sixth volume of this series. The inconsequences of Dr. Gairdner were not likely to escape the Eagle eye of the French critic. "Behold," says he, "the kind of reasoning which Dr. G. uses. There existed, during life, the symptoms of an affection of the stomach-after death there was found a lesion of structure in the organ-therefore, the lesion did not take place during life, but after death." We must confess, we are unable to parry the satirical shafts of the Parisian Doctor on this point.

The practice of curing gonorrhoea by camphor, as recommended by Mr. Bell, of Edinburgh, "gives," says M. Broussais, an excellent idea of the state of medicine in England." This is not fair. In England, as in other countries, there may always be picked out eccentric or ridiculous notions and practices, the onus of which should lie on the shoulders of the individuals, and not be fathered on the whole country. M Broussais details the case of a physician, communicated by the patient himself to the editors of the Ed. Journal, and which was treated with camphor and aperient medicines; concluding

with this remark :-" Ainsi voila une urethrite qu'une application ou deux de sangsues, et l'usage des autres antiphlogistiques, auroient enlevée en trois jours, qui a fait souffrir le malade pendant près d'un mois." If M. Broussais is always able to cure a gonorrhoea in three days, by the application of a few leeches and antiphlogistic regimen, we must say hé is very clever. He certainly would make a fortune in London by such practice !

Here we shall stop. It will probably

be our own turn next to come under the lash of the renowned founder of the "DOCTRINE PHYSIOLOGIQUE." We shall neither deprecate nor provoke his ire; but continue, as we have done, to hold up what we consider to be good in his doctrine for the information of our countrymen, not fearing, at the same time, to object to what appears to be fanciful, or erroneous. We ask no more in return from M. Broussais. But we would just suggest to that illustrious professor that, before he judges of a whole nation or profession, he should be well acquainted with the literature of that nation or profession-and not visit the sins of a few on the many It is possible that the Medico-chirurgical Review has hitherto escaped the censure of the acute Frenchman, because it does not permit these

eccentricities to pass without comment in its pages-an advantage which it could not possess if it published original communications in the usual manner. This advantage we have not yet seen any good reason to forego.

20. BLINDNESS FROM A BLOW ON THE
FIFTH PAIR.

Case. W. Carter, aged 38, was received into Guy's Hospital, on the 10th April, in consequence of a severe blow on the right superciliary ridge of the os frontis, by the handle of a whip, followed by tumefaction and ecchymosis. On examina

tion it was ascertained that the iris was not lacerated, nor was there any turgidity of the humours. There was much pain about the supra-orbital foramen, extending in the line of the nerve on the forehead. The power of vision was entirely lost in that eye-the pupil dilated-the iris entirely insensible, as was the retina. By cupping, purging, and mercury, carried to ptyalism, the transparency of the humours (which had become a little turbid) was restored, but vision appears to be lost for ever.-DISSECTOR.

If the blindness, in this case, results entirely from the blow on the branch of the fifth pair, and without any direct injury to the humours, retina, or optic nerve, it is very curious. But, for our own parts, we do not think this is the case. We conceive that the retina was injured by the blow.

21. NEW METHOD OF TREATING SYPHILIS. By DR C. H. DZONDI, Professor in the University of Halle.

Professor Dzondi, from an experience of ten years, comes to the conclusion that the best method of treating syphilis, is not by small doses of mercury gradually introduced into the system, but by large doses quickly administered. The fundamental principles of this new method are these:-1mo. That mercury is a danger. ous poison, the effects of which are much more difficult of cure than the most inveterate syphilis. 2ndo. That mercury is

indispensable in the cure of the disease, in all cold countries; and is only poisonous when exhibited in a certain manner. 3tio. That the present mode of administering the remedy is, in general, inadequate to the complete eradication of the disease, except in cases where the virus is mild. In cases where it is otherwise, it either aggravates the malady, palliates the outward symptoms, or masks the disease from view. 4to. That the oxymuriate of mercury, properly prepared, is the best form of the remedy. Professor D. begins with about half a grain of the sublimate for a dose, (per diem,) and increases it to two or three grains daily. He is convinced that a large quantity may be taken in small doses, without ultimate cure; while a small quantity given in large doses will be speedily effectual. He gives the medicine immediately after tak ing food, and never on an empty stomach; sometimes combining opium with it, when pain is complained of in the stomach or bowels. He does not consider it necessary to make any change in the kind of food which the patient takes during the course. Salivation rarely takes place under this mode of treatment. The duration of the course is generally four weeks, during which, the action of the skin is to be promoted by warm air, warm clothing; and confinement to the bed-room in cold

