the abomination is not consummated until the fistula-curer closes up the march, and here he is with the Lord Mayor and all his merry men in his train:

66

Infirmary for Fistula.-A deputation from the Fistula Infirmary, consisting of Mr. John Masterman, M. P., treasurer, the Rev. Dr. Vivian, chairman of the committee of management, Mr. Frederick Salmon, honorary surgeon, and Mr. William Carter, the secretary of the charity, waited yesterday on the right Hon. the Lord Mayor, to request his lordship's acceptance of the presidency of the infirmary for the ensuing year. The deputation was received by his lordship with the greatest courtesy, who expressed his desire to further the interests of the institution in every possible way, and fixed Monday, April the 19ht, for the anniversary festival of the institution, at which he signified his intention to preside."

but

The quid nunc family of Cockneyland is at present all in an uproar of most amiable indignation against the horrid Irish, who will not starve quietly; and words can scarcely be found sufficiently strong to express the contempt entertained for Hibernian delinquencies; we challenge the greatest advocate of Saxon refinement to match the above paragraph in Celtic barbarity. Just let us picture to ourselves the Lord Mayor of Dublin seated in state to receive a deputation headed by one of the city members ushering in a fistula-curer to bespeak his lordship's patronage and custom; and soliciting the first municipal officer of the city to "accept the presidency" of his filthy "institution!" Such a thing could not take place amongst us, or if it did, we should not at all events have it thus blazoned forth.-Dub. Med. Press.

Lithotrity-Statistics by M. Civiale.-From the year 1836 to 1845, M. Civiale has applied his method in 266 cases, with success in 259 patients, a few of which obtained only partial relief. In seventynine instances M. Civiale considered that the operation of crushing presented no chance of success, and refused to operate. Lithotomy was performed on twenty-eight, and seventeen recovered.

The statistics laid before the academy, at various periods, show that 582 patients have been operated upon by the author; and the tables point out distinctly this remarkable fact, that three-fourths of calculous patients who present themselves now-a-days, for treatment, are operated upon by the method of crushing.-Lon. Med. Times.

NEW YORK PATHOLOGICAL SOCIETY, JANUARY 27th, 1847. Dr. Wood exhibited a polypus uteri which he had removed by ligature from a woman in whom it had existed for nine years. It was about the size of a Vergaloo pear, and hung by a well defined pedicle from the fundus. Several fibrous tumours were attached to other parts of the uterus, appreciable by the hand externally applied, varying in size from that of a marble to that of the fist. In three days after the application of the ligature, the polypus came away without hæmor

rhage; it had lost nearly half of its bulk. Confirmatory of his previously expressed opinion, Dr. W. had found this polypus, as he had others, supplied by one large artery in the pedicle; this gave off other small ones. It was difficult to secure arteries after their section in all fibrous tissues, as room, owing to their elasticity, is not given for the hold of the ligature beyond the tenaculum. He had attempted it, uncuccessfully, upon this specimen. Hence the great danger of excising these growths, which he considered a bad and hazardous practice. He exhibited an instrument well adapted to the purpose of ligating polypi, and, coinciding with Dr. Montgomery in the belief of the identity of the three forms of uterine fibrous tumours, and his condemnation of the knife, strongly recommended the perusal of his late valuable paper on the subject of this disease. Dr. W. stated further, that he had recently confined a woman, whose child (a female) when five weeks old, weighed two and a quarter pounds. It was born in the seventh month, and for two weeks did not nurse. It is now doing well.

Dr. Van Buren exhibited the parts taken from a patient with aneurism of the femoral artery, and communication of the artery and vein. The gentleman was twenty-one; he had been wounded two and a half years ago in an affray, with a pistol ball, which entered below the ant. sup. spinous process of the ilium, traversed the front of the thigh, and came out on the inside of the symphysis, under the skin. At the moment, much hemorrhage ensued, arrested by pressure. He recovered entirely in six weeks; on getting about, he discovered a pulsating tumour in the middle of the thigh, three inches below Poupart's ligament. When examined, on his arrival here, it was it regular and ill-defined, three or four inches in circumference, and over it, a very unusually distinct thrill could be felt. The tumour was in contact with Poupart's ligament. The external iliac artery was tied by Professor Mott on the 16th of December, and on the 22d he died, gangrene having extended over the whole limb, commencing at the foot. The operation was ill borne; severe pain was felt at the moment of tightening the ligature for several minutes, followed by numbness of the whole limb; soon after he had pain and oppression at the heart. Next day there was much agitation, with oppression about the chest and pain in the belly, and the temperature of the limb was eight or nine degrees lower than that of the opposite side. The pulse was never as full as before, after the operation.

Post mortem (which was difficult on account of the state of the parts.) A little lymph upon the peritoneum around the wound, not affecting that of the adjacent intestines. The ligature was applied about one and a quarter inches above the circumflexa and epigastric arteries, and a clot of about an inch in length above it. The artery began to be atheromatous just below Ponpart's ligament. A true aneurism communicated with the artery just above the origin of the arteria profunda, a little larger in size than a partridge egg, and of a regular oval shape like a pouch, having a small jug-like neck, and containing coagula formed before the ligature of the artery. It was enveloped by gristly

cellular tissue. Immediately under the sac, and blended with it, was the anterior crural nerve, much larger than natural in appearance, from thickening, probably, of its cellular neurilemma.

The vein along side was healthy, but thickened, and the cellular tissue at this point, infiltrated and indurated. Just here existed a communication between the vein and artery. A little cyst of bony shell was attached to the surface of the vein, just where the saphena dips into it.

