Periscope.-Treatment of Aneurisms by Galvanism.

successful, repetition of the operation would have been required; my reasons for not deeming this advisable have been already stated. What I have observed, however, convinces me that in more suitable cases this mode of treating aneurisms will yet be found most valuable. The sudden and rather alarming increase of the tumour, which occurred during the application of the galvanism, should it be constantly observed may fairly be brought forward against its use in aneurism situated, as this one was, in the neighbourhood of important organs, which would be very intolerant of sudden pressure, although they may bear or accommodate themselves (as we know they do) to the gradual pressure of tumours.

It is not easy to account satisfactorily for this rapid enlargement; the perfect integrity of the sac shows it was not from extravasation of blood by rupture; moreover, no traces of blood could be discovered. We know that during the galvanic action a quantity of hydrogen is evolved from the negative pole; it would, however, have been scarcely equal to the actual amount of the increase; the sensation, also, was of something more solid than if the contents were gaseous fluid. It now appears to me more likely to have been caused by the galvanic influence extending beyond the sac, and coagulating the fluids in the cellular tissue around it, the coagulated matter having been afterwards absorbed. The size of the aneurism at the time of death was certainly not larger than it would have been in the usual progress of the disease, and if the galvanism had never been applied.

267

in the habit of seeking admission into the poor house; and, when
relieved, he used to return to his occupation-that of a laborer.
About three months since, this man applied to Dr. Mayne, on
account of a new complaint, namely, a frequent desire to dis.
charge the contents of his bladder, which, if not immediately
could retain a moderate quantity without inconvenience, but,
satisfied, caused his urine to pass from him involuntarily. He
whenever a certain degree of distension of the bladder took place,
an urgent call to evacuate the urine immediately followed. He
also directed Dr. Mayne's attention to a tumor in his abdomen,
to which he attributed these symptoms. This tumor was scated
above the pubis, on the right side of the linea alba, in the track of
the right rectus abdominis muscle. It was of an oval shape,
about the size of a goose egg, perfectly uniform on the surface,
and yielded an obscure sense of deep fluctuation. There was a
very strong impulse communicated to it, whenever the patient
coughed. It was not, in the slightest degree, tender upon pres.
strongly excited.
sure, but, by compressing it, the inclination to pass water was

At first, Dr. Mayne thought it might be a sacculus, connected with the bladder, consequent on some disease of the urinary passages, but a full-sized silver catheter passed along the urethra without difficulty, showing that there was no stricture, nor any disease of the prostate gland. The urine drawn off was perfectly healthy, from which a sound condition of the mucous coat of the bladder was inferred; and the evacuation of this viscus had no minal tumor, which rendered it unlikely that any communication effect whatever in diminishing the bulk or tension of the abdocould subsist between the tumor and the bladder.

Dr. Mayne was led to regard it as a chronic abscess, and the M. Petrequin insists on the necessity of the needles cross-treatment was regulated accordingly; blisters, iodine, etc., were ing, to produce a proper coagulum. The needles, in this prescribed with little benefit. case, though they could be made to touch, certainly did not After some time, the patient left the poor house, but he returncross, and yet coagulation was complete. But I have further ed, lately, laboring under typhoid pneumonia. He was in a sta ́e reasons for believing this is not necessary: I thought that, of profound prostration, with extreme dyspnea, some anasarca, in performing the operation for the future, it would be as well and general dulness over the whole of one lung, posteriorly. He to avoid, if possible, the entrance of the hydrogen gas evolved soon sank. from the negative pole directly into the circulation. 1 thereAt the autopsy, Dr. Mayne was particularly anxious to ascer fore suggested to Mr. Fagan to make the experiment of put-tain the nature of the tumor,-it was now before the society. ting an albuminous fluid into a small bladder, and to insert They might perceive that it was hydrocele, placed at the back of the positive needle into the fluid; but merely to apply the of the sheath of the muscle is deficient, so that the tumor rested the night rectus muscle. In this situation, the posterior lamina negative wire to the outside of the bladder. He accordingly upon the peritoneum. filled a small portion of sheep's intestine with one part of white of egg and two parts water, quite full, and without any air. He inserted the positive needle its whole length through the gut into the fluid, and applied the negative wire merely to the outside of the sac, and succeeded in producing a large tea-spoonful of mucous-looking coagulum, without a bubble of hydrogen in the fluid inside, but many adhering to the outside, and to a silver plate on which the sac was placed. We have no grounds to say the entrance of hydrogen into the blood is injurious; but the fact that coagulation can be produced without its necessarily being present is interesting. The condition in which the par vagum was discovered may, perhaps, explain the incessant vomiting. It is scarcely possible to suppose that a nerve so closely connected with the functions of the stomach could be so much deranged in structure without considerable gastric disturbance.-Dublin Quarterly Journal, of Medical Science.

