An Abstract of the Registry kept at the Lying-in Hospital in Dublin, from the 8th of De cember 1757, (the day it was first opened,) to the 31st December 1814 1809 2966 77 2889 1493 1810 3016 162 2654 1546 1821 2720 159 2561 1363 1250 1812 2822 146 2676 1498 1516 2814 1813 2568 84 2484 1366 1178 2544 1814) 2611 93 2518 1323 1230 2553 Totals, 81186 3175 | 780011 41523) 37982|79503] 1372 1442 2935 45(1 had 3) 1350 2896 42 2613 52 48 59 (1 had 3) 35 Proportion of Males and Females born, about ten males to nine females. Women having twins (and more), about one to fifty-seven. Extract of a Letter from Professor Scarpa of Pavia, to John Wishart, Esq. Surgeon, Edinburgh. Favia, 13th January 1816. I send in a box a copy of all my works, anatomical and surgical, except that on the diseases of the eyes, as the fifth Italian edition will soon be published, the only one which I have revised, since the first, after sixteen years' farther experience. With the books I send four of my cataract needles, and the gorget of Hawkins, as improved by me, in regard to which you will find a memoir of mine. I have seen some of my needles, said to have been made in England, but, from their enormous size, they seem to have been intended to operate on horses, and not on men. Experience has taught me, that, in similar circumstances, the consecutive symptoms are directly as the size of the needle. With regard to the gorget, I beg that you will translate my memoir, that it may become known to the surgeons of your principal hospitals, on account of the rules to be observed in introducing the gorget, the inclination of the cutting edge of which is calculated to perform the lateral incision exactly, if the staff be held quite perpendicular, in the line of the raphe of the perinæum. I can assure you, that, with this instrument, I always make the incision of the prostate sufficiently large, and with certainty, to extract large stones, without fear of injuring the rectum, or arteria pudenda profunda. The cutler, in making this instrument, must attend particularly to the proper inclination between the cutting edge and the hollow of the gorget. We The death of Monteggia is unfortunately true. His sixth volume will be immediately published, but without notes. have also lost Mascagni. Among the books I send you, you will also find the Fisiologia of Jacopi, a favourite pupil of mine, whose death I deplore; also a memoir by him upon the inutility of the operation of paracentesis for the cure of tympanites, and another upon Darwin's doctrine of the retrograde motion of the lymphatics. Extract of a Letter from Dr Kaufmann of Hannover, to John Wishart, Esq. Surgeon, Edinburgh. I intended sending you the description of some singular cases which lately occurred to me One was a curious disease of the heart, which ended fatally; another was the case of a new born infant, which lived twelve hours after birth, heard, took food, but did not breathe, or cry; it could not suck, but there was a regular motion of the thorax. On dissection, the lungs were found quite consistent, as in a foetus, with all the tests of having never inspired air; the heart was as usual, but the foramen ovale open. Died, on Tuesday the 18th instant, (June) in the 82d year of his age, Mr Thomas Henry, President of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester, Fellow of the Royal Society in London, and Member of several other learned Societies both in this country and abroad. As a practical and philosophical chemist, he had obtained a high and merited reputation. His contributions to that science, oesides a small volume of Essays and his Translations of the earlier writings of Lavoisier, which he first introduced to the notice of the English reader, consist chiefly of Memoirs, dispersed through the Transactions of the various Societies to which he belonged, and relating both to those parts of chemistry that are purely scientific, and to those which have a connection with the useful arts. On a subject intimately connected with the success of the cotton manufacture, (the employment of Mordaunts or Bases in dyeing,) "Mr Henry was the first," to use the words applied to him by a subsequent author, "who thought and wrote philosophically." In the introduction, too, of the new mode of bleaching, which has worked an entire revolution in that art, and occasioned an incomparably quicker circulation of capital, he was one of the earliest and most successful agents. In addition to the acquirements connected with his profession, he had cultivated, to no inconsiderable degree, a taste for the productions of the Fine Arts: he had obtained a knowledge of historical events remarkable for its extent and accuracy; and he had derived, from reading and reflection, opinions to which he was steadily attached, on those topics of political, moral, and religious inquiry, which are most important to the welfare of mankind. For several years past, he had retired from the practice of medicine, in which he had been extensively engaged, with credit and success, for more than half a century; and, from delicate health, he had long ceased to take an active share in the practical cultivation of science. But possessing, almost unimpaired, his faculties of memory and judgment, he continued to feel a lively interest in the advancement of literature and philosophy. Retaining, also, in their full vigour, those kind affections of the heart, that