JENERAL Jaiversity 99 Dr. Isaacs thought the amount of hæmorrhage great, as no large vessel seemed to be divided. The specimen was referred to Dr. Isaacs for injection, Dr. Isaacs narrated the case of a lady who had had phthisis for several years. For four or five months previous to death she had suffered great pain in the bowels. The autopsy showed tubercular ulceration. There were eight perforations as large as pigeon-shot. No focal matter was extravasated, and there was no peritonitis. The mesenteric glands were enlarged and tuberculous. The lacteal vessels were filled with tubercular matter. Dr. Isaacs inquired if tubercular ulceration was accompanied by much pain. Dr. Metcalfe thought that it was not generally accompanied by much. Communications. RECLAMATION. To the Editors of the N. Y. Medical Times. CHICAGO, NOV. 18, 1854. GENTLEMEN:-In the number of your journal for the present month, I notice a communication from Dr. Markoe, in which the following passage occurs: "I must frankly acknowledge, however, that in the main and essential idea of inducing union by wounding the opposed surfaces of bone, Dr. Detmold has the priority both of suggestion, and execution." I beg you will allow me through your columns to correct this error. Wounding the extremities of bones in such cases, is a process which was well known to the ancients. Sir Charles Bell, in recent times, says (Operative Surgery p. 32, 2d edition, 1814), "In one case, I thought myself, by observation made on animals, authorized to propose that a sharp instrument should be pushed obliquely down upon the bone so as to work upon and penetrate the extremities of the bone. By this means I imagined the wound made by the passage of the instrument would immediately heal, yet the extremities of the bone be so excited as to resemble the state of simple fracture, more than can possibly happen after cutting down on them, and sawing their ends." There is the "suggestion." The "execution" was effected by Dr. White, of Cherry Valley, New York, in 1816, for a fracture of the tibia of two years' standing. He obtained a union in three months; Vincent tried it at London, for a fracture of the forearm; this patient died on the third day. Brodie in 1835, practiced it for a fracture of the leg, in a child five years old, and failed. (Malgaigne, Traité des Fractures, p. 317, 1847.) If I correctly understand Dr. Detmold's method of proceeding, it consisted in making an incision down to the fracture, and then boring the bone with a common gimlet. I am not able to perceive the advantage of this practice over those previously adopted. The incision exposes to suppuration; the gimlet is not capable of being made to perforate the compact structure of bone. It could only be used in very extraordinary cases, where there is great softening. I have perforated the bone in seven cases; in no instance did I find softening to exist. I am acquainted with five other cases in which this operation has been performed; in none of them was softening noticed. I have examined ten specimens of ununited fracture preserved in different museums, and in no one of these was there perceptible sponginess of the ends of bone. The operation performed in that manner, is dangerous. In 1850, I cut down upon a fracture of the femur, and perforated the bone with a drill. The case was cured, but in reporting it I expressed the opinion that it was an operation as severe as re-section. In the operation which I now perform I think the danger and uncertainty of the methods heretofore employed, are obviated; I trust also to have demonstrated by experiment, the principle upon which all such operations should be based. In regard to the question of priority, I wrote nearly a year ago for a publication on this subject, as follows: "Let no one impute to me the pretension of being the first to attempt to institute a similar treatment. On the contrary I am proud to acknowledge, that many surgeons of the present time have sought to attain the same end." No surgeon at present living could justly claim more. I have the honor to be, Messrs. Editors, The following note from Prof. Clark, was received too late for our last number, and we give it the earliest possible insertion. Drs. Bulkley & Adams, GENTLEMEN:-In the Times, received to-day, I observe that my name appears among those of the "Candidates in nomination for the vacant place" in the New York Hospital. If my name is before the Board of Governors, I am much obliged to the unknown friend who has paid me the compliment of presenting it; yet it is but justice to myself to say, that I do not seek the appointment; that the nomination (merely complimentary, I suppose), has been made without consultation with me; and that under the present government of Bellevue Hospital, I have every reason to be satisfied with the appointment I hold in that institution. NEW YORK, Nov. 1st, 1854. Your Obt. Servant, A. CLARK. Editorial. Academy of Medicine. Dr. Griscom's Oration.—THE seventh anniversary of this institution was celebrated at the lecture-room of the Mercantile Library Association, Astor place, on Thursday evening, November 2d, when an oration was delivered by J. H. Griscom, M.D. There was a very large attendance, both of citizens and Fellows, the room being filled, and more interest apparently exhibited, than at any celebration since the Inaugural, by Dr. Francis, at the Tabernacle, in 1847, when 2,500 persons were present. The orator displayed good judgment in the selection of his theme, being the "Relations between the Public and the Medical Profession." He dwelt more particularly on the point of the gratuitous services rendered by medical men, in the various public charities of our city. His statistics, which we regret not being able to refer to at this moment, showed a large debit account on the side of the public, who, for the most part, do not even acknowledge their obligations, but practically repudiate them by the support given, in various ways, to irregular practitioners. We are happy that the public has had such an opportunity of acquiring this information, and hope that it may be to their profit to ponder on these things. The discourse cannot fail to be acceptable to the profession, and will add to the reputation of its author. We must be allowed, however, to notice an important omission, which, we doubt not, was entirely accidental. During the two years which have elapsed since the last celebration, five of the Fellows have been removed by death: Drs. McNeven, Greene, Sherwood, Moore, and Swett. These should have received, on such an occasion, at least a passing notice. We might also remark upon the inconsistency manifested in the selection, by one so well known as a writer "on Ventilation," and also Chairman