born about an hour-placenta not delivered, but she is flooding profusely, which alarmed the midwife-removed the placenta and gave Morphia grs, ss.-friction with pressure over uterus-sent for ice-hemorrhage somewhat less-her face is blanched and anxious pulse very frequent-passed a lump of ice as large as a walnut into the uterus which was followed by expulsion of coagula and firm contraction-repeated Morphia gr. and left her in care of midwife. She had no return of hemorrhage and subsequently did well.

CASE III. Called in consultation with Dr. W. of M., to see Mrs. M., a large, fleshy woman, who has had miscarriages at the third month of utero-gestation. The foetus has been thrown off for several hours, but placenta retained-frightful hemorrhage supervened, during which she has twice fainted while in the horizontal posture the placenta can be felt through the os uteri with the point of the fore-finger-sent for ice, and during the absence of the messenger, endeavored to extract the placenta with Dewees' Placental Hook, but failed. Dr. W. had previously used Morphia, Acetate Lead, cold applications, etc., but the flooding continued, though in a more moderate degree. From her general appearance, coldness of surface, feeble pulse, etc., she must soon sink, if not quickly relieved. At this juncture the ice came, and we prepared a crystal about the size of the index finger, and passed it through the os into the cavity of the uterus, as far as possible, and allowed it to melt; the flooding ceased and did not return again, although the placenta was not thrown off for 30 hours afterward. She recovered.

CASE. IV. April 22d, 1849. Mrs. O., after a natural and easy labor was delivered of a second child-placenta followed in 15 minutes, bandaged her and left her doing well.

May 30th, called to her in haste-says she was taken "unwell" yesterday, the discharge growing more profuse ever since-(there is a case of cholera in the next room and she is badly frightened)her bed is now saturated with blood, and she is flooding rapidlyos uteri easily admits the fore-finger, and is soft and dilatable. Gave her Acet. and Opium, applied douche of cold water, ordered ice and used the plug-hemorrhage still profuse-complains of giddiness and singing in the ear, pulse very frequent and feebleface blanched-re-applied cold douche but without effect-her husband, after considerable delay brought the ice-removed the plug which was followed by a considerable gush of blood-introduced into the uterus several pieces of ice the size of a chestnutthe effect of stopping the flooding was instantaneous. May 31st. Has had no occurrence of hemorrhage since the use of the ice. June 1st. The discharge from the uterus scarcely stains her cloth. She recovered.

We hope the above detail is sufficient to give an idea of its application; we have never tried it in a case of Placenta Prævia. As

to being "something new" we do not know nor care: if by making the practice more generally known through the pages of your val uable journal, we are instrumental in saving one poor woman from death by Uterine Hemorrhage, we are fully compensated.--[Cincinnati Medical Observer.

1. Convulsions in Children considered in an Etiological Point of View. 2. Whooping Cough. Translated from the French, by M. MORTON DOWLER, M. D., New Orleans. (L'Union Médicale, July 22, 1856. Journal für Kinderkrankheiten, 1856, et Annales Médicales de Flandre occid,, Juillet, 1856.

I. Convulsions, it is known, are amongst the most frequeut symptoms of the morbid affections of infancy. M. Tilner, of St. Petersburg, has made the different conditions by which convulsions are produced, a subject of special study, the chief of which he has found to be the following:

1. Convulsions proceeding from a morbid condition of the nervous system. In this category must be included all of the organic modifications of the brain-as congestion, inflammation and its consequences, softening, foreign bodies, exostoses, etc. These are the most frequent causes of the convulsive affections of infancy, and have little that is favorable in the prognosis. Most of these affections, it is true, can only be considered as secondary, and as proceeding from a dyscrasia originating in derangements of the digestive organs, or from functional anomalies presenting themselves under the form hyperæmia, and serous effusions. The convulsive phenomena which these causes provoke, carry with them the character of legitimate cerebral convulsions, are either tonic or clonic in their character; but always accompanied with a loss of consciousness more or less marked, and in these diseases present themselves as a precursor of death-and they come on quickly, and sometimes periodically. The cerebral affection may extend itself to the spinal marrow, and then tetanic convulsions show themselves.

2. Convulsions which proceed from a pathological condition of the blood. The causes are: a, by toxicosis, from medicines and poisons, such as narcotics, directly producing cerebral convulsions, nux vomica, and strychnia, giving rise to tetanic symptoms, which haye their starting point in the spinal marrow; b, by toxicosis, from the maternal milk, vitiated by the use of spirituous liquors, or by violent mental emotions; c, by modification of the blood in acute exanthemata. This cause often produces convulsions before the eruption of the exanthem, and convulsions may also occur be fore the accession of fever in intermittents; d, by sanguineous modification in phlebitis, and especially in suppurative inflamma.

tion of the umbilical vessels, which, as is well known, may cause tetanic convulsive symptoms.

3. Convulsions take their origin in a morbid condition of the digestive organs. These are the most common kind of convulsions and this we might readily anticipate, from the improper alimentation which we witness amongst both the rich and the poor. This cause becomes especially powerful at certain periods of infancy, such as those of dentition and weaning, and in the presence of worms in the intestinal canal.

4. Convulsions arise from certain conditions of the organs of respiration; such as those which supervene in the latter stage of bronchitis and pneumonia, and they are, as is well known, often the result of whooping-cough and laryngismus stridulus.

5. Convulsions accompany diseases of the urinary organs, and we may here specially note the eclamptic symptoms which manifest themselves in children attacked with albuminuria.

6. Convulsions proceed from a morbid condition of the genital organs. The writer recalls to mind a case of convulsions, in a boy four years old, in consequence of the retention of a testicle in the inguinal canal.

7. Convulsions arise from diseases of the osseous system. Amongst these may be named rachitic malformation of the cranium.

