who was every now and then delirious, frequently complained of intense pain in the left hip, the integuments over which were swollen and oedematous. On the 13th day, the following is the report of the symptoms: dorsal decubitus, extreme prostration, profound stupor alternating with delirium, severe headache, eyelids ædematous and of a livid hue, the conjunctivæ deeply injected, incipient opacity of the corneæ; wound suppurating freely; the malar bone exposed; discharge of bloody matter from the nostrils; the nasal mucous membrane red, sprinkled over with sanguineous crusts, but without any visible ulcerated spots; lips sooty; tongue dry, yellowish and filthy; intolerable thirst; difficult deglutition; numerous brown papulæ, surrounded with red areolæ, over every part of the face, and confluent on the nose and lower eyelids; enormous empatement," but without any sense of fluctuation of the left hip; distinct fluctuation immediately above the right ankle; a variolous-looking eruption on the abdomen and extremities, with phlyctenous and livid spots between the pustules. The patient died next evening.

Dissection.-Passing over the description of the wound itself and of the cutaneous eruption, we may notice that the abscess above the right ankle was found to be situated under the fascia of the leg, and extended inwards into the substance of the muscles. The nasal mucous membrane was of a very dark colour, much softened in texture, and infiltrated with purulent matter: here and there were pustules and ecchymosed spots, especially on the surface of the spongy bones. The tonsils and the pillars of the fauces were bedewed with pus. The epiglottis was oedematous, and speckled over, at one part, with minute sanguinolent spots.

The lining membrane of the larynx and trachea very highly congested, and dotted over with numerous whitish papulæ, like the incipient cutaneous pustules. Cellular texture underneath the sternum and pleura emphysematous; considerable serous effusion within the left pleura; lungs containing numerous subpleural purulent nuclei, which varied in size from that of a pea to that of a pigeon's egg, disseminated through their substance. The blood within the heart and large vessels was very black; but there were no coagula.

The reporter made some experiments on asses with the purulent discharge of this patient. Some of the pus from the nostrils and from the abscess near the right ankle was taken on the day preceding the patient's death, and inserted, by pretty deep scarifications, into the flesh about the shoulders of a healthy and vigorous ass. The animal speedily exhibited all the symptoms of acute glanders, and died on the seventh day after the experiment. The post-mortem appearances were in every respect such as are usually found after fatal cases of the idiopathic disease.

M. Landouzy quotes with approbation the remark of M. Bouley, that 'Acute Glanders is a highly contagious disease; contagious by the product of the nasal secretion; contagious by the expired air; contagious by the blood; and contagious by the tissues of the dead body. After the fever of incubation, when the virulent eruption takes place, the infected animal exsudes, so to speak, the morbific matter from every pore. The observations of MM. Rayer, Breschet, and others, have most satisfactorily shewed that the disease is transmissible to other animals besides those of the solipedous family; for example, to dogs, sheep, and goats. A recent melancholy case at the Hôpital Necker clearly establishes the fact that it may be conveyed from one human subject to another; one of the internes at that hospital having died of the disease, caught by examining the body of an ostler who had fallen a sacrifice to it.

It appears that in the three years from 1837 to 1840, no fewer than 27 persons have died in Paris of the glanders. M. Landouzy condemns the too common practice in the French metropolis, of feeding dogs and sheep with the flesh of horses that have died of the disease.

"As to any essential difference between the acute and chronic forms of Glanders, we do not believe," says this gentleman, " that such exists; and the adoption of the contrary opinion has, on more than one occasion, led to a fatal security. We know of many indubitable cases of Farcy communicated from horse to man, and vice versa. If the identity of these two affections, and if the circumstance of their passing from the acute to the chronic state, and from the chronic to the acute, warrant certain scientific distinctions, they will not permit us, without great rashness, to establish any legal distinction."-Gazette Medicale.

M. BRACHET'S OPINION OF ANIMAL MAGNETISM.

M. Brachet may be justly considered a high authority on all topics connected with the phenomena of innervation, in the state alike of disease and of health. His great experience and clearsighted practical sagacity entitle his opinions to universal respect. As a matter of course, he, like other medical men of experience, has seen something, and read more, of the vaunted marvels of Mesmerism, as it has been revived of late years by Dupotet, Elliotson and others. Let us hear what judgment he has formed on the subject.

"From the Magnetism of Mesmer has arisen that other jugglery, denominated Animal Magnetism. Twenty times beaten down by science, and reason and facts, every now and then it has again lifted up its head, more ridiculous and amusing, indeed, than dangerous. We do not however mean to deny the effects which may be induced in persons of highly nervous constitutions by the passes and other grimaces that are usually practised. In the magnetic stupor of the animal energies that is sometimes induced, the entire nervous system is compromised; and this influence may unquestionably appease pain and spasmodic contractions for a time, by acting powerfully on the imagination. We can readily conceive the possibility of this; and certainly there is no lack of cases of alleged cure in hypochondriacal, as well as in many other, ailments. Although we have heard of such, we have not ourselves met with any well-authenticated examples. In our opinion, this Animal Magnetism, even when divested of all the apparatus of Charlatanery, is on the whole more likely to do harm than good in the disease now under consideration (Hypochondriasis). If such be our opinion of Magnetism, we need scarcely say that we equally discredit all the recorded wonders of Somnambulism, the exhibitions of which are now almost entirely limited to rogues, whose only object is to attract the public notice, and rob their silly dupes.* These distant voyages without moving from off one's chair, these divinations, these transpositions of the senses, &c. are only so many clever tricks contrived to amuse the weak and entrap the foolish. It may so happen that a poor silly hypochondriac, who is strongly prepossessed in favour of this culpable jugglery, appears for a time to derive some benefit to his health; but then it is only from his becoming the dupe of his credulous fancy, and not from any direct or actual sanative influence bestowed."

