future. 'By his_benevolence, he felt for the multitude he instructed indulgence and affection; relying on the real greatness of his temper, he made no attempts to increase his importance by low raillery, or unfounded satire, and he never sunk into supine indolence or groveling melancholy: considering his profession as a means of ameliorating mankind, he persevered in the cause of truth with cheerful rectitude and virtuous dignity; his intellectual resources satisfactorily supplied the absence of society; his capacious mind enabled him to increase his stores of useful knowledge; his discriminating powers enabled him to elucidate the subject he explored, and he felt as great delight in promoting the beneficial discoveries of others as in executing his own: regarding his professional contemporaries, not as jealous rivals, but as generous friends, striving to emulate each other in the noble pursuits of science, and in the laudable task of endeavouring to improve the morals of mankind.' "Such was John D. Godman-a model worthy of imitation! and whose pure character, and successful efforts, are a fit subject for reflection, now that you are embarking in the busy purpose of acquiring professional knowledge."-p. 26. Quetelet on the Influence of Seasons on Mortality at Different Ages in Belgium.1 From the work of this able statistician, we extract the following conclusions, to which his laborious investigations have led him : "1st. In studying the influence of the seasons on mortality in Belgium, the life of man presents two principal stages, one comprising the period during his physical development, and continuing until about his twenty-fifth year, the other embracing the remainder of his life. "2d. The most unfavourable season for man after his development is winter; the other seasons affect him in the following order: :-Spring, autumn, and summer. "The absolute maximum of deaths occurs in February, and the minimum in July; the difference between the two goes on increasing until towards the termination of life; being at 25 years only 125 to 100, and ending with 255 to 100. "3d. In man at his full growth, there is an apparently well marked relation between the movements of the thermometer and mortality; nevertheless, at the end of the hottest month, in which the smallest number of deaths takes place, there is a sensible increase in the mortality. The month of October, which follows this increase, presents a minimum of deaths relative to the months between which it falls. "4th. In regarding man during his development, and considering only the first year subsequent to his birth, a period when the child is somewhat identified with the mother by whom it is nourished, we find that it likewise shares its chances in the mortality; the minimum of deaths occurs also with it in July, and the maximum from the month of January, during the greatest cold. The increase of mortality following excess of heat is more applicable to children than full grown persons. "This increase of mortality following excessive heats and especially the cold of winter, and which affects children during the first year, has been already acknowledged during the three first months of life, by MM. VilJermé and Milne Edwards. In every case summer produces no very sensible action during the first month after birth, and the action is at its maximum about the sixth. 1 De l'influence des Saisons sur la Mortalité aux différens ages dans la Belgique, par A. Quetelet, Directeur de l'Observatoire de Bruxelles, secrétaire perpetuel de l'Académie Royale de la même ville, &c. &c. 4to, pp. 42. Avec cinq planches. Bruxelles, 1838. "After the first year following birth, and even to about the twelfth, the maximum of deaths varies from January, in approaching, by a suite of oscillations, the month of May, where it remains for some time; it then becomes retrograde from the sixteenth to the twenty-fifth year, and becomes fixed in February, where it remains to the decline of life. "The minimum of deaths, to begin with the first year, occurs nearly in regular order to five or six months' distance from the maximum, and falls in August from the first year to the eighth. From the eighth to the twentieth year, it is fixed in October, where, as we have said, it continues afterwards to form a minimum till the latest term of life. "6th. During man's development, but after the first year, no minimum of deaths is observed in July. "On classing the seasons according to their mortality, the following general order is found,-spring, winter, summer, and autumn. "In considering only the age of puberty, the seasons range themselves in a rather different order from the first-spring, summer, winter, and autumn; while in full grown man the following is the order-winter, spring, autumn, and summer. "7th. From twelve to twenty-five years, we observe a relative minimum in the deaths in January, a month in which there is the greatest mortality at all ages. "8th. In making a distinction between the sexes, we find that at the different periods of life, taken separately, the maxima and minima numbers, both absolute and relative, occur very nearly identically in the same months, and that the maxima and minima numbers, relative to each sex, are in nearly the same ratio. "9th. When we compare the absolute number of male with that of female deaths at every age, we find that this is not the case; there is, then, a great difference. Thus, "Immediately after birth, only