On a peculiar Form of Congenital Tumour of the Neck. By CESAR HAWKINS, Esq., Surgeon to St. George's Hospital.The author's intention in the present communication is not to refer to the tumours met with in such variety in new-born infants, which are liable to immediate or future increase, and are composed, for the most part, of a single cyst, with various contents; he, on the contrary, restricts himself to the consideration of a peculiar form of congenital tumour, which is composed of many cysts joined together, in which the proportion of organised matter is so considerable as to give a more solid character to the tumour, and make it deserve the character of cystic tumour as much as the apparently analogous cases of cystic sarcoma occasionally found in the breast, testis, or ovary of adults.

The author having met with seven such tumours in the necks of young children, was led to hope that he may be enabled to throw some light upon their diagnosis, which may be acceptable to the society. He accordingly relates the details of several of them, one of which was treated with complete success by the method pointed out by the author; and some others were in a state of progressive amendment when lost sight of by him. The treatment is described by the author as follows:-1st. The cysts may be emptied from time to time by a grooved needle, so as to leave no scar whatever, or by a lancet when situated in the mouth. 2dly. Pressure may be employed, especially after the evacuation of the fluid in some situations, as in front of the ear, although, of course, this means is generally inapplicable, on account of its obvious interference with respiration, mastication, and deglutition. 3dly. Stimulant applications may be constantly employed of such a strength as to excite moderate inflammation, but stopping short of suppuration to avoid deformity. The applications employed by the author have been, the ointment of hydriodate of potassa, rubbed in by the hand; a solution of a dram of iodine and two scruples of hydriodate of potassa in an ounce of water, painted over the tumour. One of the patients, a child, eleven weeks old, sent to the author by Dr. Willis, having died, an opportunity was afforded for a minute examination of the tumour, of which the author relates the circumstances in detail.

Case of Dry Gangrene in a Child. BY SAMUEL SOLLY, F. R. S. &c.2William Chandler, the subject of the disease in question, is the son of a bargeman, and it is probable, from the high wages earned by his father, is better nourished than the greater number of the children of the poor. He was under the immediate superintendence of Mr. Bayley, of Oldham, who was unable to discover any thing in his diet to explain the occurrence of the remarkable form of disease under which he laboured.

The author visited the patient in company with Mr. Bury, of Farnham, on the 29th of January last, at which time three of his limbs-the left leg and both arms-were in an advanced state of destruction by dry gangrene. Three days before his first visit the right fore-arm had been amputated by nature at the elbow-joint, but the slough had extended above the joint, where a second attempt at amputation was in progress. The foot of the left leg was completely removed just above the ankle-joint, between the epiphyses and the shafts of the tibia and fibula, leaving the extremities of the bones exposed. On the right foot the phalanges of the second and third toes had been removed.

The author learned from the mother of the child that the disease had begun in the month of August last; both his feet becoming of a purple colour, Sloughing had commenced in September on the right leg. These sloughs separated, and the wound healed in a month; that on the left leg never healed, but gradually opened, and a line of demarcation being set up,

amputation gradually took place, and the limb was entirely removed on the 30th December. It is impossible to convey, in the brief space of an abstract, an adequate idea of the appearance of the several limbs, whose condition, while the disease was in progress, and after nature had wrought the cure, is shown in two spirited sketches which accompanied the paper.

The stump of the left arm promised to be rather conical, but those of the leg and arm will be fleshy and round, equally so with many stumps resulting from artificial amputation.

Operation for Wry-Neck.'-Sir: The axiom, "There is nothing new under the sun," scarcely needs confirmation, and yet I cannot resist the temptation to furnish you with a fresh proof of its legitimacy. Take one of the few passages worth recording in "Ward's Diary," the whole of which was written between the years 1648 and 1679. Is it not truly lamentable to be thus forced to trace back the brilliant operations of Dr. Stromeyer to a mountebank of the 17th century? But are not most brilliant discoveries subject to similar penalties? Voici le fait! In offering which to your attention, I beg to subscribe myself, sir,

Your most obedient servant,

To the Editor of the Medical Gazette.

ANTIQUARIUS.

"The mountebank that cutt wry necks, cutt three tendors in one child's neck, and hee did it thus: first by making a small orifice with his launcet, and lifting up the tendon for fear of the jugular vein-then by putting in his incision knife and cutting them upwards; they give a great snapp when cutt. The orifice of his wounds are small, and scarce any blood follows. Some are wry neckt from the womb; they only lay a melilot plaister to heal the wound; the plaister must bee a fresh one every day. As for the symptoms of this cutting, they are only these: that about a day or two after, the child will be sickish, some humour falling on the stomach of itt, as the mountebank says. When hee hath cutt itt, hee bends the child's neck the other way, and puts on a capp and a fillet tied to the capp, and so ties it under the arm-pitts, and so by constant bending the head that way, itt becomes straight and upe right." Ward's Diary, pp. 273-4.