HYDROCELE OR SEROUS CYST, IN THE RECTUS
ABDOMINALIS.

Dr. Mayne exhibited to the Pathological Society of Dublin (Dec. 6th, 1845) a specimen, illustrative of the difficulty which sometimes occurs in the diagnosis of abdominal tumors.

The subject of the case was a man, aged 55 or 56 years, an had been liable to attacks of severe bronchitis, for which he was

occasional inmate of the South Dublin Union Poor House. He

A case is given in the Revue Medicale, for December, 1842, of a popliteal aneurism in a man of seventy, cured by M. Petre. quin, of the Hotel Dieu of Lyons, with acupuncture and galvan. ism, in a single sitting; and several cases have since appeared in the public journals.

The experiment of inflating the bladder was made before the society, and, as it became distended, the superior fundus was observed to come fairly into contact with the tumor. The same occurrence must have taken place during the patient's lifetime, whenever the bladder was dilated; and the pressure in this man. ner excrcised upon it, renders a satisfactory explanation of the urinary symptoms under which he labored.

Dr. Mayne thought it probable that any attempt at a radical cure (supposing the diagnosis to have been made would have in. duced a fatal peritonitis.-Dublin Hospital Gaz., Jan. 1st, 1846.

TREATMENT OF CERTAIN ANEURISMS BY

GALVANO-PUNCTURE.

The Gazette Médicale de Paris, (Nos, 38 and 40, for 1846,) contains a memoir on this subject by M. PETREQUIN, of Lyons, who claims the merit of having been the first to suggest this new method of treatment. We copy from the Monthly Jour. Med. Sci. (Nov., 1846), an analysis of this memoir.

M. Petrequin gives the following account of his discovery: -the first results of his inquiries, he says, he published on the 25th of October, 1845, in his "Mélanges de Chirurgie," and "since then I have not ceased to labour at the detail, as it is easy to judge; and I have the satisfaction the subject. Everything was to produce in the plan and in firmed all my anticipations." He was first led to think of of seeing that experimental observation has throughout conresorting to chemical means for the coagulation of the blood in an aneurismal tumour, by the case of a young man in whom he believed he had detected, by the stethoscope, an aneurism of the opthalmic artery, the consequence of an injury sustained by falling on his head from a considerable height.

268

Periscope.-Treatment of Aneurisms by Galvanism.

The first case in which M. Petrequin succeeded, was an aneurism of the temporal artery, the effect of an injury sustained by a fall from height. The application of the galvanic current, according to the rules above stated, was kept up for ten or twelve minutes, and at the end of that time the pulsating tumour had become changed to a solid mass: moistened compresses were applied and retained with some turns of a bandage, and the hard knot quickly disappeared.

His second case was an aneurism at the bend of the arm, the effect of venesection. In this case, some amount of coagulation was produced, but, owing to the cowardice and unmanageableness of the patient, the attempt was finally abandoned.

In studying the phenomena of coagulation by a galvanic current, M. Petrequin recommends milk to be employed rather than blood, as affording greater facilities for the exact observation of the circumstances which favour or retard the effect; and the result of his observations, on the best kind of galvanic apparatus for the purpose, is, that a columnar pile, composed of separate small pieces, the number of which can be augmented at pleasure, with bits of cloth interposed moistened with solution of muriate of ammonia, answers best. The importance of attention to all the particulars that can be collected from the cases in which suc cess has been obtained, will be obvious to all those who have in any degree engaged in galvanic experiments.

