George's Hospital.

Of the thirteen cases years been accustomed to smoke her husstill under treatment, four are primary am- band's pipe. Of the other cases, three were putations, three of the forearm, and one of excisions of the female breast, on account the arm; eight are operations performed on of scirrhous cancer; two amputations of the account of diseased joints; and one on ac- penis; one the removal of a cancerous count of a large ulcer left by a burn. Of growth from the thigh; one the removal of the latter, two are amputations in the thigh, a testis affected with medullary cancer; six in the leg, and one at the shoulder joint. and, lastly, one, the excision of a growth of All the cases are progressing favourably. malignant character, but of very slow forThe details of the last may be found in the mation, from over the wrist-joint. All of Medical Times and Gazette for Sept. 24.these, excepting two, are still under treat. Exclusive of the above, six or seven primary amputations of considerable portions of the hand or foot have been performed; they are all recovering, or have recovered satisfactorily. Of the eight cases left under treatment by our last month's report, four havement, 11. Two of these were fibrous polypi been discharged well, and the other four are proceeding satisfactorily.

ment. One case of removal of the breast reported last month has since died; the others are all convalescent.

Excision of Non-malignant Tumours.Number of cases, 17; cured, 6; under treat

of the uterus; one removed with the scissors by Mr. Wormald, from a patient in Excision of Bones. -In St. Thomas's St. Bartholomew's Hospital; the other-an Hospital, Mr. Solly removed by operation unusually large one-by Mr. Shaw, in the the carious portions of the astragalus and os Middlesex Hospital. Of the six cases recalcis from a diseased foot. In the West-ported under treatment last month, four minster Hospital, Mr. C. G. Guthrie re- have been discharged cured.

moved two metacarpal bones, on account Operations for Urethral Stricture.-Peof strumous disease. Both these patientsrineal section (Syme's) by Mr. Quain, in have progressed remarkably well, and, it is University College Hospital; the patient hoped, will save their respective limbs. remains under treatment. Mr. Simon's paMr. Solly's patient is still in the hospital; tient in St. Thomas's Hospital, alluded to Mr. Guthrie's has been sent into the last month, is still under treatment. country.

Removal of Necrosed Bone.-Number of cases, 10; recovered and discharged, 1. The nine remaining under treatment are all doing well. Of the eight cases under treatment at last report, three have since been discharged.

Excision of Malignant Growths.-Number of cases, 11. Of these, four have been for epithelial cancer of the lower lip, and three of the patients have been discharged well; in the fourth, the disease is already returning. One of these, in St. George's Hospital, under the care of Mr. Johnson, involved almost the entire lower lip, and required very free removal. The patient was an old man, and had, fortunately, lost all his front teeth, so that, with a little trou ble, the edges of the incision were brought into apposition by means of harelip pins which, under other circumstances, would have been impossible. A very respectable lip was formed. Another case, under the care of Mr. Le Gros Clarke, in Saint Thomas's Hospital, differed from what is usual, in that the patient was a woman. She was advanced in life and had for many

Paracentesis Thoracis.-In a case under the care of Dr. Chambers, in St. Mary's Hospital, of pneumothorax and secondary empyema, probably from the opening of a phthisical vomica into the pleural sac, the operation of puncturing the affected chest was performed at two distinct places by Mr. Coulson. The condition requiring it was one of great difficulty of breathing, from the compression of the left lung by the air and fluid, which distended the right pleural sac. From the first opening, which was low down on the side, only thin pus escaped; from the second, which was higher up and in front, a copious stream of air rushed out. The patient-an Irish lad of about 14-has been considerably relieved by the measures adopted; he is still in the hospital. Dr. Bennett's patient, in St. Thomas's Hospital, on whom this operation had been twice performed at the date of our last report, continues under care. The lung has considerably expanded, though the chest yet remains three parts full of fluid. The opening was closed immediately after the puncture, and the operation has not been again repeated.

Paracentesis Abdominis has been performed fifteen times; once for a very large hydatid cyst; six times on account of ova rian dropsy; and eight times for ascites. One of the latter died of peritonitis three weeks afterwards; but, as he had been without any symptom of that affection during the first fortnight, there did not appear any reason for connecting it with the operation; from all the others, the patients recovered without ill consequence. The case of hydatid cyst was under the charge of Mr. Holthouse, in the Westminster Hospital. The tumour was situated in the right hypochondrium, and, the trocar opening having been enlarged, several pints of fluid were evacuated, containing great numbers of hydatids. The man has been made an outpatient, and is now convalescent.

Ligature of Navus.-The case left by last report is still under treatment. No others have been performed.