weather. In Summer, and in very fine weather, the patient may be permitted to go out for an hour or two in the middle of the day. In order to quicken the action of the absorbents, and thus to diffuse the remedy as rapidly and as extensively through the system as possible, the patient is to take no more food than is absolutely necessary for the support of life. He does not particularly object to alcoholic, or other stimulating drink, in moderation. Sarsaparilla he considers the best auxiliary to the mercury; but by no means adequate to the cure of the disease by itself, especially in northern

climes.

The above practice appears to be a modification of that which has been tried and recommended by some surgeons in this country-we mean Mr. John Cunningham and Mr. James Boyle, surgeons in the Royal Navy. They gave calomel in 20 grain doses twice or thrice a day, so as rapidly to affect the system, when the syphilitic symptoms were found quickly to give way. We leave it to our surgical

brethren to think on these proposals, based as they are on experience. The high character of Professor Dzondi guarantees the authenticity and veracity of any thing proceeding from his pen.

22. PURPURA HÆMORRHAGICA.

A case of this kind is published by Mr. Kingsley, of Roscrea, in the Lancet, No. 199. The patient, a man 38 years of age, stated that he had a constant discharge of dark-coloured blood from the mouth and throat, which appeared to exude from the mucous membrane, the gums being covered with sordes, and coagula of blood being seen in various places. The upper and lower extremities were sprinkled with spots, of various sizes and hues, from a very dark purple to a log-wood colour. There were but few of these on the body. Some of the petechia had scabbed, and The pulse was 80, small and soft-skin formed ulcers with a yellow surface. cool-bowels and urine free, debility great had had three attacks previously, and said -good appetite-no thirst nor fever. He he was cured by bark and elixir of vitriol. The same plan was now adopted; but the result was an increase of the disease, with appearance of blood in the stools hard. He would not consent to be bled, and urine. The pulse was 100, firm and and Mr. K. could only discontinue the tonics, and prescribe low diet, oranges, &c. with five grains of blue-pill at night, and a mixture of oil of turpentine and given through the day. No improvement castor oil every morning. Digitalis was discontinued, with the exception of the took place under this plan, and it was turpentine. The bark and acid again given. He still continued to get worse, and at last consented to be bled, and was put on the most antiphlogistic diet, with 'vinum colchici every four hours. The next day he was better The blood was much inflamed. Bled again to twelve ounces, and the bowels to be kept open with castor oil. In two days more, the discharge of blood had ceased from all the outlets. The mouth was sore from the mercury, and considerable ptyalism ensued. While this lasted, there was no return of the hæmorrhage; but there was a relapse,

which continued several days, and ultimately disappeared, under treatment similar to that which has been stated.

Mr. Kingsley has made some sensible remarks on this mysterious disease, which often baffles every mode of treatment, and then goes off spontaneously. We have succeeded, and we have failed, with the most opposite plans of treatment. We believe, with the able and philosophic Dr. Dawson, (Nosological Practice of Physic, p. 246) that the disease is sometimes sthenic, sometimes asthenic-and, consequently, requiring different remedies in different cases.

23. BRONCHOTOMY.

Dr. Heustis, of Albania, was called to a child, three years old, who was said to be dying, in consequence of a grain of corn having stuck in its throat about a week previously. When Dr. H. arrived, he found the child suffering under imped. ed respiration, cough, and other symptoms of an extraneous body in the trachea. Dr. H. proceeded to the operation, and was a good deal embarrassed by the discharge of venous blood. Having exposed the wind-pipe, he carefully made a longitudinal incision, half an inch in length. He now sought for the foreign body, but without success. He pushed up a director, till the point of it surmounted the rima glottidis. Nothing could be found, and, therefore, the wound was simply dressed. The little patient seemed relieved. Two days afterwards, the grain of corn presented itself at the artificial opening, and was removed, without having undergone any material change. The relief, in this case, before the foreign body came to the wound, must have resulted from the partial breathing through the artificial opening.-N. York Med. and Phys. Journal, Jan. 1827.

the kidneys, and the rôle which this function occupies in the animal economypassing over, also, the instances in which these organs were found wanting in fœtuses and in monsters, we shall come at once to modern times, when experiments have been made with care, and their effects accurately noted.

