the contractions of the right ventricle, into the capillaries of the pulmonary arteries, bursts them by its expansion, and thus causes a general emphysema of the substance of the lung; and this is the real cause of the stoppage of the circulation." Veterinary surgeons have met with the same accident, in bleeding horses from the jugular vein. In the "Lancette," Nov. 1830, several cases, which occurred in the human subject, are adduced by M. Clemot; in one, during the excison of a tumour in the axilla; in another, when he was tying the subclavian artery; and, in a third, when he was dissecting a tumour from the neck. In the two first cases the patients recovered; a noise like that of aspiration, or of a bellows, was heard; the finger was placed on the spot, and the noise ceased when it was withdrawn, the blowing was again heard; the vein, which was not very large, was then tied, and no bad effects resulted. It appears, therefore, that Bichat was not correct in supposing, that the admission of a single bubble of air suffices to cause death. Barry, in 1825, specially directed the attention of the profession to the influence which the pressure of the atmosphere on the external surface, and the suction of the right side of the heart, have on the propulsion of the blood in the veins. He states that the black blood is moved forward only during inspiration; and it is very generally known that hæmorrhage from, or engorgement of veins, may often be abated by a few deep-drawn breaths. Professor Berard, in the Archives Générales, 1830, points out the anatomical condition of some of the large veins, by which they are more exposed to the suction of air into their canals than others. The most recent example of this accident occurred in the La Charité Hospital last Sept. M. Roux had nearly finished an operation of extirpating a tumour from the neck, when suddenly a whistling or sighing noise was heard, and immediately afterwards a gurgling or bubbling within the chest; the patient uttered some plain Dr. tive cries, and was convulsed; syncope supervened, and every one thought that she was dying; she, however, recovered gradually from this state, and the opera tion was finished by putting a ligature round the narrow neck, by which the tumour was attached; it separated upon the 10th day, and on the 13th she died of a stomach ailment, according to M. Roux. General Remarks. The veins of the neck and adjoining parts are those chiefly exposed to the introduction of air during an operation. As we have hinted above, it is probably necessary that the veins be attached closely to the surrounding tissues, whether the attachment be normal or not, to keep the orifice of the divided vessel open and gaping. Whenever such a vein is cut across, it will be prudent to tie it as quickly as possible, especially if the least whistling murmur be heard. Magendie has the hardihood to propose a remedy, which recals to our minds what Bichat advised in desperate syncope, and which has been employed with success in the lower animals. The remedy consists in introducing a silver canula into the jugular vein, and, after directing it towards the heart a syringe is to be fitted on, and the air and blood to be pumped up. No trial has ever been made.-Ibid. LII. ASSASSINATION OF M. DELPECH. On the 29th of October, a ruffian, of the name of Demptos, ran towards Delpech's cabriolet with a double-barreled gun in his hand. He fired, and the ball entered the left side of the chest: he fired a second time and killed the servant on the spot. Delpech died in a few minutes. The assassin was a native of Bourdeaux, and aged 36; he had some time before applied to M. Delpech, on account of a varicocele, which, by proper treatment, was speedily made better. He returned from Montpellier to Bourdeaux, and there fell in love with a girl, whose parents, however, refused their consent. On being urged, however, to explain their reasons, they shew any disposition to awake for the purpose of taking food during its continued hybernation; neither are any excretions passed. External warmth, or any excitement, is the only stimulus which arouses it. On the other hand, the hedgehog, if the temperature be about 40° or 45°, awakes every two, three, or four days to take food, and it then returns to its state of lethargy; under similar circumstances, the dormouse awakes daily. Hunger is, therefore, probably the stimulus which induces the animal to awake at intervals. Having now considered the condition of the leading vital functions during hy bernation, we can be at no loss to perceive the marked difference between this state, and that of torpor from extreme cold. We have seen that the muscles do not become stiffened and incapable of motion-that the nerves are not benumbed and paralysed, and that hybernation is a salutary change, and one conducive to the preservation of life; whereas continued torpor from cold, as is well known, generally proves fatal. Indeed