Dr. Grant, seconded by Dr. Bucke, moved "that the following gentlemen be requested to deliver addresses to the Association at the next meeting-Dr. Osler on the progress of Pathological Enquiry; Dr. Roddick on Antiseptic Surgery, and Dr. Botsford on Sanitary Science." Dr. Hingston, seconded by Dr. Ross moved in amendment, "That it be a suggestion to this association to consider the question of the advisability of having reports on special subjects to be suggested by the nominating committee. This amendment was lost, and the original motion of Dr. Grant, carried. Dr. Ross, of Montreal, followed with a paper on Dilatation of the Stomach treated with the Stomach Pump," giving a case which excited a feeling of deep interest. On motion, Drs. Forster, Hyde, Eccles Harvey," Healy, Stevens, D. M. Fraser, Swan and C. S. Moore were elected permanent members. Dr. Playter then read a paper entitled "Remarks on Therapeutics and Materia Medica," in which he suggested more uniformity in the teaching and practice of therapeutics, and referred to the wide difference which existed among writers and practitioners in reference to the action of drugs. The auditors reported having found the treasurer's books and vouchers correct, and a balance on hand. Dr. F. W. Campbell then read a paper on "Duodenal Ulcer," upon which Dr. Osler, who had made the post mortem made a few remarks. It was moved by Dr. Botsford" that whereas it is important to ascertain the influence of weather on health; whereas weekly reports from different sections of the Dominion are necessary, and whereas there are already meteorological observations collected, and whereas the printing of these cases by the government, and their free transmission through the post, will greatly facilitate the accomplishment of this hygienic measure. Therefore resolved, that the president and Drs. Robillard and Oldwright be a committee to bring this subject to the notice of the general government. Dr. Hingston presented an able paper on "Lithotrity," recommending the crushing of the stone instead of using the knife. He exhibited several specimens of stone, one of which measured three inches in length, two and a half inches in width, and one and one-half inches in thickness. In the course of his experience he had only come across two cases that needed the practice of "Lithotomy." The members of the association then proceeded to the Asylum for Insane where lunch was provided for them by Dr. Bucke, after which they visited the wards of the Institution. AFTERNOON SESSION. The President took the chair at 4.45 p.m. The minutes of the morning session were read and confirmed. Senator Carroll, M.D., of British Columbia, raised an objection to the non-appointment of VicePresidents for Manitoba, British Columbia and the North-west. Dr. Roddick, of Montreal, recited the particulars of a case of "Occipito-Meningocele," with treatment by elastic ligatures and seton. The discussion was interesting. Drs. Gustin and Murphy were duly elected permanent members. Dr. Osler stated that not having proper light in which to exhibit the apparatus for estimating the hemoglobin of the blood, he would put it off till next meeting in Ottawa. Dr. Hanson made a few interesting observations on the former endemic diseases of this locality. It was moved that the General Secretary receive the usual honorarium, and be also allowed his travelling expenses.—Carried. The Auditors moved a vote of thanks to the Treasurer, and that he be allowed his travelling expenses. Carried. On motion, a gratuity of four dollars was voted to the janitor for his services. Thanks were voted to the Grand Trunk and Great Western Railways for issuing tickets to members at a reduced rate. Thanks were also tendered the Committee of Arrangements, and to Dr. Bucke for his attention and entertainment. On the motion of Dr. Hingston, seconded by Dr. Bucke, it was resolved, "that Drs. Mullin, Osler and Sloan be a committee to report at next meeting, upon the question of members fees, and the best means of publishing the transactions." On motion, the President left the chair, and Dr. Bucke was called thereto, when Dr. Hingston proposed a vote of thanks to Dr. MacDonald for the able and affable manner he had conducted the meeting, which motion was carried by acclamation. Dr. MacDonald returned thanks, and the meeting adjourned at 6.50 p. m. A banquet was held in the evening which was largely attended. A. H. DAVID, M.D., THE CANADA LANCET. A Monthly Journal of Medical and Surgical Science Issued Promptly on the First of each Month. Communications solicited on all Medical and Scientific subjects, and also Reports of Cases occurring in practice. Advertisements inserted on the most liberal terms. All Letters and Communications to be addressed AGENTS. DAWSON BROS., Montreal; J. & A. MCMILLAN, St. John, LER, 16 Rue de la Grange Bateliere, Paris. TORONTO, OCTOBER 1, 1879. HYSTERICAL MANIA IN ITALY. the female sex, of different ages, have manifested the so-called religious mania.' This announcement, presented in a public document, did not fall in vain under the vigilant and sagacious eye of our illustrious Prefect, who, apprehending the serious Consequences which might ensue under an appearance so trivial, instantly despatched to the locality a prefectural delegate, charged with the duty of inquiring into the facts. This valuable functionary rendered a very elaborate detail of his researches, from which I (the editor of the Revista,) have made the following abstract, which may interest the public and science through the study of the epidemic treated of. About a year ago,' he writes, 'that is in the first days of November, 1877, there came By the polite liberality of the chief editor of the to the parish church of Verzegnis to perform misRevista Sperimentale di Freniatria