We observed in a recent number of the Medical Gazette a quotation to the same effect, of the opinions of the celebrated Müller of Berlin, on the subject of Animal Magnetism. How long will any men of education allow themselves to be imposed upon by the juggling tricks of clever rogues, and the paid-for testi

Within the last few weeks, the mountebank mummery of MM. Marcillet and Alexis, who were fleecing the West-end ignoramuses at the rate of five guineas for every private seance, has been covered with the ridicule and contempt which it deserves, and these knaves have been chassés from the metropolis, in consequence of the clever exposure of their lying and dishonest tricks.

mony of credulous women? Medical men, at all events, should know better; for they must have studied the history of the nervous system and its functions only indifferently well, not to be aware that many startling, and not easily explicable, phenomena are apt to occur during the progress of some of the Neuroses.

REMARKS ON THE MOLLUSCUM CONTAGIOSUM.

The Molluscum Contagiosum of Bateman is a disease of very rare occurrence in France. Biett has never seen an example of it; but Professor Andrieu has recently published two cases of it.

A girl, eight years of age, had a number of verruce on the chest, neck, and lower half of the face: she had, it was supposed, contracted them at a boardingschool, where she was much in the company of another girl who was similarly affected. This dermatosis exhibited the following characters, when first examined by M. Andrieu. "In what might be called the first stage, each tubercle was of a conical shape, shining on the surface, and of a paler colour than the surrounding integuments. The apex of the tubercle was truncated, and in its centre there was a grey or blackish point, giving it an umbilicated appearance: the basis was large and sessile.

"In the second stage or period, the tubercle had increased in volume; its basis was now pediculated; its free part was round and distended; and the umbilicus or central spot was more prominent. By degrees, the little tumor assumed a red hue, and became apparently the seat of a peculiar kind of inflammatory process. Upon being compressed, there escaped from the central opening a small quantity of cheesy-looking matter, very similar to what is squeezed out of the cutaneous follicles in Acne.

"In the third stage, these warty-looking tubercles resemble, in a very striking manner, gooseberry grains of a medium size. Reddish at first, subsequently of a dull red hue, and at length of a blackish colour during a process of destructive maturation, they end by becoming completely desiccated, and then fall off, leaving behind them a discolouration of the skin, somewhat analogous to 'that which is left from the vaccine inoculation."

Two months after his first visit, M. Andrieu again saw his patient, and he then found that her mother had become affected with the disease. Tubercles, similar to those which we have now described, had made their appearance on her face and neck, and afterwards on her breast and fore-arms.

Frictions with a pommade-composed of four parts of arsenious acid and thirty-four parts of lard-caused the complete dispersion of the tubercles in both patients: the time required for the cure being about three months in the case of the child, and four in that of her mother. No constitutional remedies were administered in either instance.-Gaz. Med. de Montpelier.

ACTUAL CAUTERY IN CERTAIN UTERINE DISEASES.

It is under the inspiration of M. Jobert that this memoir (by a M. Lauges) has been written. For several years past, the surgeon of the St. Louis Hospital has occasionally substituted, with very remarkable success, the use of the actual cautery in place of the various potential caustics in the treatment of certain uterine diseases.

The cauterisation is effected by means of an iron or steel rod, passed through a speculum of ivory-a material that is a bad conductor of heat. The instrument should be heated to whiteness; for in this state it is less apt to adhere to

the part to which it is applied-a result that might be apt to detach and bring away the newly-formed eschar.

If the vagina be not touched with the cautery, this operation causes little or no pain, and it is rarely followed by any severe re-action; the process of menstruation is not sensibly disturbed, however near to a catamenial period the application of the cautery may have been made.

As to the indications for the use of this remedy, it is particularly well suited1. To deep, exuberant, fungous ulcerations of the os and cervix uteri, complicated with hæmorrhage, simple hypertrophy, or engorgement with ramollissement or induration.

2. To hypertrophy with uterine Catarrh, but without ulceration.

3. To the ulcerations that often attend a softening of the tissue of the cervix uteri, when this is apt to bleed upon the slightest pressure.

4. To rebellious neuralgia of the Cervix.

5. To unhealthy ulcerations, for the cure of which excision of the cervix uteri has been recommended and performed.

M. Jobert has triumphed with the actual cautery over an affection, for which the patient had twice undergone this formidable operation.-Journal de Chirurgie.