College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York.-Dr. Delafield, Professor of Midwifery, and Dr. Alban Goldsmith, Professor of Surgery, have resigned their professorships. Dr. Robert Watts, Jr., has been appointed Professor of Descriptive Anatomy; Dr. W. Parker, of Cincinnati, Lecturer on Surgery, and Dr. J. R. Manley, of New York, Lecturer on Midwifery.

Albany Medical College.-Dr. G. S. Bedford has been recently appointed Professor of Midwifery and the Diseases of Women and Children in this institution.

On the Structure of the Corpus Luteum. By ROBERT LEE, M. D., F. R. S. Read before the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society of London, June 11th, 1839.2 The author commences with a short description of the mature Graafian vesicle in the human ovarium, which he represents as a small spherical pellucid sac, containing the ovum, the granule, and the fluid with which it is surrounded. The vesicle itself he describes as always consist

1 Lond. Med. Gaz. June 8, 1839, p. 398.

Ibid. June 29, 1839, p. 504.

ing of two membranous layers or coats, closely adhering together, the external surface being loosely united to the proper substance of the ovarium by soft cellular tissue, blood vessels and nerves.

When impregnation takes place, the coats of the Graafian vesicle and peritoneum covering it burst, the contents escape, and around it a corpus luteum is gradually formed. The author states that the observations of De Graaf, Haller and others, have proved that the corpus luteum is always formed in that ovarium from which the impregnated ovum has escaped; but it has not been positively determined by them whether the corpus luteum is produced by a thickening of the inner layer of the vesicle, as Professor Baer has supposed, or between the coats, as Dr. Montgomery believes, and if corpora lutea are not sometimes formed in the ovaria of women who have never been pregnant.

The author then proceeds to describe the appearances which he observed in the ovarium of a woman who died in St. George's Hospital, at the end of the second month of pregnancy, which have induced him to conclude that the corpus luteum is formed around both layers of the Graafian vesicle, and not between its coats, or by a thickening of the inner membrane. In the preparation of the ovarium the Graafian vesicle, like a small cyst, consisting of two distinct layers separated from one another, was clearly seen. A drawing of the recent corpus luteum, which had a deep orange colour, was likewise exhibited.

In two specimens of Fallopian tube conception, which were placed upon the table, the Graafian vesicle was likewise seen surrounded by the corpus luteum. The same fact, the author adds, is still more evident in the ovarium of the gravid uterus of ten weeks, described and figured in the 17th volume of the Medico-Chirurgical Transactions.

In several of the preparations in the Hunterian Museum, at the College of Surgeons, which the author has recently examined, with Mr. Owen, he states that the Graafian vesicle is also seen enclosed within the corpus luteum, and forming its central cavity.

The author concludes this part of the paper by recommending additional observations to be made upon the subject, when opportunities, which are not very frequent, present themselves, in order that the correctness of the view which he has given of the structure of the corpus luteum may be rendered perfectly conclusive. All observations upon the subject, to be decisive, he remarks, should be made soon after impregnation and the date of conception, and all other circumstances should be clearly stated.

The author next proceeds to describe the changes which the corpus luteum undergoes in the latter months of pregnancy, and after delivery; and observes, that it is frequently almost wholly absorbed about the end of the third month subsequent to parturition. Various preparations were exhibited to illustrate these appearances.

In the ovaria of women who have never been pregnant, yellow, ovalshaped bodies, he observes, are frequently found, which it is difficult to distinguish from true corpora lutea resulting from impregnation. The greater number of these are produced by blood extravasated within the Graafian vesicles; and he thinks they can generally be distinguished from true corpora lutea by this circumstance, that in the latter the corpus luteum surrounds the Graafian vesicles, but in false corpora lutea the yellow substance is usually contained within the Graafian vesicle. A thickening of the coats of the Graafian vesicle, and the changes it undergoes during menstruation, the author also conceives, might readily be mistaken for true corpora lutea. Various preparations and drawings were also exhibited to illustrate these statements; and Dr. Lee closes the paper with the following remark, that from all the observations hitherto made on the corpus luteum, we may infer that it is never found but as a consequence of impregnation; that the yellow oval-shaped substances found in the ovaria of women who have not been pregnant, may be distinguished from true corpora lutea by the smallness of

their size and irregularity of their shape, the greater depth at which they are situate in the ovarium, the absence of the white membranous appearance of the centre, and by the fawn or yellow-coloured substance being enclosed within the cavity, and not formed around the exterior surface of the Graafian vesicle.

