Ywm
12
9
REPORT
COMMITTEE ON MEDICAL SCIENCES,
PRESENTED IT THE THIRD ANNUAL MEETING
AMERICAN MEDICAL  ASSOCIATION,
CINCINNATI, MAY, 1850,
v/
BY USHER PARSONS, M. D., Chairman.
QQS
5V_
        PHILADELPHIA:
T. K. & P. G. COLLINS, PRINTERS TO THE ASSOCIATION.
             1850.
dl
d 
 
REPORT
COMMITTEE  ON  MEDICAL SCIENCES,
PRESENTED AT THE THIRD ANNUAL MEETING
AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION,
CINCINNATI, MAY, 1850,
BY USHER PARSONS, M. D., Chairman.


          PHILADELPHIA:
T. K. & P. G. COLLINS, PRINTERS TO THE ASSOCIATION.
               1850. 
 
REPORT
OF THE
COMMITTEE  ON   MEDICAL  SCIENCES.
  The duties of the Committee on Medical Sciences have been con-
siderably curtailed, since  the  Association was first organized, by
transferring several subjects originally confided to it, to the charge
of special committees.   By a resolution adopted at the last annual
meeting, the customary range of the standing committees was fur-
ther restricted to the limits prescribed by the Constitution, which
directs them to report only upon the  progress of American Medicine
during the year of their service.  This circumstance will  account
for  the brevity of this report,  as compared with those of former
committees.  Hoping, however, that  its deficiencies will be more than
supplied by the reports which are to follow, the chairman will proceed
to state those facts, illustrating the progress of medical science in the
departments assigned to this committee,* which  have been gleaned
from the medical journals and other publications of the year, and
from numerous correspondents.   These departments are Anatomy,
Physiology, General Pathology and  Therapeutics, with  "other
branches of  Natural Science,  bearing directly on tl^-eon4itiork- 7)PV..
and progress of medical knowledge in America."  /<^^^~ ~    ^C^C»

                  ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY.    \

  Arrangement of Cancelli in Bone.—Professor Jeffries  Wynran has
stated these general conclusions  as to the arrangement  of the can-
celli in human bones.
  "1.  The cancelli of such bones as assist in supporting the weight
of the  body, are arranged either in the direction of that weight, or
in such a manner as to support  and  brace  those cancelli which are

  * The committee consisted of  Drs. Usher Parsons, Jacob Bigelow, J. B. S. Jackson,
A. B. Malcolm, James Moultrie, G. Emerson, and David King. 
4
REPORT OF THE
in that direction.  In  a mechanical point of view, they may be re-
garded in nearly all these bones as a series of 'studs' and 'braces.'
   '"2.  The  direction  of these  fibres  in  some of the bones  of the
human skeleton  is characteristic, and  it is  believed has  a definite
relation to the  erect  position,  which is  naturally assumed by man
alone."
   These structures are most uniform and  clearly defined in adult
and middle-aged skeletons.
   In the  lumbar vertebrae, which support the weight of the body
vertically, these  cancelli run vertically and transversely, the vertical
fibres directly sustaining the pressure,  the transverse ones bracing
them at right angles.
   The  neck of the thigh-bone  is adapted to resist  pressure by its
oval form, the longest axis being vertical, and by the greater thick-
ness of the wall  of bone on  its under side, to which the weight is
more directly transmitted.   Dr. Wyman describes another provision,
which consists "in having the cancelli of each femur so arranged as
to form a segment of a framed arch or truss, which co-operates with
Plan of Lumbar Vertebra.
the external shell in  sustaining the weight of the body;  the necks
of the two femora forming together opposite segments of  an arch."
He describes two  sets of cancelli.   One set (a, a) rests or abuts on
the convex surface of the thick shell which forms the under wall of
the neck,  and from this they diverge  toward the upper portion of
the head, neck, trochanter major, and portion of the shaft just below
this last;  those which extend into  the head are much the  longest.
The fibres of the second series (b, b) are arranged in parallel curves,
the extremes of which are attached  on the one hand to the wall of 
COMMITTEE ON MEDICAL SCIENCES.
5
bone at the base of the great trochanter, and on the other to that
portion of the  preceding class of fibres which  supports the  upper
surface of the head, as well as to the shell of bone between it  and
the trochanter.  Both  of these  series  are  braced by other  fibres,
which  are arranged at right angles to their  direction.   The cancelli
of the great trochanter (c) have no determinate form.   The internal
Plan of Neck of Femur.
fibres thus act as braces, assisting the outer walls to support the weight
of the body; the curved fibres (b, b) resisting by their tenacity, the
straight or radiating ones (a, a) by their rigidity.   The long straight
fibres (a) transmit weight directly to the under side of the neck, and
are themselves supported by the curved fibres (b, b), and these in turn
by the radiating fibres (a).
  In  the  lower part of the femur  and the  tibia, the  cancelli are
adapted to support vertical  pressure. 
6
REPORT OF THE
   On the astragalus, the pressure is vertical; but this bone rests on
two others; one below it, the os calcis, the other in front, the scaph-
oides; within there exist two series of cancelli, directing the pressure
on the surfaces of support.   Very nearly the same description applies
to the os calcis, where there are two intersecting sets of fibres, the
one radiating, the other in concentric curves.
  These peculiar arrangements are not found  in  quadrupeds, and
                                         only traces of them exist
     ()     n.   j                          in the apes, which most
            "  ' ^=fT^t=^               resemble man.   In him,
                                         they  are mainly or  en-
                                         tirely confined to bones
                                         directly connected with
                                         locomotion.   A  certain
                                         direction of fibres in each
                                         instance  coincides with
                                         a certain direction, or
                                         certain directions of the
                    Plans of Astragalus and Os Calcis.

transmission of pressure.   From this constant  association of struc-
ture and function, says Professor Wyman, the inference seems una-
voidable, that they are means and  ends.*

   Capacity of  Crania in different races of Man.—Dr.  Samuel G.
Morton, author of " Crania Americana," a work which does honour
• Boston Journal of Natural History, vol. vi. No. 1, page 125. 
COMMITTEE ON MEDICAL SCIENCES.
7
to the country and himself,  has recently published the results of
the internal measurements of six hundred and twenty-three human
crania,  "made with a  view to ascertain the  relative  size of the
brain in various races and families of man."  His process for mea-
surement was to fill each cranium with  leaden  shot, and determine
its  absolute capacity,  or the bulk  of  the  brain, in cubic inches.
He restricted his comparison to the  crania of persons sixteen years
of age or upwards.
  "Among the facts elicited by this  investigation are the following:
  "1. The Teutonic or German race, embracing the Anglo-Saxons,
Anglo-Americans, Anglo-Irish,  &c, possesses  the largest  brain of
any people.
  "2. The nations having the smallest  heads are the ancient Peru-
vians and Australians.
  " 3. The barbarous tribes of America possess a much larger brain
than the demi-civilized Peruvians or Mexicans.
  "4. The ancient Egyptians, whose civilization ante-elates that of
all  other  people,  and whose  country has justly been  called 'the
cradle of the arts and  sciences,' have the least-sized brain of any
Caucasian nation,  excepting the Hindoos; for the very  few Semitic
heads will hardly permit them to be  admitted into the comparison.
  "5. The Negro brain is nine cubic inches less than the Teutonic,
and three cubic inches larger than the ancient Egyptian.
  "6. The largest brain in the series is that of a Dutch gentleman,
and gives 114 cubic inches; the smallest head is an old Peruvian, of
58 cubic inches;  and the difference between these two  extremes is
no less than 56 cubic inches.
  " 7. The brain  of the Australian and Hottentot falls  far below
the Negro, and measures precisely the  same as the ancient Peru-
vian.
  "8. This extended series of measurements fully confirms the fact
stated in the  'Crania Americana,' that  the various artificial modes
of  distorting  the cranium  occasion no diminution  of  its internal
capacity, and consequently do not affect the size of the  brain." 
REPORT OF THE
                              TABLE,
Showing the  Size of the Brain in cubic inches, as obtained from  the
      measurement of 623 Crania of various Races and Families of Ma
internal
n.
RACES AND FAMILIES.		No. of Skulls.	Largest i.e.	Smallest. i.e.	Mean.	Menn.
MODERN CAUCASIAN GROUP.						
Teutonic Family.						
Germans,		18	114	70	90	) „
English,		5	105	91	9G	I 92
Anglo-Americans,		7	97	82	90	)
Pelasgic Family.		1				
Persians,		10	94	75	84	
Armenians,		[				
Circassians,		J				
Celtic Family. Notice Irish,		I 6	97	78	87	
Indostanic Family. Bengalees, &c,		1 32	91	67	80	
Semitic Family. Arabs,		1 3	98	84	89	
AN CI	Nilotic Family. Fellahs,	1 17	96	66	80	
	EXT CAUCASIAN GROUP.					
S i ■ o « t~ 4-	Pelasgic Family. Grozco-Egyptians,	} »	97	74	88	
	Nilotic Family. L Egyptians,	I 55	96	68	80	
MONGOLIAN GROUP.						
	Chinese Family,	6	91	70	82	
MALi	SX GROUP.					
Malayan Family,		20	97	68	86	[85
	Polynesian Family,	3	84	82	83	
AME1	UCAN GROUP.					
Toltecan Family.		)				"
Peruvians,		[ 155	101	58	75	
Mexicans,		j 22	92	67	79	
Barbarous Tribes.						-79
Iroquois,						c • J
Lenape',		!- 161	104	70	84	
Cherokee,						
NEGI	Shoshone', &c,	J				■*
	LO GROUP.					
Native African' Family,		62	99	65	83	I 83
American-born* Negroes,		12	K'J	73	82	
Hottentot Family,		3	83	68	7 5	
A	lforian Family. Australians,	} •	83	63	75	
 
             COMMITTEE ON MEDICAL SCIENCES.           9

  Embryonic Conditions persistent in the Cranium.—Dr. John Neill
mentions two peculiarities which are more or less completely charac-
teristic of the African skull.   One is the division of the articulating
surface of the occipital condyle into two faces by a transverse ridge
or groove.   The two faces are sufficiently rounded off in some cases
to give the outline of the figure 8, instead of an oval.   On an exami-
nation of Dr.  Morton's collection, which adorns  the Hall  of the
American Academy of Natural Sciences, it was found that this mark
existed in thirty out of eighty-one African crania,  in only four pure
Egyptian heads,  and  three  out of one hundred and five heads  of
Aboriginal Americans, but in none of the one hundred and twenty-
nine skulls of other nations, whose history was well known.  The
occasional existence of this
mark has been  previously
noticed,  but Dr.  Neill has
first pointed out its rarity in
other than  African crania.
He suggests that this trans-
verse mark represents the
fissure which in the foetus
separates the  basi-occipital
bone from the  next piece of
the  occiput  on  each side.
This fact, if it holds gene-
rally, may be considered an illustration of the law thus propounded
by  Agassiz: "In the different formations  through which  animals
pass, from the first formation
in the embryo up to the full-
grown  condition, may   be
found  a  natural scale,  by
which to  measure and  esti-
mate the position to  ascribe
to any animals."   Thus, the
persistence of a foetal stage
of  formation   would  mark
the  race  to which  it  was
peculiar  as a lower variety
of the species.
  Another foetal peculiarity
persistent  in   the African
head, is the absence of  a sharp edge at the lower boundary of the
 
10
REPORT OF THE
anterior nares, running from the anterior edge of the nasal  process
to the anterior nasal spine.  Other bones of the skull, according to
Dr. Neill, exhibit similar facts.*
Fig. 9.                           Fig. 10.
Occiput of the Foetus.           Superior Maxilla of the Caucasian.
Fig. 11.                           Fig. 12.
Facial Bones of the African.            Facial Bones of the Fcetus.
  An observation, by Dr. Joseph  Leidy, not strictly falling within
the year to which our researches are confined, but which has escaped
the notice of former committees,  deserves to be  recorded in this
connection.  The constant existence of an  intermaxillary  bone in
lower animals,  its occasional  distinct existence in man, in  cases of
hare-lip, and the uniform presence of a transverse fissure behind the
incisive alveoli of the human foetus at  birth, have suggested a sus-
picion of the normal and independent existence of this bone  in the
very early embryonic condition.   "As the negro  in his anatomical
characters is not so far  removed from the embryological condition
• American Journal of Medical Sciences, Jan. 1850. 
COMMITTEE ON MEDICAL SCIENCES.
11
as the white," attention was called to the examination of embryos
of the negro  race.  Dr.  Leidy lately met with a specimen where
the intermaxillary bone was quite distinct, in  an embryo one  inch
and eleven lines long from heel to vertex, and presumed to be about
nine or ten weeks old.   The line between this bone and the superior
maxillary passes through the alveolar ridge between the incisive and
the canine alveoli, and extends transversely inward behind the inci-
sive alveoli, and vertically  upward, nearly bisecting the  nasal pro-
cess.   Specimens exhibiting the same separation, but a later stage
of development, are in the  Wistar Museum.*
   It  is not stated whether  any of these specimens were from the
negro race.

