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Editorial Department.-Correspondence, Letter of M. D., &c.

any other body of practitioners in those cities, will lay pear to me to be unanswerable. I approach this subject aside all party or sectional motives, and come forward with diffidence, because I feel that I am treading on with a practically useful and comprehensive measure, it dangerous ground, but I cannot permit any consideration might be well, on many accounts, to submit to their lea-of a purely personal nature to interfere with the expresdership. But gentlemen in the country must bear the sion of my opinions upon a subject of such vast imporfact in mind, that business, to be well and satisfactorily tance. Whether the gentlemen connected with the conducted, must be superintended by the parties imme- school referred to, propose to follow up their claim at the diately interested. Past experience, however, has shown next meeting of parliament, I am not qualified to say, how difficult it is to assemble a large body of medical but I cannot hesitate to declare that the concession of men at a distance from their homes, and in many instan- that claim would be productive of the most serious injury ces good reasons might be assigned for the refusal of in- to the profession, and by its effects as a precedent, to dividuals to attend such meetings; but this difficulty the best interests of the public generally. The evils remight be obviated in a great measure by the appointment sulting from a union of the duties of teaching and of proxies, with full instructions from their principals. licensing in the same hands, have been ably set forth, not Supposing the attention of the great body of the pro- only in the editorial above alluded to, but more recently fession to have been awakened by the means suggested by Professor Stewart of New York, and I am persuaded above, I should think that a plan of ultimate procedure, that every unprejudiced mind who has read the address something like the following, might be adopted. If the of that gentleman, (republished, I believe, in the June societies of Toronto and Montreal, and four or five of the number of your Journal,) will agree with me, that no district societies, would each draft a bill to incorporate greater evil could befall us than the adoption of a systhe profession in two distinct colleges, and then appoint a tem such as that practised in the United States. I agree central committee, composed of delegates and proxies, entirely with the movers of the resolution passed at a late whose duty it should be to form, out of the materials thus medical convention in New York, which proposes a sefurnished, one bill embracing the views, as far as possi-paration of the duties of teaching from those which perble, of all the societies, there can be little doubt that the tain to the granting of diplomas or licences, and I am dewishes of the profession would be fully met. A petition cidedly of opinion that the privilege of granting diplofounded upon this bill, and embracing the principal fea-mas, having the character of licenses, should not only tures of all its clauses, should then be drawn up, printed, be refused to the School of Medicine, but that it should and transmitted to every practitioner in the Province. be taken away, if possible, from every other institution All this, it is true, would be attended with some trouble, in the Province by which it is at present enjoyed. The but the pecuniary cost would be trifling. As a means of welfare of the public, and the respectability of the Proprocuring signatures for the copies to be afterwards laid fession, both imperatively demand that the examinations before the Legislature, each recipient of a printed copy of candidates for license should never be conducted by might be directed to return his copy to the central com- parties connected with them as public or private teachers. Imittee with his name written at the bottom over the word approved, and in case of disapproval to retain it, the postage, which for a printed copy would be only

I am, Gentlemen,

Your obedient servant,

M. D., &c.

a half-penny, to be paid both ways by the addressed. Toronto, August 20, 1846. Signatures obtained in this way could then be transferred

to the manuscript copy for presentation, the committee vouching for them. These hints are offered without apology, because the writer knows they will be taken only for what they are worth. There is one most important question united with the subject of these letters, to which I must beg to direct the attention of the reader. A claim put forth by a respectable and well known institution-the Montreal Medical School-has been made the subject of an able editorial in one of the numbers of your Journal, and the arguments employed to combat the pretensions of that school, and to show the impolicy of increasing the number of institutions having the power of granting ad practicandum diplomas, ap

BOOKS, &c., RECEIVED.

The Canadian Magazine. No. 4.

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Annual Catalogue, University of State of New-York.
Stockton's Dental Intelligencer. No. 10.
Minutes of the Proceedings of the National Medical Conven.
tion, held in the city of New-York, May, 1846.

Illustrated Botany. No. 6.

Buffalo Medical Journal. No. 3.

St. Louis Medical and Surgical Journal. No. 2.
Dublin Medical Press. July 8, 15, 22, 29.
New-York Medical and Surgical Reporter. 21, 22.
Medical Examiner. No. 20.

Boston Medical and Surgical Journal. Vol. xxxv. 1, 2 and 3.
Southern Medical and Surgical Journal, No. 8.

BILL OF MORTALITY for the CITY of MONTREAL, for the month ending JULY 31, 1846.

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MONTHLY METEOROLOGICAL REGISTER AT MONTREAL FOR JULY, 1846.

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MONTHLY METEOROLOGICAL REGISTER AT H. M. MAGNETICAL OBSERVATORY, TORONTO, C. W.-JULY, 1846. Latitude 43°. 39.4. N. Longitude 79°. 21'.5. W. Elevation above Lake Ontario, 108 Feel.

