jacket, too, in internal diseases, appears injudicious; for the moistness of the skin is not the result of increased cutaneous action, but it is due to local condensation and consecutive suppression of perspiration, from the impermeability of the covering. The sudden refrigeration of the wet skin and the wet linen is dangerous, because of the sudden diminution of the body's temperature. Pettenkofer has studied the effects of wet feet with the following result: If you get your woollen stockings wet to the amount of only 13 ounces of wool, the amount of heat necessary to dry this small quantity, which must be supplied by the system unless you change your stockings at once, would be sufficient to melt half a pound of ice, or to heat half a pound of water, from 32° to 212°. I hope, Mr. Editor, Dr. Rogers will look at his linen or cotton theory with a little less satisfaction than before; at all events, even they differ greatly in their qualities; and further, a fabric, which "becomes readily moistened by the perspiration," will no longer, "thus by evaporation," act as a cooling sheet, nor will flannel, henceforth, check perspiration and directly oppose nature." I have tested Dr. R.'s physiology in some important points, and it has appeared that there was something "neglected" in his solar heat and flannel theories.'I have now to turn my attention to some other "rules," three of which have attracted the good or ill will of the critic. Now, No. 9 is approved of; the advice given to a mother, to send for a doctor in case of necessity, evidently strikes him as good and practical, "as it is just what the parents would do in any case," I hope the parents will ring the bell of a practitioner with a tolerable stock of physiology. Rule No. 3 is an abomination in itself. No matter whether that printed on page 339 or the one proposed by me is in question, the doctor is disinclined to obey it, because "a model mother and estimable lady," who not having breast-milk enough for the baby, fed her child on Winslow's soothing syrup instead of additional nourishment, had "the absurd impression" that infants ought to wait two hours before taking another meal, and kept the infant hungry until the doctor, who was sent for as rule No. 9 ordains, told her that the fact of the baby having taken food an hour and a half before had nothing to do with the child's desires. And thus the child's "colic" was cured at once. will follow the too frequent sucking. Mr. Thomas Ballard has written a book,* to present his theory of the cause of the diseases of infants and puerperal women, in which he states that in his opinion a large portion of the diseases of young infants, viz. : affections of the skin (erythema and urticaria from gastro-intestinal disturbance), thrush, nervous disorders of all kinds, and intussusception of the bowels are due to "fruitless sucking." One mode of fruitless sucking is the nursing from empty or incompetent mammary glands. And whoever knows that "the excitation of the nerves of taste produces an abundant reflex secretion of gastric juice, and also a flow of bile and pancreatic juice in the bowels" (Brown-Séquard), will admit that Dr. Ballard is right in many respects. And moreover it is a well-known fact that, the whole alimentary canal being a single and coherent tract, motory efforts of the upper portion give rise to peristaltic action in the lower. Thus the alimentary organs of a baby, who, no matter whether to its satisfaction or dissatisfaction, is fed too frequently, will never be at rest, and no matter whether the consistency and constituents of the food are correct or not, the very existence of increased peristaltic motions gives rise to diarrhoea and consecutive disorders. Thus, if there is a child that claims more food than the mother's breast can afford to give, it will not suffice to give it the possession of the nipple to drink from it thin milk and muscular exhaustion, but the indication is to so add artificial nourishment to the natural one that the baby will have enough each time, and after each meal will require a normal time for rest and digestion. The normal time for rest between meals, and for the digestion of a satisfactory meal in a young infant, experience shows to be from two to three hours. Habit may change this to a certain extent; you may prolong the intervals, for instance in the night, or you may shorten them by compelling the infant to take food whenever it shows any sign of uneasiness. A child may have "colic," not from hunger as in Dr. Rogers' case, but from flatulency depending upon the incomplete digestion of the too copious food, and scream; it