London University College.-The distribution of prizes in the medical department of this University took place on the 1st inst., and on the occasion the hall was filled with the students and their friends. Lord Brougham, as President of the University, ocupied the chair, and the proceedings opened with the reading of the annual report by Mr. Liston, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine. From that document it appeared that the number of medical students who attended classes during the past year was 290, the number of the preceding year being 292.-Ibid.

The Diploma of the College of Surgeons obtained under false representations.-The Taunton and Somerset Branch of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, having discovered that a Mr. James Dore Blake had obtained the diploma of the College of Surgeons by improper means, brought the matter before the Council. It appears that Mr. Blake had been for thirteen years prior to May, 1845, a retail pastrycook, and that after one year of Medical study he presented himself at the College of Surgeons, London, for examination, and obtained their letters testimonial as to his fitness to practise. The council, after considerable delay, sent the following resolution to Dr. Woodforde, the president of the branch association :-"At an extraordinary meeting of the council of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, Tuesday, the 27th of April, resolved, That it appears to the council that Mr. James Dore Blake obtained his examination and letters testimonial by false statements and imposition; and the council does, therefore, recal such letters testimonial, and hereby declares the same to be void; also, that Mr. Blake be requested to return the diploma granted to him, he having ceased to be a member of this college.'-EDMUND BELFOUR, Sec."-London Med. Times.

Sydenham Society.-The Society held its fourth anniversary meeting on Saturday, May 1st, Dr. Latham in the chair. The report was read by the Secretary, Dr. Risdon Bennet, and represented the Society, as in a flourishing condition. A complete edition of Hippocrates was stated to be in progress, as also a work on medical physiology, and another on medical ethics. A work on ancient medical Bibliography was also in progress. The Treasurer read his report from which it appeared that there was a balance in hand of £700.Prov. Med. & Surg. Jour.

Coffee in Poisoning by Acetate of Morphia.-A patient swallowed at one dose ten grains and three quarters of acetate of morphia.Tartar emetic was immediaely given, but without producing vomiting. About three hours after the accident, and while the patient was in a state of deep coma, a highly concentrated solution of coffee with the solid residue was given to him. The paient swallowed about ten ounces in twelve hours. The coma disappeared, and he perfectly recovered.-Gaz. Medicale.

THE

MEDICAL EXAMINER,

AND

RECORD OF MEDICAL SCIENCE.

NEW SERIES.-No. XXXII.-AUGUST, 1847.

ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS.

Ovarian Dropsy, treated by tapping and injection of Solution of lodine.

In the number of the Medical Examiner for June, 1846, we published an account of a case of Ovarian Dropsy by Dr. B. A. Allison, of Spencer, Indiana, in which, after repeated tapping, he injected a solution of iodine into the sac. The novelty and boldness of the operation and its apparent success, excited much attention at the time, and the paper was extensively copied, with various comments. Under these circumstances, the following extract of a letter received from Dr. Allison, dated June 11, 1847, will be read with interest, and perhaps lead to a further trial of the practice which in his hands seems to have been eminently successful.

"Soon after the date of my letter to you containing an account of the case of Mrs. C (May, 1846,) her menses returned, and have continued regular ever since, and she has enjoyed as good health as any woman in the neighbourhood, excepting that the orifice, where tapping was performed, is not entirely closed yet, and occasionally discharges a few drops of healthy pus. A curious feature occurred in her case soon after she began to take exercise--her lower extremities became affected with numerous large, spreading and obstinate ulcers, which yielded, however, in time, to the bandage, and occasional application of the citrine ointment."

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES.

SYDENHAM SOCIETY. The Works of William Harvey, M. D., Physician to the King, Professor of Anatomy and Surgery to the College of Physicians. Translated from the Latin, with a Life of the Author. By ROBERT WILLIS, M. D., Member of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of England, Corresponding member of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Göttingen, &c. 8vo. pp. 624. London, 1847.

It was but right, that one of the earliest labours of the Sydenham Society should be directed to the preparation of a complete edition of the works of the great Englishman, whose discovery of the complete circulation of the blood has immortalized his name; for whatever may be the disposition-and a proper one it is to do justice to the predecessors of Harvey, it is pretty universally admitted, notwithstanding the views and arguments adduced by our learned and venerable friend, Dr. Cox, that the perfection of the great discovery was his; and when, it may be asked, has a discovery of the kind ever been made de novo? Observation after observation has usually been registered for a long period; until ultimately some one has topped the pyramid, and completed the undertaking; whilst, as in the case of every great discovery or invention, the surprise has been, that so apparently simple a result should not have been attained by hundreds as well as by the 'lucky' individual who made the last and most important step.