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Quite cl'r to 8 am.. Rem. part. clouded..
Raining fr. 4 am to 1h 50m pm. Auroral
light 9 to 11 pm.

0.490
0.450 Clear to 9 am. Remainder clouded.
Unclouded. Hazy. Very fine.
Unclouded. Hazy. Very fine.
Part, cl'd. Sheet l'tning 10 & 11 pm.
not ap Thunder, lightning, & rain most of day-
1.490 Ceased r'ng Oh 30m am. Day m'tly cl'd.
CI'd to 9 am, Par, cl'd to 6 pm. Rem, cl'
10th, noon-Thermometer stood at 94
2.895 deg. I pm had fallen to 77 deg. 6 min.
Wind.

Range. No, Days, Inches. No. Winds. Calms Mean force

Auroral light 0 am..

Under the head of Tension of Vapour, is given the elastic force of the Aqueous Vapour in the Atmosphere at each Observation, in decimals of an inch of Mercury, or the proportion of the Barometric pressure due to its presence.
Under the head of Humidity of the Air, is given the proportion the Aqueous Vapour bears to the quantity the air is capable of sustaining at the existing temperature, saturation being represented by 1.00.
The Instruments are Standard Instruments. The Rain Gauge is 27 feet above the soil.-The Means entered are the Means by 24 hourly Observations, from 6, a.m., to 6, a.m.
The quantity of Rain or Snow received each 24 hours, is noted at 9, a.m.

The Observations entered in the column for 7 a.m., on Sundays, are actually taken at 9 a.m. The two Observations taken on Sundays are not included in any of the means.

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OBSERVATIONS ON THE NATURE AND TREAT-
MENT OF VARIOUS DISEASES,

[No. 6.

For some years back I have been in the almost daily habit of using this instrument, in the investigaBY ROBERT L. MACDONNELL, M.D., tion of diseases of the kidneys, urethra and bladder, Licentiate of the King and Queen's College of Physicians, and in those affections which, though situated in disand of the Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland; Lecturer tant organs, produce sympathetic derangements of the on the Institutes of Medicine, M Gill College; Physician

to the Montreal General Hospital; Consulting Physician, renal functions. Montreal Eye Institution.

OF MEDICINE.

On my arrival in this city, I made some of my friends No. 2.-ON THE USE OF THE MICROSCOPE IN THE PRACTICE acquainted with these investigations; amongst others, I may allude to Dr. Crawford, whose zeal for the For the last nine or ten years the Pathologists of science of his profession is well worthy of imitation. Europe have been in the habit of using the microscope He soon saw the great assistance the instrument for the elucidation of many departments of Practical afforded in many difficult cases, and availed himself Medicine, but more especially for the examination of of his being in London to order out two excellent urinary diseases.

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ones, which I believe he is constantly employing. Indeed I could hardly adduce a case more conclusive of its utility than the following, which occurred in his practice.

The researches of Prout and others, who examined this difficult subject with the assistance of chemistry, did much, no doubt, towards removing a great deal of the obscurity in which it was enveloped; but the CASE I.-A boy, aged about six or seven years, was physician in the active practice of his profession, brought to Dr. Crawford last autumn, by his mother, although he could not shut his eyes to the great who stated that he laboured under various symptoms, importance of chemistry, in renal diseases, had to which led Dr. C. to suspect the presence of a calcuneglect the minute study of these affections, inasmuch, lus in the bladder. He accordingly introduced a sound, as at every step his progress was arrested by the but did not obtain any conclusive evidence of the prenecessity for chemical analysis, and the great length sence of a stone. The boy laboured under the sympof time which a careful éxamination of the urine re-toms for some time longer, and in my presence the quired, when conducted in this manner. But now that the writings of Rayer, Bird, and Simon, have placed in the hands of the practitioner a speedy and simple method of analysing urinary deposits, no matter how small in quantity, by means of the microscope, no excuse can be offered for his remaining ignorant of this subject, except that, which with equal propriety, he might adduce for his want of acquaintance with other As the boy had no symptoms of disease of the kidimprovements in medicine, viz., indolence or indiffe-neys or ureters, and his age precluding the probability

rence.

sound was again introduced, but neither the doctor nor myself could feel any calculus. I obtained a small quantity of the boy's urine, and examined it with the microscope, and although to the naked eye it appeared quite healthy, yet it exhibited a good number of pus globules, as well as a deposit of the triple phosphate in prismatic crystals.

of these appearances being due to gonorrheal irrita. But I am not without hope, that the recital of the tion, the opinion we formed was, that the mucous following cases, in illustration of the value of the membrane of the bladder was in a state of subacute microscope to the medical practitioner will be produc-inflammation. Soon after the employment of treattive of good; and that some of my brethren, who may ment which this diagnosis suggested, the symptoms not as yet have turned their attention to this impor. became alleviated. tant matter, will be induced to commence its study, which, I can assure them, will be productive of more unalloyed pleasure than any other department of their profession is capable of affording.

