and from cell growths of vesical origin, is of the greatest value, and has often furnished me with the only data previously wanting to accomplish an exact diagnosis. Mind never to be satisfied to guess at anything; make, very cautiously if you will, your provisional theories about a doubtful caseindeed, the intellectual faculty will do this constantly, and without reference to the will-but arrive at no conclusion, take no action except so far as you are warranted by facts.

The Torsion of Arteries as a means of Arresting Hæmorrhage.

SOME practical points connected with the application of torsion were noticed, and the necessity of employing right instruments was enforced, and a general summary of the whole subject made by Dr. T. Bryant, F.R.C.S., and the following conclusions were reached: 1. That hæmorrhage may with certainty be arrested by torsion from even the largest vessels. 2. That it is a safe and judicious practice in all cases in which the vessels are small or of moderate calibre; and that, as far as experiments and practice yet prove, it is equally so in arteries of the first magnitude. 3. That torsion may be "free" or "limited," the free method being applicable to vessels of moderate size, and even to the largest of the extremities, limited torsion being more adapted for the large and loosely connected vessels. 4. That in torsion, as in the ligature, the permanent hæmostatic processes are alike due to the sealing of the divided inner and middle tunics; but that in the ligature there is only an irregular division of these tunics, while in torsion there is a complete division, separation, retraction, and valvular incurvation. 5. That in torsion the twisted cellular coat forms, with the retracted and incurved middle coat, the direct mechanical obstacle to the flow of arterial blood in the same way as the compressed cellular coat does in the ligature; but that in torsion the twisted cellular coat and incurved middle coat become subsequently a permanent means of occluding the end of the artery, while the ligature of necessity becomes subsequently a source of irritation, and too often a means of undoing what has been done by nature's own hæmostatic processes. 6. That in torsion the twist in the cellular coat of an artery, the division and subsequent retraction, incurvation, and adhesion of the middle coat, and the coagulation of the blood in the vessel down to the first branch, are the three points upon which its temporary as well as permanent safety depends, while

the permanent safety of acupressure rests upon the last point alone, and its temporary effects upon the pressure produced by the needle. 7. That there is every reason to believe that when torsion has been successful on its first application, the fear of subsequent hæmorrhage is altogether groundless, for there is nothing, as there is in the ligature, to interfere with the physiological processes set up by nature to occlude the divided vessel, and unlike acupressure, the temporary obstacle to the flow of blood becomes a permanent one. S. That upon physiological grounds torsion has decided advantages over the ligature and the acupressure-needle, and that if subsequent experience confirms what has been hitherto observed in the experiments on animals and the application of the practice in the human subject, we shall have gained a point of no mean importance and simplified surgery in no slight degree. Lancet.

Punishment for Adulteration of Food in London in the Middle Ages.

IN the "Memorials in London " we find that, in 1311, a baker was arrested for selling putrid bread, and in 1316 another baker was sentenced to be drawn on a hurdle through the principal streets of the city for selling "light bread deficient in weight;" and in the same year the punishment of the pillory was inflicted upon a man and woman for selling bread of "rotten materials," and deficient in weight. In 1319 a certain William Spelying was adjudged to be put upon the pillory, and two putrid beef carcases to be burnt under him, for exposing the said carcases for sale; and in 1320 we find two cases similar to the preceding. In 1348 and 1353 the punishment of the pillory was inflicted for selling carrion-in one case the meat being burnt under the offender. In 1351 proclamations were issued as to the sale of fish. In 1364 a seller of unsound wine was punished by being made to drink it. In the following year the punishment of the pillory was inflicted upon a poulterer for selling putrid pigeons. In 1372 a woman was punished for selling putrid souls, the fish was ordered to be burnt, and the cause of her punishment proclaimed; and we find another case of punishment by the pillory in 1381, for exposing putrid pigeons for sale. In 1390 twelve barrels of eels were ordered to be taken out of the city, and buried in some place underground, lest the air might become infected through the stench arising therefrom. An important proclamation against

the adulteration and mixing of wines was issued by Henry the Fifth in 1419, and the punishment of the pillory was ordered for all who sold false wines.

If a few examples similar to the above kind were made at the present day they would be of service to the community.-London Lancet.

A new Styptic-The Tree Haofash and its Properties.

THE Paris Moniteur gives an interesting account of a tree called "haofash," which grows on the mountains of Baria, in French Cochin-China. It grows wild in the forests, hidden among lianas and other creepers, which render the wooded mountains of that country almost impervious to the traveller. Nor do the inhabitants, generally speaking, know the botanical or medicinal properties of this plant, so that it remains a secret in the hands of the bonzes and physicians. MM. Condamine and Blanchard, two French travellers, have at length succeeded, after much fruitless research, in finding this tree, having conquered the conscientious scruples of a worthy bonze, who seems to have been perfectly alive to the virtues of the French Napoleon. The Annamites, who gain their livelihood by selling the bark of the haofash to professional men, wait till the tree has attained its third year before stripping it of its bark, its usual height at that age being about twenty-four feet, with a circumference of a foot and a half or thereabouts. The operation is performed in June, when the tree has neither blossoms nor fruit; it is hewn down, and then denuded of its bark methodically, in slices about two feet long and three or four inches broad. These strips are made up into bundles weighing from thirty to forty pounds. A man will carry two of them at a time, fastened to the ends of a pole resting on his shoulder.

