. He died October 15th. Autopsy. An abscess of the spleen at the back of the peritoneum which was unruptured; stomach, liver, and other viscera healthy. ANEURISM OF THE AORTA: STEATOMATOUS TUMOUR. Mr. W. C. Freer next presented an aneurism of the arch of the aorta, taken from a woman aged 50; also the uterus from the same patient, which had two small steatomatous tumours between it and the rectum, the os tincæ being a mere point. Isabella Haines, aged 50, has considered herself asthmatical for some years, and has frequently had attacks of spasmodic dyspnoea. She became an inpatient of the hospital, and died shortly after admission, no opportunity being afforded for an investigation of the case. Autopsy. An aneurism of the arch of the aorta, the distension of all the coats of the artery, and the size of an orange, the cavity being partially formed by remainder by a true aneurismal pouch, the aperture of communication being circular, and an inch and a half in diameter. The right lung was much smaller than the left, apparently from pressure upon the right bronchus having allowed but a small quantity of air to enter the lung. The uterus had two small steatomatous tumours between it and the rectum, the os tincæ being a mere point. ADHESION OF THE PLACENTA: INFAMMATION OF THE UTERUS Mr. W. C. Freer exhibited a uterus taken from a patient aged 24, who had miscarried, in which a considerable portion of the placenta remained attached over the right Fallopian tube; he gave the following history of the case. Jane Williams, aged 34, at the commencement of October, suffered from some general derangement of health, and miscarried with her fifth child the middle of October. She lost a large quantity of blood and shortly afterwards symptoms of typhoid puerperal fever presented themselves. She became an in-patient of the hospital on the 4th of November, and had the following symptoms:-Uterine tenderness, acute pain in the right thigh, jaundice, pulse 130 to 150, and extreme prostration. She died on the 6th instant. Autopsy. A considerable portion of placenta remained attached over the right Fallopian tube; the mucous membrane of the uterus was disorganized, and the uterine sinuses contained pus. The kidneys were slightly diseased. The other organs of the body were healthy. MENINGEAL APOPLEXY. Mr. James Russell, jun., exhibited a portion of a MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. brain taken from a patient who had died suddenly from effusion of blood over the entire surface of the brain. He gave the following particulars :— Mrs. T., aged 35, for the last three years has suffered from pain in her forehead at frequent short intervals, seldom exceeding a fortnight in duration. Has had no other complaint. On the evening of October 13th she was visiting her sister, and was sitting with her head leaning on her hand, when having just completed a sentence, her head dropped, her hands fell lifeless, and in ten minutes she was dead. Mr. Hinds saw her in about six or seven minutes, he informs me that she made about three stertorous inspirations after his arrival; her face was perfectly pale; the heart was beating. 75 appearance; some emphysema at the apex of the right lung. Liver healthy, fluid-blood flowed freely from its divided surface; kidneys very firm, apparently much congested; intestines pale. Vena cava contained liquid blood; aorta nearly empty. December 5th, 1846. JAMES RUSSELL, ESQ., in the Chair. HYDATIDS FROM THE UTERUS. Mr. Brindley presented a specimen of uterine hydatids, discharged by a patient, aged 32, who supposed herself to be in the 5th month of pregnancy. She had aborted six or seven times about the third month, and had been twice delivered of dead children at the full period. MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. EXAMINATION OF DELICATE ORGANIC STRUCTURES. A paper was read at a late meeting of this Society by John Anthony, Esq., "On a Method of Rendering the Appearances in Delicate Structures visible by Means of Oblique Transmitted Light." This method depends upon the placing the object in such a position that the fine lines or other delicate markings are exactly at right angles to the illuminating rays, when these lines, &c., will be at their maximum of distinctness, and thus tissues may be rendered distinctly visible whose existence when viewed in the ordinary manner might be considered as exceedingly doubtful. The object employed to illustrate this position was the navicula of the Humber, one of the most delicate of test objects, which, under ordinary circumstances, appears perfectly transparent; but when viewed in this way, not only exhibits a double set of lines, but also transverse lines, giving the whole the appearance of being covered with a delicate net-work. Sectio-cadaveris forty-five hours after death. Body well nourished; stature rather tall; rigor mortis very firm; face quite pale; decomposition had not commenced; a considerable quantity of blood had issued from the wound at the bend of the arm. On removing the calvarium, fluid-blood flowed apparently from the outer surface of the dura mater, probably from the longitudinal sinus. The pia mater was