especially with Medical Science can be more speedily, systematically, generally, and thoroughly investigated and examined. On motion of Dr. Roddey, of Virginia, the resolution of Dr. Zeigler was taken up, and referred to a Committee, consisting of Drs. Zeigler, Roddey, and Jackson, of Pennsylvania. a full account, compiled from official and other reliable sources, of the proceedings of our National Medical Congress during its recent meeting. A considerable portion of the session was occupied in the reading of papers and the reception of reports from committees appointed to investigate subjects of practical and scientific interest. These were all ordered for publication, and will constitute a volume of equal interest and value with any that has preceded it. Com Dr. Campbell of Georgia, submitted a paper or a question of priority in reference to the discovery of the reflex relation subsisting between the cerebro-spinal and symparatively but little time was devoted to the pathetic system of nerves. discussion of legislative matters, and no Referred to Committee on Publication. measures of importance of this character Dr. Miltenberger, of Maryland, offered were adopted. Attention was called to certhe following resolution, which was seconded tain abuses, and plans for their reform subby Dr. Atlee, and unanimously adopted :-mitted; but it was shown on discussion that Resolved. That the cordial thanks of the it was much easier to point out evils, than American Medical Association be, and they to devise effectual means for remedying are hereby tendered to the Committee of them, and all the projects of that character Arrangements, the profession, and the citi-were either referred to committees to colzens generally of New York, for the gene-lect information and report at the next meetrous and elegant hospitality extended to-ing, or were laid on the table for future wards its members during its present session. consideration. Dr. W. Hooker, of Connecticut, proposed We must not omit to do justice to the a vote of thanks to the officers of the public liberal arrangements made by our brethen institutions which had been thrown open for of New York for the reception and entermembers of the Association during theirtainment of the members of the Association. stay. Their hospitalities were on the most muniDr. Bolton, of Virginia, moved the thanksficent and extensive scale. The great dinof the Association to the Press of this City, for its accurate reports of their proceedings. Dr. Cox. of Maryland, proposed a vote of thanks to the officers of the Association, for the very able manner in which they have discharged their duties. ner, given at the Metropolitan Hall, the most magnificent saloon in our country, with its splendidly frescoed dome, its spa{cious floor covered with tables beautifully decorated and bountifully supplied with every luxury that money could purchase, and its galleries filled with ladies, presented the most brilliant spectacle we have ever witnessed. Nothing, indeed, was omitted which the most prodigal hospitality and The members of the Association were then invited to meet on board the steamboat, at foot of Pier No. 3, to-morrow morning at 9 o'clock, and proceed to visit the public institutions belonging to the City of Newlavish expenditure could supply for the en York. The President congratulated members on the close of their deliberations, and expressed his wish that they should have a safe return to their homes, and should all meet at St. Louis next year. tertainment of the Association, and to do credit to New York hospitality. The Norwalk Catastrophe.-The adjournment of the late meeting of the Association The Association then adjourned sine die. was immediately succeeded by an awful MEDICAL NEWS. DOMESTIC INTELLIGENCE. American Medical Association.-In the initial article in this number, we have given catastrophe, which has left the Association to deplore the loss of six of its prominent and useful members. A few days afterwards a meeting of dele gates to the late Medical Convention, still remaining in New York, was held at the Bleecker Street Church, for the purpose of expressing the feelings of the Association on the loss of several members of that body by meeting, and a Committee was appointed to consider the best method of providing some memorial in commemoration of the terrible disaster. The names of the Committee were Joseph M. Smith, M. D., F. C. Stew the late railway catastrophe at Norwalk. Dr. The resolutions were adopted by the Joseph M. Smith was appointed President of the meeting, and Dr. E. L. Beadle officiated as Secretary. On motion of Dr. Rockwell, a Committee was appointed to prepare suitable