Jefferson Medical College.-Dr. Joseph Pancoast and Dr. Robert M. Huston have been respectively appointed to the chairs of Principles and Practice of Surgery, and of Materia Medica and Pharmacy in this institution.

NECROLOGY.

Dr. Thomas Davies.-We regret to observe the death of an old contemporary in practice-with whom we were on terms of intimacy in Londonannounced in one of the recent periodicals.' Dr. Davies, about twenty years ago, was threatened with phthisis, and went to reside in the south of France. After this, about fifteen years since, he established himself in practice in London, and was, at the time of his death, assistant physician to the London Hospital, and one of the physicians to an institution in the city for diseases of the lungs. Whilst in France, he attended to the then new doctrine of the physical signs of thoracic diseases, and became celebrated for his diagnosis in such affections. His lectures, on these subjects, have been published.

BOOKS RECEIVED.

From Professor Revere.-Report of the Evidence in the case of John Stephen Bartlett, M. D. versus the Mass. Medical Society, as given before a committee of the Legislature at the session of 1839. (Printed under the direction of the Chairman of the committee, by order of the House). 8vo. pp. 55. Boston, 1839.

From the same.-Annual Report of the Trustees of the New England Institution for the Education of the Blind to the Corporation. 8vo. pp. 28. Boston, 1839.

From Dr. J. R. Coxe, (Presented to him by Dr. Gregory, the Author).— Report of the Physician of the Smallpox and Vaccination Hospital, St. Pancras, presented to the Annual General Court of Governors, held at the hospital, on Friday, Feb. 1, 1839, 8vo. pp. 8. Lond. 1839.

Minutes of the Medical Society of Tennessee, at the tenth annual meeting, held in Nashville, May, 1839. 8vo. pp. 44. Columbia, 1839.

From the Author.-Boylston Prize Dissertations on 1. Inflammation of the Periosteum. 2. Enuresis Irritata. 3. Cutaneous Diseases. 4. Cancer of the Breast. Also, Remarks on Malaria. By Usher Parsons, M. D., late Professor of Anatomy and Surgery, Brown University, &c. &c. Svo. pp. 248. Boston, 1839.

I Lond. Med. Gazette, June 8, p. 96.

ART. I.-CASES OF EPISIORAPHY' AND TENOTOMY.

BY PROFESSOR GEDDINGS, OF CHARLESTON, S. C.

[The following extract is from a letter to the editor by Professor Geddings. Professor G. has not given us permission to publish it, but he has not forbidden it, and we are satisfied he will pardon the liberty we have taken in placing it before our readers.]

A few days ago I performed an operation for prolapsus uteri, which presents some interest. A female slave, aged about 35, the mother of one child, had been affected with this distressing displacement of the uterus for upwards of fifteen years, to such a degree, that the organ protruded from the vulva in form of a large rough tumour, rendering her incapable of any kind of exertion. As the prolapsus could be reduced, though not retained, I resolved to perform the operation of episioraphy, recommended, and successfully practised, by Fricke, of Hamburgh, the vagina, however, being very much relaxed, I deemed it advisable to so modify the operative procedure, as to combine with it the advantages of the plans proposed by Marshall Hall and Professor Dieffenbach. By making an incision, commencing on each side, two fingers' breadth below the upper commissure of the vulva, about a finger's breadth of each labium was removed, together with the fourchettethe two incisions being so conducted as to meet at an acute angle in perineo; the mucous membrane of the vagina was also dissected away, on each side, to the extent of an inch and a half. After the hemorrhage, which was inconsiderable, had ceased, the two raw surfaces were brought in apposition by means of a quilled suture of five stitches. A catheter was left in the bladder, and suitable dressings were secured by means of a T bandage.

On the second day the catheter was removed, on account of the constant escape of the urine by its side. Since then, nothing but light dressings have been applied; but on the fourth day, union having taken place, the sutures were removed. The parts are now healing kindly, and I am pleased to say, that, thus far, my patient seems to have every prospect of being completely relieved of a most loathsome and distressing malady.

Like many of my contemporaries, I, too, have been dividing tendons. In one case, the semi-tendinosus was severed to overcome a contraction at the knee, by which the heel was drawn up to the buttock. The deformity was occasioned by an extensive cicatrix, reaching from the upper third of the thigh to the vicinity of the heel. This was dissected away, when on attempting to extend the limb, it was found necessary to divide the semitendinosus muscle. The member was kept in a permanent state of extension 1 From επισειον, the labium pudendi (modern), and papn, "suture."-Ed.