with previous experience. "Such an account would better accord the library of the late Professor Caspar The vitality Wistar, of the University of Pennsylvania. of a patient enfeebled by age and disease, proves to be easily depressed, and after giving to the operator good and sufficient warning of his enfeebled condition, he succumbs; an occurrence which may serve as a fresh and salutary lesson to the surgeon to exercise care during anæsthesia by ether, and still more by chloroform, of a system thus depressed; but an accident we believe to be impossible to ether, with the pulse held and the respiration attended to. "On the other hand, we repeat, no precaution yet devised by human ingenuity will prevent the insidious shock of chloroform, in even a small dose, from occasionally and abruptly killing a healthy subject. This is the peculiar and usual death from chloroform, and of its approach, neither pulse nor breathing gives indication." Library of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. The increase in this library during the past year has been very large, amounting to 862 volumes; this includes quite a number of valuable works from the library of the late Prof. Jackson, liberally presented to the college by his widow. The whole number of volumes at present in the Library is 16,349; besides 1251 duplicates, which latter will be sold and the amount realized therefrom devoted to the purchase of other works. The above enumeration does not represent the actual number of works in the library, as frequently two or more of the small books are bound together, and in many instances a number of pamphlets are bound together in a single volume. son. Nassau, N. P.-This place, from its mild climate and its excellent hotel accommodations, is coming into favour as a resort for invalids during the winter seaIt may be interesting to invalids from the United States to know that Dr. S. Conant Foster, an eminent physician of New York, has recently taken up his residence and will engage in the practice of medicine at Nassau. OBITUARY RECORD.-Died in Philadelphia, Dec. 9, 1872, RENÉ LA ROCHE, M.D., at the mature age of 78. Dr. L. was one of the oldest, most respected, and learned members of the profession in this city. His contributions to our literature were numerous and valuable. Among the most important of these we may refer to his exhaustive work on yellow fever, which is a monument of careful, patient, and elaborate research; and a valuable monograph on malarial pneumonia. He also contributed numerous reviews and original articles to various medical journals. He was, also, a gentleman of general literary culture and of great musical taste, and at one time possessed the best collection in this country of works relating to that art. He is reported to have left a manuscript work on the physiological effects of music, which doubtless, like his other literary efforts, will be characterized by extensive research and a full knowledge of the subject. FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. We may further state that since the above account was drawn up, the college has received from the widow of the late Nocturnal Incontinence of Urine treated Dr. Mifflin Wistar a number of rare and by Hydrate of Chloral.-Dr. GIROLAMO valuable books, mostly folios, including LEONARDI has recorded, in the Ippocratico the great works of Mascagni on the ab- of Naples, the results of the use of chlosorbents, of Scarpa on hernia and on the ral in three cases of incontinence of urine. nerves, of Walter, Gall, and Spurzheim, The administration of the drug very Vicq D'Azyr, Reil, Lapeyronie, Fischer, rapidly effected complete and permanent Monro, etc., all of which formed part of cure. Together with the administration of chloral, Dr. Leonardi recommended very little drink to be taken in the evening. In the first case, a scrofulous woman, aged twenty-four, who had been constantly suffering from the complaint since the age of eighteen, chloral administered in doses of fifteen grains every night during five nights, and of fifteen grains every second night during ten nights, was remarkably successful. The incontinence was immediately stopped. A course of chloral was continued from time to time. The second case was that of a child, aged seven, who took only one-third of a grain of chloral for five nights. The third case was quite as successfully treated in the same way.-Lancet, October 26, 1872. On Myocarditis and Endocarditis in Cases of Diphtheria, Croup, and Membranous Angina. In a lecture recently delivered at the Hôpital des Enfants, Dr. BOUCHUT laid stress on the frequency of disease of the heart in cases of diphtheria and other septic diseases. The endocarditis, he said, was valvular and parietal, of a proliferating character, and was accompanied by fibrinous deposits on the diseased walls, and of large ventricular clots. The fibrinous deposits adhering to the diseased valves may become loose, and be carried away by the blood into the aorta or pulmonary artery, and there give rise to embolisms. These embolisms form infarcti of the lungs, followed by metastatic abscesses and cutaneous infarcti, with or without consecutive abscesses and infarcti of the brain, which may produce cerebral softening.-Lancet, October 26, 1872. Calcareous Infiltration of the Heart.