623
in THE LANCET some little time ago) would fail to arrest atten-
tion in many cases.
I hope, Sir, you will raise your voice again in favour of the
use of safety bottles being made compulsory by Act of Parlia-
ment. I am, Sir, yours &c.,
June 18th, 1861. PRO BONO PUBLICO.
OBSTETRICAL SOCIETY.
To the Editor of THE LANCET.
SIR,-Will you kindly allow me to correct an error of some
importance in the abstract of my communication to the Ob-
stetrical Society, last meeting, on a case of " Hydatid Mole
accompanying a healthy ovum of six months’ gestation in a
twin conception " ?
It is stated that the hydatid mole was discharged from the
uterus seven hou1’s after the delivery of the living fcetus and its
healthy placenta; whereas the hydatid followed the healthy
ovum within a few minutes after, and spontaneously, otherwise
it would have been extracted.
The entire expulsion was effected seven hours after the in-
duction of labour, that operation having been called for on
account of exhausting haemorrhage.
T am Sir vnnr obedient servant.
J. HALL DAVIS, M.D.
PARISIAN MEDICAL INTELLIGENCE.
(FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.)
A NAVAL surgeon of
eminence, M. Dutroulau, has just pub-
lished a which, so far as I have as yet been able to
volume
judge, seems a very worthy pendant of Johnson and Martin’s
well-known work. The" Treatise on the Diseases of Europeans
in Hot Countries" is the result of many years’ residence in the
equatorial colonies of France, and the experience of an intelli-
gent man long placed in a position so favourable to the obser-
vation of disease is well worthy of attention. The book is
divided into two parts: the one treating of morbific causes,
and climate more especially; the other devoted to pathology
and morbid expression. In the geographical classification of
disease, the author mentions that each division of country has
its peculiar type. In Senegal and Martinique the commonest
endemic affections are dysentery and liver complaint; whereas
at Cayenne and in Madagascar the prominent diseases are
those of a miasmatic origin. "Wherever," continues M. Du-
troulau, "the land is swampy, ill-drained, and at the same
time lying low and protected from winds, there you get
malaria." Cholera and yellow fever will in the tropics be
found to frequent the sea-coast; whilst hepatitis and dysentery
show a decided preference for the loftier ranges of volcanic
formation which abound in running water and cooling breezes.
Fever of a typhoid nature does not, it would appear, occur
endemically in the tropics; and when accidentally the arrival
of an infected crew has’occasioned an outbreak in
seaport, the type of the epidemic has always been of
character than is usually noticed in Europe. This
must be attributed to the mode of life and to the system of
free ventilation prevalent in those climates. An interesting
fact condemnatory of M. Piorry’s doctrine regarding the part
played by the spleen in the production of ague is recorded in
this work-namely, that the peculiar pathological condition of
this organ frequently witnessed as the result of repeated at-
tacks of intermittent fever-the ague-cake, in fact-is far less
common in the severe type witnessed in the tropics than
in the milder form common in more temperate climates. In
twenty per cent. of the cases noted the lesion of the spleen did
not exist. M. Dutroulau admits two great divisions of inter-
mittents-the simple and the pernicious variety, both requiring
treatment by quinine, and by quinine alone, no other drug
being an efficient substitute for this alkaloid. In the chapter
which treats of continued fevers the author has some just re-
marks upon the abuse of bleeding in hot countries, and qualifies
the lancet as " a terrible weapon in the tropics, where inflam-
matory affections exist (for the most part) in appearance only."
Before leaving this interesting work I must refer to a circum-
stance mentioned by the author of which I confess I was totally
ignorant-namely, the extreme prevalence of phthisis in the
French colonies; so much so, indeed, that at Cayenne no less
than one-fifth of the Creole population yearly fall victims to
some form or other of our too familiar European scourge. This
fact no doubt in some measure explains and justifies the popu-
lar indignation which prevailed in France during the early
years of the present reign, when transportation to this un-
healthy climate was a punishment very commonly awarded to.
political offenders.
The above mention of venesection and its abuses reminds me
of a subject on which I believe a somewhat false impression to,
exist at present in England,-namely, the extent to which
bleeding is practised in Italy. Count Cavour was bled seven
times, it is said, and he sank : he was bled, no doubt, to death.
Setting aside the point of propriety or malapraxis-a question,
by the way, not easy to decide,-it is probable that in all those
six or seven bleedings the whole quantity of blood lost did not
I amount to thirty ounces: a supposition rendered all the more
likely by the fact that the illustrious statesman, in accordance
with the old Italian custom, was in the habit of being let blood
on certain occasions. Now, by the old Italian custom, as still
practised in the southern districts of the Peninsula, is not im-
plied an heroic abstraction of sixteen, twenty, or an indefinite
number of ounces of the vital fluid, " usquè ad deliquium,"’
with instructions for repetition " ad libitum." An average
bleeding at the hand of the " salassatore," or licensed Italian
phlebotomist, is a quantity varying from three to four ounces-
au habitual bleeder (in the passive sense) would rarely pass
the latter quantity; and Count Cavour, as has been publicly
stated, was, to within a very few hours of his death, his own.
physician, dictating the treatment he wished to undergo to a
young practitioner, who blindly followed the injunctions given.
All those of your readers who have witnessed the fatal rapidity
of tb e " perniciosafever will readily understand that in the
nature of the disease itself may be found ample explanation as
to the cause of death without recourse being had to the alleged
exhaustion by bleeding. I am anxious, as you see, to exonerate
young Italy from the imputation of parricide.
At the Academy of Medicine on Tuesday, M. Charles Robin
read a report upon a subject concerning which much has been
said and written of late-namely, chromhydrosis, or blue sweat.
Despite the hints and shrugs of the sceptics, who had long
pooh-poohed the accounts of strangely coloured cutaneous exu-
dation or secretion, M. Robin went to work in a matter-of-fact
way, and has arrived at a positive conclusion on the subject-
to wit, that the substance said to have exuded from the skin of
a patient, and presented for analysis by Dr. Leroy de Meri-
court, much resembles the blue colouring matter of certain
urine, and may be unquestionably pronounced to be a patho-
logical product, and eliminated in the manner alleged.
At the same sitting of the Academy, M. Lefort, a chemist,
and candidate for one of the vacant places, read a paper on the
different tests for morphia. The essence of his communication
amounted to the following :--1. That the salts of sesquioxyde
of iron are very certain and reliable tests for the discovery of
morphia, but only when the alkaloid is in a solid form or in a
concentrated solution. 2. That iodic acid alone is not a certain
test for morphia, unless ammonia be likewise used, and then
the alkaloid may be detected in a liquid which contains only a
10,000th part in solution. 3. That morphia taken continuously,
whether in small or large doses, may be found in the urine, but
a colonial not in the perspiration.
a milder
Paris, June 18th, 1861.
immunity
Medical News.
OXFORD UNIVERSITY. - At a Congregation held on
Thursday, the 13th inst., the degree of Medical Doctor (Comi-
tatis Causa) was conferred on the following gentleman :-
White, Arthur David, Pembroke College, Cambridge.
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY.-At Congregations held on the
13th and 15th inst. the degree of Bachelor of Medicine was
conferred on the following gentlemen :-
Andrew, W. W., Caius College.
Partridge, T. B., St. John’s Colleze.
Mackenzie, John Ingleby, Caius College.
DURHAM UNIVERSITY.-At a Convocation held on the
18th inst. the following in medicine conferred and
degree was
licence granted :-
M.D.
Pyle, Thomas Thompson, M.B.
Young, William, M.B.
LICENTIATE IN MEDICINE.
Cooke, Robert F.