will be fed to stop its crying, and oil is thrown into the fire. Such things are so thoroughly known as, unfortunately, the common rule, that I save my readers further remarks on my part. But I insist upon the fact, that the "desires" of the infants are generally either no An infant is entitled to a sufficient supply of food. desires, or their character is misunderstood; that more Therefore, if breast-milk is secreted in insufficient quan- than heat and hunger and changes of temperature totity, artificial food has to be given. If the baby is hun-gether, over-feeding, too frequent feeding, is the cause gry it will cry, surely. But when the baby does cry, of the large majority of the digestive and consecutive it is not always from hunger. To the contrary, the disorders of infants. I have to stop here, because the causes for a baby's crying are very numerous; so nu- further elucidation might fill a volume. Therefore, a merous, indeed, that many an author has thought it rule is necessary, and ought to exist, for timing the inworth his while to write elaborate articles on that sub-tervals in which infants are to be fed, provided the ject. Nothing is more customary than to mistake every crying-spell of an infant for the expression of hunger, and nothing more common than that the mouth of an uneasy, frightened, annoyed, pinched, pin-stuck, rhachitical, wet, dirty, sore, or feverish baby is closed with the nipple. Nothing more common than that the thirst of an infant is made the pretext for feeding it, as if an adult who requires water, and asks for it, was satisfied with corned beef or beef tea, The cases where babies have to wait for their meals too long are certainly the exception; those where they are fed too frequently, the rule. If a mother has not got enough for her baby, if the baby has to go to sleep half satisfied, it will awake and cry and require the breast, and certainly is entitled to it. But this is altogether wrong, as the supply itself ought to be made satisfactory. It is the more wrong, as direct injury food is normal and in sufficient quantity. A rule may have its exceptions, but it is given for the most possible good of the largest possible number. It will hardly be denied that irregular feeding is mostly over-feeding. That it may, and will, result in vomiting, catarrh of stomach and intestines, subsequent congestion and swelling of the mesenteric glands, flatulency, enlargement and hypertrophy of stomach, with all the consequences of impaired digestion; for the rest of the physical and mental functions needs no particular illus tration. But this is not all. If there is danger in irreg ular feeding, and over-feeding (simply because a child has, or appears to have, the desire), for its physical welfare, there is just as great a danger for its moral A New and Rational Explanation of the Diseases Peculiar to Infants and Mothers: with obvious suggestions for their prevention or cure. By Thomas Ballard, London, 1860, pp. 128. development. The time and mode of feeding infants is the first means of their training, their education. In fact, education has to begin with the first day of life. It is not true that there is plenty of time in later life to commence education, for the groundwork of all our education, all our morals, is habit. The attentive observer, professional or unprofessional, is aware of the facility and rapidity with which bad habits are contracted, and how soon infants will learn how much they can gain by screaming and naughtiness, or whether they can influence their attendants by the expression of their desires or caprices. The preparatory stage of mental actions, the function of the senses, is to a considerable degree developed with the moment of birth; and the old "nihil est in intellectu quod non antea fuerit in sensu requires early attention to the first simple rule, regularity and punctuality in the management of the new-born or young infant, in order to develop their "intellect" and morals on a sound basis. I hope, however, to discuss at some other time, the question of the necessity of early training and of the beginning of infant education, on the very first day of life, in connection with the peculiarly rapid and interesting development of the concourse and centre of the sensory and all other nerves-the brain. My readers will pardon me, therefore, for dropping this subject here, and directing their attention to the "delectable (cf. Medical Record, p. 341) physiology displayed in Dr. Rogers' criticism on Rule No. 4." A number of questions, commencing with "we wish to know," and followed by "let us see (p. 340), I shall answer after having