enormously congested over the whole surface of the brain, excepting at the vertex, in the space of the palm of a small hand; the vessels of the pia mater were all surrounded by ecchymosis in the meshes of its cellular tissue, mottling the surface of the brain with bright red; the same appearance extended down the great fissure on either side at the corpus callosum. On the anterior edge of each hemisphere was a large thick patch of effused blood; and in a subsequent stage of the dissection, on slicing the brain, the cut surface of the convolutions exhibited a bright red line, produced by the processes of the pia mater. Towards the base the effusion became more abundant and more uniform. At the base the olfactory nerves were matted together with blood, as were the optics. The pons was concealed Four drawings of this object were exhibited, showing by a dense coagulum, which also completely enveloped it in as many different positions, making a complete the medulla oblongata for the thickness of half an inch.revolution of the field in which the markings just A coagulum also lay on the under surface of the cerebellum; and a very thin lamina of blood covered all the cerebellum. From the examination we could make from the base of the skull, the upper portion of the cord was also enveloped in blood. The great vessels at the base were healthy; the cerebral substance very firm, except the fornix, which was very soft; corpora striata and thalami healthy; the ventricles eontained a considerable quantity of serum, apparently tinged with blood; choroid plexures and velum interpositum very pale; the cerebral substance generally very exsanguine, as was especially seen in the grey matter; the integuments of the head were not loaded with blood. Heart quite healthy, small, and rather contracted; right side contained fluid blood, but not in nearly sufficient quantity to fill the cavities; the left side contained a very small quantity of dark fluidblood; (the state of the cavities was ascertained before any wound of the vessels;) about half a pint of serum in each pleural cavity; lungs very dark, and loaded with bloody serum, crepitated imperfectly; the middle lobe of the right lung, however, presented its healthy mentioned were distinctly visible. In order to bring out these appearances, it is necessary that the light should be very oblique, and must be passed laterally through the "bull's eye," in such a manner that the object (the navicula,) may appear of an intensely blue colour, nearly opaque. The stage is then to be gradually turned round until the shell is in the position to be best seen as described.-Annals and Magazine of Natural History, January, 1847. [This process is obviously equally applicable to the examination of delicate vegetable and animal structures in general. Mr. Legg, in a paper "On the Application of Polarized Light in Microscopic Observations," read at a subsequent meeting of the Society, described a series of polarizing apparatus, capable of being adapted to the microscope, and calculated to effect a similar object, the analysis of the structure of delicate organic textures being thus effected by the action of polarized light. NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MEDICINE, SUR GERY, AND MIDWIFERY. "That this Meeting is decidedly of opinion, that prior to the passing of any Bill for the regulation of the practice of Medicine and Surgery, it is of the utmost importance to the interests of the Public, that the General Practitioners of Medicine, Surgery, and Midwifery, should be legally recognized and placed in an indepenSUR-dent position; and that the Executive Government be respectfully and earnestly requested to suspend the further consideration of the Bill laid before Parliament at the close of the last Session, until this object has been We have been requested by the Committee of the attained." The Council refer with confidence to the events of the last two years, for a full verification of the principle con GENTLEMEN,-In the expectation that an inquiry into the state of the Laws affecting the Medical Profession in this country will very speedily engage the attention of the Legislature, the Council of the National Institute of General Practitioners in Medicine, Surgery, and Midwifery, have presented a Memorial to the Right Honourable the Secretained in the foregoing Resolution. By neglecting to tary of State for the Home Department, describing the perform, in the first instance, an act of common justice anomalous position of the very important section of the to the great bulk of the Profession, a powerful Minister, Profession which they represent, and calling the attention with all the Government support at hand, after introof the Government of this Country to some of the great and ducing four successive Bills before Parliament, was comacknowledged evils and disadvantages that press peculi-pelled reluctantly to withdraw the whole of his contemarly upon that section as a class. The Memorial also prayed for the assistance of the Government-on Public as well as on Professional considerations-to obtain the amelioration of those evils and disadvantages with as little delay as possible. To