ral years, which during the last year had so much increased, that it had obliged her to confine herself almost entirely to the house. The leg frequently swelled to a very large size, and was generally covered, more or less, by a vesicular eruption. How much the affection, in this case, resembled idiopathic erysipelas, appears from its having been considered as such, and treated acngly by a physician, who had attended the 'patient two or onths before I saw her. That, however, it was wholly 《རྒོད་ on the morbid condition of the veins, is proved by wide of the inflammatory symptoms subsiding upon the of very large and diseased varix, which there was on of the upper part of the small of the leg. About a poua lor blood was taken away at the operation; and perhaps to this source some of the benefit which followed may be attributed; but it appears to me, that the less of blood was only beneficial in a secondary degree, because, in this case, the patient had, two or three times before, been bled from the arm without the pain or inflammation being at all relieved; and also, because the good effect of the operation, as far as relates to the veins, was principally, if not wholly, confined to the varix which was divided; the other varices that existed at the same time, though of smaller size, and less diseased, not being materially benefited by the operation, but being still in such a tender state as to render it probable that they will ultimately require division. The loss of blood in this case induced a complete state of syncope, which has been stated to be a rare occurrence, as the consequence of abstraction of blood from a varicose vein. Although I have stated that the mere abstraction of blood does not occasion any permanent benefit when there is actual disease of a varix, still I am well aware that even then it often affords considerable temporary relief, and that it is really of the greatest service when, from excessive distention, the veins are in a painful condition. I could, indeed, adduce many cases proving the benefit which is sometimes derived from taking blood away from varicose veins. Before I conclude this paper, I must beg to observe, that it has not been my object to consider the general treatment of varicose veins, but only those points to which I have specifically adverted in the beginning. 4, Falcon Square, January 21st, 1822. [In consequence of some typographical errors in the former. part of Mr Lloyd's paper, our readers are requested to cancel L and M, and substitute the corrected sheets given in No. XIV.] CASE OF DISEASE OF THE FEMur, resembling CARCINOMA. BY H. PUGH, Esq. To the Editor of the Quarterly Journal. SIR, A female, aged about fifty, in August, 1821, complained of pain in the left hip, extending to the knee; the pain was referred to the course of the sciatic nerve. On accurate examination, no circumstance induced the belief of disease of the joint. She became gradually worse, receiving no benefit from constitutional or local remedies. About the beginning of October she was obliged to take to her bed: shortly after, any attempt to change the position of the limb was attended with the most acute pain, which altogether precluded moving it for the purpose of examination. Her existence was protracted till the middle of January, 1822, when she sunk, as if exhausted by excess of suffering. On examination, twelve hours after death, the appearances were as follows: The hip was slightly swollen; the limb oedematous; and shortened about two inches. The sciatic nerve was not diseased; the articular cartilages of the joint were healthy; but the superior extremity of the femur presented a change of structure, which I had never before observed, or seen described. The disease appeared to comprise about three inches of the cylinder in extent, together with the trochanter, neck, and head of the bone. It was considerably larger than when in a natural state, and firmly attached to the surrounding muscles, which were healthy, though much wasted. On a longitudinal section, it was found to consist of a substance, of a pale yellow colour, hard fleshy consistence, and cut with difficulty with the scalpel; and which I should denominate a carcinomatous tumour, only that it was interspersed with spicule of bone, which were far more numerous towards the head, trochanter, and, in fact, the whole of its exterior surface, than interiorly, where they were in some parts nearly imperceptible, in others, wholly absent. Detached laminae of bone were, in two or three instances, adherent to the exterior of the mass. The medulla nearest the disease very much resembled it, both in consistence and colour; it was much firmer than usual, for the space of an inch or two, gradually approaching its natural state as examined at a greater distance from the disease. The cancelli were also destroyed for the space of about two inches from the part where the exterior laminæ were deemed healthy. The form of the head was not destroyed; it was covered with