e di Medicina sion, a Jesuit of Gorizia-or at least one proceedLegale, an Italian periodical, we have been ac-ing from there-by name Dr. M. F., who remained corded the valued privilege of a mutual exchange eight days, during which there was a continuous of issues. The number now before us embraces the 1st and 2nd fasciculi of the 5th year, covering nearly 400 pages, presented on excellent paper, and in truly beautiful typography, issued quarterly. An introductory article, in memory of Carlo Livi, an eminent alienist, of which only the first part is given, extends over 16 prefatory pages. The articles which fill up the body of the Review are all of very high merit, and it would be very desirable that they should be carefully studied by all who are engaged in the specialty of mental therapeutics, or who may desire to obtain a competent acquaintance with legal medicine. We apprehend, however, that not many of the medical profession in America have devoted so much time to the acquirement of a knowledge of the beautiful language of Italy, as to enable them to read the productions of the able men, who, at the present day stand forth as brilliant exponents of these departments of medical science. The following details of an epidemic of hysterical mania, a translation of which into English has been kindly presented by a friend, may be found both interesting and instructive; they are as follows:"The District Authority of Tolmezzo, in his daily record of 11th of December, 1878, amongst other matters on which he gave information to the Prefect of Udine, makes the following relation: 'In obedience to official obligation, I have the honor to report that in the Commune of Verzegnis, and specially in the divisions of Chiaicis and Villa, within the last three months, about 40 persons of alternation of religious functions, with extraordinary devices which the Jesuits understand how to employ in order best to strike the imagination; besides preaching, meditations and instructions occupying the whole hours from dawn of day till noon. The result was, that all minds were more or less impressed and exalted; and there was a large coucourse to the sacraments, for securing of indulgences adapted to their salvation from those infernal tortures depicted in such vivid colors, and presently many made their confessions. There had been in the above village and the neighboring one of Chiacis, a number of women affected with hysterical mania, one of whom had been so for several years. A tendency to this disorder seemed preferentially to predominate in these villages. The fact is, however, that after some months, in the succeeding spring, almost the whole of those af fected became much worse, and several others were added to the number, chiefly from among the younger and more handsome portion, between the ages of 12 and 15 years. The malady manifested itself more or less uniformly in the following modes: There were two, three, and finally four accessions daily of the mania, more mild in the young and the older, but more severe and tending to furious mania in the full grown and strong, between the ages of 19 and 25. During the attacks they uttered senseless cries and shouts, and gave expression to the most obscene language that can be imagined, surpassing in character the most beastly used in the country, and evincing the most vivid detesta- witness the appropriate ceremonies of the exorcis mal rite, whilst they were in their normal state, from which indiscretion a complete scandal ensued; for now even the calm became excited, several fell down in paroxysms, breaking out, in the very church, into their wonted bawlings and indecent words, and their vituperations against the priests. "That which, however, sustains and favors this malady, besides extending it to others, is the continual contact of the sane with the diseased. The former run foolishly to witness every fresh accession. They flock in suffocating crowds to the houses of male visitors are frequent. It is very pleasing, however, to record that unless in their words, the patients lose not their modesty. There was not evinced, nor did there take place, the least improper liberty with the young men. They indeed uttered obscene words, but as the impressions and not the expressions of erotism. I learned from the two priests, by their own admission, how much they had contributed to the evil, and I strongly urged them to desist from every further attempt at exor cism, and to adopt every possible means to suppress excitement in relation to this superstition." tion and aversion of the priests, whom they designated with words the most foul and vituperative. They believed themselves damned and invaded by infernal spirits, and they would not suffer (a peculiarity strangely uniform in all,) to be called by their own names, evincing the highest rage if any one dared so to address them. Yet they still conserved sufficient discernment to comprehend what was said to them, and to reply more or less pertinently, though crookedly correlative to the questions. They always knew the persons who approached them, and exhibited a sort of clairvoyance, the affected, and confidential interviews with the which consisted in predicting those about to enter the house, in divining their intentions, and what was passing in their minds; all which may be fully explained and understood, as the product of an exaltation of their intellect and their sensory or gans, in affinity to that which is obtained by magnetism, but which in a credulous and ignorant population produces the conviction of the operation of some supernatural agency, due to the presence, in those affected, of wicked spirits. They craved, and relished in the most lively manner, the drinking of brandy, which, given in moderate doses, procured a momentary alleviation