of food. This treatment was persevered in for upwards of thirty days, after which its severity was gradually relaxed. The girl left the hospital after nine weeks, when the wounds were completely healed. Mr. Gosselin has not lost sight of the patient; he again saw her in 1860 at Hospital Beaujon, and in February last at La Pitié.

This interesting case did not suggest to the learned and cautious Professor any inferences beyond those which may legitimately be deduced, viz. that when it is too late to rely on the exclusive action of escharotics, it is proper to seek in hygienic treatment, for measures calculated to arrest the development of rabies.

As an interlude in the debate, Professor Courty of Montpellier read a paper on the efficacy of the local injection of strychnia for the cure of paralysis of the face. The solutions used contained from one hundredth to one seventieth part of its weight of strychnia, and from eight to sixteen drops were injected along the course of the facial nerve between its emergence at the stylo-mastoid foramen, and its passage across the ramus of the lower-jaw. The operation was repeated every two or three days, and three injections in the mildest cases, six in the most severe were, in every instance, sufficient to remove all trace of paralysis from the muscles of the face. The patients were: a man aged fifty-six, a lady aged twentyfive, and a girl aged twenty-two; in all the affection was in its incipient stage, and in none was a relapse observed.

Mr. Courty also brought forward an instance of paralysis of twelve months duration, which had baffled all previous measures of treatment, and yielded to a few injections of strychnia, performed on a level with the inferior extremity of the spinal cord.

These facts are invested with considerable practical interest, and naturally suggest a comparison with the system of local injections expounded by Mr. Luton, of Rheims, as a new application of the substitutive medication. The publication of Mr. Luton's researches on the subject, in the Archives de Médecine is not yet completed, but in the first part, to which it is our intention to revert, the author states that he has resorted with the greatest benefit to injections of a more or less concentrated solution of nitrate of silver in twelve cases of sciatica, two of intercostal, three of coxal neuralgia, etc. Mr. Luton relates, in addition, a most remarkable instance of infraorbital neuralgia, which yielded to three injections of a few drops of salt water. The same practitioner has in three instances of parenchymatous bronchocele injected tincture of iodine; in one of the patients a complete cure has been effected, and the two others are still under treatment. new method is susceptible of numerous applications; the efficacy of solutions of bichloride of mercury, of arsenious acid, of the sulphates of copper or zinc will soon be tested, and the therapeutist will thus be enabled to apply to the inmost parts of the tissues, the remedial action hitherto exercised on their surface only.

The

The operative procedure is of the simplest; for his various injections, Mr. Luton merely used an exploring trochar adapted to a common syringe containing the solution required. In cases calling for greater precision, the surgeon had recourse to the syringe of Pravaz, or one of its recent modifications; the point of the instrument was inserted in the same manner as if sub-cutaneous injection was contemplated, but generally at greater depth.

We conclude with a piece of news which we are confident our readers will learn with gratification. Messrs. Victor Masson and Son have entered into arrangements to publish jointly with Mr. Asselin a new Medical Dictionary, to be entitled Cyclopædia of Medical Sciences, an undertaking of first-rate importance, the scientific direction of which is entrusted to Messrs. Dechambre and Raige-Delorme. The sympathy which this vast enterprise has awakened in the élite of the Profession in France is the most trustworthy evidence of its utility. The Gazette Hebdomadaire informs us that the editors have secured the co-operation of upwards of eighty of the most eminent military and civil practitioners, mostly attached to the Faculties, Academies, Hospitals, and Medical Press. The names of the collaborators will be published at an early period.

The same journal states that at a general meeting of these gentlemen which took place on Tuesday last, October 27th, at the School of Medicine, Professor Velpeau in the chair, Mr. Victor Masson described the objects and general characters of the publication, and read the contract, with all its clauses and conditions; each clause was separately put to the vote, and the signature of all present was affixed to the deed.

The Cyclopedia of Medical Sciences, including Medicine, Surgery, and Accessory Sciences, will form twenty volumes, royal 8vo., of 800 pages each, with the plates and engravings which the Editing Committee may judge necessary.

Messrs. J. B. Bailliere and Son, on the other hand, advertise the appearance at no distant date of a Medical Dictionary, which is not a new edition of the well-known Dictionary in fifteen volumes, but will in every respect be a new work.

We can only express our earnest hope that the activity and industry of the learned contributors to both dictionaries, will promptly place us in possession of these valuable records of Medical science.

HOSPITAL FOR INFANCY.

(MR. H. ROGER'S WARDS.) Typhoid Fever in Children.