examined, in a few words, Dr. Rogers' fitness for the place of criticizing apostle of infant diet. "Let us see." Dr. Rogers, who, by-theby, is still clinging to the antiquated theory, of Liebig's, of exclusively heat-making and exclusively tissuebuilding materials, proteinous substances being the first, and amylum amongst the latter-declares "barley to be a vegetable substance very poor in plastic or building material." This is ludicrously wrong, as the Doctor might have learned from any text-book on organic chemistry or physiology in the hands of a firstcourse student of medicine. I quote from one: There are (in 1000 parts) Albuminous substances: in wheat 135, barley 123, rye 107, oatmeal 90, Ind. corn 79, rice 51. Amylum: in rice 823, Ind. corn 637, wheat 569, rye 555, oatmeal 503, barley 483. Fat: Ind. corn 48, oatmeal 40, barley, rye, wheat, rice, but little. Salts (principally phosphates): barley 27, oatmeal 26, wheat 20, rye 15, Ind. corn 13, rice 5. Potassa is mostly found in wheat, magnesia in wheat and Indian corn, lime in oatmeal and barley, iron in barley, phosphoric acid in barley and wheat. From these figures Prof. Moleschott (of Zurich, Switzerland, Turin and Florence, Italy) concludes, that amongst all the vegetable substances fit for digestion and assimilation, and the support of the human organism, none is more so than barley. It is true he had not read Dr. Rogers' assertion, based upon "experience, physiology, and common sense" (p. 340), that "barley is a vegetable substance poor in plastic or building material." From his investigations Prof. Moleschott arrives at the conclusion, that 1100 grammes of barley (36 ounces) are sufficient to sustain a hard working adult man. Í will add at once a very important advantage of barley over the rest of the above mentioned vegetables, which is this that it bears the removal of the husk after grinding, better than any other. The large proportion of the proteinous substances in wheat and rye is deposited in the inner layer of the husk, which generally is not used. (Payen.) It is different in barley, where the protein is spread in equal proportion through the whole grain. Thus the husk can be removed, the consistency finer, without diminishing the nutritive value of the constituents. Evidently the results of modern chemistry and "physiology" have now and then confirmed the "experience and common sense of olden times, for even old Van Swieten (IV., p. 644) speaks of "potus nutriens dilutus, ut hordei vel avena decoctum, tertia parte lactis recentis admixti." "Let us see," further. Dr. Rogers says, that "barley contains dextrine, a substance which even in the adult is difficult of digestion, and, a fortiori, must be so in an infant" (p. 340). And again, he emphasizes dextrine as "indigestible." Physiology says, to the contrary, that fresh saliva has the faculty of transforming starch and dextrine into sugar. The transformation of dextrine into sugar is so rapid indeed, that hardly any dextrine is ever found unchanged below the duodenum. Moreover the existence of dextrine, not only of such as is preformed in the food, but also that which is transformed from starch, is both so important and so easily influenced that the facility of stomach-digestion greatly depends on it. The experiments of Maurice Schiff, of Florence,* prove that the formation of gastric acid, especially lactic acid, principally devolves on dextrine. Again, Dr. Rogers assures us that the casein of barley is "insoluble." What this means, we are at a loss to understand. For physiology teaches, that the cellulose of the casein of the leguminosa, and of the albuminate of the cerealiæ, is rendered soluble by fine grinding, and dissolved by cooking, and that both the casein and the albuminate are digested in the gastric juice. In fact, the casein is probably nothing else, according to the investigations of F. Hoppe, but an albuminate of potassa. Further, Dr. Rogers, speaking of some observations of Guillot's concerning artificial feeding, alludes to substituting "for the milk some farinaceous substance, made fluid by boiling arrow-root, gum-arabic, rice, or some similar substance in water." Where the similarity is to be found between arrow-root (amylum, mostly) and gum-arabic, Dr. Rogers is surely unable to determine. Physiologists know that gum is not absorbed, or to a very small quantity only, and that the lining membrane of the intestine is simply covered and smoothed by it. But still Dr. Rogers has the naïveté to assure us, that Dr. Guillot "was struck with the uniform presence in the bowels of a jelly-like substance. Upon analysis this substance was