   Hair of Different  Races of Men.—P. A. Browne, LL. D., of
Philadelphia,  communicated to the American  Ethnological Society
an essay, since published,  entitled "The Classification of Mankind
by the Hair and Wool of their Heads," with an answer to Dr. Pri-
chard's assertion that the  covering of the head of  the negro is
hair,  properly so termed, and  not wool.  The author of this paper
states that, on microscopic  examination, there appear to be three
prevailing forms of the transverse section of the filament, viz., the
cylindrical,  the oval,  and  the eccentrically elliptical.   There are
also three directions  in which it  pierces the  epidermis and is pro-
longed to its apex.   The  straight and  lank, the  flowing or  curled,
and the crisped or frizzled,  which is sometimes also spirally twisted,
differ respectively as to the angle which the filament forms with the
skin  on leaving it.   While the  cylindrical and oval pile has  an
oblique angle  of  inclination, the eccentrically elliptical pierces the
epidermis at right angles, and lies  in  the dermis perpendicularly.
The hair of the white man  is  oval;  that of the Choctaw and some
other American Indians  is  cylindrical;  that of the negro is eccen-
trically elliptical or flat.   The hair of the  white man, besides its
cortex and intermediate fibres, has a central canal, which contains
the colouring  matter when  present.  The wool of the negro has no
central canal, and  the colouring matter is diffused when present,
either throughout the cortex,  or this and the intermediate fibres.
Hair, according to these observations,  is more complex  than wool.
In  hair, the  enveloping  scales are comparatively few, smooth of
surface, rounded at their  points, and closely embrace the shaft; in

  * American Journal of Med. Sciences, April, 1849, page 537.  A description and
engravings of the two bones are there given. 
12
REPORT OF TIIE
 wool, they are numerous, rough, sharp-pointed, and project from the
 shaft.  Hence the hair of the white man will not felt;  the wool of
 the negro will.
   The chairman of this committee lias recently had the opportunity
 of examining a  young Bushman, brought  to this country by Mr.
 Isaac  Chase, formerly United States  consul at the  Cape of Good
 Hope.   He was the  only specimen of this tribe known to have
 reached this country,  and died during the  last  summer of cholera.
 His hair lay in little distinct, compact curly tufts, twisted spirally;
 and in the intervals  of these tufts, the skin  was distinctly seen.
 The filaments were very fine, some  of them five inches long, and
 black.   They contained  a distinct  cortex, and granular medulla.
 The transverse section of a filament resembled that of the negro's,
 except in being concave on one of the two longer sides of the ellipse;
 that is, it was flat, and concavo-convex.

   Vascular Injection  for Microscopic llcscarchcs.—Dr. P. B. God-
 dard describes a  new material and process  for  making very minute
 anatomical injections,  adapted for examination  by the microscope.
 The materials are vermilion very finely ground in  oil, and sulphuric
 ether; one part of the  vermilion paint being put to twenty or thirty
 parts of the  ether, to  be well shaken before use.  This is to  be
 injected with a slow, gradual, and moderate pressure, by an artery,
 leaving the corresponding vein open.  The coloured  matter at first
 issues from the vein, but soon only clear ether appears.   The ether
 may be driven off by  heat, leaving a very minute injection  of the
 capillaries.*

   Direct Exploration of the Interior of the  Eye.—Dr.  T. Wood, of
 Cincinnati, has described  phenomena which suggest a new mode of
direct  exploration.  He  states that, by means of a small  double
convex lens, of short focus, held near the eye, that  organ  looking
through it at a candle twelve or fifteen feet distant, there will  be
perceived a large luminous disc, covered with dark and light spots
and dark streaks, which,  after a momentary confusion,  will settle
down into an unchanging picture;  which picture is composed of the
organs or internal parts  of the eye.   The eye is thus  enabled to
view its own internal  organization,  to have a  beautiful  exhibition
of the vessels of the cornea,  of the distribution of the  lachrymal
• Philadelphia Medical Examiner. 
COMMITTEE ON MEDICAL SCIENCES.
13
secretions in the  act  of  winking, and  to  see into the nature and
cause of muscse volitantes.
  To impart to others  an  idea of this representation, as well as the
mode of analyzing the phenomena, a  few figures accompany the
communication.   The explanation given is, that the light and dark
moving spots in the plane of the cornea  represent  the tears and
fluids that lubricate the external conjunctival surface of the organ;
the vascular net-work, seen posterior to this, is an arrangement of
blood-vessels in the structure of the cornea, which Dr. Wood believes
himself to  have been  the first  to observe; the fringed circle that
bounds the illuminated disc is the inner edge of the iris;  and what
have been called muscse volitantes, are only the  globular vesicles of
the vitreous humour, posterior  still to the preceding, assuming a
chain-like arrangement toward the  central vertical line, and are es-
sential parts of the organ, instead of being abnormal.  The reasons
for this opinion accompany the  details of the exposition, which are
also shown to be compatible with the laws of optics.*

  Experiments on the  Motor Powers.—Dr. Bennet Dowler, of New
Orleans, has been  favourably known as a medical observer.   Within
the year, he has furnished some new " Contributions to Physiology."
He gives an account of vivisections performed on the great Saurian
of Louisiana.  Seven  alligators  appear to have  been sacrificed in
these  experiments.  One  alligator, after  the spinal marrow had
been cut across, between  the  shoulders and  hips, "during a period
of two hours, displayed complete intelligence, volition, and voluntary
motion in all divisions of the body."   The  signs  from which Dr.
Dowler makes  this inference were, associated and adaptive move-
ments of the lateral muscles of  the  body, and of the hind legs, in
response to  irritations  applied to the viscera, or above the part of
the spinal marrow which was divided.  Others showed similar powers
after decapitation, or  after the  brain  and medulla oblongata had
been removed.   In one case, these movements were produced by
"pinching, puncturing, and burning," for three or four hours after
the head was cut off.   Tying  the trachea stopped them sooner and
more  completely.   The  separated  heads,  until the  brain was  de-
stroyed, continued to show their vitality by biting, winking, looks of
anger and fear, and, in one pathetic instance, by affectionately re-
cognizing the voice, and eyeing the movements, of a fond negro!
* Western Lancet and Hospital Reporter, Nov. 1849. 
14
REPORT OF THE
  One alligator was beheaded with a dull hatchet, producing little
hemorrhage.   Dr. Dowler  thus  relates  the sequel:  "I carried  the
handle of the knife  towards the eye, to ascertain whether it would
wink, whereupon the ferocious separated  head sprang up from the
table with great  force at me, passing  very near  my breast, which
received  several drops of blood; it alighted upon the floor, from six
to eight feet  distant from its original position!"   Dr. Dowler, who
is familiar with the anatomy of the alligator, can  find no muscle to
account for this feat.
  Dr. Dowler seems to believe that these observations are destined
to overthrow  received doctrines in  neurology; those of Marshall
Hall in particular.   But these doctrines recognize the indisputable
facts that associated and adaptive movements take place independ-
ently of  the brain, not through the medium of feeling and volition;
and that irritation of one point of the spinal marrow, or one spinal
nerve, will cause motions in  distant parts of  the  motor apparatus.
Dr D. regards all such movements as signs of intelligence, feeling,
and will, a view we suppose to be disproved by numerous facts.
  His experiments would appear to show that,  after the  spinal mar-
row was thoroughly divided, the lower limbs moved on irritants being
applied to the upper  parts  of  the  trunk.  This, if confirmed  by
larger experience, is not in  accordance with  doctrines  founded on
the numerous and trustworthy observations of European physiolo-
gists.  The  heart was seen to beat after being freed from blood,
separated from the nerves, roughly handled, and considerably desic-
cated ; well illustrating its inherent contractile power.
  Dr. Dowler is a bold experimenter, and his  laudable  zeal and in-
dustry have already added many valuable facts to medical science,
and we doubt not his future labours will either strengthen or correct
the opinions  he has  advanced.

  Development of Organic Cells.—Since the discoveries  of Schwann
and  Schleiden on the formation of cells, the  essential  organic ele-
ment of  animal and vegetable bodies, little has been added to their
doctrines.   Their account of the appearance  of nuclei in an organ-
izable liquid, and of  the  growth of cells upon  and around these
nuclei, has  been applied  to all living forms.   Dr. W. J. Burnett
laid  before  the American  Association  for  the Advancement  of
 Science, at its late meeting in Cambridge, some observations on the
 origin of animal cells, quite different  from  the views generally re-
 ceived.  His observations were made  on the  epithelial  cells  of 
COMMITTEE ON  MEDICAL SCIENCES.
15
mucous membranes, and  on pus-cells,  the  result of inflammation.
He thus describes their results:  "In the first  place, there appears
in the cyto-blastema, a dark point or nucleus.
   "2. This nucleus is next seen to be a hollow sphere, containing
nothing but a clear liquid.
   " 3. This clear liquid is cloudy, and filled with minute immeasur-
able granules.
   "4. The cloudiness  is less marked, and in some  cases nearly ab-
sent, but a dark body is seen in its centre.
   " 5. By this time the  cell-membrane, or the wall of the  primal
nucleus hollowed  out, has much enlarged, so that we  have  then a
distinct nucleated cell.
   "6. This nucleus then begins to be hollowed into a sphere, as
did its predecessor, and  then passes like  that  from a clear to a
cloudy vesicle,  until the  formation of its own nucleus.  By this
time, the  outer  cell-membrane bursts, having completed its term of
existence; this having  taken place, the nucleus  is discharged, and
we have then  a nucleated cell  as before.  Sometimes, however, the
outer cell-membrane does not burst, and we have then a nucleolated
cell;  but  this is not the most common manner of proceeding."
   Besides this  endogenous method of reproduction, the  cells, par-
ticularly  those  belonging to  epithelial  structures,  are sometimes
multiplied fissiparously, as occurs  most commonly with vegetable
cells.
   These observations are quite analogous to those of Agassiz on the
development  of the ova  of radiata and  mollusca.  It would  seem
that the great law of development is the same in both cases.   If so,
this is a new acquisition  in science; the morphological identity of
the cell and the ovum having never before  been traced from actual
observation, so far as known by Dr. Burnett.
   Professor Agassiz,  after the reading  of this  paper, made  some
remarks,  suggesting that  the  difference  between animal and vege-
table cells had not been  sufficiently attended  to, and that a broad
field of inquiry is opened in the comparison  of different forms of
cells.   He pointed  out the analogies  and  differences  between the
egg-cell and cells developed in full-grown animal tissue.*

   AUotropism in the  Living  Organic Elements.—Professor J.  W.
Draper, of New York, offers  some observation  on "the  existence

   * Proceedings of American Association for Advancement of Science, Second Meeting
page 261. 
16
REPORT OF THE
and  effects  of allotropism in the  constituent  elements  of living
beings."  It is not necessary to explain the meaning of this term,
which is applied to inorganic and elementary bodies  that appear in
different forms, assuming different physical  and chemical relations.
The  three leading neutral nitrogenized  bodies, fibrin, albumen  and
casein,  are  in a remarkable  manner allotropic.   First, they are
mutually convertible, hardly deserving to be  called distinct  sub-
stances more than charcoal, plumbago, and diamond, allotropic forms
of carbon.   Again, each  one of them  easily assumes new forms;
one variety  of fibrin being soluble in water, another being not so,
&c.
  Of the agents which, in the inorganic kingdom, bring about these
changes, the imponderable principles are the most important.   Dr.
Draper  believes that the nervous  system has  a  similar power of
changing the allotropic condition of these proximate elements of the
body, and that the existing allotropic state of an organized molecule
determines whether it shall yield to the oxidizing influence of arte-
rial blood, or  not, "that this is the fundamental  fact on which all
the laws of interstitial death depend."  He  suggests that inflamma-
tion  may begin by an allotropic change in the soft solids of the part,
disposing them to more  active oxidation.  Hence, according to the
laws of circulation he  has  formerly so beautifully  developed, an
increased  afflux of blood would  result.   Hence, too, a higher  pro-
portion in the urine of urea and  sulphuric acid, results of the oxida-
tion  of the proximate elements above  named.  In  congestion, these
conditions are all reversed.   This view  seems to harmonize  with
the facts, and presents them more clearly to our minds.*

   Quantity  of Blood in the Body.—Professor James Blake, of the St.
Louis University, has communicated the results of some experiments,
made to determine the quantity  of blood in the body.   A weighed
quantity of  sulphate of alumina was  injected into the veins, and a
weighed portion of the  blood analyzed.  The salt  having  time to
mix  well with the blood  of the animal before death, the  analysis
furnished the means of determining the whole amount of blood with
which the salt had been mixed.   The combination of the salt with
the  tissues  might, however,  prove a source of error, or a fallacy
might arise from its having been excreted.   But this would  affect
the  result only in one  direction, namely, by furnishing a greater

      •  London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philos. Mag., April, 1849, page 241. 
COMMITTEE ON MEDICAL SCIENCES.           17
 quantity of blood than really exists.  But these experiments, in fact,
 would show the weight of the blood of a dog  to be  one-eighth or
 one-ninth  the  weight of the animal, which is  much  less than the
 generally  believed average  amount.   And that this is a nearer
 approximation to the truth than  has  yet been attained, is evident
 from the fact that it corresponds  best with the velocity of the cir-
 culation and relative capacity of the heart, it being difficult to con-
 ceive how, upon the common  belief, the blood can circulate with so
 much rapidity.*

