ing the house a messenger came for me in great haste, saying that the woman was dying. I reached her bedside in a short time, to find her a little faint, but otherwise comfortable. The nurse reported that about one hour before very severe pains came on in the lower part of the abdomen, extending through to the back. They were described as like labor pains, but much more severe. After lasting three quarters of an hour something was felt to give way inside, when all pain suddenly ceased, leaving only faintness behind. This soon passed away, and she said that she had not felt so well before for months. The pulse was good. There was tenderness above the pubes. One eighth of a grain of morphine was ordered every two hours, with hot fomentations. At my next visit, six hours afterwards, the pulse was found to be good; micturition somewhat difficult; less tenderness than at last visit; no tympanites. She had vomited several times, and felt sleepy, but could not sleep. Morphine was administered less frequently, and fomentations were continued. On visiting her the next morning she was reported to have passed a comfortable night, getting several hours' quiet sleep; pulse less than 100, temperature 99° F.; very little tenderness over any part of the abdomen. She said that she felt well enough to get up. No vomiting since the previous evening. The stomach retained beef tea and milk punch. She had to wait some time before she could pass water. Morphine was discontinued. Not feeling sure that the uterus had replaced itself, although all the symptoms would warrant that supposition, I thought it best to wait until the next day before removing the stitches, when I could have assistance. Accordingly, on the morning of the 22d, Drs. Marion and Dow being present, ether was again administered, and the stitches were removed, when we found that the organ had entirely regained its normal position, the fundus being plainly felt from above the pubes. The cavity of the uterus, as measured by the Simpson sound, showed a depth of three and one quarter inches. From this time all hæmorrhage stopped, and she gained steadily. At the end of six days she was sitting up, and in ten days walked out, contrary to my advice. The following February menstruation appeared naturally. The family soon after moved to a distant part of the State. I learned by a letter from the husband, dated February 10, 1878, that his wife had a fine boy, born in January, and that she was in perfect health.

A NEW MICROTOME.1

BY 8. W. FLETCHER, M. D., PEPPERELL, MASS.

SEVERAL years ago, wishing to make some thin sections of animal tissue, and not having the educated hand, I set about devising an instrument for doing such work. The conditions to be fulfilled appeared to 1 Shown to the Boston Society of Medical Sciences, November 30, 1878.

me to be: to attach the cutting blade to a carrier so arranged as to draw repeatedly the edge of the blade over the specimen with any desired inclination and in exactly the same course; to prevent every part of the blade, except the edge actually cutting, from touching the preparation; to immerse the object in alcohol or other preservative fluid whilst being cut; and to approach the specimen to the blade to any desired extent, the whole instrument being made heavy and firm enough to prevent any considerable trembling under ordinary use. These conditions I have endeavored to fulfill in the following manner:

X X, Figure I., is a wooden frame sixteen inches in length, eight inches in width, and five and a half in height; to the top of this is clamped the wooden bar R R by means of the bolts 6 and 7, which pass

top of the frame

through the slots cut in the arms which project from each end of it. B is a piece of thick plate-glass cemented to the side of the bar R R, and C and D are similar pieces of glass cemented to the X X. In the centre of the frame is the brass pan E. Near the centre of this pan is a well, one inch in diameter and two inches deep. At one side of the well is a clamp 4, which by the screw 1 is pressed tightly against the specimen O to be cut. Over this pan is the iron. tripod TT, beneath which is suspended a brass plate A by means of the bolts 8 and 9. This plate is made to incline more or less towards the glass plate C, and is fastened firmly in position by the set screws 11 and 12. By these any desired inclination can be given to the cutting blade, which is clamped to the under surface of the plate A. I have commonly used a wide Le Coulter razor blade for cutting. The legs of the tripod have ivory pins driven firmly into holes drilled deep in their ends; these pins project one fourth of an inch, and their points, 3, 4, 5, rest on the glass plates C and D. From the sides of two of the legs ivory pins project in the same way, and their points, 1 and 2, rest against the glass B. The opposite sides of the well are grooved on their outer surfaces, and in these grooves rest brass guide pieces which

are firmly bolted to the frame X X, and connected with these guide pieces is a screw, the point of which presses against the lower part of the bottom of the well. The threads of this screw are forty-eight to the inch, and the circumference of its head is divided into fifty equal parts.