we shall find that, when a hybernating animal is subjected to great cold, without any means of increasing and retaining its warmth, it often remains in a state of activity, while others of the same tribe, which are provided with wool or straw to make a nest for themselves, speedily become lethargic. It is, therefore, moderate, and not extreme cold, which disposes to true hybernation. During the Winter months, they seek some secure retreat for nests or burrows, or congregate in clusters; and, if the season is unusually severe, many are found to perish from the cold. Let these particulars be, therefore, well remembered, in order that we may not, in future, mistake the phenomena of torpor from cold for those of true hybernation. In one respect only do these two states agree, and that is, in the dangerous and often fatal consequences of over-speedy reviviscence; if the respi. ration of an animal, lethargic from hybernation, be suddenly restored and kept permanently excited, the effect is very often the death of the animal. Recapitulation. The following conclusions contain the essence of Dr. Hall's observations: 1. The natural sleep of hybernating animals differs greatly, but only in degree, from the sleep of other animals. 2. This sleep passes insensibly into the state of true hybernation, which becomes more and more profound as the blood loses its arterial qualities. 3. The respiration and evolution of heat are nearly suspended during hybernation. 4. The irritability of the heart and arteries is singularly augmented, so that they become veno-contractile. 5. The sensibility and general muscular motility are unimpaired. 6. The phenomena of true hybernation are very different from those of torpor from cold. 7. Severe cold, like all other causes of pain, rouses the hybernating animal from its lethargy, and, if continued, induces the state of stupor. 8. The phenomena of hybernation are attributable to the susceptibility of the heart and arteries to be stimulated by venous blood, and to the various organs of the body becoming much more irritable than during the state of the ordinary activity of the animal.-Philosophical Trans actions. XXXVII. MARCH OF EPIDEMICS. SCARLATINA has been prevalent in Great Britain for the last three months, and in Paris for the last six months, as may be seen by referring to our reports from the clinique of M. Bouillaud. On perusing a late number of a German periodical, we find that scarlet fever appeared sporadically in May, 1831, at Konigsberg, and epidemically in December of the same year; it continued till April or May of 1832, when it totally ceased. We shall extract a few particulars on some of the leading features of the disease, as observed in Germany. In some cases there was no erup tion, although the other symptoms, such "Every day it is extending its distressing sway over New Grenada, and now exists not only in the warm and temperate valleys, but in the icy ridges of the cordilleras." Let us briefly recapitulate the preceding observations. The disease of goitre prevails, not only in the low countries along the course of the river Magdalena (from Honda, to the confluence with the Cauca,) and in the higher lands along the same river (between Nieva and Honda,) but also in the elevated table land of Bogota, 6,000 feet above the bed of the river. The first of these regions is occupied with thirty woods; the second and the third are quite exposed, and have little vegetation; the first and the third are extraordinarily humid; the second is very dry; the winds are high and tempestuous in the second and third, while the atmosphere of the first is stagnant and impure. To these striking differences others may be added; thus the thermometer in the first and second regions range from 74° to 78°, and in the third from 390 to 60°. The water which is drank at Maraquita, Honda, and Bogota, is not snow water, but flows from rocks of granite and lime-stone. The most horrible goitres are those seen at Maraquita, where the spring water is purer than at Honda and Bogota, and where the climate is warmer than along the banks of the Rio Magdalena. The Indian or coppercoloured aborigines, and the negroes, are almost quite exempt from this malady. The African traveller Caillaud also informs us, that he did not observe any goitres in the black inhabitants. Humboldt did not see one in the countries on the banks of the Arinois, Rio Negro, &c. where not a breath of wind is felt, to the southward of the cataracts of Atures, and where the heat and moisture of the climate are almost unbearable; while on the lofty plateau of Quito, and in the villages of Alvasi and Chichinche, at more than 9,000 feet elevation, in a climate whose temperature ranges from 50° to 60°, cretinism exists in the descendants of the white people. The observations of M. A. de Saint Hilaire, in his travels through Brazil, confirm many of the preceding statements; the rea der may therefore