of his ambulatory life, his savage misanthropy, and of his strange and paradoxical opinions on the civilization of mankind. We have only to read his Confessions to be assured of all this."-Des pertes Seminales Involuntaires, par Dr. Lallemand. 1839.

IODURET OF IRON IN THE TREATMENT OF SYPHILITIC ULCERS.

M. Baumes, head surgeon of the hospital at Lyons, has of late used this new ferruginous preparation with most satisfactory results in the treatment of old and obstinate syphilitic ulcers, especially when the state of the system of the patient was at the same time feeble and scrofulous. He administered it in the form of pills with Thebaic extract, increasing the dose of the ioduret from two or three to twelve or twenty grains in the course of twenty-four hours. Along with the cicatrisation of the sores, the improvement of the general health was most remarkable; the appetite improved, the muscular strength increased, and the complexion acquired the florid hue of vigorous health. The salt, no doubt, is taken into the circulation, and acts on the blood itself, as well as on the capillary vessels in every part of the body.

POISONING FROM ARSENIC SUCCESSFULLY TREATED WITH THE

PEROXIDE OF IRON.

In a recent number of the German Journal Medicinishe Annalen, we observe a report of the successful administration of the hydrated peroxide of iron as an antidote to poisonous doses of arsenic. Five persons, three of whom were children, eat some soup in which powdered arsenic had been accidentally mixed. The symptoms were, as usual, excruciating tormina in the bowels, painful vomiting, great prostration, and excessive feebleness of the pulse, &c.

After the third dose of the peroxide had been taken, these symptoms were much mitigated, and under the use of demulcent and quieting drinks, all the patients ultimately recovered.

In another case alluded to by the reporter, a similar success, we are told, followed the exhibition of this ferruginous preparation.

Again, in a recent number of the French Journal de Chimie Medicale, M. Batilliat has reported the particulars of a case which occurred in his practice; but, as the quantity of the poison swallowed was in all probability very small, it seems unnecessary to give the particulars. The dried hydrated peroxide of · iron was administered in doses of a spoonful at a time; and after the second or third dose the vomiting and other unpleasant symptoms ceased. M. B. recommends the following as a good method for obtaining the moist peroxide in a short space of time.

Let a quantity of iron filings be put along with diluted nitric acid into a large vessel, and heated over the fire; add some water to the solution and decant it off to separate the undissolved filings; then pour into it ammonia to excess, and again heat the liquor over the fire to get rid of the redundant alkali, and also for the purpose of giving a greater degree of cohesion to the precipitate. The clear liquor should then be drawn off by means of a syphon, and the peroxide should be washed repeatedly with hot water, which at first should be acidulated with vinegar: lastly, the precipitate is to be drained by being put upon a linen cloth.

In this way we can procure a sufficient quantity of a bouillie of the peroxide in the course of a couple of hours or so.-Bulletin de Therapeutique.

GERMAN TREATMENT OF LOCAL PARALYSIS.

Several German writers very strongly recommend the use, internally as well as externally, of phosphorus in cases of paralysis of the optic and auditory nerves. In a case related by M. Dezeimeris in his late elaborate memoir on diseases and injuries of the frontal sinuses, where deafness and blindness on the left side supervened upon a severe injury of the head, he resorted to this treatment with

success.

He prescribed as follows:

B. Phosphori gr. j. solve in
Olei animalis æther. 3j.
Olei caryophyll. ǝj.

Dose. Three drops, to be gradually increased to 20, to be taken on a piece of sugar night and morning. And

R. Phosphori gr. ij.

Olei animalis æther. 3j.

The eyelids to be well rubbed with this embrocation three or four times daily. A blister also was applied upon the mastoid process and kept open.

In four weeks the patient had quite recovered his hearing and sight.-L'Experience.

HEPATIC ABSCESS; DISCHARGE OF A BILIARY CALCULUS.

Mad. N., 73 years of age, presented the external signs of an organic affection of the liver. The pain in the right hypochondrium became excessively severe, and high febrile symptoms came on.

After a few days, a phlegmonous swelling made its appearance at the seat of the pain; this quickly assumed all the signs of an abscess, so as to induce the surgeon in attendance to make an opening into it. A large quantity of purulent matter mixed with bile and blood flowed out, and to prevent the healing of the wound, a tent was introduced and left in it. After the lapse of a few days, on introducing a probe along the fistula, a foreign body was felt distinctly. The wound being enlarged, this was extracted and proved to be a biliary calculus of nearly three inches and a half in diameter.-L'Experience.

ON ARTIFICIAL NIPPLES OF IVORY.