— Dr. COATS, Pathologist to the Royal Infirmary, and Lecturer on Pathology in the University of Glasgow, has recently called attention in the Glasgow Medical Journal to two cases of a very rare affection calcareous infiltration of the muscular fibre of the heart. Indeed, in regard to one of the cases he records, Dr. Coats states that he does not find, either in English or foreign literature, any description of a similar lesion. The lime salts had been deposited in the muscular fibre in the form of minute round granules, the appearance resembling, both to the naked eye and microscopically, that of fatty degeneration. The salt was probably composed entirely of phosphate of lime. The case was one of chronic bronchitis and emphysema, with a possible syphilitic taint. In the other case, the condition of the muscular fibres closely resembled that described by H. Meyer and Förster, and alluded to by Rokitansky. The muscular fibres of the heart, much resembling asbestos in appearance, were converted into rigid cylinders, having a considerably crystalline texture. The lime salt was deposited more homogeneously, and consisted in great part of carbonate of lime, which effervesced on the addition of hydrochloric acid. The morbid specimen was removed from a patient who died of pyæmia.-Lancet, October 19, 1872. Alleged Substitute for Quinia. - M. GUSTAVE DORAY, a pharmacien residing at St. Lô, has addressed to the Academy of Medicine in Paris a note on the febrifuge and anti-periodic properties of the Laurus nobilis. He states that Drs. Letouzé, Alibert, and Scelles, of Mondésert, have given it in thirty-four cases, of which twenty-eight were successful; some being cases of pernicious intermittent and others of obstinate ague. The medicine is given in the form of a powder of the dried leaves, one gramme of which is administered two hours before the expected paroxysm. The Academy has appointed a Commission, consisting of MM. Mialhe, Gobley, and Bussy, to report on the value of the remedy.-Ibid. Therapeutical Administration of Metals in Cod-liver Oil.-Herr GODIN recommends, in place of the ordinary solutions of the metallic salts, their solution in codliver oil by means of benzoic acid. Codliver oil can thus be made to take up benzoate of iron and benzoate of mercury. Benzoate of iron is a beautiful orangecoloured salt of stable character, which increases the therapeutic activity of cod-liver oil. The iron salt conceals the unpleasant taste of the oil, and at the same time no anaesthetic is employed, more esperenders it more digestible.—Practitioner, cially in those cases where alcohol has Nov. 1872, from Therapeutisches Beitrage zur Allgem. Med. Zeitung, No. 31. The Superiority of Ether as an Anaesthetic Agent. On Friday, the 29th ult., this question was freely brought before the Surgical Society of Ireland by Mr. Morgan. He introduced the question to the members with a view of eliciting full discussion of the subject as to the rival qualities of the two anæsthetics which are admittedly most suitable for surgical practiceEther and Chloroform. He questioned whether chloroform either hitherto deserved or could longer retain the confidence of the Profession, now that deaths are more constantly reported from its use, and that they have reached, notwithstanding all precautions to the contrary, an alarming number. It is stated that in these countries the proportion is one weekly; and, if we allow that these only represent the cases of immediate death from the influence of the inhalation, we must admit it is no mean estimate. The meeting was the largest known for some years, and the subject was found to be of such moment that its discussion was postponed to the next evening meeting. Medical Press and Circular, Dec. 4, 1872. been liberally indulged in as a habit, and where, therefore, a larger amount of chloroform than usual is needed to produce the requisite amount of anesthesia. "I have long been in the habit of employing equal parts of chloroform and ether in all cases of labour, and consider that the risks, both primary and secondary, are less than when the former is given by itself; there are less nausea and depression, and the tendency to hemorrhage is diminished." Vaccination in Smallpox.-The Allgemeine Wien. Med. Zeitung states that the following conclusions, though not based on statistical returns, have been arrived at by those physicians who have watched the progress of the present epidemic of smallpox in Vienna. 1. The mortality from smallpox is nearly ten times as great in the unvaccinated as in the vaccinated. 2. The average intensity of the disease is also much greater in the former than in the latter. 3. Hemorrhagic smallpox is much more common in the unvaccinated. 4. In the children's hospital, where the mortality from variola is very great, and hemorrhagic cases very frequent, the unvaccinated suffer most. Similar conclusions have already been arrived at in this country; and the experience of the Vienna physicians is an additional testimony to the value of vaccination. We trust that sufficiently careful records have been made during the present epidemic to afford a basis for a statistical statement, when the scourge shall have passed away, of the influence of vaccination on smallpox.-Ibid. Chloroform in Obstetric Practice.