gave birth to the most estimable moral qualities, and secured the faithful attachment of his friends, he passed through a long and serene old age, expe riencing little but its comforts and its honours, and habitually thankful for the blessings with which Providence had indulged him. Dr Clough, 68, Berner's Street, Physician-Accoucheur to the St Mary-la-bonne General Dispensary, and to the Endeavour, or Benevolent Society, &c. commences his Summer Course of Lectures on the science and practice of Midwifery, including -the diseases of women and children, on Monday morning, the 7th of July, at half-past ten, and at seven in the evening. Communications have been received from Mr MACKESY, &c. and publications for analytical criticism, hy Professors HUFELAND, AUTENRIETH, and FRORIEP, Drs ALBERS, PARKINSON, MILLS, and CLANNY, Messrs DOUGHTY, WHATELY, and JARDINE, Communications may be addressed to the Editors, to the care of Messrs CONSTABLE & Co. Edinburgh; Messrs LONGMAn, Hurst, Rees, Orme, & BROWN, London; and JOHN CUMMING, Dublin. 'No. XLVIII. will be published on the 1st of October 1816. THE EDINBURGH MEDICAL AND SURGICAL JOURNAL. 1. OCTOBER 1816. PART I. ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. I. Critical Review of the State of Medicine during the last Ten Years. * W HEN we review with impartiality the history of medicine during its last period, its progressive advancement is undeniable, notwithstanding the despotic obstacles opposed to the * For this valuable communication we are indebted to a Hannoverian friend, who had promised to send us an account of the latest German medical litera ture. When preparing to fulfil his promise, the article, of which this is the commencement, appeared in one of the most esteemed literary journals of Leipzig, and superseded the necessity of proceeding in his undertaking. It is said to be written by the celebrated Kurt Sprengel, Professor at Halle, and author of the History of Medicine, and of the Critical Review of the State of Medicine during the last ten years of the 19th century, of which this is pro perly a continuation. As Professor Sprengel does not confine himself to the progress of medicine in Germany, many additions and corrections might be made in regard to the medical literature of other countries, especially our own, with which there was almost no correspondence during the period of his history; but we have preferred leaving the article unaltered, for many reasons, and shall attempt, on a future occasion, to compose such a view of the recent literature of Great Britain, connected with our profession, as may more effectually correct the errors, and supply the defects unavoidably existing in the production of the learned German. In our translation we have only endea voured to be faithful; and we fear that we have not always succeeded in rendering the meaning intelligible to those unacquainted with the language of some of the philosophical sects prevalent in Germany, whose tenets are here alluded to. Bb VOL. XII. NO. 48. free correspondence between civilized nations, and innumerable errors of the human understanding. The Germans, in particular, have reason to rejoice that the ignominious chains laid upon them by rapacious foreigners, could not hinder the unfettered mind from labouring incessantly to extend the empire of truth; nay, that the very circumstance of external oppression seems only to have had the effect of exciting greater efforts towards mental improvement. The scientific part of medicine acquired in Germany and France great additions of new materials, which, though treated in very different ways, and even prematurely formed into systems, never lose their value, however preposterously applied in some instances. But we shall facilitate this review, by tracing the progress of each branch of medicine separately. I. History and Literature of Medicine. The frequently repeated complaint of the neglect of the study of the history of medicine seems to be unfounded during this period. For at least in Germany, Italy, and France, its history and literature were more generally studied than in earlier times. Sprengel's larger work was translated into French, indifferently by Geiger, and better by Jourdan; in a masterly manner into Italian by Arrigoni, and into English anonymously. J. C. Nicolai published an abridgment of Sprengel's work, which the author himself had previously done in 1804. C. Windischmann's attempt to give the mystical views of medicine a historical dress, is truly ridiculous. + K. F. Lutheritz's view of the older systems, as well as A. F. Hecker's similar work, § have no pretensions to originality. ** In France the laudable desire of historical knowledge displayed itself in the most distinguished manner in Prunelle's || excellent view of the influence of medicine on the restoration of the sciences in the middle ages, but in a less degree in P. J. G. Cabanis's sketch. T Das Merkwürdigste aus der Geschichte der Medicin. Th. 1. Rudolst. 1808. 8. Versuch über den Gang der Bildung in der heilenden Kunst. Frkf. a. M 1809. 8. Die Systeme der Aerzte von Hippokrates bis auf Brown. Th. 1, 2. Dresden, 1810, 1811. 8. Die Heilkunde auf ihren Wegen zur Gewissheit. Dritte Auflage. Erf. 1808. 8. De l'influence exercée par la médecine sur la renaissance des lettres, Montpellier, 1809. 4. ¶ Coup d'oeil sur les révolutions et la reforme de la médecine. Paris, 1804.8. |