   Lymph-Corpuscles Visible  in  Dried Blood.—When blood exists
 on articles of furniture, clothing,  &c, in large quantities, general
 inspection with the aid of chemistry will determine its presence with
 sufficient accuracy;  but it is not unfrequently found  on wearing
 apparel, walls, instruments, &c,  in quantities too small for analysis.
 Often the mere statement of  a non-professional spectator or police-
 man has been admitted as evidence, when the opinion of a physician
 even should have been received with great caution.
   Cases are mentioned in treatises on  Medical Jurisprudence, (see
 Taylor s Med. Juris., Lond. edition, p. 334,) in which persons have
 been arrested and tried  solely in consequence of spots having been
 found on their apparel or property which were supposed to be blood.
 Spots of tobacco-spittle  have been unhesitatingly pronounced to be
 blood by non-professional persons and policemen, the true nature
 of which was subsequently shown by the microscope.  It is a matter
 of no little interest to determine some positive  sign or character by
 which blood, especially dried blood, may be recognized, or by which
 other substances may be shown to  differ from blood.
   In an attempt  recently made to determine the nature of  certain
 marks supposed to be those of blood, it was  found that the micro-
 scope gave a reliable means, in some instances, of making this dis-
 tinction.  But little or no reliance can be placed on it in determining
 whether the blood be that of man or of some of the higher animals.
 The test  mentioned  below is not  known to be given in works on
 Medical Jurisprudence.
  It had been expected,  in these  recent observations (in  the Massa-
chusetts Medical College), that the blood-discs would become visible
when dried blood was softened with salt and water or syrup.  But
they seldom appeared with any  degree of distinctness,  especially

            * Philadelphia Med. Examiner, Aug., 1849, page 4f>°
     2 
18                      REPORT OF THE
when the blood was dried in drops: but if it were spread on glass in
an exceedingly delicate film, they were distinctly visible even when
dry.  A scale or small fragment of dried blood  placed under the
microscope, and moistened with syrup, soon began  to  soften down
and diffuse itself, or at least expand itself in the liquid.  In a few
minutes, transparent spots appeared; and these were  found, when
carefully examined, to consist of vesicles or cells, in  which  were
easily detected, with a magnifying power of five or  six hundred
diameters,  four or five small  granules  or nuclei.   These  are the
transparent, or "colourless corpuscles."   In the drying and subse-
quent softening of the blood,  the blood-discs cease to be  easily recog-
nized, while the lymph corpuscles readily assume their original form,
even when dried and moistened more than once.  These experiments
have been repeated a  great many times, and the  lymph-corpuscles
were  invariably recognized;  they seem  therefore to be worthy of
mention in connection with legal medicine.
  Tobacco-spittle, when placed under the microscope, even if it has
been dried  and subsequently  softened, is found to contain, in great
numbers, the epithelium cells from the mouth, also the cuticle scales
and hairs of tobacco-leaf, which are at once sufficiently indicative of
the sources  from  which the fluid was derived.*

  Relations of the Nitrogen of the Air to Respiration and  Voice.—
Professor James Moultrie, a member of this committee, has published
a paper on the uses of the nitrogen of the air in respiration.   It is
known that the quantity of nitrogen in expired air is not materially
changed, or at least the change is not constant enough to warrant  a
belief that  nitrogen takes any active and essential  part in the che-
mistry of respiration.  Physiologists have  had to content themselves
with the rather meagre view that it serves simply to dilute the oxy-
gen.  Dr. Moultrie  suggests that the  nitrogen is important to  the
physical relations of the respiratory function, regulating the tension
of the  air   in  the pulmonary  vesicles, or its volume,  or both.  It
would serve chiefly to regulate the tension  of the pulmonary air
during  expiration.  As  a medium of sound, responding in part to
the vibrations of  the  vocal chords, or exciting their  vibrations, or
preserving the volume and tension of the  pulmonic air in that state
which is essential to the ready and  constant use of  these organs as
instruments of voice, would not the withdrawing of one-half of that

  •  Communicated by Professor Jeffries Wyman, who conducted the investigation. 
COMMITTEE ON MEDICAL SCIENCES.
19
element materially change their value in the part assigned them in
animal life to fulfil ?  By ingenious symbols, Dr. Moultrie traces the
nitrogen particles  from the atmosphere  till  they part  from their
oxygen in the pulmonary vesicles, and shows that then, mingled with
the  carbonic  acid  and vapour which are to be exhaled, they must
contribute to preserve the volume and  tension  of  the cells and
extreme tubes of the lungs.*

   On Parasitic  Life.—Dr. J. Leidy has established the fact that
cryptogamic vegetables exist,  as  a normal condition, in the interior
of  several species of healthy animals.  He  describes  three new
genera  of entophytes—Enterobrus, Cladophytum, and Arthromitus
—being  all confervoid or mycodermatoid.   All are found growing
from the mucous membrane of the small intestine and  commence-
ment of the large intestine of  Julus marginatus (Say), and from
entozoa inhabiting these cavities in the same animal.   They were
uniformly found  in  one hundred and sixteen  examinations of ani-
mals of this species, made immediately after  death.  In one instance,
an ascaris, three lines long, "had  no less  than twenty-three indi-
viduals of Enterobrus, averaging  a line in length, besides a quantity
of the other two genera, growing upon it, and yet it moved about in
so lively a manner that it did  not appear the least incommoded by
its load of vegetation."
   The important point in these observations is, that they show cryp-
togamic vegetables may exist in the internal organs, and upon ento-
zoa inhabiting these organs, without disturbing the health, and even
as an ordinary and normal condition.  This does not rebut the idea
that other cryptogamia may produce  diseases.   They are known to
exist in aphthae, in many diseases of the skin, have  been found in
the secretions of cholera and several acute diseases, f and were lately
observed  by  Dr. Leidy in a  case of softening of the stomach.
Whether in these instances they are cause  or effects of  the morbid
state, or even a mere coincidence, is not decided.
   Dr. Leidy  regards  the  microscopic forms  known as Vibrio, as
vegetable.   In this opinion, he  is supported  by  other observers.
After mentioning the discovery of several species, and a new genus
of entozoa, he notices the existence of Gregarina in the ventriculus
of Julus marginatus.   Gregarina  has recently attracted much atten-
tion, as being supposed to be an animal consisting only of two cells,

       *  Charleston Medical Journal and Review, May, 1849, page 265.
      t See London Journ. of Medicine, Nov. 1849. 
20
REPORT OF THE
and  said by Diebold  to be  destitute of an  alimentary canal.   Dr.
Leidy describes a papilla surmounting the superior cell, with traces
of an external communication with the  cavities of the cells.   He
regards it as the larva of the entozoon.*
  Dr. H. I. Bowditch has communicated observations on the animal
and vegetable  parasites which infest the human  teeth.  They were
found in almost  every instance among more than forty persons
examined, from all classes of society.   Of the animal forms, there
were three  or four species; of the vegetable, one or two.   The only
persons whose  mouths were quite free from them cleansed their teeth
four times  a-day, using soap once.  The number of  parasites was
proportioned to the neglect of cleanliness.  Tobacco juice and smoke
did not impair their vitality.  The same was true of the chlorine
tooth-wash,  of powdered bark,  soda,  ammonia,  and  various other
popular detergents.  Soap appeared to destroy them instantly.  Pure
white soap is recommended as the best substance for  cleansing the
teeth.f

                          PATHOLOGY.

  On Endemic, Epidemic, and  Contagious Diseases.—Some of the
finest minds in the profession have  lately given  to the world  their
views on the subject of the propagation of epidemic and  communi-
cable diseases.  The  work  of Professor  John K. Mitchell, on the
Cryptogamic Origin of Malarial and Epidemic  Diseases, was noticed
in last year's report.
  Professor J. Knight, of Yale  College, has published an  Introduc-
tory Lecture  "On the Propagation  of Communicable Diseases."
He first considers those affections which are well known to be  com-
municable, whether purely local, or attended or  followed by consti-
tutional symptoms.   From many facts in regard to them, he shows
that a disease  is not proved  to be communicable because  many in
the same family or  neighbourhood are attacked in succession, nor
because it travels from place to place.  Neither is a disease proved
to be not communicable because it sometimes assumes  an  epidemic
character and course—nor  because it often or even  usually arises
from the common external  causes of disease—nor because in other
respects it  does not resemble  certain diseases acknowledged to be
communicable, as, for instance, the  exanthemata—nor because all

     •  Proceedings of Academy of Natural Sciences, Oct. 1849.
     -j-  Proceedings of American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Dec. 1849 
COMMITTEE ON MEDICAL SCIENCES.
21
 who are exposed in an equal degree, or many who are exposed in
 every degree, do not receive it—nor because, at certain times and
 places, none  of those exposed will receive it.   A  predisposition or
 susceptibility must exist, as well as an exciting cause.
   Now, cholera, when once prevalent in a place, can hardly be traced
 to communication, or proved to spread in  this way.  But  the  facts
 in regard to  its recent  beginning at New York, New Orleans and
 New Haven are related, and shown to be very similar to those which
 might attend  the commencement of an epidemic of small-pox.   They
 certainly seem at first sight to prove that it spread by communica-
 tion ; and, according to the principles laid down above, the apparently
 opposing facts do not  disprove this idea.  Similar facts  might be
 stated in regard to dysentery, erysipelas, and yellow fever.
   Dr. Knight's conclusions in regard to this class of diseases are
 thus stated:—
   "1st.  All  febrile diseases, of  a  typhoid  and  malignant type,
 depend upon, as their predisposing cause,  a certain endemic or epi-
 demic constitution of the atmosphere.   What this state is is entirely
 unknown.
   "2d.  This  epidemic  constitution, aided by the common exciting
 causes of disease, is at times sufficient  to produce them.
   " 3d.  Whenever this epidemic constitution is present, they will be
 communicated from the sick to the well, and this communicability is
 a common cause of their propagation."
   Professor S. H. Dickson, of New York,  looking at the same sub-
ject from another point  of view,  and passing through  a  different
 train of thought, suggests somewhat similar conclusions as  to  the
 contagiousness of  the same class of diseases.
   He mentions two essential characters of contagion.   The  matter
which produces contagious disease  must be germinal,  or self-multi-
plying, and this reproduction must depend upon, or be favoured by
the very processes of disease which itself gives rise to.   The repro-
ductive character,  and therefore the organic nature of this matter,
which produces contagious disease, is proved by its propagating itself
by mere  inoculation, with  no  outward favouring circumstances.
When contagious diseases spring up without contagion, from ordinary
exciting causes, these causes probably act by exciting the tissues of
the body into  such morbid processes as engender the  germ of dis-
ease.  We cannot suppose that the outward causes  directly produce
this  germ, since life can only spring from pre-existing life.
  The  essential matter of contagion is never isolated and examined 
0 0
REPORT OF THE
by itself, and is too minute to be studied with the microscope.  It
exists in the cells  of  cancer—in the newly-produced fluids of the
exanthemata—in the  pus-globules, and the ichor of certain specific
diseases—in connection with  animalcules or  fungous vegetation   ■
and, lastly,  diffused through the blood or certain normal secretions.
But  it is distinct from all these visible  forms which accompany it;
it is  contained in the  fluids, but not identical with them;  it is asso-
ciated with these organic forms, but is not identical with them.  In
psora, the fact of its  communication by fomites, on which the exud-
ing fluid has long been  dry,  is presumptive  proof that  the living
acarus scabiei is not the essential contagious substance.  Dr. Dickson
suggests that this might be tested by using the fluid of the itch vesi-
cle, carefully distinguished from the acarus, for inoculation.
  As the matter of all contagions is inseparable, and too minute for
analysis, we  cannot be surprised that it  radiates, and is sometimes
propagated  without contact.   The germ of  variola may perhaps
grow and multiply in  another  nidus than the human body, which  is
its proper habitation; as, for  example, in the air filled with  animal
matter; just as rice will grow  on damp cotton, or as air-plants grow.
This may account for the epidemic  prevalence of this disease, and
for its springing up at such seasons without any known contagious
source.   That a sporadic pestilence should occasionally be epidemic
is  as natural as that one season should be prolific in  fruits and
insects,  which in another season are scarce.   All the febrile conta-
gious diseases  may be propagated  by  radiation,  except  vaccinia,
which is not properly a human disease.   All non-febrile contagious
diseases require contact,  it is believed.
  The contagiousness of certain  diseases is  matter of  dispute.
Typhus, pertussis, puerperal fever, dysentery, yellow fever, cholera,
present  no palpable matter of contagion, are  not conveyed  by ino-
culation, and only very irregularly by infection; but  they become
epidemic, are self-propagating,  easily spreading from  a focus, and
must be ranked  as contagious.   Their contagious germ is proved to
be organic,  and to have its nidus in the  human  body.   In the case
of cholera, this  is shown by its spread, independent of temperature,
soil, and other  telluric influences, by its following  large masses of
human  beings, its close  adherence to well-adapted centres, and its
prompt multiplication under favouring circumstances.*
  Professor Dickson speaks of the relations of parasitic life to con-
* American Journ. of Med. Sciences, July, 1849, page 107. 
COMMITTEE ON MEDICAL SCIENCES.          23
tagion.   Parasitic forms always co-existing with  certain communi-
cable diseases, and never existing without them, may be considered
as virtually the germ of disease.  But he mentions many instances
where parasites do not interfere with the health of the animals they
inhabit, or where  they even  exist as a normal condition.  The  im-
portant observations of Drs.  Leidy and Bowditch, already detailed,
illustrate and confirm this view.