three girls die for four boys. "This unfavourable difference for the boys decreases successively till towards two years of age, and then the number of deaths of the two sexes is nearly exactly the same until the twelfth year. "From 12 to 20 years there are more female than male deaths; the contrary holds from 20 to 25. "From 25 to 30 as many men die as women. "From 30 to 50 there is more mortality among the women than among the men; from 50 to 65 the opposite holds; and after 65 female deaths exceed numerically those of the male. "Whence it follows, that the deaths of the two sexes are alike from 2 to 12 years, from 25 to 30, and towards 65 the male deaths are more numerous. After birth, between 20 and 25 years, and from 50 to 65, they are on the contrary less numerous than female deaths from 12 to 20, from 30 to 50, and after 65 years. "10th. The influence of the seasons and sexes exerted on the still-born holds nearly the same relation as in the new-born, though less marked. "11th. The difference of residence in town or in the country does not occasion an essential change in the periods of the maxima and minima of deaths produced under the influence of the seasons; but the differences between the maxima and minima numbers are in general more strikingly marked in the country." MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES. On the Persistent Nature of the Dental Capsule; with physiological and pathological observations. By ALEX. NASMYTH, Esq. (Read before the Med. and Chir. Society, Jan. 22, 1839.)-The author begins by observing that of the three stages into which the period of the growth of the teeth has been divided, namely, the follicular, the saccular, and the eruptive, it is his intention in the present communication to allude particularly to the eruptive stage only. Having been induced to investigate this stage very attentively, he is convinced that the capsule of all teeth is persistent; and that instead of its being a deciduous membrane, it is one whose functions continue throughout the life of the tooth. The author was led to attend to this fact many years ago, from having observed, while engaged in some very minute anatomical inquiries, detached portions of membrane floating from preparations of human teeth which had been subjected to the action of acid. By care and much practice he was at length enabled to demonstrate these membranes to be separated from the external surface of the enamel, being continuous with the membrane covering the fang, and this again with the pulp included in the chamber of the tooth; in fact, that this membrane was the crown portion of the original capsule of the tooth. The author's attention having been diverted from this point at the time by other matters, was again forcibly attracted to it, in pursuing some investigations for the purpose of verifying the microscopic observations of Professor Retzius, Purkinje, Müller, and others, the results of which he is preparing to bring before the profession. He concedes to Retzius and his contemporaries in Germany, the merit of having revived and made known the existence of an osseous investment, similar to the crusta petrosa, on the external surface of the fangs of human and many similar teeth, but which in such teeth is expressly described as ceasing where the enamel commences. As these substances must have derived their origin from the capsule or investing sac, and as the cementum on the crowns of the teeth of those animals that are endowed with it originates in the same membrane, the author inferred that the membrane which he had disengaged from the surface of the crown was no other than a production of the capsule itself. After describing the structure of the capsule, the author proceeds to say, that during the growth of the enamel, the inner membrane retains a considerable degree of thickness, and that where the extent of enamel is limited, and its growth perfected, a cohesion of the internal layer takes place to its surface, and the exterior continues to be firmly attached to the elongating fangs, producing an osseous deposit over it, and enclosing its root. When. teeth are subjected to the action of dilute acid, the decomposition being more complete upon the enamel through the adherent membrane than upon the neck of the tooth, its detachment is more speedily accomplished; but being very thin where joined to the neck, it is easily ruptured in human and other analogous teeth. It is, however, easy to obtain it in continuity in many of the lower animals. This capsular covering, which it is by no means diffcult to demonstrate, continues throughout life, except it be worn away by irritation. It would be impossible, within the limits of an abstract, to allude even briefly to all the confirmations of these anatomical facts, which were illustrated by an extensive series of preparations and drawings, not only of natural but also of morbid structure. In concluding his interesting paper, the author expresses an opinion that the sketch which he has given will serve to reconcile many contending opinions concerning the vitality of the teeth. In the present state of our knowledge he thinks that we can only allow a very low degree of vitality to the enamel and ivory of the teeth, and that the phenomena of disease I Lond. Med. Gaz., Feb. 2, 1839, p. 681. dwelt upon by those who maintain a higher order of vitality in those textures are due to the vital powers of the different portions of the persistent capsule. Case of the Accidental Administration of Forty Grains of the Extract of Belladonna, by Oscar Clayton, Esq. Communicated by JAMES CLAYTON, Esq.