CASE II.-Last winter a gentleman, aged twentyfour, called upon me for advice, for what he termed a disease of the liver. He had been under the care of one physician for three years, and had lately consulted

146

On the Use of the Microscope in the Practice of Medicine.

a second-the former had given him large quantities never inquired into his mode of life or habits. Suffice it of mercury for the supposed malady, and the latter to say, that after some hesitation, he admitted having following up the idea, had given him blue pill and been inordinately addicted to the practice, and stated taraxicum. Both had attributed all his symptoms to that for the last three years he had been subject to invo“Liver Disease.” On investigating the case I could luntary emissions three or four times each night: that not agree with him, that his headache, palpitations of the consequent exhaustion was so great, that for a length the heart, loss of appetite, constipation, lassitude, apa. of time he was accustomed to go to bed at ten o'clock, and thy for former occupations and amusements, extreme rising again at twelve o'clock, he passed the next three nervousness and timidity, inability to take exercise or or four hours in walking about his chamber, or in readundergo the least fatigue, indifference to worldly pros- ing, in order to allow the interval to be passed over withpects, (seeing that he had been only a month married) out involuntary emissions. Latterly, he had become impooccasional dizziness of sight and impairment of memory, tent, and being recently married, his wretched condition with almost constant insomnia, and a host of other minor symptoms were to be ascribed to chronic hepatitis. Accordingly I recommended him to leave at my house four or six ounces of the urine passed on the following morning.

preyed severely on his mind.

The treatment pursued was ultimately attended with success, and he now enjoys good health.*

I have selected the above example from amongst many others, in which I have diagnosed involuntary seminal Having examined it, I found it loaded with oxalate of discharges from the microscopical examination of the lime crystals, and a copious admixture of dead and dis- urine, a discovery first published by the celebrated Lalleorganized spermatozoa. I immediately obtained a clue mand, who has contributed so much to our knowledge to the diagnosis and treatment of his disease. The pre- of the pathology of the genital and urinary apparatus.† sence of spermatozoa clearly proved the existence of CASE III.-I was consulted in last March by a lady, that form of spermatorrhea, to which Lallemand has di-in reference to the case of her son, a boy aged 8, of rected attention. In this variety, the discharge takes a strumous habit, who from infancy had been subject to retrograde route to the bladder, hardly any of it getting" wetting the bed" every night, no matter what precauexit by the urethra; and such a condition of the genital tions she adopted to prevent it. For the first three years organs is more frequently produced by onanism than na- this habit caused her no uneasiness, as she thought that tural indulgence. The oxalate of lime always indicates as the child grew older, the habit would wear off; but at great debility and irritation of the system-general ner- the expiration of this period, not finding any amendment vous exhaustion ;* and we know that to such a state it is taking place, she consulted her physician, who recomthat the unfortunate victim of this practice reduces mended a "whipping" to be administered every mornhimself. ing, a prescription which for some time she rigidly fol

I had no hesitation, then, in the absence of symptoms lowed. Not deriving any benefit from this scientific more clearly connected with hepatic disease, in associat-treatment, she left the case to nature, until she brought ing all his sufferings with the above-mentioned vice.

him to me. Having made an examination of the urine, Now, it is extremely unlikely, that I should so soon it was found to present the following characters-spec : have been enabled to arrive at the origin of the disease, grav: 1021 at temp: 65 deg. Fahr.; reddened litmus were it not for the light thrown upon the matter by the paper, was of a deep amber colour, depositing a yellowmicroscope; but having once detected spermatozoa in ish sediment, which, on being examined microscopically, the urine, the inference to be deduced was, that the in- presented a copious collection of large-sized, lozengevoluntary emissions were the result, either of excessive shaped crystals of lithic acid, without any admixture of sexual indulgence or masturbation; and the confessions epithelium, pus, or blood. In other respects the boy's of the patient removed any further difficulty. During the whole time that he was treated for the supposed liver disease, he himself more than suspected that his physicians had not traced his ailments to the fountainhead; and he expressed his astonishment, that, during the whole time he was under their treatment, they had

* Donné has asserted, that oxalate of lime is always a sure indication of spermatorrhoea, I have frequently detected it in the urine of females, which at once upsets his doctrine-It would be more correct to state that it is frequently associated with that disease.

It would be foreign to my purpose to enter into the details of the treatment I employed in the above case, and which I have found most serviceable in similar ones. This I hope to do at a future period, when I intend devoting some time to the consideration of this subject.

thought he had detected spermatozoa. I had no hesitation, even A friend sent me some urine not long ago, in which he before examining the specimen, in differing from him-First, Be cause he described them as moving about; whereas, when in the urine, they are always dead, and generally disorganized. Secondly, Because I knew that his microscope did not magnify sufficiently to exhibit the characteristic tail of the spermatozoo, which requires a power of at least 500 linear. The animalcule which he saw were a species of Vibrioniæ, very frequently met with in decomposing urine.

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