  Irregular  Malarial Diseases.—Professor Kirtland mentions  the
important influence of malaria in producing not merely fevers,  but
obscure and anomalous affections, especially of the nervous system.
Their prognosis depends  in  great  measure on a correct diagnosis;
as, if the cause be  allowed  to go on unchecked, the  results may
grow more serious; tubercular disease being often produced.  Cin-
chona and its preparations are not always sufficient remedies.   Be-
lieving that the nervous centres are primarily attacked, Dr. K. recom-
mends the attempt to excite in these centres an artificial action more
compatible with health than  the disease is, and to thus  overcome
the original morbid action.   He says that strychnia is  extensively
used with this view in northern Ohio, and with good success.*   In
New  England, the same  remedy is employed in neuralgic  cases,
under the name of homoeopathy.

  Re-vaccination.—The late  lamented  Dr. Fisher, of Boston, who
has long given attention to the subject of variola and kindred  dis-
eases, and published the best description of them extant, has recently
advanced the following  propositions, supported by numerous statis-
tical facts:—
   "1. That  one  single and perfect vaccination does  not, for  all
time, in all cases,  deprive the system of its susceptibility of variolous
disease.
   " 2. That  one or more re-vaccinations do; and that, consequently,
a physician should recommend re-vaccination, when questioned as
to its necessity."
  Dr. F. had made other observations, from which were drawn these
conclusions:—
   "1. A portion  of  vaccinated  persons  are  protected  from  small-
pox through  life by one vaccination.
  " 2. An indefinite number are protected only for a certain period
of time.
                * Proceedings of Ohio Medical Convention. 
24
REPORT OF  TnE
   "3. The length of time they are thus protected is undetermined.
   "4. Some individuals require to be vaccinated a number of times
during life.
   "5. The system is protected from variolous contagion, when it is
no longer susceptible of vaccine influence, as tested by re-vaccination.
   "6. The cow-pox virus does not seem to be more efficacious than
the human vaccine virus in its prophylactic virtues, and the influence
of the vaccine virus  does not seem to be diminished  by  the number
of its removes from the cow, or passages through the  human system.
   "7. The appearances of vaccine  cicatrices furnish no indication
that the system may or  may not be again influenced by repeated
vaccinations.
   "8. A plurality of vesicles  have no  more effect in rendering the
system  less obnoxious to the  influence of re-vaccination than a
single vesicle has.
   " 9. The lapse of  time from the period of primary vaccination to
that of re-vaccination has some, though but little, effect in prepar-
ing the system to be  further influenced by the vaccine virus.
   "10. The age of puberty tends in a degree to  destroy the effect
of primary vaccination.
   "11. The virus  contained in vesicles resulting from re-vaccina-
tion has the same anti-vaccine and anti-variolous power as that which
is the product of vesicles produced by the primary vaccination."*

   Cholera.—The  duty of tracing "the progress  of epidemics" is
assigned to another committee, and the eminent attainments of  the
chairman of that committee warrant us in expecting that the history
of the epidemic cholera of the past year will be presented  in  the
most able and instructive manner.  It  will be our own  duty simply
to notice facts connected with the pathology of this  disease.
  In the admirable "Report on the Cholera in  Boston in 1849,"
published by the city, we have the details of thirty-three autopsies;
twelve of males, twenty-one  of females.   The large majority were
adults;  the oldest  sixty years of  age.   " The most remarkable and
constant appearances were the following:—
  "1. An  unusual  dryness  of the pleura, particularly where the
anterior edges of  the lungs  overlap the  pericardium;  so that, on
raising  them, the two pleural surfaces separated from each other
with some difficulty,  and presented a dry and wrinkled appearance,
instead  of their usual moist and polished aspect.
• Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, Jan. 1850, p. 502. 
COMMITTEE ON MEDICAL SCIENCES.
25
   " 2. A nearly empty condition  of the  pericardium;  that  cavity
often containing not more than eight or ten drops of  fluid.
   "3. The  peritoneum was smeared with a thin layer  of  slimy,
opaline secretion, which was drawn  out into minute  threads on se-
parating the convolutions of the  small intestine.  When this sub-
stance was not  in  sufficient quantity to be visible on  the peri-
toneal  surface,  it  could  be collected by drawing  a few coils of
intestine through the fingers, when its slimy, sticky feel was easily
recognizable.
   "4. A moderate swelling and opacity of Peyer's patches,  and of
the solitary glands in the lower part of the small intestine;  in the
large intestine, a similar development of the mucous follicles, the
mouths of which were often widely open,  and sometimes marked by
a black point.
   "5. A shrivelled condition of the spleen with deficiency of blood.
   "6. A completely contracted and empty  state of the urinary
bladder, the mucous surface of which was smeared with a thickish,
creamy  secretion,  sometimes  abundant,  sometimes moderate in
amount.
   "7. The  mucous surface of the vagina  was smeared with a some-
what similar secretion, but thicker and less opaque than that in the
bladder;  rather like thick starch in consistency and aspect."
   In the blood, the  coagulum was  generally remarkably deficient
in quantity, or consistency,  or both;  but  not by any means univer-
sally so.  The consistency of the fluid part varied considerably; in
fifteen cases, it was more or less thick and tarry, either throughout
the  system or in particular situations,  often varying  in different
vessels in the same subject.  In  fourteen cases, ecchymoses were
observed, mostly beneath the endocardium  or  pericardium,  occa-
sionally  in  the  parenchyma of the  lungs, on  the  surface of the
kidney, or between the lobules of the pancreas.
   The brain was almost universally natural.   Moderate serous effu-
sion in the  meningeal cavities and the ventricles was often  found.
In fifteen cases, a quantity of dark, thick, bloody fluid was found in
the arachnoid cavity, over the posterior part of the  convexities of
the hemispheres, just sufficient to besmear the arachnoid surfaces,
the arachnoid  itself remaining at the same time quite natural.  This
blood probably transuded after death.
  The heart and lungs seldom showed marks of any great conges-
tion ; the right cavities of the heart were seldom distended.
  The contents of the alimentary canal were various—"thick, thin, 
2ti
REPORT OF THE
gruelly, gray, yellow, yellowish-white, pink, reddish, or puriform"—
sometimes like soap and water, or thickish and dull red, or like rice-
water.  Albumen  and the colouring matter of bile were  often pre-
sent.   The  flocculi of the  "rice-water"  fluids, examined  by the
microscope,  were seen to contain columnar  epithelium, in masses or
detached cells, which constituted nineteen-twentieths of their mass.
  The internal  surface of the stomach and intestines was almost
always pale  or natural in colour.  There was never general redness.
The villi were almost always unusually distinct, appearing tumefied,
and whitish  opaque.  Bile was almost always present in the gall-
bladder.
  The kidneys were not remarkably altered, often flaccid, without
their usual odour, and in three cases presenting, when cut,  a pecu-
liar smell, somewhat like that of molasses.
  There was no constant relation between the state of  the heart,
fluidity of the blood, and duration of the disease.  Toward the close
of the epidemic, the coagula were less abundant and firm, and ecchy-
moses on the heart were more  rare than in  the earlier periods.
  Rigor mortis, and post-mortem contractions, existed in every fatal
case.
  The College of Physicians of Philadelphia appointed a committee
to examine  the  condition of the  intestines in cholera.  This com-
mittee felt that ordinary examinations, by the eye alone, had yielded
no satisfactory information.  They determined "that the intestines,
before being submitted to examination, should be finely injected, and
subsequently inspected  with the microscope."  This was done by
Dr. John Neill.  He employed turpentine  coloured with vermilion.
The committee observed the development of  the Peyerian and soli-
tary glands, and dryness of  the peritoneum and other serous mem-
branes, which have already been noticed.   Among their additional
results are  the  following.   The  epithelial layer of  the  intestinal
mucous membrane was, in all the specimens, either entirely removed,
or was  detached,  adhering  loosely  as a  pulpy layer, mixed with
mucus, or an albuminoid substance.   The  villi were denuded of the
epithelial covering, but unchanged in other respects.    The capillary
vessels were entire and  normal.   In no  instance was a vesicular
eruption observed.
  The question arose, after this committee had presented its report,
whether  this removal of the epithelium were characteristic of the
disease, and whether it did not depend merely on maceration in the
profuse liquids after death, as  suggested by Dr. Gairdner of Edin- 
COMMITTEE ON MEDICAL SCIENCES.          27
burgh.  Among the reasons which might be urged against this latter
belief, the following, suggested in the Boston Report, is worth in-
serting here.  "The mucous surfaces of the vagina and of the uri-
nary bladder are invariably smeared with a thick, whitish, pasty, or
creamish secretion, which,  on  microscopic examination, is  seen  to
consist entirely of detached epithelium cells, mostly perfect in shape,
and  generally distinctly  nucleated.  But these passages have not
been subjected to maceration.  The urinary bladder, indeed, is com-
pletely empty."
   The committee of the College of Physicians  was continued, and
requested to examine the same mucous membrane in other  diseases
besides cholera,  for the purpose of comparison.*

   Serous Effusion in  the Cavity of the Arachnoid.—Dr. Austin
Flint has contributed very valuable  observations on " Serous Effu-
sion within the Arachnoid Cavity."   This affection has received but
little notice for some  years past,  attention having been  more fixed
upon effusions in the ventricles  of  the  brain.  As autopsies are
usually conducted,  it  is  easily overlooked.  The precautions to  be
observed  are these:  not to divide the dura mater with the head
dependent, but somewhat  elevated;  to remove the  brain from  the
cranium  before section of its substance, and without rupture of the
investing arachnoid, allowing the  sub-arachnoidean fluid to escape,
and to remove it quickly after severing its connection with the me-
dulla spinalis, endeavouring to estimate the  quantity of blood and
serum which escapes from the divided extremities.   It is best to
remove all  above the tentorium  before dividing  this latter mem-
brane, and afterward to remove the  cerebellum.  The fluid in  the
cavity of the arachnoid will be found at  the base of the  skull, and
within the spinal canal.   When morbid, its quantity may vary from
half an ounce to six or more ounces; it may be translucent, made
more or less opaque by the  mixture of fibrin; or bloody from hemor-
rhage, or by the escape of blood from vessels divided  during  the
examination.
   This fluid during life will settle toward the spine, and first cause
pressure on the medulla oblongata, producing early derangement of
respiration  and  deglutition.  Cases  are  quoted where these symp-
toms co-existed with effusion of blood in  the  neighbourhood of the
medulla oblongata, and in some of which death evidently began  by

    » Transactions of Coll. of Physicians of Philadelphia, Dec. 4, 1849, page 35. 
28
REPORT OF  THE
the failure of respiration, the heart continuing to act after breathing
had ceased.  Dr.  Flint  relates twelve  observations of  his  own.
Eleven of them were examined after death, and serous effusion was
found in the arachnoid.   In nearly every instance where the symp-
toms were known, respiration had been deranged, being "laboured,'
"hurried,"  ''stertorous," "accelerated,"  "irregular," &c.
  The propositions which we give below in  a condensed form arc
considered by Dr. Flint as sufficiently sustained to  deserve investi-
gation.
  Effusion in the arachnoid cavity, at the base of the brain, is liable
to  occur  as an incident in the course of various affections, being
immediately produced by cerebral congestion, and without premoni-
tory symptoms from which we can predict it.
  It is  not an unfrequent cause  of sudden deaths, such  as are
ascribed  to cerebral congestion,  or effusion within the ventricles.
  It produces death by apncea, from pressure on the medulla oblon-
gata.
  Among the  means  of distinguishing  this  affection are these:
" Somnolency,  or coma,  without  paralysis,  not  preceded  by the
symptoms of meningitis;  disordered respiration;  deglutition lost  or
impaired: intellect not disordered, if the patient is susceptible  of
being roused;  forces carrying on the circulation not affected in pro-
portion to the disturbance of respiration and deglutition; the sudden
development of grave cerebral trouble, and rapid tendency to a fatal
result by apnoea."
  The gravity of the symptoms, the danger, and  the suddenness of
death will depend  on the  rapidity of effusion, as well  as on the
amount of fluid.
  Insolation, or sun-stroke, when fatal, probably  produces this effu-
sion.
  The presence of fluid in  the arachnoid cavity, producing grave
symptoms by compressing the medulla oblongata, is almost necessa-
rily fatal;  and it is doubtful if much can be  expected from treat-
ment.*

  Neio form  of Cerebral  Disease.—Dr. L.  V. Bell, the skilful
Superintendent of the McLean Hospital for the Insane, at Soiner-
ville, Mass., has described a form of cerebral disease often witnessed
in hospitals for  the insane, which,  though  generally passing for

  *  For the details of these very interesting cases, see Buffalo Medical Journal  for
April, 1850, vol. v. page 633; also for May, 1849, vol. iv. page 744. 
             COMMITTEE ON MEDICAL  SCIENCES.           29

acute mania, really  differs from that and  every other affection of
the brain, and may be easily recognized after being once  noticed.
It is marked by the  following peculiarities:  It attacks abruptly,
and generally within a week compels a resort to  the hospital.  The
want of sleep has then become extremely urgent.  There are  no
signs of undue arterial action in  the pulse.   The delirium is sus-
pended for a moment or two by  an effort of attention.   There is a
loss of appetite and  loathing of food, accompanied with the idea of
its being poisoned or filthy.   The  hallucinations are characterized
by an indefinite sensation of distress and horror, and the patient is
not easily soothed by management, as in  other  cerebral affections.
Although resembling at first  sight  the advanced stages of typhoid
fever, especially in  its delirium, it  has  none  of the characteristic
external marks of this  disease.  It is for  the most part fatal, and
runs its course, whether to death or recovery, in three or four weeks.
It differs from mania in the following particulars.   The mental dis-
turbance is rather the delirium of bodily disease  than of mania.
The loss of appetite, want of sleep, and especially the sudden loss of
strength, are seldom witnessed together  in mania.   The rapidity of
its course, too, may be considered as a  diagnostic symptom.  It is
distinguished from  delirium tremens  by the absence of the cause;
by the  character of the hallucinations, which are indefinite impres-
sions of personal danger and sinfulness, rather than serpents, devils,
sheriffs, vermin, &c.;  by the absence  of  the pathognomonic per-
spiration of delirium  tremens;  and by the fact that the latter is
limited to eight or ten days, generally terminating in recovery after
a long  and refreshing slumber.  From  meningeal inflammation it
differs, in wanting the pulse of inflammation, in the absence of pain
in the  head, of intolerance of  light, and  of high raving delirium,
all which are usually present in meningitis.  The only treatment
which seems to promise  relief, consists in opium, and  the alcoholic
and diffusible stimuli, liberally used.*

  Etherization  in  Insanity.—Ether was  administered  to sixteen
patients in  the Utica Asylum, in 1847, with no very definite result.
A few  were highly excited by  it; several seemed intoxicated, and
said they felt as if drunk; one rested remarkably  well the next night;
two experienced no  effect of any kind from it; some were decidedly
improved by it, were "more  active,  cheerful, and sociable."   Dr.
* American Journal of Insanity, October, 1849. 
30
REPORT OF THE
Ray, the accomplished Superintendent  of the  Butler Hospital, Pro-
vidence, R. I., has administered it in  about a dozen  cases, chiefly
recent, and all characterized  by considerable excitement.  Usually
the effect was only a temporary diminution of the excitement,   in
one case, it  disposed  the  patient  to take food,  which she resisted
before, and thus prevented  the  necessity of using the tube.   I"
another, with suicidal and homicidal disposition, accompanied with
great restlessness and vigilance, it was  given every night at bedtime
for about three weeks, with the effect  always of procuring a quiet
night.*
   The experience of  Dr. Bell, at the McLean Hospital, varies very
little from the above.

