carotid artery, inflammation and suppuration extended upwards in the course of the nervus vagus, and there was a cough, like that of hooping-cough. Sir Henry Marsh, in his instructive paper on spasm of the glottis, had suggested irritation of the origin of the pneumogastric as a cause of the affection; but the state of parts far remote from the nervous centres was mostly at fault. He had never been able to associate enlargement of the bronchial or cervical glands with the disease by way of cause and effect, as Dr. Hugh Ley had done in a work which would ever be consulted for its abundant information in regard to the malady. In two cases he (Mr. Barlow) had found it connected with hydrocephalus; in another, which he had examined after death, with bronchitis; in a fourth, which was fatal, he thought that the last paroxysm had depended on over feeding. In the country-he meant the country properly speaking-the disease was acknowledged to be rare; and even in the crowded districts of towns he thought it rarer than was supposed. Out of 6879 patients who had been admitted at the Children's Infirmary, since January, 1st, 1846, there were only seven cases reported of this disease. În three cases he had observed the paroxysm produced by the act of drinking--a fact of interest, viewed as an addition to those phenomena which connected laryngismus with the convulsive actions, of which it was certainly one. He would ask Dr. Hall if he had observed this fact.

Dr. Theophilus Thompson remarked, that in the majority of obstinate cases of laryngismus stridulus, hydrocephalus was either present, or threatened to develope itself. Sometimes convulsions were the result of simple irritation; in other instances they originated in inflammation.

Dr. Clutterbuck thought that the brain was always involved in cases of convulsions, and that it suffered at these times from inflammation. The brain was a complicated organ, and various parts of it performed various functions. He agreed in the treatment recommended by the author.

Dr. Reid did not find that dampness of the atmosphere was a cause of laryngismus; on the contrary, the affection was rare in damp localities. He had some doubts respecting the prejudicial influence of a north-east wind in these cases, and mentioned two instances in which it had no such bad effects. He had never seen a case during the time the infant was suckling.—Dublin Medical Press.

Tubercular Tumour of the Vertebræ opening into the Esophagus.A female, aged 29, entered the hospital of Bassano for an obscure affection, accompanied by extreme marasmus, which had supervened upon her last confinement. She had very great difficulty of swallowing, repeated vomiting, difficulty of breathing, and great general debility. She died completely exhausted by hectic fever. On examination after death both pleuræ were found adherent, and behind them, directly over the vertebral column, a tumour was discovered, about the size of a walnut, and springing from the fifth dorsal verte

bræ. A second tumour, of larger size, was also seen to include the bodies of the fourth, fifth, and sixth vertebræ, the osseous structure of which was converted into a soft caseous matter. On opening the œsophagus, that canal was found to be narrowed, and firmly adherent to the most prominent part of the last-mentioned tumour, a portion of the contents of which had escaped through an irregular ulceration of bad aspect.-Prov. Med. and Surg. Journal, from Giornale dei Progressi.

Abscess of the Liver treated by Puncture.-The following cases reported in the Medical Times by Dr. Clay, is sufficiently rare in this country to deserve further publicity :

The patient complained of fixed pain in the right superior portion of the umbilical region, for which he was treated antiphlogistically without relief. His bowels were constipated; countenance yellow; spirits depressed; anorexia; pulse 90; evident enlargement of the liver, with paucity of bile. He took ox-gall, dr. ij.; calomel, gr. x., divided into twenty-two pills, of which, one three times a day was the dose. Under this plan he quickly improved, and remained well. until after bathing, when the fixed pain returned. Being at this time in a different locality, he was again treated by bleeding, &c., and as before without benefit. He then took the ox gall and calomel, and a second time became greatly relieved. Dr. Clay lost sight of him from this time, but it appears that while in Dublin he suffered a severe relapse, with pain in the old spot, which had become more tense and permanent. At this spot Dr. Clay passed a grooved needle, and as it gave issue to a drop of pus, he tapped it freely with a trocar, and drew off four pounds of fœtid pus. At each dressing for several days a pound of pus escaped, but after that time the discharge gradually diminished, and at the end of three months the man was completely recovered. Dr. Clay calculated that in all, at least sixteen pints of matter must have been discharged. The treatment after the evacuation of the abscess was tonic and alterative, the functions of the liver being restored by the ox gall and calomel.-Monthly Journal.

