slight degree of obliquity upwards; its sight is not so powerful as that of the right; there is a slight degree of opacity of the inner circumference of the cornea, and the organ is more sunken than its fellow. With much exertion the patient can evert the eye to the extent of about four lines.

With the assistance of Mr. Downing, Mr. Bailey, Mr. Earles, and Mr. Snow, I performed this operation as follows: The eyelids were held apart simply by means of the fingers; I seized the inner conjunctiva with a small sharp hook, and divided this membrane from below upwards, with a fine narrow bladed knife. At the instant of doing this the eye forcibly turned more inwards, which retarted the operation a a few moments: keeping the hook still fixed in the inner segment of the divided conjunctiva, I allowed the lids to cover the globe, and a few drops of blood were wiped away by means of a sponge and cold water. Exposing the eye again by simply elevating the upper, and depressing the inner lids with the fingers of two assistants, I readily exposed the incision of the conjunctiva, and having separated the connecting reticular tissue by a blunt probe, as in the other cases; I introduced the blunt hook, and with much facility passed it from below upwards, beneath the inner rectus muscle, and drawing it forwards, I divided its tendon with a curved scissors.

The tendon of the musclé was unusually thick and strong, far different from the appearance which it presented in the other cases; it grated beneath the blades of the scissors upon dividing it, which, being accomplished, the eye became instantaneously straight.

The whole operation only occupied two minutes.

In this case the speculum was dispensed with, and the only instruments used were a hook, a knife, a probe, and a scissors. After the operation a cold bread and water poultice was applied to the eye, a powder, consisting of Jame's powder and calomel, was given, and the boy was put to bed.

This little patient evinced great strength. I explained to him beforehand the object of the operation, and saw he could assist us by everting his eye as much as possible, and which he did at the time it was most needed.

Remarks.-Were the operation of dividing the muscles of the human eye for the cure of strabismus, attended with danger to the organ of vision, with consequences of even a much less serious nature, the propriety of its performance might justly be regarded as questionable. But when it is considered that no bad consequences have followed this interesting operation-that the patient suffers but little during its perform

ance and that, in the cases to which it is applicable, the most gratifying success has attended it; its extensive application to the removal of strabismus cannot be too forcibly insisted upon.-London Lancet. American Med. Int. June 15, 1840.

On the Prevention of Tubercles. In a letter addressed to the Royal Academy of Medicine, M. Coster announces that, from certain experiments which he has made, he hopes to prove,

1. That it is possible, even in the face of predisposing causes, to prevent the development of the tubercular diathesis.

2. That even where the formation of tubercles has commenced, their progress may, in a great number of cases, be arrested.

The following are a few of the experiments upon which M. Coster has built up his hopes:

Two years ago he placed a number of dogs, rabbits, &c., in the circumstances most favorable to the development of the scrofulous diathesis. Thus, many of the unfortunate animals were shut up in dungeons, without light, incapable of moving, and exposed to a moist cold by means of wet sponges which were hung up in the cages. Some of the animals which were placed in these conditions, were fed on their ordinary diet; others were fed with ferruginous bread containing oz. carbonate of iron to the pound. All the former became ill, the greater part tuberculous, but not one of those fed on the bread containing iron presented a trace of tubercles.-London Lancet, from Bult. de l'Acad., Jan. 31, 1840. Med. Examiner, May 16, 1840.

On the Adulteration of the Sulphate of Quinine.-The recent rise in the price of sulphate of quinine has induced many unprincipled venders of drugs to adulterate it with various ingredients; to such an extent, indeed, has this been carried, in some instances, that not more than a fifth part of what was sold as sulphate of quinine really consisted of that substance. M. Vallet found that the substance chiefly used for the adulteration of the sulphate of quinine was Mannite, a substance similar in external appearance to the sulphate of quinine, but destitute of all the valuable properties for which quinine is so justly celebrated. He found, however, that the adulteration could be with great ease detected by means of

pure alcohol, which dissolves the quinine alone, but leaves untouched the mannite, which, however, is freely soluble in water and of its characteristic sweet taste.

M. Dubail has also arrived at the same conclusions as M. Vallet, and in pursuing his investigations, met with one sample of the sulphate of quinine, which, though presenting all the external characters of the genuine unadulterated drug, both as regarded its lightness and silky appearance, did not contain above a sixth part of its weight of sulphate of quinine. The rest was composed of mannite, insoluble in alcohol, but soluble in water, and of a sweet taste.

M. Pelletier has found that that which is sold in sealed packages, with the impress of his own seal, has also been subjected to adulteration, but the substance used in this instance, is gypsum. The same test, however, viz. the solubility in alcohol, applies to this case, so that every druggist would do well to apply this simple test to the sample of this drug before purchasing.-Edinburgh Med. and Surg. Jour., from Journal de Pharmacie, January, 1840.