Remark. We need scarcely say that our object in publishing these observations is not to recommend the practice here enjoined, but only to record what is going on among our brethren on the Continent. We trust that the day will never come when any rational surgeon in England will propose to apply the actual cautery to the uterus for the cure of neuralgia of its cervix !

M. FORGET ON DISEASES OF THE HEART.

"No one before the time of Laennec ever thought of questioning the accuracy of the old doctrine-sanctioned too by the imposing authority of Bichat-that the sounds of the heart are owing to its impulsion or stroke against the ribs and sternum. We have no intention at present of canvassing the merits of the various theories that have been proposed on this subject of auscultatory investigation during the last twenty years. Suffice it to say that, in our opinion, the theory, that refers the cardiac sounds to the action of the auriculo-ventricular and aortic valves, appears the most probable; although we are quite ready to admit that other influences may have something to do with the phenomena in question. Whatever view we adopt, this one fact is beyond dispute, viz. that whenever the valves become altered or diseased, a sensible change in the tictac sounds of the heart is invariably to be perceived."

"From their community of origin, we may infer that it is not possible, in a practical point of view, to discuss separately, and apart from each other, the subjects of valvular contraction and valvular insufficiency; and therefore that it is much more logical and more conformable to nature, to take for the basis of our clinical enquiries valvular alterations in general, as constituting the fundamental element of organic diseases of the heart.

Now these alterations are, in an immense majority of instances, the startingpoint and direct cause of cardiac dilatation and hypertrophe.

"Of 29 cases of valvular disease, examined by dissection, we found that in 9 the aortic valves alone were affected; in 10 the mitral valve only was the seat of morbid change; and in the remaining 10 both these valves were diseased. On one occasion only have we ever seen the tricuspid valve affected; the pulmonic valves never.

"We may therefore fairly conclude that the lesions of the cardiac orifices are,

in very many cases, multiple; and that, as these lesions give rise to very analogous symptoms, whatever be the orifice that is affected, the diagnosis of the exact seat of the alteration is often very difficult, if at all possible, during life; in practice it is fortunately not of much importance to diagnosticate the precise nature and seat of the valvular disease.

"The essential point to determine is, whether there be such a disease existing, or not. If there be, we may rest assured that it is in the left or systemic cavities; but whether it be the aortic or the mitral valve that is affected, it is never easy to say. There has been no little parade of scientific and technical discrimination very needlessly expended in attempting to point out the diagnostic symptoms of different cardiac diseases. Be it remembered that the aortic valve is not distant from the mitral more than by a ring of a few lines in breadth. How then can we believe that their diseases will be marked by any very distinguishing symptoms?"

"Considerable difference of opinion has existed as to the explanation to be given of those instances of confirmed valvular disease, in which the usual, and, we may almost call them, the characteristic bruits are absent. Making allowance for those cases in which the alleged absence of the auscultatory signs may be fairly attributed either to the inexperience or the want of tact of the practitioner, we can have no difficulty in mentioning certain peculiarities which will sufficiently account for the occasional indistinctness of the abnormal sounds in valvular disease of the heart. For example, the pulmonary murmur may be so loud, as more or less completely to mask the cardiac bruits; in the same way as the interposition of a portion of lung between the heart and ribs may deprive the cardiac region of its usual dulness on percussion. Another cause may be the abnormal degree or amount of force in the heart's contractions. If, for example, this force be excessive, there is almost necessarily such a tumultuous confusion present, that the characteristic sounds are quite denaturés ;' and, on the other hand, if it be deficient, the sounds are scarcely, if at all, produced ;for the very simple reason that the valves cease to vibrate, in the same manner as the cords of a violin remain quiescent, if too lightly touched with the bow. This is precisely what is often observed in the last stage of cardiac disease, when the heart beats with extreme debility."

*

"Another argument, urged by the Vitalists against the mechanical theory of the sounds of the heart's action, is derived from the occurrence of certain cases, in which, it is acknowledged, the existing sounds or bruits do not exactly correspond with the character of the existing lesions. Now it is quite true that it is often very difficult to explain altogether satisfactorily the various circumstances which cause the cardiac sounds to vary their character from day to day. What we have said above will partly serve to solve this difficulty; for, just as the excess of force or feebleness in the contracting power of the ventricular parietes will account for the non-production of the special sounds, may we not presume that the same causes will explain the irregularity of their relative strength and weakness under certain conditions of the circulation? Suppose, for example, that, in a case of contraction with insufficiency of the aortic valves, the left ventricle can contract only imperfectly, while there is no impediment to its free dilatation, then the first sound will probably be absent, and the second one only will be perceived. Moreover, let it be remarked that, if any ambiguous case be attentively watched for some time, the characteristic auscultatory signs of the existing lesion will generally be recognised; for the peculiar sound, that has been wanting to-day, may have been heard yesterday, and will be so again to-morrow. The actual disposition of the altered orifice, its degree of tension, its particular conformation, &c. should all be taken into account, in our enquiries upon this subject; for we well know that a slackened cord does not vibrate like one that is