*I have deducted 0.54 in this analysis for the iron, as not forming part of the saline matter of the serum.

Hence we perceive that in point of fact the worst scorbutic blood may contain rather more saline matter than the healthy fluid does. May I venture to add, that

Dr. Curran, by overlooking the salts contained in the blood, has committed an error which totally destroys all the value of his reasonings. That vulgar prudence which leads the reasoner to base his theories on facts, should not be lost upon those who wish to direct the opinions of the members of the medical profession. MM. Bacquerel and Rodier are, however, the only chemists who have acquired any available experimental knowledge on this subject; and from their excellent little production I have extracted the preceding short, very intelligible, and particular analysis.

That scurvy is а "blood disease" no man can doubt; and I suspect that British blood has, by the past year of dry feeding, been depraved more generally than may be thought. All the blood drawn by my directions, during the last three months, from patients of the Glasgow Eye Infirmary (who presented no external signs of scurvy,) has been of most unhealthy aspect: the clot large, soft and dark, like black currant jelly; and the buffy coat, when present, gelatinous and pale.

It also appears to me indubitable, that scorbutic blood may be found in many differently perverted states. My friend Dr. Ritchie (Edinburgh Monthly Journal, August, p. 83,) has met with some containing just half the usual quantity of fibrin; in other cases we have seen that substance, on the contrary, augmented. The scorbutic state may be complicated with various other conditions of the system, which will of course tend to produce changes on the vital fluid, just as pyrexial blood varies according to the local lesion present. The effect of treatment furnishes a proof of this; for while bleeding is usually most hurtful in scurvy, and mercury quite a poison, cases do occur in which each of these means is indeed remedial. (Dr. Bogie in Lonsdale, loc. cit. p. 102.)

It is reasonable also to conclude, that when anæmia has come on, the treatment peculiarly suited to that state may with advantage be combined with that for scurvy; so that while the simple examples of

the disease may, as I have seen in patients of my own, be cured by pure citric or tartaric acid, the anæmic forms, in which the lips and the exuding blood are pale, will, as in a lady about whom I was consulted, be, by the use of iron, hurried on more rapidly to health. Monthly Journal of Medical Science.

Case of Utero-Vesical Fistula-Novel Means of Relief.-Mr. Isaac Harrinson brought before the Reading Pathological Society the case of a woman, aged 41 years, who, thirteen days after a protracted labour, (which had to be completed by instrumental aid,) begun to suffer from a flow of urine from the vagina, not a drop passing through its natural outlet. This state had continued, to the patient's great torment, for five years previous to her coming under Mr. Harrinson's care. After repeated examinations with the speculum, the only exact information the author could obtain was, that the urine issued from the os uteri; how it came there he was unable to determine, and had almost given it up in despair, when, exploring with a small catheter in the bladder, with the concavity downwards and a finger in the os uteri, the catheter and the finger came in contact. The problem was now solved; there was a communication between the fundus of the bladder and the cervix uteri, about threequarters of an inch within the cervix, just at its internal orifice, and as large as to admit readily a No. 6 male catheter. After making one of these examinations, a circumstance occurred which confirmed the author in a plan he had devised for the relief of the disease. For the first time for five years she remained dry for two hours; no dribbling took place, and she then passed water in a stream. This arose, he imagines, from the tumefaction of the edges of the fistula producing temporary closure of its orifice. In July, 1841, he acted upon his plan, by proceeding to operate in the following manner:-A Brodie's catheter, armed with a long piece of twine, was introduced into the bladder, concavity downwards; and being guided by a finger within the os uteri, he readily found the rupture, passed the instrument through the vagina, seized the thread, and then withdrew the catheter, thus leaving one end of the thread hanging from the urethra, and the other from the vagina. To the urethral extremity he tied a skein of six threads of glover's silk, oiled them, and drawing at the vaginal extremity, dragged the silk through the fistula, and then tied the urethral and vaginal ends together. The result was most gratifying. From the time of their introduction to the withdrawal of the last thread, no dribbling took place, except when the patient was using some extraordinary bodily exertion; and under these circumstances it did sometimes occur. On the 4th day after the operation, irritation beginning to be produced, the first thread was withdrawn; on the 5th the second; on the 6th the third; on the 10th the fourth; and on the 17th the fifth, leaving only one remaining;—so that in seventeen days the operation may be said to have been completed. During this time considerable irritability of the bladder existed, with great impatience of its contents, so that they were obliged to be evacuated every hour. This symptom, however, gradually subsided

