MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES.

M. Donné on Milk.'-The following résumé is given by the author at the conclusion of his memoir "on Milk,” &c.

1. The chemical history of the phenomena which milk presents when left to itself, can be completed only by microscopic observation.

2. Milk may be defined a liquid holding in solution, casein, as the blood contains fibrine, a peculiar sugar and salts; and holding in suspension globules of fatty matter or of butter.

3. The solubility of the milk globules in alcohol and ether, which do not dissolve casein, on the one hand, and on the other, the want of action of the aqueous solution of iodine, which does not colour the milk globules, but does colour casein (as it does all azotised organised matters) yellow, prove that the casein does not form part of the globules, and that it does not exist in milk in a concrete state.

4. All the milk globules may be retained by the filter, and the filtrated liquid, transparent as water, will deposit casein under the influence of acids; this experiment also proves that the casein is in a state of solution, and moreover that the white colour of milk depends on the fatty matter suspended in the form of very fine globules; milk may therefore be regarded as an emulsion.

5. The first phenomenon which milk left to itself presents, is the ascent of the cream: cream is formed by the milk globules collecting at the upper part in consequence of their specific gravity; below the cream is the milk properly so called, in which there are, however, two distinct layers; the upper one whiter than the lower, which is a little greenish, and semi-transparent. These differences of shade depend only on the greater or less quantity of milk globules contained in the different layers of liquid, which are arranged according to their specific gravity. Cream exists, therefore, in the milk at the moment of its exit from the body, and milk and cream differ only in the proportion of fatty or butyraceous globules which each contains.

6. The second phenomenon observed is the change of milk to the acid state; it is in fact well demonstrated that this fluid, when it comes from the body, is alkaline; gradually the cream thickens, the casein coagulates, gases are disengaged, the smell of Brie cheese is perceived, and the microscope exbibits a number of infusory animalcules and vegetables; a real putrefacfaction, in short, is established.

7. It is necessary to distinguish the part which the cream or non-azotised portion and the casein or azotised portion, each takes in this decomposition or fermentation. For this purpose the two elements must be separated by the filter, and it is then observed that the cream rapidly becomes very acid, while the serum, deprived of fatty matter, and holding casein in solution, tends to the alkaline or putrid fermentation.

8. The infusory vegetables which are produced in this case do not appear till a long time after the milk has passed to the acid state; they cannot, therefore, be regarded as the cause of the fermentation, as the vegetables discovered by M. Cagniard Latour in the liquids undergoing the alcoholic fermentation, are; and as to the infusory animalcules, they exist as well in the alkaline as in the acid portion of the fermenting milk.

9. The microscopic vegetables of the milk, figured by M. Turpin as resulting from the transformation of the milk globules, are equally developed on the surface of the butter, previously melted and treated with ether, and on the surface of milk which has been filtered and entirely freed from globules.

10. No experiment can demonstrate the existence of one or two vesicles in the milk globules: all the facts establish, on the contrary, that they are perfectly homogeneous.

'Lond. Med. Gaz., Nov. 15, 1839, p. 302.

11. The best method of preserving milk is boiling it on a sand-bath in vessels which are afterwards hermetically sealed.

12. The butter resulting from the agglomeration of the fat globules of the milk may be obtained in a vacuum of carbonic acid gas, in hydrogen, &c. It cannot, therefore, be admitted that it is formed under the influence of the air by a combination of oxygen or acidification.

13. There is a constant relation between the secretion of colostrum in women before delivery, and the secretion of milk after. Women are, in this respect, divisible into three classes. 1st, Those in whom there is scarcely any secretion of milk to the end of gestation; and in whom there is secreted only a viscid liquid containing scarcely any milk globules, and but few granular bodies; in those the milk after birth is poor and in small quantity. 2d, Those in whom the milk before birth is more or less abundant, but poor in milk globules, which are small, ill-formed, and often mixed with mucus-globules as well as granular bodies; these characters indicate a greater or less quantity of milk after birth, but that it will be poor and serous. 3d, Those in whom the colostrum is rich, in well formed and full-sized milk globules, and mixed with no other substance than the granular bodies: these characters in general announce an abundant supply of rich and good milk atter birth.

14. With respect to the influence of age on nurses, it is remarked that among the people of Paris, it is rare to find a good one after thirty, while those in the country are in their full vigour at that age; as to the influence of locality, it appears from the tables of mortality that the mortality of children is least in prosperous provinces, among people who have plenty of cattle, and especially of cows; in this respect Normandy holds the highest rank. The colour of the skin and hair does not appear to have the influence generally attributed to it; among 400 nurses the results were balanced between the brunettes and the blond; but among 9 red-haired women only 5 presented satisfactory qualities. The developement of the superficial veins of the breast, and various sensations which women feel during gestation, are unimportant; while the developement of the nipple, the brown or at least well-marked colour of the areola, and a certain firmness of the breasts, accord generally with an abundance of good milk. The external appearances which are most important in this respect, are a certain degree of general plumpness, and a moderate fulness of the breasts.- Comptes Rendus, Sept. 18, 1839.