It was not as we have previously said, when noticing this same subject the person who first discovered the propulsive power of steam, or even he who first rudely applied it to the formation of an imperfect engine, that deserved the credit of that wonderful result of human ingenuity-the steam engine; but the man who, like Watt, made it a master-piece of mechanism; or, like Fulton, showed that it could be applied so wonderfully and fearfully to the purposes of navigation.

The editor of the edition of Harvey's works, now before us, with much self-complacency-which is, indeed, too apparent throughout his preface-flatters himself, that he has "set his [Harvey's] claims to the whole and sole merit of the discovery of the circulation in a new and clearer light than they have yet been seen;" and that he has done "more than any preceding biographer in exhibiting his moral nature; for truly he was as noble in nature as he was intellectually great." p. viii.

Dr. Willis gives, at considerable length, the views of the predecessors of Harvey, as well as of his opponents-contemporaneous and others—on the great question of the circulation. His predecessors, doubtless, paved the way for the ultimate discovery; and we would pause, therefore, before assenting to Dr. Willis's' conclusion, that Harvey has "claims to the whole and sole merit of the discovery of the circulation." Indeed, Dr. Willis is scarcely consistent on this point, for in alluding to the views of Fabricius of Acquapendente, who had given especial attention to the valves of the veins, he adds:

"Fabricius could observe, and he could describe; but he wanted the combining intellect that infers, the imagination that leads to new ideas to discovery. Though he did little himself, however, to advance the sum of human knowledge, he proved a tooth in the wheel that has since put in motion the whole machinery of medical science (?). He it was who sowed the seed, little dreaming of its kind, which, finding one spot of congenial soil, sprang up a harvest that has continued to nurture the world of physiological science to the present hour."

We have looked carefully over the remarks of Dr. Willis on this formerly much contested subject: but we confess, with every disposition to render him ample justice, we cannot arrive at the conclusion, that he has "set Harvey's claims to the whole and sole merit of the discovery of the circulation in a new and still clearer light than they have yet been seen." We are unable to discover the new, and it is not a more easy matter to detect the still clearer, for which he asks credit. The "excellent summary"-as he properly terms it-of the entire doctrine of the circulation by Dr. Freind in his Harveian oration, appears to us

more novel, and at least as clear. To this Dr. Willis refers his reader for other information-adding, neither in the proper spirit of courtesy nor of philosophy

"I pass by the still-recurring denials by obtuse and ill-informed individuals, of the truth, or of the sufficiency of the evidence of the truth, of the Harveian circulation. Those who can not see, must, contrary to the popular adage, be admitted to be still blinder than those who will not see."

The following is Dr. Willis's conclusion :

"Having now disposed of the claims that have been set up in behalf of one or another, as the discoverer of the circulation, and shown, we trust satisfactorily, that these are alike untenable, we should now proceed to discuss the question of cui bono?-but this meets us in so forbidding an aspect, brimful as is our mind with a sense of the all-importance of the knowledge we had from Harvey, and seems so little to belong to our subject, that we gladly pass it by unnoticed; though it be only to find ourselves encountered by that other topic, but little more congenial to our mood of mind and intimate persuasion-the merit of Harvey as a discoverer. Few, very few, have been found to question this; but as one man of undeniable learning and eminence in his profession,* has very strongly, it seems to us, been led to do so, it will not be impertinent if we cast away a few words on this matter.

Discovery is of several, particularly of two kinds; one sensible or perceptive; the other rational or inductive; the former an act of simple consciousness through an impression made on one or more of the senses; the latter a conclusion come to by the higher powers of the understanding dealing with data previously acquired by the senses and perceptive faculties. We look through a telescope, for example, and we perceive a star which no one had seen before; we note the fact, and so become discovers of a new star. The merit here is not, surely, very great, though the added fact may be highly important. Again; one of the planets is subject to such perturbations in its course that to compose exact tables of its orbit is held impossible. These perturbations are referable to none of the known perturbating causes. A great astronomer suggests the influence of an exterior and unknown planet as their cause. A consummate mathematician and

* Dr. William Hunter. Introductory Lectures, p. 59, (4to. London, 1784,) to which the reader is referred for a singularly inconsistent and extraordinary string of passages.