The bark of the haofash is outwardly of an ash-gray color, and inwardly brown. It has a strong aromatic smell, and a slightly bitter taste. When chewed it reddens the saliva; it is a powerful styptic, and is administered by the physicians of the country in case of colic, diarrhoea and dysentery. The dose for a decoction is generally from six to ten grammes in one hundred grammes of water, boiled down to one-fifth; but sometimes they merely put a bit of bark into hot water, occasionally rubbing the former against the rough sides of the earthern pot used for the purpose, and then make the patient drink the liquid, which is then sufficiently strong to cure a simple colic.-Med. Record.

Effects of Extreme Cold on Organic Function.

The

DR. RICHARDSON passed in brief review his experiments performed at Dundee in relation to the effects of freezing the centres of the nervous system. He showed that in the lower classes of animals, such as frogs, the nervous centres can be frozen for long periods of time, with recovery after entire unconsciousness and apparent death. The points added on this occasion were in continuation of this line of research. He first dwelt on the question whether frozen animals-such as frogs-respire during insensibility, and explained that they did not. In proof of this, he said that animals so treated could be placed without harm in gases which would not support life, such as nitrogen and hydrogen, and could be recovered at the precise moment of solution from the frozen state when respiration was recommencing. He had placed animals in this way in hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbonic acid. In other experiments, when the animal was frozen it was immersed in ether, and allowed to lie under the fluid until, by the rising of bubbles of air, indications of returning life were gained; then, taken out, the animal would recover. gradual return of heat was thus the pure restorative, and the facts helped to explain many accounts as to restoration after freezing, which up to this time had been stated as strongly on one side as they were doubted on the other. The second point considered had relation to the effects on the circulation of freezing the brain. Dr. Richardson here showed that in warm-blooded animals the effect of reducing the temperature of the brain was to produce a gradual slowness of the circulation, and when the freezing was carried to the lower part or base of the brain, to produce the condition of heart and pulse known as intermittency, followed, if the operation were continued, by the entire cessation of the heart's movement. This was a point of great practical moment, as indicating the influence of the brain on the heart. Whenever the brain was reduced in physical power, as from immense mental fatigue, or shock, or anxiety, irregular action (intermittency of the heart) was almost the necessary result. Most people were conscious of this, and often thought with great alarm that they were suffering from disease of the heart, when, in fact, they were merely laboring under temporary exhaustion of the brain. The third point went to show that under the influence of extreme cold on the nervous centres (the brain and spinal cord) the extreme effect of such active poisons as strychnine could for a time be entirely suspended. This

raised a hope that in such diseases as tetanus a new and successful mode of treatment might be gradually evolved. The fourth point had relation to the influence of extreme cold in preventing and even in removing the rigidity of death. Because the body after death cools, the inference had been drawn that the rigidity of death was due to the process of cooling. This was the exact reverse of the fact. The rigidity of death was quickened by heat, and prevented by cold, probably for an illimitable period of time, the cold being sustained. Further, by taking an animal already rigid, freezing it, and thawing, the first rigidity could be removed, and the body become flaccid. The last point touched upon related to the effect of freezing and rapidly thawing the skin of certain regions of the body. It was shown that birds treated in this manner presented the extremest irregularity of movement and other signs of nervous disturbance. Thus by freezing and rapidly thawing the skin on the side of the neck of a pigeon, the bird for a time walked sideway's in the opposite direction. The author concluded by noticing the able researches of Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, of Philadelphia.-Abst. of Proc. British Ass. for the Advancement of Science (Medical Times and Gazette.)

Speech Restored by Artificial Palate.

THE Scientific American states: "The editor of the Bainbridge Argus gives an interesting account of restoration of speech by means of an artificial palate, made for him by Prof. Kingsley of New York College of Dentistry. He says:

"All persons acquainted with us are aware of the loss of speech which we sustained in early life by the destruction of our palate, caused by scrofula. This almost totally disqualified us for any business, calling us beyond the circle of our immediate friends and associates. A stranger could rarely understand a word we might say. We thank God that we are enabled to state to our friends that by means of an artificial palate, put in our mouth by Dr. Kingsley, our speech has been entirely restored, and we are now, for the first time during the last twenty-eight years, qualified to converse freely with any one without the slightest inconvenience or embarrassment, and without being misapprehended or misunderstood in any word or sentence we may utter. It has proven a very great relief to us--so much so that our past life seems to have been an uninterrupted blank."”—Dental Cosmos.

VOL. IV.-No. 6.

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