detailed with great minuteness and accuracy, and mercury early ascertained to be its specific remedy; but it seems to have first occurred to the sagacity of John Hunter, that such symptoms were not invariably the result of the syphilitic virus, nor invariably required the specific treatment. Observation has subse quently confirmed that opinion, and greatly extended it; insomuch that the soundest observers begin to admit, that there are, in fact, no symptoms which unequivocally characterize a disease of syphilitic origin, or unequivocally indicate the necessity of administering mercury; and that it is only by combining an examination of the appearances, with a history of their origin and progress, and of the treatment to which they have already been subjected, that a satisfactory conclusion can be deduced. Neither the nodes of the periosteum, the ulcerations of the fauces, nor any of the modifications of cutaneous eruption, upon which so much stress has been laid, can be relied upon as unequivocal indications of a syphilitic or non-syphilitic disease. An ingenious attempt has indeed lately been made. with great confidence, in the sister island, to settle the characteristic eruptions connected with particular modifications of the cachexia, resulting from specific primary ulcerations, as well syphilitic as non-syphilitic; but, anxious as every zealous practitioner must be for solid instruction upon this subject, and ready as every friend of independent inquiry to admire the acuteness of the suggestion, it is but too manifest that this at tempt is premature. If the point, indeed, could be thus expeditiously settled, it would have been determined long ago. The practical inference, from this state of uncertainty in the diagnosis, however, is, that we should be extremely cautious in pro nouncing diseases to be syphilitic, without a careful examination of their history and treatment, and of subjecting a cachectic patient to the severity of a mercurial course, when he may be restored to health by more safe and certain means. London, May 31.

T. B.

REPORT of DISEASES treated at the New Town Dispensary, Edinburgh, from February 29, to May 31, 1816.

The list above given, though referring to the practice of only threemonths, comprises, in consequence of the increase of applications, almost.. exactly the same number of cases with that given in the last Report of six months, and may therefore be fairly compared with it.

The spring has been remarkably backward, in consequence of the long continuance of the easterly winds, and the coldness of the north-west wind, which began to prevail after the middle of May. A greater quantity of snow has lain throughout the spring on the Grampian hills, than has been remembered for many years. The hedges in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh were only beginning to bud in the end of April, and at this date (June 10th) there is hardly any foliage on the oak, and none at all on the ash.

The diseases most common during winter, particularly affections of the chest, have in consequence prevailed to an unusually. late period in the spring; and it may be observed, that the strictly inflammatory complaints of this class have borne an unusually large proportion, in the recent practice of the Dispensary, to those of a more chronic kind. In the latter part of May, several well marked and severe cases of pneumonia occurred in adults, and one case of decided croup, and several of catarrh threatening croup, in young children.

The number and severity of the catarrhs of children have, however, been greatly diminished on the whole since our last Report. A boy four years of age, one of the last whom we saw affected in the way then described, became decidedly hectic, lingered till the beginning of May, and then died. On dissection, the lungs were found completely studded with small white tubercles; none of which, however, were in a state of suppuration, nor was there any appearance of active infiammation.

Contagious fever appears to have made little progress in Edinburgh during the last three months, although we understand it has been prevalent in some of the adjacent villages. Almost all the cases of typhus which we have seen during the winter, have been attended with more or less of catarrhal or pneumonic symp→ toms. In two cases, of children of the same family, this combination existed in a most embarrassing degree, and both proved fatal. The symptoms before death appeared very nearly simifar. In both, well marked rigors, great depression of strength, very quick small pulse, hot and parched skin, dry foul tongue, frequent vomiting, cough and dyspnoea, had followed exposure to the contagion, and subsequently to cold and wet. But a very great difference was observed on dissection. In the case of the elder child, the only morbid appearance seen in the chest, was an accumulation of mucus in the whole extent of the trachea and bronchiæ; the lungs had every where their natural spongy texture, and had contracted no adhesion to the pleura. In the other case, which occurred in a child five years of age, the right lung adhered extensively to the pleura; the substance of this

lung was in general much firmer than natural, but some parts of it felt soft and pulpy. On cutting into it, the harder parts had the usual condensed appearance of recently inflamed lung, but from the softer portions a dark-coloured putrid fluid oozed out, and these portions were found to have the dark brown colour, the fetid smell, and the loose coherence of sphacelus,an occurrence which is said to have been observed in some cases of what has been called putrid measles, after a similar combination of inflammation of the lungs with typhoid fever.

