of quinine, are the vegetable and mineral acids, the sulphate of iron, the ergot of rye, the cold ferruginous waters, the arsenious acid, the acetate of lead, and the iodide of potassium.-Ibid.

Homeopathy. The following case of administering powerful drugs in large doses under the guise of homeopathy, is noticed in the Medical Gazette as having recently occurred in London:

"A lady who had been attended by a highly respectable general practitioner, recently consulted a homeopathic physician, who has acquired some celebrity in the fashionable quarter of the metropolis, for his skill in treating and curing diseases by infinite small doses. She received from him four small white powders, with explicit directions, (now lying before us,) one to be taken every other night,—each powder being numbered, and the night on which it was to be taken, as well as the mode of taking it, being particularly specified," all dry on the tongue." No. 1 was swallowed according to order, and the patient was soon afterwards seized with great sleepiness, stupor, and other alarming symptoms indicative of the action of a powerful narcotic. These effects were followed by diarrhea. The patient was alarmed, and instead of looking upon the result as an indication of the beneficial working of homeopathic powders, or as a means of curing her of any latent scepticism respecting the efficacy of infinite small doses, she was prudent enough to return to her old medical friend, to whom she handed the remaining powders, with the directions. This gentleman, suspecting that they contained some active narcotic, caused them to be submitted to a chemical analysis. We have now the report of this analysis before us, and of it we shall make the following abridgment. The powders were numbered 2, 3, and 4. They were similar in appearance, except that No. 3 was somewhat whiter than the other two: there was nothing to indicate that they were of different composition; and as they were to be taken in the same way on alternate nights, this could not possibly be suspected.

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Although there was no great dissimilarity in bulk, the powders were very unequal in weight. No. 2 weighed 3.4 grains; No. 3, 1.5 grains; No. 4, 2 grains. No. 2 was found, upon analysis, to consist entirely of calomel and morphia, the morphia forming not less than one grain. No. 3 contained no morphia or calomel, nor any mineral or other substance, but merely sugar of milk. No. 4 was composed of calomel and morphia, the morphia amounting to one half grain."-Prov. Med. and Surg. Journal.

Instrument for exhibiting the motions of the Chest during Respiration. Mr. SIBSON, of Nottingham, exhibited at a meeting of the Provincial Medical Association a newly-invented instrument, for the purpose of ascertaining the comparative movements of the chest in respiration. The instrument, which was of simple construction, consisted

of a dial-plate, on which were indicated degrees of the one-hundreth part of an inch, attached to which was a rack and pinion; as the rack rose, by the expansion of the chest, the pinion, which ran through, communicated with the indicator, which showed upon the dial-plate the number of degrees the chest rose, and the rack was returned by means of a spring. If the instrument was held steadily on the chest, it would show the precise amount of its expansion. Where he had the privilege, as he had at the hospital to which he was attached, he preferred his patients should be in bed to test the chest, though it could be done without, as the instrument would show the workings of the chest when a person was either sitting or standing. If he had any of the gentlemen he was then addressing with him at the bedside of a patient, they would delight in the accuracy of the working of the instrument. He was first assisted in the design of it by an operative, who was a patient in the hospital at Nottingham; but the perfect instrument which he was then shewing them, was made by Mr. Simmonds, an eminent watchmaker of London, to whom great credit was due for the accuracy of its construction. With regard to the movements of the chest in health and disease, he would remark, that out of ten patients who supposed themselves to be suffering from disease in the chest, in nine of them perhaps it was nothing of the sort, and with the assistance of that little instrument, or the spirometer of Dr. Hutchinson, which had been exhibited to them by Dr. Shearman, they could send their patients home with the pleasing fact upon their minds that they were healthy men. Mr. Sibson then went on to show that, by the instrument before the meeting, he could more accurately trace the seat of the disease in the chest, and ascertain whether the disease was seated in the upper or lower lobe of the lungs, or any part of them, as the instrument indicated the contraction and expansion caused by expiration and inspiration, and would also show the movement of the abdomen. In healthy subjects the times of inspiration and expiration were generally the same, though in many subjects there would be a pause at the conclusion of inspiration. Mr. Sibson then exemplified the working of the instrument, the accuracy of which was fully acknowleged, on his own chest, and explained that a difference of three degrees in the movement of one side of the chest as compared with the other, when indicated by the instrument, was sufficient to cause attention to be turned towards it, though it did not necessarily follow that where there was such difference, the lungs might be diseased, as abscess of the ribs, or any disease or injury of them, might cause one side of the chest to move less liberally than the other; so that they must not always conclude that the lungs were affected when they discovered this difference, as in one instance he knew, it had been caused by a diseased shoulder. He compared the instrument to a pigmy spirometer, capable of being carried in the pocket of a medical man, who, when he had to travel upon horseback, could not carry with him the valuable instrument of Mr. Hutchinson. An improved tube, used in laryngotomy, was also exhibited by Mr. Sibson; and a simple and novel construction to supersede artificial in