resolutions for the occasion. The following gentlemen formed the Com-art, M. D., J. W. G. Clements, M. D., W. mittee J, H. Griscom, N. Y; S. Hanbury Smith, Ohio; P. Claiborne Gooch, Va.; L. A. Smith, N. J.; Theodore Goodloe, Ala.; R. La Roche, Pa.; John Watson, N. Y. The following preamble and resolutions were read by J. H. Griscom, M. D. Rockwell, M. D., Isaac E. Taylor, M. D., The report of this Committee will be delivered at the next meeting of the Medical Association, which will take place next year, in St. Louis. Whereas, amid the wide-spread affliction caused by the recent catastrophe at Nor- Pennsylvania State Medical Society.walk, the members of the American Medi-This Society held its annual meeting, in cal Association, recognizing in this mourn-Philadelphia, on the 25th, 26th, and 27th of ful event, the hand of an all-wise Providence, May. We shall present in our next num. feel called upon to express their grief at the ber an abstract of their proceedings. sudden removal from life of Abel L. Pierson, M. D., of Salem, Mass.; Alexander Welch, M. D., of Hartford, Conn.; Josiah Bartlett, M. D., of Stratham, N. H.; Samuel Beach, M. D., of Bridgeport, Conn.; James M Smith, M. D., and J. H. Gray, M. D., Springfield, Mass., late members of the Association. And, whereas, it is the earnest desire of the members, still present in the city of N. Y., to record a suitable expression of their feelings upon an occasion equally unprecedented and distressing; therefore, Resolved, That the members have received with profound sorrow the lamentable intelligence of the loss which the community, as well as the profession, have sustained by the death of so large a number of the American Medical Association. Resolved, That as a suitable, though inadequate, external mark of their grief at the sudden demise of friends from whom they had so recently parted, the members of the Association in general are recom mended to wear the usual badge of mourning for the space of thirty days. Resolved, That a Committee of five be appointed to devise some suitable method of commemorating the event and the worth and professional character of our lamented associates, and recommend their plan at the next meeting of the Association. Review of the Weather for April, 1853.— The weather during the month was pleasant and genial, in an unusual degree; no snow fell, and a few slight frosts only occurred; rains were seasonable, and a westerly wind prevailed 21 out of the 30 days. The mean temperature of the month rose to 54.41, which is more than 3 degrees above the average mean temperature of the fourth month in this place, and more than 7 degrees higher than the mean of the same month last year, No severe storm has swept our coast, and we have heard less of disaster from this cause than is our wont. Grass lands in this vicinity have seldom worn a more cheering aspect, and the wheat fields and orchards in this and adjacent States are said to give fair promise of fruitfulness. Thunder showers occurred on the afternoon of the 14th, and again on the morning and evening of the 22d. Some rain fell on 14 days, and 16 days are recorded as clear and fair. The whole fall of rain for the month, as measured at the Penn. Hospital, was 3.83 one-hundredth inches. The range of the thermometer for the month was from 38 on the morning of the 11th, to 79 on the afternoon of the 29th, or 41 degrees; a temperature much more equable than is usually witnessed in the Fourth month, even in our favoured climate. The whole number of deaths in the five weeks embraced in the month, was 967; Resolved, That the members of the Association deeply sympathize with the relatives of the deceased, and that a copy of these resolutions, duly authenticated, be trans-which is a little less than the mortality of mitted to their respective families. the corresponding period of last year. Of the above number 279, or about 29 per centum, were from consumption, or diseases of the organs of respiration. In our tabular remarks it will be seen we have noted seven days as smoky. Several other days partook, but less strikingly, of the same character; the air seemed loaded with a dry haze; the sun was red, and shone faintly when near the horizon, much resembling our " Indian Summer," and had also, we suppose, the same cause, viz.: extensive fires in the woods, or the burning of brush in their fields by neighbouring farmers. P. M. of that day, when it marked 74 degrees. At 3 o'clock the heavens being chiefly covered with that elevated, broken, fair-weather cloud, called cumulus, which was floating over rather quickly from the S. W., the thunder cloud came up from the N. W., and spreading rapidly over the firmament, shut out from view the higher stratum of fair-weather clouds. At 6 P. M.