be demonstrated, by occasioning too strong and too frequent action of the adjacent muscles upon its diameter: at the same time it affords an excellent illustration of the manner in which other causes, although more remote, may either predispose the urethra to stricture, or establish in its membrane a state of latent irritation.” Mr. Ramsden proceeds to state the consequences of this hitherto unnoticed cause of derangement of the urethra, along a page or two further; but as my object is merely to establish a prior claim to this hitherto unnoticed cause of derangement of the urethra, I shall content myself with proving my priority of right. In the year 1803, a new edition of a work entitled, CASES OF A SUCCESSFUL PRACTICE OF VESICE LOTURA FOR THE CURE OF DISEASED BLADDER, was published, with a second Part, containing more CASES; and also Cases of diseased Affections from Phymosis, and on too SMALL A PERFORATION OT THE GLANS PENIS. In the second part of this Edition, page 10, are the following remarks. "Amongst the causes, as the cases offer, I shall demonstrate to a physical certainty, that natural phymosis, and too small a perforation of the glans penis, are causes of dangerous affections of urethra, bladder, and kidnies, and that nothing but the operation fitting for either will be the foundation of a cure. This has not been generally attended to, or what has been generally done has been so done as to be disgraceful to surgery. Still I must be so candid as to allow that I know there are some, and these among my friends, who are apprised of the importance of this subject, and who treat it as I have done,” And in page 84 of the same work, is the following Case and Observations thereon. "CASE XVIII. Of too small a Perforation of the Glans Penis. A gentleman of the law, aged twenty-two, who had resided in Jamaica two years, was forced to return from thence, for a complaint in the kidnies and bladder, accompanied with a difficulty in evacuating his urine. "He told me, that he had enjoyed perfect health till within these two years; but that ever since he was in a warm climate, these affections were rapidly advancing, till they had arrived to that excess in which they were now experienced. To all appearance, no one could be, with any chance of recovery, in a worse state. Upon attempting to pass pass a bougie, I found there was, in limine, a great difficulty in passing it, I could scarcely get the smallest bougie to enter the perforation or orifice of the glans. There also appeared a scar, left from a former ulcer, not directly upon the orifice of the glans, but on one side of it. Upon attempting again and again to pass up a bougie of that size, which any natural orifice would have readily admitted, I still found it impracticable. I suggested to him, that the smallness of the orifice might be the cause of all his symptoms; that it was my firm opinion it was the cause; and that dilating, or enlarging the orifice, was the sine qua non of his ever getting well. The orifice was dilated after the following manner. "I passed the largest bougie I could into the urethra, and made my incision, upon the orifice enlarging it on its lower end. I considered that enough was done, when I could pass a large bougie. The point of a bougie was passed up twice a day till it healed. After this, I left his situation, for some time, to its natural action, without attempting any thing more, to see how far the relief thus given would be productive. The whole of the symptoms gradually abated. He discharged at length his urine in a fair stream, at proper distances, and in proper quantities. But notwithstanding this effect of the operation, it is very singular to relate, that I was never able to get a bougie into the bladder, though nothing was omitted for at least six months, that I thought would conduce to it. The orifice was dilated two years ago, and he has ever since continued free from any return of symptoms. "OBSERVATION. "I have relieved two more cases of this sort. They were taken in time, so that the symptoms produced in consequence of them, had not gone such a length as they had in the above casc. But it was the symptoms they had in consequence of the smallness of the perforation, and not the smallness of the perforation, that induced these two patients to apply to me." Since the above Publication in 1803, I have witnessed some of the most distressing Cases which ever fell under my care, produced from natural Phymosis, and from the Smallness of the Perforation of the Glans Penis. For the present I thus most humbly put in my claim of priority. But I mean at my leisure to make observations upon Mr. Ramsden's performance, when I shall give the Cases above alluded to at some length, and supported by the most positive evidence. I trust Mr. Ramsden will have the fairness voluntarily to restore to me this feather, as in critical justice, every bird should have his proper one. G2 I will I will no further prosecute the subject, for the present, but give Mr. Ramsden time for recollection, and conclude with the following observation from Dr. Johnson. "Even a man whose genius qualifies him for great undertakings, must be content to learn, at least, from books, the present state of human knowledge, that he may not ascribe to himself the invention of arts generally known; weary his attention with experiments of which the event has been long registered; and waste, in attempts which have already suc ceeded or miscarried, that time which might have been spent with usefulness and honor upon new undertakings." J. F. For the Medical and Physical Journal. Memoir upon the Organs of Absorption in Mammiferous Animals, read at the Institute, the seventh of August, 1809. By M. MAGENDIE, Doctor in Medicine of the Faculty of Paris. AMONGS MONGST the facts which I have had the honour of relating to the class, in a memoir upon the Upas, nux yomica, and St. Ignatius's bean, one in particular seems worthy of attention; I allude to the facility with which these poisonous substances are absorbed and introduced into the sanguineous system. Scarcely twenty