In our last number, we reproduced Mr. Beau's views on dothienentery, and we now turn to the pathology of the same disease in childhood, our remarks being a summary of Mr. H. Roger's lectures at the Hospital for Infancy.

At this hospital typhoid fever is frequent; in the course of a two years' residence at this Institution, Mr. Rilliet collected no less than one hundred cases; Mr. Taupin observed 127 in three years, and in one year, Mr. Roger has met with 44. When mentioning these returns, Mr. Roger remarked that although no epidemic was prevalent, a dozen instances of the affection might be seen dispersed in his own and in Messrs. Blache and Bouvier's wards. In general the patients are twelve or fourteen years of age, and the frequency of the disease is progressively less considerable according as the child is younger. Thus, in the first two years of life, typhoid is of very unusual occurrence; some few months ago, however, Mr. Roger observed a genuine instance of dothienentery in an infant of fifteen months, but this is entirely exceptional, and the case was at first mistaken for one of brain-fever. The Professor remarked that in new-born infants the lenticular, and more especially the agminated glands, are subject to become inflamed under the influence of feverishness and diarrhoea, but this follicular enteritis is perfectly distinct from typhoid.

The causes of the disease under consideration are at all ages more or less obscure, and the only circumstances obviously connected with its production are change of climate and epidemic influence. Thus the children admitted into the hospital, for the treatment of typhoid, are in general not born mont, Savoy, Auvergne, or Limosin, who resort to Paris in in Paris; their parents are mostly stone-masons from Piedsummer to work at their trade. Typhoid is a primary affection, chiefly observable in robust, healthy children; delicate from severe illness, in general escape infection. and sickly subjects, or those who have previously suffered

Provincial practitioners consider typhoid decidedly contagions; scientific demonstration of the fact is not, however, attainable in Paris, where it is impossible to trace the progress of contagion from one house to another, and where, in addition, the fomites of infection are too extensive to admit of accurate observation. The disease is very seldom contracted in hospital; in some instances, nevertheless, Mr. Roger is inclined. to admit the contagious nature of the affection.

Typhoid fever in children differs in several particulars, and especially in the final issue, from the same complaint in the adult. Although its perils are extremely great in infants under three years of age, we may state that in general after that age, this pyrexia is far less dangerous than in full-grown subjects, a fact probably referrible to the less considerable gravity and extent of the anatomical injuries. In children, ulceration of the larynx and intestine are unfrequent, and the

indurated patches which indicate the extreme severity of the disease, are seldom met with. The enteritis, coincident with the intestinal eruptions is, however, more commonly observed in childhood than at a more advanced age.

The mild and the severe forms of typhoid both occur in children as in adults, but the headache is much less violent in the former, and especially much less intense than in meningitis.

Hæmorrhage, intestinal perforation, and bed-sores are very rarely observed in infancy, and it is a strange fact that bleeding at the nose, a phenomenon of frequent recurrence in children, scarcely ever coincides with typhoid fever at that period of life. Intestinal hæmorrhage, which is not as some authors have opined, a critical symptom, but a consequence of ulceration, is extremely unfrequent, because in children ulceration is seldom induced by the disease.

The inspection of the tongue affords at this age, valuable signs of discrimination between typhoid fever and meningitis. In the former case, the tongue is always foul and more or less dry, whereas in the latter it is habitually moist and clean. It is needless to dwell on the other distinguishing symptoms, such as the lenticular eruption, tympanitis, &c. But we may state that in new-born infants the diagnosis is one of extreme difficulty; both affections being, however, almost inevitably fatal, the consequences of a mistake in this respect are unimportant.

After the first two or three years of life the prognosis of typhoid fever is generally favourable. A cure, said M. Roger, should never be despaired of, even when the child presents all the outward appearances of approaching dissolution. Some children after having been utterly given over, suddenly recover in the most unexpected manner.

The question of contagion being still doubtful, Mr. Roger recommends the isolation of the sick child only in wealthy families; but as an excess of caution can never be injurious, this prudent measure should be resorted to whenever it is practicable. But on the other hand the existence of fomites of infection is by no means problematic, and whenever the disease breaks out in a school or public institution, the pupils should be sent home, as was recently done for the cadets of the Military College of Saint Cyr.