found to be nearly pure starch." I confess that I also am "struck" with the novelty of the fact, that gum, when introduced into the intestine, and analyzed, is recognized as pure starch. It requires an innocent mind, and one not spoiled by chemistry, to believe it. From the supposed results of Dr. Guillot's experiments, made on sick children, while Dr. Rogers speaks of the diet of the healthy, he concludes that "it would therefore appear that the infant, whose salivary apparatus and whose teeth are not developed, has neither his gastric, nor duodenal, nor other intestinal glands ready to digest the starchy substances of a farinaceous diet." From this remark, it is evident that Dr. Rogers believes that the reason why amylum is not digested by the gastric, or duodenal, or intestinal glands-they being not "ready" yet-must be sought for in the tender age. But as far as I know, these glands have neither in the infant nor in the adult anything to do with the digestion of starch. Physiology sustains me in this opinion; d'Histoire Naturelle de Florence. 2 vols., 1965. Leçons sur la Physiologie de la Digestion, faites au Muséum and here again it is the doctor who makes a serious mortality." I "exonerate our respected friend, howmistake; for it is more than doubtful, that anywhere ever, for his utterances of manifest falsehoods, for the intestine contributes to the digestion of starchy material. To the contrary, whatever amylum has not been transformed into sugar by saliva, either in the mouth or in the stomach, is thus changed by the pancreatic juice. The secretion of the pancreas has three distinct functions: 1. Transmutation of albuminous substances into pepsine. 2. Changing fat into an emulsion fit for absorption. 3. Transformation of starch into sugar. The fact that a writer of Dr. Rogers' experience and knowledge is not acquainted with this fact, does not disprove the results of Claude Bernard's and others' experiments. The pancreatic juice is, in fact, much more efficient than saliva; it digests amylum as well raw as cooked; and while for an immediate action it requires a temperature of 95°, a lower temperature will not be an impediment to its efficacy. Even the presence of bile and acid gastric juice cannot stop its action. "The salivary secretion of the child is little or nothing." Which of the two it is "little" or "nothing," Dr. Rogers does not say; but in order to carry his point, he appears to believe "nothing," and reasons accordingly. But the fact is, that it is " none in very young infants under four months; the youngest infants in whom saliva has been found being 41 days old. After that period there is plenty. Thus the pancreas in very young infants, pancreas and salivary glands in infants over four months, perform the function of transforming into dextrine and sugar such amylum as will be introduced, in limited quantities, into the system of an infant. The physiological effect of the saliva, as it is shown in the transmutation of amylum into sugar, is due to a substance, first, I believe, isolated by Cohnheim, called ptyaline. It acts rapidly and on proportionately large masses, like a fermenting agent, not only as long as the mixture is alkaline, but also when it gets slightly acid. Thus its action is not interrupted by the normally acid secretion of the stomach. Ptyaline is found in all the salivary glands of man (not in the parotis of the dog), and it is not decomposed by acting on the substances undergoing digestion, exactly like the rest of fermenting agents. Thus, there can be no doubt in any unprejudiced mind that a reasonable amount of amylum wil be digested in the salivary and pancreatic secretions of the infant. It requires an unusual straining of logic to deny it, just as it manifests a singular desire for levelling nature, who is so much in the habit to diversify and multiply, to look upon barley, arrow-root, rice, gumarabic, and other "farinaceous" substances, as similar or equivalent. In consequence of such a "deep-rooted delusion" (p. 341) Dr. Rogers, in order to present the most forcible aspect of his pleading, relates the case reported by Routh, of a woman who succeeded in systematically killing her sixth child by feeding it on nothing but "the best arrow-root that could be procured." Neither the physiology of infant digestion, nor the "rules for the management of infants" claim any blessings or advantages for unmitigated amylum-poisoning; and the somewhat malicious unction with which the case has been reproduced, speaks for (or against) the reasoning of a man in whose good-will I have the courage to believe, and "whose heart is in the case" (p. 