When Richerand extirpated one kidney of an animal, no inconvenience appeared to ensue; but, when both kidneys were removed, a morbid condition obtained, and death took place in a very few days. In all Richerand's experiments, the gallbladder was found gorged after death. The principal phenomena which succeeded the ablation of both kidneys, were :Vomiting, tremors, smallness of pulse, urinous odour in the liquids vomited, borborigmi, intermissions of the pulse, coldness of the body-death in three days. On dissection, some effusion was found in the abdomen, but no inflammation-venous system gorged with blood-no alteration in the chest-slight effusion into the cerebral ventricles. In some cases, the animal died in a quarter of an hour after the extirpation, and nearly the same symptoms and post-mortem appearances presented themselves.

Prevost and Dumas made similar experiments, and they discovered the presence of urea in the blood, after renal ablation. M. Mayer made a number of experiments, of which he has detailed ten, in a late Number of a French journal. We shall only give the results, and not the details.

1. The extirpation of both kidneys causes inevitable death of the animal, at various intervals.

2. The principal phenomena observed were tremors; crying, apparently from internal pains; and, finally, convulsions and death.

3. There were no well-marked symp. toms of abdominal inflammation.

4. The operation is followed by the secretion, in various organs of the body, of a fluid, having all the physical characters of urine. This secretion takes place, particularly in the abdomen, chest, pericardium, ventricles of the brain, the eye, stomach, and intestinal canal. It even takes place in the cellular tissue of the liver, lungs, muscles, testicles, &c.

This urinous serum was submitted to chemical analysis, and our author's ex

perience coincided with that of Prevost and Dumas, who also detected urea in the blood of animals, after ablation of the kidneys, corresponding with the fact, that men, whose kidneys have been affected with organic disease, have vomited up matters clearly of a urinous character. We cannot, then, says our author, deny, that a urinous liquid may be formed, under the above circumstances, in various other parts, besides the kidneys--but particularly in secreting structures.

Dr. Mayer thinks it probable that the cause of death, after these experiments, is owing to the irritation of the brain, from the urinous fluid thrown out there. -Journal Complémentaire.

25. ON DIGESTION.*

The offer of a prize by the Parisian Academy, a few years ago, for the best experimental essay on the subject of DIGESTION, drew forth two competitions :-one by Tiedemann and Gmelin, in partnership-the other by Leuret and Lassaigne, in similar co-operation. Neither of the Essays obtained the prize; but both were thought so meritorious, as to be rewarded, each, with a donation of 1500 francs.

Although the industrions experimenters have been unable to clear up the almost mysterious process of digestion, yet they have thrown much light on many of the agents and agencies employed therein by mother Nature. In an article of this kind, we cannot be expected to go into the analytical operations by which the authors arrived at their conclusions-we can only exhibit an abstract of the results of their experiments and researches.t

'Leuret, Lassaigne, Tiedemann, Gmelin.

In the construction of this article, we have availed ourselves, in addition to the original works, or their translations, of some extensive analytical portraits of the Essays in question-one in the JOURNAL COMPLEMENTAIRE, for September, 1826-another in the REVUE MECICALE, for May and June, 1827-a third in the EDINBURGH JOURNAL, for April and October, 1827, and a fourth in the Nouvelle Bibliotheque Medicale, Mai, 1827.

VOL. VIII. No. 15.

1. Mastication being the first step of digestion, the properties of the saliva na turally engaged the attention of the candidates. This fluid was found to be nearly identical in all animals-to contain about one per cent of solid matters, consisting of soda, muriate of soda, muriate of potassa, carbonate of lime, phosphate of the same, a very trifling quantity of albumen, and a great deal of mucus. In the sheep, there was found a sensible quantity of sulpho-cyanic acid, one of the most deadly poisons-and the German physiologists proved its existence in the saliva of man. Both the German and French authors have repeated former experiments on saliva, and they agree that it accelerates solution, or rather putrefaction; but they seem to consider its chief use to be that of lubricating the mouthfuls of food, rendering sapid bodies amenable to the gustatory nerves, and preparing for the process of digestion, by softening the aliment. The German physiologists hazard some other conjectures as to the uses of saliva, as that its animal constituents promote the assimilation of unazotized matters of

food, &c. but these are mere speculations.

