A Case of translated morbid Action, in which, from the sudden Suppression of an habitual Discharge by Perspiration, Symptoms indicating Effusion within the Head took place, J. POWELL, a very healthy old man, aged 77, had been for many years subject to an excessive degree of perspiration from the feet, more especially after taking any exercise. This tendency to sweating in the feet bad for years past so great an inconvenience, as to oblige bim sometimes to change his stockings several times in the course of the same day. In all other respects, he enjoyed very good health, and his constitutional strength was remarkably great for a person of his advanced age. Complaining frequently of this inconvenience, he was one day advised by a neighbour, to apply the fresh leaves of dock to his feet; he was told that this would effectually cure his complaint. Accordingly be laid a single dock leaf to the sole of each foot, and very soon perceived they had taken effect. He felt a considerable sensation of tingling and irritation wherever the leaves came in contact with the skin. Within half an hour after they were applied, he felt great uneasiness and pain in his head. This pain soon became very bad, particularly over the eyes, which were so much affected, that before the leaves had been applied an hour, he was very nearly totally deprived of his sight. His sight became affected when the pain was merely an uneasiness; and the power of distinguishing the objects around him was completely gone within the hour. Upon being examined with regard to his power of discerning the light, it appeared that he could perceive a strong light, and he could also make out the figure of any object placed immediately between a strong light and his own eye. In such circumstances, the objects before him seemed as if they were enveloped in a thick fog or mist. In this state he continued to remain for some time; during the following night, the pain in the head was so severe, as to deprive him of his rest; but he had still no constitutional disturbance, nor tendency to fever. The next day he was found to be precisely in the same state as before he went to bed. The pupils of the eyes did not shew any disposition to vary or change. They were exposed to different degrees of light, but they remained unaltered, and were fixed in a state of permanent contraction. He could, however, still perceive when he was 04 brought brought near a window, but this was all that he could dis cern. For his relief, a blister was recommended to be laid behind each ear, and others to be applied on each foot, to be laid between the inner ancle and sole of the foot; small doses of calomel also were directed to be frequently given, as it was intended that his system should be brought under the influence of the mercurial excitement. As soon as the blisters began to operate and become painful, so soon he perceived the pain in the head and the affection of sight relieved. By the time they were dressed the day after, he found his situation so far improved, that he was able to distinguish many objects with tolerable precision, that before were totally invisible. The blistering plasters removed, dressings of an irritating nature were applied, as it was deemed necessary to keep up a considerable discharge for some time. In addition to the above, it was also directed that his feet should be immersed in warm water morning and evening, and afterward very warmly wrapped in flannels, to produce and encourage a freedom of perspiration. Under a continuation of this treatment, the patient was gradually restored to health, losing the distressing pain in his head, while he found his sight returning to him more perfectly every day. The mercurial course affected his mouth rather smartly, and under its influence, he had the comfort of finding himself released from the little remaining head-ach, and very nearly the whole imperfection of vision. Previous to his illness, he had enjoyed a clearness of sight very unusual at this age; and after his restoration, his vision was very nearly, but not quite, equal to what it was before his confinement. He was recommended to wear a piece of oiled silk wrapped round each foot, to promote the insensible perspiration. Mill Street, Hanover Square, August 18, 1810. ACCOUNT ACCOUNT OF A CALCULUS, TAKEN FROM THE BLADDER AFTER DEATH. [Laid before the Royal Society of London, by Sir James Earle. ] THE subject of this Case, Sir Walter Ogilvie, Bart, was an officer in the Army, and at the age of 23, received a blow on his back from the boom of a vessel, which paralyzed the pelvis and lower extremities. During the first two months after the accident, he was obliged to have his water dra off, and for fourteen months he remained in an horizontal posture; and though he then had recovered the use of the bladder, and of his limbs sufficiently to walk across the room by the help of crutches, and also to ride, when placed on an easy low horse, his health continued many years in a weak and precarious state, while the limbs acquired but little additional strength. About twenty years after the accident, symptoms were perceived of a stone in the bladder, and it was recommended to him to submit to an operation; but from circumstances it was postponed for eight years, though his health declined, and the irritation and pains in the bladder greatly increased. He now became unable to evacuate his water in an erect position, and the inconvenience increased so much, that at last he could discharge none without standing almost on his head, so as to cause the upper part of the bladder to become lower; and this he was obliged to do frequently, sometimes every ten minutes. At