under the effects of chloroform was generally observed, and is, perhaps, the chief feature in recommending its being repeated.

opinion tending towards giving the poor man the benefit of the operation. The left common iliac, it will be remembered, is somewhat different from the right, and forms-Assoc. Med. Journ., June 28th, 1856. a more obtuse angle with the end of the aorta, and is, of course, crossed by the colon Assimilation of Various Fatty Subor rectum, while the right common iliac is stances.-In a paper, presented on the 12th crossed by the ureter of that side, is in re- of May to the Imperial Academy of Sciences, lation with the common iliac veins and psoas M. BERTHE relates some experiments upon magnus externally, and is in relation in front § the faculty of assimilation of various fatty with the delicate portion of small intestine substances. He gave alternately to the same (ileum) which is so well known as lying in this region; in the left side, where Mr. South made his first incision, some five or six inches long, the sigmoid flexure of the colon was plainly seen bending backward to form the rectum, and when the hand was introduced into the abdominal cavity, the aneurismal sac and aorta above it were plainly felt.

man the same quantity of the following kinds of fatty substances: butter; almond, olive, and whale oils; English cod-liver oil; codliver oil rendered clear by alkalies and charcoal; pure brown cod-liver oil. The dose was one or two ounces a day. After twelve days, there was no more assimilation of the olive and almond oils; i. e., the whole quantity taken in a day was found in the fæcal matters; after about a month, it was so with butter, whale oil, the English and the clear cod liver oils. On the contrary, after a month, when pure brown cod-liver oil was

the quantity of fat in the fecal matters. The conclusion is, that the most assimilable of all the fatty substances experimented upon is the brown cod liver oil.-Med. Times and Gaz., June 7.

Bromine as a Specific in Pseudo-Membranous Affections.-M. Ozanam, in a paper presented to the Imperial Academy of Sciences, on the 26th of May, announces that bromine is a specific in the pseudomembranous affections. He has treated

The first part of the operation, after the patient was placed under the effect of chloroform, consisted in a long incision, carried from the crest of the ilium at the left side (that opposite the tumour) as far as the car-taken, there was no appreciable increase in tilaginous border of the thorax at the tenth rib, as it is easier to reach the aorta at this side; the abdominal muscles were next successively divided with much care, till at last the transversalis was reached, which was also cut through; one or two unimportant muscular branches of large arteries requiring to be ligatured; the peritoneum was finally arrived at, and the wound now fairly laid open. The intestine seemed quite healthy, and, by opening the wound, the aneurism was plainly discerned filling up the right groin. In this operation, as Mr. successfully fourteen cases, two of which Erichsen well observes, "there are not only all the dangers attendant upon the ligature of arteries of the first magnitude, but also the risk of producing fatal peritonitis, whether the abdomen be cut through, or the vessel sought for by stripping up the peri- Glycerin in Itch Ointment.-M. BOURtoneum from the iliac fossa." This was GUIGNON recommends the substitution of too evident to Mr. South not to be neglected, glycerin for lard, in the formation of itch so the operation was done with much care ointment, as being quite as efficacious, and and expedition. A new needle, of inge-a far more pleasant preparation. For hosnious form, had been constructed by Mr.pital practice, his formula is as follows: Milliken, which Mr. South now armed with Tragacanth 1 part, subc. of potass. 50, wella ligature, and passed under the aorta, about powdered sulphur 100, glycerin 200, various two lines above the bifurcation, trusting, as essences, as lavender, etc., 5 parts; form Sir Astley, to the collateral circulation of a mucilage with the gum and 30 grammes the inferior mesenteric artery for the main-of the glycerin, add the potass., then the tenance of the vitality of the parts thus sud-sulphur and rest of the glycerin gradu. denly deprived of blood. The admirable ease ally, and, finally, the essences. For pri with which the operation may be performed vate practice, he uses a more expensive

were cases of true croup. He employed either bromine or bromide of potassium. The dose was from one to ten grains a day, in five ounces of a potion.—Ibid.