of the Committee on Public Hygiene, of a lecture-room which, from its being entirely subterranean, is not susceptible of proper ventilation; but we forbear. The Academy having now been presented to the public in six annual celebrations, we respectfully submit, whether it would not be more compatible with the dignity of a scientific association to confine itself, on future occasions, within its own precincts. Such is the usage of learned societies abroad. At the anniversary of the Imperial Academy at Paris, on the occasion of the eulogy pronounced in December last, on M. Orfila, there were but few present who were not enrolled as members of that great association. New York Society for the Relief of Widows and Orphans of Medical Men. The twelfth anniversary dinner of this Society came off on Wednesday evening, at the Astor House. One hundred and twenty, including invited guests, were present, all of whom seemed well-satisfied with the efforts made by the stewards for their entertainment. The chair was taken by the President, Isaac Wood, M.D., at a quarter, to eight, P.M., he being supported on his right by Rev. Dr. Potts (representing the clerical profession), Rev. Chancellor Ferris (of the New York University), A. B. Le Bau, Esq. (of the legal profession), Dr. J. M. Smith (President of the Academy of Medicine), and Dr. A. Gescheidt (President of the German Medical Society); on his left, were Vice-President Bliss, Mr. Peter Cooper (of the Cooper Union), the venerable Dr. J. W. Francis, as the reporters style him (the embodiment of the medical profession), Dr. Galen Carter (President of County Medical Society), Edward B. Little, Esq. (a benefactor of the Society). Vice-President Anderson, supported by VicePres. Camman, and Dr. Thomas Ward, conferred dignity upon the lower table. The ornaments of the tables were appropriate to the occasion, and the music of Dodworth's band added its charms to the attractions of the evening. We regret that want of space compels us to defer a more extended notice until our next number; we will only now state, that by benefactions, new life-memberships, and other donations at the dinner, the sum of $1,250 was added to the funds in the treasury, already amounting to $16,268. Six life-members constituted themselves benefactors; two individuals (one, a layman) became benefactors; two made themselves life-members, and five handed in their names as ordinary members. Bibliographical Notices. A Systematic Treatise, Historical, Etiological, and Practical, on the Principal Diseases of the interior valley of North America, as they appear in the Caucasian, African, Indian, and Esquimaux varieties of its population. By DANIEL DRAKE, MD. Edited by S. Hanbury Smith, M. D., formerly Professor of Theory and Practice of Medicine in Starling Medical College, Ohio, and Francis G. Smith, M. D., Professor of the Institutes of Medicine in the Medical Department of Pennsylvania College, Philadelphia. Second Series. Philadelphia: Lippencott, Grambo & Co., Publishers, 1854, pp. 985. THE friends of American medical literature will hail with pleasure the completion of a work which promises to reflect so much credit upon it as this truly national enterprise of Dr. Drake, and cannot but regret that the life of this talented and devoted member of our profession could not have been spared to reap the reward of his labor. The first part of the work, published four years since, a thick octavo volume, was devoted principally to a consideration of the geographical, topographical, and hydrographical characteristics of the great valley of the West, and the influence of climate upon the etiology of its diseases, the mixture of the different races, &c., &c.; and for extent and variety of information, and clearness in its deductions, has been surpassed by no work of modern times. The present volume, reaching to nearly a thousand pages, treats more especially of the diseases of this vast and interesting region of our country, and embraces an amount of information, both general and practical, which truly astonishes one by its extent and variety, while it charms by its systematic arrangement, its clear description of disease, and the truly philosophical character of its deductions. Autumnal, yellow, and typhus fevers occupy more than half the volume, and are thoroughly examined in all their relations, the eruptive and phlogistic fevers occupying the remainder. A work so extensive, and embracing such a variety of topics, forbids any attempt at analysis; at the same time that its many valuable resumés and conclusions offer temptations to extract which it is difficult to resist. At this time especially, when the relations of yellow fever to autumnal fever are the subject of difference of opinion among some prominent men of the profession, we should be happy to transfer to our pages the tabular view given by our author of the leading characteristics of these two diseases, extending to no less than twenty-two points in which they differ in their geographical and chronological character, the subjects they attack, their symptoms, treatment, pathological anatomy, sequelæ, and mortality, covering nearly three pages, for which we cannot well find space in our present number, but which we may, perhaps, copy at a future time. The mortality of yellow fever, according to statistics collected by Dr. Drake, has ranged from one-half, or fifty per cent., to one in twenty-six and one-third, or three and eighth-tenths per cent. In the Charity Hospital at New Orleans, during sixteen years in which the deaths are annually registered, 7,263 patients were admitted, of whom 3,635 died, or one out of two. Of the whole number of cases from different sources (including this hospital), there were 4,023 deaths in 9,349 patients, equal to 43.04 per cent. If the patients of the Charity Hospital are deducted, there are 2,084 patients and 388 deaths, or 18.8 per cent.; making the mortality in private practice to that in the Charity Hospital, as 18.8 to 50 per cent., or less than two-fifths. Our lamented author was removed by death while preparing this part of his great work for the press, and left but a small portion of the manuscript in a condition for the printer. The completion of the task devolved upon Dr. S. Hanbury Smith and Prof. F. G. Smith; who have, as they say, endeavored to present the author as nearly as possible in the dress and manner he would have chosen himself; and we should judge have been very successful, though, doubtless, not without great labor, as might be supposed from the magnitude of the work. The publishers have also done their part well, and we have a volume of which we may well be proud, and which should have a place in the library of every physician in our country. |