cartilage in a perfect state; and the synovial membrane could be distinctly traced over its surface. It was quite soft, easily compressed, and rather enlarged, filling up the acetabulum, and admitting of very little or no motion. Interiorly, part of the osseous matter was absorbed, without deposition of any other substance, only having an undue moisture. The neck of the bone was nearly lost, which, I presume, may be accounted for, as well as the shortened state of the limb, by the action of the muscles drawing up the bone, and not meeting with the usual resistance. I have already stated how closely the diseased growth in the femur resembled carcinoma, and in this view of the subject it may be interesting to remark, that about twelve months previous to her decease, this patient underwent an operation for the removal of a tumour from her right breast, which presented every characteristic of schirrus. During her late illness, she complained of pain in the part, but nothing could be discerned indicating a return of disease there. Bath, March 5th, 1822. HENRY PUGH. Case of a Spina Bifida treated according to the Method of Sir Astley Cooper. Communicated by M. Richt, of Berlin. THE wife of a labourer was delivered, at the full period of gestation, of a healthy-looking child, on the lower part of whose spine was a transparent swelling of the size of a walnut. The child seemed paralysed in the lower extremities, and was subject to involuntary discharge of the urine and faces. On examination the parts were found to have all the characters of spina bifida; the skin forming a bladder, in which fluctuation was distinctly felt. The lower extremities seemed to be well nourished, notwithstanding the paralysis. The little patient had great difficulty in sucking. After evacuating by the needle a small quantity of lymph, moderate pressure was applied, and the midwife who attended was ordered to repeat the puncture and the pressure! In four days the physician found the tumour considerably diminished, and the skin very hard, and a great number of minute blood-vessels ramifying through it. The paralysis of the lower extremities seemed to give way, the involuntary evacuations ceased, and sucking was more easily performed. The treatment was ordered to be repeated. The midwife having been called to another patient, the mother was instructed to perform the puncture and the pressure! But the good woman, in haste to evacuate at once the contents of the tumour, made a considerable opening. Spasmodic fits soon supervened, and the infant expired about twenty-four hours after the puncture had been made. Dr. Hale's Experiment on himself, by injecting castor oil into his Veins. AFTER repeating on dogs and rabbits, a number of experiments, by injecting different substances into the circulation, Dr. Hale had the intrepidity to try one on himself. He accordingly injected half an ounce of castor oil, of the temperature of 70°, into one of the veins of his arm. When the operation was finished, he says, he felt very well for a short time; but, about ten minutes after the whole was injected, he perceived a curious feeling, or taste of oitiness in the mouth, Very soon after, while talking in good spirits and washing the blood from his arm, he felt a slight nausea, with eructations, and some commotion in the bowels, and a singular indescribable feeling ascending suddenly to his head. At the same instant he felt some stiffness of the muscles of the face and jaw, which cut short his speech in the middle of a word, accompanied with a bewildered feeling in his head, and a slight faintness; but, on sitting down, he recovered himself in a few minutes. His bowels continued uneasy with wandering pains, but he had no motion which he could ascribe to the oil. The strange feeling in his head, the nausea, and the oily taste in his mouth, remained all day. Next day he had slight chillness, but no general rigors; his arm was painful, and he was feverish and lost his appetite, and was altogether too ill to make use of either his bodily or mental faculties. This continued several days, and it was some weeks before he regained his strength and vigour. Many of the symptoms must have arisen as rauch from the irritation of the wounded arm, as from the oil, and some of them, we should think, from fancy. Dr. Hale concludes, very justly, that no advantage is to be gained by this mode of exhibiting emetics, purgatives, or other medicines, while it is liable to hazard and danger.