advantageously consult his work, and also the remarks of Mr. Coldcleugh, in Daniel's Meteorological Essays. --Journ. Complem., Octr. LIV. ON THE MILIARY OR EPIDEMIC SWEATING FEVER, WHICH PREVAILED AT AUXI-LE-CHATEAU (BETWEEN PICARDY AND ARTOIS) IN THE MONTHS OF JUNE AND JULY LAST. THIS disease has been more frequently observed in Picardy and the adjoining districts, than in the other parts of France: hence it has been called "la suette des Picards." In the year 1821 it raged with great severity in the departments of the Oise, and of the Seineand-Oise. M. Rayer has given an excellent description of it. Last year it broke out, three weeks after the cholera had made its appearance, and fortunately it did so, for the progress and fatality of this latter scourge was much arrested; many of the cases indeed of the suette, were accompanied with symptoms of cholera, or at least of cholerine; but whenever the sweating broke out profusedly, the disease generally terminated favourably. Dr. Defrance treated between 40 and 50 cases and did not lose one. Most physicians are now agreed that this epidemic is not necessarily or essentially contagious; its cause appears to reside in some unknown state of the atmosphere; and no valid proofs can be adduced to prove its communicabil. ity from one to another, at least in the great majority of cases. The premonitory symptoms are headache, anorexia, general languor, nausea and feverishness; in the course of a short time, varying from a few hours to one or two days, according as the patient exposes himself or keeps his bed, the sweatings come on, and soon after these, the miliary eruption appears; this eruption is generally preceded by a most annoying itching over all the surface. The duration of the sweatings varies in different cases; but usually the patient begins to be convalescent on the third day, and then complains only of extreme weakness, which requires a week's quiet nourishing and management. The sweatings have frequently a most offen Dissection. The lungs and cavities of the pleure healthy. The pericardium was found to be so closely adherent in all its extent to the heart, as to be separable from it only by the scalpel; the agglutination was firm and ligamentous; there was no appearance of any intermediate membrane, or of bands passing between the two surfaces, for, strictly speaking, there was but one membrane, or in the language of the older pathologists, the pericardium was awanting. Remarks. The symptoms deemed by Kreysig as characteristic of this disease, viz. the movement forward of the diaphragm and the pulling inward of the left lower ribs synchronously with the alternate actions of the heart, are unsatisfactory and incorrect. Corvisart says that the absence of any strong palpitations, while the other signs of diseased heart exist, may lead one to suspect adhesion of the pericardium.-Ib. XL. CASES OF INSANITY, WITH POST-MORTEM APPEARANCES, By Dr. MACROBIN, Aberdeen Lunatic Asylum. WE have selected the following cases from the reports transmitted to us by Dr. Macrobin, and regret that we have been unable to insert the others.-ED. Case 1. Margaret Panton, æt. 70, from Aberdeen. Admitted 1808. Sectio Cadaveris, 21st Feb. 1832, 12 Hours after Death.-The calvarium was thin, and its removal was effected with difficulty, in consequence of the very firm adhesion of the dura mater to the inner table, especially along the line of the longitudinal sinus, where the membrane was thickened and vascular; some patches of the membrane were left adhering to the occipital bone. A laceration, which had been produced in effecting this removal, allowed the escape of between four and five ounces of limpid, colourless serum, which had been deposited between the dura mater and arachnoid, and which lay over the surface of the right hemisphere of the brain; the dura mater was accordingly discerned collapsed, and thrown into folds. Upon reflecting this membrane (which otherwise presented a natural appearance), the whole cerebral substance composing the right hemisphere was discovered greatly compressed, and greatly diminished in bulk. The convolutions were flattened and pressed together, and over a space of an inch and a half to two inches in diameter, and immediately above the lateral ventricle, they (the convolutions) had entirely disappeared, apparently from absorption, leaving an irregular oval-shaped depression, the base of which consisted of the corpus callosum, the white colour of which was visible under the arachnoid and pia mater, which lined this depression, and which were much thickened, so that a layer of medullary substance, of three or four lines in thickness only, existed between the convex surface of the brain and the right lateral ventricle. There was another similar, but smaller depression or cavity on the surface of the anterior lobe of same hemisphere. In connexion with these appearances, the whole of the cerebral substance had undergone