344)-unpolluted by physiology and chemistry. Now, Mr. Editor, I believe I have tried your patience long enough; but for a consolation, I think I have done, at last, with the author of "neglected causes of infant he undoubtedly supposed that the sources for his data were reliable (v. Dr. Rogers on p. 343, 1st column). But I do not exonerate him for contradicting himself on his own ground, and, moreover, committing the same sins for which he blames the Board of Health, and the "rules." For instance, he protests against such "loose directions" as "a little salt' and " a lump of sugar," and complains at not receiving any instructions, how much a little salt to a pint of food would be, or how big a lump of sugar" must be added. This is all very well But then a man who has nothing but blame to express, and nothing but fault to find, must not, "of course, recognize the appropriate addition of water to the milk of the cow, and the addition of a proper amount of sugar, especially the sugar of milk, and of common salt, and of lime or other alkalies." For he exposes himself to retaliation by being questioned about what is the "appropriate addition of water," or the "proper amount of sugar," of "common salt," of "lime," and of "other alkalies," and which alkalies he means. Moreover, the very same writer, who first protests against "loose instructions," and secondly, has nothing but loose instructions to give, has the ingenuity, or the weakness, to insist upon the "freshest and most natural milk," without any addition or admixture. Nor do I see more consistency in the fact that one and the same writer should absolutely insist upon the infant hospital to have milk, which not even should be transported, and on the other hand assures us that "no thinking being need be told that the very mixing of the milk is the only true way to secure an average good milk," and that "there certainly never was any material transported into a city, of a more desirable character for the food of infants than the Orange County milk and cream supplied by and and several smaller parties." You will permit me, Mr. Editor, not to copy the names and firms of those business men; they might feel like sending me a Christmas present, if I, though involuntarily, gave them "a lift." and If I meant to go on, there would hardly be an end to the list of mistakes, incongruities and "fallacies" which have slipped into Dr. Rogers' paper. There may be a good many good points in the essay, but Dr. Harris says its animus is mischievous. Dr. Castle asserts its facts are misrepresented, and I say its physiology is rather imaginary, its chemistry tolerably antediluvian, and the whole effort "a lamentable failure" (vide Rogers, "neglected," etc., Medical Record, p. 343). Finally, Mr. Editor, I beg your pardon for once more addressing you for a special purpose. A criticism is naturally mostly of a negative character. I have tried, though, to alternate my negative expositions and some positive facts, not believing myself justified in trespassing too much, and to no use, upon your space and your readers' time. As I have repeatedly blamed Dr. Rogers' paper for its absolute barrenness, as far as its scientific value is concerned, I request the privilege of being permitted to lay before your readers, in your next number, such facts and opinions concerning the diet of infants and children as have given rise to part of the "rules for the management of infants." Yours truly, AB. JACOBI. A REBELLIOUS CASE OF APHONIA, instantly cured by electrical excitation of the inferior laryngeal nerve, has been communicated by Dr. R. Philipeaux to the Gazette Médicale de Lyon, 1868, No. 30. A URETHRAL APPLICATOR AND UNIVER- BY A. G. FIELD, M.D., DES MOINES, IOWA. THE following described instrument was devised for the purpose of bringing topical applications more fully and uniformly upon the urethral mucous membrane, than the usual methods employed admit of, when indicated in the treatment of diseases. In an effort to study some of the pathological conditions of that canal during the past year by ocular inspection with the endoscope, my attention has been attracted by the maculose appearances of the membrane, tumefied blotches, circumscribed patches of abrasion, induration, stricture, &c., upon which so many cases of blennorrhoea and other obstinate maladies of the part seem to depend. As the history of these conditions shows that they are usually the extension, consequence or sequela of more wide-spread or general disease, but invading at first only the mucous membrane, they very naturally suggest some defect in that plan of treatment which has simply