The following remarks are from a report of Messrs. Dubois, Capuron and Villeneuve-three of the most distinguished accoucheurs of Paris-on the artificial nipples recently invented by M. Charriere, an ingenious cutler of the metropolis. "In the construction of these nipples, he uses ivory which has already been made soft and flexible by a process that has been long known: they are more solid and more durable than those hitherto employed. They are sufficiently resisting not to be flattened by the lips of the infant, and yet not too hard to fret and inconvenience them. They are easily kept clean by merely shaking them about in water, and with this simple precaution it will be found that they are not apt to communicate any unpleasant smell or taste to the milk. Besides, they can be readily attached to any sort of sucking dish or bottle, if the child is brought up by the hand and not suckled by the mother.

To preserve the flexibility of the prepared ivory, all that is necessary is to keep it from the contact of the air by placing the nipple under a glass, or by wrap

ping it round with a damp cloth. In fact we (the reporters) think highly of these new contrivances, and already, we are told, they are extensively used both in public establishments and in private practice."

(We have observed in some of the recent French journals, that the prepared flexible-made ivory has been manufactured into bougies for the male urethra; but whether they possess any peculiar advantages we do not know.

Excellent artificial nipples are now made with prepared caoutchouch : they are entirely destitute of any unpleasant smell or taste, and have quite a fleshy feel to the lips when sucked with.-Rev.)

ON THE PRESERVATION OF BODIES FOR THE PURPOSES OF DISSECTION.

We are informed by Dr. O'Shaugnessy of Calcutta that since he has tried the practice of injecting bodies with a solution of arsenic-as recommended by Dr. Tranchina of Palermo, and Dr. Dudley of the U. S.-the study of anatomy has been pursued with greater case on the banks of the Ganges than in London or Paris.

Dr. Dujat, of the Ecole Pratique in the latter metropolis, has for two years past adopted this plan, and reports very favourably of it, as affording by far the most efficient means of counteracting putrefaction. He says:

........... “The brain, after several weeks, was as firm as it usually is in a post-mortem examination; and the pathological lesions of several organs retained all their accustomed appearances. The arm of a subject injected with the arsenical solution last March, (1839) was three months afterwards in a state of perfect preservation, and subsequently it was allowed to dry, the muscles retain. ing their usual dark red colour.

Even when putrefaction has commenced, the process will be arrested, and the decayed parts will recover much of their firmness and integrity, besides losing all their offensive odour. This process therefore affords a most convenient and effectual means of preserving pathological preparations when the weather is very hot or when we cannot put them up at the time. In preparing skeletons with their natural ligaments, as well also as the skins of animals, there is no antiseptic application so good as that of the arsenical solution."

Dr. Dujat seems not to have much fear that the employment of arsenic in this way is likely to prove at all poisonous to dissectors. "Indeed I am persuaded," says he, "that it renders the hands less liable to suffer from any wounds or punctures in dissection; for the minute quantity of arsenic that could be absorbed in this way can frighten only the homoeopathist; and the experience of several anatomists in Paris, Calcutta, and at Levington in America, has shewn that there is little or no danger."

The strength of the solution used for injection by Dr. D. is considerably weaker than that recommended by Tranchina: it is 125 grammes of the arsenious acid to 1 kilogrammes (or 1500 grammes) of water. It may be injected into either one of the crural or of the carotid arteries. For ordinary dissections, one injection will be found sufficient; but when our object is to preserve a body for a great length of time, it should be repeated a second or even a third time. The solution of arsenic is altogether preferable to that of corrosive sublimate, as this latter salt is apt to become decomposed, being converted into the protochloruret and ultimately into the metallic state.-Journal de Chimie.

Clinical Review.

WESTMINSTER OPHTHALMIC HOSPITAL.

CURE OF SQUINTING BY THE DIVISION OF ONE OF THE RECTI MUSCLES.

In our experience we remember nothing like the rage for dividing one of the recti muscles. The surgical world is brimfull of it. The first question that one surgeon asks another when they meet, is "Have you performed this operation?" Any one who has not done it is really an object of compassion. He stands alone, and people pity him or wonder at him. Poor Dr. Franz, who introduced the operation into London, was soon buried amongst the shoal of operators, and if he has since lifted his feeble voice, it has been lost amidst the din.

As the proceeding may now be viewed as an established one of approved benefit, of wide utility, and of such easy execution, as to admit of any surgeon's effecting it; as every one, in fact, who can operate at all ought to be able to operate here, we shall bring together some of the facts or the suggestions that have lately appeared in connexion with it.

I. THE HALF-YEARLY REPORT LAID BEFORE THE GOVERNORS OF THE ROYAL WESTMINSTER OPHTHALMIC HOSPITAL, ON THE 25TH JULY, 1840. By CHARLES W. G. GUTHRIE, Jun.