-The author's motive in relating the above-named case, the subject of which recovered from the effects of the poison, was, that the order of succession of the symptoms differed from that described by Dr. Christison, for in it sopor preceded the delirium, which did not come on for six hours after the administration of the poison, whereas the reverse is commonly the case. The author considers it also worthy of remark, that the pulse, which was 160 half an hour after the poison was taken, fell in twenty hours to 58, and that it varied from 160 to 120 during the sopor, but did not reach more than 95 during the delirium. Absence of Menstruation. Mr. Harrison, at a late meeting of the Westminster Medical Society, Jan. 5, 1839, enquired if any member had known an instance in which the mother of a large family had never menstruated? He had known such a case. Dr. Johnson had never seen an instance of the kind. He had, however, under his care at present some members of a family in which there were five daughters, the ages of whom ranged between twenty-six and thirteen, who, though all in excellent health, had never menstruated. University of Pennsylvania-Medical Department. The published catalogue contains the names of 202 matriculates. Hospital for the Insane-Maryland.-We are pleased to learn from our friend, Dr. S. Collins, of Baltimore, that the legislature of Maryland has liberally appropriated forty thousand dollars for the endowment of a Lunatic Asylum. · Louisville Medical Journal.—By a Louisville Journal of the 19th ultimo, which has been recently sent to us, we learn, that the medical journal-two numbers of which had been published-has been discontinued. BOOKS RECEIVED. From the Author.-Introductory Lecture, delivered by H. Willis Baxley, M. D., Professor of Anatomy and Physiology in the University of Maryland, November 2, 1837. 8vo, pp. 29. Baltimore, 1839. From the Author.-The Annual Address to the Candidates for Degrees and Licences in the Medical Institution of Yale College, Feb. 26, 1839. By Thomas Miner, M. D., Member of the Board of Examination, and late President of the Connecticut Medical Society. Published at the request of the class. 8vo, pp. 20. New Haven, 1839. 1 Lond. Med. Gaz., Feb. 2, 1839, p. 681. 2 Lancet, Jan. 19, 1839, p. 619. THE AMERICAN MEDICAL INTELLIGENCER. Vol. III. April 15, 1839. No. 2. ART. I.-CASE OF CHRONIC PLEURISY, WITH PNEUMO THORAX, &c. BY A. G. TEBAUTT, M. D., OF LONDON BRIDGE, VIRGINIA. Instances of the simultaneous discharge of an empyema by a double lesion, through the bronchi and the parietes of the thorax, are of rare occurrence; in the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, No. LXI., a case of this nature is given by Dr. Hawthorn, and two or three others have been recorded by MM. Chomel and Lerminier, enriched by the report of a few more cases possessing the same features. In addition, it is hoped the following, extracted from my case book, will not prove altogether uninteresting. On the 9th April, 1837, I was requested to visit SW, a carpenter, æt. 20 years, of temperate habits, and previously of a strong constitution. He stated that in consequence of unusual exposure to cold and moisture, he had been attacked about three weeks before, with a cough and pain in the right side of his chest; and that he had since submitted to an empirical treatment, in the course of which a severe diarrhoea had supervened. He was pale; emaciated; with some cedema about the face and ankles; his body appeared considerably arched forwards, and the shoulders drooping. The least exertion, as in rising or walking, induced a hurried and oppressed breathing and great muscular agitations. Skin dry; pulse small, quick and thrilling; voice hoarse; cough frequent and teasing; sputa clear mucosity, intermixed with a few opaque whitish points, and expectorated with difficulty. On coughing and deep inspiration he experienced a diffused soreness, referred to the base of the right lung. The sound on percussion over the right side was dull, and the respiratory murmur and resonance of the voice feeble, especially towards its lower third; a dull sonorous râle was heard below the clavicle. In the left lung the respiration was puerile and attended occasionally by a mucous râle. Tongue red, pointed and tremulous. Pain complained of, mostly in the abdomen and chiefly in the direction of the transverse arch of the colon, increased on pressure; bowels excessively loose; discharges watery; urine highly coloured. R. chlor. hydr. mit. gr. x., acet. morph. gr. iv., potass. nitratis i., M. in pulv. x., div. Un quart. hor. s. Mucilaginous drinks. On the following day the abdominal symptoms were greatly relieved; cough less troublesome; pulse 90, improved in fulness. Contin. med. at lengthened intervals. April 11th. Edema had disappeared, and he was able to move with much less inconvenience. Ordered a large blister to the chest, with a view to alleviate the cough and soreness, which still persisted. Murmur frictionis. In a day or two more the gastric affections having completely subsided, resorted to antimonials, opiates, and mucilaginous drinks with benefit. His health gradually amended in every particular, and on the 18th of April, a weak sonorous râle with some dulness on percussion over the right lung |