   Causes  of Idiocy.—The Committee  have been favoured with  a
communication from Mr. J. B. Richards, Principal of the School for
Teaching and Training Idiots at South Boston,  Massachusetts.   It
furnishes an account of the causes of idiocy, as illustrated by the in-
vestigations recently made under the auspices of that State.   Out of
403 cases of idiocy, 302 were congenital;  a fact which  throws the
responsibility of the existence of three-fourths of the cases directly
on the parents.   "And  may we not inquire, with a great deal of
emphasis, would not  the condition of the remaining 101 have been
greatly modified  had  their parents  observed the laws of health, as
every parent should  do who  takes the responsibility of bringing a
human being into existence?"
   Believing that idiocy results in a great  measure from a low con-
dition of the parents' vital  forces, Mr. Richards enumerates  the
following  agents which  produce  this  condition; alcoholic drinks,
licentiousness in all  its  forms,  gluttony, exhaustion  by too great
mental or physical labour, weakness resulting from the want of  suf-
ficient mental or bodily exercise, low and insufficient diet, unhealthy
occupations.
   The following table contains important details, though the assumed
connection between the idiocy and many of the circumstances named
as causes must be very uncertain.
* Communicated by Dr. I. Ray. 
COMMITTEE ON MEDICAL SCIENCES.
31
      Cases of Idiocy resulting from but one perceptible cause.

                   FIRST.—CONGENITAL IDIOCY.

One or both parents intemperate  ....
               "    simpletons    ....
     "         "    puny   .....
               "    scrofulous    ....
     "         "    related by blood   .
               "    debilitated by previous licentiousness
Mother attempted abortion  .....
   "    frightened during gestation
   "    insane     .......
22
26
61
15
 2
 5
 4
 2
175
                SECOND.--IDIOCY NOT CONGENITAL.

By his or her own intemperance
 "     "     "    self-pollution
 " epilepsy  .     .     .     .     .
 " fever     .....
 " blow on the head
 " violence at parturition
 " dosing with laudanum for several years
 " violent strangulation
 " derangement of catamenia
Insanity, supervened  idiocy  .
Measles      .....
Head stuped in hot rum, by a nurse, when three days old
35
20
 3
 4
 3
 3
 2
 1
 6
 1
 1

87
  Cases of Idiocy resulting from more than one perceptible cause.

                   FIRST.—CONGENITAL IDIOCY.

One or both parents intemperate and idiotic  ....   8
                                    scrofulous   .     .     .25
                                    related                    1
                                    mother attempted abortion   1
                                    related and idiotic      .   1
                                    licentious    ...   4
                   "simpletons, scrofulous, and lived on low diet   1
                       "      and mother a prostitute .     .   1 
32
REPORT OF THE
One or both parents puny, and relations insane or idiotic       •    *
               "   scrofulous and relations insane
     u         "       "         mother attempted abortion     1
Parents related by blood  and idiotic     ....••
       "             "      scrofulous      .
       "             "           "     and intemperate      •    "
       "             "      mother frightened during gestation    1
Mother a prostitute and father married to cure masturbation  .    1
                                                               71

Cases of congenital idiocy; cause not known .
    "    idiocy not congenital;  cause  not known
  Neo-macropia.—Professor C. Dewey describes a kind of abnormal
vision which had hitherto been unnoticed.   It  does not consist m
being near-sighted or far-sighted.  Near and small objects, or larger
distant objects, are not seen with distinctness.   This defect occurs
in children and  young  persons, and  is remedied by convex specta-
cles, which  are suited to  the  eyes of persons  from  sixty-five to
seventy years of age.   At  the  age of forty-five or more, it is much
diminished.   The causes of this peculiar kind of vision  may be, 1st.
Too little convexity of the crystalline  lens.  2d. Its  position too
near the retina.   3d.  Its too little density.   Professor D. regards
the second as the probable cause.  More than fifty cases have fallen
under his notice, during the past five or six years, in New England
and New York.f

  Spontaneous Hydrophobia.—A case of spontaneous  hydrophobia
is reported by Dr. Condie.   A man, aged 35, of temperate habits,
who could recollect no severe sickness except  a short convulsive
paroxysm several years ago, was attacked, on the morning of August
28th, with stiffness along the left side of the neck, and a sense of
numbness in the arm of that side, which did not yield to appropri-
ate treatment.   It was followed by pain extending from the occiput
along the left side of the neck and body, thirst, a sense of  suffoca-

  *  Most of the facts in these tables I have been able to gather from some >' field notes,"
made by Mr. Enos Stevens, for the commissioners appointed by the governor and coun-
cil of this State, in the winter of 1846, "to inquire into the condition of the idiots of the
commonwealth."                                             •*• "• "■■
  f Silliman's Journal.
56
14
70* 
COMMITTEE ON  MEDICAL SCIENCES.
33
tion, and convulsions on attempting to drink, and next day the fully
developed  symptoms of  hydrophobia.   "He declared that he had
never  been bitten by a dog, nor had  for the last  eighteen years
received any wound or  contusion.  Upon a minute examination of
his body, no cicatrix could be discovered."  He died on the morn-
ing of the 30th.  No autopsy could be had.   "It was unquestion-
ably a case of spontaneous hydrophobia," says Dr. Condie.

   Angina Pectoris.—Dr.  S. Kneeland, of Boston, has contributed
an able  monograph on  the  subject of  angina pectoris.   It brings
the late physiological researches of Longet, Reid, and other eminent
European observers to bear on the question of the pathology of this
disease;  and  by a  careful and thorough  investigation  establishes
these propositions:—
   " 1. From the symptoms and morbid appearances, angina pectoris
is not a disease of the lungs, heart, and its vessels, or stomach; but
an affection of the nerves supplying these organs.
   " 2. Anatomy, physiology, and pathology would lead  us to place
the seat  of angina pectoris in the par vagum, and not in  the sympa-
thetic system of nerves.
   " 3. Like other nerves, the par vagum may be affected with neu-
ralgia and rheumatism; with inflammation; it may be compressed by
morbid growths; its spinal origin  may be compromised  by hemor-
rhage, accidental wounds, and various irritations, all of  which may
cause the symptoms of angina pectoris.
   " 4. Angina pectoris and asthma are intimately related;  the former
being an affection  more  especially of the  sensitive filaments of the
par vagum, and the latter an affection of its motor filaments.   Both
are generally more or less combined in the same case.
   "5.  Angina pectoris  is a disease not  necessarily fatal, especially
in young persons, if accurately diagnosticated and properly treated.
   "6.  In addition to the  remedies of the books, special attention
should be given to the inhalation of oxygen, and to the use of elec-
tricity.
   "7.  In cases of angina pectoris, attention should be directed to
the examination of the par vagum, from its origin to its terminations,
which, doubtless, on careful  examination, will exhibit lesions suffi-
cient to account for a fatal result."*

          * American Journal of Medical Sciences, Jan. 1850, p. 43
    3 
34
REPORT OF THE
   Cerebral Symptoms in Heart-Disease.—It is  well  known that
several  English writers have, within thirty years past, pointed out
the occasional connection of acute  cerebral symptoms with lesions
confined to  the heart or pericardium, and the error  in  diagnosis
which has frequently been made during life.  Dr. Flint relates a
case of  pleuro-pneumonia complicated  with pericarditis, masked
by delirium, which is interesting in this  connection.  The cerebral
symptoms appeared earliest; the pulmonary disease, when its exist-
ence was ascertained, was very naturally considered as secondary;
and the cardiac disease was masked.   The report is followed by very
acute and candid remarks, suggesting the practical importance of
correct  discrimination in  these  deceitful cases,  and of  physical
exploration  of the thorax,  even though  there are  no pulmonary
symptoms.*
  Dr. D. J.  C. Cain has invited attention to another connection
between cerebral and cardiac  disease.   He refers to  eight cases
before published,  and adds one observed by himself.   In all, there
were repeated attacks  resembling apoplexy or  syncope, without
paralysis, with the pulse permanently slow, but becoming still slower
after each attack.   In Dr. Cain's  case, the pulse was thirty-four,
and for  a day or  two, after each fit, as low as twenty-eight.   The
anatomical lesions were  such as to impede the action of the heart,
and prevent  the  brain from receiving a due supply of blood—for
instance, atrophy or degeneration of the heart, patency of the aortic
valves, and, in Dr. Cain's observation, compression of the heart and
great vessels by three and a half pints of fluid effused  in the peri-
cardium, with softening of the ventricular walls.
  Dr. Stokes ascribes some influence in  producing these symptoms
to congestion of the brain, either from increased impulse  or mechan-
ical obstruction to the return of blood.   Dr. Cain argues, very con-
clusively, we  think, for  the view named  in the above paragraph—
from the feeble appearance of the patients, the feeble action of the
heart; from  the absence of characteristic apoplectic symptoms, the
short duration and frequency  of the attacks, the good effects of  a
recumbent position and of stimulants, and the inconstant and slight
marks of congestion found on examination after death.   One patient
of Dr. Stokes' warded off attacks,  on two occasions, by a peculiar
manoeuvre:  "As  soon as he perceives symptoms of an approaching
attack,  he directly turns on his hands and knees, keeping his head
• Buffalo Medical Journal, Feb. 1850, page 505. 
COMMITTEE ON MEDICAL  SCIENCES.           35
low, and by this means often averts what would otherwise end in an
attack."   The  inference can hardly be avoided  that these attacks
are analogous to syncope, and prove fatal by the heart's failing at
last to resume its action after its momentary suspension.*

   Causes of Pulmonary Consumption.—Pulmonary consumption is
by far the most fatal disease in the United States, producing about
one-sixth or one-seventh  of the  deaths in the large cities along the
Atlantic, from which alone we  have any very reliable returns.  It
has been regarded too much  as a disease intimately connected with
certain climates; and its  dependence on bad modes of living, defect-
ive nourishment, confined  air, &c, has been too little recognized.
In a discussion  in  the  College of Physicians at  Philadelphia, Dr.
Condie remarked that,  " since  more attention has been paid than
was formerly done to the collection of correct statistics, consumption
has been shown to  be  the disease rather  of civilized life than of
locality or climate."  Besides  hereditary  influence,  he  names, as
causes  of this  disease,  "long-continued  sedentary occupations, in-
door confinement, particularly in narrow,  ill-ventilated apartments,
insufficient nutriment, close mental occupation, unbroken by relaxa-
tion and active exercise, anxiety of mind."   When the great fre-
quency and almost uniformly fatal  course of this disease are duly
considered, it must be  acknowledged highly important  that  physi-
cians understand correctly  its causes.  Especially ought the fact to
be borne in mind that its causes are not inseparably associated with
the temperate climates, but  may be more or less completely con-
trolled by  prudence, philanthropy, and science.
   Dr. Riofrey,  of Paris,  author of a work on the curability of con-
sumption,  agreed with Dr. Condie  as to the importance of  hygienic
treatment, compared with  any medicine.f   At  a meeting of  the
National Institute, Dr. Riofrey mentioned that he considered a high
northern or southern latitude alike favourable in cases of predisposi-
tion to this disease.  He named the American coast, from lat. 55°
north to 17°  south, as  consumptive latitudes.   Several  facts were
alluded to, which appear to confirm the belief that a moist air  tends
to lessen the  liability to consumption.