Of these chemical means galvanism seemed the only one dence; that we should give them a direction obliquely or adapted to such a case as he had under treatment. He perpendicularly opposed to the current of the blood to interrupt knew that electricity had been spoken of in connection with it; that we should cross them, to render their effect more the treatment of aneurism. On inquiry he found that all that energetic, and increase their number in larger aneurisms, to had been said on the subject amounted to the following brief obtain at once a good number of clots, to afford as it were a sentence, published by M. M. Marjolin and P. H. Berard, in framework for the general coagulum; lastly, that it is ad1833:-It has been suggested that the coagulation of the vantageous to change several times the direction of the curblood might be effected in the sac by the aid of electricity rents, in order that the galvanic influence may act in every transmitted into it by needles plunged into the tumour. This direction, and thus produce a multitude of filament stretched idea, which we owe to M. Pravaz, has not hitherto, as far out to form the basis of a thread of coagulum amidst the mass as we know, been carried into execution." M. Petrequin of the contained blood."-Pp. 737, 738. now applied to M. Pravaz himself, and learned from him that no trials had been made bearing on this subject, either on man or other animals. M. Petrequin's first trial, in the case of supposed aneurism of the opthalmic artery, was not successful, and during an intermission of the treatment in M. Petrequin's absence, the young man was suddenly carried off by an attack of fever. Disappointed in this his first experiment, he was almost dissuaded from pursuing the idea further by finding that certain authorities, on reviewing the suggestion of M. Pravaz, had condemned it as totally inadequate. M. Petrequin hence concludes that the whole merit of the operation rests with himself to which, in the meantime, we willingly give our assent. On the subject of the principles on which the success of the operation must depend, we allow M. Petrequin to speak for himself:-"The analysis of the first case led me to a knowledge of the principal difficulties, and of the resources by which they were to be overcome. Thus, in the first place, it became necessary to abate the force of the circulation in the afferent vessels, without which the clot is liable to be carried away by the current of the blood, as fast as it forms, particularly if the arterial tube be beyond a certain magnitude. In the sac the blood should be, as far as possible, stagnant and motionless; the patient should be recumbent, or seated at perfect rest in an easy-chair. "To coagulate the blood in an aneurism, it is requisite, not only that the galvanic current should reach the surface of the tumour, and that it should be conveyed to a spot within it, but it is also indispensable that it should be directly transmitted through the blood itself by two opposing points. For this effect I employ steel needles, from seven to eight centimetres long (about three inches), fine and sharp, which may penetrate easily into the sac through the soft parts. There is here a double difficulty to be overcome; in reaching the seat of the disease they burn and cauterize the skin, irritate the nerves and cause unavailing suffering, ecchymosis, and unfavourable inflammatory action. Again they cause trouble by the loss of electricity, which may result in a failure of the operation. It occurred to me therefore, to isolate the needles in an extent corresponding to the thickness of the soft parts to be traversed, taking care to leave the heads and points free. I succeeded in this object by means of a coating of gum-lac, and better still with cutlers' varnish. It is easy to show that the isolation is thus rendered complete, for the energetic action which takes place when the poles of the galvanic apparatus are applied to the head, or to any free "In three weeks the galvano-puncture was resorted to: part of the needles, immediately ceases, whenever the poles four needles about three inches long were inserted at four are connected with any part of the needles covered with the opposite points of the tumour, so that their extremities crossed isolated coating, and recommences as soon as the wires and within. The galvanic apparatus used was a pile composed needles communicate without its intervention, a convincing of sixty plates about three inches square, the interposed proof that the method is good. We may also use an enamel, pieces of cloth being moistened with a solution of sal-amor a china or stoneware glazing. Next of the mode of moniac. The brachial artery was compressed so that the placing the needles. In my experiments on the blood, the pulsations in the tumour ceased. Two of the needles were occurrence of coagulation was found to be most ready when then brought into communication with the poles of the appathe extremities of the needles were crossed; this, therefore, is the arrangement to be adopted; and when the aneurismal sac is of considerable size, we should multiply the poin's of coagulation, so that the nuclei formed at different points, may finally pass into one common clot.'

M. Petrequin next refers to the brilliant success obtained by Ciniselli of Cremona, in a popliteal aneurism, by following the rules laid down by him.

Our author's next case is also an aneurism of the bend of the arm, following venesection; the chief particulars of which are as follows:

"The patient was an assistant in pharmacy, aged 30, affected with hypertrophy of the heart, whose brachial artery was wounded in venesection, whence a primitive false aneurism resulted. Some months afterwards he applied to M. Petrequin. The aneurismal tumour was then larger than a hen's egg. It was the seat of active pulsations synchronous with the stroke of the heart. By compression of the hume ral artery the size of the tumour was diminished, and the pulsations became less evident. M. Petrequin, in the first place, adopted some treatment directed to the mitigation of the symptoms resulting from the disease of the heart.

ratus by means of brass wires wrapt round with silk at the points where they were handled. The galvanic current was very intense, and gave brilliant sparks at intervals. The shocks were violent, the patient being held by the assistants The tumour at first diminished in size: then it seemed to Thus I obtain the rule from experience, that we should become tense and red, without any increase of density. insert the needles at opposite points for their better correspon- The patient complained of a burning heat at the points where

Periscope. Treatment of Aneurisms by Galvanism.

