Case of Re-union of the Humerus after five months' fracture. 173 gums-the evacuations were very numerous in the course disease exists as yet in the simple form of irritation, in of the twenty-four hours-there was ascites, and the established inflammation, or in actual ulceration of the lower extremities were ædematous. Daily fever, a fre-villous lining of the alimentary canal. Presented thus as quent cough, emaciation, and loss of sleep, comprised a topical application to a congested or inflamed surface, the remaining formidable symptoms. An emetic was it must obliterate more or less the injected vessels, as it first exhibited, the gums repeatedly scarified, and the would obliterate those which are observed on any exterfollowing directions strictly carried out:-A salt water nal surface; and, combined with opiates, it cannot fail bath for a few minutes each night, employing during the to prove highly serviceable in altering the character of time continued friction over the abdomen,-repeated the ulcerated tissue, and disposing it, (if anything will frictions, with dry mustard to the legs and feet by means dispose it,) to assume a healthy action. of a piece of new flannel, through the day, with ban-, MONTHS FRACTURE. By WILLIAM MARSDEN, M.D., Nicolet. dages round the whole of the abdomen and inferior ex-CASE OF RE-UNION OF THE HUMERUS AFTER FIVE tremities, and a powder exhibited every four hours, com posed of two grains of the hydrargyrum cum cretâ, 4th of a grain of ipecacuan, and the same quantity of the pulv. Feby. 20, 1844.-Was called to Hannah Colbert, scillæ. These means were steadily persevered with, and in less than a fortnight I had the gratification of observing woman, who had been injured by the fall of a very large ætatis 33, wife of Patrick Keif; a strong and muscular a material improvement. The anasarca had entirely dis- hemlock tree. She had been brought to bed of her appeared the diarrhea much diminished, and the seventh child on the 6th of the month, only a fortnight strength proportionably increased; and no lengthened previous to the accident, and was nursing at the time, period elapsed before the health of the infant was perfectly re-established. The su Found simple comminuted fracture of the humerus, and simple fracture of the femur and three costæ of But it will be said that this system is applicable to a the left side, with considerable ecchymosis of these latproportion only of the numerous cases which fall under ter parts. The tree, in its descent, first struck the our daily observation during the summer and autumnal humerus, the arm being elevated; and finally rested seasons. I yield to the force of this observation; but upon the thigh, pinning her to the ground. A portion having contested with one class of cases with at least a of the tree about 12 inches in diameter had to be chopmeasure of success, I am sanguine enough to hope that ped off before she could be removed. I had her imwe may, with equal confidence, prepare to meet the ad-mediately removed to a comfortable lodging in the vance of another. Where, then, the disease in its wasting village, and, with the assistance of my students, the form has long maintained a struggle with the enfeebled fractures carefully set, &c. Mrs. Chandler, the kind constitution, and the consequences of a debilitated and hostess of the manor house, ever foremost in the cause relaxed state of the mucous membrane continue, I beg of charity, caused the infant, by my directions, to be earnestly, yet with much deference, to suggest another taken from the mother and placed at nurse. plan, which, although adopted in Europe within the last perior fracture of the humerus was immediately below few years, has not, I have reason to believe, experienced the insertion of the deltoid muscle, and the inferior one a fair trial in this country. A notice in a foreign journal about three inches above the bend of the elbow. The first suggested the idea to me; and in a case which I fractures of the thigh and ribs progressed admirably and attended, in conjunction with our distinguished President, naturally. The constitutional derangement was com sufficient effect was produced to encourage a repetition paratively slight-the milk producing no inconvenience. in instances of a similar nature. I refer to that remedy On the 12th of March the woman, in whose charge she so invaluable in its application to a catalogue of other was placed, apprized me that my patient was in the affections, the crystallized nitrate of silver. I do not stay habit of untying the bandages and scratching the shoulto speak of its strongly astringent properties, nor is it ne-der. I therefore gave strict orders not to repeat the cessary that I should expend words in discussing its emi-practice, and represented to her the danger and folly of nently tonic powers; but I would, in most emphatic it; and secured the bandages so as to