attention to morbid anatomy, in which moderns have so many advantages. On the 13th of Dec. 1816, Augustus-Hyppolite Mallet, groom, aged 19 years, having always had a good state of health, obliged all day long to ride behind a cabriolet, felt a slight colic, which augmented towards evening: the pain increased a little during the night and on the morning of the 14th; and, at half-past four o'clock, P. M. M. Regnault, Consulting-Physician to the King, was consulted. The symptoms then were, colic not very violent; abdomen tender to the touch; pulse much accelerated, full, and regu lar; acute fever; face and eyes animated. Emollient fomentations on the belly, an infusion of linden-flowers for drink, glysters, with the decoction of linseed and oil, were prescribed, but without affording any relief; and, shortly after, vomitings took place. On the 15th, at eleven o'clock in the morning, having visited the patient in the absence of M. Regnault, we found the face Hypocratic, much swollen; the pulse concentrated, irregular, intermittent; the belly swollen, very painful at the navel; the extremities cold and livid: in short, some moments afterwards the patient expired, vomiting abundantly a very deep-coloured greenish serum, of a most fetid odour; and this discharge continued some time after death.

"On the 16th, at ten o'clock in the morning, we proceeded, with M. Le Blanc, Physician of the 1st Arondissement, and in the presence of Dr. Regnault, to the opening of the body, which was little altered. 1. Abdominal cavity, which was swollen by very fetid gases. 2. The effusion of several pints of blackish serum, very fetid, in the peritoneal cavity. 3. Many gangrenous points in different parts of the peritoneum, and principally at the gastro-colical epiploon. 4. All the small intestines inflamed, and partly gangrened. 5. This last kind of alteration still more striking at the end of the ilium intestinum, and at the kind of digital appendage comprehended in the extraordinary strangulation, formed by the piece, which we have detached with care, and which we have thought it our duty to submit to the examination of the faculty. The parts most altered were seated on the right side of the hypogastrium, before and behind the psoas. 6. The cœcum, the cocal appendage, the colon, and the rectum, participated but little in the inflammation of the other parts of the intestinal tube; and the internal membrane of the stomach was completely exempt from it."

Description of the Anatomico-Pathological Piece, relative to the preceding Observations; by Messrs. A. BECLARD and JULES CLOQUET. We had at first great difficulty to recognise the disposition of the parts interested in this strangulation, from the degree of constriction of the knot which formed it, and the swelling of the intestines. However, we succeeded in undoing this knot, and we found that the ilium intestinum gave birth to a pediculated appen dage, six inches long, very flexible, and which occasioned the strangulation by forming a knot around a convolution of the same intestine. At the place where the appendage detached itself from the intestine, the cavity of the latter was a little narrowed. The convolution of the intestine strangulated by this appendage was a foot

and a half long. This appendage, having passed behind the intestine, and afterwards bent backwards on itself, had crossed, in passing under and near the commencement of the intestine. In this manner it had formed a real knot, which embraced the intestinal convolution and its mesentery. Of two ends of the intestine, situated above the knot of the appendage, the upper one was red, inflamed, and much dilated; the lower one was pale, shrivelled, and offered no trace of inflammation. The strangulated intestine was red, much dilated, and filled with about a pint of black and fetid blood, very fluid. The appendage was full of a similar liquor, but which could not flow into the intestine, even by a very strong pressure, because the knot stopped the passage. The membranes of the intestine were red, and as if injected with blood. The knot of the appendage must have been recent, for it had made no impression on the intestine, which resumed its usual size, from the moment when we had untied this artificial ligature.

Royal Society of Edinburgh.-On the 19th of May, a paper by Mr. STEVENSON, civil engineer, was read, regarding the operation of the waters of the ocean and of the river Dee, in the basin or harbour of Aberdeen; from which it appears that Mr. Stephenson, in the month of April, 1812, with the use of an instrument (of which he exhibited a drawing), has been able to lift salt water from the bottom, while it was quite fresh at the surface, and has satisfactorily ascertained that the tidal or salt waters keep in a distinct stratum or layer under the fresh water of the river Dee. This anomaly, with regard to the salt and fresh waters, appears in a very striking manner at Aberdeen, where the fall of the Dee is such as to cause river water to run down with a velocity which seems to increase as the tide rises in the harbour and smooths the bed of the river. These observations show that the salt water insinuates itself under the fresh water, and that the river is lifted bodily upwards; thus producing the regular effect of flood and ebb tide in the basin, while the river flows downward all the while with a current which for a time seems to increase as the tide rises.