  Intestinal Auscultation.—Professor C. Hooker, of Yale  College,
has published an essay on Intestinal  Auscultation, founded on more

    • Charleston Medical Journal  and Review, May, 1849, page 271.
    f Transactions of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, Nov. 20,1849. 
36
REPORT OF  THE
than  twenty years' attention  to  the subject.  The loud sounds of
rolling liquids  in  the  bowels in Asiatic  cholera were  noticed in a
published article  by Dr.  Hooker, in  1S33.  These  sounds were
noticed during  the past year by many who had not seen this article.
This  commotion was increased by stimulants and  astringents, and
by opium given in doses not large enough to cause alarming pros-
tration.  Frequent small doses of camphor, with the free use of ice,
moderated it.   A  single drachm  dose  of calomel almost invariably
caused a total suspension of these movements, producing intestinal
silence and  repose, usually for eight to twelve  hours,  followed by
natural peristaltic murmur  and grass-green evacuations.
  Cholera morbus is usually  attended with quick,  irregular, peris-
taltic, and anti-peristaltic motions, marked by sounds different from
those of  Asiatic cholera.   The differences of sound are of  course
not so easily described in words as appreciated by the ear.
  Common colic has an incipient, forming stage, during which the
physician is not  often consulted, but which may be  recognized.
There is  general languor, often some depression and chilliness, and
numb, heavy, or cold feeling in the abdomen.  Now this important
stage may be known by the utter absence of peristaltic murmur in
the small intestines; a  little rumbling being heard perhaps from the
large intestine.   During the violent symptoms, peristaltic motion is
still  suspended.  Anti-peristaltic  sounds, or some  sound from the
pressure  of the  abdominal parietes producing momentary movement,
maybe heard, but very transiently.   But true peristaltic movement,
producing a continuous murmur, is a  sign of approaching relief.   In
lead-colic, the suspension is longer continued, and yields not all at
once, by  a sudden crisis.
  These  signs may aid us in prognosis, and in determining whether
medicines are required in cases of colic, diarrhoea, &c.  They may
forewarn the physician of  the approach of an attack, before the
patient is apprised by  any  decided symptoms, as the physical signs
in thoracic diseases sometimes enable us to foretell  an affection that
does not  yet reveal itself by rational signs.*
  Dr. Breed, of the Cambridge Laboratory, with a view to ascertain
the influence of evaporation  and pressure  upon the formation  of
blisters, made a series  of experiments with plasters of  cantharides,
with hot  water and steam, of which the following may be  recorded:—
  1st. Two  fingers were held  in  boiling water about three seconds.

         • Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, July, 1849, page 409. 
COMMITTEE ON MEDICAL SCIENCES.          37
One was immediately dressed with oil (oleum olivse), and the other
left exposed  to  the air.   On  retiring five hours after, there being
but little soreness, the dressing was removed, under the belief that
there would be no blister.   In the following morning, however, both
fingers were blistered over the entire scalded surface, and they were
equally sore.
   2d. With the intention of quickly producing a blister, two fingers
were held in water at 212°, during fifteen seconds.  The water was
then  cooled  by adding cold water, that the fingers might be kept
immersed.   One finger was covered, while yet in the water, with oil
and cotton, and well wrapped.   The  other was withdrawn from the
water without dressing,  and  exposed  to  the  atmosphere.   After
several hours, a blister filled on each finger; first, however, on the
one which  was dressed.
   3d. Two fingers were exposed to water at 212° during ten seconds.
One was immediately put in a caoutchouc bag filled with water, and
the other was left exposed ten  hours, and then slightly wrapped in
linen.   In five  hours, the exposed finger was blistered along and
within the margin of the part scalded.   On the central portion of
the affected part no  blister rose.  In eight hours, a blister rose on
the other  finger  large enough to be  distinctly  felt through the
caoutchouc.   After  thirty hours the  bag was removed, revealing  a
blister, as thick as the finger itself, over the entire scalded surface.
The skin not scalded, and yet covered by the caoutchouc, was much
corrugated and  white.   An hour after the  scalding  in  this case,
upon drinking freely, the pain  in the fingers was greatly increased.
   4th. Two places on the arm were exposed to steam at 212°, one
three and the other ten seconds.   The former was merely covered
by the ordinary clothing, and  to the latter was applied a linen com-
press and  a  tight bandage.  The  spot to which no  pressure was
applied soon blistered and became very sore.   Upon the other, the
pressure was continued  sixty-nine hours with removal every twelve
hours for examination.   In this place,  there was no blister and but
little soreness after six hours.  The part remained white  from the
first until the cuticle began to dry and become dark coloured.
   5th. A good blister  plaster (emplastrum cantharidis) was  placed
upon the arm, covered by a large, wet poultice, and a bandage applied
over these so  as  to produce considerable pressure.  No blister was
produced in  twenty hours, but on  removing the poultice  a  blister
quickly filled.
   6th. Emplastrum  cantharidis was applied to the  side and more 
38
REPORT OF THE
tender part of the finger, and a  caoutchouc bag filled with water,
then  drawn over  the finger so as  to  exclude  the air  and prevent
Cutaneous  evaporation.    After  forty-nine hours the finger  was
examined,  but there was  no blister.   Washing  the  finger, it  was
again placed in the bag of water for twenty-six hours.  At the end
of these seventy-five hours,  the dressing was finally removed.  No
blistering was produced, but there was slight soreness twelve hours
after  the water was removed.
   7th. A blister plaster was applied to the side of the finger  and
covered with caoutchouc,  making  some pressure.  In twenty hours
there was considerable soreness, but, at the end of fifty-three hours,
the removal of the  plaster showed  no  blister.  Hastily  washing
the part, the bandage was reapplied and allowed to remain forty-eight
hours longer, with removal every twelve hours, to examine and wash
the finger.  No blister was produced.
   The conclusions derived from these  experiments are:—
   1st. That evaporation  is  not  essential to the formation  of  a
blister.
   2d.  That a certain degree of pressure will prevent the formation
of a blister.*
   Do all these causes act to  separate the cuticle from the true skin ?
Upon the separation the serum is poured out, filling and distending
the cavity  and forming a  blister.
   The following inquiries have suggested themselves.
   Does a proper degree of pressure prevent the formation of blisters
by preventing the effusion of serum?
   Does oil, when rubbed  on the locality of a scald or burn, retard
or prevent a blister by its being absorbed, and as oil and  water will
not unite, thus opposing the flow of serum ?
   Does cold water, by contracting  the minute vessels, obstruct the
flow of serum?
   Do cold  water, ether and  turpentine relieve  pain by so reducing
the temperature that  the  chemical  decompositions incident to the
burn, and which are concomitants of the pain, are arrested ?
   May the cold water when  taken in by endosmosis, aid  to restore
the injured part by  dissolving, and  thereby promoting  the  absorp-
tion and removal of  the destroyed organism ?f

  * Blisters may be produced by pressure and friction, such as takes place in pumping
with hands unaccustomed to this kind of labour, by sudden extreme cold, as with solid car-
bonic acid, or  intensely cold metal, or heat, in a great variety of ways, from either solids,
liquids, or vapours, and by rapid evaporation according to Liebig.
  f Communicated through Dr. John B. S. Jackson. 
COMMITTEE ON MEDICAL SCIENCES.
39
   Urinary Calculi.—Professor  Peter, of Transylvania University,
has formerly published valuable observations  on the chemical cha-
racters of urinary calculi.   During the past year, he has published
analyses of calculi recently removed by lithotomy from seven different
patients.  In two calculi, the nucleus was mainly oxalate of lime,
surrounded by the phosphates of lime, magnesia, and ammonia;  in
one, oxalate  of lime, covered with a  thin  coating of earthy phos-
phates.   In two single  calculi, and two pairs (coming each  from a
single person), the nuclei were mainly urate of ammonia, containing
in each case, except in one pair, some  oxalate of lime, either mingled
or imbedded with the deposit which formed the nucleus; the exterior
contained oxalate of lime, and earthy phosphates.
   Professor  Peter's former  article in the Western Lancet gives a
view of the composition of calculi in  the  large  collection of Tran-
sylvania University, compared with  that  of  several contained  in
European collections.   " The peculiarities of the Lexington collec-
tion,  as compared with the others whose history  we have been able
to learn, are as follows:—

                    A. As it regards the nuclei.

   "1. A great deficiency in the proportion of pure uric acid.
   " 2. A great excess in the proportion of nuclei of urate of ammonia,
and of  the earthy phosphates.

              b. In  relation to the general composition.

   "The same peculiarities pointed out in regard to the nuclei, with
the additional one,
   " 3. An excess in  the proportion of the mulberry,  or oxalate of lime
calculus."
   There was but one case of pure uric acid calculus from the blue
limestone region, where  the water is strongly impregnated with
carbonate of lime.
   The  newly-reported  analyses are  cited as confirming former  re-
searches  as to the chemical character of urinary concretions in  the
great blue limestone district.
 3 Urate  of ammonia is often found deposited  even in  the tubuli
uriniferi of  new-born  children.  It is  soluble  in about 480 parts
of cold  water, and  still more  freely in  hot  water, and  can only
be deposited when the urine contains less than  its normal quantity
of water, in proportion  to  the salts.  When deposited, it  forms a 
40
REPORT OF  TnE
nucleus, round  which an  impermeable  coating  is easily formed ot
oxalate of lime, or the earthy phosphates, preventing its solution in
the urine.  The free use of pure water, and watery, succulent food,
is  recommended as a preventive of this disease, as well as of  gout,
and other affections in which there is too much saline matter in the
animal fluids.*
  Dr. J. Neill has reported an  interesting case of renal calculi, in
a girl twelve years old.  The calculi were composed of phosphate ot
lime, were extensively branched, occupying the pelvis and infundi-
bula of  the kidneys, white, shining, and crystalline in appearance.
They weigh five hundred and ten grains.  The organs were enlarged,
their  cavities distended  with albuminous and puriform liquid; and
their  parenchyma so thinned and altered that the glandular struc-
ture could not  be well distinguished.   The child had suffered from
incontinence of urine for three years or more; her urine  had been
albuminous ; she had been thin  and pallid.  Before  death, she had
several attacks resembling fits  of gravel, but was running about the
second day before she died.f
  A paper of much surgical interest, by Dr.  J. Mason Warren, of
Boston, mentions the composition of calculi in six cases  which oc-
curred in his  practice.   Two consisted mostly  of oxalate of lime;
in one, combined with uric acid, and a small quantity of  carbonate
of lime; in  one,  surrounded by the triple phosphate, in sharp and
glittering crystals.  Three would appear to have been composed of
phosphates.   We  are left to  suppose  that the above-named cases
originated in or about Boston.   One patient was from Montgomery
county, New York.  He had a calculus of very rare kind,  consisting
of cystic oxide, intersected by layers containing phosphates.%
  In  the Museum of the Boston Society for Medical Improvement,
there are twenty-two specimens of urinary  deposits from different
human beings, whose composition  is  named in the very valuable
"Descriptive Catalogue."   Most or  all  these  patients  appear to
have been residents of New England, three specimens furnished by
Dr. Flint, of Kentucky, being  not  counted.  Their composition in
the main was as follows:  Of uric acid, five, in one surrounded by
thin layers  of oxalate  of lime, and the mixed  phosphates.  Uric
acid and the  urates, three.   Urate of ammonia, one.  •  Uric acid
nucleus and mixed phosphates, two.   Urate of ammonia and mixed

         * Transylvania Medical Journal, Dec. 1849, and Feb. 1850.
         f American Journal of Medical Sciences, July, 1849, page 120.
         J Ibid., page 47. 
COMMITTEE ON MEDICAL SCIENCES.           41
phosphates, one.   Nucleus of urate of ammonia and uric acid, sur-
rounded by mixed phosphates, one.  Uric acid and urates of potash
and ammonia, with mixed phosphates, uric acid being in excess in
the  nucleus, one.  Urate of ammonia  and  oxalate of  lime,  one.
Phosphate of lime, two;  being partially covered in one by a brown
crust of xanthic  oxide.  Mixed phosphates, two.  Oxalate of lime,
two; in one having a thin, uniform coating of uric  acid.  Oxalate
of lime nucleus, surrounded by mixed phosphates, one.
  Besides the above  twenty-two, there are  in the same museum
three calculi presented by Dr. Joshua B. Flint, of Louisville, Ken-
tucky.   All contain phosphate of lime;  combined in two with uric
acid, urates,  and animal matter, in the third, with  one-tenth of
carbonate of lime.
  We would beg  leave to commend to  our  successors this inquiry
into the connection of different urinary deposits, with the geological
characters  of different parts of  our land.   No  civilized country
offers so wide a  field for such comparative  research.   No body of
medical men could so appropriately undertake it.

                        VITAL STATISTICS.