—the thunder cloud having passed over-there was a strong wind from the N. W., and very dark clouds rose in quick succession from that quarter towards the zenith; while the light fleecy cumuli, above referred to, The thunder showers of the 14th, already still moving quickly from the S. W., were referred to, came up from the N. W., after seen occupying the zenith and the whole three days of southerly wind and light rains.southern part of the heavens. P. S. The thermometer had gradually risen till 2 PHILADELPHIA, 5th mo., 5th, 1853. Successful Case of Cæsarian Section.-hours in labour; and stated that, on the Dr. DECOENE relates the following case of a female, aged 30, upon whom he had once before performed the Cæsarian operation. He saw the patient in the seventh month of previous evening, she had experienced a breaking or yielding sensation in the lower part of the abdomen, followed by discharges of blood from the vagina, insensibility, and closed 18 times; the ductus arantii (venosus) open 81 times, completely closed 37 times. These facts prove that the vessels peculiar to the fatal circulation remain open, as a rule, for some time after birth, and that it is not possible to determine accurately by days the period of their closure. The process of obliteration pursues the following order as regards time: It com. sickness. Since that time, both labour- the foramen ovale open 47 times, completely pains and the movements of the child had ceased. The whole abdomen was very tender. Examination per vaginam detected a relaxed os uteri, about the size of a dollar; but neither the head nor other part of the child could be felt, although the limbs could be traced through the abdominal walls. Inasmuch as the author concluded that theuterus had given way, and the child had escaped into the abdomen, he deter-mences and is often completed in the ductus mined upon an operation. After making the preliminary incisions, and opening the peritoneum, he came upon a mass of congealed blood, under which was a male infant, with the separated placenta, and the membranes still entire. It was easily removed; then, to the operator's great aston ishment, a second child, female, came to view. Both infants were dead. The uterus, which was contracted, exhibited along its front surface a slit, answering to the line of incision of the former operation. No hemorrhage ensued; the abdominal wound was united; and, by November 24, the patient was well. Sichel observes, in reviewing the above in Schmidt's Jahrbuch, that women, who have the good fortune to recover after the performance of the Cæsarian section, appear to be singularly liable to rupture of the uterus along the line of the former incision in every subsequent pregnancy. Kaysen relates six such cases. The giving way of the cicatrix in the earlier months of pregnancy may lead to escape of the ovum, and the development of an extra-uterine growth.-Medical Times and Gazette, May 21, 1853. venosus, before it manifests itself in the other vessels. There are great varieties in the closure of the foramen ovale and ductus arteriosus. The completion of the process is, in by far the greater number of cases, within the first six weeks; and the instances of obliteration of this or that duct before birth, or before four to six weeks after birth, are exceptions, of mostly forensic interest. The ductus arteriosus exhibits the process of obliteration by the wrinkling and swelling of the inner vascular coat, commencing usually at the aortic extremity; most rarely at the pulmonary end. In the ductus venosus, the point of commencement is usually towards the vena cava; sometimes towards the umbilicus; most rarely in the middle. The blood coagulates in the ductus arteriosus; the filling up of the tube evidently comes from the thin, smooth, lining membrane of the vessel; a structure, resembling an adventitious membrane, may be easily peeled of; it is mixed with blood-disks and fibrinous coagula.-Henle's Zeitsch. 4, 1852. New and Important use of the Microscope in Legal Medicine.- Mr. MERCER ADAM called the attention of the Edinburgh The Condition of the Fatal Circulation Physiological Society to a new and importin New-born Infants.