make a sufficient terms, urge my confreres to afford it admission on their degree of longitudinal pressure. On the 24th March, list of remedial agents in the diarrhoea of infants, and with examined the humerus, and found the inferior fracture candour to test its value for themselves. Its employment, re-united, but in the superior one no attempt at re-union both by the mouth and through the instrumentality of the whatever. On raising the arm the upper portion of lavement apparatus, is equally beneficial and safe, and bone rose up almost at right angles with the lower one. its usefulness can scarcely be questioned, whether the On inquiry I learned (after much quibbling and pre 174 Case of Extra Uterine Pregnancy. EXTRACT OF LETTER. varication,) that she had again removed the bandages, | considerable; or on the action of the muscles, or both, only two or three times, just to see how it was getting as she admitted having attempted to raise the arm someon." The fear of displacing the lower fracture pre-times. vented my doing more than re-apply the splints and bandages, until Friday the 3rd April, when I rubbed the fractured ends of the bones freely together, making longitudinal pressure, and allowed it to remain in that state until the latter end of April, when, finding re-union had not taken place, I wrote the history of the case to a medical gentleman in Quebec, Dr. James Douglas, of whose surgical skill and knowledge I entertain a high opinion. I subjoin a portion of his letter (although it was not written with a view to publication) as being interesting not only from its bearing upon my case, but in itself also. Quebec, May 3, 1844. "It is odd that the humerus is the bone in which, when want of union does not depend alone on constitutional causes; broken, non-union is most frequently observed. I think the if it did, union would not have taken place in the ribs or thigh of your patient. I had a case last year of fractured ribs and humerus in a strong and powerful man of good habits and middle age (35). The ribs united in due course of time, but there was no attempt at union of the humerus. Pressure was together, but without avail. I tried to produce the necessary made longitudinally, and the ends of the bones were forced action by rubbing the fractured ends together, but equally without avail. Five or six months after the receipt of the injury, I cut down to, and removed the ends of the bones, which succeeded perfectly. The arm is now as strong as ever, and the individual earns a livelihood as a labourer. In -'s case, pressure, and rubbing, and setons inserted Mrs. and I believe they are generally unsuccessful. From the apbetween the fractured ends, were used, but without success, pearance of the ends of the bone in last year's case, I am satisfied that nothing but the removal would have done good. The operation offers the best chance, and is the least painful; when cut down to, the ends of the bone may be removed by "J. DOUGLAS." a strong pair of bone forceps." Signed, EXTRA UTERINE PREGNANCY. REMOVAL OF THE CHILD BY THE CÆSAREAN OPERATION. Soon after its receipt I had resolved to operate as suggested, and had obtained the consent of the patient and her friends. On the 20th of May Dr. Bruneau, of Montreal, having been called in consultation by the friends of a patient of mine, I availed myself of his visit, He suggested rubbing the fracto shew him the case. tured ends of the bones again, applying starched bandages and making longitudinal pressure, as the only means My own opinion now coincides with that of Dr. of preventing the removal of the splints. Various circumstances, having no bearing on the case, prevented Douglas-that non-union did not depend on constitumy doing anything more until Saturday the 15th of tional causes in my case; nor did it depend on partuNon-union is sometimes attributed to the conJune, when I resolved, as a dernier resort, to give Dr.rition. B.'s suggestion a fair trial before operating. I accord-tinued use of cold applications, &c., but I am convinced ingly applied pasteboard with starched bandages, having that in my case it depended solely on the stubborn and first rubbed the ends of the bone freely together (in fact repeated displacement of the ends of the bone by the until the patient complained of pain and soreness) and patient herself. made strong longitudinal pressure. So slight, however, friends, was my hope of success, that I had written to my Dr. Von Iffland, of Yamaska, and Dr. Gilmour, of Three Rivers, a few days after, announcing my intention of By M. M'CULLOCH, M. D., Lecturer on Midwifery, M'Gill operating on the 22nd of July, and asking their assistance Madame Reaume, aged 21, a native of St. Eustache, at the time, if disengaged. Ten or twelve days elapsed after the last application when she stated, that "the arm in this District, had, on a former occasion, a living child was very