Hospital of ununited fracture of both bones of the forearm in a healthy woman, Mr. Paget has made trial of setons introduced between the ends of the bones. They were withdrawn on the ninth day, and did not occasion any excess of inflammation or other ill consequence. It is too early yet to know whether union is in progress; the arm is kept strictly at rest on a splint.

Neurotomy for the Relief of Neuralgia.— In a case of severe neuralgia, now in King's College Hospital, Mr. Fergusson has divided the mental branch of the inferior dental nerve. A similar proceeding had, on two previous occasions, given relief to the pain for several months.

case by Mr. Paget, in St. Bartholomew's Hospital, still under treatment. Staphylo raphy.-Four cases, one of which, in a lad of 14, has failed from sloughing; the other three have been successful. The operators Radical Treatment of Hydrocele.-Num- on the three latter were Messrs. Fergusson, ber of cases, 5; 4 of which are well, and Lloyd, and Avery. Vesico-vaginal Fis1 is still under treatment. One of the suc- tula.-Two cases; one by Mr. Pollock, in cessful cases was treated by Mr. Statham, St. George's, and one by Mr. Baker Brown, in University College Hospital, by means in St. Mary's Hospital. Both cases remain of the seton. A case mentioned last month under treatment. A transplanting operaas still under care has since left the hospition for the closure of a large opening into tal for a time, the treatment pursued (injec-one side of the nose, left by ulceration, has tion of port wine) having failed to effect the been performed by Mr. Erichsen, in Uniobliteration of the sac.

Tracheotomy.―This operation has been performed three times; in each case for the relief of extreme dyspnea, consequent on syphilitic laryngitis. All the patients are convalescent, but two of them are as yet obliged to retain the canula. In the third, however, the wound has healed. (For details respecting two of these cases, see Medical Times and Gazette for Sept. 10)

versity College Hospital, and is still under treatment. Another transplanting of skin has been performed by Mr. Fergusson, in King's College Hospital, for the relief of a deformity produced by the contracted cicatrix of a burn; and it, together with a similar one by Mr. Hilton, in Guy's Hos pital, mentioned in our last report, still remains under treatment.

Extraction of Cataract has been performTenotomy.-Division of the tendo achil- {ed three times with success; once by Mr. lis for talipes equinus, by Mr. Solly, in St. Wharton Jones, in University College HosThomas's Hospital. The patient's de-pital, and by Messrs. Tatum and Johnson, formity has been cured. in St. George's. Mr. Johnson's patient was a woman of upwards of seventy. The case mentioned last month as remaining under care has been discharged well.

Operation for Fistula in Ano.-Seven cases have been operated on; all have recovered. Of the three cases remaining by last report, two are now well, and one is still under treatment.

Puncture of Bladder. - One, by Mr. Coulson, in St. Mary's Hospital. See Medical Times and Gazette, for Sept. 3, p. 244.

Operation for Artificial Pupil.—One by Mr. C. G. Guthrie, in the Westminster Hospital, still under treatment. The pupillary margin of the iris was drawn outwards and downwards, and left adherent to the wound.-Med. Times and Gaz., October 1,

Operation for the Cure of Ununited Frac-1853. ture. In a case now in St. Bartholomew's

History of the Recent Epidemic of In-ther the disease was gonorrhoea or not, but fantile Leucorrhoea, with an Account of Five he subsequently swore that, although puruCases of alleged Felonious Assaults recently lent discharges, redness, swellings, and tried in Dublin. By WILLIAM R. WILDE, excoriations, such as those children preF. R. C. S., Surgeon to St. Mark's Hospital.sented, might be occasionally the result of

(Continued from p. 158.)