-Dr. ELSASSER, of ant use of the microscope in legal medicine. Stuttgard, after 370 examinations of the He remarked that there were few cases fœtal bloodvessels, has arrived at the fol-in medical jurisprudence more difficult to lowing conclusions: Of 70 stillborn child- decide than whether, after a few weeks had ren, the tubes peculiar to the foetal cir- elapsed, parturition had occurred recently culation were open in 69. In one only, the or at a remote period. In such cases of ductus botalli and the foramen ovale were doubt, where delivery is circumstantially open and the ductus arantii closed. In 300 believed to have recently occurred, but children who died soon after birth, 80 out of where all the physical signs may, with equal 108 prematurely born, and living from one propriety, be reckoned evidences of this to eight days, presented all the passages having been at a remote period, he believed open; 127 out of 192 infants of the full time that the detection of colostrum corpuscles had all the passages open, but partly con- in the milk would at once decide the questracted. tion, and, almost with certainty, prove the The ductus botalli (arteriosus) was open delivery to have been recent. In illustra55 times, and completely closed 10 times;}tion of this, he cited the following case, which had recently come under his notice. { matter. The proof of this will completely The body of a newly-born child, much de- do away with the trouble of obtaining the composed, was found in a moss in the south milt to apply to the roe, as is done by the of Scotland. It was impossible to decide French fishermen, and establishes a theory secundum artem whether it had been born strongly advocated by Mr. T. Stoddard. alive; but it appeared to have been dead for From the severity of the winter, the whole four or five weeks. Proceedings were taken of the ova are not yet hatched, but a suffi to discover the mother, and suspicion fell {ciency are, to prove the truth of this theory. on a young woman who was supposed to We understand that the doctor is preparing have been secretly delivered about four or a detailed account of the experiment, which five weeks previously; that is, about the will appear soon.-Med. Times and Gaz. same date as the infant was thought to have April 30, 1853. been exposed. On being arrested on the charge of concealed pregnancy, she said she Application of a Curious Physiological had had a child a year and a half before, Discovery.-M. ROULIN has lately specu which she had nursed till within three lated on what might be the consequences of months of her apprehension, and firmly administering coloured articles of food to denied having been recently delivered. The silkworms just before spinning their cocoons. two medical men, who were judicially ap His first experiments were conducted with pointed to examine her, came to different indigo, which he mixed in certain propor decisions, so equivocal were all the signs,tions with the mulberry leaves serving the as to the period which had elapsed since worms for food. The result of this treather delivery. A microscopic examination ment was successful; he obtained blue of her milk was suggested, and it was found cocoons. Prosecuting still farther his expeto abound in colostric globules. This de-riments, he sought a red colouring matter, cided the questio vexata, and showed parturition to have lately occurred. The girl, on being told that imposture no longer availed, confessed having recently given birth to a stillborn child, thereby confirming the accuracy of the revelations of the micro-ing been added to the mulberry-leaves, the scope. Mr. Adam considered that, in such cases, the microscope was likely to be as serviceable to the medical jurist as it was in the detection of blood-globules, sperma tozoa, &c.-Month. Journ. Med. Sci. May, 1853. Experiment in the Propagation of Fish.Dr. Robertson, of Dunkeld, questioning the popular idea as to the natural history of fish, which is, that the male and female meet on the redd or spawning bed for the purpose of each depositing its roe and milt in the channel; and conceiving, on the contrary, that the ova of the female were impregnated pre. vious to their development within the body of the fish-in order to test this theory, took a number of live female trout from the spawning-bed, and, having extracted the roe, deposited them in a perforated zinc box, containing also some gravel. All these, upon the 14th of October last, were placed in a running stream; and, on examining the box last week, several of the ova were found to be hatched, of which a specimen may be seen by any one taking an interest in the capable of being eaten by the silkworms without injury resulting. He had some difficulty to find such a colouring matter at first, but eventually alighted on the Bignonia chica. Small portions of this plant hav silkworms consumed the mixture, and produced red coloured silk. In this manner the experimenter, who is still prosecuting his researches, hopes to obtain silk as secreted by the worm of many other colours. -Medical Times and Gazette, March 5, 1853. |