These facts, with regard to the continual course of the river Dee downward, is such a contrast to the operation of the waters of the Thames, as seen by a spectator from Loudon Bridge, that Mr. Stevenson was induced to extend his experiments to that river in the years 1815 and 1816, by a train of experiments and observations from about opposite to Billingsgate all the way to Gravesend.

The waters of the Thames, opposite the London Docks' gates, were found to be perfectly fresh throughout; at Blackwall, even in spring tides, the water was found to be only slightly saline; at Woolwich the proportion of salt water increases, and so on to Gravesend. But the strata of salt and fresh water is less distinctly marked in the Thames than in any of those rivers on which he has hitherto had an opportunity of making his observations. But these inquiries are meant to be extended to most of the principal rivers in the kingdom, when an account of the whole will be given..

From the series of observations made at and below London Bridge, compared with the river as far up as Kew and Oxford, Mr. Stevenson is of opinion that the waters of the Thames seldom change, but are probably carried up and down with the turn of the alternate tides for an indefinite period, which he is of opinion may be one, if not the principal, cause of what is termed the extreme softness of the waters of the Thames.

Mr. Stevenson has made similar experiments on the rivers Forth and Tay, and at Loch Eil, where the Caledonian canal, joins the western sea. The aperture at Curran Ferry for the tidal waters of that loch being small compared to the surface of Loch Eil, which forms the drainage of a great extent of country. It, therefore, occurred to Mr. Stevenson that the waters of the surface must have less of the saline particles than the waters of the bottom. He accordingly lifted water from the surface at the anchorage off Fort William, and found it to be 1008'2; at the depth of nine fathoms, 1025.5; at the depth of 30 fathoms, in the central parts of the loch, it was 1027:2; indicating the greater specific gravity, and consequently more of the saline parts, as the depth of the water is in-. creased.

Royal Geological Society of Cornwall. At the quarterly meet, ing of this society a paper was read, on the different. Tests for the Discovery of the Presence of Arsenic, by Dr. PARIS. The author stated, that, since the extraordinary and notorious trial at the late assizes, his opinion had been so repeatedly solicited upon the subject of arsenical tests, that he felt it his duty to offer the present paper : as an answer to them. It afforded him also an opportunity of communicating to the society a simple method of so modifying the ordi- nary experiments as entirely to avoid those fallacies which had been attributed to them. The test of nitrate of silver was well known to furnish its indication by the colour of the precipitate which it induced with the suspected liquid. It had, however, been, observed by a pupil of Dr. Marcet that the phosphoric salts had the property of: throwing down with nitrate of silver a precipitate perfectly analogous in colour to that from arsenic; and, as these salts were known to have existence in the animal fluids, a source of perplexity and ersis ror was thus connected with any experiment, with nitrate of silver, on the contents of the stomach. This difficulty, however, the author stated might be overcome by modifying the experiment as follows: Instead of conducting the trial in glasses, drop. the suspected liquor. upon writing paper, making a broad line with it. Along this line a stick of lunar caustic is to be slowly drawn, when a streak is pro-.. duced of a colour resembling that known by the name of the Indian yellow, and this alike obtained by the presence of arsenic and of phosphoric salts; but the one from arsenic is rough and curdy, as if effected by a crayon; the other, quite smooth and even in its appearance, such as would be produced by a water-colour. A more important, and still more unequivocal, mark of distinction soon succeeds: in less than two minutes the phosphoric yellow fades into a

"sad

"sad green," becoming gradually darker until it becomes black; the arsenical yellow, on the other hand, remains permanent for some time, when it becomes brown. In performing these experiments, the sun-shine should be avoided, or the transition of the colour is too rapid. This experiment, however, is not related with a view to supersede the more important one of the reduction of the metal; indeed, in a matter of such serious importance, observed the author, a combination of unequivocal proofs was required. Mr. Gregor had. suggested to him the application of a nitrate of titanium as a new test. In this case the suspected powder should be treated with nitric acid. The circumstance of the phosphoric acid precipitating the titaniumin a manner similar to arsenic, offered an objection which he was not prepared to surmount, It was, however, well worthy the attention of chemists.