simply with fomentations, and without the aid of any medicines. At each recurring menstrual period the urine was, and now is, voided highly charged with the catamenial fluid. During the three subsequent months Mr. Harrinson changed the size of the thread three times, so that at last it was reduced to as small a one as could be procured compatible with any strength and durability. In October the narrator withdrew the last thread. Unfortunately he was disappointed in twenty-five days the dribbling was as bad as ever. Mr. Harrinson was glad enough, therefore, to retreat to his former position, by introducing now four large threads. In twenty-eight days they were reduced to one, and the patient was herself again. Mr. Harrinson has purposely delayed the publication of the case, in order to test the sufficiency of the means employed. He is pleased to add (May, 1845,) that she remains in the same comfortable state. She changes the thread herself once in three or four weeks, goes about, performs her domestic duties, &c., with no inconvenience. Not a drop of urine has escaped for the last three years. The only precaution necessary is, that the thread be drawn down once a day, to cleanse it from the sabulous matter which is deposited upon it.Abridged from the Provincial Med. and Surg. Journal.

Progress of Quackery-Hahnemann and Holloway.-The following affords additional insight into the modus operandi of the medical cheats called homeopaths, while a contrast is presented by the effects of a rival practice. We always knew, and proclaimed it, that these advocates of a non-medical treatment administer most active remedies when the necessity for them arises :—

Practices of Homœopathists.

"SIR,-The account of the substitution of active substances, in anything but infinitesimal doses, for homeopathic globules, &c., as given in the last number but one in the Gazette, will not surprise many of those who have been accustomed to investigate closely the practice. I have also adduced analogous instances in the last edition of my work, especially the case of the Duke di Cannizaro, formerly well known in London as Count St. Antonio, who at Milan, being treated homœopathically for some slight ailment, had to take three globules, at intervals of some hours. Having accidentally omitted the morning globule, he said to his valet, when the time for taking the second arrived, that when he ought to take the third dose he would be at the opera, and that being homœopathic globules, it would do no harm to take the three at once, which he accordingly did, and was dead within two hours; the preparation being one of nux vomica.-Your obedient servant, EDWIN LEE."

"Case of Death by Holloway's Pills. "Mr. Grimwood of Walton, narrates the case of a man, aged 25, long labouring under scrofulous disease of the femur and tibia, by whom he was consulted, on the 25th of June last, for symptoms indicative of inflammation of the intestinal mucous membrane. It appears

that the poor man, while in his ordinary state of health, was advised, with the hope of being cured of his old-standing complaint, to try Holloway's pills, beginning with five night and morning, gradually increasing the dose to ten, and then recurring to five. These instructions he punctually obeyed, with the effect of producing hypercatharsis, which he endured for about a week, in the belief that unless such an effect were caused, he could not obtain any benefit. This continued, and symptoms of greater severity setting in, Mr. Grimwood's assistance was sought, about ten days or a fortnight after the man commenced taking the pills. He then presented evident symptoms of peritonitis and enteritis in an advanced stage, attended with great exhaustion, from the effects of which he soon sank. A postmortem examination does not appear to have been made."-Dublin Medical Press.

Pathology of Synchisis.-The Comptes Rendus contain an abstract of an interesting paper read before the Academy of Sciences, at the séance of July 19th, by M. Bouisson, on that affection of the vitreous body known as synchisis.