the document in question, the Council of the National Institute invite the earnest attention and serious consideration of all classes of Medical Practitioners. The Medical Profession in England is at this moment surrounded by the greatest difficulties from inadequate Laws and ill-adapted Institutions; whilst many causes have combined for a long series of years to arrest and to render abortive every attempt to amend and re-construct them, This is surely a matter of sufficiently serious importance to deserve a small share of time and attention from each of its members; and were a body of intelligent and honourable-minded men to enter upon the consideration of the subject in a liberal and patriotic spirit, they would find little difficulty in agreeing upon such a general measure of reform as would be aceeptable to a large majority of the Profession. plated measures-thereby acknowledging his inability to complete what he believed to be a most important and necessary measure of Legislation. That such will be the fate of every attempt at Medical Legislation, whether it be a simple matter of Registration, or a measure embracing the whole question, is the opinion of the Council of the National Institute, unless an ostensible recognized head and home be found for the General Practitioners-as an indispensable and necessary preliminary to any more extensive or comprehensive measure of Medical Reform. The Council consider it of the utmost importance that the class of Practitioners to which they themselves belong, should, without a moment's Council in the prosecution of their just claims to a legal unnecessary delay, meet, and strenuonsly support, the recognition; and they have every confidence that their Professional brethren will see the necessity that exists for immediate action, before the attention of the Government, the Legislature, or the Profession is pre-occupied by the rations, or of the proposed Medical Registration Bill. consideration of the claims made by the Medical CorpoThe latter proceeding is most unquestionably ill-timed, whatever may be its intrinsic merits; for, until the General Practitioners are duly recognized as a collective body, with what security can they consent to a Legal Registration, that may place them irretrievably in an inferior and subordinate rank. With these observations the Council conclude by again directing attention to the Memorial presented to the Government, and they call upon their professional brethren, in the true spirit of patriotism, to merge all minor differences of opinion on this important subject, and with the calmness and deliberation befitting a body of scientific and intelligent men, to unite and determine upon some uniform plan of co-opera In the absence, however, of snch general accordance, and with a view of clearing away some of the difficulties in the way of a satisfactory solution of this complicated question, the Council of the National Institute beg to recall the attention of the General Practitioners in particular, to the circumstances which immediately followed SIR JAMES GRAHAM's first attempt at Medical Legislation:-When the details of the proposed Bill were carefully examined, the General Practitioners were for the first time made sensible of their own extraordinary position; that although they numbered nine-tenths of the entire Profession, they were unknown as a collective body; that they had no corporate rights-no council nor executive to express their wishes or opinions-nor had they tion that may secure an early and satisfactory settlement any Common Hall wherein they could assemble for the purpose of consultation. The disabilities above referred to were so manifestly injurious to them, that at the first Public Meeting, held at the Hanover Square Rooms, on the 7th of December, 1844, at which nearly one thousand General Practitioners were present, the following resolution was the first proposed and unanimously adopted : of the affairs of the Medical Profession. General Retrospect. ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. RUDIMENT OF A UTERUS IN MAN, AND IN MALES OF THE MAMMALIA. M. Ernest Weber, professor of anatomy at Leipsic, has reported the extraordinary anatomical discovery of the rudiments of a uterus in males of the mammalia. He states: 1. That in the males of all animals as yet examined by him, including the castor, the hare, the horse, boar, dog and cat, there is a hollow uneven organ placed in the median line, between the extremity of the urinary bladder and the rectum; this he considers to be a rudimentary uterus, and it is called by him the uterus masculinus. 2. In man this organ exists in the form of a small elongated bladder, springing from the posterior part of the prostate, and contributing to form the verumontanum. 