On some New Signs of Suspension having taken place during Life. By M. DEVERGIE.-In a memoir presented to the Academy of Medicine, M. Devergie notices two circumstances which, in cases of hanging, will prove whether suspension has taken place during life or not. The facts of an ejaculation of sperm in the last moments of life, in cases of hanging, and of the existence of spermatic animalcules in urine, when an emission of urine has immediately followed an ejaculation, are well known, and have led M. Devergie to search for these animalcules in the urethra of persons who have been found hanging. If in such cases the urethra be slit open, or, better still, if its contents be pressed out into a watch-glass, we find a mucous matter, more or less thick, exhaling a strong odour of semen, and containing here and there the peculiar animalcules which are found in the human spermatic fluid alone. But the place of these is occasionally supplied by a number of small rounded bodies resembling the animalcules without a tail; these M. Devergie conjectures, may be spermatic animalcules in an imperfect or rudimentary state. However that may be, the presence of semen in the canal of the urethra is a certain sign that suspension took place during life. The second circumstance is that the end of the penis is so reddened and

'Brit. and For. Med. Review, Oct. 1839, p. 572.

moistened by a mixture of semen and mucus as to give the idea of a gonorrhoea having existed; whilst the corpus cavernosum and spongiosum are so filled with thick black blood as to form a striking contrast to the paleness of the same parts in cases of natural death. This sign is of as much value as the existence of sperm in the urethra, and is observed with greater facility. -Bulletin de l'Académie. Nov. 20, 1838.

Medical Schools of the West.-We learn from a postscript to Prof. Mitchell's introductory lecture, that there were in that school-at the period of the publication of the address-230 students. A private letter from a professional friend in Cincinnati informs us that the number at Louisville on the 29th was 181, in Cincinnati 120.

Vermont Academy of Medicine.-This institution, which had been suspended for a time, has been reorganised; and we are glad to observe that one of our townsmen- -Dr. James Bryan-has been appointed to one of the chairs. The Faculty consist of Horace Green, M. D., Theory and Practice of Medicine; Robert Nelson, M. D., General and Special Anatomy and Physiology; James Hadley, M. D., Chemistry and Pharmacy; James Bryan, M. D., Principles and Practice of Surgery; Joseph Perkins, M. D., Materia Medica and Obstetrics; and Ralph Gowdey, M. D., Medical Jurisprudence.

The annual session for public lectures will commence on the second Tuesday of March, 1840, and continue thirteen weeks.

BOOKS RECEIVED.

From the Publishers, Marsh, Capen, Lyon & Webb, of Boston. The first volume of Dr. Gross's Elements of Pathological Anatomy. [We shall notice this useful work in our next.]

From the Author.-Introductory Lecture before the Albany Medical Col'lege. Delivered Nov. 12, 1839. By Thomas Han, M. D., Professor of Institutes of Medicine. (Published by request of the Class.) 8vo, pp. 30. Albany, 1839.

From Professor Sewall, of Washington.-An Introductory Lecture, delivered at the opening of the Medical Department of the Columbian College, Nov. 4, 1839. By John Frederick Mayo, M. D., Professor of Anatomy and Physiology. 8vo, pp. 24. Washington, 1839.

From Dr. Wm. H. Rockwell.-Third Annual Report of the Trustees of the Vermont Asylum for the Insane. Presented to the Legislature, Oct., 1839. 12mo, pp. 24. Montpelier, Va., 1839.

From the Committee.-A Report on the Origin and Cause of the late Epidemic in Augusta, Ga. Submitted to a meeting of the Physicians of Augusta, on the 10th of December, 1839. 8vo, pp. 30. Augusta, Ga., 1839.

ART. I.-ENDEMICO-EPIDEMIC FEVER, PRESUMED TO BE INDUCED BY ANIMAL DECOMPOSITION-APPARENT ABSENCE OF VEGETABLE DECOMPOSITION.

BY WILLIAM MAXWELL WOOD, M. D., U. S. NAVY.

[This interesting communication is possessed of double value at the present moment, when the origin of the endemico-epidemics of the south are topics of discussion. If it should not establish that animal decomposition was the cause of the disease described, it affords ample reason for the belief that vegetable decomposition could have had no agency in the causation.Ed.]

Fort Kemble, E. Florida, Nov. 8th, 1839.

