PHOSPHORUS IN PARALYSIS.-The Lancet of Feb. 22, says: M. Delpech, of Paris, has obtained the best results from the employment of phosphorus in paralysis. There are at present three cases in his wards submitted to this mode of treatment. In one case the disease had been brought on by the prolonged employment of sulphide of carbon; in another, by the effects of cold; and in the third, by an attack of apoplexy. The phosphorus acted at first as an aphrodisiac, producing erections, and thus manifested its peculiar action on the genital organs; mobility and sensibility were then favorably modified, without any apparent inconvenience attributable to the employment of the remedy. CHLOROFORM has been administered safely and satisfactorily in seventeen hundred cases by Dr. Clover, of London, by means of vapor from a bag. The bag is charged by a bellows holding one thousand cubic inches, and to each bellowsful of air he adds thirty-two minims of chloroform by means of a glass-syringe. The mixture used therefore contains rather less than four per cent. of the vapor of chloroform. ODONTOLOGY.-At the last meeting of the Odontological Society of Great Britain, a paper was read by M. Oliver Chalk, M.R.C.S., to support a view previously promulgated by him, but opposed by Mr. Tomes and others, that when redevelopment of the maxilla takes place, as is so frequently seen after the occurrence of necrosis, a new development of teeth is possible. The cases and specimens brought forward in support of this view were four in number, and were examples of necrosis of the jaw in children, with more or less repair of the lost bone, and the subsequent appearance of certain permanent teeth. As pointed out, however, by some of the speakers who took part in the discussion, the subsequent appearance of permanent teeth was no proof of their re-development, unless it were conclusively shown that they had been previously shed in an imperfect condition. HOTTINA. This powder, invented by M. Hottin, of Paris, will make linen fire-proof without impairing its whiteness, when mixed with equal quantities of starch and gum. The powder is prepared by adding a little ammonia to an acid solution of phosphate of lime, and filtering with animal carbon, then evaporating until concentrated, when five per cent. of gelatinous silica is added; the whole is then evaporated, and the resulting crystals are pulverized. OXYCAMPHOR.-C. G. Wheeler, in a note to the French Academy of Sciences, describes the action of aqueous hypochlorous acid on the essence of turpentine and on camphor. From one of the chlorinated compounds obtained he has been able to separate a body containing ten atoms of carbon, sixteen of hydrogen, and two of oxygen, which crystallizes in white needles, is soluble in alcohol, insoluble in water, and has an odor resembling camphor. Oxycamphor sublimes without decomposition, and is isomorphous with the camphinic acid of Berthelot. the metal forming the electrode, the higher is the temperature produced. SUCCESSFUL EXTIRPATION OF THE SPLEEN.-M. Peau, Sept. 6th, 1867, while operating upon a young woman twenty years of age, for the removal of a cystic tumor of the abdomen, unexpectedly found the cyst to have been developed in a hypertrophied spleen, and was led to extirpate the entire organ, from which operation the patient recovered perfectly.-Gazette Médicale. TETANUS CURED BY LARGE DOSES OF AQUA AMMONIE.Dr. Barot reports a case of tetanus cured by aqua ammoniæ in doses of ten drops in a glass of sweetened water every hour.-La France Médicale. DOUBLE HERNIA IN A SINGLE SAC.-Dr. Henry Lee, Surgeon to St. George's Hospital, London, reports a case in which, during the operation for hernia, two openings were discovered between the sac and the peritoneal cavity. These openings both existed in the neck of the sac at the internal ring. It was supposed that the testis, which had not descended on the side of the hernia, had lodged at the internal ring, and that, by its pressure on the one hand, and the pressure of a truss on the other, adhesions had been established between the two layers of the original hernial sac opposite the most projecting part of the testis. On each side of the adhesions so formed, a fresh hernial protrusion had, it was thought, occurred, so as to present two distinct hernia in one sac. Óne of these hernia, when the patient was first seen, presented a decided impulse upon coughing, which led to the belief that no operation would be required. It appeared, however, subsequently, that the second hernia was strangulated at the time. The symptoms were all relieved by the operation. APPARATUS FOR PREVENTING EPILEPTIC ATTACKS. M. Broca, of Paris, has presented to the Academy of Medicine an ingenious lit le apparatus, which has been invented by M. Rozier, of Bordeaux, with the object of exercising an instantaneous compression on the arm, and of thus preventing attacks of epilepsy whenever these are preceded by the aura epileptica. The apparatus had been contrived for an