3. In fœtal rabbits, both males and females, the sex cannot be determined with exactness by the examination of the external genital organs; the internal organs are so similar, that great attention is required to distinguish the male from the female. In both there is a sinus uro-genitalis, and a part which might pass for the base of the vagina and the body of the uterus. Into this organ there open in the female the cornua of the uterus; in the male the vasa deferentia, which closely resemble the cornua, with the exception that the latter open into the superior portion, the former into the inferior portion, of the organ. An organ corresponding to a rudimentary vagina, a body and cornua of the uterus, is also seen in the adult male rabbit; it is a non-mus. cular sac, which contains the semen, and is so irritable that it contracts in the recently dead animal when mechanically excited. 4. In the male beaver, and in the boar, the rudimentary uterus is as in the female, bicornal, situate in the same locality, and covered by a fold of peritoneum. 5. In the dog the orifice of the rudimentary organ appears to be obliterated; as also in the cat. In the horse, and in man, this orifice is also sometimes obliterated, but this is exceptional; in general the uterus masculinus of the stallion opens into the urethra, at the verumontanum, by a single orifice. 6. According to the observations of Rathké on the goat and boar, the uterus of the male embryo is at one period so similar to the female uterus as to be scarcely distinguishable from it.-Archiv. d'Anatomie, Dec., 1846. [Sir Everard Home, twenty years ago, pointed out the third lobe of the prostate gland. Is not this the origin of Weber's rudimentary uterus? The organ has been described by Ackermann under the title uterus cystoides; and by Guthrie under that of sinus pocularis.] ABSORPTION OF OXYGEN BY THE BLOOD. The study of the phenomena of respiration was never carried out with an approach to perfection until the chemical knowledge, indispensible to such inquiries, had attained a certain degree of precision. Lavoisier was the first to enumerate the leading proposition :Respiration is combustion. This fundamental proposition being established, it still remained a question, in what part of the system the blood undergoes the changes necessary for the preservation of the economy. Many theories have at different times been advanced to fill up this hiatus in physiological inquiry. According to Lavoisier, the formation of carbonic acid and water, and the production of azote takes place in the lungs. This theory, against which so many objections have been urged, was nevertheless for a length of time the received opinion, until it was generally abandoned after the publication of the works of Magnus. It was affirmed by that physiologist, that the oxygen of the atmosphere is simply dissolved in the blood of the lungs, and that it is transmitted in this state to the arteries, and that the changes by which carbonic acid is generated take place in the capillaries, the acid so formed, together with the hydrogen, which contributes to the formation of water, being also dissolved in the blood. The blood thus charged is carried to the lungs, and there coming into contact with the air, the carbonic acid is changed for a fresh supply of oxygen, and the same series of phenomena is again reproduced. The conclusions of Magnus were not, however, destined to remain long without an opponent, for we find that they are combated by Gay Lussac, (Annales de Chemie, t. xi.) There are two leading opinions in the present day concerning the manner in which the oxygen of the atmosphere combines with the constituents of the blood in respiration. According to one of these, the oxygen is dissolved in the blood, and arrives in an uncombined state in the capillaries, and there only unites with some of the elements of the nutritive fluid. Others, without denying the primary solution of the oxygen, suppose that a portion of it enters at once into chemical combination with the blood. They consequently admit that the phenomenon of oxidation takes place in the lungs, while the former limit the production of this phenomenon to the capillaries. Magnus, in answer to the objections of Gay Lussac, has instituted some new researches into the quantity of oxygen, nitrogen, and carbonic acid held in solution by the blood, which tend still farther to confirm his original opinion. Mulder considers that these experiments do not allow of the deductions which Magnus has drawn from them; as the question is not whether the blood has or has not the power to hold oxygen in solution, but whether this oxygen does not form combinations with the elements of blood, partly in the lungs and partly in the capillaries. In order to examine the question properly, it is necessary according to Mulder, to perform experiments so as to observe, not how much oxygen can be disengaged from blood saturated with air, by the employment of carbonic acid, but how much oxygen is absorbed by venous blood, which does not contain air; in the second place it should be noted how much oxygen can be disengaged in the latter case by the means of carbonic acid. Let us suppose, for example, that venous blood deprived of air, can absorb volumes of oxygen, and that we 3. That small-pox after vaccination, is in the great majority of cases of trifling severity. 