As might have been expected from the long continuance of cold and damp weather, there has been a great increase of scrofulous cases in the applications at the Dispensary during the last three months, to an extent, indeed, which is not fully exhibited in the foregoing enutneration. For, besides the increase from the last Report, marked under the heads of Scrofula and Phthisis, it is to be remarked, that a greater number of the cases marked tumours, phlegmon, and ulcus, were evidently scrofulous external affections, and that there was reason to suspect a larger proportion than formerly of the diseases of children, referred to the heads Febris Remittens, Obstipatio, Vermes, and Diarrhoea, to be connected with incipient or partial scrofulous affection of the mesentric glands.

In the midwifery department, of 33 women, who have applied for assistance, there have been delivered 27. Of these the natural labours were 22; of the first class of labours 1; of the third class 1, which required the operation of embryulcia; and 1 complicated with hemorrhage, from the placenta being placed over the os uteri. It may be worthy of remark, that, in this last case, no hemorrhage took place till within three days of the labour commencing, although, as far as could be judged, the child appeared to be at the full period of nine months. The other two cases were premature births. The number of children delivered during the last nine months amounted to 68; viz. 42 male, and 26 fenrales; of the last there were two cases of ✓ twins.

On Tobacco Injection in Dysuria. By JOHN ABERCROMBIE, M. D. Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh.

In the beginning of this year, I had occasion to see a man, aged about 50, affected with severe pain at the neck of the bladder, and constant desire to pass urine, which he could only do in quantities of a few drops, with great feeling of heat, and extreme suffering. The complaint had continued several days, large bleeding, anodyne glysters, and all the usual remedies,

had been tried without effect. I recommended a trial of the tobacco injection: One was accordingly given, but it was too weak, and produced no effect, only 9i of tobacco having been used. In the course of an hour, a second was given, prepared from 3ss of tobacco, infused for 10 minutes in 6 or 8 ounces of hot water. This produced considerable sickness, some vo→ miting, and giddiness. In a very short time, he felt a strong desire to pass urine, and upon making the attempt, a large calculus came rolling along the urethra, with complete relief of all his complaints.

This remedy has lately been employed in London, in several cases of suppression of urine, as detailed in the last Volume of the Medico-Chirurgical Transactions. I imagine it might be employed with great effect in those cases (often cases of extreme suffering) which depend on calculi sticking in the ureters.

Account of some of the most Remarkable Proceedings of the MedicoChirurgical Society at Berlin, 1815. Communicated by Dr VON EMBDEN, Licentiate of the College at Beriin, and Phy sician at Hamburgh, and Member of several Learned So

cieties.

DR and Professor Wolfart presented to the Society several patients he had cured by animal magnetism. A child of two years which had laboured under a palsy of the left arm and foot, moved the arm readily after the second magnetisation. Another, four years old, which had been quite stupid, covered with an exantheme, and could neither see, hear, nor walk, was brought to improve in vivacity, appetite and strength, and actually began to hear and to see, by the use of magnetism and two baths weekly. A soldier, who having been shot through his hand, and had lost its use, recovered it by the application of magnetism. Another, whose arm, after being shot through, had got stiff and emaciated, was perfectly cured by magnetism, after the Landerh waters had been used without effect. At the first operation he felt drawing pain in the affected arm, especially through the wound.-The Doctor concluded this lecture with reading a treatise on the best mode of applying magnetism in stiffness and emaciation produced by wounds.

Dr and Professor Klaproth read a treatise on the bezoardic stone, and produced several most curious samples; in particular, that of the malachite hedge-hog. Having made some chemical experiments with it, he found it to be a peculiar substance, quite different from all others. He also recited a case of hen