great compression from the presence of the fluid; the whole hemisphere having suffered a diminution to the extent of at least onethird of its ordinary bulk, and being sunk much below the level of the opposite hemisphere. There was no appearance of increased vascularity of the pia mater, and the substance of the brain generally presented a natural consistency and colour, with the exception of some venous congestion, the number of dark bloody points being very numerous. There was no fluid over the left hemisphere, nor more than usual in either ventricle. Both choroid plexuses were turgid and hydatiform. The apex of the upper lobe of the left lung was tubercular, and the lower lobe of same lung more solid than natural, being without crepitus, and greatly infiltrated with serous fluid; and there were some traces of recent lymph, causing adhesion between the pleura costalis et pulmonalis. The right lung quite healthy. No disease of the heart or arteries, there being not the least tendency to ossification in them, or any other structure of the body. Abdominal viscera sound. The subject of the above appearances, a female in the lower ranks of life, had been confined to the Lunatic Asylum for upwards of 20 years. She had completely lost the use of the left upper extremity, which was quite rigid and bent, from contraction of the flexor muscles of the forearm and fingers. It is understood that she suffered some febrile attack (a "fever" the friends called it) about puberty, which recurred repeatedly, and which at length affected her mental faculties, and that the paralytic affection of the arm occurred about the same time; but little of the history can be relied upon previous to her admission in 1808, since which time she had continued to enjoy pretty good general health. Her insanity was marked by various hallucinations and illusions of the external senses, those of sight, hearing, and common sensation being perverted. Her memory had also suffered, her memory of events since her attack being quite abolished, though she had a lively recollection of all the circumstances of her life previous to this. She was very loquacious, and highly irritable and ill-natured. natural functions were performed in health to the last. The Case. 2. David Bruce, æt. 47, from Aberdeenshire. Admitted 1st August, 1831. Sectio Cadaveris, 16 Hours after Death. 4th March, 1832. Head. At the anterior part of the middle lobe of the right hemisphere, there was observed a space of about an inch square of the cortical substance in the state of distinct ramollissement, being diffluent and broken down, and converted into an ochre-coloured pulp, and which had stained the dura mater which covered it of a bright yellow, the proper membranes of the brain having been removed at this point by the morbid process. A similar change was observed to be going forward, to a smaller extent, on the convolutions of the anterior lobe. This softening and disorganization was best marked on the surface of the convolutions, diminishing in intensity as it extended inwards, and did not penetrate to the medullary substance. The arachnoid, over the whole convex surface of the brain, and over the anterior as well as posterior lobes, was greatly thickened, and the pia mater was very vascular, which vascularity extended between the convolutions, and the membrane admitted of being easily removed. The same membranes covering the base of the brain were not thickened. There was only slight effusion of serum over the surfaces and into the ventricles of the brain, not exceeding 3 ss. in the latter situation. The subject of the above appearances was a labourer, and had led a sober and industrious life; and, previous to May last (1831,) had exhibited no indications of mental disturbance nor morbid train of thought, though his bodily health had somewhat declined: but for two or three weeks previous to the accession of the maniacal paroxysm (which happened about the middle of May,) he had began to exhibit a change of temper and disposition, being one time gloomy and melancholy, and at another irritable and excited. He continued to labour upwards of two months under violont maniacal delirium, when fatuity supervened, and it was then that he was brought to the asylum (1st Aug. last.) He was then unable to answer questions; though at times, if the question was repeated, and his attention roused by the speaker, he would seem to comprehend what had been said, for he would labour to give utterance to some words in reply, and probably, after the lapse of a minute, some answer might be obtained, while the words, which seldom amounted to three or four, were uttered slowly and with hesitation, and apparently with difficulty. His aspect was very vague, and led to the impression that, in general, he did not comprehend what was addressed to him. His memory seemed to be nearly abolished. The pulse was feeble, and slower than natural. He was unwilling to move from |