dirt, or "riding upon a stick ;" and notwithstanding that there was "no laceration I now come to the medical portion of the whatever," and "no appearance of an attestimony, as well as to the details of the tempt at penetration," yet that such appart which I myself, and so many of the pearances might also be "the result of profession here, took in the subsequent violence;" upon which the magistrate at history of these two cases. Having heard, once said, that he would take the informaearly in the morning, of the man's arrest, tions, send the case for trial, and coinmit and the crime of which he was accused, Ithe man to prison, whom the medical exwrote to Mr. Fitzgerald, the eminent so-aminer also swore to be perfectly free from licitor, to request his attendance, and, pro-gonorrhoea or any venereal disease; nor did ceeding to the police-office with a county he even appear, after the most careful exmagistrate, who happened to breakfast with amination, to have ever had any affection me, I learned the particulars of the charge, of that nature.* The prisoner was then reand that Dr. Ireland, the medical officer of moved. Shocked and distressed at the rethe police, and the authority always consult of the investigation, I then left the sulted in such instances, was sent for to office without offering bail for the prisoner, examine the children, and had appointed who was sent to prison. On conferring twelve o'clock for that purpose. I then with the solicitor, he told me that, from all made an application to Mr. Bourke, the he could then learn, he did not believe the presiding magistrate, to be present at that man to be guilty; but that, at all events, examination, a request to which he at once the circumstance of both children swearing politely acceded, at the same time remark- to the commission of the act upon the selfing that he believed the prisoners had a same day and hour, without either having right to the benefit of a medical man upon seen the other, would acquit him. The such occasions. I next proceeded to that solicitor took notes of the examination; so portion of the office where the children also did the police clerk, in order to save were in charge, and delivered the magis- trouble in subsequently drawing up the trate's order to the superintendent of police, children's informations. Fortunately for the who, through the medium of a Sergeant cause of truth and science, the medical Fitzpatrick, subsequently delivered it to officer, contrary to his usual habit, swore the medical officer. I did not hold any an information in both cases, of which the communication with the prisoner, nor see following is an extract: "There is a dishim, until he was brought to the bar dur charge of purulent matter, which may ing the subsequent investigation; but I re- have been caused by some violence apturned at the appointed time, and remained plied, or might have arisen from want of with the magistrate until the medical officer cleanliness, or from riding on a stick, had arrived, about an hour afterwards. He There has not been any penetration of the informed me that he had received the mes-vagina. Could not say whether the dissage, but could not think of letting me becharge is gonorrhoea or not. That there present, as he "was a public officer, and is some excoriation which is confined to the had a public duty to perform;" but that I might make my mind easy, as both the children had a most profuse purulent discharge from the genitals, that the man was perfectly free from any disease whatever, and that he was "under the impression that the magistrate would adjudicate summarily upon the case;" with all of which I acquainted the prisoner's solicitor. The medical officer, in his examination before the magistrate, said be could not say

exterior parts of the private parts, but no laceration." The testimony was almost in the same words in both cases.

*I do not know what the usual form of exami

nation of a man accused of this crime may be in England; but I believe the rule is, in all cases, to desire a prisoner "not to say anything which might criminate himself, or might afterwards be used against him." Upon the prisoner Kane being brought before the medical officer of the police, and after the inspection was instituted, he was asked by the physician, "When did you get this little running?" to which the man indignantly replied, "I whe-beg your pardon, sir; I have not had any running."

could have been committed at the time specified, without producing so much pain and soreness as not to attract the attention of friends-whether the vaginal discharge and excoriation which these children presented, could have arisen from attempts at violation, etc.; and also as to the state of the accused, etc. It is unnecessary here to go into the minutiae of these questions, or the answers returned, which, together with two shorthand writers' notes of the trial, I intend to publish hereafter. Suffice it to say, that the answers of these four eminent authorities completely exonerated the ac cused, and showed, as far as medical evidence could show, that the crime had never been committed, and that the whole was a misconception arising out of the popular delusion so graphically detailed by Cooper nearly forty years ago.

Much dissatisfied with the police investi- found the children-as to whether such gation, and believing that the whole was a could have been the result of violence or trumped-up story, especially as I was ex-mechanical irritation-whether the assault cluded from the medical examination, I immediately after called on Dr. Geoghegan, Professor of Medical Jurisprudence, and requested him to see the children; and I also waited on Dr. Ireland, as a matter of professional etiquette, and told him of my desire to see the children, along with Dr. Geoghegan and himself; and subsequently an appointment to that effect was made for three o'clock next day. As soon as I saw the children, and recognized the disease under which they laboured, I at once saw the mistake that had been committed ; and, subsequently confirmed in my opinion by Dr. Geoghegan, I determined to offer bail for the accused (which was required to a large amount), and to defend him to the utmost of my power. The child Cosgrave appeared to be much out of health, and had recently lost a portion of the nail of one of her fingers from whitlow, which, she said, had caused her "great pain." This trivial fact is of great importance, as will appear in the sequel.

A few days after, I waited upon the attorney-general, with a written statement of what I conceived to be the facts of the case -describing the popular delusion; giving

verbatim copy of the medical men's opinions; referring him to the various medical and medico-legal opinions upon the subject; and finally giving him the minutiæ and circumstantial details of an alibi, show

