be found of service to all who have the charge of the young. New York: S. S. & W. Wood. 1855. 18mo., pp. 70. (For sale by T. Richards & Son.)

This little work contains much useful information, and should be in the hands of all young mothers. It would do no harm even to those who think themselves experienced matrons.

Prof. JOSEPH A. EvE's Address to the Class of the Medical College of Georgia, at the opening of the Session of 1855-6.

This very creditable production has been published by the Class to whom. it was addressed. We regret that it is out of our power to do it justice by any notice we may pen within the limits assigned us. We cannot refrain, however, from reproducing the following tribute to departed worth:

"During the prevalence of the epidemic that scourged our city, last year-to the honor of our physicians be it spoken-no one was known to decline a call to a poor patient; but on the contrary, such were sought out and attended with the greatest zeal, with no expectation of reward beyond the approbation of heaven and their own conscienee. It is not my design to eulogise my professional brethren; they need no eulogy from me; they enjoy that far richer reward-the consciousness of having acted well their part; but I cannot forbear a passing tribute of respect to departed worth: to the memory of the amiable and lamented MACKIE, our accomplished and talented alumnus.

"The humane physician, the truly "good Samaritan," in both capacities he sought out the destitute and ministered to their wants, whether his own or others' patients, a minister of mercy to the poor! Long will his name be embalmed in grateful remembrance. Long shall the widow's and the orphan's tear bedew his tomb. With a fixed presentiment that he would fall a victim to the pestilence, he quailed not, nor faltered in the discharge of his duties, preferring like a good soldier to fall at his post with his armor on. With more cool, unflinching courage, more true heroism than inspires the warrior in the wild excitement of battle, he braved danger in its most appalling form, and nobly fell a martyr to the cause of humanity, a sacrifice on the altar of benevolence. Emulate his example, and let his name, as it is on ours, be engraven on the heart of every student and graduate of this college."

Ecraseur (crusher) of M. Chassaignac.

To the Editor of the New York Medical Times:

SIR-The new instrument for linear section, the Ecraseur of M. Chassaignac, is now daily employed for removing tumors, and in operations for fistula, varicocele, &c., and is destined soon to be universally known to surgeons by its legitimate use, if not, also, by its abuse.

The écraseur is so adjusted as to embrace the part to be cut by a loop of chain, presenting a plane surface with which the section is made. The two extremities of the chain, entering the tube of the instrument, placed in contact with the point where the division is to finish, are successively and at determined intervals drawn by a balance lever worked at the opposite extremity of the tube. Every successive diminution of the loop is retain

ed, and thus the operation may be completed within any specified time deemed expedient, having reference to the state of the patient, and the vascularity or haemorrhagic tendency of the parts.

The end proposed to be attained by the écraseur is, section without the inconvenience of ligature or the hazards of hæmorrhage; forming a new epoch in operative surgery.

A work containing plates and a full description of the several forms manufactured by M. Mathieu, of Paris, adapted to operations of the exterior of the body, and in sundry cavities, is soon to be published; therefore it will be preferable on this occasion simply to state a few cases of its application. Let us commence with hæmorrhoidal tumors. In the case of tumors exterior to the orifice of the rectum, each separately, or several united, are, in the first instance, surrounded at the base, as in ordinary cases, by ligature. Over the thread, and in the groove thus formed, and separating the tumor from the healthy part, is placed the loop of the chain which is to penetrate by alternate progressions of each half of the loop, operated by the balance lever at such intervals of fifteen, thirty, or sixty seconds. Internal hæmorrhoids are seized by an "érigne," or are brought to view by other usual modes, and are embraced and removed in the same manner as those already described.

Several of the cases operated on by M. Chassaignac have been of the most vascular kind, and yet their removal has not been attended, or followed by any loss of blood, or any of the grave accidents, which sometimes occur in the treatment by cauterization, ligature, or excision by the usual mode. Polypi of the rectum have been successfully removed in a similar manner.

One of the most remarkable applications of the écraseur is in the operation for fistula in ano, which alone entitles it to full rank among the “armamenta chirurgia," combining, as it does, all the advantages of the apolinose of the ancients, and the section of modern practice.

About three weeks since, M. Chassaignac removed a testis degenerated · into an encephaloid tumor some five inches long, three broad, and two thick, occupying the right portion of the scrotum. A ligature was at first applied in such a manner as to define, as nearly as possible, the limits between the healthy tissue and the tumor. The pedicle thus formed was severed by the écraseur without the loss of any blood. A considerable portion of healthy integument was necessarily involved in the operation. This was to be regretted, and an observer might have hesitated to approve of the employment of the écraseur in this case. A wound was thus left six inches in length, the edges of which were coäptated and retained by suture; but three or four days after, adhesion by first intention having failed, as might have been expected, the sutures were removed and simple dressings applied, and the wound is now rapidly healing by a process of healthy granulations.