Sulphate of Quinine in Aneurism of the Aorta, and in other internal Anuerisms. It appears that sulphate of quinine has been employed. with much success in some Italian hospitals for the relief of aneurism of the aorta and other internal aneurisms. It belongs, in this use of it, to what are termed hyposthenics, (subduing action,) and is to be carried as far as the system will bear it. It has, says its Italian supporters, the immense advantage of bringing down the pulse without disturbing its rhythm, of making the buffy coat of the blood disappear, that is, of dissipating the organic condition,-namely, arteritis, on which it depends, and thus of retarding the progress of the aneurismal tumour. The other hyposthenics adapted to the same end according to the same authorities, as by alternation with the sulphate

of quinine, are the vegetable and mineral acids, the sulphate of iron, the ergot of rye, the cold ferruginous waters, the arsenious acid, the acetate of lead, and the iodide of potassium.-Ibid.

Homeopathy. The following case of administering powerful drugs in large doses under the guise of homeopathy, is noticed in the Medical Gazette as having recently occurred in London:

"A lady who had been attended by a highly respectable general practitioner, recently consulted a homeopathic physician, who has acquired some celebrity in the fashionable quarter of the metropolis, for his skill in treating and curing diseases by infinite small doses. She received from him four small white powders, with explicit directions, (now lying before us,) one to be taken every other night,-each powder being numbered, and the night on which it was to be taken, as well as the mode of taking it, being particularly specified.—" all dry on the tongue.' No. 1 was swallowed according to order, and the patient was soon afterwards seized with great sleepiness, stupor, and other alarming symptoms indicative of the action of a powerful narcotic. These effects were followed by diarrhea. The patient was alarmed, and instead of looking upon the result as an indication of the beneficial working of homeopathic powders, or as a means of curing her of any latent scepticism respecting the efficacy of infinite small doses, she was prudent enough to return to her old medical friend, to whom she handed the remaining powders, with the directions. This gentleman, suspecting that they contained some active narcotic, caused them to be submitted to a chemical analysis. have now the report of this analysis before us, and of it we shall make the following abridgment. The powders were numbered 2, 3, and 4. They were similar in appearance, except that No. 3 was somewhat whiter than the other two: there was nothing to indicate that they were of different composition; and as they were to be taken in the same way on alternate nights, this could not possibly be suspected.

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Although there was no great dissimilarity in bulk, the powders were very unequal in weight. No. 2 weighed 3.4 grains; No. 3, 1.5 grains; No. 4, 2 grains. No. 2 was found, upon analysis, to consist entirely of calomel and morphia, the morphia forming not less than one grain. No. 3 contained no morphia or calomel, nor any mineral or other substance, but merely sugar of milk. No. 4 was composed of calomel and morphia, the morphia amounting to one half grain."-Prov. Med. and Surg. Journal.

Instrument for exhibiting the motions of the Chest during Respiration. Mr. SIBSON, of Nottingham, exhibited at a meeting of the Provincial Medical Association a newly-invented instrument, for the purpose of ascertaining the comparative movements of the chest in respiration. The instrument, which was of simple construction, consisted