of the nervous After the fit passed of, nothing was discoverable in them which would lead any one who did not know the fact, to suspect that anything was the matter with them, and they even attended, as if quite rational, to their ordinary domestic work, and to outside occupations; but while they were suffering they knew nothing, and they afterwards had no recollection of what occurred in their fits. As has been said, the malady was developed in the past spring, and it was aggravated in those previously affected. The priests of the place were prompt to second the prejudices and superstitions of the poor and ignorant villagers, pressing in with the rites of their ministry for the exorcising of those affected, and driving out the diabolical spirits. They employed for this requirement, at the residence of each, in due form, and with ritual vestments, the consecrated formulas of the liturgy, as an instructive illustration of clerical self-comoffering prayers on the missal, sprinklings of holy water, and not omitting the application of sacred images and relics on the breast. "But that which operated yet worse to excite beyond measure the fantasies, was the assembling of all one day in the church, to hear the mass, and The foregoing is but a meagre extract from the lengthy and able report of Dr. Franzolini, the of ficer deputed by the Government to enquire into this serious invasion of mental aberration. Notwithstanding Dr. F.'s injunctions, it appears from the sequel that the priests did not carry out his recommendations. The superstitious fanaticism finally culminated in a terrific outburst, which would certainly have eventuated in the sacrifice of the lives of parties regarded as the agents of Satan, had not the central authorities interfered, and sent a military force to restore order, by the removal of the affected women, 19 in number, to the insane hospital of Udine. It would appear that religious revivals are not peculiar to Protestant churches, but that, even in the end of the nineteenth century, the Catholic church is able to get up some, with very high steam power. It is worthy of note, placency, that throughout the course of the epidemic the priests believed and taught that the vituperations uttered against them, were not the language of the patients, but of the devils which had taken possession of them,-a doctrine quite comprehensible to their flocks, who were convinced that Satan hates the clergy, and flees from holy water. Doctor Tomaso La Vusca, physician to a convent in Palermo, clearly proved that the devil dreads even unconsecrated cold water, for, in a letter to Dr. Franzolini, he states that a few years ago he suppressed an epidemic of hysterical mania in the convent, by merely threatening a prolonged cold bath to every nun who might be seized with the malady, and if this should not suffice he would apply the actual cautery behind the ear-"Era crude inverno." It was very cold winter, he says, and not another attack occurred. But had the dread of cold water failed, was Dr. La Vusca such a fool as to hope to frighten the devils with fire? THE TORONTO SCHOOL ORGAN. 66 We do not care at present to enter into a controversy with the "school organ" in reference to our motives regarding increased territorial representation in the Medical Council of Ontario; we prefer to leave that issue to the good sense of the medical profession, and let our actions speak for themselves. There is one statement, however, in the article to which we have alluded, which is so very amusing that we cannot pass it over in silence. The organ says "there never was a body of men so much under the button-hole influence of at least one manipulator, and there is no man living who would be rash enough to guess what the curriculum might be next year if the present Council should survive the impending elections." To call this " sarcasm would indeed be a misnomer. This statement of our cotemporary, though intended as a hit at some one else, applies in the most effectual It is an old and very true saying that "misery manner to the President of the school of which it likes company," and nowhere is it better exempli- is the recognized organ, who, for several years past fied than in the utterances of our cotemporary of has been tinkering with the curriculum and examithis city, in its last issue, under the heading of nations every session, until not even the omniscient "The Old Organ and The New." Our cotempo- executive committee itself could understand the rary already feels uncomfortable in its role of regulations. For the first time, last session, this "school organ," and is laboring to obtain some gentleman's manipulations failed to influence the consolation by endeavouring to place other and council, and hence these lacrymose wailings. entirely independent journals in the same category with itself. The effort, however, to place the CANADA LANCET in the rank of school organs will fall far short of the mark, for it is too well known ACQUITTAL OF EMILY H. STOWE, M. D. to the profession in the Dominion of Canada as an independent and impersonal journal to permit of such an idea being entertained for one moment. No mere school organ could ever hope to attain the circulation and influence of the CANADA LANCET to-day, among the profession in this country. The LANCET is the private property of one individual; and the only possible ground for the allegation that it is a school organ, is the circumstance that the Editor and Proprietor occupies the chair of Physiology in the Trinity Medical School. Even this fact is unknown to a great number, and never could have been gathered from the literary columns of the LANCET. This journal was projected in the interests of the general profession, and has always been conducted in a spirit of perfect independence; and