Further Improvements in Professor Leslie's Method of producing Ice.-Extracted from the Annals of Philosophy.

DEAR SIR,

(To Dr. Thomson.)

Edinburgh, May 20, 1817. I think it worth while to mention, in this stage of my experiments, that parched oatmeal has a stronger and more extensive power of absorbing humidity than even the decayed trap rock. With about three-quarters of a pound of meal, occupying a surface of seven inches in diameter, I froze nearly a quarter of a pound of water, and kept it for the space of twenty hours in the form of ice till one-half, of the congealed mass was again melted. The temperature of the room being nearly 50°, the meal had then absorbed the eighteenth part of its weight, though it had not yet lost more than one-third of its desiccating power. With a body of dried oatmeal a foot in diameter, and rather more than one inch deep, I have since frozen a pound and a quarter of water contained in a hemispherical porous cup, and, though the room is warmer than before, the energy of ab-, sorption seems to be capable of maintaining the state of congelation for a considerable time. It is curious to observe th when the experiment was reversed, and the surface of the water about double that of the meal, this substance acquired, after the air under the receiver had been rarified, a heat exceeding 50° of Fahrenheit, so as to feel, indeed, sensibly hot on applying the hand.

I am, dear Sir, sincerely yours,

JOHN LESLIE.

Singular Formation found within an Egg."This formation' was discovered floating in the white part of a common egg. The outside consists of a shell exactly similar to that of the egg itself, but not so thick, and of a darker colour. It is about one inch and three quarters in length. Its greatest diameter, which is near the upper end, is about three quarters of an inch, and it tapers down to a point at the other end of an eighth of an inch in diameter. By piercing it at the top, and at the bottom, I was enabled, by applying my mouth at one end, to force out the contents, which I

found

found exactly similar to the white of an egg, but there was no yolk. The shell gradually becomes thinner as it approaches the other end. In the centre of it, on the surface, there is an indentation, or ring, which extends a little more than half round the egg; and about a quarter of an inch from the narrower end there is another indentation, which extends almost the whole of the way round. The egg in which this singular curiosity was found was good in every other respect, and had in it a perfect yolk.”—Annals of Philosophy.

The Report of the National Vaccine Establishment gives the usual favourable account of its progress; and, in answer to some unfavourable reports in the county of Essex, concludes thus:

"In consequence of the reported failure of vaccination in the parish of St. Ösyth, we, the under-mentioned medical gentlemen, on the recommendation of the Rev. Archdeacon Jefferson, and the overseers of the same parish, have fully and deliberately, this day, investigated the matter; and beg, for the satisfaction of the public at large, to make the following declaration.

"We consider that the small-pox has, in very few instances, supervened to vaccination; but that, in those instances, we are of opinion that vaccination, most probably, had not been perfectly introduced into the system, owing simply to the nature and progress of the disease not having been at that time thoroughly understood.

"In the remainder of the cases we have witnessed, we are of opinion, that, although some cutaneous eruptions had taken place, they were by no means decidedly variolous, and, if any of them did put on that appearance, they were of a mild and transient nature.

We therefore wish to declare, that we shall feel anxious to continue to prosecute vaccination, considering it one of the most valuable discoveries to society.

"James Moore, Esq. Director of the National Vaccine Establishment, accompanied us during this investigation, and is precisely of the same opinion with us, and is to report the particulars to the Institution upon his return to London.

St. Osyth; May 14, 1817.

GEORGE ROGERS.
ROGER NUNN.
MAURICE MASON.

THOMAS OSMOND.

ROBERT MARTIN."

We have received an equally favourable account of the progress in France. A case of variola post vaccinationem is admitted, and the proper remark follows, that similar instances have occurred after small-pox.

A General Meeting of the Subscribers to the Association of Apothecaries and Surgeon-Apothecaries of England and Wales is announced for the 20th of this month.-See our Wrapper.

ᎪᎷᎬᎢᎬᏅ