The curative treatment should not be exclusive; in a disease which has so great a tendency to induce debility and exhaustion of the system, phlebotomy would be improper, and would at most be justifiable in case of very violent headache, and even then one or two leeches applied behind the ear are preferable. The same caution should be used in the exhibition of purgatives; the daily administration of laxatives is not more inexpedient in the case of children, than frequent bloodletting. Indeed Mr. Roger has witnessed the fatal effects of such treatment. He does not believe it is in the power of medicine to check suddenly genuine typhoid fever; cases in which this result is supposed to have been attained, must be referred to mere gastric disturbance, or to synocha, the duration of which, when not interfered with, does not exceed twelve days. In the Professor's opinion, one medication only is rational, it is that suggested by the symptoms.

If the fever is mild, merely watch the case; confine the patient to bed, prescribe acidulated beverages, enemas, and poultices, and a cure will follow in a fortnight or three weeks. In severe congestive cases, instead of resorting to bloodletting, tepid baths of half-an-hour's duration should be prescribed, in order to lower the temperature of the skin. One or two baths of this kind may be taken daily, the forehead being at the same time kept cool with linen soaked in cold water. This is a most valuable resource, which the practitioner should have recourse to in the early stages of typhoid, because at a later period the bronchial mucous lining becomes engaged, and the baths must be discontinued. The little patient should be fed with gruel, chicken-broth, or weak beef-tea; mutton chops and other solid articles of food, and wine, recommended by some practitioners, Mr. Roger prohibits as absolutely dangerous.

We have stated that Mr. Roger is no advocate of the uninterrupted aperient medication instituted by M. de La Roque, but under peculiar circumstances he regards this method as appropriate. Thus in the incipient stage, and more especially more especially

These conditions, either singly or combined, are sometimes found to occur in the latter months of gestation; most frequently however, they manifest themselves at the parturient period.

They are not confined either to gestation or parturiency, existing, though rarely, under certain other conditions, wholly foreign to or independent of pregnancy.

We shall briefly consider them in the order in which they are forms is the precursor, if not also the producer of the latter, rather above written; inasmuch, as the former in its acute or sub-acute than the converse; though no doubt the relaxation will at times precede, and perhaps predispose to the inflammation.

may

The onset of the inflammation may be so insidious, as to afford us no opportunity for fixing upon any real cause-or for the discovery of the origo mali; or again it may be so sudden, as by its very suddenness to baffle us in our efforts to decide upon a cause that be considered truly assignable. Symptoms.-Concomitant with the general disturbance, indicative of the inflammatory action, there are certain local signs, which at once point to the seat of the lesion, and which are, as regards the intensity of degree, in direct proportion with the extent or amount of the abnormal processes: while the constitutional sympathy also varies with the local changes, upon which it is dependent for its

excitation.

There are uneasiness in the joint or joints involved, pain of a heavy, to a severe cutting, gnawing sensation, or as patients will fixed and constant character, varying, however, from a dull aching sometimes express themselves to us as though a saw were being passed between the bones;" both these are greatly aggravated by any disturbing force, applied directly or indirectly to the joint or joints, as in the moving of the trunk or limbs, or even by the individual action of the abdominal muscles, whereby the inflamed ligaments are put upon the stretch, or the affected parts made to rub together.

There will be sometimes great irritability of the bladder, (a circumstance, which I have noticed, especially in those cases where the pubic was the unsound articulation), and this irritability will demonstrate itself in various ways; at one time so implicating the entire of the urinary viscus, as to occasion retention of urine from want of detrusor power, and subsequently stillicidium, when the viscus becoming overfilled, there can be no longer exercised any, or at least the normal, retentive action by the cervico-urethral muscular fibres; at another, involving only these latter fibres, and creating in them such an augmented sphincteric force, as to allow little, if any, fluid to be expelled by the "Detrusor Urinæ."

The character of the urine may itself deviate from its natural standard, and may be permanently restored only by the removal of the exciting agent.

There may or may not be present actual leucorrhoea; but very frequently we shall find the vaginal secretion exceed its usual healthy quantity, and with this excess, an attendant "sensation, as though the womb, the bowels, or both, were slipping through the passage."

The rectum, more particularly in those instances where the sacro-illac or the sacro-coccygeal joints are the seats of the lesion, sharing in the disturbance, will be affected with tenesmus, “a constant uncomfortableness," or an irritation, to which we would almost apply the term pruritus.

Vaginal examination will indicate great tenderness at the back of the pubis, should the disease be situated in that articulation ;

while by vaginal, rectal and external manipulation, the sacro-iliac or sacro-coccygeal joints will in the same manner be found incapable of enduring pressure, without pain being induced, should they be affected.