In view of this aetiological tableau of the convulsions of infancy, we may offer the following reflections: The convulsions called cerebral, are amongst the most frequent of the affections of infancy. Nevertheless, the primitive cerebral affections are very rare in children. The convulsive manifestations are more often the consequence of the extension of other acute and chronic diseases which manifest themselves symptomatically, producing ultimately convulsions at the precise period when the brain begins to parti cipate in the morbid condition.

Next in the order of frequency, come convulsions from reflex action, which have their starting point in the intestinal canal, manifesting themselves ordinarily after the prolonged existence of intractable abdominal disease. Notwithstanding, the diseases of the digestive apparatus may also accompany secondary cerebral affec tions, which are in a condition to produce cerebral convulsions. The convulsions arising from a morbid condition of the spinal marrow, are rare, especially in the pure form; for they appear more often as subsequent phenomena to cerebral spasms, than as an affection of the brain, propagated to the spinal marrow. It is to a morbid alteration of the blood that we are to look for the most frequent cause of tetanic spasms, though the latter may have their origin under certain climatic circumstances.

II. On the Seat and Nature of Whooping Cough. (Gazette Hebdom adaire de Médecine et de Chirurgie, of August 22, 1856. Academy of Sciences.)

M. Beau has satisfied himself, by numerous anatomical investigations, that whooping-cough is an inflammation of the mucous membrane which covers the supra-glottidian region of the larynx; that is to say, the narrow zone which is situated between the superior orifice of the organ, and the superior vocal chord. When the muco-purulent product, secreted by the inflamed membrane, comes in contact with the glottis, it determines the production of suffocative symptoms, similar to those which are experienced when any one has, as is said in popular language, swallowed the wrong way. All at once the glottis is closed, and there results, from this, an acute erowing inspiration, which is followed by the violent paroxysmal and jerking cough, which constitutes expiration; and this cough causes the expulsion of a considerable quantity of pituitous liquid to be cotemporaneously secreted. The muco-purulent matter which has come in contact with the glottis is the cause of these symptoms, and its tenacity and adhesiveness causes it to be with difficulty expelled.

The phlegmasial nature of the disease is perfectly evinced to M. Beau, from the following considerations: 1, the march of the disease, which exhibits a catarrhal period, or a state of acute supraglottidian laryngitis, and a nervous period or chronic state, in which the suffocative symptoms are at once more intense and more frequent, from the fact that the secretion of muco-pus is also more free and abundant; 2, from the influence of moral causes on the paroxysms of cough provoked by the inflammatory secretion, which emotion has rendered more active; 3, from the special sensation of constriction about the throat; 4, from its contagion-for the contained, and in some sort volatile, corpuscles of the inflammatory matter, may very readily, after having been expelled in expiration, be inspired by other individuals, and deposit itself in the healthy larynx, which thus becomes inflamed by the contagious influence.-New Orleans Med. & Surg. Journal.

On Nux Vomica in Constipation. By J. H. HOUGHTON, Esq., Dudley.

[We are constantly consulted by patients who tell us that they hardly ever have their bowels moved without taking medicine. They have generally tried every kind which we can recommend, and the only consolation we can give them is, that they must ring the changes and increase the doses. The effect of this is often only to aggravate the mischief and hasten on some of the thousand and one ill consequences which we may expect from such a state of affairs. As the result of much experience, Mr. Houghton says

that in nux vomica we have a remedy capable of relieving many cases of this nature, of which he gives the following:-]

CASE 1. December 4th. Emma Gibbs, aged 29, came under my care at the Dispensary on October 3rd, suffering from an attack of congestion of the uterus and vagina, which yielded to local depletion, rest, baths, &c. She is naturally of a delicate frame and constitution, and was left very much debilitated by the attack. She got relief to her debility by taking quinine and iron; but during the whole of the time her bowels were unmanageable and obstinately costive. To relieve this, she has taken, and had given to her, castor oil, senna mixture, pills, and, last of all, pills containing two parts of colocynth and one of henbane. Of these, at first, she took two with relief; then three became necessary, and then four; she then took four at night, and followed it by castor oil in the morning, and thus obtained a motion once in two or three days, with much pain and trouble. On the 13th of November I I gave her twelve pills, consisting of 3ss of henbane, j of compound extract of colocynth, and gr. iij of extract of nux vomica, and desired her to take one every night, and to continue her tonics as usual. From that time to the present (three weeks) she has taken one pill every night, and had one comfortable motion every morning, without the aid of any other aperient, and her health has much improved.

CASE. 2. Sarah Silvester, aged 35, applied to the Dispensary on December 16th, suffering from a severe attack of gastrodynia, attended by some derangement of the uterus. I extract the following from my notes:-Tongue furred, yellow, indented by the teeth, moist. Appetite bad; violent pain after eating, worse at times; frequent regurgitation of food, sometimes vomiting; sometimes she is compelled to produce vomiting before she can get relief after eating. Bowels habitually costive, and very unmanage able. Her habit is to take medicine twice a week, after which she has two or three stools, and then the bowels do not act again till she again takes medicine. She says she has taken "all sorts of medicine," including many quack pills, for the relief of her bowels, but only with temporary benefit, the bowels returning to their inactive state. She had bismuth three times a day, and the pill before named every night.

December 19th. One motion daily, with perfect comfort; she has not been so comfortable in her bowels for years. Gastrodynia and vomiting much relieved.

January 16th (thirty-two days). She has taken one pill every night, and had one motion every day with comfort. The pills have never missed. Her stomach symptoms are relieved.

February 13th. She was at the Dispensary to-day. She has taken one pill every night, now two months, and it has never failed. Authorities are very silent on the peculiar property of the nux vomica which I am now discussing. The last edition of "The