itchy, and that if she could have removed the at the full term, and when she first consulted me, in bandages without my knowledge she surely would have May, 1828, was again pregnant, and had passed about done so, to give it a good scratching." She also said fifteen months from the last catamenial period and about "she was sure the bone was knitting, as she often felt ten months from the time of quickening, without having shooting pains in the bones, &c., to all which I gave no experienced any symptom of parturition, although the heed, except to urge her not to disturb it, as being her abdomenal enlargement and other symptoms left no only chance of avoiding an operation, which, indeed, I doubt of the existence of pregnancy. During the first thought inevitable. On Saturday the 20th July, being nine months of that period, she frequently experienced two days previous to the day on which I proposed to severe pains in the right iliac region; but after the com operate, I proceeded to remove the bandages and splint, pletion of the usual term of utero-gestation the motion of About the or pasteboard, and you will more readily imagine, than the child was no longer felt, and she thought her sufferings, I express, my surprise, and the poor woman's delight, in consequence, became much less severe. on finding that re-union was perfect and complete, if we same time the milk began to flow from her breasts, and except a very slight curvature depending either on the a lochial discharge appeared, and continued several days. degree of longitudinal pressure applied, which was Notwithstanding this remarkable change the abdomen did College, Montreal. Experiments on a few of the Mineral Waters of Canada. 175 not decrease, and the fluctuation only of an immense mometer, at the time of the operation and for several quantity of fluid could be detected. She has since enjoyed excellent health, and, without regret, remains childless. days after, was upwards of 90° in the shade. Her proShe remained nearly in the same condition until the gress, notwithstanding, from a state of extreme prostration following month of November, when 1 endeavoured, by to perfect health was so rapid, that she was able, without tapping the abdomen, to alleviate her sufferings, and inconvenience, to be taken six miles to Church a month about thirty-six pints of liquid, of the color and consist-after the operation. ence of pale ink, were drawn off. The child could now, for the first time, be distinctly felt, under the integuments, and the position of its body and limbs easily traced. She experienced no inconvenience or bad consequences from the operation, although she had very imprudently ventured to walk a few hundred yards to the village Church on the following day. Diuretics, and occasionally a purgative, were for some time administered, and I had the satisfaction to find that she afterwards remained free Montreal, October 1, 1845. EXPERIMENTS ON A FEW OF THE MINERAL By A. HALL, M.D., Lecturer on Chemistry, M'Gill College. MINERAL SPRING AT VARENNES. On the southern shore of the St. Lawrence, about which plies regularly between the two placer, the above village lies most picturesquely situated. About a mile to the north of the village, and about 600 or 800 yards from the shore, which is here barren and stony, and of which two have been recognised; one of them, not exhibits numerous boulders, the springs bubble forth, yet examined, is said to be highly charged with light carburetted hydrogen gas. The water which I obtained comes from the Saline Spring, and was sent to me for examination in carefully sealed bottles, in the Autumn of 1842, but was not submitted to investigation until the Spring of 1843, in consequence of severe occupation during the winter months, which precluded every thing of the kind. I can hardly doubt but that its gaseous constituents must, to a certain extent, have escaped, but that they had not done so to any great amount, is, I think, sufficiently demonstrated by the fact, that no precipitation of carbonate had taken place in the bottles, which would certainly have occurred, had the carbonic acid, which confers solubility on the carbonate of lime, of which this water contains a great deal, been materially diminished in the quantity held in solution. from the slightest symptom of dropsy. She, neverthe-15 miles from this city, easily reached by a steamer less, continued to suffer daily from fever and debility until the month of June following, when putrid matter, mixed with quantities of hair from the child's head, began to ooze from her navel. The skin was inflamed a few inches round an opening that would admit the point of the finger, and nature was, in this way, evidently making a most interesting effort to expel the child, and save the life of the mother; but she had become so feeble and emaciated as scarcely to leave a chance of her surviving a few days, and I