This instrument has been successfully used in excising the neck of the uterus and in the removal of erectile tumors. It is not my object to enter into a minute description of these cases; nor shall I attempt to criticise what to many would seem an abuse of the écraseur in a case of phymosis, and another of varicocele now under treatment at the Hospital Lariboissière. I should not omit to mention a case of great interest at to-day's clinique, October 1st. A man aged about sixty, of strong constitution and vigorous frame, had a cancroid affection on the right lateral portion of the

tongue. The tumor was about two inches long, one broad, and three fourths thick, projecting forward to near the tip of the tongue, from which it was separated by a narrow fissure, giving the appearance of a double tongue. Most of the patients mentioned have been under the influence of ether or chloroform; but this man, of strong nerve, used no anaesthetic. The operator, seizing with his left hand the entire mass, circumscribed the tumor by a strong ligature, and placed in the groove thus formed the loop of the écraseur, and commenced the alternate motions of the lever. As the hazards from hæmorrhage in operations on the tongue demand special care. M. Chassaignac directed an assistant to give the progressive movements at intervals of one minute each, thus prolonging the operation more

than an hour.

The patient seated in his chair, himself supporting the instrament, presented the appearance of an oriental with his pipe. Occasionally he arose and walked to the window, if not to view the beautiful court, parterre, and pavilions of this model hospital of Paris, at least to breathe the refreshing air as it circulated around the heights of Montmartre.

While the excision of the tumor was thus slowly progressing, M. Chassaignae was at liberty to proceed to the operation for fistula in ano, removal of a polypus from the rectum, and the elimination of hæmorrhoidal tumors from three other patients. Verily, thought I, this is a new era in operative

surgery.

Permit me to add, that my observations are yet too limited and crude to judge of the actual merits of this new practice; but, granting all apparent claims in favor of the écraseur, there yet remain some positive fears in regard to its popularization. The facility of operations by this instrument may tend to its unwarrantable application in cases imperfectly diagnosed by incompetent operators. Yours truly,

Paris, Oct 1, 1855.

DAVID P. HOLTON, M. D.

Lizard in the Stomach.-Dr. Clark, of Montpelier, has exhibited to the Society (Vermont Medical Society) a red lizard, about three inches in length, living and well, which was vomited by a patient of his on the 1st of September. He gave the following history:

A healthy farmer, æt. 50, under his care for two years, for occasional severe nervous symptoms. During the first year, occasional sudden attacks of insensibility, falling and remaining for several hours unconscious, and then recovering completely. These attacks occurred at irregurar intervals, and under all circumstances-separated by several weeks, more or less, of perfect health. In the second year, these attacks gave place to poroxysms of epileptic convulsions, sometimes repeated many times in a day, with intervals of perfect health, as before. For several hours, however, after an attack, usually headache or uneasy sensations in the stomach, lasting several hours, which symptoms occurred at no other time. Was repeatedly purged with cathartics-never vomited-till, on the 1st September, 1855, after dining on fresh pork, was much distressed at stomach, and vomited, with much strangling, a quantity of pork and the lizard which Dr. Clark exhibited. Patient was in his chamber at the time, and immediately sent for Dr. C., who found him as described. Vomited a little blood after the lizard.

The patient has since been in perfect health-has had neither epileptic paroxysms nor any unusual sensations in the stomach or head. As soon

as he saw the lizard, the patient said he remembered that a little before he began to suffer in health (twenty-eight months ago), he had the sensation of swallowing some small substance one day when he was drinking at a spring, but had forgotten it.

This case is worthy of record, from its authenticity. It has been denied that animals which have a known existence out of the body, can live within it. We have here indisputable evidence that a lizard lived in a man's stomach for a considerable time; and should the patient continue three or four months without a recurrence of the symptoms, we shall have no reason to doubt that the nervous affection was produced by the presence of the animal in his stomach. He had passed a much longer period than usual without an attack, at the time the case was reported.-[Boston Med, and Surg. Joarnal.