4. That the rarity and mildness of small-pox is in According to Magnus the blood does not contain any substance capable of entering into immediate union with oxygen, but Mulder believes that a fluid of so complex a composition cannot but offer the means of effecting such combinations. He considers, on the contrary, that the action of oxygen on the protein com mences at once. Another question with which Mulder occupies himself, being satisfied that the combination of the oxygen is distributed through the lungs, heart, and capillaries, is the proportion in which the gas combines in each locality. On this point, however, he is not able to offer any definite opinion, but contents himself with further objections to some of the tenets of Magnus. In considering the different colour of venous and arterial blood, the latter physiologist speaks of the power of the oxide of azote to colour the sulphate of the protoxide of iron by simple solution. It is now, however, says Mulder, ascertained that this colouration is due to a veritable chemical union. In confirmation of this he cites the observations of Peligot. Mulder again denies that arterial is converted into venous blood, by simple solution of carbonic acid, or other acids or alkalies; the change is in his opinion, caused by the production of new transparent substances, which absorb a larger quantity of luminous rays. Finally Magnus denies the chemical combination of oxygen in arterial blood, because the blood in the lungs is not of a higher temperature than that of the rest of the body. To this, Mulder objects that any augmentation of temperature which might take place is compensated for by the exhalation of water, and by the lower temperature of the venous blood as it arrives at the lungs; and besides, Davy and others have ascertained that the blood in the left ventricle is warmer than elsewhere. In conclusion, Mulder admits that the solution of a notable proportion of oxygen in the blood is an ascertained fact; but he refuses to acknowledge that with the presence of so large a quantity of oxidizable matters in the blood, the oxidation is deferred until the blood arrives at the capillaries.-Archiv. d' Anatomie. et Physiologie. Nov. 1846. PATHOLOGY & PRACTICAL MEDICINE. ON VARIOLA, VARIOLOID, VARICELLA, AND 5. That small-pox seldom appears after the age of thirty, but is not always less severe when it does so. 6. That the majority of the vaccinated are entirely exempt from small-pox, even though exposed to contagion. 7. The identity of variola and varioloid is demonstrated by their phenomena, development, and by the results of contagion or inoculation. 8. That varicella is in no-wise connected with variola, but is a perfectly distinct disease. 9. That vaccination is the only mode of exterminating small-pox.-Medicinische Corresp. Blatt. PHYSICAL SIGNS OF INCIPIENT PHTHISIS. M. Dubini has communicated the results of his researches into this difficult subject in semeiology His ideas are for the most part in accordance with those of Fournet, Jackson, Louis, and others, to which he gives valuable confirmation. In order to study the true signification of modifica. tions of the expiratory murmur, as a diagnostic sign in incipient tuberculization, M. Dubini first endeavours to form an exact appreciation of this murmur in a state of health. As regards its duration and intensity, he adopts the scale of Fournet, which makes it as two, the respiration being as ten, in preference to the evaluation of Barth and Roger. He also lays great stress on the observations of Louis, who found the expiratory murmur prolonged under the right clavicle, but never under the left, in seventeen females exempt from pulmonary disease. Prolonged expiration is not exclusively confined to the first stage of phthisis; it is met with in chlorosis, in pulmonary edema, in severe heart diseases, in pleuritic effusions, in bronchitis, and in emphysema; but in emphysema, the expiration is whistling; in bronchitis, which is seldom partial, the whistling expiratory murmur is generally diffused over the chest; and so in other diseases in which the prolonged expiration is present, it exhibits certain peculiarities which distinguish it from the prolonged expiration due to tubercular deposit. M. Dubini does not regard the above sign as constant in all varieties of tubercular deposit; it is absent when the matter is agglomerated in voluminous masses, (crude turbercle,) between which the pulmonary tissue remains crepitant. The variety in which it is commonly noticed is that which consists in a general infiltration of the pulmonary tissues with miliary granulations. It appears then that prolonged expiration may exist Dr. Koesch, the author of an essay published under without tubercles, and tubercles without prolonged the above title, concludes: expiration; but there can be little fear of error when the expiratory bruit is persistent and rough, and more 1. That cow-pock is nothing more than small-pox, especially if it is unequal, interrupted, and limited to transmitted to the cow by contact. 2. That persons who have been effectually vaccinated, may in some rare instances contract dangerous small ΡΟΣ. one or other subclavicular region. The diagnosis is rendered next to infallible, if, with this sign, there are accompanying general symptoms proper to the disease. -Gazelle Médicale. No. 51, 1846. |