epileptic patient, a quarryman, who was never six weeks without being subject to a fit, and who was warned each time by a peculiar sensation which he felt in the right index. Scarcely a few seconds elapsed between the occurrence of this sensation and the explosion of the attack. It was consequently needful that the compression should be instantaneous. For eleven months the quarryman has constantly worn this little apparatus, and has never once had a complete attack. DANGER OF INJECTIONS OF IODINE IN OVARIAN CYSTS.L' Union Médicale gives the details of two cases taken from Virchow's Archives, in which injections made with the tincture of iodine into ovarian cysts had been attended with very serious accidents. In one instance death had supervened. EARLY TREATMENT OF INSANITY.-In the report of HEAT GENERATED BY ELECTRIC DISCHARGES.-A paper Dr. Curwin, the Medical Superintendent of the Pennsylrecently read at the Berlin Academy by Poggendorf, vania State Lunatic Asylum at Harrisburg, we find the contains the following deductions from experiments following declaration, which, as coincident with the made by the author:-1. The direct discharges of the opinion of all those who have had any experience in machine are hotter at the positive than at the negative the treatment of insanity, should be widely disseminatpole. 2. The temperature between the poles varies ed: "It cannot be too often repeated that, when an with the form of the electrodes. If the electrodes are individual has once been placed under treatment in a spherical, the temperature is within certain limits-di-hospital, the treatment should be continued without rectly as the diameter of the sphere. 3. The elevation of the temperature between the electrodes depends on their nature. Under like conditions, the more volatile interruption until mental health is restored. The nervous system, and often the whole bodily frame, is so disordered, that a long, regular, steadily pursued course of medical and dietetic treatment is necessary to bring back all the functions to their proper order.' By the use of appropriate means at the beginning of an attack of insanity, "eighty out of every one hundred attacked will be restored; while twenty will either remain insane or die." The average length of time required for restoration to health of a case of recent attack "will average about five months, including in the calculation all who have become insane in less than one year." The probability of death in an insane person is much greater than in a sane one of the same age. With the increase of population, there is a steady increase of the number of the insane in Pennsylvania; but, "there has been no corresponding extension of the accommodations for this class." Applying the estimates made by Dr. Edward Jarvis of one insane person for 1699 of the population at large of Massachusetts, Dr. Curwin gives Pennsylvania the number of 2070 annually who become insane; or, assuming the proportion of one in 2,000, the number would be 1,705. DEFECTIVE ALIMENTATION.--In an article on "Defective Alimentation a Primary Cause of Disease," by J. H. Salisbury, M.D., Cleveland, Ohio, the following are some of the diseases excited by defective feeding: Vegetable Dyspepsia. This arises from the too exclusive and too long continued use of vegetable, and especially amylaceous and saccharine food. Sooner or later the filamentous stage of yeast vegetation begins, ushering in the acetous fermentation, producing acid stomach, and sour eructations. Yeast plants are rapidly developed in the organ, and every particle of vegetable food that is taken in immediately begins to ferment, the stomach being converted into an apparatus for manufacturing beer, alcohol, vinegar, and carbonic acid. Chronic Diarrhoea-This disease, with the other intercurrent abnormal states that arise from the too exclusive use of a dry, amylaceous diet, may be conveniently divided into three stages-the incubative, the acute, and the chronic. membrane of the alimentary canal, fauces, mouth, and pulmonary surfaces, eventually become saccharine. This is evidenced in the development of torular cells and filaments of pencillium in the viscid layer of mucus lining the whole alimentary canal, and the mucous secretions of oesophagus, pharynx, larynx, trachea, and mouth, in the later stages of the disease. A CURIOUS APPLICATION OF ELECTRICITY has been made by a jeweller in the Rue Therèse, M. Trouvé. num. The carbon is fixed in the vessel which holds EXOPHTHALMIC GOITRE ACCOMPANIED WITH GANGRENE OF THE LOWER EXTREMITIES.