The mode I prefer for conducting the vaginal exploration is by passing into the canal the thumb, while the forefinger of the same hand (the right, with which we usually examine patients, they lying in the ordinary obstetric position,) is employed externally to compress the front of the articulation.

With the adoption of this method of examination we are enabled to detect very accurately the presence of pus-should it have been developed-as also with the same degree of nicety the exact seat of pain. When the inflammatory is about to pass into the suppurative stage it does so somewhat rapidly; and soon, as the result of this transition, will the joint be filled with the products of this latter. The presence of pus will not, however, be the only pathological change, since the cartilages will be found eroded at particular points, or (after the lapse of some little time) completely removed, the bones sundered, or even carious, and causing to issue a fetid unhealthy discharge, through a wound in its appearance also unhealthy. The unhealthy character of this affection is readily explained, when we bear in mind the unhealthiness of the patient's general habit, which, we know, in those cases to be most frequently the strumous, a diathesis in itself most difficult of treatment.

Suppuration will behave itself here, as when occurring in any other parts of the body, where dense unyielding tendinous structures keep its products bound down and pent up, and may induce by the severity of constitutional disturbance most untoward, even fatal results, and that, before there is any tendency to the liberation of matter by external discharge. Two cases of this nature have been put on record by MM. Monod and Hiller.

Fortunately, Nature more frequently sets up the absorptive process, than permits the consequences, which have just been enumerated, and effects the removal of the retaining structures, procuring vent for the matter either posteriorly into the vagina, or anteriorly on the " mons veneris," the groin, or about "Scarpa's angle." I need hardly say, that I now allude to instances of pubic disease. The joints, specially the pubic, may undergo the "pulpy degeneTreatment. The same must be pursued, as we should adopt in any case, when phlogistic action happened to be the lesion, always however bearing in mind the condition of our puerperal patients, (who are generally the sufferers) whether it be the plethoric or adynamic.

ration."

We should obtain an exit for matter, as soon as its presence is ascertained and it is found to occasion general irritation; moreover, the aperture of exit is to be made where "pointing" occurs, rather than at any particular spot, which we might wish to select.

En passant, I would mention that the fever attendant upon the suppurative process is of a type, distinctly remittent. I know of no local remedy fraught with so much advantage as the application of a sufficiency of leeches (the number being carefully regulated by the condition of our patient), and the maintaining through their bites a steady, constant issuing of blood into a hot fomentation cloth or linseed poultice, till the inflammation has been subdued, or at least made to subside.

When the patient is being exhausted from the disease, we might, I apprehend, if the offending parts be the pubic articulation, perform excision of them, and seek to effect union by anchylosis.

Relaxation of the different pelvic articulations may be the resultant of this inflammation, or of that stretching, to which they are subjected during labour; or it may be a mere obedience to a natural law providing for the more facile birth of the child by allowing an enlargement of the space allotted for its transit; such a law we find existing among the lower animals, and we would adduce the condition of the cow at calving time, as an illustration. In this animal the ligaments become toward the close of gestation very lax, and proving insufficient for the maintenance of the bones in their proper wonted position, permit a falling in of the sacrum, or to borrow the farm phraseology "a sinking of the rump."

The facts, that muscular bands have been demonstrated in the lower classes of animals lashing together the opposite pubic bones, and, that these latter are divided, when the former are torn, indicate a provision for approximation and retention, at the same time, leaving to be inferred the possibility of a disunion under certain circumstances.

Ruysch, Harvey, and Blundell agree in the existence of this condition of relaxation in the human female at or about the parturient period, and the first two assert its frequency. Indeed, we consider that were it looked for, it would be oftener observed than is perhaps generally supposed; owing, however, to the rapidity with which the wonted tone and action of the parts are restored, and their accustomed functions resumed, there is some difficulty in detection.

Inflammation is most frequently met in the pubic symphysis; relaxation in the other articulations; such relaxation altogether independent of, or preceding the phlogistic condition.

"It is now," says Cazeaux, "generally admitted, that a softening

of the Symphyses really occurs in most women during gestation, and this, in combination with relaxation of the ligaments, and all the adjacent structures, may be to such a degree as to admit divarication of the pubes for an inch or even more, as is mentioned by Hunter and Morgagni, to have obtaiaed in some instances." Symptoms:-Uneasiness in, and a yielding sensation of the articulation or articulations affected; a consciousness of looseness on the part of the patient at the seat of the disease, and "an indescribable feeling, as if the entire trunk would slip between the thighs," which seem, and in truth are, actually incapable of affording support to the body; inability to walk without support, and sometimes even when support is rendered; difficulty in rising from the sitting to the erect posture, or of resuming the former with ease, the patient in the attempt falling down in the seat suddenly; difficulty also in standing, which may, however, be obviated by compression being exercised upon the pelvis, either by the hands of another, or by the patient herself, or by the tight swathing of an ordinary binder or bandage. These are specially observable, if all the joints be involved, or even if the sacro-iliac alone be engaged.