thought I was, under the circumstances, warranted in proposing the Cæsarean operation as her only hope. At the same time, her alarm was much increased by observing two worms escaping from the navel, and she, without hesitation, agreed to submit to whatever I thought would afford her a chance of recovery. Being then six miles distant from the nearest professional friend, I did not, under the circumstances, consider myself warranted in waiting for assistance, I therefore had her at once placed on a table, and made an incision in the linea alba extending five or six inches downwards from the navel, and in the third year of her pregnancy, removed a putrid child of the ordinary size at birth. She did not lose an ounce of blood, and bore the operation with great courage. No vestige of a placenta remained, and the child was found in a sac that had formed adhesions all round to the walls of the abdomen, and appeared to be the fallopian tube enormously distended and thickened. It contained, besides the child, a quantity of very offensive matter. Nearly all the bones of the toes and fingers were 4. Barytic water produced a copious white precipifound detached, and some of them adhering to the sides of tate, soluble in nitric acid,—indicative of carbonic acid. the cavity were carefully removed; a small tent was then 5. By boiling, a precipitate ensued soluble with efferplaced at the bottom of the incision to favor the escape vescence in hydro-chloric acid,―indicative of the preof matter, and its edges were kept in contact with ad-sence of an earthy carbonate. I. Qualitative Analysis. 1. The specific gravity of the water was found to be 1.0091. 2. No effect was produced on blue litmus paper. 3. Red litmus paper was turned blue, and turmeric paper brown, thus indicating the presence of an alkaline or earthy carbonate. hesive plaster, supported with a bandage. She af- 6. After boiling and filtration, the addition of oxaterwards continued to improve daily, although the ther-late of ammonia induced a further precipitate, giving 176 Experiments on a few of the Mineral Waters of Canada. a clue to the presence of lime, in combination with a hour, until in fact it was sensibly dry. On being weighed stronger acid than the carbonic. 17. After boiling and filtration, lime water throws down a precipitate, soluble in hydro-chlorate of ammonia; and phosphate of soda, and carbonate of ammonia, with boiling, induces likewise a white precipitate-magnesia. 8. Nitrate of silver throws down a heavy curdy precipitate, indicating chlorine. 9. Starch, sulphuric acid, and chlorine water, added to the cooled liquid after boiling, in the usual manner, was attended, after a short time, with the production of a purple streak at the line of junction of the liquid and supernatant chlorine water, thus affording evidence of the presence of iodine. 10. Cautious evaporation to dryness was attended with a distinct crystallization, the crystals assuming the cubic form, bearing every resemblance to common salt. 11. Carbazotic acid, added to a concentrated solution, was not attended with the formation of any precipitate, thus proving the absence of potassa. a second time, it was found to have increased in weight by 9.40 grains, which is therefore the weight of dried solid material in 1,000 grains of the water. 2. 1,000 grains were boiled, and the carbonate of lime, which precipitated, was collected on a weighed filter, and dried. It weighed 0.300 grs., and consisted of 0.168 lime, and 0.132 carbonic acid. 3. 1,000 grains were precipitated by barytic water. The precipitate was carbonate of barytes and carbonate of lime; it was collected on a filter, washed, and dried: and was found to weigh 4.15 grs., of which the proportion of the carbonic acid to the lime was 0.132, and to the barytes, 0.859, yielding in toto 0.991 grs. of car bonic acid. 4. After boiling, 4,000 grains were precipitated by oxalate of ammonia. The precipitate collected on a weighed filter, washed and dried, weighed 2.65 grains, furnishing for every 1,000 grains of the water, the proportion of 0.662 grains of oxalate of lime, equivalent to 0.061 calcium. 5, 3,000 grains were freed from lime by oxalate of ammonia, and treated with phosphoric acid and carbonate of ammonia, and boiled. The ammonia-phosphate obtained, weighed, after careful drying and ex um, for the 3,000 grains of water experimented on, or 0.228 magnesium per 1,000 grs., giving 0.371 magnesia. 