individual; for health is indispensable to individual happiness, to worldly prosperity, or the achievement of the best designs.

As regards the public interests, it may suffice to point out how much they are involved in several of the proposed objects of inquiry; as in considerations connected with the site of towns, manufactories, or private houses; the effect of different kinds of labour, and food, and drink; the more successful prevention of fevers, cancer, consumption, the stone, and other painful and dangerous maladies; the saving of lives in camps and garrisons abroad, or in expeditions; and a more perfect estimate of the actual value of life at different ages.

On all these, and on many other points of hardly less interest, the observations previously made were made with so many disadvantages, that the current opinions founded on them are largely mingled with errors, which time is converting into hurtful prejudices. Of the popular notions respecting things useful or prejudicial to health, as relates to the human body, from helpless infancy to helpless age, there is scarcely one which is not erroneous; and even of medical opinions on these subjects, there are many which are in the highest degree doubtful. Such, I believe, must they always remain, without some general plan of co-operation; and I cannot but think that the plan now proposed, may, with some modifications or additions, secure the great advantages which have been lost in all time past.

The profession to which I consider it my happiness to belong will add to the many benefits which it has conferred upon society and upon mankind, by avail

ing itself of the present disposition of the public towards all useful enquiries, and of the present state of science. To those who desire the advancement of medical knowledge, and the increase of man's means to avert physical evils, more than a hasty and temporary reputation and mere worldly advancement, such a plan as that which I have presumed to propose, will not, if practicable, require to be enforced by any laboured exhortations. The question of its practicability I submit to their liberal consideration, hoping that the subject may be advanced at the next Annual Meeting of the Association,* when I shall most respectfully solicit and accept the suggestions of the distinguished men with whom I have thus the honour to be associated.

In conclusion, I must observe, that the general comparison of the results of the investigations pursued in the County Natural History Societies, must necessarily become a labour of considerable extent; and, although I believe every undertaking of this kind is with more spirit, and more successfully, carried on by individuals than by public authorities, the questions to be finally elucidated by the combined labours of the Societies are so numerous and so important, that little doubt can be entertained, but that any assistance which it would be in the power of a liberal government to afford, towards the compilation and publication of general abstracts every year, or every two or three years, or whenever expedient, might, without much difficulty, be obtained. Some of the subjects mentioned in this paper were, occasionally, introduced to the consiAt Bristol, in July, 1833.

deration of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, when I was a member of the London Committee; and hopes were once entertained that by means of the Local Committees of the Society some general plan of inquiry might be instituted. But there were difficulties in the way of making those committees effectual, which difficulties would not be met with in the attempt to establish Natural History Societies. On the contrary, I feel assured that the promoters of such institutions would, in many parts of the kingdom, find the most intelligent and zealous co-operators in the local committees, already established for the diffusion of useful general knowledge.

But I cannot doubt that in each county of England and Scotland, there will be found a sufficient number of well-informed, public-spirited, and influential individuals, to ensure the success of an undertaking that must, in its progress, reflect both advantage and honour on the country at large.

HISTORY

OF A

CASE OF WHAT HAS BEEN COMMONLY CALLED

SPINA BIFIDA,

OCCURRING IN THE ADULT.

BY JAMES DAWSON,

Surgeon of the Liverpool Infirmary and General Hospital.

IN October, 1825, a lady of about thirty-eight years of age, and, to all appearance, in robust health, called on my esteemed friend and predecessor, the late Henry Park, Esq. to obtain his counsel and opinion, as to the safety and practicability of an operation, for the removal of a tumour, seated on the upper and back part of the thigh, of the full size of a pomegranate.

After a deliberate examination made by Mr. Park and myself, it was ascertained that the swelling lay over the site of the left sacro-ischiadic ligaments; that it was somewhat conical in shape; that the skin was sound; that some fibres of the gluteus maximus embraced, and bound down the tumour, except at its apex, which felt very elastic, and the coats very thin. The tumour was only moveable at its base, when the muscles of the hip were relaxed.

So far as manual examination enabled us to form an opinion, the tumour appeared to be made up of

a fibro-cartilaginous substance, baving a small quantity of fluid occupying its apex; and it further appeared to be unconnected with any part that should render its removal hazardous.

It may be noted here that, during our manipulations, the thin point of the swelling having been rather decidedly pressed upon, the lady instantly complained of its producing a painful sense of pressure at the top of her head, which, at that time, we could not understand. But this circumstance led our patient to unfold the reasons which had urged her to demand, with so much earnestness, its removal.

She told us that, for several years back, she had been obliged so to manage her person and her posture, before sitting down, as to rest the weight of her body, altogether, on the opposite hip; otherwise, she would have experienced much suffering, not only at the top of the swelling itself, but that a distressing pain was instantly communicated to the top and the back part of the head; that the swelling was, at all times, a source of trouble, and a great annoyance to her; and that it had become more especially so within the last eighteen months, during which latter period it had acquired considerable additional bulk; and, in proportion to its increase, her care and anxiety to protect it against the slightest blow or pressure, had been unremitting. Of the duration of the swelling she could give no exact account. She had been told that a swelling, about the size of a filbert, had been noticed at the time of her birth, but that it was considered of no importance then, and she only now mentioned it because our question reminded her of it. About three weeks ago, in a mo