   Causes of Mortality in  Children of the two Sexes.—It is  well
known that the number  of male children at birth considerably ex-
ceeds that of  female children.  But this preponderance of males is
soon lost by reason of their greater mortality; so that  the  numbers
of the two sexes living at the age  of ten years are very nearly equal;
and at  the fifteenth year the living females outnumber the males
about as much as the males did the females at birth.
  The greater mortality of boys has been attributed to their greater
exposure, and more hazardous sports and employments.  But it ap-
pears that the greatest excess in the male deaths occurs in  the very
early months of infancy, before any material change has taken place
in the exposure of the sexes to external circumstances.  In  older
children, the greater risks of boys  in climbing, swimming, &c, are
nearly,  if not  quite,  counterbalanced by the greater exposure of
girls to  burns and scalds.
  If the  particular diseases which prove fatal to  children be  exa-
mined, it will be found that those of males are inflammatory affec-
tions of the organs of respiration, circulation, and nutrition, but
more especially inflammations of the brain  and appendages,  with
the ordinary consequences, serous effusions and  convulsions. 
42                      REPORT OF THE
  On the other hand, the principal diseases of which female  chil-
dren die in greatest proportion are hooping-cough, small-pox, scarlet
fever, measles,  thrush, and consumption.   Thus, the diseases  most
fatal to male children appertain to  the sthenic class, and are those
usually characterized in their incipient stages by excessive  inflam-
matory action,  prone to attack subjects in whom the energies of life
are most highly developed;  while the diseases to which  female
children succumb  in  largest proportion are allied to the  asthenic
class, being most liable to prove fatal where  the forces of organic
life are  comparatively feeble, and  having  their seats mostly in the
mucous and cutaneous tissues.
  In connection with this view of the subject, it may not be deemed
improper to mention some of the fatal diseases of male  and female
children under five years, in a large mass of European reports, and
their relative proportions in each sex.
                                                Males.     Females.
Inflammation of the brain     ....    328      281
Convulsions ......	. 2550	2081
Dropsy of the brain ....	. 1481	1151
Inflammation of the lungs Croup ....... Inflammation of the stomach and bowels .	. 2659 . 343 . 489	2411 303 376
  In these diseases, there was a  greater  or  less preponderance in
the male mortality.  On the other hand, some of the diseases  most
fatal to female children were the  following :—
	Males.	Females.
Hooping-cough .....	1115	1445
Small-pox ......	232	240
Consumption of the lungs	967	920
Thrush.......	208	206
Measles .......	1048	1020
  The number of female deaths from the three last diseases is not
quite so great as that among males.   But it  is decidedly greater in
proportion to the number of girls living under five years of age.
  These statistical results,  while they correct the common error of
ascribing the excessive mortality of  male children to their greater
exposure to casualties,  the weather, &c, show that the main cause
is to be sought for in sexual differences of organization, each sex
beino-  endowed with  peculiar physical characteristics, which tend,
even at this early age, to develop certain diseases and determine 
COMMITTEE ON MEDICAL  SCIENCES.          43
 their results.   These facts, beside  being curious, suggest hints as
 to the medical treatment  of children.  The prominent fact that
 boys are more prone  to  succumb to diseases of high inflammatory
 action must surely demand more particular attention to discrimina-
 tion m the treatment of their diseases, and  the  adoption of more
 prompt and energetic measures  for reducing these exalted actions
 which tend to disorganization and death.
    On the other hand, with patients  of the female sex, even in in-
 fancy, increased caution should be observed to guard against  the
 effects of debility, and  provide  timely support to the more feeble
 resources of the female system.

    Influences operating to Change  the  Number of Births, and also
 the Proportion of the Sexes at Birth.—1.  The seasons.  The follow-
 ing general results  relative to this  point were  obtained from esti-
 mates based  upon  65,542 births in Philadelphia.  The greatest
 number of conceptions occurred during the winter and spring months,
 the maximum being 17,645  in  the spring months.  The smallest
 number occurred in the summer and autumn  months, the minimum
 being 15,200 in the summer quarter.
    The greatest excess of male conceptions is shown in the winter
 season, when, the total being  17,184, the males were 9,007, and the
 females 8,177.  The excess of male conceptions for the other three
 quarters or seasons varies but little from the minimum excess, which
 occurs in spring.
   2. The  plenty or deficiency of food, purity  or  impurity of the
 air, overworking, and whatever tends to exalt or to impair the vital
 energies of the people.  In many parts of Europe, where the general
 population is overworked and  under-fed, the excess of male births is
 very small; being throughout France and  Prussia under 6 per cent.,
 and in England about 5 per cent.  In Philadelphia, where the general
 condition of the population is very favourable, the male births exceed
 the female about 7 per cent.   In the rural districts of the United
 States, and especially in the newest settlements, the preponderance
 of boys at birth is believed  to be not less than 10 per cent.   An
 opposite result is found when fatal epidemics  alarm and depress the
public mind.   Thus, children born in Philadelphia, whose conception
occurred during the  prevalence of cholera in  1832, show a prepon-
derance of females.   The same results  are shown in the  births  at
Paris, which took place nine  months after the  epidemic prevailed
there in 1832.   The births  at  a  somewhat longer  period after the 
44
REPORT OF  THE
visitation of an epidemic, exhibit an increase in the amount of males,
because the  parents  are endowed with  vital energies above  the
average, as is shown by their exemption or recovery from disease.*

           TOXICOLOGY AND MISCELLANEOUS MATTERS.

  Mode of Action of Poisons.—Professor James Blake, of the St.
Louis University, has continued  his experiments, illustrating  the
mode of action of poisons.  It is  well known that  this gentleman
has maintained, by experiments, the doctrine that the most rapidly
fatal poisons act only by being absorbed into the blood, and that the
nerves are incapable of propagating  their  action from  the  part to
which they are applied, so as to produce  the constitutional symp-
toms, f  The question of absorption he regards as a simple one; we
must ascertain the time required for  a poison to  be  conveyed by the
blood from one part of the system  to another; and this fundamental
point seems  heretofore to have been neglected by experimenters
upon the subject.   Dr. Blake has  shown that the  blood  circulates
through the body from the jugular vein  in from  four to  sixteen
seconds, in the animals experimented upon; and in  no instance was
the action of the poisons manifested  in less time than would suffice
for  their distribution  through the  system.   Dr. B., then, does  not
believe that poisons act instantaneously, however strongly this doc-
trine  has  been supported; and he makes  some remarks  which  are
well worthy the attention of the physiologist, in regard to the liability
to error in noting small intervals of time.
  One principal object in Dr. Blake's paper seems to be  to answer
the criticisms of Dr. Christison and  Mr. Taylor on  his experiments
published  some years  ago.   He shows  that animals, whose circula-
tion is very rapid, are unfit  subjects  for observation.   The nature
of the poison must also be attended to,  a volatile substance  applied
to the mouth being, perhaps, inhaled so as to produce effects before
the experiment has properly commenced.   Both these points had
been apparently overlooked by Christison and Taylor.  Finally, Dr.
Blake, after  referring to  some  of  his late  experiments, which only
confirm those already published, concludes  by an account of  an  ex-
periment which was admirably contrived to  show  in how short a time
death would  ensue  from that most volatile substance, concentrated
hydrocyanic acid.  A rabbit, whose  blood circulates  through  the

    • Communicated by Dr. Gouverneur Emerson, a member of the committee.
    "f See Edinburgh Med. and Surg. Journal, vol. liii. 
COMMITTEE ON MEDICAL SCIENCES.
45
body in four seconds, was selected; the jaws were kept open with
forceps; about half a  drachm of the  acid was  enclosed  in  a well
stopped tube, to prevent its being inhaled;  the  tube was placed in
the mouth;  at a given signal the forceps were closed, the tube was
crushed, and the animal, having jumped  from  the table on  to the
floor, was perfectly able to stand upon  its feet;  in two seconds and
a half  after the application of the poison it fell on its side, and in
five seconds it was dead.*

   Poisoning by Cedar  Oil—Dr. S. C. Wait reports four  cases of
poisoning by cedar oil,  the oil of Juniperus Virginiana.  They prove
that this substance is a powerful narcotico-acrid poison, having more
decided effect on the whole nervous system than is usually ascribed
to savin, to which it  has been considered as allied.  All  the four
patients were females, and  three of them took the oil to procure
abortion.   The symptoms ensued very soon after taking the poison;
they were violent pain  in the stomach; convulsions, both rigid  and
intermittent; eyes glaring; face red and contorted; moans or pecu-
liar and frightful groans ;  respiration struggling and catching, with
exaggerated action of the inspiratory muscles; pulse slow and large.
Somnolence soon ensued.  In the two  that recovered, reaction was
established within a few hours, followed by fever.  In one case, deli-
rium, dizziness, distress at the stomach, and general soreness.   In
the two fatal cases,  the somnolence was followed by coma, dilated
pupils, breathing more laborious, and at times stertorous, complexion
of a venous hue, pulse growing slower and then intermittent.   Death
ensued in each case about an hour after the poison was taken, if the
physician's narrative be  quite accurate in this point.   There were
small patches of redness on the mucous membrane of the stomach, and
larger portions which had lost the " usual polished appearance."  The
oil was smelt in the secretions during life, and in the  stomach after
death.  It is to be regretted that the  autopsies  were  not conducted
or recorded more fully and accurately.   Besides emetics and frictions,
twelve or sixteen ounces of blood were drawn in the two cases which
occurred last in  time, without important effect;  one of these cases
was fatal, one recovered.f

   * American Journal of Medical Sciences, July,  1849, page 97.
   f Report by Dr. S. C. Wait, of Gouverneur, St. Lawrence Co., N. Y., Boston Med. and
Surg. Journal, July, 1849, page 469. 
46
REPORT OF THE
   Effects of Strychnia and Hydrocyanic Acid.—A large black bear,
belonging to Professor Agassiz, and about eighteen months old, was
poisoned by strychnia and hydrocyanic acid.  Three grains of strych-
nia were first  given; in ten minutes, another dose was offered in a
biscuit, but was not swallowed.  In five minutes more, terrible con-
vulsions ensued, and the animal died within twenty-five minutes after
taking the strychnia.   Hydrocyanic acid was poured on its nose and
mouth to hasten  death.  Though the bear  had  appeared in good
health, decomposition was very rapid, being as  advanced in appear-
ance within twenty-four hours as if the  animal had been  dead two
months.   About twenty hours after death, the body being still warm,
an offensive gas was issuing from every pore.  The blood had not
coagulated, the spinal marrow and nerves were  in a semi-fluid state,
and the flesh had assumed a leaden-gray colour.   The hair came out
on being slightly  pulled.  The muscles, brain, nerves, and kidneys,
all gave off hydrosulphuric acid gas, while the liver did not.

   Chloroform as an Antidote to Strychnia.—Dr. Diesbach,  of Tiffin,
Ohio,  reports  a case of poisoning by strychnia, relieved by chlo-
roform.  A man drank  three ounces of a solution  of strychnia, con-
taining one grain in the ounce, made from the crystals.   In twenty
minutes, he was found  to be affected with extremely rigid spasms  of
the muscles, "sense of burning about the  stomach, tightness  about
the chest, vertigo and dimness of vision, lower extremities cold, and
perspiration flowing in a stream  from his head  and chest."  He
swallowed  two  drachms of chloroform (well  diluted, we hope), and
was completely relieved in less than fifteen minutes.*

   Comparative Effects of different Anesthetics.—Dr. C. T. Jackson
has presented the results of  observations on  the comparative effects
of the inhalation of nitrous oxide, the  vapour of chloroform, and
sulphuric ether.  Nitrous oxide, administered  in  large doses, pro-
duces great excitement, which increases with the quantity inhaled.
The  vapour  of  chloroform,  when  rapidly  inhaled, produces  an
immediate  and  entire  prostration.   The same is  true,  in a  less
degree, of  sulphuric ether.  They do not  produce the intoxication
which is caused by nitrous oxide;  and this agent, also, when intro-
duced slowly, fails to produce the usual effects.  The vapour of chlo-
roform slowly inhaled has an  injurious influence, disorganizing the
• Western Lancet, February, 1850, page 93. 
COMMITTEE ON MEDICAL SCIENCES.           47
blood, and stopping the  circulation in the capillaries.  When sud-
denly introduced, it retards,  but does  not stop,  the  circulation.
Patients to whom it is slowly administered recover slowly, and it is
important  in  all cases that enough air should be admitted with it.
Persons inhaling nitrous oxide retain the sensibility to touch, and
respiratory action is quickened, increases, and  becomes deeper as
the inhalation is prolonged.  During the inhalation  of chloroform
and ether, on the contrary, the respiratory action diminishes.   Un-
der the influence of exhilarating gas, the system is  made very irri-
table.   Dr. Jackson thought that the few cases of excitement after
the inhalation of ether might be attributed to the previous state of
mind of the patient, or to  alcohol combined with it.   Conclusions
drawn from experiments on animals with these agents should be re-
ceived with great caution, for their action on animals differs accord-
ing as these  have or have not a cutaneous perspiration.  It kills
those of the latter  class.  Dr. Jackson  recommends a mixture of
chloroform with alcohol, in  the proportion of an eighth or a quarter
of  an ounce of the former to four ounces of the latter.*

   Effects  of  Anaesthetics  on Vegetable  Organs.—In the valuable
report on the  Medical Botany of South  Carolina, published  in  the
Transactions  of this Association for 1849, Dr. F. P. Porcher  de-
scribes some  experiments similar to  those of Professor Marcet, of
Geneva, on the action of anaesthetic agents  on what  are called
sensitive plants.   Dr. P. experimented with the Schrankia angustata
or uncinata.   Chloroform and sulphuric  ether, placed on the main
petiole of the leaves, caused  the leaflets to contract successively,
and these  impressions were never conveyed downward, beyond the
junction  of the  branch  experimented on with the main limb.   A
drop of oil of aniseed, placed on a  leaf-stalk,  seemed to stop  the
passage of these influences.   " Hence," says Dr. Porcher, " we may
be led to suspect that the impression is conveyed by organs of sen-
sation arranged not far from the surface."  These experiments are
also thought to illustrate "the relations existing between animal  and
vegetable  sensibility."
   The experimental decisions of Professor Blake, with respect to
the action  of poisons in animals, in which nervous and absorbent
 apparatus both exist, would seem to contradict the idea of a nervous
 medium of transmission  in  organized bodies  in which no  nervous