spiration by means of bellows, in cases of drowning, &c. The latter consisted of a piece of flat flexible metal, with a handle at the back, and covered on the face of it with a newly-discovered adhesive com. position; this being placed on the chest and gently drawn upwards. and compressed downwards, so as to carry the walls of the chest with it, would, he thought, supersede the use of the bellows in many cases. At the same time he must deprecate the pressure upon the bowels used in cases of drowning or poisoning sometimes, as he had frequently found from post-mortem examination such pressure was highly injurious. Prov. Med. and Sur. Jour.

Mercurial Treatment in Typhoid Fever. By M. SERRES.-M. Serres begins by stating that, in his opinion, typhoid fever consists in an exanthematous affection of the intestines. The febrile excitement, the diarrhea, abdominal symptoms, and cerebral manifestations are entirely governed in their progress and intensity by the intestinal eruption. In this respect M. Serres thinks that typhoid fever can be most properly compared with small pox, in which Sydenham has shown that the violence of the malady is always proportioned to the confluence or mildness of the cutaneous eruption. The professor, therefore, concludes that, by keeping the intestinal diseases under control in typhoid fever, the general reaction, its consequence, will be thereby prevented from attaining any dangerous height; and no medicine seems to M. Serres so well calculated to produce this result as mercury. Every second day M. Serres prescribes the following pills:R. Hydrarg. sulphureti cum sulphure. gr, xviij.; tragacanthæ, gr. x.; syrup q. s. fiat massa in pilul. iv. dividenda. Every morning inunctions with oz. ij. of mercurial ointment are made upon the abdomen. The treatment is suspended when incipient stomatitis is noticed. Under the influence of mercury, diarrhoea is gradually arrested, the tympanitis reduced or prevented, and, although the average duration of the malady is not diminished, still its violence is much abated.London Medical Times.

Use of the Salivary Secretion. By M. BERNARD.-The recent researches of Mialhe and others tended to show that saliva contains a ferment capable of changing starch into sugar. The experiments upon which was founded this opinion consisted in chemical researches on the fluid escaping, during a given time, from the mouths of animals. M. Bernard derives from a new series of experiments a contrary opinion. Instead of merely collecting the buccal secretions, he took the saliva from the glands themselves, and states that in this unmixed and pure condition that fluid is incapable of causing saccharine fermentation in starch. Pursuing his experiments, M. Bernard separated from the mouth of a dead horse several shreds of the mucous membrane, and found that after prolonged desiccation, they still retained the power of transforming starch into sugar. It is, therefore, the mucous membrane, and not the saliva itself, which causes this change in amylaceous substances. The function of saliva

is then simply, according to M. Bernard, to moisten the alimentary bolus, and to connect its various parts into a homogeneous paste.

Ibid.

On the entrance of Coal and other Insoluble Substances from the Intestinal Canal into the Blood. By Professor OESTERLEN, in Dorpat. Charcoal rubbed down into a fine powder, and mixed with water, was given to several animals, chiefly rabits, for from three to six days. They all swallowed about one ounce. With the exception of blackened fœcal discharges, nothing anormal was observ ed during life, and when killed, the only unusual appearance discovered was the black colour of the intestinal mucous membrane. In all the animals, however, blood taken from the mesenteric vein, the portal vein, as well as the clots found in the right cavities of the heart, in the liver, spleen, and lungs, exhibited on a microscopic examination, minute pieces of charcoal. The size of these varied from 1.300th to 1.60th, and in some instances to 1.42nd of a line. They were less numerous in the kidney and blood of the vena cava. The urine and bile contained none. Other animals fed on Berlin blue, gave exactly the same result. Thus there can be no doubt that solid and insoluble substances, after being received into the stomach may enter the mesenteric veins, and through them the general circulation.-Zeitschrift fur Rationelle Medizin, from Dub. Med. Press.