269

the needles were inserted, and around each there was a pital at Varese, on the 2d of August, 1846, to be cured of slight cauterization. In ten minutes the density of the tu- varix, which caused him so much pain as to prevent him mour began to increase; there were evidently nuclei of from following his occupation. It had existed for four years. coagulation already formed. The current was still kept up The whole of the internal saphena was considerably dilated, alternated through each pair of needles. In fifteen minutes and presented ten different knots, some as large as a small the tumour felt hard, and no pulsation was discoverable even nut, others about the size of a bean, while some smaller ones when the artery ceased to be compressed. For five minutes extended from the internal malleolus, to two fingers' breadth more the current was kept up, and then the needles being below the knee. The trunk of the saphena continued enremoved, compression was applied to the artery, and a blad-larged to about the inferior third of the thigh. A considerder filled with ice placed on the tumour. For the first few able knot could besides be distinguished at the external and days the tumour progressively diminished, without any un- upper part of the calf. Animated by the favourable result pleasant occurrence then inflammation of the aneurismal which he had seen to follow the application of electricity by sac arose, accompanied with dull pains. The punctures M. Ciniselli, to a large popliteal aneurism, Dr. Milani, demade by the needles showed black sphacelated points, ren-termined to try it in this case. Having prepared a voltaic dering a fetid pus, and small blackish masses, the debris of the coagulated blood in a semi-organized state. Thus, the sac became inflamed and suppurated, emptying itself by the apertures made by the needles. The suppuration lasted a few days, and the exit of the pus was favoured by a slight compression. Twelve days after the galvano-puncture, it was ascertained that the tumour had completely disappeared that there was no longer any trace of the aneurism-and that the circulation in the radial and ulnar arteries was restored. On examination it was discovered that the brachial artery was very superficial, and that a second brachial artery ran deeper and posterior to that which was wounded,

Our author ascribes the inflammatory symptoms which arose in this case, to the want of an isolating coating on the needles at the time of the operation.

M. Petrequin's next case is one of popliteal aneurism, in which the cure was effected without any unpleasant accompaniment. The needles were applied exactly as in the last case, with the exception that they were covered with an isolating coating in the middle part. The galvanic current was kept up for sixteen minutes, at the end of which time the tumour had become hard; the pulsation had ceased, and no arterial sound could be heard; the skin was neither red nor tense, except that there was a slight rose-coloured areola, of small extent, around the needles. The patient made no complaint during the operation. The tumour progressively declined in size, though, at the time of his dismissal, nearly a month after the operation, it was still of the size of a small egg; before the operation, it was the size of the fist.

The next case is also one of popliteal aneurism, which M. Petrequin cites from the Milan Medical Gazette, as treated by Favale of Naples. The cure was complete; the skin, however, inflamed and suppurated; it is not stated whether or not the middle part of the needles had received the isolating coating.

The last case contained in M. Petrequin's memoir, is one of aneurism at the bend of the arm, the effect of vensection. In this case the plan of proceeding was the same, and the success complete. The report extends only to the ninth day after the operation; but up to that time nothing untoward had occurred.

pile of twenty-six discs, of about two inches in diameter, he introduced two needles into the tumour situated at the inner and middle part of the calf, and having previously applied two ligatures firmly around the leg, above and below the tumour, united the needles with two poles of the battery, by means of a copper-wire silvered over. The sitting lasted twelve minutes. The patient experienced, at first, a considerable shock, which became afterwards gradually less, with a continued sensation of pricking and burning. The tumour withered, became small, and however much the saphena and its branches were compressed above it, it could not be made to increase more in size. In its interior there could be felt with the finger a degree of hardness, especially around the needle communicating with the zinc pole. Vinegar and water was afterwards ordered as a lotion to the whole of the leg. On the fourth, the electricity was applied to the trunk of the saphena, two inches above the knee, but the number of the piles having been increased to thirty-one, and the patient, not being able to support the shock, five were removed. In the third application, made about the middle of the leg, the wires were passed through the eyes of the needles. There were twenty-four pairs of plates, and they were allowed to act for fifteen minutes, in which time there were formed clots which extended two or three inches upwards, along the saphena, in the form of firm cylinders, and of unequal hardness. The fourth application was made to a varix higher up than the former. In four minutes hardness could be felt in the tumour, chiefly around the zinc needle. In nine minutes, the clot extended a finger's breadth towards the lower part. The sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth applications lasted fifteen minutes, and gave the same results. In the last application, the needles were fixed in two neighbouring tumours. In eight minutes, clots were formed around the zinc pole, but the blood remained fluid around the copper pole. It was then determined to change the needles, introducing the first in the place of the second, and vice versa. In seven minutes, the other tumour, of the size of a filbert, was also closed up. At all the other times, it was only the zinc needle which offered any resistance in withdrawing it, but this time also the copper one was the same. By these means, the whole of the varices had disap→