In addition to the category of symptoms above-mentioned, there will be pain on exercise of even the gentlest kind, and often, indeed, when the patient is perfectly quiescent; this may extend, according to the position of the lesion up along the back, through the nates, or down the thighs, or may shoot up towards the umbilicus, where not infrequently it will seem to lodge, and prove a source of considerable annoyance; mobility of the bones and a crackling of the mobile joints, evident to the patient, as well as to her attendant, and exaggerated by manual examination. These may have set in under, or preceded labour.

The causes

The return to the normal condition may be speedy or protracted; the period of recovery extending itself over days, weeks, months, or years, before it may have been accomplished. assigned for the separation of the naturally apposed bones are:Firstly, the cartilages became softened by imbibition of fluids and expanding effect the separation, as would pieces of sponge placed between two substances admitting of divarification, or as the ivyrootlets in the crevice of a wall, which, as they enlarge, make wider the fissure, or, to borrow a comparison, instituted by Louis, like porous wooden wedges in the cleft of a rock, which, swelling from the absorption of moisture, burst asunder the rock; or like polypi in the nasal cavities.

Secondly, mere relaxation of the ligaments dependent on serous infiltration. This latter condition does not necessarily imply an actual separation, but only a capability for such, owing to the normal tensive tone of the ligaments being impaired.

Thirdly, in conjunction with the second cause, there may be an excess of synovia, and in consequence thereof, an actual separation.

Effects in labour: Retardation-firstly, because the abdominal muscles, deprived of the "point d'appui" afforded ordinarily by the pelvis when it is immovable, cannot render their due assistance to the expulsive uterine contractions, nor in their accustomed manner co-operate with the efforts of the womb; secondly, owing to the excessiveness of pain, as the head descends into the pelvis, the woman herself strives to check the labour by restraining, as much as in her power lies those efforts necessary for its advance.

Treatment:-This will best be fulfilled by general and local tonics, wherewith may be braced not the constitution only, but likewise the parts immediately involved in the relaxation. By local tonics we mean cold vaginal injections, the use of cold water bathing, the cold douche, blisters, and stimulating embrocations; binding together the entire pelvis by means of a firm, unyielding bandage, is of immense service, and if applied properly, and continued in constant use for some time, proves a valuable adjunct in our treatment. Friction has been recommended, having for its object the excitation of a certain amount of inflammation, by which may be induced ossific deposit and anchylosis.

For those cases in which the patient becomes completely invalided, Blundell proposes division of the symphysis pubis (if it be the offending joint), and immediately after the operation the binding together of the parts in tight apposition.

These remarks I have been induced to make by my having had recently under notice a patient in whom, subsequent to inflammation of the pelvic articulations, relaxation of the same occurred, and continued, with little amendment, for some time after parturiency.

JUNIOR MEDICAL SOCIETY.-At a meeting of the Council held at Charing-cross Hospital, on the 17th inst., the following members were elected officers for the ensuing year :-President: Mr. S. G. Freeman, St. George's Hospital.-Treasurer: Mr. Duke, Guy's Hospital.-Secretaries: M. FH. Gervis, St. Thomas's Hospital; Mr. Murray, King's College.

THE MEDICAL CIRCULAR. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1863.

SANITARY CONDITON OF THE CITY OF
LONDON.

Dr. Letheby has lately presented his Report on the Sanitary Condition of the City of London for the quarter ending Sep. 26, and although this document does not present any striking features of novelty, and although the area subject to the supervision of the Health Officer is not very extensive, yet there are matters of sufficient interest to invite comment in relation both to the City in particular, and to Sanitary Science in general.

ence.

