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ings of this kind, for by so doing you will justly forfeit all title to respect, and take rank with the Brandreths and Moffats of the day. The time is not distant when such a deep stain of disgrace must inevitably attach to patentees and proprietors of secret remedies in our profession, that neither the waters of Lethe will be able to obliterate, nor the exhibition of 'Letheon' to bury in oblivion.

Should any of you, then, hereafter discover a remedy calculatep to benefit the world, publish it upon the house-top, imitate the goodness of Providence, and make it free as the air we breathe; for the consciousness of having done a good deed for humanity, the gratitude of an intelligent community, and the praises of a liberal profession, shall prove a most satisfactory reward.

There is one duty which you owe to yourselves, to the sick who may be entrusted to your charge, and to society, by whose favour and confidence you are to be sustained, and this is-to shun the use of intoxicating drinks. I urge this upon you, Graduates of Geneva College, by every consideration of duty, of honour, of interest, and of philanthropy; I charge you, as you value reputation, usefulness, success, and an approving conscience, ever adhere to the strictest rules of temperance. You owe this to those who have sustained you thus far, and furnished you with the means of obtaining a medical education; you owe it to your teachers who have labored to instruct you in the various branches of your art, and who feel an anxious desire for your prosperity; you owe it to the beloved Alma Mater, who sends you forth with pride this day, to carry health and virtue and gladness to those who come within your influence; you owe it to the profession whose bright escutcheon must never be soiled by your example; you owe it to society in whose ranks you are now to be enrolled, we trust among its most valued and respected members; you owe it to your hopes of usefulness here, and of happiness hereafter; you owe it to a reformed and enlightened public opinion; and, lastly, you owe it to your God. As you go forth, then, upon the serious errand of your lives-an errand requiring the keen eye, the cool head, the steady hand, the sound judgment-take this, my solemn and affectionate warning, along with you; carry it into the social circle and the recesses of pri vate life; take it into the hospitable mansions of the rich and the lowly dwellings of the poor; remember it in the hour of temptation and trial; heed it when the syren voice of pleasure beckons you along her flowery paths; so shall your lives flow equably along; your cup of happiness be filled; your days crowned with usefulness, and your names with honour."

THE MEDICAL EXAMINER.

PHILADELPHIA, APRIL, 1847.

APPLICATION OF REMEDIES TO THE INFLAMED SURFACE IN CHRONIC LARYNGITIS.

We observe in certain of the Medical journals somewhat intemperate discussions in regard to the first employment of topical remedies to the inflamed surface in chronic laryngitis; and great credit is given to Dr. Green of New York for having been an originator of the practice. Dr. Green's work has not been sent to us, and therefore we know nothing of the facts and arguments which he employs, but no reader of the productions of the day ought to be ignorant, that the works on the Practice of Medicine published in this country in 1842 contained details of the method advised by MM. Trousseau and Belloq, to whom the main credit is due for the introduction of topical agents into the larynx. The first edition of Dr. Dunglison's Practice of Medicine, published in 1842, and therefore written some time previously, refers to it, and so does Dr. Bell's edition of Stokes's Lectures, published in the same year. An injudicious exercise of friendship is often most detrimental to the cause which it is intended to support, and we think that Dr. Green has had ample cause to exclaim--"Save me from my friends!"

INSENSIBILITY DURING SURGICAL OPERATIONS.

In a former number, we mentioned that a patent had been taken out by two gentlemen in Boston, for the discovery of a mode of rendering patients insensible to the pain caused by severe surgical operations. It was then spoken of as a "compound gas," and since called "letheon." Misled at the time by the name given to the substance employed, we conjectured that it was an ethereal solution of some narcotic. It is now ascertained by numerous experiments, that sulphuric ether alone posseses the virtues claimed for the "letheon" or "compound gas," and hence much of the mystery with which the subject was sought to be enenveloped is dispelled, and as we believe it is generally conceded, both in this country and Europe, that the patent is invalid, the repugnance we felt towards any extended notice of the matter is removed, and we

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shall from time to time notice the experiments and observations made in various parts of the world, confirmatory or otherwise of the good effects of this extraordinary agent. In our "Record" will be found an account of numerous experiments made with the ether in France, by some of the most distinguished surgeons, which may be regarded as an epitome of our present knowledge on the subject, so nearly does it accord with the recorded observations made in this country and in Great Britain. Notwithstanding the many favourable reports, we cannot divest ourselves of the belief that the employment of an agent which is capable of rendering a person unconscious of pain during the performance of a severe surgical operation, must, when carried to that extent, be fraught with danger-danger the more to be dreaded because it cannot be estimated, owing to variations in the dose, and the different susceptibilities of those to whom it is administered. Bad effects have indeed been repeatedly witnessed, and even death, in a few instances. The sagacious Velpeau, we perceive, looks upon it with great distrust.

JEFFERSON MEDICAL COLLEGE.