M. Petrequin suggests the employment of the galvano-peared in ten days. puncture in some other diseases besides aneurism; for examAlthough the two points of the needles never touched each ple, in varix, erectile tumours, sanguineous tumours, &c. other, and sometimes were placed at a distance of an inch As a sequel to our author's memoir, we present our readers from one another, there never could be prevented from takwith an account of the effect of galvano-puncture on vari-ing place a superficial cauterization of the skin, in the form cose veins by Milani; and the paper referred to above, on the power of simple acupuncture in the obliteration of arteries. It appears there was an earlier paper on the effect of galvano-puncture in varix, by J. Bertoni, in the July number of the Gazetta di Milano.

CLOSURE OF SEVERAL VARICES OF THE LEFT LEG, BY
MEANS OF THE ELECTRO-PUNCTURE.

By Dr. MILANI, of Varese.

of an areola around the two needles, always larger around the zinc one. Not even a plaster of wax, having only a small hole for the penetrating point, could prevent this occurrence. The treatment was supposed to be assisted by fomentations along the whole of the leg.

A varix of the size of a goose-egg, on the internal malleolus of the left leg of another patient, was filled with clot after two applications, and diminished to two-thirds of its The patient was an organ-builder, fifty-five years of age, size.-Monthly Journ. Med. Sci., from Gazzetta Med. di of a healthy and robust constitution, who went into the hos-Milano, 29th Aug., 1846,

270

MIDWIFERY.

Periscope. Observations on Colchicum.

CHARACTER OF THE BLOOD IN MALIGNANT
AFFECTIONS OF THE UTERUS.

It has long been a matter of uncertainty whether in cancerous disease the blood undergoes a peculiar and constant change in its composition or its quality. The subject is one of considerable importance, and has latterly engaged the attention of Heller, who has examined carefully both the chemical composition and the microscopical characters of this fluid, in persons affected with carcinomatous diseases. It has been recently stated by Engel that the blood in cancer undergoes a pathological change which consists chiefly in the development of an excessive quantity of albumen, whilst in tuberculous discases the fibrine is the element which is in excess both in the blood and in the morbid material poured out. This statement, however, is in the opinion of Heller merely hypothetical, and is based on evidence furnished by no direct chemical analysis, which alone can detirmine the question. Heller therefore took advantage of several cases of malignant af fection of the uterus and vagina, which fell under his notice, and he examined carefully the blood passed by flooding, as also por tions drawn directly from the arm. Omitting the particulars of the various cases, the general results only to which his researches led him, need be here stated.

His microscopical examination of the blood proved the following chief points: 1st. That the blood corpuscles in cancerous disease always present a great variety in their size, some of them being smaller than natural, and others considerably above the average size; some are even three times larger than ordinary. The smaller ones are usually finely indented, granulated, or mulberry-like; the larger ones invariably smooth. This variety in size of the blood corpuscles, though always present in the blood in cancerous disease, is not peculiar to this kind of blood, for it also occurs in blood which contains pus. 2. That when blood is examined ac. cording to the method employed for the detection of pus in it, peculiar cells may be found in it, which correspond in form and other peculiarities to the ordinary cells of cancer. This is a fact which had not been hitherto made out, but about which there is now no doubt. 3. That in addition to the above peculiarities, there are observed by the microscope minute bodies of a more or less crystaline form, and possessed of a bright golden-yellow metallic lustre, which are most distinctly seen on darkening the field of the microscope. When viewed by transmitted light they appear in part colourless or yellowish, and in part of a bluish tint, showing a play of colours." These peculiar glittering particles may in most cases be distinguished with the naked eye after the blood has coagulated, appearing either as golden pellicles in the clot, or as glittering particles floating in the serum.

fibrinons one, just as it is in tuberculous disease, where also an excess of fibrine (together with a diminution of red corpuscles), prevails in the blood.