-M. M. Fournier and Olivier presented, at a late meeting of the Société Médicale des Hôpitaux, the record of a case of exophthalmic goitre (Grave's disease) which presented two points of interest, namely: first, the complication of gangrene, and second, absolute integrity of the great sympathetic nerve, which was very carefully examined by Dr. Ranvier with the microscope. The patient, a female, was 58 years of age, subject to all the ordinary phenomena attendant upon this malady. Several days after her admission into the l'Hôtel-Dieu, a rapidly progressing and extensive gangrene of the entire circumference of the lower third of the left leg set in, similar to senile gangrene. Evidences of gangrene of the left hand, and of the right foot, soon manifested themselves, and the completion of the mortification was arrested only by the death of the patient. The autopsy showed obliteration of the arteries of the mortified parts, the arteries themselves being apparently perfectly healthy. The most attentive examination of all the organs failed to detect any lesion capable of accounting for any of the symptoms so markedly manifested during life. The great sympathetic was carefully examined under the microscope, and was apparently in a state of complete integrity, cervical, thoracic, semilunar ganglion, and every other portion.-Gazette Hebdomadaire. The following interesting facts are developed on the microscopic examination of the fæces: 1st. That as soon (after beginning to subsist on amylaceous diet) as gases begin to develop in the intestinal canal, yeast plaats begin to develop in the alimentary matters to an abnormal extent. 2d. That this development of yeast plants is evidence of the inauguration of fermentative change in the amylaceous food. 3d. That fermentation and the development of yeast plants continue to increase till diarrhoeic conditions are produced. 4th. That a peculiar gelatinous colloid matter, usually in little masses, scattered through the fæces, shows itself to a greater or less extent as soon as the diarrhoea commences; that this matter is present in direct proportion to the severity of the case. 5th. That this colloid matter CEMENT.-Sorel describes a new cement which he is not the cause of the diarrhoea, but merely the consequence of certain saccharine and fermentative conditions prepares by mixing magnesian oxide with a more or less of the system, in which state the connective tissue of concentrated solution of magnesian chloride. The hardthe alimentary walls becomes a proper nidus for its de-ness of the cement increases with the strength of the velopment. As soon as these systemic conditions are overcome, this colloid matter ceases to develop and disappears entirely from the fæces. On the "microscopic examination of the urine" in "chronic diarrhoea," he finds that the urine is usually small in quantity, rather high colored, and deposits, on standing, a tolerably large sediment of pinkish or brick colored lithates. The disease is not unfrequently accompanied, and followed, also, by obstinate oxaluria and phosphuria. He finds, also, in all three stages of chronic diarrhoea, that sugar is largely present in the faecal matters and in the mucous secretions of the alimentary canal. There is evidence that the secretions of the mucous solution; 20 to 300 Baumé is found most suitable. Its it being capable of producing hard blocks with more binding power is greater than that of any other cement, than twenty times its weight of sand or other inactive material. (Comptes R. LXV. 102.)-Chemical News. DETECTION OF SALICINE IN QUININE.-M. Parrot has indicated a method of detecting the presence of salicine in the sulphate of quinine. In effecting this he takes advantage of the action of chromic acid on salicine; by his process a quantity as small as a half per cent. is discovered. To make the examination, the quinine salt is introduced with a little water into a flask; 2 C. C. of sulphuric acid, diluted with four parts of water, are added, and 4 C. C. of a concentrated solution of bichromate of potash. To the flask is fitted a curved tube which dips into a few grammes of distilled water contained in the little flask serving as receiver. Heat is applied; at the end of three or four minutes, hydride of salicyle is produced, which] distils. By adding to the water in the flask a few drops of solution of perchloride of iron, a more or less deep violet color is developed. Correspondence. MEDICAL MATTERS IN PARIS. (FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.) THE APPOINTMENT OF HOSPITAL INTERNES IN PARIS-IN- TO THE EDITOR OF THE MEDICAL RECORD. TRAUMATIC ANEURISM OF THE ARTERIA TRANSVERSALIS FACIEI. An interesting case is reported in La Fraternidad, No. 31, by Dr. Iborra. The patient, a lad of eighteen years of age, presented himself with a tumor SIR-I cannot resist the opportunity to say a word upon his left cheek. teacher had struck him violently on the face with able both for its democratic equity in throwing open At the age of eight years, his on the admirable system that obtains in Paris for the regulation of the hospital studies of the pupils. Admirastrap; he lost consciousness at the time, and for some time there remained traces of considerable contusion, occupying the malar and temporal region. At the point where the extremity of the strap had struck the cheek a slight tumefaction soon appeared, but remained indolent. Seven years afterwards the tumor, which had gradually