girl; this was along the mesial line of the common perinæum. He then described the mode of union between them, and referred to the Monthly Medical Record for a complete description, so far as could be given previous to dissection.

On motion, the paper of Dr. Manlove was referred to the Committee on Publication.

Dr. C. K. Winston read a paper upon the use of veratrum viride in inflammatory diseases, eliciting some discussion from various gentlemen.

Dr. Hurley said that he had used it, but always in combination with antimony or ipecac, and usually after venesection. The effect under such circumstances was generally good, but he could not say how much was due to the veratria.

Dr. Maddin made it a standard remedy in pneumonia. He frequently used it in combination with antimony. He also used it in scarlatina and rubeola, as well as typhoid and irritative fevers, where there was small arterial action. In such cases he had succeeded in reducing the pulse from 130 or 150 beats to 100, and holding it at that point. His experiments would warrant him in saying that there were but few cases which would demand bleeding when you could obtain the veratria.

Dr. J. D. Winston regarded it as a most dangerous remedy in pneumonia. He did not think it cured the disease, although it reduced the pulse. In all cases where he had used it, the expectoration almost entirely ceased, and the case usually lingered for weeks and sometimes months, leaving the lung in a state of induration for a long period.

On motion, the paper of Dr. C. K. Winston was referred to the Committee on Publication.

Resolutions being now in order, Dr. Manlove offered the following: Resolved, That Dr. A. H. Buchanan be requested to write out a history of the proceedings of the Tennessee State Medical Society and present it to this body at its next annual meeting.

The resolution having been adopted, Dr. Buchanan expressed his willingness to undertake the duty.

Dr. Ford (the former President) being present, was called upon for his address, and was excused.

Dr. Buchanan stated that delegates to the American Medical Association were to be appointed.

Dr. Maddin moved that the President be authorized to appoint delegates. Adopted.

The President appointed the following gentlemen:

Drs. John H. Callender, W. K. Bowling, John P. Ford, P. S. Woodward, Jos. Newnan, Geo. S. Blackie, Felix Robertson, Paul F. Eve, W. L. Nichol, and R. C. Foster, of Nashville; Drs. E. B. Haskins, J. T. M'Reynolds, and C. H. Lockhart, of Clarksville; Dr. J. E. Manlove, of Davidson county.

On motion, adjourned to meet the first Monday in April, 1860.

W. L. NICHOL, Secretary.

CHAS. K. WINSTON, Pres't.

EXTRACTS FROM PROCEEDINGS OF THE PATHOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF PHILADELPHIA.

WEDNESDAY EVENING, Dec. 8, 1858.

WOUNDS OF THE HEART.-Dr. Da Costa exhibited a specimen of a wound of the heart, and read the history of another, for which he expressed his indebtedness to Dr. S. P. Brown.

CASE I-A boy, aged eleven, while running about the fields with another boy, shot himself. He was immediately conveyed to his home, not far distant, and lived, although the ball had entered directly over the heart and perforated the lung, for three hours after the accident. During this time he spoke repeatedly, and completely exonerated his companion from any blame.

On post-mortem examination the ball was found to have struck the right ventricle near the origin of the pulmonary artery, then to have glanced off to the artery, and from there to have touched several places in the left lung, passing out between the fifth and sixth ribs in the axilla. The pericardium was wounded, and contained some fluid blood. There was also some in the pleura.

CASE II.-An Irishman, Peter Conway, received two stabs in a fight, in which he endeavored to separate the combatants. It was not noticed at the time by the bystanders, although he was observed to have suddenly grown faint. He did not speak after being stabbed; he became exceedingly faint, was placed in bed, and remained quiet until his death, which occurred three hours after the injury. The wound in front was at the lower end of the ensiform cartilage, about an inch from the median line on the left side. The wound on the back was three inches from the spinous process, passing between the ninth and tenth ribs. The wounds had been inflicted with an instrument about five-eighths of an inch in breadth.

On post-mortem examination, six hours after death, it was found that the knife had passed through the pericardium, and into the lower part of the right ventricle, occasioning a horizontal cut, through which a scalpel-handle could be passed into the ventricle. The direction of the wound on the back was diagonal, and had probably cut the intercostal artery. It had passed through the pleura, but had not reached the lung. The pleura contained about six pounds of fluid blood, the pericardium none. All the other viscera were healthy.

Drs. Gross, La Roche, and Hall, each cited cases in which the heart had probably been wounded without immediate death resulting. In the case referred to by Dr. Hall, a large butcher's hook had entered deeply immediately over the region of the heart, and must from its direction have perforated the pericardium and touched the heart. The patient recovered.

