Why is it to be wondered at that our neighbours adopt the most rigorous and absurd measures against the pretended contagion of cholera, when we see certain paid agents of government become the apostles of that chimera, and, in their zeal for the cause which they defend, falsify the facts which pass before our eyes."

"The two persons referred to in the foregoing extract, Drs. Pariset and Audouard, have, from the nature of their employments, long proved the very great utility of quarantine regulations to themselves. How truly was it said last year by Magendie to Lord Auckland,-If you wish, my Lord, to get rid of contagion, pay no quarantine people.' He told the same to the Prime Minister of France. What thousands of lives might have been saved had this advice been taken!

In this country, the mischief arising from the fatuous decision, against evidence, of the committee of imbeciles first consulted, might have been stayed: events would have reached the public eye in a purer shape, instead of being artfully dressed up by a grand-maitre, with his tried lieutenant and a troop of mercenaries. Communities, not being foully swindled out of their common would have been able to appreciate, sense, very soon, the difference between a cause and a mere coincidence; the gates of the splendid public hospitals, which are such an honour to the country, would not have been closed against the sick, who as we well know, have perished, in many instances, for want of due accommodation and attend

ance.

We are well aware that the most consummate art has been practised by a knot of fattening contagionists, to propagate through every possible channel their doctrines from this to other countries. In our last number, we gave proofs that the medical men in the United States seemed to be judging for themselves, however, unbiassed by management practised here. But far otherwise it seems to be, we are sorry to say, with the people at large there; for it would appear that, with them, the falsehoods propagated by some of the employés

portable by such things as the sails and ropes of a ship, &c. &c. have gained credence, and, as may be seen in an extract of a letter from Watertown, given in the Paris Medical Gazette of the 9th inst., the sick are, consequently, treated like wild beasts'On traite une pauvre malade comme une béte farouche!!' A dungeon and bread and water for the remainder of their lives would be but inadequate punishment for the mischief inflicted on society every where by persons who have, from interested motives, been active in propagating the most fiendish doctrines."

X. CHARCOAL IN CHOLERA.

Ir appears that an old man of singular aspect, oddly attired, and wearing a long white beard, drove about the streets of Montreal, from morning till night, administering charcoal powder to cholera patients, and curing all to whom he gave it. Mr. Parkin, a young East India surgeon, has proposed, some months, the same remedy in this country; but we believe that he had but a few opportunities of putting it to the test, and those not fair ones. Dr. Garrandan avers that he was successful with this remedy given by enema, in a dozen of cases continuously, in the department of Calais.

XI. DR. WILLIAMS, OF IPSWICH.

In our last number Dr. Williams' suppository (opium and soap) was mentioned without remark. We confess that we have little confidence in the remedy proposed, nor can we persuade ourselves,-after what we have seen of real cholera, that any suppository can be "easily and confortably received and retained in the bowels." p. 9. The Dr. declaims, with suitable vehemence, against the "awful fatality" which "may be attri buted to the use of calomel, opium, &c" in cholera. We should hardly have expected that a learned: "fellow" of the College of Physicians would have come forward,

at this time of day, with a specific suppository for cholera, a disease which, like all others, requires different remedies in its different stages. At page 16 of his pamphlet, we find the learned Doctor animadverting upon some papers or letters published by Dr. Baird, of Ipswich; but into this controversy we mean not to enter. Not having a nostrum of our own to propose for cholera, we adhere to the good old rule, non nostrum inter vos," &c. But in the same page, we observe a passage which is interesting beyond the confines of Ipswich.

66

"MEMBER OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS IN LONDON AND GRADUATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH. All membership of the College of Physicians, with the honors and duties attached to it, centre in the FELLOWs alone. DR. BAIRD's name is to be found amongst the Licentiates only.* The real or legal qualifications of a Licentiate, and those of a Graduate of the University of Edinburgh to practice as a Physician in ENGLAND, and to what extent, it is Lot my intention now to enter upon or dis

cuss."