This is another argument against the view of antagonism, which has been stated, though without good foundation, to exist between the cancerous and tuberculous diathesis.-Lond. Med. Gaz., from Heller's Archiev., 1816.

VOMITING OF PREGNANT WOMEN.

Dr. Stackler has communicated to the Medical Society of the Bas Rhin, two cases of obstinate vomiting, in pregnant women, in which the symptoms yielded to the black oxide of mercury, given in the dose of five centigrammes (three quarters of a grain) daily. There was not the least trace of salivation, nor any other inconvenience, after the use of this medicine. Dr. Jauger re ferred to cases of hysterical convulsions, and vomitings, sympathetic with the condition of the uterus, which had been cured by the black oxide of mercury. According to the physician, the medicine is equally appropriate in irritated states of the organ, whether in pregnancy or otherwise. Should further experience confirm this property of the black oxide of mercury, its import. ance will be readily comprehended by those who recollect how extremely severe are the obstinate vomitings with which females are occasionally attacked during gestation. Professor Forget took occasion of the communication of Dr. Stackler, to quote the case of a woman, who had been reduced to the last degree of emaciation by these nervous vomitings, and, at length, died, during the sixth month of pregnancy.-Prov. Med. and Surg. Jour. July 1, 1846, from Gaz. Med. de Strasbourg.

MATERIA MEDICA AND PHARMACY.

OBSERVATIONS ON COLCHICUM.

By M. DONOVAN, Esq.

The effects which colchicum produces on the human body are now well ascertained, although the mode of preparation, and the parts of the plant to be preferred, are not yet agreed on. Some prefer the dried bulb, some the recent bulb; one employs the wine of the bulb, another the vinegar of it, another the extract made by evaporating the vinegar; the oxymel has even been a favorite; but the seeds appear to be most generally approved of.

Before the grounds of preference can be understood, it is The chemical analysis of the blood furnished results equally to be inquired how far the drying of the colchicum bulb indecided in their nature. In the first place there was observed a terferes with its powers. Analogy tends to render it probaconstant, absolute, and relative increase in the quantity of fibrine, ble that the efficacy is impaired. Other bulbs, as garlic, both in the hemorrhagic blood as well as in that withdrawn by onions, leeks, &c., are not only altered by drying, but renvenesection. The quantity of fibrine varied, and this variety was dered altogether destitute of these stimulating qualities for most marked in the metrorrhagic blood; sometimes in this latter which they are valued. Squill, it is true, is not rendered the quantity amounted to as much as 13.42 parts in 1000: in one powerless by drying, but its activity is certainly lessened. case even to 16-44 parts. In the blood drawn from a vein the Dr. A. T. Thomson says:-"The acrimony on which its quantity was always above natural, yet seldom greatly exceeded three parts in a 1000. On comparing the quantity of fibrine in virtue depends is partially dissipated by drying and long keepthe blood discharged by hemorrhage from the uterus with that in ing, and completely destroyed by any heat above 212 deg." the blood drawn by venesection, it would seem as if nature was If the colchicum be injured by drying, how much more so endeavouring to get rid of a portion of excessively fibrinated blood must be the acetous extract, in the preparation of which, by a spontaneous discharge from the uterus of blood loaded with unless a steam bath be employed, the heat rises above 212 fibrine. The albumen was presented in its normal quantity, or if deg. The vinum colchici of the three British pharmacopoeias anything rather below it, so that there are no grounds for regard. is made from the dried bulbs, and therefore must be of infeing the cancerous diathesis as an albuminous one, or for consider-rior efficacy. ing the cancerous material as composed of albumen. The quantity of blood corpuscles was always very small, both in the hemorrhagic blood as well as in that drawn from a vein. Sometimes the diminution of corpuscles was so great that complete anæmia of the body was found after death.

The view, therefore, that the cancerous diathesis, is an albu. minous one, and therefore opposed to the tuberculous diathesis, which is a fibrinous one, is completely erroneous, for the quantity, of fibrine in the blood in cancerous affections is always in excess and the diathesis therefore in such cases should be regarded as a

three

wine produced from it in its recent and undried state, as reI believe the most efficacious preparation of the bulb is the commended by the late Sir Everard Home, who published papers on it in the Philosophical Transactions for 1816 and 1817. In these papers he has given an account of its preparation, and of its effects, therapeutic and physiological. He directs two pounds of the recent bulbs, undried, to be macerated with twenty-four ounces of sherry wine in a gentle heat for six days.

Periscope.Observations on Colchicum.