An account of the Commencement of this College, held on the 25th inst., will be found on another page, from which it will be seen that the Degree of Doctor of Medicine was conferred on one hundred and eighty-one gentlemen-the largest number ever graduated at any institution in the United States.

PENNSYLVANIA COLLEGE.

The class of this Institution during the last Session we understand numbered ninety-five; and the Graduates thirty-four, including two honorary Degrees.

FRANKLIN MEDICAL COLLEGE.

Five gentlemen were graduated at this new College at its recent Commencement. Of the number of the class we are not informed.

CITY OF NEW YORK MEDICAL SCHOOLS.

By the papers we are informed that the class at the University School during the last Session numbered four hundred and ten, and the number graduated was one hundred and twenty-three; and that at the College of Physicians and Surgeons fifty-one graduated.

ALBANY MEDICAL COLLEGE.

From a copy of the "Catalogue and Circular" of this Institution which we have received, we learn that the class of the last Session, (1846-7) numbered 100; and that of that number, 30 graduated at the conclusion of the term. The class of the previous Session numbered 115, and the Graduates 42.

TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY.

We derive from the printed Catalogue of the Transylvania University, that the class in attendance on the lectures during the past winter numbered 182; and the graduating class-8, including 4 honorary degrees. The class of the preceding Session (1845-6) numbered 171, and the graduates 64; showing a small increase for the past Session.

RECORD OF MEDICAL SCIENCE.

Inhalation of Sulphuric Ether to prevent pain during Surgical operations. The following is a digest of the discussions of the learned societies of Paris concerning the properties of this agent, and of hospital reports, contained in the Gazette des Hôpitaux for the last month:

Académie de Medecine, Meeting, Jan. 12th, 1847.-M. Malgaigne announced that he had tried upon five patients the method proposed by the Americans, to render surgical operations painless. The first patient was a young man, aged eighteen, who was afflicted with an abscess at the lower part of the leg. He breathed the ether for two minutes, which sufficed to plunge him into a state of complete lethargy. The abscess was opened with a bistoury. In half a minute afterwards, the patient woke up, and affirmed that he had experienced no pain, and up to that time believed he had not undergone any operation, but wished it to be proceeded with.

The second, an Italian, a little older, who had a tumour in the neck, respired the ether for five minutes. By the time he had revived, the operation was finished. He said he felt that the tumour had been removed, but had not experienced any pain.

The third patient was a young woman, also having a tumour in the neck. She did not fall into a state of insensibility until she had inhaled the vapour for eighteen minutes. She did not feel the first

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incision; but woke up immediately afterwards, and suffered during the rest of the operation as though she had not been submitted to its influence.

The fourth was a man who had had his leg broken by a rail-way truck, and underwent amputation at his own desire. He was submitted to the vapour of ether for seventeen minutes. On his coming-to, he said he had felt the operation, but had not suffered more pain than if he had lightly scratched his leg with the point of a knife. The last, a young man, who was operated upon for strabismus, previously respired the ether for ten minutes without effect, and suffered during the operation as other patients would have done. In answer to a question from M. Nacquart, M. Malgaigne explained the process as used by the American surgeons, which he had adopted for the first patient; but for the others he had introduced into one of the nostrils, the other being closed, a tube leading from a vessel, the bottom of which was covered with ether-the patient inspiring by the nose, and expiring by the mouth.

M. Velpeau questioned whether ether was altogether innocuous to the system. He feared it might produce some injurious effect upon the patient, counterbalancing the advantage derived from the absence of pain. Besides, as the influence only lasted for a short time, its use in operations of a long duration was doubtful.

M. Guibourt had no fear of a bad result from the employment of ether, his only anxiety was as to the certainty of its operation, he himself having frequently and for a long time inhaled air strongly charged with ether, without experiencing any ill effect; and on this point he was supported by M. Chevallier.

M. Roux, of the Hôtel Dieu, detailed the particulars of a case of compound fracture of the leg in the Gazette des Hôpitaux, January 16th, 1847. The patient who was about forty-five years old, breathed by the mouth the vapour for twenty-minutes with great earnestness; in about ten minutes his eyes closed, but he still answered any questions put to him, and in ten minutes more the operation was finished; the pain thereof being evidently diminished, as the patient was not aware that the operation had been completed, until he was told such was the case.

Hopital St. Louis.-A patient of M. Malgaigne-a man about thirty-five years old, of strong constitution, presented at the lower and internal part of the leg, about the level of the malleolus, a phlegmonous abscess—was submitted to the influence of the etherial vapour for two or three minutes, which short space of time sufficed to put him into the state necessary for the commencement of the operation, which can only be compared to drunkenness. M. Malgaigne addressed the patient, asking him whether he felt any particular sensation, or found his sight confused. The man having answered that his vision was imperfect, M. Malgaigne immediately used the bistoury, making an incision in the abscess and in a portion of the skin much supplied with nerve and considerably inflamed. He then pressed. the pus from the abscess. On the termination of the operation the

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