- Dr. ARTHUR W. EDIS, Physician to the British Lying-in Hospital, states (Brit. Med. Journ., Nov. 16, 1872), "When called in consultation in difficult cases of labour, I have more than once been compelled to desist from my efforts at assistance, as in the application of forceps or turning, and direct all my attention to the prevention of what threatened to be a fatal issue from chloroform-the natural Removal of one-half the Tongue.-Drs. desire of the practitioner to watch the PUCCIONI and Gozzini, of Florence, have details of the operation possibly con- just performed removal of one-half of the tributing to this result, as well as the tongue, in a case of epithelioma, by means exhaustion induced by the prolonged suf- of the galvano-caustic wire. The whole fering to which the patients had been operation did not last seven minutes, prosubjected before assistance had been duced scarcely any suffering, was without sought. Apart from the danger of incau- the slightest loss of blood, and attended tious administration of chloroform, I fear by no febrile reaction. The authors emwe must admit that the tendeney to post-ployed the double-wire process which partum hemorrhage is greater than when they have invented.-Lancet, Nov. 2, 1872. A Certain Sign of Death.-Dr. HUGO | to be expected that a surgeon should be MAGNUS, assistant physician in the hos- found to lay before students at University pital at Breslau, states (Virchow's Archiv, College the sort of views which are exAug. 1872) that indications of death pressed in the oration delivered by Mr. drawn from the circulation of the blood Christopher Heath, of which we last week and from the respiratory movements are published the abstract. He desired them of the utmost value, since if these have to understand that the work required for entirely stopped it is impossible that life the degrees of the London University imcan be maintained. Dr. Magnus recom- plied, except for the purposes of merely mends that a ligature should be tied honorary distinction, so much time thrown tightly round some member of the body-away. If they had abundance of spare a finger is well adapted for the purposewhen, if the slightest trace of life remain, increased redness will be observed in the part beyond the ligature. The tint gradually becomes darker and deeper till ultimately it assumes a bluish-red, and this tint is uniform from the tip to the point where the ligature is applied, except that in the immediate proximity of the ligature is a white line. This test appears to be a good one, and is founded on physiological facts.-The Practitioner, Nov. 1872. Post-mortem Delivery.-Two cases of this are recorded in the Indian Med. Gaz. Aug. 1, 1872, one by Dr. CLAGHORN, the other by Dr. BAILLIE. The subject of the first case was brought for examination and remained in the dead house all night. In the morning Dr. C., found a foetus about the fifth month of utero-gestation inclosed in its membranes lying between the thighs of the corpse. Dr. C. says he has met with another case of this kind. The subject of Dr. B.'s case had died from snake-bite, and was placed in the dead-house. The next morning a foetus was found to have been expelled during the night and lay between the mother's legs. The body was very much decom posed. time and cash, they might aim at the decorations, since other people seem to think a good deal of them; but for this purpose thay must waste their time in learning science.' Such dicta are very likely to be acceptable to students; for to follow them saves a great deal of trouble, and to adopt them affords a cheap sneer at the distinctions which they will probably fail to gain, and at the knowiedge and power which they will neither acquire nor appreciate." "The Arabian rage against books and learning has lost some of its importance; but it seems still to be as innate in the uncultivated mind as when it lit the flames of Alexandria, and sought to deliver over the world to practical men, whose common sense dispensed with learning, and achieved two centuries of intellectual dulness. This is not the moment to attack the foundations of higher education, or to endeavour to arrest the efforts which we are making to train a race of well-grounded investigators, who shall not be content to leave original investigation to Germany or to France, or to live in abject veneration of the few who know how to handle the facts, while they themselves have but learnt by rote the words or formulæ of medical science. We would have a race of real, earnest, cultivated workers; and for this end it is advisable that Mr. Heath's advice should be noted as precisely indicating the point of view which is most to be shunned, and the course which is to be most strictly avoided. " NEW AND IMPORTANT MEDICAL WORKS. Just Issued. GROSS'S SYSTEM OF SURGERY; Pathological, Diagnostic, Therapeutic, and Operative. Illustrated with over Fourteen Hundred Engravings on Wood. Fifth Edition, thoroughly Revised and greatly Enlarged and Improved. In two very large and handsome imperial octavo volumes, containing nearly 2300 closely printed pages, on small type; leather, raised bands, $15 00. THOMAS'S PRACTICAL TREATISE ON THE DISEASES OF WOMEN. With about Two Hundred and Fifty Illustrations. Third Edition, Enlarged and thoroughly Revised. In one large and handsome octavo volume of 784 pages; leather, $6 00; extra cloth, $500. SMITH'S TREATISE ON THE DISEASES OF CHILDREN. 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