The passage and note are printed and Italicised precisely as they appear in Dr. Williams' pamphlet, and they exhibit an exquisite specimen of the feelings which some "FELLOWS" entertain towards those outcasts of the profession-the licentiates of the London college and the graduates of Edinburgh!! Admitting that a Blane, a Parry, a Gregory, an Abercrombie, were not worthy to lick the dust from this Ipswich "fellow's" shoes, what must the Babbingtons, M'Gregors, Prouts, Rogets, Hollands, &c. think of the dung-hill from which they have sprung, and the brilliant via lactea into which they have been transplanted!

"Even in the appendix to the report of the committee of the House of Commons respecting the late Dr. Jenner's petition, the licentiates of the College of Physicians are designated licentiates only-not membersin proof of which, a brief extract from such appendix is here subjoined."-p. 17,

We may venture to assert, that not a single "FELLOW" of the College in London would venture to publish such a libel on his fellowpractitioner here, even were he so inclined

and we are happy to say, that very few indeed of them are so inclined, if we can judge of their character! It is in provincial towns only, that such narrow-minded and illiberal sentiments could be engendered or emitted.

LXVI.

THE POISONOUS, OR TOAD-FISH OF VAN DIEMAN'S LAND.

(Communicated by James Scott, Esq. R.N.

Colonial Surg. at Hobart Town.)

THE fish of which I send you a delineation, is found in the bays and on the shores of Van Dieman's Land, and is supposed to be a species of the toad-fish.

The melancholy and dreadful effect produced by eating it was lately instanced, in the neighbourhood of Hobart Town, on the lady of one of the most respectable merchants and two children, who died in the course of three hours, without having been able to give any notice of their danger; and several servants (who had also partaken of the fish for dinner) were only saved by the timely discovery of the death of their mistress, and their fellow-servant's children. The poison is of a powerful sedative nature, producing stupor, loss of speech, deglutition vision, and the power of the voluntary muscles, and, ultimately, an entire deprivation of nervous power, and death.

At the inquest over the above bodies, the effect of the poison was satisfactorily proved, by giving part of the fish left by the unfortunate individuals to two cats, which soon became affected. When both were in a dying state, one had twenty-five drops of the arsenical solution introduced, with a silver tube, into the stomach, and rapidly recovered, while the other, which was allowed to take its chance, quickly died. The bodies, at death, were flaccid and blanched, with no fetor, but rather a smell

like that of new hay, particularly about the mouth; but in about twelve hours, they became livid, swollen with bloody serum issuing from all the external parts, intolerably fetid, and rapidly running into decomposition.

The general size of the fish is about five inches in length; the girth is great in proportion to the length; the back is of the colour and spotted like tortoiseshell; the belly is of a white kidskin feel and appearance; the animal has one ventral fin posterior to the anus, one caudal and two pectoral fins the gills are anterior to the pectoral fins, and are about three-eighths of an inch in length, and of a semilunar form; the eyes are rather large and prominent, like those of the toad; the nares are anterior to the eyes.

Hobart Town, Van Dieman's

Land, 27th Dec. 1831.

N.B.-The specimen of the fish preserved in spirits, accompanying this account, has been presented to Sir W. Burnett, Knt. in trust for the museum at Haslar, by Dr. Sinclair, R.N.

ST. GEORGE'S HOSPITAL.

I. EXCISION OF THE HEAD OF THE HUMERUS, AND AMPUTATION OF THE SHOULDER-JOINT.

WITHIN the last three years, two operations for the removal of the head of the os brachii, and one for amputation of the upper extremity at the shoulder joint, have been performed at this hospital. All were for disease of the articulation. We will give the particulars of the cases, in order that some sort of comparative estimate may be formed of the value of the operation of excision and amputation. We are aware that such an estimate is by no means a complete one. It would require many cases, varieties of circumstances, and careful comparison, to warrant a decision.

vertical incision in the deltoid muscle. The case was one of that acute necrosis which surgeons occasionally witness, and which is not unfrequently fatal.Soon after the publication of Mr. White's case, a similar operation was performed by Mr. Bent, of Newcastle, and Mr. Orred, of Chester. In France, the elder Moreau performed the operation successfully in 1786; and the army surgeons, particularly Barons Percy and Larrey, frequently resorted to it, on account of recent wounds. Such is the brief history of the operation offered by Mr. Syme, in his Treatise on the Excision of Diseased Joints.