We are greatly pleased to see Mr. Charles Guthrie appear upon the scene. He is a young surgeon of much promise, and bids fair to succeed to the honourable position so justly held by his able father. We wish him the success which we cannot doubt he will obtain.

Mr. Guthrie observes :

"The operation was proposed by Dr. Stromeyer of Hanover, but was first practised by Dr. Dieffenbach of Berlin, in January last and Mr. Pyper, a student, who had been recommended to the notice of the learned Professor by my father, and had assisted Dr. Dieffenbach in several of his operations, caused the necessary instruments to be made for him on his return to London in March, and pointed out the different steps of the operation as he had seen them performed. The first operation was done on the 18th of April, but the instruments have since been considerably modified, and the operation has been rendered more simple, so that it may be readily accomplished in less than one minute, with the greatest precision and safety on an adult, offering no resistance; I have done it in a great many instances in half a minute, and it has even been done by Mr. Guthrie in a few seconds by one introduction of the small curved knife. But this method is not safe, for the ball of the eye may be injured by any irregular motion of the patient, which did occur in one unruly boy, but neither in this nor in any other instance has any evil result, or more than slight inflammation, followed the operation in the eighty-four cases in which it has been done in this hospital or in private life, nor in others in which I have assisted; and in no case has it failed in overcoming the immediate evil."

The degree of power, says Mr. G. which the person possesses over the eyes is occasionally very doubtful on the first inspection of them; both eyes squinting in turn, or together, and it is only after a little delay that the really defective eye can be clearly ascertained; whilst in others the motions of the eye are altogether so irregular, and so little under control, that it becomes doubtful which muscle should be divided, or whether it would be proper to attempt any No. LXVI.

NN

operation at all. In most instances, persons have seen double for two or three days, or even for a longer time after the operation, but this gradually subsided in every instance, save one, as the axis of the affected eye began to correspond with that of the other. In the exception a slight cast can be perceived on a careful examination, so slight, however, as scarcely to be remarked. In one case the sound eye turns in more than the eye which has been operated upon, but vision is single. In four cases, the eyes seemed disposed to turn inwards again for a few days, but from this they eventually recovered. In one case it has been necessary to repeat the operation-in two a new pupil has been made —in almost all, vision has been in a greater or less degree gradually improved, although the amendment of the appearance has been in some the essential point gained. In a few cases, the sight of each eye appears to be equally good. In one case the eye turned, and continues turned a little outwards after the operation.

Operation on Children.—When a child under eight or ten years of age, or an unruly one who may be older, of which we have had one instance at seventeen, is the subject for operation, it must be secured in the same way as in the operation for cataract, by being laid on a narrow table and covered by a strong sheet, which ought to be tied firmly underneath. The head is to be placed on a pillow, and steadily held by a spare assistant, whilst another, if necessary, further secures the body; for children of four or five, are sometimes so strong, and resist so much after the operation has been begun, as to render it very difficult to complete it, unless perfectly mastered, when they become comparatively quiet. In the first case of this kind, the muscle was not divided, and the operation had to be repeated. The youngest child Mr. G. has operated on was two years and three months old, the two next youngest were four years old.

Operation on Adults." When a patient is an adult he may be placed in a high-backed chair with the head reclined. An assistant raises the upper lid in the gentlest manner, with the ordinary silver elevator used for the same purpose in cases of soft cataract in children, holding it with one hand nearly perpendicularly to the forehead, and desiring the patient to turn the eye outwards in a case of squinting inwards, fixes a strong double hook with the other hand into the tunica albuginea, through the conjunctival membrane a little distance from the cornea, in the middle line of the eye, or what is pedantically called its equator. The points of the hook are short that they may not enter, or scarcely enter, the sclerotic coat, but they are long enough to pierce the tunica albuginea, for if they only penetrate the conjunctival membrane, this slips, and they raise it from the ball and cause its elevation near the cornea, which delays the cure. The assistant must also take care that the elevator duly raises the lid and gently confines it against the edge of the orbit in such manner that it may not slip, nor allow the upper conjunctive fold or part of the internal portion of the lid to bulge out below it, which will be apt to occur unless it is carefully prevented, by holding the elevator in the manner directed. On the right eye the elevator is to be held in the left hand, the hook with the right, and vice versa. The operator (or an assistant) having depressed the under eyelid with the fore or second finger of the left hand, directs the assistant to draw the eyeball gently outwards with the hook, until the semilunar fold of the conjunctival membrane begins to yield to the traction, when it should be held perfectly steady on the middle line, the centre of the pupil being directly under the shaft of the hook. He then makes an incision nearly equidistant from the hook, and the edge of the semilunar fold, through the conjunctival and the cellular membrane which may intervene between it and the tendon of the rectus muscle, directly upwards and downwards and inwards towards the orbit. Some surgeons use a small straight knife for this