enlarged, had acquired such volume as to render the paThe diagnosis being made out, the sac was opened, four dilated anastomosing arteries tied, and the parts dressed with charpie saturated with the water of Pagliori. The case was cured. This is perhaps the only case of aneurism of this artery on record. tient uneasy. the best clinical advantages to all who choose to try for them, and for the stimulating pressure that it exerts on the mental exertions of the young men. Instead of private cliques surrounding each hospital physician-consisting of his paying students, to whom his of nomination to a vacant place in the wards-there is a only equivalent for three hundred dollars is the prospect perfectly free competition by means of nomination before a jury. A students in the hospitals. The lowest is that of externe. Two sorts of places are directed to be filled by the An externe is obliged to be on hand at every morning ARSENIC IN THE TREATMENT OF PULMONARY CONSUMP- visit (a certain number of absences in the course of a TION. The clinical investigations of M. Moutard-Mar-year occasions the forfeiture of the place), and with his tin lead him to place considerable confidence in the companions, records the prescriptions, and performs employment of arsenic in the treatment of pulmonary certain personal services required for the patients, as the consumption. He finds it more suitable to cases slowly dressing of wounds, application of blisters, &c. progressive, than to such as are attended with fever. definite number of externes is attached to each serHe has seen notable amelioration of the patient's condi- vice, the number varying, of course, with the extent of tion from the use of arsenic, and in some cases actual the service. To secure a place in this body, a medical suspension of the onward progress of the disease. He student inscribes himself for the tria-examinations, administers it in very minute doses, never exceeding which are conducted on two year subjects given at the two centigrammes, and considers perseverance in its use moment, one pathological, the other anatomical. Two for a long time necessary to a favorable result.-Gazette examinations take place at each concours. In the first Médicale. the candidates prepare written answers to the questions, ESTIMATION OF NICOTINE.-A process for the estima- during a half hour allotted for the purpose. Upon the tion of the nicotine contained in tobacco has been results of this preliminary examination, a certain numdevised by M. Leicke. He exhausts the dry tobacco ber of candidates are estimated, and the selected minorleaves with water acidulated with sulphuric acid, re-ity are submitted to a second final examination of the newing the water three times, and evaporates the solu- same nature, but which is oral. The number of places tion just to the consistence of an extract. This extract to be filled each year, is sufficiently large to give nearly is treated with an equal volume of alcohol, the alcoholic every serious student a chance for the external. solution filtered, and the residue washed with alcohol. For the place of interne, corresponding to what we The alcoholic solution contains all the nicotine as sul-call resident physician, the externes alone are eligible phate. The solution is evaporated, and the residue obtained from it decomposed by caustic potash in a retort heated by oil to 260°C, the nicotine being received in dilute sulphuric acid.- Chemical News. VIRIDINIC ACID. This acid may be obtained direct from coffee by pulverizing the beans, extracting them with ether alcohol, to remove fat, and exposing them in moist condition to the air. After a few days the mass, which has assumed a green color, is exhausted with acetic acid and alcohol, which takes up the viridinic acid formed.-Chemical News. PROFESSOR DUNGLISON, the venerable Dean of the Jefferson Medical College, has resigned his chair of Institutes of Medicine in that institution. We learn that the two most prominent candidates for the vacant chair are, Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, son of the late Prof. John K. Mitchell, and Dr. J. Aitken Meigs, formerly Professor of Physiology in the Philadelphia Medical College. Both these gentlemen are Philadelphians, and favorably known to the profession in certain special departments of science. candidates. There are about forty-five places, and two hundred and eighty competitors. The examinations (which occupy two or three months) are of the same character as those of the external, only considerably more difficult. An externe generally calculates to compete twice before he succeeds in becoming interne. To prepare for these competitions, the candidates hold conferences in groups of twenty or thirty, that continue throughout the year previous to the moment of trial, and in which the entire outlines of internal and external pathology are passed in review. An externe is nominated for three years, an interne for four; and each year is passed at a different hospital. A