practical duties of life in a profession so useful, honorable, and charitable as ours, life seems to present attractions not often found in similar circumstances. The field of usefulness is rich-vast as the ambition of man can desire. Your life, if you worthily follow your profession, is to be one of perpetual charity, of daily relief to suffering. Let me urge you never to forget those pure and honorable principles which should ever guide and characterize men entrusted with so important an office-fidelity and strict attention to those entrusted to your care, respect for your professional brethren, and above all, a regard for the character and usefulness of the profession. Your character and interests are henceforth identified with it. In proportion as you devote yourself to it, will be the return you may expect to receive. Set your mark high. Fear no obstacles; let the one object of eminence and usefulness be always before your mind. Whatever you determine on now, if followed out with suitable perseverance, you will scarcely fail to accomplish. Whatever may be the result, no pursuit is more worthy of occupying your lives than the acquisition of knowledge and its application to the relief of human suffering.

For us who have aided you, according to our means and ability, in your progress thus far, our desire for your welfare and our efforts for the dissemination of knowledge and correct principles, will not be relaxed but followed up with renewed vigor. It is now seven years since the germ of our medical college was planted. Six individuals were found willing to listen to the teachings of a private course at that time upon a single seat; the next year another was added, and the third year some twenty persons were in attendance upon our course. By some these early efforts were regarded as premature, by others as altogether misplaced; yet the progress of events has shown that the time and place were well chosen. Step by step has the school advanced, until its alumni consti

a large body of the most respectable practitioners of a le extent of country. Their students constitute our classes

in a great measure; and our infant institution has already acquired a developement which is a guarantee of its future advancement. It is associated with the destinies of a great and powerful city, and its prosperity and continuance will be commensurate with her growth and duration. It can never perish. Like a ship entrusted to the sea with bright sunshine and smiling skies, in its course it must meet with storms; the winds may rage against it, the waves may beat upon it, dark clouds may gather above, and rocks rise beneath it, but it will come in safety through every danger to the protected waters of the distant haven.

ARTICLE VIII.

Treatment of Spina Bifidia by Injection of Tinct. Iodine. By DANIEL BRAINARD, M.D., Professor of Surgery in Rush Medical College.

In the No. of this Journal for Jan., 1848, a case was reported of treatment of this defect of the spinal column by injections. The case, at the time, I considered cured; the sac being collapsed so that the long opening into the spinal canal could be distinctly felt. This perfect obliteration of the tumor was, however, effected under the use of firm and steady pressure. Immediately after that report was made, the public authorities removed the patient from under my care to the county poor house where the pressure was entirely discontinued. Under this state of things, the tumor re-appeared, and attained, after a time, half its original size, as near as I could learn. I then requested Dr. Huber, the physician of the poor house, to apply the same remedy as before; which he did, with the exception that the regulations of that establishment were not such as to permit of pressure being used. This I did not regret, as of those who had witnessed the forVol I. No. 6.---4.

mer treatment, some have considered the improvement to be due to the pressure alone, while others, admitting the good effect of the injection, consider it, nevertheless, as a dangerous operation. It was, therefore, fortunate that so favorable a case should present, in which the effect of the tr. iodine could be tried alone. That 3jjj, of a solution of the strength given below or 3jss of double strength, could be injected repeatedly into the sac of the arachnoid membrane, without producing more than "slight febrile symptoms," will doubtless surprise some whose views of the extreme sensitiveness of serous membranes, are formed from their actions in a state of health.

It is, however, in accordance with all we know of the action of irritants upon scrous surfaces upon which dropsical effusions take place, in which the production of the inflammation is difficult in direct proportion to the amount of distention and the length of time it has existed.

The case being now cured, so far as the obliteration of the sac is concerned, it will only remain to endeavor to remedy the imperfect action of the muscular and nervous systems, indicated by the incontinence of the urine and fæces, and the weakness of the lower limbs. For this purpose we have requested Dr. Huber to administer the 20th of a grain of strychnine thrice daily until its specific action is induced. By then discontinuing it and renewing after a few days so as to keep the system under its influence most of the time for many months, there is good reason to hope that a favorable result may be obtained.

Dear Sir:-After the case of spina bifidia came into my hands, I continued the treatment which you had begun.

I injected the tumor thirteen times, viz.: May 3, 10, 20; June 15, 22; July 14; August 10, 15, 25; September 5, 16, 26; and October 20, 1848. The injection for the first four times was of the strength of four grains iodine and sixteen grains iodide potassium to 3j distilled water, beginning 'with 3jss and

increased to 3iij at the fourth injection, the sac had then become so much contracted, that the latter quantity could with difficulty be forced in, I therefore doubled the strength of the solution and injected but 3jss. As the sack decreased the difficulty of forcing in the liquid increased, so that on the last three or four occasions, upon removing the syringe I found it full above the piston, the resistance to the entrance of the; 'liquid into the tumor having forced it back.

For the first three times I used a small trocar and canula the walls of the tumor had by this time become so thickened by the deposit of lymph on their interior, that the trocar could not, conveniently be forced through. I then substituted e darning needle, set into a handle, into the puncture of which I introduced the point of the fistula lachrymalis syringe.

The tumor is now one and a half inches in its smaller, and one and three fourth inches in its larger diameter, projecting, about three fourths of an inch; its surface is irregularly nodulated and very firm, seemingly semi-cartilaginous, creaking when pierced by the needle.

After the first two operations, the child had some slight febrile symptoms, but not since. She has improved in the 'use of her lower extremities, being now able to walk across the room. Her capability of retaining the contents of her rectum and bladder has slightly improved.

So far as regards the tumor, I consider the cure complete. The shrunken and thickened sac confining the serum perfectly in the cavity of the spine, and offers much encouragement in the treatment of these hitherto hopeless cases.

CHICAGO, Jan. 23, 1949.

Yours respectfully,

H. S. HUBER.

P. S. I consider the injection as the cause of the improvement, as I could not get pressure applied so as to be of any service. I think if pressure had been steadily an:l regularly applied it would have much expedited the cure. H. S. H.

Part 2.-Reviews and Notices of New Works.

ARTICLE I.

Essays on Infant Therapeutics-to which are added Observations on Ergot, and an account of the origin of the use of Mercury in Inflammatory Complaints. By JOHN B. BECK, M. D., Prof. Mat. Med. and Med. Jurisprudence in the Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons of the University of the State of New York, &c., &c. pp. 117, 12mo. New York, W. E. Dean, printer and publisher, 1849.

This series of essays, comprising one on each of the subjects of the use of Opium, Emetics, Mercury, Blisters, and Bloodletting, in the young subject; which we have had the pleasure of laying before our readers in former numbers of the Journal, with the additional articles specified in the title, form the neatly got up little volume before us. As our readers are aware, it forms a valuable contribution to the literature of the medical profession. No praise of ours, however, could add to the well deserved reputation of these essays, as they are so extensively known and highly appreciated already. E.

ARTICLE II.

Report of the Standing Sanatory Committee of the Board of Health of the City of New York, on the subject of Asiatic Cholera, at present prerailing at the Quarantine Establishment of New York, at Staten Island. pp. 24, octavo.

This is a report of the cholera as it was recently prevailing at New York, and shows the manner of its commencement on board the ship New York seven days previous to her arrival at