of a dial-plate, on which were indicated degrees of the one-hundreth part of an inch, attached to which was a rack and pinion; as the rack rose, by the expansion of the chest, the pinion, which ran through, communicated with the indicator, which showed upon the dial-plate the number of degrees the chest rose, and the rack was returned by means of a spring. If the instrument was held steadily on the chest, it would show the precise amount of its expansion. Where he had the privilege, as he had at the hospital to which he was attached, he preferred his patients should be in bed to test the chest, though it could be done without, as the instrument would show the workings of the chest when a person was either sitting or standing. If he had any of the gentlemen he was then addressing with him at the bedside of a patient, they would delight in the accuracy of the working of the instrument. He was first assisted in the design of it by an operative, who was a patient in the hospital at Nottingham; but the perfect instrument which he was then shewing them, was made by Mr. Simmonds, an eminent watchmaker of London, to whom great credit was due for the accuracy of its construction. With regard to the movements of the chest in health and disease, he would remark, that out of ten patients who supposed themselves to be suffering from disease in the chest, in nine of them perhaps it was nothing of the sort, and with the assistance of that little instrument, or the spirometer of Dr. Hutchinson, which had been exhibited to them by Dr. Shearman, they could send their patients home with the pleasing fact upon their minds that they were healthy men. Mr. Sibson then went on to show that, by the instrument before the meeting, he could more accurately trace the seat of the disease in the chest, and ascertain whether the disease was seated in the upper or lower lobe of the lungs, or any part of them, as the instrument indicated the contraction and expansion caused by expiration and inspiration, and would also show the movement of the abdomen. In healthy subjects the times of inspiration and expiration were generally the same, though in many subjects there would be a pause at the conclusion of inspiration. Mr. Sibson then exemplified the working of the instrument, the accuracy of which was fully acknowleged, on his own chest, and explained that a difference of three degrees in the movement of one side of the chest as compared with the other, when indicated by the instrument, was sufficient to cause attention to be turned towards it, though it did not necessarily follow that where there was such difference, the lungs might be diseased, as abscess of the ribs, or any disease or injury of them, might cause one side of the chest to move less liberally than the other; so that they must not always conclude that the lungs were affected when they discovered this difference, as in one instance he knew, it had been caused by a diseased shoulder. He compared the instrument to a pigmy spirometer, capable of being carried in the pocket of a medical man, who, when he had to travel upon horseback, could not carry with him the valuable instrument of Mr. Hutchinson. An improved tube, used in laryngotomy, was also exhibited by Mr. Sibson; and a simple and novel construction to supersede artificial in

spiration by means of bellows, in cases of drowning, &c. The latter consisted of a piece of flat flexible metal, with a handle at the back, and covered on the face of it with a newly-discovered adhesive com. position; this being placed on the chest and gently drawn upwards, and compressed downwards, so as to carry the walls of the chest with it, would, he thought, supersede the use of the bellows in many cases. At the same time he must deprecate the pressure upon the bowels used in cases of drowning or poisoning sometimes, as he had frequently found from post-mortem examination such pressure was highly injurious.-Prov. Med. and Sur. Jour.

Mercurial Treatment in Typhoid Fever. By M. SERRES.-M. Serres begins by stating that, in his opinion, typhoid fever consists in an exanthematous affection of the intestines. The febrile excitement, the diarrhea, abdominal symptoms, and cerebral manifestations are entirely governed in their progress and intensity by the intestinal eruption. In this respect M. Serres thinks that typhoid fever can be most properly compared with small pox, in which Sydenham has shown that the violence of the malady is always proportioned to the confluence or mildness of the cutaneous eruption. The professor, therefore, concludes that, by keeping the intestinal diseases under control in typhoid fever, the general reaction, its consequence, will be thereby prevented from attaining any dangerous height; and no medicine seems to M. Serres so well calculated to produce this result as mercury. Every second day M. Serres prescribes the following pills:R. Hydrarg. sulphureti cum sulphure. gr, xviij.; tragacanthæ, gr. x.; syrup q. s. fiat massa in pilul. iv. dividenda. Every morning inunctions with oz. ij. of mercurial ointment are made upon the abdomen. The treatment is suspended when incipient stomatitis is noticed. Under the influence of mercury, diarrhea is gradually arrested, the tympanitis reduced or prevented, and, although the average duration of the malady is not diminished, still its violence is much abated.London Medical Times.

Use of the Salivary Secretion. By M. BERNARD.-The recent researches of Mialhe and others tended to show that saliva contains a ferment capable of changing starch into sugar. The experiments upon which was founded this opinion consisted in chemical researches on the fluid escaping, during a given time, from the mouths of animals. M. Bernard derives from a new series of experi ments a contrary opinion. Instead of merely collecting the buccal secretions, he took the saliva from the glands themselves, and states that in this unmixed and pure condition that fluid is incapable of causing saccharine fermentation in starch. Pursuing his experiments, M. Bernard separated from the mouth of a dead horse several shreds of the mucous membrane, and found that after prolonged desiccation, they still retained the power of transforming starch into sugar. It is, therefore, the mucous membrane, and not the saliva itself, which causes this change in amylaceous substances. The function of saliva