modified the preceding form of it, or eradicated the disease only from a portion of the surface involved. Without now considering the various kinds of urethral injections, the indications for their use or their comparative value as an adjunct to other treatment, our object at present is simply to invite attention to the manner of using them. An examination of the prominences and fossæ, sinuses and longitudinal folds of the urethral mucous membrane in its quiescent condition, together with the usual mode of employing injections, seems to afford a startingpoint for the solution of the difficulty, and the inferences which follow suggest the importance of overcoming these irregularities by sufficiently distending the passage, so as to constitute its walls as nearly as possible, smooth and even surfaces during the use of local applications. For this purpose, Dr. M. S. Buttles invented and has used with success a syringe, the nozzle of which is provided with prongs on either side, which being introduced with the nozzle dilate the canal while the injection is thrown into it. See MEDICAL RECORD, vol. II., page 575. With the instrument hereafter described all parts of the urethra can be reached with equal facility. It is. operated with one hand, and is under perfect control under all circumstances. The point most suitable having been attached, and the syringe sufficiently filled with the fluid to be used, a bulb of proper size for the urethra is attached to the point, and the fluid forced into it. The urethra having been previously cleared by micturition, the bulb point is to be introduced into it as far back as the disease extends, and the syringe gradually discharged as the point is slowly withdrawn. the size of No. 4 bougie, and are terminated at (e) (e) by screws for the attachment of the oblong globular bulbs (g) (h) (i) and (j), which are perforated in their lesser circumferences by numerous minute holes, inch or less in diameter, as represented, except (g), which is perforated only at the distal extremity. They corre This instrument has so far been used with very satisfactory results. But as its real value can be determined only by a more general and extended use of it, others interested and having larger opportunities may feel disposed to give it a trial, as a help not only in obviating some protracted diseases of the urethra, but in facilitating the cure of them in stages more amenable to treat-spond in size to Nos. 4, 6, 8, and 10 bougies, and are all adapted to either point or tube (d) or (f). The metallic part of the instrument is of pure silver, but its range of usefulness would be somewhat extended by using a still less corrosive metal. Dr. Moore, late Surgeon-General of the Confederate Army, has been elected Superintendent of the Eastern Lunatic Asylum of Virginia. Medical Items and News. A SUCCESSFUL OPERATION FOR THE TRANSFUSION OF BLOOD was recently peformed by Dr. Enrico Albanese at the hospital of Palermo, Sicily. A youth aged seventeen, named Giuseppe Ginazzo, of Cinisi, was received at that establishment on the 29th of September last, with an extensive ulceration of the leg, which in the end rendered amputation necessary, the patient being very much emaciated and laboring under fever. The operation reduced him to a worse state than ever, and it became apparent that he was fast sinking, the pulse being imperceptible, the eyes dull and the body cold. In this emergency Dr. Albanese had recourse to the transfusion of blood as the only remedy that had not yet been tried. Two assistants of the hospital offered to have their veins opened for the purpose, and thus at two different intervals 220 grammes of blood were introduced into the patient's system. After the first time he recovered the faculty of speech, and stated that before he could neither see nor hear, but felt as if he were flying in the air. He is now in a fair state of recovery. PERSONAL. The following assignments of medical officers have been made:-Brevet Brigadier-General J. B. Brown, Surgeon United States Army, ordered to report to General Sloan, Chief Medical Officer at New York, for temporary duty. Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel H. R. Wirtz, Surgeon, ordered to resume his duties at Fort Hamilton. IN THE CHAIR OF OBSTETRICS AND MED. JURISPRUDENCE THE MASS. MED. COLLEGE FILLED.-Dr. Chas. E. Buckingham, formerly Adjunct Professor of Theory and Practice, has been appointed by the Corporation to the vacant chair of Obstetrics and Med. Jurisprudence in the Massachusetts Medical College. A NEW DIAGNOSTIC SIGN IN PREGNANCY.