person may become a competitor for either position at any stage of his medical studies at which he feels himself sufficiently fort to stand the examination. It is plain that the benefits of this system-great as they are to the students who succeed at the examinations-extend also to those who fail, since all are equally compelled to prolonged, thorough, and systematic work. No one can observe the working of the method without wishing for its introduction at home. Another excellent custom in relation to the manage ment of hospitals, is that of making the visit between eight and nine o'clock in the morning. M. Gosselin, the successor of Velpeau, for instance, is always on hand at eight precisely, and calls the roll of the students with the exactitude of a drill sergeant. Woe betide him who has overslept himself, and who, in spite of a breakfastless race through the quarter, arrives after the feuille de présence has been laid upon the table by the inexorable chief. "Why is this ulcer not dressed, sir?" demands the surgeon, fixing the trembling externe with his bright black eyes. "I, I-excuse me, I was late. I meant to do it after the visit." "Attend to it immediately, and never tell me again that you were late. That is no sort of reason for neglecting your duty. You are not to be late." All honor to men who, knowing their own duty, know also how to keep others up to the mark. All shame, confusion, and perplexity to those who, careless, indulgent, or shiftless, permit things to be left undone that ought to have been done-after the fashion of all miserable sinners! covered behind and above the vaginal cul-de-sac. M. Gosselin could not decide satisfactorily to himself whether the body of the uterus was simply inflamed, or the seat of a cancerous tumor. The day after admission the patient was seized with a most intensely acute peritonitis. The constipation was obstinate, and presently accompanied by vomiting of matters that, though destitute of stercoral odor, resembled the contents of the small intestine. It was not the green liquid usually vomited in peritonitis, nor that tinged with brown occasionally observed, but distinctly brown, and characteristic of intestinal obstruction, especially a strangulated hernia. No trace of hernia, however, could be discovered, and the conclusion was arrived at, that the obstruction was caused by intestinal adherences dependent upon the peritonitis. At the autopsy, adhesions between the intestines and uterus were found in fact to be sufficiently extensive, and the intestines were so agglomerated around the pelvic cavity, that separation of the organs was attended with considerable difficulty. Behind the uterus was a cavity as large as a man's fist, circumscribed by the loops of intestine, by the uterus, and the abdomiAs M. Gosselin's clinique lasts three hours, his ex-nal walls, and containing a quantity of fæcal matter, treme punctuality alone saves for the student the bulk poured out from the intestine by three or four large of the day intact, and able to be employed at lectures, openings. dissections, libraries, etc. After experiencing all the benefits of this system, I feel a certain horror of that prevailing in New York, where the visit is made at any time between twelve and three, subject to all sorts of variations dependent upon the exgencies of the physician's clientèle or caprice. CASES OF METRORRHAGIA. Two cases of metrorrhagia have formed for M. Gosselin the themes of recent and interesting clinical lectures. In the first case the hæmorrhage had come on after a suppression of menstruation during two months, and the question of spontaneous or provoked abortion immediately suggested itself. M. Gosselin recapitulated the circumstances of the diagnosis which led him to rest finally upon this suggestion. The uterine orifice was neither granulated nor occupied by a polypus. Neither cancerous nor fibrous tumor could be discovered. Ballottement of the uterus was somewhat painful. The body was sufficiently voluminous to be felt in the hypogastrium; the orifice sufficiently open to permit the introduction of the index finger. Under these circumstances, in spite of the affirmations of the woman that such contingency was impossible (affirmations which, as every practitioner knows, are precisely what create the delicacy and difficulty of the diagnosis), M. Gosselin did not hesitate to pronounce for an abortion. Principally on account of the denial of the patient, the inference was further drawn, that the abortion was deliberate. The hæmorrhage ceased spontaneously, shortly after admission to the hospital, and the principal danger that remained to fear, was that of a metritis, determined by the instrument that had been employed. Hence, while active treatment was superfluous, active surveillance was imperatively required. The other case was much more serious, and was first mentioned in connection with the autopsy of its subject. The patient had arrived in a state of exhaustion, too great to admit of a precise