formula, viz: Two yelks of eggs, essence trated through the room during the whole of lavender, lemon, and mint, aa 5 parts; day, were much more healthy than the essence of clove and canella, of each 3; workers who occupied rooms lighted from tragacanth 2, sulphur 100, and glycerin one side only, or rooms lighted through 200 parts. The essences are to be intimately very small panes of glass. I observed anmixed with the eggs, and a mucilage formed other very singular fact, viz: that the workwith the tragacanth, after which the sulphur ers who occupied one room were very and glycerin are to be gradually added.-cheerful and healthy, while the occupiers Med. Times and Gaz., June 28th, from Gaz. of another similar room, who were employed des Hộp., 1846, No. XIII.

Danger of employing Iodine Injections for the Cure of Hydrocele.-M. GOSSELIN made an interesting communication to the Société de Biologie, on the 24th of May. He has ascertained that in three cases where, after the death of patients, he has examined the testicles, there is a peculiar danger in employing iodine injections in the vaginal cavity as a means of curing hydrocele. This danger consists in the absence of the secretion of a sperma fit for fecundation. In these three cases, no spermatozoa were found in the seminal vesicle of the side, where a hydrocele had been treated by iodine injections. In experiments upon dogs, M. GOSSELIN has found, also, that after such injections, the production of{ spermatozoa does not take place, and that: the testicle becomes pale and smaller than before.-Med. Times and Gaz., June 7.

on the same kind of work, were all inclined to melancholy, and complained of pains in the forehead and eyes, and were often ill and unable to work. Upon examining the rooms in question, I found they were both equally well ventilated and lighted. I could not discover anything about the drainage of the premises that could affect the one room more than the other; but I observed that the room occupied by the cheerful workers was wholly whitewashed, and the room occupied by the melancholy workers was coloured with yellow ochre. I had the yellow ochre all washed off, and the walls and ceilings whitewashed. The workers ever after felt more cheerful and healthy.-Correspondent of the Builder.- Boston Med. and Surg. Journal, July 3.

On the Sex and Hereditariness of Twins. -M. BAILLARGER states that in 256 deliverics, the sexes were thus distributed :Two boys in 100.

Two girls in 58.

Boy and girl in 98.

Vaccination in Relation to Blindness.Statistical researches show us that, prior to Jenner's discovery, of 100 cases of blindness, Thus the union of two boys is almost 55 were due to smallpox; and Dr. Dumont, twice as frequent as is that of two girls, physician to the Hospice for the Blind, has while the union of a boy and girl is almost recently supplied an interesting account of as frequent as is that of two boys; the boys the progressive decrease of that proportion. thus surpassing the girls (298 to 214), by Among the blind of sixty years of age, he more than a third, while the proportion in finds this variety of cause in 12 per cent.; the entire number of births is 17 boys to 16 in adults, it only exists as 8 per cent. ; and, girls. It may also be remarked, in reference in children, only as 5 per cent. We may to the great preponderance of male over take as a mean, counting all ages, about 7 female stillborn children (17 to 12), that a per cent., which, as at the commencement & considerable contingent is contributed by of the present century, the proportion was twin births to these. 35 per cent., exhibits a diminution of 28: per cent.-Med. Times and Gaz., June 7.