-Dr. Barnes, at the last meeting of the British Med. Association, gave the following new diagnostic sign of pregnancy The connective tissue uniting the neck of the uterus with the base of the bladder is peculiarly relaxed, giving to the touch a soft elastic feeling on the upper and arterior wall of the vagina. AN AGED PRIMIPARA.-Dr. Cachot, of St. Mary's Hospital, London, recently delivered in that institution a female of her first child, at the age of 53 years, and again in sixteen months. In both confinements the labor was tedious, from inertia of the uterus, and forceps were required. The mammary glands produced no milk, but were enlarged The children lived in both cases. DR. J. MARION SIMs has been elected a corresponding member of the Obstetrical Society of Berlin. A NEW URETHROSCOPE, and we like the name better than endoscope, has been devised by Dr. Langlebert of Vichy, which can be readily used by daylight, or by the illumination of an ordinary lamp or candle. It is very simple in construction. A full description, with wood-cut, appears in La France Médicale, 1868, No. 77. THE CAUSTIC LIGATURE.-M. Vallette, of Lyons, advocates in the treatment of erectile tumors by the multiple ligature, the use of a seton impregnated with chloride of zinc, and passed through the strangulated mass. He cuts down on to the subcutaneous caustic seton fifteen or twenty hours afterward, and takes it away, and if necessary introduces a further quantity of caustic. DR. LEBRUN, Prof. of Clinical Surgery in the University of Warsaw, died in June. the official statistical reports of London that, during the DEATHS FROM INFANTILE SYPHILIS.-It appears from last week in Nov., eight children died from syphilis. PROF. WURTZ, Member of the Academy of Medicine and Dean of the Medical Faculty of Paris, has been directed by the Minister of Education to make a journey through Germany for the purpose of studying the organization of the practical courses of instruction in that country. A FOREIGN BODY IN THE ESOPHAGUS OF A CHILD THREE YEARS OF AGE, was recently removed with the doublehooked oesophageal sound of Graefe by Dr. Krisbaher, of Paris, who records the case in detail in the Gazette Médicale de Paris, 1868, No. 38, MILITARY HYGIENE, IN ITS PHYSIOLOGICAL APPLICATION TO THE EQUIPMENTS OF THE SOLDIER, forms the subject of an interesting article from the pen of Dr. Judee, illustrated by wood-cuts, in La France Médicale, 1868, No. 73. VARIATIONS IN PITCI and their value in physical exploration of the chest, forms the subject of an interesting paper from Dr. Noel Guéneau de Mussy in the Gazette des Hôpitaux, and reprinted in La France Médicale, 1868, No. 74, in which due credit is given to our distinguished countryman, Prof. Austin Flint, for having first attracted the attention of the profession to the diagnostic value of difference in pitch. THE DEATH OF DR. ISAAC CUMMINGS.--At a meeting of the Physicians attached to the Demilt Dispensary, held on the 16th December, 1868, with the object of uniting in an expression of their sentiments regarding the death of the late House Physician of that Institution, Dr. Isaac Cummings, the following preamble and resolutions were adopted: Whereas, It has pleased Almighty God to remove from us by death, our late colleague, Isaac Cummings, M.D., while yet in the prime of life, and at a period of greatest usefulness, we therefore, Resolve, That we recognize in this dispensation of Providence the loss of a highly-esteemed friend and valued counsellor; that the Demilt Dispensary has in Hous-him lost one of its oldest and ablest officers; that the poor who seek its benefits have lost a good and skilful physician; and that the Profession has lost an eminent member. A CASE OF ABNORMAL GESTATION.-Dr. W. H. ton (Richmond and Louisville Med. Journal) publishes a case of abnormal gestation, where the foetal bones were discharged through the rectum four years after conception. The patient, at last accounts, was in fair prospect of recovery. DR. JOHN P. GARRISH is giving a course of lectures on Ophthalmology, free to physicians and medical students, on the first Saturday, and the second, third and fourth Tuesdays of each month, at eight o'clock P. M., at his Eye and Ear Infirmary, 65 West 34th St., cor. Broadway. He also holds daily clinics at 2 P. M. Resolved, That we sympathize with his family in their bereavement; as well as in the affliction of those who will miss his uniform kindness and honest advice. Resolved, That these resolutions be published in the medical journals and in the daily papers of this city; that a copy of the same be sent to the family of the deceased, and to the Board of Managers of the Demilt Dispensary. |