examination, but complaining of an abundant uterine hæmorrhage. Small vegetations were discovered around and within the os uteri, which, though apparently different from the tumefaction of cancer, proved at the autopsy to be carcinomatous. A hard tumor of some size was dis Such openings constitute an unusual lesion under the circumstances. According to M. Gosselin, the uterine cancroid, which extended from the neck into the body of the womb, had been the point of departure of the whole train of circumstances. The irritation of this tumor had first developed the effusion of plastic lymph between the uterus and the intestines, which united these organs by the firm adhesions noticed above. Extension of this subacute inflammation had gradually thinned the coats of the intestine, until, at a given moment, the internal tunic gave way, and the contents were poured into the pelvis, exciting the acute peritonitis which had carried off the patient. The increased obstruction, upon which depended the stercoraceous vomiting, was evidently, as had been supposed, the result of the rapid formation of lymph during the period of acute inflammation. EMPYEMA AND ITS TREATMENT BY PERPETUAL DRAINAGE. An extremely valuable clinique was that held by M. Gosselin on a case of empyema, that he had had under his eyes for two years, and in relation to which he suggested several ideas that are not everywhere current. Until recently (observed the Professor) suppuration of the pleura was regarded as a necessarily fatal disease, both on account of the exhaustion induced by the long continued drain on the system, as also by the habitual coexistence of grave pulmonary disease. No cure is possible unless on the condition of entirely evacuating the pleural cavity, which can only be effected spontaneously by the establishment of a bronchial or cutaneous fistula. In a few cases children have been known to recover after the establishment of the first kind of fistula, or vomica, as it is technically called, but only uncertain reliance can be placed upon the benignity of this mode of evacuation, and no physician has the right to provoke it. On the other hand, the cutaneous fistula is even more dangerous, air insinuates itself into the cavity, decomposes the pus, and prevents the dilatation of the lungs, which gradually assume a state of definite collapse. Hectic fever sets in, with all its train of symptoms, cough, diarrhoea, and every thing indicating the absorption of purulent matters, and the patient is generally carried off in two or three months at the furthest. Modern surgery, however, has ventured to interpose the operation of thoracentesis as an attempt to arrest PSOAS-ILIAC ABSCESS. the fatal march of this serious disease. This operation, whether performed by simple puncture or by incision, is (according to Gosselin) essentially the same, and esA very different kind of abscess was that presented sentially useless unless accompanied by a certain pre- by a case admitted January 7th. This was a young caution presently to be described. In the first case, the woman, of rather lymphatic temperament, who had suflittle wound speedily cicatrizes, and a repetition of tap- fered for six months with pain in the sacrum, and, pings is required, which finally results in the establish- for a month in addition with pain in the left groin. In ment of a fistula. By this the pus indeed escapes, but complete repose the patient was conscious of no sufferthe air also enters, with the consequences above de- ing, but the least movement awakened the pains, as scribed. The same thing is true of an incision, and also pressure in the affected regions. Lying on her although there was more chance of success after Sedillot back, the patient was unable to completely extend the suggested counter-openings, and the use of injections to left thigh, and forced flexion of the limb was painful; wash out the cavity, the results were still far from satis- when the patient attempted herself to flex the thigh factory. M. Chassaignac, however, has had the happy on the abdomen, the lumbar vertebræ arched forward. idea of inserting by the two openings perforated caout-This same forward projection of the lumbar part of the chouc drainage tubes, which afford free and continual spine was very evident in walking, when also the exit to the pus, and thus neutralize any evil effects re- patient limped, and rested principally on the right leg. sulting from the inevitable ingress of air. For the You will recognize this curvature as a symptom of inhowever decomposed, is innoxious if able to freely es- sufficiency of action on the part of the psoas muscle. cape, instead of being shut up in a close cavity, and It would seem to be an instinctive attempt, by bringstimulating its own absorption. ing the fixed insertions of this principal flexor of the thigh in a direction approaching a perpendicular to the lesser trochanter, to supplement the intrinsic deficiency of power by the more favorable direction in which it was enabled