—Boylston Medical Prize Dissertations, by E. Hale, jun. M.D. &c. Boston, (New England), 1821. Medical Society of London. Bolt Court, Fleet-street, 8th March, 1822. DR. COPLAND, Editor of the Medical Repository, delivered the Annual Oration before this society to a very crowded audience. The subject was the phenomena and laws of the universe,-galvanism, heat, attraction, chemical affinity, magnetism, and animal life and intelligence. With the exception of animation and intelligence, he explained all physical changes to arise from two electric fluids generally diffused through the universe, which are developed and decompounded on the surfaces of the planets-pass off in an uncombined state towards the sun—and, when they reach his surface, are again combined, flowing back in a united state to the planets, to be again disunited as soon as they reach their surface. From these two electric fluids and their changes he accounted for gravity, light, heat, magnetism, chemical affinity, &c. Animation and intelligence, he said, cannot be explained either by the two electric fluids nor by any other principle belonging to inorganized matter; and therefore we must have recourse to another principle to account for these— namely, a superior, immaterial principle, altogether distinct from the inorganic world. He gave an interesting comparison between the organization and finctions of the lower and the higher animals, and particularly illustrated what has been called the continued line of gradation in nature. He justly exposed the fallacy of supposing such a line, which, though plausibly supported by some appearances, yet, so far from being continuous, is frequently interrupted by breaks, and even chasms, particularly in passing from the inferior animals, who seem to have no reflection, to man whose rationality places him so much above the rest of the animal creation. Dr. Copland alluded also to his peculiar theoretical views of the nervous system, as divided into the nerves of the brain-the spine-and the ganglia, which views, we understand, he is about to publish in a work on gene ral physiology and pathology,-and constituting an improved General System of Medecine. Dobereiner's Analysis of Oxalic Acid. M. Dobereiner finds, that oxalic acid contains no hydrogen, hut is formed of equal volumes of oxide of carbon, and carbonic acid combined with water, the water being essential to the acid. For when it is exposed to fuming sulphuric acid, like that of Nordhaussen, whose affinity for water is very great, the acid disappears, and a gas is produced 9.4 cubic inches of which contains 4.7 cubic inches of carbonic acid gas, and the remainder is oxide of carbon. If there had been hydrogen present, sulphurous acid would have been formed, or the carbonic acid, and carbonic oxide, would have been in different proportions.-Annales de Chimie et Physique. Montague's case of Pulmonic Disease in a Duck. Our late distinguished and indefatigable Naturalist, George Montague, Esq. had a scaup duck sent to him, which appeared to be sickly, and died in a few days. On dissection he found extensive disease of the lungs, and the membrane surrounding them much thickened, apparently from chronic inflammation. But what was most remarkable, the whole cavity of the thorax where the disease prevailed was covered with mucor, or blue mould, affording a singular example of a vegetable growing within an animal. It is to be remarked, however, that the parts where the fungus grew were in a complete state of decay.-Edinburgh Encyclopædia. This singular case forms a good illustration of the observations of M. Gaspard in Magendie's Journal, to which we have alluded above.—Quart. Jour, For. Med. IV. 230. Taddei's New Antidote to Corrosive Sublimate Professor Taddei, of Florence, has published an 8vo. pamphlet, proposing the gluten of wheat as a new antidote for that dreadful poison the oxy-muriate of mercury, We have not yet seen it, but there is a very full analysis of it by A. Cattaneo, in Omodei's Annals, minutely describing the origin of the discovery; the mode of preparing and administering the gluten, in which there seems to be nothing peculiar ; experiments with it on animals; and a comparison of its efficacy with that of albumen, as proposed by Orfila. Taddei concludes his pamphlet with recommending the now almost disused corrosive sublimate in syphilis, care being taken to modify its effects by drinking largely of milk, barley water, and decoction of mallows, or burdock.— Annali. Univ. di Medicina, vol. XVII. Physiology of the Rice Bird, Emberiza Oryzivora. It was formerly supposed that only the female Rice bird was migratory in the same way as Linnaeus supposed the male chaffinch (Fringilla Coelebs) to migrate alone from Sweden. The mistake was first detected by Mr. Bartram, and afterwards confirmed by Mr. Alexander Wilson, (American Ornithology, II. 51.) in respect to the Rice bird; and we recommend to the Swedish Naturalists a more careful research in the case of the chaffinch. The truth is, that the internal organization of wild birds, of all kinds, undergoes a remarkable change every spring and summer. In autumn the parts in the Rice bird which characterize the male, are no larger than the smallest pin's head, and in young birds of the first year can scarcely be detected at all, whereas in spring they become at least a hundred times larger. In the Rice bird Mr. Wilson ascertained these facts by numerous dissections. The plumage changes at the same time, so that in winter all the birds |