length he came by water to London, and determined to submit to the operation. His sufferings were immense, but the attempt did not succeed: the main body of the calculus was too hard to be broken in pieces, and too large to be brought away, unless by an operation above the os pubis, which was considered as too uncertain and dangerous to hazard even the attempt. In ten days after the operation, he resigned a most singularly miserable existence. On examination after death, the form of the stone appeared to have been moulded by the bladder; the lower part having been confined by the bony pelvis, took the impression of that cavity, and was smaller than the upper part, which having been unrestricted in its growth, except by the soft parts, was larger, and projected so as to lie on the os pubis. The stone weighed forty-four ounces; the form was eliptical; the periphery on the longer axis was sixteen inches, on the shorter fourteen. The ureters were much much increased in their dimensions and thickness, and were capable of containing a considerable quantity of fluid; they had, in fact, become supplemental bladders, the real bladder being at last nothing more than a painful and difficult conductor of urine, which trickled down in furrows formed by it on the superior surface of the stone. This explained the cause which obliged the patient, when compelled to evacuate urine, to put himself in that posture which made the upper part of the bladder become the lower; by this means a relaxation, or separation, was allowed to take place between the bladder and the stone, so that the ureters had an opportunity of discharging their contents; when the body was erect, their mouths, or valvular openings, must have been closed by the pressure of the abdominal viscera on the bladder, against the stone. 66 "The disease", says Sir James Earle, probably origin ated when the patient was obliged to continue such a length of time on his back, in which position the surface of the water only may be supposed to have been, as it were, decanted, and the bladder seldom, if ever, completely emptied: thus, in a constitution, perhaps naturally inclined to form concretions, the earthy particles subsided, and by attraction soon began to lay the rudiments of a stone, which was not felt above the brim of the pelvis till many years after." The texture of the stone, upon examination, appeared different from the generality of calculi, to contain more animal matter. Dr. Powell examined its composition by chemical analysis, and found it to consist of the triple phosphate of ammonia and magnesia, with phosphate of lime, mixed with a certain portion of animal matter, which was separated and floated under a membrane-like form, on the solution of the salts in diluted acids. The calculus agrees with the description given by Fourcroy, and confirms his observations on this species: "Ce sont aussi les concretions urinaires les plus volumineuses de toutes; elles ont depuis le grosseur d'une oeuf jusqu'à une volume qui occupe tout la vessie, en la distendant même considerablement." Hence, it should seem, that similar instances have occurred to this able chemist. "But," says Sir J. Earle, " from my own observation, and from all the information that I have been able to collect, no calculus from the human bladder, of such magnitude, has been hitherto exhibited or described in this country." To To the Editors of the Medical and Phyfical Journal. I GENTLEMEN, Happened to read in the Medical and Physical Journal, for June 1810, a paper on the torpidity of animals, by Benjamin Smith Barton, M. D. Professor of Natural History at Philadelphia, extracted from the Philosophical Magazine, being remarks on an Essay on the same subject by Henry Reeve, M. D. Dr. Barton writes as follows:-"There are two species of the genus Hirundo (Swallow) which are peculiarly disposed to pass the brumal season in the cavities of rocks, in the hollows of trees, and in other similar situations; where they have often been found in a soporose state. These species are the Hirundo riparia, or Sand Swallow, commonly called, in the united states, bank swallow and bank martin; and the Hirundo Pelasgia, or aculeated swallow, which we call chimney-bird and chimney-swallow. There is no fact in Ornithology better established, than the fact of the occasional torpidity of these two species of Hirundo. I say nothing of the torpidity of swallows under water. But I do not wholly deny this fact. And I take much pleasure in referring Dr. Reeve to a short paper, in the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, vol. 6th, part first, relative to the discovery of a torpid swallow under a quantity of mud and leaves. The author of that paper was a most worthy and respectable man; and a man so religiously attached to truth, that I believe him to have been incapable of uttering a falsehood. He was, moreover, a man of nice observation, and of a philosophical turn of mind. Reeve asserts, that no swallows were ever found in all the rivers and lakes of England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, or Switzerland, although fishermen are constantly employed on these their supposed hiding places; does he mean to say, that it has never been asserted by any of his countrymen, that swallows have been found torpid, under water, in England? Swallows are said to have been found torpid in the river Thames; and the fact seems to have been credited by some illustrious Englishmen in the 17th century; and among others, if I do not mistake, by the immortal William Harvey." Dr. These animadversions of Dr. Barton have surprized me much; especially when he remarks, "I say nothing of the torpidity |