to act. pus, The In forming the diagnosis, M. Gosselin first set aside the possibility of lumbago, which would have tormented the patient even during repose, and been probably accompanied by rheumatism elsewhere; and of uterine disease, indicated by no other symptoms; and arrived at the discussion of some different forms of spinal disease. The pain in the sacrum must in fact be referred to an affection of the spinal cord itself, of its membranes, or of its bony casement. In the first two cases, however, the sensibility or mobility of the limbs could hardly fail to be affected, while the patient in question offered no sign of lesion of either. There remained, therefore, only arthritis of the sacral vertebræ, which tended to terminate in suppuration, if that were not already commenced. In addition to the use of drainage tubes, injections of warm water are made every two or three days. patient who furnished the occasion for these remarks, had been treated by the method above described, which had proved remarkably successful. He had first come Still another sign was obtained by placing the under the care of M. Gosselin two years ago at La patient on the abdomen, and after seizure of the ankle, Pitié, and appeared then in a dying condition, exhausted bringing alternately the right and left limb into forced by a long standing empyema and thoracic fistula. As extension. The left offered a resistance altogether absoon as free exit was afforded to the pus, and the drain- normal. Finally, deep pressure in the groin, just above age tube established, the hectic fever began to mend, Poupart's ligament, detected an obscure tumefaction, the patient's strength rallied, and in three months the though not fluctuation. convalescence seemed so solidly established, that the drainage tube was removed, and the man left the hospital. The flow of purulent liquid had entirely ceased. After working for about three months the patient began a second time to suffer from oppression. A fistula reopened, and after some weeks the general health had fallen to nearly as desperate a condition as on the first occasion. Readmitted to La Pitié, and treated again by a drainage tube, the patient again rapidly recovered. After this experience, the tube was left permanently in place. A third time he had run down in strength, and entered La Charité, but was speedily built up again by the same treatment, and thoracic injections of iodine and of sulphite of soda. It was M. Gosselin's intention to leave the drainage tube in place until the pleural cavity should be entirely obliterated. And this practice, and the theory upon which it is founded, constitutes the original part of his lecture. He declares that it is absurd and chimerical to hope that a serous membrane that has undergone a pyogenic transformation, can ever regain its original character or functions. So long, therefore, as it exists, so long will there be drainage from renewed secretion of pus. But by prolonged care in carrying off the corroding secretion as it forms, the surgeon may hope for the formation of adhesions which shall definitely obliterate the cavity, and constitute the cure of the disease. By means of these combined methods, therefore, judiciously applied, many patients, in even grave stages of hectic fever, may be snatched from the jaws of death, and restored to a tolerable degree of health. This, of course, cannot be expected if the empyema complicates advanced tuberculous disease. M. Gosselin also applies the system of perpetual drainage to abscesses situated under the great pectoral, and whose evacuation is rendered difficult by the tonicity of the muscle. A case of this kind, actually in the ward, is doing extremely well. The tube, of course, passes through the original and the counter incision. Injections are made every two days with warm water. On the other hand, unquestionable symptoms (recapitulated above) indicated inflammation in the neighborhood of the psoas muscle. The possibility of simple chronic psoitis, or inflammation of the surrounding cellular tissue, was eliminated on account of its extreme rarity, except as a consequence of puerperal inflammation. There remained, therefore, after combination of all the facts, the conclusion of a psoas iliac abscess by congestion, resulting from caries of the lumbar or sacral vertebræ. The prognosis (pursued the Professor) is excessively grave, and contrasts strikingly with the apparent benignity of the disease at the present moment. Sooner or later, the abscess will probably open, and the patient succumb to exhaustion from the discharge. The only chance is that derived from the use of tonics, and the local application of iodine with the faint hope that the contents of the abscess may be absorbed. Even in that case the spinal disease would continually tend to occasion the formation of another. DANGER OF APPARATUS IN SOME CASES OF FRACTURE OF JAW. Three different cases of fracture, one of the lower maxilla, one of the fibula, and one of the radius, fur |