whenever it is felt by the editor that his position in the school is incompatible with his independence as a public journalist, it will be time to consider the propriety of discontinuing one or other. Some considerable interest was excited in the trial of E. H. Stowe, M.D., of this city, charged with "having administered poisons, viz., hellebore and cantharides, and also a noxious thing, to wit, myrrh, to one Sarah Ann Lovell, with the intention of procuring a miscarriage of the said Lovell." It was shown in evidence that the girl had gone to Dr. Stowe to obtain medicine to bring on her periods; that Dr. Stowe at first refused, but as the girl threatened to drown herself unless supplied with the medicine, Dr. Stowe yielded so far as to give her a prescription copied from Ellis' Formulary, containing one ounce of tincture of myrrh, half an ounce of tincture of hellebore, and two drachms of tincture of cantharides, and directed her to take thirty drops three times a day in water. The girl took the prescription to Mr. Mitchell, druggist, got the medicine put up, and was seen taking it openly in the house where she was at service. This was in the month of May. In August the girl died suddenly of congestion of the lungs, and at the inquest the above facts were brought out in evidence, and hence the present trial. In the evidence for the prosecution the medical testimony went to show that these medicines were injurious and likely to produce abortion in a pregnant woman, but that in the doses prescribed by Dr. Stowe, they would, in all probability, be perfectly harmless. It was a most unfortunate prescription, as Dr. Stowe admitted, taking the most charitable view of the case, and as no intent could be proved, the prosecution fell through, and the Judge (McKenzie) refused to let the case go to the jury. It was contended that there was no effort at concealment. Dr. Stowe handed the girl a prescription which she regarded as harmless, to make any use of she thought proper a thing most unlikely if she had any crim inal intent. The ruling of the Judge in this case, in regard to the giving of a prescription is worthy of notice. The counsel for the defence contended that the giving of a prescription containing poisons to a person who applied for it, and afterwards purchased the medicine from a druggist (though it might be an offence in one way), was not an offence under this indictment. The Judge briefly reviewed the case, holding that there could be no offence in writing a prescription and handing it to a person, and there was no evidence to show that Dr. Stowe had told the girl to procure the medicine or to take it; and the jury must not forget that she had sworn that what she had prescribed for the girl was harmless. He therefore directed that a verdict of "Not Guilty" should be rendered, which was at once done. THE CANADA MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. was done in Montreal in 1877-a section in medicine and another in surgery. This would give more time for the discussion of papers, and allow those who are interested in the reading of certain papers ample opportunity of attending and discussing them in one or other of the sections. A new feature in the proceedings of the meeting was a practical demonstration (in lieu of a paper), on the medical anatomy of the brain, by Dr. Osler, of Montreal. The brain was hardened by what is known as the process of Giacomini, of Turin, by means of which the organ is rendered firm enough to be handled, and looks like a wax model. By this process, the brain is first put into a 50 per cent. solution of zinc chloride, where it remains ten or twelve days. It is then placed in alcohol for ten days, after which it is immersed in glycerine with one per cent. of carbolic acid added. When sufficient glycerine has been absorbed, it is set aside to dry, and afterwards coated with gum-elastic varnish. He also exhibited Dr. Dalton's apparatus for slicing the brain. Some very fine water-color drawings of pathological specimens were also exhibited by Drs. Ross, Osler, Campbell, and others, which were much admired. by the members present. Among the exhibitors of pharmaceuticals may be mentioned the firm of Wyeth & Bro., of Philadelphia, whose fluid extracts and other preparations were favorably noticed in our last issue. The social part of the arrangements was admirably carried out. The members were entertained at a magnificent lunch at the Asylum by Dr. Bucke, in the afternoon of the second day, and in the evening a banquet was given in the Tecumseh House by the profession of London, which was largely attended. NEWSPAPER ADVERTISING CONTINUED.-The latest victim of this advertising dodge on the part of editors and injudicious friends, is a medical man in Newmarket, Ont. We are informed by the Era, that "a Mr. Johnson is very ill, but under the skillful treatment of Dr. Scott, the disease has been broken up." The recent meeting of the Canada Medical Association, held in London on the 10th and 11th ult., a report of the proceedings of which will be found in another place, was a most successful and interesting one. The attendance was much larger The Belleville Intelligencer of Sept. 23rd, also than usual, and the papers read were of more than contains an account of "a very critical operation ordinary interest. It is to be regretted, however, in surgery, recently performed by Drs., (two that there was not more time and inclination for registered practitioners), in an adjacent village. It their discussion. In order that the papers read consisted in the removal of a Myalord Tarcorna, may be profitably discussed, it will be necessary in | (tumor), five and a half pounds in weight, from the future to divide the Association into sections, as lumbar vertebra, at the spinous processes." The |