in fishing or hunting. Neither will he eat the coarse and unwholesome food that a recruit will swallow with avidity. The old soldiers of our regiment were the only men who would not indulge in eating red fish, oysters and crabs, whilst on the island. They were influenced, in part, by the example of the Mexicans, who eschew these luxuries during the summer months.

The country between Matamoras and the mouth of the Rio Grande, is low, with lakes every few miles, between which is interspersed the chapparel and prairie-the only elevation being the ridge of Burita, upon which the village is situated, and one nearly parallel with it on the opposite side of the river. These ridges, commencing at Burita, extend up the river about a mile. These elevations have been occupied by troops during the last summer, and I can speak for those encamped upon the ridge of Burita, as having enjoyed a very good share of health. There was a marked improvement in the health of the St. Louis Legion, after they encamped here. Red fish, oysters and crabs, could not now be obtained. Good water was within reach, and the beans were boiling in the camp ketties at an earlier hour than formerly. Here, too, was felt the delightful and invigorating sea-breeze, but sleep was not so sweet as at the Brazos. Centipedes, (some of them six inches in length,) tarantulas, and other venemous and creeping things, would travel over a man's nose, occasionally, and wake him up before reveille.

Immediately south of Burita, there is a fresh water lake of considerable size, and about half a mile on the opposite side of the ridge there is a salt lake. Fresh and salt lakes may be seen in close contiguity in this vicinity.

The Mexicans in Matamoras, and those who live at the ranches in the neighborhood, are as healthy a looking people as I ever saw. I visited, during the months of July and August last, many ranches, where I saw children, and I do not remember to have seen one child that had an unhealthy appearance. In many regions of this (Mississippi) valley, during the same months, it would not be surprising to find half the members of every family labouring under remittent and intermittent fevers. The only sick Mexican I saw whilst in the country, (except the wounded in the Hospital at Matamoras, (was a woman with intermittent fever, at Brazos Island. I was afterwards informed by an old Frenchman, who had lived for many years on a ranche near Matamoras, that the fever and ague was the only disease that prevailed in the neighbourhood, but that the chills" were not as severe as those he used to have in Louisiana-here the patient got well in a few days, without, perhaps, being obliged to keep the bed.

66

I have remarked that the Mexicans have, universally, good teethan indication, certainly of good health, and I venture the assertion that there are as many old people, according to the population, as can be found in any part of the United States. I will further state, that in Matamoras, I became acquainted with several American merchants who had resided in that city for several years. They informed me that the country was healthy-that they had enjoyed better

health in Mexico than in the United States. I therefore believe that the great mortality amongst our troops upon the Rio Grande, during the last summer was owing to the imprudence of the men-to bad cooking-to a neglect of proper police, in most of the volunteer regiments, and to the necessity which compelled the soldier to lie upon the wet ground during a wet season.

In order to show the number of diarrhea cases, in comparison with all other diseases, I will here give an extract from my monthly report of sick and wounded" for June. The regiment, during that month, was stationed at the Brazos Island.

170 936 18

2 3 8 4 286 229 12 1 38 1957 30 601 601

Most of these cases of diarrhoea were preceded by colic, and could be traced to some imprudence in eating. The most successful mode of treatment I found, was to empty the bowels with castor oil, particularly when there was tenderness or pain over the region of the abdomen, and then to administer large doses of opium, 3 or 4 grains, at intervals of four hours, until the bowels were constipated, and after waiting forty-eight hours to give a dose of castor oil and laudanum. This was the only plan of treatment that was curative. Hyd. cum. cocta. dover's powder, with calomel, etc., were given without success at first. Though the cases of diarrhoea were so numerous, yet we did not lose a man of our regiment with that disease.