2. Chymifaction. This is taken in a wider sense, than we are accustomed to take it. Our physiologists consider chymifaction as the whole of the process which prepares the food for entering the chyliferous vessels-consequently including the actions of the stomach and its juices, the liver, the pancreas, and the glands of the small intestines. The candidates necessarily examine into the separate parts which the above organs play in the mysterious drama of digestion.

3. The Gastric Juice. The German physiologists have taken immense pains in the investigation of this interesting subject. They inform us, that the succus gastricus of a fasting stomach, is a clear, ropy, and opaque fluid, nearly, if not quite, destitute of acidity. But if the organ be stimulated by any, the most simple agent, then the secreted fluid is constantly acid, and that in proportion to the stimulation employed. The French experimenters, on the other hand, maintain that the gastric juice is always acid, and that its component parts are, muriate of ammo. nia, chloride of sodium, mucus, a peculiar animal principle soluble in water, phos28

phate of lime, and lactic acid. They deny the accuracy of Dr. Prout, in his inference, that free hydrochloric acid is disengaged during digestion. The Germans make the gastric juice, as obtained from the horse and the dog, to consist of mucus osmazome, salivary matter, alkaline sulphates and muriates, (the alkali generally soda) phosphate and muriate of lime, with some other unimportant ingredients. They maintain, contrary to Leuret and Lassaigne, that the acidity (in the dog) is owing to muriatic and acetic acids to which (in the horse) is added the butyric. They support the deductions of our countryman, Prout.

Both parties agree that, when the gastric juice is secreted in consequence of the stimulus of food, the chymous mass is always acid, the Germans maintaining that the acidity is greater, in proportion to the indigestibility of the food. Thus, in dogs and cats, the acidity was greatest when they were fed on albumen, fibrin, bones, gristle, and the like, while it was less when the aliment consisted of starch, gelatin, potatoes, rice. When fed with fiquid albumen, the gastric juice contained nearly enough of alkaline ingredients to neutralize the acid. The quantity of gastric juice secreted during digestion was found to be much greater than people are aware.

As to the power of the gastric juice, in dissolving substances out of the body, both German and French agree, with Spallanzani, Gosse, and others, that it has such power, contrary to the deductions of Montegre, and the French school generally. The solvent properties of the succus gastricus would now seem to be indisputable. The German physiologists endeavoured to ascertain whether this solvent power of the gastric juice could be explained by the action of the different constituent parts, separately, on substances. Their experiments are not complete, and they do not appear to have tried to imitate the gastric juice by a combination of all its component parts.

4. The Muscular power, or Churning Process of the Stomach This is attributed by the German physiologists to the influence of the par vagum-and they appear to attach no other influence or power to these nerves, in the process of digestion, than that of moving forward the digested lay

ers of food towards the pyloric orifice of. the stomach, thus permitting new portions of the alimentary mass to come in contact with the coats of the organ. The younger Legallois, who reviews the works above mentioned in the REVUE MEDICALE, comes to the same conclusion, in opposition to the experiments of Dr. Philip. We see, from this, how difficult it is to come to positive conclusions where muscular power and gastric juice are both necessary, in this way, to the digestive process. Before quitting this part of the subject, we may allude to the curious phenomenon observed by M. Gendrin, when the eighth pair of nerves were divided-namely, inflammation of the mucous membrane of the stomach. Will this throw any light on the inflammation which takes place in the mucous membrane of the bladder, when the spinal marrow is compressed, or otherwise materially injured, as we generally find to be the case?

5. Intestinal Digestion. In proceeding to this part of the subject, it is necessary to revert to the secretions poured forth by the organs auxiliary to digestion, as the pancreas and liver. The succus pancreaticus has been carefully attended to by both the German and French experimenters. They all agree that the quantity of this fluid is very small. The French say it is always alkaline: while the Germans aver, that what is collected at first is freely acid, and afterwards becomes faintly alkaline, the change being ascribed to the perturbation occasioned by the operation. In respect to composition, Leuret and Lassaigne consider it similar to the saliva, and this, indeed, is the general opinion of physiologists. But Tiedemann and Gmelin differ materially from the French physiologists on this point. They affirm that the succus pancreaticus differs from saliva, in never containing sulphocyanic acid, free soda, or mucus-in being acid in its natural condition-and in containing a larger proportion of albumen. The fact is, as Magendie has stated, that nothing is known of the purpose which the pancreatic juice serves in the process of digestion.

6. The Spleen. Messrs. Leuret and Lassaigne have made some interesting experiments in regard to the function of the SPLEEN, seeming to lean to that the-