Notice of a New Monstrosity; A portion of a Fatus living upon the Testicle. By M. VELPEAU.-The case on which I propose to engage the Academy to-day, is one of the most strange that the sciences of observation have yet had to consider; interesting at once to surgery, pathology, anatomy, generation, physiology in general, it appears to be without parallel among known facts. It relates to a living portion of a fœtus fixed in the testicle of an adult, where it seems to have been developed and to have lived since his birth. This is a peculiarity so contrary to what we know, and is at first glance so incomprehensible, that one might be justified in doubting its existence if I did not possess the substantial proof of it in the preparations here presented, and if the patient and the tumour had not been observed by several hundreds of practitioners and students, and if the operation had not been performed in the presence of 500 persons. The case is, in a few words, as follows:

A young man, named Gallochat, of Esterney, aged 27, of a good constitution, and who had never suffered from any severe disease, was sent, in the middle of January, to M. Andral, who at once passed him over to my division in the Hopital de la Charite.

On examination, I found that the patient had a tumour, nearly as large as a fist, on the right side of the scrotum. It

appeared unconnected with the substance of the testicle; the
skin over it presented no analogy to that of the scrotum, and
it did not appear to me to belong to any known class of tu
mours. Although several surgeons thought it might be refer-
red, some to the cancerous tumours, some to the fibrous, and
some to the tuberculous class, I did not think it possible to
adopt their opinion. Observing, moreover, that its origin
dated back to the patient's birth, that it was not perceived at
its commencement, that it had never produced any pain, that
no pathological process had been set up in it, and that it could
be cut, or pricked, or pierced through and through, without
causing the least suffering; taking notice also of the aspect of
the skin which covered its external surface, of its elasticity,
of the indurations which it presented internally, of a tuft of
hair which came from a kind of ulcer at its posterior part, of
a reddish tubercle at the bottom of another opening anteriorly,
and of a glairy or grumous matter which the patient had
sometimes discharged; I came to the idea that it was a fœtal
tumor, a product of conception.

Wishing to obtain exact information on the earliest history
of so singular a production, I wrote to M. Senoble, physician at
Esternay, who answered me thus: "At the age of about
four months, the mother of Gallochat came to show me her
child; he then had a tumour, or merely a swelling of the scro-
tum, which I found to be only a pneumatocele. Some months
afterwards, I found, on examining him again, a small inflamed
tumour, which appeared to me to be a slight phlegmon, and
which yielded to simple emollient local applications. I heard
no more of him till at the end of three or four years, when I
learned that the child's tumour still continued enlarging."
Now although these details were very incomplete, they yet
strengthened me in my first opinion; which seemed so sin-
gular to those to whom I mentioned it, that I alone held it.
I therefore planned the removal of the tumour without taking
away the testicle, intending to perform a kind of Cæsarean
operation on the man. The details of the proceeding belong
entirely to surgery, and need not now occupy me; it may be
sufficient to state that its results were satisfactory.

The examination of the tumour has enabled me to detect nearly all the anatomical elements of the body of a mammal. Thus, its external layer is evidently cutaneous; the greater part of its substance is a mixture of lamellæ and fibres which give the idea of the cellular, adipose, muscular, and fibrous tissues. In its interior, we found two small cysts filled with matter like albumen or the vitreous humour of the eye; another cyst,

as large as a partridge's egg, contained a greenish yellow and semi-liquid matter like meconium; in a fourth sac there was a grumous substance, of a dirty-yellow colour, concrete, and surrounded with hair. The substance from this last sac, when analyzed and examined with the microscope, presented all the characters of sebaceous matter and scales of epidermis. The hairs did not appear to have any bulbs at their bases. The tuft of hair which was seen externally, protruded from one of these cysts-from that which was filled with greenish matter; and the opening in it had some analogy with an anus.

Lastly, in the midst of all these elements, we found numerous portions of the skeleton perfectly organized, evidently belonging (as any one may convince himself by examining the preparation) to true bones, and not to accidental productions. These bones, which were every where enveloped by a sort of periosteum, and of which the several pieces were moveable upon each other, and had distinct articulations, may be divided into three sets. The first group is essentially composed of three pieces, in which I thought I could recognize the clavicle, the scapula, and a part of the humerus. The second group, much larger than the preceding, appears to belong to the pelvis, or perhaps to the base of the skull; the body of the sphenoid, or else the sacrum, forms the central portion. Lastly, the third series seems to comprehend portions of vertebræ and fragments of undetermined bones.

Whatever be the name that the different portions I have pointed out may deserve, certain it is that they belong to a product of conception, and to a fœtus already far advanced in its development. They are before the Academy, and the correctness of the fact is absolutely incontrovertible. In the monstrosity by inclusion, as it is called, which has been described by Dupuytren, Geoffroy, and Olivier, one of the fœtuses absorbed by the other has always appeared surrounded by a cyst, and in the condition of a foreign body in the tissues of the fœtus which has continued alive. In the cases related by Saint-Donat, Prochaska, and others, of the debris of fœtuses contained in the scrotum, there have always been encysted tumours, necrosed bones, and organized parts destroyed by suppuration and in a state of decomposition. In this subject, on the contrary, every thing has continued to live. The abnormal tumor had its own proper colour, consistence, and sensibility, entirely independent of the individual who supported it; a clear well-defined line separated the integuments of its skin from the scrotum. I pinched it with all possible force; I pricked it with various instruments; the