The case Dr. V. B. believed to be unique; an aneurismal varix, and a true aneurism of the femoral artery. The large quantity of indurated cellular tissue above the disease, and the exaggerated thrill gave the idea of a much larger aneurism than really existed. The injury done to the artery had caused disease of its coats and aneurism. There was also decided hypertrophy of the heart, with induration of its tissue; no ossific deposits. Each cavity contained a polypus, quite white and apparently formed before death. Dr. V. B. said that a patient operated on by Mr. Ramsden, with subclavian aneurism, went on well for some days, with slight oppression of the heart, and died suddenly. A polypus existed in the descending vena cava, depending into the right auricle, which acted as a valve and caused death. Hence, he inferred, that there might be something in the ligating of large arteries, which led to this condition. The heart, in Dr. M.'s patient, beat very irregularly after the operation and intermitted.-N. Y. Annalist.

A Notice of the Grayson Springs. By LUNSFORD P. YANDELL, M. D. The present proprietor of the Grayson Springs, in the summer of 1833, learning that quite a number of infirm people had gone to them in the woods, and were encamped about them in tents, was induced to purchase and improve them. It seems that, many years ago, they acquired, by some accident, a reputation for curative virtues, and this they have continued to enjoy. On a visit to the springs last summer, I met with a large company of invalids, and learned from many of them that they had not been disappointed in their hopes of renovated health from the use of the waters. I saw some lodged in hired cottages, near the springs, who were not able to pay for board at a tavern, and had brought with them their beds, provisions, and cooking utensils-a fact which testifies to the strong popular faith in the efficacy of these springs.

The springs, issuing within an acre of ground, are five in number, and, although differing in temperature, and slightly in taste, contain essentially the same ingredients. The Rock spring is the coldest; the Stump spring is so warm as to be unpalatable, and its water is chiefly used to supply the bath-house. The water of the Centre, Moreman, and McAtee springs has a pleasant temperature. Of these the latter is perhaps the favorite fountain. It takes its name from an early visiter, a lady, whose health is said to have been restored by the

use of its waters.

The following are the ingredients found in these springs:

Sulphuretted hydrogen,

Carbonic acid,

Carbonate of magnesia,

Carbonate of lime,

Carbonate of iron,

Sulphate of magnesia,
Sulphate of lime.

Sulphuretted hydrogen is the most characteristic constituent of the waters, and, with the carbonic acid, renders them light. The first effect of drinking them is an increase of perspiration; the bowels are generally gently moved, and the appetite and powers of digestion improved. To generalize, the action of the Grayson springs may be said to be gently tonic, laxative, and alterative.

These springs occur in a different formation from the other noted mineral springs of Kentucky; as they also differ materially from most of them in their constitution. Sulphate of magnesia is the most prominent ingredient in the Harrodsburg springs, which is recognised by its bitter taste; and although the same article is found in the Grayson springs it is in too minute a quantity to affect the taste of the water, which is sweetish. The Blue, Bigbone, and Drennon's Licks, the Olympian and Paroquet springs, all abound in common salt, which is absent from the waters of Grayson. They all, except the Olympian, occur in the Blue Limestone, the oldest of our fossiliferous rocks; the Grayson springs are found in the Carboniferous limestone, immediately below the coal series. The stratum from which they issue is the same in which the Mammoth Cave occurs,— the Pentremital or uppermost layer of the most recent of our limestone rocks. In this rock, in the immediate vicinity of the springs, Pentremites, Archimides, and many new and most beautiful species of Encrinites, are found. The locality is one of exceeding interest to the geologist.

Louisville, Jan. 26th, 1847.

Western Journal.

Western Schools. From the numerous medical schools in the Valley of the Lakes and Mississippi, we have received the official reports of only two. The Medical Department of the Western Reserve College, established three or four years ago at Cleveland, Ohio, gives in its catalogue two hundred and sixteen names; which is a remarkable growth. The Medical College, of Ohio, at Cincinnati, has reported to the Legislature one hundred and seventy, as its number.

The other Ohio school, Willoughby University, which for ten or twelve years has been established at a village near Cleveland, is, as we perceive, by an act of the Legislature, to be transferred to Columbus, the seat of government of that State. Its Faculty will, as one of the Professors lately informed us, be there re-organised, when we shall give the names of its professors. We do not know the number of its present class.--Ibid.

THE

MEDICAL EXAMINER

AND

RECORD OF MEDICAL SCIENCE.

NEW SERIES.-No. XXVIII.-APRIL, 1847.

ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS.

Artificially Shortened Funis-with Rupture before Delivery. Read before the Northern Medical Association of Philadelphia, January 21st, 1847. BY WILSON JEWELL, M. D.

Numerous causes have been assigned by obstetricians for protracted and difficult labour. Among others will be found, "a short funis," and "one or more coils of the cord around the neck of the child." The first of these may be viewed as a natural or an absolute, the latter, as an accidental or relative cause for delay in the birth. A cord short enough to retard delivery, could in no instance be coiled around the neck of the child, and a cord of a length sufficient to enable the child to pass through a loop once or oftener, could be no hindrance to the free exit of the foetus without this occurrence, hence, these may be considered and treated of, as separate and distinct causes for tedious labour.

A shortened funis, either natural or accidental is so seldom the cause of tedious labour, or so rarely demands artificial aid in the progress of delivery, that some authors have not classed it among the causes for complicated labour, while others lay but slight stress upon it, deeming it of too little importance to require a special section for its consideration. Yet it does occur, though but rarely, and according to Moreau is one of the causes in the foetus for rendering natural labour artificial-is an obstacle to parturition, exposing the mother to accidents, and endangering the life of the child.