There can be no question, that it is owing chiefly to Mr. Syme himself that the operation has recently attracted much attention. The cases that he has published have been so numerous, some of them apparently so satisfactory, that it became impossible for unprejudiced men to disregard them. Mr. Syme has related two cases of incision of the head of the humerus for disease of the articulation. In the first case, the extremity of the acromion was "bare and rough ;"— it was removed by the cutting pliers; the glenoid cavity was divested of its cartilage, but otherwise sound:-it was left undisturbed. This case ended favourably. When Mr. Syme last saw the patient, four years and a half had elapsed since the performance of the operation. She could move the limb across the chest, both forwards and backwards, with considerable force and freedom, but had very little power of abduc tion. The arm was about an inch shorter than the other. We think there can be no doubt that such a member is vastly better than none. The second case was not so favourable. At the time of the operation, racic disease. The root of the coracoid the patient, a man, had sypmtoms of thoprocess and upper part of the glenoid cavity were carious; they were freely removed by the cutting-pliers. In six weeks the wound was nearly healed. Then an old sinus,

operation he died. The lungs were exten sively affected. The extremity of the humerus was rounded off, and connected to the scapula by strong ligamentous bands. Nothing is said of disease still remaining in the scapula. Such was the issue of Mr. Syme's cases. It appears that in neither was the scapula extensively diseased, and perhaps it would be a fair induction from the first to suppose, that where the disease is confined, or nearly confined, to the head of the humerus, and no visceral alterations exist, the operation of excision offers a reasonable chance of success. We conceive that there is nothing in the cases we are now about to relate, which is calculated to disprove such a supposition. But we anticipate. We are sure that the only method of determining the value of this, or of any doubtful plan of treatment, is to lay before the public a candid and explicit detail of facts. They cheat the world, inflict a vital injury on science, and degrade themselves, who hastily publish their successful cases, but forget to recount their subsequent fail

ures.

the neck of the scapula-at the lower and posterior border of the axilla, the latter apparently leading to the inferior costa of the scapula, below the neck. Over the anterior surface of the humerus, about two inches below the joint, the cicatrix of a sinus, and posteriorly another similar cicatrix. Much pain on pressure of the diseased parts, on employing the probe, or on attempting to move the joint. Arm retained in the position of approximation to the side, but not anchylosed, though incapable of much motion, from the condition of the soft parts, and the pain occasioned by such an attempt.

Complains of pain occasionally in the front of the chest-back of the sboulderbut chiefly in the side of the neck; the pain shoots down to the fingers. Pain worse by day than by night.

Health indifferent. She looks pallid, and older than she is has slight cough at times, without expectoration-shooting and transient pains in the chest-some hecticappetite good-bowels variable. She has never menstruated.

About six years ago, she received a slight blow upon the shoulder. Five years ago, a small swelling formed on the scapular part of the shoulder, and one year afterwards the present disease commenced. She entered

General enlargement and globular form of left shoulder commencing, near the sternal end of the left clavicle, and increasing gradually to either border of the axilla, where the tumefaction is most marked. Integuments rather blue, with enlarged cutaneous veins. Swelling firm, save at the anterior border of the axilla, where a degree of puffiness almost raises the suspicion of the existence of deeply-seated matter. Deltoid was wasted, as is the whole upper extremity, offering a striking contrast to the fulness of the thoracic portion of the shoulder. Over the centre of the left clavicle is the opening of a sinus, in which the probe passes beneath the clavicle towards the neck of the scapula and coracoid process. Other sinuses over the coracoid process-opposite the posterior surface of

care she was, applied a caustic issue. From that time to this, the disease has continued to make progress. A year or two ago, she refused to have the arm removed at the shoulder-joint, an operation which Mr. Brodie proposed. Has had startings at night, and a disposition to perspirations from the first. Cough has existed for a few weeks.

Such were the symptoms of the complaint, and such its history. The former we have given fully-they were evident facts. The latter we have related cursorily, for whoever has watched cases carefully, knows that long and complicated histories are always fallacious.

On the 28th, there was a consultation of the surgeons of the hospital. It was determined to cut down upon the joint, and, if possible, remove the diseased portions of bone.