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as much as 0.18 grammes of ergotine at one injection.[Cal Med. Gaz-Dr. T. J. Kennedy, of Castalian Springs, Tenn., reports in the Philadelphia Medical and Surgical Reporter cases of tardy labor accelerated by the administration of morphine.--In the five years 1863–7, the number of persons who met with violent deaths by poison in England and Wales was 2,097. In 1,620 cases the description of poison is recorded thus: By arsenic, 83; mercury, 58; opium, 114; morphia, 32; laudanum and syrup of poppies, 426; strychnia, 41; prussic acid and cyanide of potassium, 151; essential oil of almonds, 31; oxalic acid, 66; sulphuric acid, 53; nitric acid, 16; muriatic acid, 5; carbolic acid, 5; salts of lead, 242; improper medicine, 17; overdose of medicine, 56; improper food, 33; aconite, 6; belladonna, 6; alcohol, 35; ammonia, 8; hartshorn, 3; chlorodyne, 4; vermin killer, 20; turpentine, 3; phosphorus, 15; sulphate of copper, 3; colchicum, 3; disinfecting fluid, 3; nitrate of potash, 3; chloride of zinc, 8; spirits of salt, 3; cantharides, 2; fungi, 6; mussels, 8.-[Brit. Med. Journal.

THE LARGEST INDUCTION COIL IN THE WORLD.-Of all Professor Pepper's triumphs that to be now seen is most interesting to our profession. He has produced the most powerful induction-coil ever seen, and the results must be of lasting importance. Faraday could scarcely have anticipated the perfection of mechanism which has thus made his discovery of so much greater value than was, till just lately, believed. Till now a coil fifteen inches long and four in diameter was called large. That would light up vacuum tubes and give a spark of six or seven inches. Professor Pepper's new-coil is a “monster," nine feet ten inches long and two in diameter. It gives a spark of twenty-nine inches, perforates plate glass five inches thick, and charges a Leyden battery, forty feet square, by three breaks of contact.

Some difficulties had to be overcome to make the monster manageable-for instance, at first, the contact-breakers were destroyed in a moment on the first trial. But all has been overcome, and Pepper's monster may be seen in wonderful and terrible action, and will not only be a source of amusement to the many, but will, we cannot doubt, hasten many important discoveries.

The core of this new coil is of soft iron, formed by a bundle of straight wires, each five feet in length and

.0625 of an inch in diameter. The diameter of the combined wires is four inches, and the weight of the core is 123 lbs. The primary coil is of copper-wire of the highest conductivity, and weighs 154 lbs. The diameter of this wire is .0925 of an inch, and its length is 3,770 yards. It is wound round with cotton, and makes 6,000 revolutions around the iron core. The secondary wire is 150 miles in length, and .015 of an inch in diameter. It is covered with silk, and is wound into an outer coil 50 inches in length. The primary wire is insulated from the secondary by an ebonite tube half an inch in thickness, and the whole is enclosed in another ebonite tube and mounted upon substantial supports also covered with ebonite. The galvanic current for the primary coil is furnished by a Bunsen's battery of forty cells.-[ Medical Prees and Circular,

POSTURAL TREATMENT OF FIFTEEN CASES OF PROLAPSED FUNIS.—Dr. M. Yarnall states (Medical Archives, March, 1869), that in fifteen cases of prolapsus of the umbilical cord, occurring in the practice of Dr. T. L. Papin, of St. Louis, reduction was effected by placing the patient on her elbows and knees in the position recently advocated by Dr. Gaillard Thomas, of New York. "Of the fifteen cases, ten were born alive and did well; of the five remaining cases all of whom died, one died from subsequent compression of the cord with the forceps after the cord had been successfully returned; in another the cord was completely severed with the same instrument; one died from the too free administration of ergot, and the remaining two were cases in which the children were in the transverse position, and no retaining of the cord was possible, as there was no engaging portion of the child to keep it up, and by the time the uterus was sufficiently dilated to turn and deliver, the children were dead. In every case here reported the cord was fully prolapsed, being in some entirely out of the vagina, and in several it was extraordinarily long and large. In two instances. I witnessed the operation, Dr. Papin being at the time my preceptor, and I know several of the children who are now living in this city."

AN AGED PRIMAPARA. In response to the inquiry made through the London Lancet, with respect to child-bearing in advanced life, Dr. Cachot, of St. Mary's Hospital, in

forms us that he delivered in that institution a female of her first child, at the age of 53 years, and again in sixteen months. The labor in both cases was tedious, from inertia of the uterus, and required the forceps. The mammary glands enlarged, but produced no milk. The children lived in both cases.-Pacific Med. and Surg. Jour.

EARLY PREGNANCY.-Dr. Horwitz was called to a preg nant girl who had scarcely reached her 12th year, and of whose age there could be no doubt. The menses first appeared during her 10th year and continued regularly She went through her pregnancy very comfortably. The pelvis was well formed and capacious. The labor pro ceeded very favorably and terminated in ten hours with the birth of a strong living male child. She went on very well and had a plentiful secretion of milk. References are given to other remarkable cases of the kind on record.-Petersburg Med. Zeitschrift.