Effects of Colour upon Health.-From several years' observations in rooms of various sizes, used as manufacturing rooms, and occupied by females for twelve hours per day, I found that the workers who occupied those rooms which had large windows with large panes of glass, in the four sides of the room, so that the sun's rays pene

Twin births are hereditary, in certain families, under different conditions. Thus a great number of facts prove that the daughters of mothers who have borne twins have twins themselves, a generation being sometimes missed, when the granddaughter has one or more twin pregnancies. Facts which M. Baillarger has accumulated also tend to prove that this hereditary predisposition may be transmitted to the sons, certain men having the faculty of procreating two chil

dren, when no hereditary predisposition to of course, the weight of the abdominal mass this exists on the part of the mother.-is greater. Nor is this all, as the air conMed. Times and Gaz., June 28th, from tained in the compressing pads may, at the L'Union Médicale, No. 142, 1855.

will of the wearer, be lessened by the turning of the stopcock communicating with it. It further states in the report, that the committee appointed to examine and try Mr. Bourjeaurd's hernial bandage do not completely share the inventor's apprehensions

respecting the steel trusses; but that the members willingly concede that the latter may become very inconvenient, as many

in despair; nor are they less ready to acknowledge that, with the present fashions, the ordinary truss can be easily discerned under the garments. The committee think that Mr. Bourjeaurd is right in advocating the principle that compression should always be effected from below upwards-viz: from the pubis to the umbilicus; the application of this principle being highly advantageous either in the case of varicose veins, hernia, chief of elastic belts, or stockings which or uterine displacement. Hence the misrequire lacing.

Influence of Marriages, between Relatives, upon the Physical and Mental Organization of their Children. In a letter to the Impe. rial Academy of Medicine, M. RILLIET, of Geneva, publishes the results of his researches regarding the influence of marriages between relatives upon the physical and the mental organizations of their chil-patients have been known to give them up dren. In Geneva, such marriages are very frequent, and, therefore, the field of observation being large, M. Rilliet has been able to collect a great many facts. He first states that such marriages frequently are followed either by absence or by retardation of conception, and also by abortion, and the production of monsters. Many diseases frequently exist in children born from parents who are relatives: epilepsy, imbecility, or idiotcy, deafness and dumbness, are the most frequent. Such children are often lymphatics, and predisposed to all the diseases depending upon a scrofulo-tuberculous diathesis. Many of these children die young; and, if they live after the first infancy, they do not resist disease as well as other people. In the same family, it is not the same disease which exists in all the children; and, for instance, one of them is epileptic, a second is imbecile, a third is only slow in his physical and moral development.

M. GUERIN thinks Mr. Bourjeaurd acted very wisely in abstaining, in his paper, from adducing the cases treated in hospitals under the control of Mr. Lawrence, Mr. Stanley, Mr. Curling, or the late Bransby Cooper, the inventor being willing to leave the new belt to be judged upon its own merits, and of the committee. Such experiments were from the experiments made by the members

instituted; and it was found that Mr. Bourjeaurd's hernial bandage succeeded in keep. Bourjeaurd's Bandages for Hernia.-M. ing within the abdomen intestinal protruALPHONSE GUERIN has made a report to the sions upon which the usual trusses had had Surgical Society of Paris on this bandage, no effect. Several cases of the greatest inwhich is composed of an elastic band, with terest might be quoted, but were withheld an air pad. The reporter states that Mr. B. from fear of giving the report an unwarrant was led to the present invention by noticing {able length. The new bandage had been the numerous evils which attend the wearing found especially serviceable after Gerdy's of the steel trusses; and that the new appa-operation for the radical cure of hernia. ratus consists of an elastic belt, which completely supports the viscera of the abdomen, the rings being gently compressed by air pads fixed to the lower part of the belt. Much stress is laid on the ingenious idea of connecting these pads with an elastic tube which runs under the thigh, and communicates with a reservoir of air fixed to the back part of the apparatus. By means of this contrivance, an additional quantity of air is driven into the pad, which covers the ring every time the patient sits down, and when, {

The author concludes by saying that he has found Mr. Bourjeaurd's apparatus answer remarkably well in several cases, both in public and private practice; and as the committee consider the new bandage a very great step in surgery, they propose to give the Society's thanks to the inventor, and to place his paper in the hands of the Publication Committee. Messrs. Larrey, Huguier, Robert, and Gosselin, having spoken in high terms of the apparatus, the proposals were unanimously adopted.—Lancet, July 5, 1856.