My next step was to request of Mr.a Cusack, Dr. Churchill, and Dr. Hatchell, to examine the children. I chose these three persons on account of their peculiar positions in the profession-a professor of surgery to the university; a lecturer anding that the accused was not at the place distinguished writer upon the diseases of specified for four hours before nor three children; and the medical officer to the hours after the date assigned for the comconstabulary (not the metropolitan police). mission of the crime. He told me that he I procured copies of the informations from had ordered the case for trial, possessed the magistrates; from the same source Ithe most "corroborative proofs" of the obtained the services of a police constable children's statements, and could not possito conduct the medical men to the resibly receive anything offered in the prisoner's dences of the children, and, having given defence. I endeavoured to argue the case, bail for the prisoner, I took him out of pri- and show him that the crime had not been son. Placing the five informations which committed, and that the whole was a popuwere sworn in the hands of these gentle- lar prejudice founded in ignorance and sumen, and committing them to the guidance {perstition, and put to him several cases in of the police officer appointed by the magis-which it would, I thought, be his duty, as a trate, I sent them to examine the children; public prosecutor, to quash the proceedings; and I also submitted for their inspection the accused, about three o'clock upon the Monday after the Saturday upon which the case was investigated at the police office. In the course of the evening, I addressed a series of questions, twelve in number, to each of the four medical men who had examined the children and the accused, with respect to the diseased state in which they

but these he said he could not, in the present instance, possibly entertain, and added that it would not look well to give up the trial of a "doctor's servant" because other medical men came forward in his behalf. I therefore took my leave, assuring my friend, the attorney general, that I would certainly defeat him at the prosecution; as, being fully assured not only of the man's

innocence, but of the non-committal of the crime, I was determined to defend the prisoner to the utmost of my power.

The grand jury found bills of indictment in both cases, and a day was fixed for the trial.

Two very eminent lawyers, whom I waited upon, refused to undertake the case: it was a nasty one; and crimes of that na ture were not easily defended, etc.

offence; denied that she hesitated for a moment telling her mother about the cause, but acknowledged that it was her mother first asked her about the prisoner Kane. The mother and an elder daughter were examined; they, however, contradicted themselves and the child in many particulars, but were quite agreed in fixing the same day and hour as that stated by the child, and gave special reasons for their rePowerful advocates, well acquainted with membering them. The mother said the such cases, were, however, obtained. A child came home to her "crying," at the day was fixed for the three trials, one of time when the offence is alleged to have which, that of Barber, has been already de- { been committed; but acknowledged that tailed; and Professors Cusack, Beatty, and Geoghegan, and Drs. Churchill, Hatchell, and Hughes, generously came forward, at considerable inconvenience, to bear testimony upon the subject at issue. The prisoner was given in charge for the full crime of rape, viz., that of carnally knowing and abusing a child under ten years of age; and it was evident, from the array of queen's counsel, that the crown were bent upon atraining a conviction, in order, if possible, to put down that offence, which, from the number of cases which presented, appeared to be epidemic in the city, and in which they had already been foiled in the instance of Tracy. The Lord Chief Justice of the Queen's Bench (Lefroy), and the Chief Justice of the Common Pleas (Monaghan), presided. I procured the attendance of two special reporters from the newspaper offices, whose notes of the trial will appear in due

course.

she asked her was it her finger (then affected with severe whitlow, and from which she lost her nail, which was paining her, and she said it was. This crying was one of the "corroborative proofs" relied on by the crown. Dr. Ireland, the medical officer of the police, described the state of disease the children were in, and said: "I do not think a man's private parts could enter the vagina of this child; but the penis might go be. tween the labia, which were the parts diseased. I cannot say what the nature of the disease was. It might have been produced by external irritation. The irritation produced by a man's penis might, I think, produce it." And again, to the court: "I am of opinion that the discharge may have been produced by friction with the penis of a healthy man." This seemed to be, at that period of the case, the turning point of the evidence for the crown. Mr. Curren then commenced to read the opinion of Sir Astley Cooper, to which I have already referred, but was stopped by, the lord chief

The Honourable Mr. Plunkett stated the case with exceeding moderation, remarking upon the previous exceedingly good charac-justice, who said that "it was not law nor ter of the man, and saying, most justly, that evidence, but only a medical man's opinion." the principal question which would arise The witness, however, upon being referred was entirely a medical one, being as to the to the extract, said: "I perfectly concur in nature and cause of the appearances which everything stated by Sir Astley Cooper; the child Cosgrave, the first case called on, but, in the present case, I have formed my presented. The prosecutrix, nine and a opinion without reference to the views of half years old, who was an admirable wit- any other surgeon." Professor Harrison ness, went through the recital already men. was in court to watch the proceedings. He tioned, and entered very minutely into her had been sent by the crown to examine the reasons for knowing the precise hour, such children; but, having done so, he reported as looking at the clock upon her return to the authorities that he could find nothing home, and, in order to make sure, asking to warrant the conclusion that any violence her mother what o'clock it was, etc.; stated { had been attempted. Had the case for the that she walked over to her sister's, at a distant part of the city, shortly after the crime was committed; that the difficulty of} making water, soreness, and discharge commenced the day after the committal of the

crown not broken down, he would have been examined on behalf of the prisoner.

It is unnecessary here to describe the speeches of counsel, which were in their way admirable, and well calculated “to get