Dr. Addinell Hewson remarked that although the two specimens exhibited by Dr. Da Costa were exceedingly interesting, they were, as

probably most of the members must be aware, far from being unique in their character. He had had occasion to investigate the subject very recently, and could cite many cases even more curious. Thus in Dupuytren's Essays could be found a number of such, including the famous case of the Duc de Berri, who was stabbed while leaving the opera by a man who stood behind him. The dagger was left sticking in the Duke's breast, and he himself drew it out after he had been removed from the scene of the assault. Although the wound traversed the right auricle, it did not prove fatal for several hours after its reception.

Thomas Bartholin mentions (Hist. Anat. Rar. Cent. 1, Hist. 77) the case of a young man stabbed with a knife, in which the patient afterwards walked home some distance and lived five days. Post-mortem examination revealed a small oblique wound of the right ventricle.

There are a number of cases on record in which persons have had the heart transfixed or penetrated with a stilet or darning-needle, and have entirely recovered. But perhaps the most extraordinary case on record is that reported to the Medical Association of the State of Alabama, by Dr. Chas. E. Lavender, of Selma, in 1850. It was in a student of medicine, aged nineteen years, who had been stabbed by a fellowstudent; and from the account given by the Doctor, there can scarcely be any doubt that the knife penetrated the heart, (probably the right ventricle.) The patient lost over a gallon of blood, and recovered after an interval of twenty days' confinement. This extraordinary case is very fully quoted by Dr. Eve in his "Remarkable Cases in Surgery."

The direction of the lesion of the great central organ of the circulation in these and similar cases, was probably such as to separate rather than divide the greatest part of the muscular fibres composing the wall at the wounded point, and hence probably the gaping was but slight, as has been pointed out by Dupuytren. This, no doubt, is also the reason why more cases have recovered from stabs and penetrating wounds of the heart from cutting instruments than from injuries of a similar kind from gunshots. There are cases on record where shots have penetrated the cavities of the heart, and yet death did not immediately follow. Dr. Randall, of Tennessee, has reported such a case in a boy fifteen years of age, who was accidentally shot by a fowling-piece, and survived the accident sixty-seven days. Three shot were found, after death, lying loose in the cavity of the ventricle, and two in the right auricle. The shot had entered the heart about one-third of the way from its base to its apex; the wounds made by them were at a little distance from each other; they had all cicatrized, but the spots were plainly to be seen. (See American Journal of the Medical Sciences for 1829.) But the most incomprehensible case of all is that mentioned by Dr. A. Christison in the Edinburgh Monthly. (Ranking's Abst., 1853.) In this case a musket-ball was found in the left ventricle covered with lymph, without any traces of wound of the heart that could be discovered. The man, a soldier, had been shot some time previous by a musket-ball in the left shoulder. On dissection the course of the ball could not be traced among the textures of the shoulder, but could between the second and third ribs; it passed obliquely through a narrow canal with cartilaginous

sides and then through the costal pleura. A large abscess occupied the cavity of the pleura except superiorly where there was air. The lung was very much condensed and pressed toward the heart; an opening in its pleural covering showed the continuation of the course of the ball, and this was traced onward as far as the root of the lung, where they failed to trace it farther. Dr. Christison thinks that the ball could only have found its way into the ventricle by one of the pulmonary veins.

Selected Papers.

ON THE SOLUBILITY OF THE MEDICINAL PRINCIPLES OF ALL ORGANIC MATTER IN ALCOHOL.

By Wм. S. MERRILL, A. M.

IN presenting my views on the above subject, I feel that I do it somewhat prematurely; I had not intended to bring them forward at this meeting of the Association, but to wait till I could more fully confirm them by experiment and illustrate them by samples. But learning that the subject of Fluid Extracts was exciting great interest throughout the medical profession, and was likely to be made a prominent subject of inquiry here; and as the laws which I hold to exist, lie at the foundation of all correct formulæ for making this class of preparations, I have concluded, since leaving home, to sketch out my views on this subject and present them for your consideration. I am aware that the truth of my hypothesis will be questioned, for I have yet named it to no pharmaceutist who at first gave it his assent; perhaps it will be proved false; but if true, all will admit it to be of primary importance in the science of pharmacy.

The hypothesis, then, which I venture to propose is this: that alcohol, in its solvent power, accurately discriminates between the medicinal and the nutritive principles of all vegetable substances, and, for the most part, of all organic matter. That in their normal states all those proximate principles of vegetation which are medicinal or poisonous, are soluble in pure alcohol, while all those which are nutritive, or capable of digestion and assimilation, are insoluble, or at most very sparingly soluble in that menstruum; and conversely, all those parts or principles of vegetables which are soluble in alcohol, are non-nutritious and incapable of sustaining animal life, and when taken into the stomach in their isolated state, more or less disturb the normal action of the animal functions; while all those parts or principles which are insoluble in that fluid, are either assimilative and nutritious, or else, in consequence of the inaction of the gastric juices upon them, (as lignin, wax, caoutchouc, etc.,) are inert, or act only mechanically on the system. Thus, starch,