Dear sir,-During the past summer, while attached to the U. S. steamer, Poinsett, doing duty on the coast of Florida, for the suppression of Indian hostilities, a diseased condition manifested itself among a portion of our crew, the facts and circumstances in connection with which tend, in my opinion, to throw some doubt upon the generally received theory respecting miasmata; and you may perhaps deem them of sufficient interest for insertion in your periodical.

At the southern extremity of Florida, and about twenty miles from_the main land, is a small coral neck of twelve acres' extent, called Indian Key. Its surface, with the exception of a few insulated trees, presents a naked, white, clean exposure of carbonate of lime; and there is not on the Key a natural receptacle for water as large as a wash-basin,-rain being collected in cisterns for the use of the inhabitants, who number from fifty to sixty. The houses, which have all been erected upon the plan of a single proprietor, are neat, new, one story cottages, separate from each other, raised two or three feet from the ground, on stone supports, and ranged around the island, facing the ocean, with a large open space back of them; the breezes from the sea, have thus a clear sweep over the Key and through all the buildings. There is nothing to generate vegetable miasmata, and the place enjoys a freedom from disease, such as might be expected from its character, location, and the equable temperature of the climate.

The commander of the expedition thought it necessary to leave a detachment at this place, and thirteen men in charge of an officer were quartered in two of the above described cottages, on the southern side of the island. After an absence of some weeks, on Sept. 23d, the steamer returned to Indian Key, when the officer in charge and one of the men, were found suffering under violent febrile disease. They had been for two days under active unprofessional treatment. In the case of the officer there was high delirious excitement; in that of the man there was less cerebral disturbance,

but oppressive pulmonary congestion, and as this latter condition diminished, the brain became more affected. Two other cases presented themselves on the day after our arrival, in both of them there was much prostration of the powers of life; one of them was found about 6 o'clock in the evening, lying on the floor in a condition of insensibility, secretions flowing from the mouth, eyelids widely separated, pupils dilated, great difficulty of utterance; having all the appearance of being deeply intoxicated. This mau died in seven hours after he was first seen; the other, taken on the same day, in fortyeight hours. The officer expired on the fifth day after our arrival, having been during the whole time a raving maniac, and no means being successful in procuring sleep.

On the second day after our arrival, all the men with their luggage were removed on board the steamer; but several other cases appeared, marked by cerebral oppression, nervous agitation, but little disposition to reaction; intense pain in the head, back, and limbs; the skin and conjunctiva assuming from the third to the fifth day a very yellow tinge.

These cases were all among the men who had been stationed ashore; but the disease now showed itself among those who had simply visited the quarters, and in these cases it presented a different type, the tendency to reaction being greater, and the grade of fever much higher. Of these cases one had slept a night in the quarters, and the others had only passed a few minutes there, and that after their abandonment. All the phenomena of this disease were such as I have seen resulting from the influence of marsh miasmata in its various degrees of action, from the condition of overpowering congestion seen in the "cold plague" of the Mississippi, to the symptoms marking the yellow fever of our southern states and the West Indies. An examination of the houses which I made myself, although there was displayed a want of cleanliness, showed no accumulation of decomposed vegetables, either in, under, or around them; but there was an oppressive animal, jail-like smell, which seemed to emanate from the houses them

selves.

There had been much and continued intemperance among the men, and part of a barrel of spoiled salt beef, which was very offensive previous to our departure, had been covered with fresh brine, and served out as the men's rations. This beef was stowed in one of the houses, and had just been consumed as we arrived. Such were the facts gathered during our researches after the cause of the disease. As the cases accumulated and became crowded on ship-board, a large room, eighty by forty feet, the rigging-loft of a three story building, was engaged as an hospital. This room had double doors and two large windows at each end, and six smaller windows on the side next the sea. Vigilant attention was paid to the cleanliness of this place, and during the whole of our occupancy of it, the wind blew half a gale from the N. E., and the weather was quite chilly, yet here a third class of cases presented themselves. Upon the convalescing of the original cases, four of the hospital attendants, men fresh from the ship when we moved to the hospital, were taken, and I suffered severely from the disease myself. Upon our convalescence Assistant-Surgeon McCreery had an attack. All of us had visited the infected houses after they had been evacuated, none had passed more than a few minutes there; the longest period, perhaps, being that passed by myself, during the investigation of the cause of the disease, and the case of the assistant-surgeon did not present itself for nearly three weeks after he had been there. The treatment was such as seemed appropriate to the pathological condition supposed to be indicated by the symptoms. The state of congestion, oppression and pain, being met by general local bleeding, measured by the relief given to the symptoms; warm pediluvia, together with sinapisms and blisters to the extremities.

Where there was much reaction, heat of the head and skin-in addition to bleeding, we used cold affusion and sponging, with the continued admi