Willis states, that at the siege of Read. ing, in 1643, a fever of a low type broke out amongst the troops, followed the Earl of Essex's army to its quarters, and spread amongst the civilians.

Strychnia.-Dr. FLEETWOOD CHURCHILL havoc amongst them, and did not spare calls attention, in the English journals, to the inhabitants. Even the convents suffered an error in his work on Diseases of Females, severely. which might lead to serious consequences. He states in the work alluded to, in treating of amenorrhoea, that strychnia has been given advantageously for its cure, in the dose of from one-tenth of a grain to a grain, three or four times a day. The latter dose would be unquestionably a poisonous one. The dose should be from one-sixteenth to one-twelfth of a grain, and it would not be wise to give more.

Epidemic Diseases generated by Camps. -M. THOLOZAN has published a valuable article in the Gazette Médicale de Paris, wherein he shows that the precautions taken by the French Government to prevent the spread of typhus by the troops returning from the Crimea, are extremely opportune. It is well known that these precautions consist in the formation of camps on the shores of the Mediterranean, in Provence, which are to be used as a kind of probationary and sanitary establishments. In the course of his article, the author cites some facts, which show that camp fever has, in former times, fearfully spread amongst populations, after the return of armies which had suffered from epidemic diseases. These facts are valuable, and may with advantage be placed before our readers, now that our own soldiers will soon have reached their native shores.

Ozanam mentions that the French troops sent into Lorraine after the siege of Philipsburg, carried into that province a malignant and contagious fever.

During the sieges of Prague and Egra, defended by Marshal Bellisle, an epidemic disease of a severe type appeared amongst the troops and inhabitants. The Prussian army became also infected, and, in retiring into Silesia, spread contagion amongst the rest of the troops and the population of the province.

In 1757, a castral fever declared itself at Eisenach, where a large number of troops were congregated. From thence the disease spread all over Germany, which was being traversed by different portions of the troops. The complaint was observed by Strack and Ludwig, and the disease was carried into Lille, in the autumn of 1758, by the soldiers returning from Germany.

The French army in Italy, commanded, in 1799, by Scherer, was visited by a petechial fever of a low type. The sick were sent to hospitals in the interior of France, great apprehension was felt in the southern departments, and Montpellier and Grenoble suffered considerably.

Infectious diseases broke out in the French army during the Spanish campaign of 1808 and 1809. These diseases were conveyed to France by prisoners and the march of troops. England also suffered when the British troops returned home.

In 1566, an epidemic distemper broke out amongst the imperial army encamped near the Danube, in the vicinity of Komorn, and below Presburg, during the war which Maximilian the Second carried on against the Turks. The disease followed the army during its subsequent movements. Some convalescent men, who were sent home, propagated the disease all over Germany, and Vienna, which was on the high road of the returning soldiers, suffered considerably. In the summer of 1621, a severe distem-veyed by the latter to Kiel and its vicinity, per appeared amongst the allied troops encamped at Weidhausen, and spread to the Palatinate and Upper Bavaria. It was conveyed from the soldiers to the inhabitants, without distinction of sex, age, or rank.

Ozanam further states, that the typhus which reigned in 1814 amongst the allied armies which had invaded France, and espe cially amongst the Swedish troops, was con

where it assumed a malignant character.

Epidemic dysentery reigned at Lyons in 1624 and 1625, the disease having been brought by the troops returning from Italy; and in 1757, the French army, which passed At the siege of Louvain, in 1655, the army through the electorate of Mayence, spread of Louis the Fourteenth being short of pro- dysentery amongst the inhabitants along visions, and destroyed by disease, was forced the whole line of march. The town of to retire to Nimègue. The epidemic entered Mayence suffered more particularly.-Lan the city with the soldiers, made frightful (cet, June 14, 1856.

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