Most of the cases of remittent and intermittent fevers supervened upon diarrhoea. The remittent fevers were of a low form and very obstinate in their character. What retarded recovery, especially in these cases, was a despondent state into which almost every patient sank. After a man had suffered with fever for a week, he either made up his mind to die, or became so dejected that it was almost impossible to persuade him that he would recover, or to rouse his feelings in any way. I saw a few cases of pure nostalgia, and I believe there were many such, during the first six months of service, amongst the young men of the army. The marasmus, after remittent fever, was striking, and convalescence remarkably slow. These patients had the same cadaverous appearance and haggard expression of countenance as is common to children who are laboring under tabes mesenterica. There was also that loose and wrinkled condition

of the skin of the abdomen which is common in such cases. Diffu. sible stimulants were very freely given in these cases, and with the most happy effects.

Two cases of wounds came under my notice that are worth mentioning, on account of the result. The first occurred in the Fifth Louisiana Regiment, (Col. Peyton's,) whilst stationed at Burita. Two men, previously good friends, had been drinking together, when an altercation ensued, and one of them drew a large Bowie knife and plunged it into the breast of the other. I reached the wounded man at the same moment with the surgeon of his regiment. On examination, we found a piece of the lung, two and a half, or three inches in length, protruding from the wound, which was about an inch below the left nipple-the knife passing between the ribs, downwards and outwards. The wound was at least three inches in length. After consultation, we concluded to introduce the wounded portion of lung within the thorax, and to close the external wound with the interrupted suture. The man was kept upon the most strict antiphlogistic treatment, and some twelve or fifteen days after, when I last saw him, there was every reason to believe that he would entirely recover. The knife with which this wound was given was two inches wide, and it must have penetrated the lung, four inches. On reflection I am not convinced that our practice in this case was the best that could have been adopted. The wounded portion of lung had only an attachment of three-fourths of an inch, and would it not have been better surgery to have clipped it off than to have replaced it within the cavity of the chest?

The other was a case of gun-shot wound, which occurred accidentally. A man was shot in the left axillæ, with a musket ball; the man who fired the gun being immediately opposite, and about one hundred and twenty yards distant. Being absent from camp I did not see the wounded man until the evening of the second day after the accident. On examination I could find no signs of the ball. The man was laboring under distressing dyspnea. I learned that he had expectorated blood freely, when first shot, but now his cough was suppressed, and he could not expectorate at all. The left cavity of the chest seemed to be half full of blood, and on raising the man and turning him on the left side, at least half a pint of blood escaped through the wound. The following day he was bled twice, and the treatment was strictly antiphlogistic. About a week after, the track of the ball was plainly to be seen. After passing through the chest it made its exit half way, and just below the spine of the scapula; thence glancing inwards and downwards, lodged near the spinous process of the twelfth dorsal vertebræ, where I extirpated it. Beattie, the man whose wound I have just been describing, lives in this city. Prior to the accident he was a robust and healthy man, but he has now become thin and wan, and is frequently troubled with a cough. St. Louis Med. and Surg. Jour.

Case of Doubtful Sex. By WM. JAMES BARRY, M. D., of Hartford, Conn.-In March, 1843, I was requested to examine the case of Levi Suydam, aged 23 years, a native of Salisbury, Conn. At the exciting and warmly contested election of the spring of this year, almost everything bearing the semblance of the human form, of the male sex, was brought to the ballot-box. It was at this time, and under these circumstances, that the above mentioned person was presented, by the whigs of Salisbury, to the board of Select-men, to be made a freeman: he was challenged by the opposite party on the ground that he was more a female than a male, and that, in his physical organization, he partook of both sexes.

The following was the result of the first examination. On exposing his person, I found the mons veneris covered in the usual way, an imperforate penis, subject to erections, and about two inches and a half in length, with corresponding dimensions, the dorsum of the penis connected by cuticle and cellular membrane to the pubis, leav ing about one-inch and a half free, or not bound up, and towards the pubic region. This penis has a well formed glans with a depression in the usual place of the meatus urinarium, a well defined prepuce, with foramen, &c. The scrotum not fully developed, inasmuch as it was but half the usual size, and not pendulous. In the scrotum, and on the right side of the penis, one testicle of the size of a common filbert, with spermatic cord attached. In the perineum, at the root of the corpora cavernosa, an opening through which micturition was performed, this opening large enough to admit the introduction of an ordinary sized catheter. Having found a penis, and one testicle, though imperfectly developed, and without further examination, I gave it as my opinion, that the person in question was a male citizen, and consequently entitled to all the privileges of a freeman.