It has long been desired to make out the real nature of this abnormal condition, and various hypotheses have been brought forward.

M. Bouisson had entertained the idea that the moveable and sparkling particles observed deep-seated in the eye, in persons affected with this malady, were not caused by loose floating particles of the hyaloid membrane, but constituted of free crystalline morsels in the thickness of the vitreous body, the membrane of which was destroyed.

Upon devoting himself to some researches on the composition of the vitreous humour, he recognised the existence of a fatty matter, in such a state of minute division that the transparency of the humour was not affected by it. After having filtered the vitreous humour of the eye of an ox, he evaporated it in a porcelain capsule, and treated the residue with sulphuric ether. The resulting matter was then collected in a watch-glass, perfectly clean, and evaporated. During the process of evaporation, the ether deposited a fatty matter in a crystalline form. The same experiment upon a larger quantity of vitreous humour, obtained from several oxen's eyes, gave the same result, but more clearly. M. Bouisson has also obtained this fatty matter, by treating the vitreous humour of the human eye in the

same manner.

If these results be taken in connexion with the observations which demonstrate that crystals of cholesterine have been found in the posterior chamber of eyes which have for a long time been struck with blindness, one will naturally be led to believe, that in the normal condition a certain quantity of fatty matter is contained in the vitreous humour, which may be separated in a crystalline form by some peculiar pathological influence, and may acquire, in this form, that apparent mobility at the bottom of the eye which arrests our attention. From these facts and considerations the nature of synchisis may

be determined, for we have grounds to believe that this singular malady is due to the accidental deposition of the fatty matter of the vitreous humour in a crystalline form.

Synchisis, or synchesis, is described as a dissolved state of the vitreous body, in which the hyaloid membrane is either atrophied or destroyed; hence it is that the vitreous humour appears diffluent in form, and wanting in its natural consistence. Although this condition may result from inflammatory action, still it is more frequently met with in the eyes of the aged, as a natural decay or degeneration, and often in company with cataract-another instance of the failure of vital energy. Now, if the above observations of M. Buisson be confirmed, synchisis will afford another instance of that very general abnormal condition-fatty degeneration of the tissues-which has lately been so much studied and illustrated.

Synchisis, as a disease of old age, will be brought to coincide with other lesions of the aged, also marked by the abnormal production of fat, from perverted nutrition-as, for instance, the degeneration and subsequent calcification of the arterial coats. And at the same time, synchisis, considered as a result of inflammation, will agree, as to it pathological characters, with the consequences of inflammatory action. in other organs, and in that self same circumstance-viz., the unnatural development of fatty matter. In old age, we should ascribe the appearance of the crystals of fat in the vitreous humour, in an abnormal condition, to impaired nutrition, and consequent degeneration with atrophy; and, again, we should especially anticipate the occurrence of atrophy when the synchisis is accompanied by cataract, whereby the function of the vitreous body is destroyed.-London Lancet.

Variations in the Quantity of Fatty Matter in the Human Lungs. -Relation to Jurisprudence.-The following extract, taken from the Comptes Rendus of the 12th of July, from a paper read by M. Guillot before the Academy of Sciences, has some relation in subject to that given above, inasmuch as it shows the accumulation of fat in the lungs whenever their function is impaired.

M. Guillot first states the plan he has pursued in the examination and analysis of the lungs, on which his essay is based. He hes first weighed the lungs in their moist state, the right and left, and whether healthy or diseased.

He has next separated the diseased from the healthy portions, and ascertained their respective weights. They have then been dried, in vacuo, at a temperature of 140°, and afterwards powdered, and then again dried. The powdered matter has next been treated with rectified ether, so as to remove all fatty matters. M. Guillot then informs us, that from his analysis he has found the amount of fatty matter contained in the pulmonary tissue to be more considerable in the fœtus before than after birth; that it diminishes from the moment the infant commences to breathe,

At the close of intra-uterine life, before the respiratory function is