New Remedy for Hemorrhoids. By C. E. BUCKINGHAM.-The Journal of Nov. 15th contains a translation, from the Gazette des Hopitaux, of a conversation concerning the extract or powder of capsicum as a remedy for hemorrhoids. There is another preparation of the same plant, more agreeable to take, which will probably be found quite as efficacious. I mean the pickled unripe pepper, which I have been in the habit for years of prescribing, as an article of diet for patients with this disagreeable disease. The results of the treatment are quite as successful as from any remedy in any other disease. Many patients are unwilling to try the pickled pepper, unless permission is also given them to render their clothing filthy with some greasy substance. Such patients may be indulged with safety, but the pepper alone, in the large majority of cases, the bowels having first been emptied, will be found treatinent enough. Ward's paste, the confect. piper. nig, has for an indefinite time been used for this purpose, but it has not one half the virtue. Dose-one pepper for dinner.-[Ibid.

Aneurism of the Superior Palatine Artery. By M. TETRLINCK-This surgical curiosity was met with in the case of a man, æt. 74. The tumour occupied the roof of the palate, which bled so frequently that the patient was much exhausted. The tumor was soft, elastic, and pulsated synchronously with the heart, alternately expanding and diminishing. Its cause was unknown, and it had lasted for three weeks. The actual cautery was employed, the slough separated in eight days, the hemorrhage did not recur, and a perfect cure resulted-[Dublin Hosp. Gaz., from Gaz. Méd.

Eczema.-The external use of cod-liver oil in chronic eczema and other troublesome affections of the skin, has been found very efficacious in various trials lately made by Mr. Paget of St. Bartholomew's, who derived the idea from Professor Malmsten of Stockholm. In the Allgemein Med. Zeitung, a Berlin journal, we find Professor Malmsten detailing his experience on the use of the fish oils in chronic diseases of the skin, including especially chronic eczema, impetigo, psoriasis, and that most distressing and intractable eruption, prurigo formicans. The affected parts should be constantly soaked with the oil for about two weeks, when the disease has generally yielded. The itching always gives way at once, and the remedy, however disagreeable, is more bearable than the disease. The use of an alkaline bath once a week is permitted, and the oil at once reapplied.

[Virginia Med. and Surg. Journal.

Prof. AGASSIZ.—As most well informed physicians are fond of Natural History, we cheerfully give a place in our Journal, to the following

PROSPECTUS.

Contributions to the Natural History of the United States. In Ten Vols. Quarto. By LOUIS AGASSIZ. To be published by Messrs. Little, Brown & Co., of Boston, Mass.

For more than eight years, I have now been in this country, devoting my attention chiefly to the study of those classes of the Animal Kingdom which American naturalists have, thus far, not fully investigated. The amount of materials I have already brought together is so great, that the time seems to me to have come when I should proceed with the publication of the more important results of these investigations. Desirous of contributing my share to the rapid progress natural sciences are making at present in this part of the world, I wish to present my work to my fellowlaborers in this field in the form most easily accessible to them. It has, therefore, appeared to me desirable to bring it out in a series of independent volumes. This plan will, moreover, leave me entirely free to present my contributions to science with such minute details, and to such an extent as I shall deem necessary to the fullest illustration of my subject.

Without entering into a detailed account of the contents of this work, it may be sufficient here to state, that it will contain the results of my embryological investigations, embracing about sixty monographs, from all the classes of animals, especially selected among those best known as characteristic of this continent; also descriptions of a great number of new genera and species, accompanied with accurate figures, and such anatomical details as may contribute to illustrate their natural affinities and their internal structure.

I shall not extend my publications to classes already illustrated by others, but limit myself to offering such additions to the Natural History of the States I have visited as may constitute real contributions to the advance of our knowledge.

From a careful estimate of the materials I have now on hand, I am satisfied I shall be able to include the most valuable part of my investigations in ten quarto volumes; each volume containing about three hundred pages, with at least twenty plates. I therefore now open a subscription for such a work, in ten volumes, quarto, in cloth binding, at the price of twelve dollars each volume, payable on delivery. Each volume shall be complete in itself, containing one or several independent monographs; so that, if any unforeseen difficulties should interrupt the publication of the whole, the parts already published shall not remain imperfect. As far as possible, I shall always select first such of my papers as contain the largest amount of new matter, or may contribute most directly to the advancement of science. Having devoted the greatest part of my time to the investigation of the embryonic growth of our animals, I shall make a beginning with the embryology of our turtles, several of which I have traced through all their changes. I trust this monograph will afford our medical students a fair opportunity of making themselves familiar with the modern results of one branch of physiology, which has the most direct bearing upon their science, and for which the different species of the family of turtles found in every part of the United States will afford them a better opportunity