good health in order to make the transfusion. After having bled from the jugular vein, and having commenced artificial respiration, I inject several times and very lightly a quantity of blood a little inferior to that which the animal has lost. I make the injection alternately towards the head and the heart, in order that it may act on the encephalon to establish respiration, and on the muscular fibres of the heart to increase their irritability.

[Can we draw from these experiments any consequences relative to the combined employment of transfusion, artificial respiration, and bleeding from the jugular vein on man dying of inflammatory or other diseases? It is evident that in an immense majority of cases it would be useless, otherwise cruel, to arrest death only for a very short time in an individual of our species whose material lesions irreparably condemned him to death.

But there may present cases in which it would be important that intelligence, speech, the senses, and voluntary motion, might throw off the agony. Now the facts mentioned in this work* show that all the functions of animal life can be reëstablished for several hours in animals in which the agony had already completely given place to death, rendering it extremely probable that the intellectual faculties, the senses, speech, etc., can be reëstablished for some time in the diseased who lose these faculties and in whom the agony has commenced. The success of these different operations is so much the more probable, that to perform them on animals, we should not wait for the agony to make considerable progress, still less for it to be completely terminated.]

sometimes sudden coagulation; but it is probable that by adding 1-1000 or 1-1500 of caustic ammonia to the defibrinated blood, that will avoid the only danger I know to its use.

* Journal de la Physiologie.

Medical Intelligence and Reports.

TRANSACTIONS OF THE THIRTIETH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE TENNESSEE MEDICAL SOCIETY.

NASHVILLE, APRIL 5, 1859.

THE Society met at the office of Dr. D. F. Wright. The President and Vice-President being absent, Dr. A. H. Buchanan was called to the chair.

The Secretary, Dr. John H. Callender, read the, proceedings of the last meeting, which were approved.

A discussion then arose upon the sum at which the assessment for the current year should be fixed.

Dr. C. K. Winston stated that if the objects of a resolution, passed at the last session, which contemplated the publication of the proceedings of the Society in pamphlet form, should be carried into effect, the expenses would necessarily be much greater, and, therefore, the assessment must be much larger than it had been heretofore.

Dr. G. A. J. Mayfield then moved a reconsideration of the abovementioned resolution, which was carried.

On motion of Dr. Nichol it was repealed.

Dr. Maddin moved that the assessment be fixed at one dollar, which was carried.

The following gentlemen came forward, registered their names, and paid the fee:

J. H. Callender, A. H. Buchanan, Henry Carow, Thomas L. Maddin, Josiah W. Stout, A. A. Hatcher, C. K. Winston, W. L. Nichol, R. Thompson, Geo. A. J. Mayfield, Felix Robertson.

Election of new members being now in order, the following gentlemen were put in nomination and duly elected:

Drs. W. K. Hurley, Daniel F. Wright, J. H. Currey, John B. Hill, and Rev. Dr. Quintard, who came forward, signed the constitution, and paid the fee.

On motion of Dr. C. K. Winston, the fee was remitted in the case of Dr. Quintard.

The next business being the election of officers for the ensuing two years, the following gentlemen were chosen :

Dr. C. K. Winston, President.

Dr. G. A. J. Mayfield, Vice-President.

Dr. W. L. Nichol, Secretary and Treasurer.

On motion of Dr. Callender, the newly elected officers were requested to take their seats. Upon assuming the chair, Dr. Winston made a few remarks, returning thanks to the Society for the honor conferred.

It being now near one o'clock, on motion of Dr. Hurley, the Society adjourned until half-past two o'clock, P. M.

AFTERNOON SESSION.

The President and Vice-President being absent at the hour of meeting, Dr. John D. Winston was called to the chair.

The following gentlemen came forward, registered, and paid the fee: Drs. Joseph Newnan, John D. Winston, P. S. Woodward.

On motion, the order of business pursued at the last session was adopted.

The various gentlemen present were called upon for cases: none reported.

The reading of papers being next in order, Dr. Thompson presented one upon the manufacture of pessaries, bougies, etc., out of slippery elm bark, the pessaries being medicated with Dover's powder, oil of sassafras, and balsam of copaiba.

Dr. Buchanan remarked that the use of a tea made of the root of sassafras had the effect of drying up the secretions of milk, which was opposed to the idea of Dr. Thompson that all of the secretions were increased by sassafras.

Dr. Thompson made some explanations.

Dr. Buchanan then moved that it be referred to the Committee on Publication.

No other paper being offered, and resolutions being next in order, Dr. Hurley presented the following:

Resolved, That the President of this Society appoint a committee to memorialize the next General Assembly on the subject of a registration of the Births, Deaths, and Marriages of the State.

After some discussion, in which Drs. Wright, Buchanan, J. D. Winston, and Hurley participated, Dr. Buchanan moved that its further consideration be postponed until to-morrow.

Dr. Hurley then introduced the following:

Resolved, That the President be authorized to appoint a committee of one or more physicians from different portions of the State, the duty of which shall be to make detailed reports of the Topography, Nosology, and Meteorology of the district in which each member may reside.