            •  Annual of Scientific Discovery, Boston, 1850, page 165, 
48
REPORT OF  THE
system  is  known to be  present.   The term sensibility is  used
vaguely, sometimes as synonymous with susceptibility in general, or
with contractility.  But its employment in the first of these senses
is purely figurative; and in the second is inaccurate.  Contraction
can  no  more  be taken as evidence  of sensibility  than  sensation
can  be  taken as  evidence of contractility.   Each  power  has its
own peculiar organic condition necessary to its exercise, and its own
peculiar relation to stimuli.  The fibre that feels, and the  fibre that
contracts, are  different, and neither can  officiate for the other.  It
is from  some such equivocation as this that the mimosa and schran-
kia have been denominated sensitive plants; that physiologists have
come to speak of illustrating the relations which exist  between ani-
mal and vegetable sensibility,  and special organs of sensation in the
plant are hypothetically created.
  The relation of anaesthetics to the vital powers  of animals  is a
question yet unsolved.   To which of the two,  the via nervosa or the
contractile power,  are  these  substances most intimately related ?
If they affect alike both kingdoms of life, and contractility is the
only one of the  two functions which is common  to the animal and
vegetable, then it would seem that their relation  is to this ;  and
that, in the animal, whatever influences are  communicated to the
nervous system are secondary.  It has indeed  often  been  observed
that the effect on the muscular system precedes that on the nervous,
and in some instances is the only impression which can be produced.
The rationale  of sudden death, accepted by many, ascribing it to
paralysis of the muscular fibres of the heart, is in perfect congruity
with this view.*

  Action of different Waters on Lead-Pipes.—Professor E. N. Hors-
ford was requested by the consulting physicians of  the city of Bos-
ton to investigate the subject of the action of water on leaden  ser-
vice-pipes.   We  extract the  most important  results  obtained by
him.
  " The waters used by man,  in the various forms of beverage, and
for culinary purposes, are of two classes : viz., 1. Open waters derived
from rain-falls and surface-drainage, like  ponds, lakes, rivers, and
some springs;  and 2. Waters concealed from sun-light, and supplied
by lixiviation through soils or rock, or both, of greater or less depth,
such as  wells,  and certain springs.
• Communicated by Dr. James Moultrie, a member of the committee. 
COMMITTEE ON MEDICAL  SCIENCES.
49
  " They differ in temperature.   Well-water, through a  large part
of the year, is colder than lake, pond, or  river water.  In the per
centage of gases  in solution:  recently drawn well-water,  in summer
particularly, parts with a quantity of air upon  exposure  to the sur-
face temperature.  In winter, these relations must, to some extent,
be inverted, in high latitudes for a  longer, and in lower latitudes
for  a shorter, period.  They differ in the  per centage of inorganic
matter in solution ; well-waters contain more.   In the relative pro-
portions of salts  in solution, well-waters contain more nitrates and
chlorides ; and in the per centage of  organic matter, they contain
less.
  " Relations of Lead to Air and Water.—Lead is not  oxidated in
dry air, or in pure water deprived of air.   It is oxidated in water,
other things  being equal, in  general proportion to the  amount of
uncombined oxygen in solution.   When present in sufficient quan-
tity, nitrates in neutral waters are, to some extent, reduced by lead.
Both  nitrates  and chlorides promote the solution of some  coats
formed on lead.  Organic matter influences the action of water on
lead.   If insoluble, it impairs the action by facilitating the escape
of air; if soluble, by consuming the oxygen in  solution, and by re-
ducing the nitrates when present.  The green plants,  so called, and
animalculse which evolve oxygen, are  abundant in open waters in
wTarm weather  only, and of  course when  the capacity of water to
retain air in solution is lowest;  so that, though oxygen is produced
in open waters by these  microscopic  organisms, it does not increase
the vigor of their action on lead.  Hydrated peroxide of iron (iron-
rust) in water is not reduced  by lead.  Hence  may be inferred the
freedom from corrosion of leaden pipes connected with iron mains,
so far  as the reduction of the pulverulent peroxide of iron may in-
fluence it.  Alkaline chlorides in  natural waters deprived of air do
not corrode lead.  Salts generally impair the  action  of  Avaters  on
lead by lessening their solvent power for air, or for other salts.  A
coat of greater or less permeability  forms  in all  natural waters to
which lead is exposed.  The first coat is a simple suboxide absolutely
insoluble  in water, and  solutions of  salts generally.   This becomes
converted in some waters into a higher oxide, and this higher oxide
uniting writh water and carbonic acid forms  a coat soluble in  from
seven thousand to ten thousand  times its  weight  of pure water.
The above oxide unites with sulphuric and other acids, which some-
times enter into the composition  of this last coat; uniting with or-
    4 
50
REPORT OF THE
ganic matter and iron-rust, it forms  another  coat which is in  the
highest degree protective."*

  Moisture, Ammonia, and Organic Matter in the Atmosphere.—
Professor Horsford presented, at the meeting of the American As-
sociation for the Advancement of Science, held in August last  at
Cambridge, some observations on the amount of moisture, ammonia,
and organic matter in the atmosphere.
  Moisture.—These observations were commenced February 28th,
1849, continued daily till April 12th, and  since then occasionally,
and were accompanied by observations of the barometer, thermome-
ter, appearance  of the sky, and the wind.   The method employed
was that of Brunner.  A known volume of air is transmitted through
a chloride-of-calcium tube, which  is weighed before  and after the
experiment.  The difference in weight shows the amount of moist-
ure in a given volume of air.  Among the results are these: The
moisture is in general proportion to  the temperature.   Slight vari-
ations  are  not accompanied  by corresponding  variations in the
moisture.   Great variations in the quantity of moisture may take
place, while the temperature and altitude of the mercurial column re-
main constant; the moisture has even doubled within an hour, though
the temperature became reduced. In general the moisture on the same
day seemed  to  depend chiefly on  the  direction of the wind.  The
least quantity observed  was on March 12th, during a N. W. or N.
N. W.  wind; the largest was on June 23d, in  a S. W. or S. S. W.
wind.  The quantity on the latter day was to that on the former as
fifty to one.
  The  permeability  of atmospheric  air to aqueous vapor was  es-
tablished by experiments  continued through several  months, and
was found to increase with the temperature.
  The  quantity  of ammonia was  tested by an apparatus of Pro-
fessor Horsford's own construction.  In contriving it, the object was
to transmit the air through a constantly renewed atmosphere of hy-
drochloric acid vapour.    A series  of tubes and flasks  containing
asbestos drenched with hydrochloric  acid  were connected  with a
safety-tube,  which was  connected with an aspirator.  Through this
apparatus a known volume of air was  transmitted.   At the conclu-
sion of the experiment,  the apparatus was  thoroughly rinsed with
distilled water, and the ammonia determined  in the usual manner
with bichloride of platinum.
* Proceedings of American Academy, 1S49. 
COMMITTEE ON MEDICAL  SCIENCES.
51
  Two determinations were made during an east wind, the one on air
at the end of a wharf in Boston, looking out on the ocean, the other
in a court pointed out by an  assistant of the city marshal, as the
worst habitable part of the city, and in which the air was found to
be extremely offensive.   The one atmosphere was not distinguished
above the other on account of its ammonia.
  Continued observations, since the above mentioned were laid be-
fore the Association, have shown that the quantity of ammonia is
greatest in summer,  and that it diminishes with the decay of animal
and vegetable matters, until, in winter, when decay is quite arrested,
the quantity of ammonia is reduced to  a minimum.
  The following table shows the amount of ammonia found in the
atmosphere  at thirteen different analyses :—
Date.		A	m. in 1,000,000 parts by weight of Air			
1. July 3 . ... 42.9995						
2. " 9 .						46.1246
3. " 9 .						47.6308
4. Sept. 1-20						29.7457
5. Oct. 11 .						28.2396
6. Oct. 14 .						25.7919
7. Oct. 30 .						13.9315
8. Nov. 6 .						8.0953
9. Nov. 10-12-13						8.0953
10. Nov. 14-15-16						4.7066
11. Nov. 17 to Dec. 5						. 6.1328
12. Dec. 20-21						. 6.9885
13. Dec. 29 .						. 1.2171
  Some very limited observations would tend to show that the or-
ganic effluvia in the air are of an acid character.*
  Prof. Horsford has made  some experiments to determine the
amount of ammonia in the pulmonary and cutaneous exhalations of
a kitten.  The amount is found to be very considerable.

  Determination of the  Ammonia in Human Breath.—By J. A.
Porter, of the Cambridge Laboratory.
                           Grm.   0.0645
                             "    0.0049 for 45 minutes
                             "    0.0072 for  1 hour
                             "    0.1743 for 24 hours
                           Grains 2.6898
 * Proceedings of American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1849, p. 124.
Pt Cl2 NH4 CI
      NH, 
REPORT OF  THE
   Ozone.—This substance has -come into notice during the  year
past from its supposed connection with catarrhal diseases, as noticed
in Europe ; and with cholera, as  suggested by physicians of Chi-
cago.   The  nature  and  even the individuality of ozone arc  not
quite determined.   Professor Peter has  published  interesting ob-
servations on this subject.   He tested the amount of ozone in the
air at Lexington by the usual means, a strip of bibulous paper being
smeared with a paste of starch and a solution of pure iodide of po-
tassium.  His observations were daily, from June 30 to August 12,
being not far from the complete period in which cholera prevailed
at Lexington.  There was no constant relation between  the  proba-
ble amount of ozone  in the air and the daily number of deaths;  the
indications of ozone did not  cease with  the cessation  of  cholera;
and it would seem that the  principle wliich discolors the  iodide of
potassium is rarely absent from the atmosphere.
   Some  considerations unfavourable  to the  supposed influence of
ozone are these: Ozone is  a vaporous or gaseous  substance,  and
must tend to diffuse itself equally, which the cholera does not.  If
ozone is produced  by electrical causes, it  certainly must  be present
in the atmosphere  of South  America, wliich is known to be remark-
ably exempt from  the epidemic.   As the slow combustion  of phos-
phorus  produces ozone,  workmen  in  manufactories  of friction
matches should suffer from the diseases produced by it.   The ozone
theory of cholera,  on the whole, is not sustained.*
   Professor Ellet made analyses of the air in  New York, under the
auspices of  the Board of  Health, during the prevalence  of cholera
in that city.   His results were wholly negative in regard  to  the
prevalence of any foreign matter in the air.   As to ozone, he says,
liI was forced to the conclusion not only that no such peculiar prin-
ciple or condition existed  in  the  atmosphere at  the time,  but that
the experiments of those  European chemists who have  announced
the  production, by artificial  means, of such a new form of matter
or  such a modified or ' allotropic' condition  of any of those forms
previously known to us, are  unsatisfactory, "f
   Prof. Horsford has observed that  ozone, subjected to a heat of
130° Fahrenheit, loses its properties.

     * Transylvania Medical Journal, Oct. 1810, p.  148.
     \ Report of Sanitary Committee on Cholera in  New York, 1849, page 59. 
COMMITTEE ON MEDICAL SCIENCES.
53
  This sketch of the progress of medical  science within  our own
country during the last year relates only to the particular branches
assigned to this  committee.  With the latitude  allowed  to their
predecessors, the committee could have doubled the amount  of ma-
terials,  many of them  of the highest value  and  interest.  They,
however, cannot but approve of the restriction imposed, and  recom-
mend its continuance.  European intelligence reaches most of  us
through periodicals and retrospects, and any reprint from them  of
facts, however judiciously selected, tends to enhance the expense of
our publications.  There  is a still greater evil attending the intro-
duction of foreign matter into our reports.   It impairs the vigilance
and industry necessary to the accumulation  of intelligence  that is
purely American.  In so widely-extended a country, it is a laborious
task to gather materials for such  a purpose.   Many interesting facts
must occur that never  come to the knowledge of a committee, even
when foreign matter is  excluded, as the present report abundantly
shows.   Still more must this be the case  when the labour  of col-
lecting domestic matter  can be  diminished by substituting  foreign
materials.
   By adherence to this restriction, the future reports of American
intelligence  Avill be  annually growing richer.  Master minds arc
now employed  in the various departments  of natural  and  experi-
mental science.  Leidy and others are toiling with zeal and indus-
try in our large  cities ; and Agassiz, Guyot, Horsford,  and Wyman
have girded themselves to the work in a scientific  institution under
the fostering care of ancient Harvard, whose light,  like the rising
sun, is gilding  the east, and shedding its beams over our wide-spread
country to warm and fertilize the American  intellect.   Already in
the Valley of the Mississippi, where, within the memory of the living,
the red man was lord of the domain, beautiful cities adorn the banks
of  the majestic rivers, with colleges  and seminaries of learning
where gifted minds are diffusing  the blessings of science and litera-
ture • and in this lovely city, the " Queen of the  Y\Test," where the
Indian council-fire blazed, and  war-whoop echoed, we  behold the
sublime spectacle of  many hundred votaries  of the healing  art  as-
sembled from all sections of the  Union, thirsting for  knowledge and
eao-er for  mutual improvement.   Who  can contemplate the scene
without a  thrill of professional enthusiasm, or doubt for a moment
that  a rich harvest of  American medical science will  ere long  be
annually collected  and diffused through the instrumentality  of this
Association ?
                              USHER PARSONS, Chairman.