seconds being necessary for them to pass from the peritoneal cavity to the spinal marrow. The ideas generally received respecting the organs of absorption, leave no doubt that the lymphatic vessels are the agents which convey these poisons into the circulating system. Thus, in the experiment, where poison is inserted in the thigh of an animal, there are not two modes of explain-. ing the mode of its absorption. We must admit, that it is taken up from the wound by the lymphatic vessels of the * Faba Sanct. Ignat. is a species of the Genus Ignatia, and is the I. Amara. Pentandria Monogynia. Jussieu confounds the Genus Ignatia with the genus Strychnos, and probably this author may have done the same. In that case the Strychnos potatorum, the seed of which has the remarkable property of purifying water, and is used for that purpose throughout the East, will be, perhaps, the Fala S. 4. The synom. of the S. potatorum, are S. Tentankotta. A parts parts with which it was in contact; that after being ab sorbed, it is conveyed by these vessels to the inguinal glands, and thence, still by lymphatic vessels, to the thoracic duct; and is ultimately introduced into the sanguineous system, by the communication between that canal and the subclavian veins. The experiments which I am about to detail, were insti tuted with the design of adding a degree of certainty to the explanation of these facts, at present, generally admitted, and our labour only took a particular direction when a great number of facts obliged us to modify our views of the subject. An absorption so rapid, by vessels characterized by weakness and slowness of action; a poisonous matter readily passing along the tortuous and difficult course of the lymphatic glands without being subjected to any alteration, were facts calculated to throw some doubt on the correctness of the re ceived opinion. But this explanation is given by so many respectable men, and is supported by experiments so decisive, that, even now, when we have several facts to oppose to it, we dare not assert that it is incorrect, only, that it is not ad missible in all circumstances. Before we give an exposition of our own experiments, it may not be useless to recall to notice an hypothesis, which for some time rendered the received opinion on the organs of absorption doubtful. This hypothesis, professed by Boerhaave, Haller, Meckel, Riusch, Swammerdam, and others, consisted in supposing that the veins divide the absorbing faculty with the lymphatic vessels. It is supported by various circumstances of structure, and some physiological and pathological facts. A series of interesting experiments, enterprized and executed a few years since at the veterinary school of Alfort, has given a yet further degree of probability to the absorbing power of the veins, without, however, being of a nature to produce complete conviction. An opinion founded on the physical disposition of the organs, upon experiments sufficiently numerous and conclusive, and supported by the names of Boerhaave, of Ruisch, and of Haller, ought not to be readily. abandoned. Nothing short of the anatomical discoveries of the last century, on lymphatic vessels; the admirable experiments of the two Hunters, of Cruickshanks, of Mascagni, of Degenettes, could have established the position, that the lymphatic vessels alone possessed the faculty of absorbing. In support of the general opinion, may also be cited the very curious experiments recently made by M. Dupuytren.. This physiologist tied the thoracic duct in several horses; some of them died in five and six days, others preserved all the the appearances of health. It was already known by an experiment of Duverney, by some observations on an obstructed thoracic duct, and especially, by the experiments of Flandrin, that the thoracic duct might cease to pour chyle into the subclavian vein, without the death of the animal being occasioned. It was known, indeed, that certain animals had died in consequence of a ligature round the duct, but the cause of this diversity of result was not understood. By his experiments, M. Dupuytren has ascertained it in a very satisfactory manner. In those animals that died in five or six days after the thoracic duct was tied, it was always impossible to make an injection pass from the inferior portion of the canal into the subclavian vein; consequently it is probable that as soon as the ligature was tied, the chyle ceased to flow into the venous system. On the contrary, in those animals which survived the ligature, it was always casy to make any fluid pass from the lower part of the duct into the subclavian veins, by means of very numerous communications established between them, by lymphatic vessels situated in the posterior as well as in the anterior mediastinum. I was present at the opening of a horse, in which M. Dupuytren had tied the thoracic duct upwards of six weeks before, and I was readily convinced, that evident communications existed between the inferior portion of the canal, aud the subclavian veins, although the canal was entirely obliterated where the ligature was tied. I shall now state the experiments which I have made, chiefly in concert with M. Delille, to determine whether the lymphatic vessels really afford the only passage by which foreign bodies enter the venous system. Experiments upon absorption have always been attended with a degree of obscurity, from the difficulty of demonstrating the passage and the presence of the absorbed substances, either in the lymphatic vessels, or in the blood vessels. In employing the upas, or nux vomica, we have not to fear these inconveniences; it is well known that two centigrammes*, of these substances produce effects too remarkable to be disputed. The first question we proposed to resolve, was-Will a ligature round the thoracic duct prevent poison from passing into the sanguineous system, and in course, its effects on the spinal marrow? I passed a ligature round the thoracic duct of a dog, a little before the opening into the left subclavian vein; and im • Centigramme. E. grain .1544. mediately |