Pending the discussion upon this resolution, the Society adjourned to meet to-morrow at half-past ten o'clock A. M.

APRIL 6, 1859.

The Society met pursuant to adjournment, the President, Dr. C. K. Winston, in the chair.

Drs. W. K. Bowling, G. S. Blackie, John P. Ford, and Manlove appeared, registered, and paid the fee.

The election of new members being in order, Dr. D. F. Wright proposed Drs. J. F. Johnston and J. T. M'Reynolds, of Clarksville, who having been duly elected, came forward, signed the constitution, and paid the fee.

The unfinished business of yesterday being next in order, the resolution of Dr. Hurley relative to the appointment of a committee to memorialize the General Assembly upon the subject of registration of Births, Deaths, and Marriages, came up for consideration, which was, after a short discussion between Drs. Ford and Hurley, adopted. The chair appointed Drs. Hurley, Ford, and Manlove said committee.

The second resolution, authorizing the President to appoint a committee consisting of one or more physicians from different sections of the State to make reports upon Topography, etc., was, after some little discussion, adopted. The President stated that, with the consent of the Society, he would announce the committee in the Medical Journal.

Report of cases being now in order, Dr. Wright presented the following case, reported from memory: Was called to see Mrs. M., who was expecting her confinement: a large quantity of water had come away shortly before my arrival, and was the occasion of my being sent for, as she supposed her accouchement must immediately follow; no pains, however, ensued, and upon examination, none of the signs of commencing labor existed. Though my patient was confident that her time was out, I concluded that she was mistaken, and left, after giving some ordinary directions. At from twelve to fifteen days after this I was called again, and found labor now commenced in earnest. On digital examination found the os uteri well dilated, and my finger came in contact with the foetal head, no bag intervening; frequent escapes of amniotic fluid had occurred since I was first called. Delivery was somewhat tedious, but when it did occur, two foetuses were expelled so closely in succession that they seemed to be born with one effort. Each child was entirely enveloped with the membranes, having from the moment of birth no connection with the parent, the umbilical cord being of course within the

ovum.

The questions presented for the consideration of the Society were

1. Was the premature escape of the waters a cause of delaying parturition, the woman being confident that her time was come when I was first sent for; and,

2. Was there any connection between the early escape of the waters and the unruptured condition of the ovum when born?

Dr. Manlove asked whether there was any placenta?

Dr. Wright said that there was a fully developed placenta with each child.

Dr. Ford said that the discharge of fluid might be accounted for by

the occurrence of that condition designated by some authors as Hydrorrhoea," and reported a case of single birth in which a large discharge of fluid escaped several times during pregnancy, at intervals of four weeks. This woman went on to full term and was delivered of a healthy child. This case differed from Dr. Wright's in this particular, there was liquor

amnii.

Dr. Winston stated that many obstetricians had met with cases of single birth similar to Dr. Wright's. He had met with cases frequently where water had been discharged at various times previous to delivery, and the child born alive and enveloped in the membrane.

Dr. Maddin stated the question was as to the source of the waters. They could not be properly amniotic, as no opening was found in the membranes. There were two sets of membranes, deciduous or maternal, and amniotic or foetal. In such cases as the one reported by Dr. Wright, he believed the water came from the deciduous bag. In all cases there was, in the first months of pregnancy, some fluid contained in the space between the decidua vera and reflexa, which, as the ovum was developed, became absorbed, in the majority of instances; but in the present case he did not believe such had occurred. This he believed to be a diseased condition.

Dr. Buchanan wished to know the authority upon which Dr. Maddin had expressed the idea of fluid contained in the deciduary bag. Dr. Maddin gave Churchill and Tyler Smith.

Dr. Wright, without denying the occurrence of hydrorrhoea in some cases, from the causes detailed by Drs. Ford and Maddin, was confident that the fluid was amniotic in this case, as the membranes contained no water, but were closely applied to the surface of the foetus. He was misunderstood to say the membranes were not ruptured at all; he only meant not sufficiently so for the foetus to escape from the ovum.

Dr. Ford stated that recent authors made frequent mention of that condition styled "Hydrorrhoea."

Dr. Buchanan stated that he was aware of the condition styled hydrorhoea, but was not satisfied that water always existed in the deciduary bag, as Dr. Maddin terms the space between decidua vera and reflexa.

Dr. Manlove was then called, and reported a case of Teratology, and exhibited specimen to the Society.*

Dr. Maddin stated that he had seen a goat with two bodies and one head, but never such a human specimen as the one exhibited. He then made a few remarks upon a case of teratology which was exhibited here a few weeks since. In the course of his observations he said that either head could control the locomotion of the lower extremities, showing that the lower extremities were supplied with nervous filaments from both spinal marrows.

Dr. Wright thought Dr. Maddin was wrong, as he could discover only one region of common sensibility in the case of the children exhibited under the incorrect appellation of Christine Milly, or the two-headed

Paper to be published separately.