12. To determine whether any magnesia existed in the precipitate obtained by simply boiling the water, the following experiments were adopted :-Eight ounces were boiled, and the precipitate carefully col-posure to a gentle heat, 5.14 grs. or 0.685 of magnesilected on a filter, and washed. It was now dissolved in hydro-chloric acid. To one portion was added oxalate of ammonia, to precipitate the whole of the lime, and it was now re-filtered. To the filtered solution a sufficiency of ammonia was added, to neutralize any free hydro-chloric acid, and caustic potassa was then added, and the whole boiled, but no precipitate appeared. To another portion, phosphate of soda, and carbonate of ammonia were added, after the precipitation of the whole of the lime by oxalate of ammonia. This also was submitted to ebullition, but no precipitate took place, thus indicating by these two experiments an absence of magnesia, and permitting us to infer that the precipitate obtained by boiling the liquid was simply carbonate of lime. 6. 4,000 grains were precipitated by nitrate of silver. It was chloride and iodide of silver, and weighed conjointly, after a cautious fusion, 88.12 grains. It was now placed in a tube, and after having been heated, a current of chlorine gas was steadily passed over it. On being weighed a second time, it was found to have lost 0.08 grs., equivalent to 0.027 of iodine, per 1,000 grains of the water. The residue yielded a proportion of 5.439 grains of chlorine, to every 1,000 grains of the water. 7. 1,000 grains were freed from lime and magnesia, and cautiously evaporated to dryness; the saline residue weighed 7.79 grains, furnishing us a proportion of Review Department.—Observations at the Magnetical and Meterological Observatory, Toronto. CHLORIDE OF Sodium, 177 Chloride of Magnesium, 129.361 Calcium, 0.061 Chloride of Calcium, 18.830 Lime, 0.168 IODIDE OF SODIUM, 0.031 9.150 703.018 Free Carbonic Acid in 1,000 grains of the water 0.180 cubic inch. The contents in an imperial gallon of 277.274 cubic inches, will be as follows: In several respects this spring water presents some resemblance to the Airthrey Mineral Spring, near Stirling, in Scotland. (To be Continued.) Observations made at the Magnetical and Meteorological Observatory at Toronto, in Canada. Printed by order of Her Majesty's Government, under the superintendence of Lieut.-Colonel Edward Sabine, of the Royal Artillery. Vol. I.-1840, 1841, 1842. London LONGMAN & Co., 1845. This work, comprising a large quarto volume of nearly 500 pages, mostly composed of intricate tables of figures, and accompanied by numerous plates of comparative observations, has, as its title indicates, been recently published by order of Her Majesty's Government, for circulation among the scientific bodies and institutions of the civilized world. Early in the Summer of 1841, I received from Capt. Kains, the proprietor, a quantity of mineral water from a spring to which he had given the above appellation. These Springs are situated in the neighbourhood of Lake George, a lake of unimportant size, though of beautiful scenery, in the township of Plantagenet, on the south side of the Ottawa River, about fifteen miles from L'Orignal, and two miles from Grenville. They are to be met with on the southern margin of the lake, which is connected with the Ottawa by a small stream, called George's River, affording a communication by steamboat. The rock in the immediate neighbourhood A correct knowledge of the elementary facts of terresof the Springs is said to be composed of freestone; trial magnetism, so as to supply a foundation on which slate, containing pyrites, abounds. Limestone makes the advancement of that science might be correctly based its appearance about one mile and a half from the on inductive principles, has long been extensively felt. Springs, where it forms a high ridge. Not the slightest The geographical determination of the direction and intrace of iron has been detected in the water by myself tensity of the magnetic forces at different points of the or Mr. de Rottermund, who strongly suspected its world, had been regarded with attention, and engaged presence, from the appearances which the spring presented on its confines, owing to the oxidation of the iron tube through which the water is made to flow. A detail of the experiments instituted on this spring water by myself was published in the "Transactions of the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec," in 1842. Iodine, and silica were both observed in it, but in very minute quantities. The water required to be evaporated to 1-15th its volume, before satisfactory traces of the former could be determined. Various experiments established its specific gravity to be 1.007. the especial research of Humboldt and other eminent continental philosophers, when engaged in voyages or travels; and in Britain, since the peace, such pursuits have occupied the attention of officers of both branches of the service. The British Government, through its recent maritime expeditions, and numerous magnetic surveys in various parts of the earth, has also largely increased the means of arriving at some of the necessary conclusions. But these isolated and unconnected observations, however valuable, afford but a part of the determinations required to found a magnetic theory; other means of |