CIVIALE'S COLLECTION OF CALCULI-Not long before his death Civiale exhibited to the French Academy his collection of urinary calculi from 2,700 patients operated on by him during the 48 years of his professional career. In 1,600 of the number he had performed his favorite operation lithotrity. [Pacific Med. and Surg. Jour.

A PHYSIOLOGICAL CURIOSITY.-We are indebted to the kindness of Prof. Austin Flint, Jr., for the report of this curious case. The report is extracted from a communication to him by Mr. Wm. H. Seward, student of medi-. cine, Walnut Grove, N. Y.:

In June last my attention was called to a young lamb upon my father's farm, apparantly a perfect female, which presented a full flow of what appeared to be normal milk. This animal was about one hundred and fifty days old, and, in view of the extraordinary development of the lacteal function, I made, assisted by my preceptor, a careful examination after death. The uterus, ovaries. and fallopian tubes were absent.-Am. Jour. Med. Sci.

Dr. M. Gonzalez Echeverria relates (Medical Record,. March 1, 1869) an interesting case of a man æt. 67, who from youth was subject to epilepsy, and who for months before his death experienced dizziness when attempting to walk, with difficulty in moving or protruding his

tongue. He died suddenly while straining at stool, in consequence, as the post-mortem showed, of rupture of an aneurism of the right vertebral artery, near its junction with the left to form the basilar trunk. The left artery was equally distended; a clot, plugging the calibre of both vessels at their fusion, being the cause of the aneurismal dilatation. There was also sclerosis of the brain, medulla oblongata, and spinal cord; also degeneration of the ganglia and nerves, connected with an herpetic eruption on the chest.

Dr. E. observes: "It is worthy of note that, with the above local disorganization of the spinal gray substance, the patient did not complain of anesthesia in any of the limbs. The case distinctly shows that lesion of the third left frontal convolution may occur without any loss or defect of speech, as already substantiated by other instances; finally, this rare example of hæmatorrachis and aneurism in both vertebral arteries also confirms the manner in which the dilatation may be occasioned by plugging of the vessel, as first explained by Dr. J. W. Ogle." -Am. Jour. Med. Science.

LONGEVITY.-Some remarkable cases of longevity in the United States are related in Dr. Fitch's well-known Treatise on Consumption. Among others, the following: Henry Franciso died at Whitehall, in the State of New York, agen 134 years. He beat the drum at the coronation of Queen Ann, and was then 16 years of age; he did not die of old age, but of fever and ague. John Hightower, residing in Marengo county, Alabama, died January, 1818, aged 136. A. Paiba, Charleston, South Carolina, died 1782, aged 142. Wm. McKein, Richmond, Va., died 1818, aged 130. Martha, wife of a Mohegan chief, died 1806, aged 130. Charles Campbell Lange, Virginia, died 1821, aged 121.—[Ex.

ANIMAL VACCINATION AND VACCINAL SYPHILIS.-M. Latour, in the Union Médicale, after adverting to the isolated position in which this long debate has left M. Depaul, lays down the following propositions as the legitimate results that flow from it: 1. The degeneration of the Jennerian virus is far from being proved. 2. There does not exist a single authentic example of vaccinal syphilis, properly so called. 3. The excessively rare cases of syphilia inoculated by vaccinnation are explicable by

conditions which completely exonerate the vaccine virus from all injurious mixture. A large number of pretended examples of syphilis tollowing vaccination justify the most serious doubts as to the accuracy of the diagnosis. 5. Animal vaccination, simply as another source of lymph, is deserving of encouragement, although it possesses no real or sensible advantage over vaccination from arm to arm.-London Med. Times and Gaz.-N. Y. Med. Jour.

MEDICAL NEWS.

"Nulla Dies, Sine Linea. "

THE ARTIFICIAL LEECH.-Mr. Stohlman, of the firm of Tiemann & Co., of New York, has invented what he terms the artificial leech. The apparatus consists: 1st, of a handle about six inches long, in which is concealed a knife that is operated by a spring, the knife revolving with great rapidity, as soon as the "trigger" is touched, and making a painless incision about a quarter of an inch in diameter; 2d, of any desired number of small glasses, with a capacity each of one or two fluid ounces; by placing a few drops of ether in one of these glasses and plunging the glass into warm water, the contained air is rarefied and expanded; the glass is now applied over the incision made by the knife and the air cooling down a vacuum is created and the blood in requisite quantity is easily drawn. The instrument is inexpensive, and will doubtless be useful, where leeches can not be ob tained, or where they can not well be applied. Many have a repugnance to the leech that is incredible. In all such cases, this instrument will be useful and it is certainly very convenient.

Arsenic in those poisoned with it is transformed into sulphide of arsenic.-Ex.

MURIATE OF AMMONIA.-Dr. Anstie, in a late number of the Practitioner, recommends the muriate of ammonia for neuralgia and myalgia; he also finds it to be an active and excellent emmenagogue.-Ex.

CALABAR BEAN.-This medicine has been used with marked success lately in tetanus and trismus neoratorum.

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