In the first place, we are struck by the fact that both the births and deaths during the quarter have declined to a considerable degree below the average for the corresponding period of the last ten years, the births having declined to an extent of about 11 per cent., and the deaths to about 5 per cent. This diminution of births and deaths must be due to the fact that the population of the City is diminishing, owing to the extensive emigration of the once resident population to the suburbs, but the death-rate may, perhaps, have been also reduced by the vigorous adoption of sanitary measures under Dr. Letheby's active and zealous superintendThat such, indeed, is the case, we may infer from the fact recorded in this Report, that the Western District of the City Union, where the Irish element prevails, and where the sanitary conditions are very unfavourable, has always exhibited a higher degree of mortality, especially among infants, than the Eastern Union, where the same unfavourable causes are not in operation. Nevertheless, in both these unions the death-rate among children under five years of age, has diminished in a very notable degree, although more so in the Eastern than the Western Union, the former being in the ratio of about 35 per cent. of the total mortality; whereas, in the Western, it is nearly 46 per cent.; but both these numbers show a diminution as compared with the average of former years.

The law of substitution in zymotic diseases, if we may so term it, has been remarkably exemplified in the comparative diminution of one class of maladies and the compensatory increase of another during the quarter, for while the whole number of deaths from zymotic diseases has been nearly the same as in former years, the diseases themselves have been very different. Thus diarrhoea has declined from 62 to 45, continued fever from 29 to 21, and measles from 18 to 4, but the number of deaths from scarlet fever has increased from 24 to 56. This alarming increase of scarlet fever has not been confined, as is well known, to the City of London, but has been observed in the whole of England during the last quarter. Even swine, we are told, have been affected with the malady, for the carcases of many pigs which have died from it, or have been slaughtered while suffering from it, and have been sent to the London markets for food, have been seized and condemned in the City. Dr. Letheby very truly and candidly remarks that the cause of this unusual severity of scarlatina is involved in mystery, for unlike many maladies of this class, it has not selected the haunts of poverty or of filth, but has been found in all places and among all grades of society. "It has been," says Dr. Letheby, "in fact, most fatal in the cleanest districts of the City in the City of London Union, for example, which is by far the cleanest part of the

City, it has advanced from a general mortality of 6 in the quarter to 22, and in the Eastern Union it has just doubled its usual death-rate, whereas, in the filthy purlieus of the western division of the City, the increase in the mortality from it has been only from 6 to 9 in the quarter. There is something remarkable in this, that requires for its interpretation a deeper knowledge than we have yet reached."

The river, we are informed, has on the whole behaved itself very well during the past quarter, considering the great amount of work it has had to accomplish, and the immense quantity of solid matter it has had to digest and decompose. The amount of the latter has twice exceeded 200 grains in the gallon, and once it reached to 423 grains, of which about 34 were organic; but the river has had even more reason to thank its good luck than its good management, for the temperature of the water has been comparatively low and the rainfall came opportunely to arrest the putrefactive change of which some symptoms were exhibited on one or two occasions.

The last point of importance to which attention is drawn is the inspection of markets and slaughter-houses, and we are informed that the officers have condemned 70,912lbs., or rather more than 31 tons of meat and 239 head of game and poultry, as unfit for human food. It appears that more than twice the quantity of meat has been condemned during the quarter just elapsed than in the corresponding quarter of last year. This excess is said to be chiefly due to the circumstance that on two occasions a large amount of meat became putrid during its conveyance to London in consequence of the heat of the weather; but independently of this, there has been a considerable increase in the quantity of dead and diseased meat condemned in the City markets, and legal proceedings have been instituted against several persons for offences coming under this head, and sometimes fines and sometimes imprisonment have been awarded to the delinquents. Whether the consumption of diseased meat is really productive of disease in the human subject, is not yet clearly ascertained, but it is certain that a great quantity of meat theoretically unfit for human food, is sold and eaten in our metropolis.

GENERAL SUMMARY OF THE WEEK.

In consequence of the space we have thought it necessary to devote to the important trial now proceeding in the Court of Queen's Bench, and to other pressing subjects, our present remarks must be brief. The result of the case of Symm v. Fraser and Andrews will be watched with the deepest interest by every practitioner of medicine in the British Empire. As the case is not concluded at the time of our going to press we can make no remark upon it, except to state that the defendants, like most of our professional brethren against whom similar proceedings have been lately instituted, are gentlemen of the highest respectability, and of unblemished professional character.The Crawley trial still creeps on, in its tedious course, and although the Medical Officers of the prisoner's regiment are in some measure concerned in the result of the Court-martial, we think it expedient, for the same reason as we have just stated in a former case, to abstain at present from any comment.The Medical Council of Great Britain have gained a most important point in the refusal of the Court of Queen's Bench to entertain the application of the notorious Lamert for a mandamus to restore his name to the Medical Register. The Court ruled that the Medical Council was the absolute judge of what was or was