On the morning of the 1st Monday in April, (Election day,) I was informed that Dr. Ticknor would oppose Suydam's admission. Suydam came forward, Dr. Ticknor objected. I then stated to the meeting, that from an examination I had made, I pronounced the person in question to be a male, and requested that Dr. Ticknor might, with the consent of Suydam, retire into an adjoining room, and examine for himself. This was done, when Dr. Ticknor stated to the meeting that he was convinced that Suydam was a male. Suydam accordingly was admitted a freeman-voted-and the whig ticket carried by one majority!

A few days after the election, it was told me that Suydam had regular catamenia. I then commenced further investigations, and learned from Mrs. Ayres, the sister of Suydam, that she had washed for him for years, and that he menstruated as regularly, but not as profusely, as most women. I next saw Suydam, who very unwillingly confessed that such was the fact. I then requested him to meet Dr. Ticknor and myself the next day at my office; when the following additional particulars were elicited. Said Suydam is five feet two inches in height, light colored hair, fair complexion, with a beardless chin, and decidedly of a sanguineous temperament, nar

row shoulders, and broad hips; in short, every way of a feminine figure. Well developed mammæ, with nipples and areola. On passing a female catheter into the opening through which micturition was performed, and through which, he again stated, he had a monthly, periodical, bloody discharge, instead of traversing a canal and drawing off urine, the catheter appeared to enter immediately, a passage similar to the vagina, three or four inches in depth, and in which there was considerable play of the instrument. He stated that he had amorous desires, and that, at such times, his inclination was for the male sex; his feminine propensities, such as a fondness for gay colors, for pieces of calico, comparing and placing them together, and an aversion for bodily labor, and an inability to perform the same, were remarked by many.

I further learned from an old lady who was present at the birth of Suydam, that on the second day after his birth, Dr. Delamater, who attended as accoucheur, made with an instrument, the opening through which he has ever since performed micturition.-New York Jour. of Med.

Death by Strychnine-Report on the case of the late Dr. W. C. WARNER. At a late meeting of the Addison County Medical Society of Vermont, the undersigned were appointed a committee to ascertain the facts in the case of one of their members, the unfortunate William Cullen Warner, M. D., of Bristol, who deceased, suddenly, at Montpelier, October 11th, 1846, in the thirty-ninth year of his age, while he was a member of the Legislature.

On account of there having been considerable discrepancy in the published reports in relation to this melancholy event, the committee addressed letters of inquiry to the Hon. Daniel O. Onion, M. D., of the Vermont Senate, and to Charles W. Horton, M. D., Member of the House, each of whom, they had learned, were present during most, if not all, the period of the sudden and tragical event. To the inquiries of the committee, each of these gentlemen has given prompt and satisfactory replies, which in substance are here subjoined.

1. In your opinion how much sulphate of strychnia was taken? To this Dr. Onion answers, "I think probably from one-fourth to one-half a grain. As he intended to take, and supposed he was taking, morphia, he would be likely to use the same quantity he was in the habit of using of that article, although there was no evidence at the time of the quantity taken." To Dr. Horton, who was called into the room immediately after the accident, Dr. Warner said, "Dr., I have taken by accident an over dose of morphine; help me if you can," at the same time handing him the phial enveloped in

paper.

2. How soon after was any effect produced?

Dr. Horton says, "It is my opinion, from facts subsequently obtained from Gen. W. Nash, who occupied the same room with him, that he felt the effects in less than five minutes."