Internal Strangulation of an Intestine.-The following case recorded by Dr. Biaggini of Pestoic, possesses many points of interest, but chiefly from the cause to which it is attributed:-A boy, aged 15, was witnessing some public ceremony in the midst of a great concourse of people; he felt a desire to go to stool, but was constrained to resist from the difficulty of getting out of the crowd, or of finding a convenient place to ease himself. After enduring this for some ime, he felt as if he was exposed to a sharp cold wind, which he attributed to his being thinly clad: in this state he remained for five hours, and at last got an opportunity of retiring; but on trying at stool, he found to his surprise he was totally unable to pass anything from his bowels. He was taken into a house, where glysters were thrown up, and the abdomen was fomented. For two days he remained without any alleviation, although the enemata brought away a trifling quantity of soft fæces. The belly now became swollen and tympanic, there was constant vomiting, and a smart fever set in; in short the patient presented all the symptoms of internal strangulation of the bowels. The whole belly was sonorous on percussion above the umbilicus, but gave a dull sound below this point. Notwithstanding a variety of treatment, the distress continued until the twelfth day, when he expired.

Dissection. The peritoneum on both its visceral and parietal surfaces showed traces of very high inflammation, and there was a quantity of curdy serum in its cavity; the intestines adhered here and there by soft and recent lymph. These adhesions were carefully broken

down, and it was seen that the distension of the bowel, which existed in the upper part of the canal, ceased abruptly at the lower extremity of the ileum; at this point there was a firm tumour formed by a twisting of a knuckle of gut-covered throughout by recent bands. Below this tumour the large intestine was so contracted as not to be thicker than a ribon, or even a cat's bowel. In detaching the bands with care, that surrounded the tumour, it was found to be formed in the following manner-the mensetery was pierced by an aperture above the cœcum; it was in this hole that the knuckle of intestine was held and strangulated, and through which a portion, about a palm in length, had passed; it was twisted pon itself and was firmly fixed in its situation by the bands above mentioned. The mucous membrane of the intestine was injected, except where it was constricted by the part in which it was held.-Ibid, from Arch. Gen.

Etherization in Midwifery Practice.-In the Gazette Médicale de Strasbourg, there is a case given by M. Stoltz, where turning was deemed expedient, and before anything to that effect was done, the patient was put under the influence of the vapour of ether until insensibility to external impressions was produced. The case presenting nothing peculiar in itself, it will suffice to say that the ether neither diminished the resistance of the uterus to the introduction of the hand, nor facilitated the version or extraction of the fœtus. No accident followed to the mother from its employment however. The child had been dead on her admission into hospital.-Ibid.

Case of Strangulated Femoral Hernia successfully treated by Opium. By CHARLES MAYO, Esq., F. R. C. S., &c. Mrs. D., aged about 67, became subject to femoral hernia on the right side about four years ago, at which time it was strangulated, and after some trouble I succeeded in reducing it by the taxis. Since that time she had worn a truss, and was careful to keep it reduced. The truss had now become broken and nearly useless. After some unusual exertion on the morning of the 24th of April, she felt a large portion of bowel suddenly to protrude, she became sick, took opening pills, and laid up. On the 25th she sent to me; I found the swelling as large as an egg, painful, and tender, from her having used much exertion in endeavouring to reduce it, or push it back, as she said. She was constantly sick. I gave her a cathartic enema, and used the taxis without effect. I then left her six pills with a grain of opium in each, desiring her to take one every hour till I saw her again, beginning at 4 P. M. At nine o'clock I found that she had taken four of the pills. that the vomiting had ceased after the first, and that she was quite easy; cold cloths were kept applied to the swelling, which remained immoveable. As she was so easy, I advised the two remaining pills to be taken at intervals of four hours, another glyster to be thrown up in the course of the night, and a cathartic draught to be given at six in the morning.

April 26th. I received a message this morning that Mrs. D. was