Figure II. represents the tripod seen from below, showing the ivory points 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, the brass plate A, and the blade K fastened by the clamps m and n.

Figure III. shows the shape of the heads of the bolts 8 and 9, Figure I., and the manner in which they are let into the plate A.

The ivory points being well oiled, fill the pan with alcohol, so as to cover the top of the specimen O; place the tripod over the pan, and as

far to the left as possible; turn up the screw F until the top of the object to be cut reaches the blade; shove the tripod forward from left to right, and the blade will shave the top of the preparation; draw the tripod from the glass B for half an inch, or raise the leg of the tripod resting on D half an inch; it can then be pushed to the end of the glass plates from which it started without the knife touching at any point. Now let the tripod approach the glass B until the points 1 and 2 touch the glass; turn the screw F so as to elevate the pan more or less, according to the desired thickness of the section; again repeat the moving

of the tripod as already described, and a section is obtained of uniform thickness and of any desired thinness the blade is capable of cutting. With a well-hardened specimen and a very thin, sharp blade sections three fourths of an inch wide, one inch long, and of an inch thick can readily be made. Very delicate objects need to be imbedded in wax or paraffine; ordinary ones are held by the clamp L without any such preparation.

The whole instrument weighs about sixteen pounds, and costs about twenty-five dollars, not including the blades. The cost of four or five blades is not far from five dollars, or one dollar each.

RECENT PROGRESS IN FORENSIC MEDICINE.1

BY F. W. DRAPER, M. D.

Cases of Interest from a Medico-Legal Point of View. - (1.) A Norwegian sailor, twenty-five years old, was admitted to the Bristol (England) Royal Infirmary,2 with the following injury: He had received a penetrating wound of the brain, inflicted with an ordinary clasp knife with a blade three inches long and seven eighths of an inch wide; the blade did not lock, and its whole length entered the brain, piercing the skull in the squamous portion of the left temporal bone, through a thickness 1 Concluded from page 225.

2 Medical Times and Gazette, September 28, 1878.

of a little more than one eighth of an inch of dense bone, and in its passage through the brain dividing the left middle cerebral artery half through, about an inch from its origin. The hæmorrhage was free from the external wound. There were convulsions confined to the left side of the body; the pulse ranged from 100 to 188; six hours after the injury the breathing took on the Cheyne-Stokes character. Death occurred twenty-one hours after the wound.

(2.) The poisoning of a new-born child with nux vomica must be reckoned an unusual occurrence in forensic medicine, other methods of infanticide being more common because more easily accomplished. An instance of infanticide by nux vomica is recorded in the Vierteljahrsschrift für gerichtliche Medicin.1 A young woman gave her new-born illegit imate child a teaspoonful of the powdered drug in some chamomile tea. The child had convulsions, and died in two hours. The body was then thrown into a ditch; it was discovered after three days, and was submitted to a medical examination. Cadaveric rigidity was still very strongly developed. The viscera of the thorax presented the appearances of asphyxia. The abdominal viscera were not remarkable. A chemical examination of the stomach, liver, and intestines was made, but not the slightest trace of strychnia was discovered. There was no doubt of the cause and manner of the death, for the mother confessed her crime.

(3.) Professor Friedberg, of Breslau, reports a case 2 which he considers as the only one of its kind on record. A woman taken in labor with her third child sent for an unlicensed midwife whom she had engaged to attend her. At about midnight this midwife discovered a hand presentation; she made repeated violent traction on the hand and arm during the next two hours, at the end of which time the arm came away. She then introduced her hand, and worked it around for about five minutes, causing great pain to the mother, who, unable to bear it longer, sprang out of bed. While the patient was sitting on the edge of the bed the child was rapidly and easily expelled without any assistance. The case became a subject for judicial investigation. An autopsy of the child's body was made, at which it was determined that the infant was mature, strong, and healthy. The left arm and scapula were separated from the body with much laceration of muscle and effusion of partly coagulated blood. The left ribs, from the fifth to the ninth, were fractured near their anterior ends, the superjacent muscles being much bruised. The lungs sank in water, and no air issued on dividing them under water. The necks of the seven upper ribs were broken. Professor Friedberg concluded that the child's death was due to hæmorrhage and contusion, the result of injuries received while it 1 London Medical Record, vol. xxv., December 15, 1878. 2 Vierteljahrsschrift für gerichtliche Medicin, April, 1878.