PART II.-REVIEWS AND EXTRACTS.

ARTICLE IV.

The American Journal of the Medical Sciences-Edited by ISAAC HAYS, M. D., October, 1844.

The present number of this quarterly, although not heavily freight. ed with such original matter as should be expected in a work of its pretensions, brings us the details of several cases of interest. Its first article is from the pen of the venerable Professor WARREN, of Boston, who has recently become satisfied of the superiority of the Bi-lateral over the lateral operations of Lithotomy. We are happy to find such high authority corroborating an opinion we have long since entertained, and feel surprised that this able surgeon should have been so tardy in testing a method long since adopted by many, and possessing such obvious advantages. We cannot agree with him in the preference he gives to the knife over Dupuytren's Lithotome cache, nor can we perceive any force whatever in his objections to this instrument. It must certainly be by far the safest instrument with which the bladder can be opened, independently of the facility and simplicity it imparts to the operation.

The article contributed by JOHN WATSON, M. D., of New-York, on organic obstruction of the Esophagus, contains the particulars of his case of Esophagotomy, and the history of the operation, which has been very rarely performed. Dr. W.'s case in itself (independently of the skill and ingenuity displayed in prolonging the life of the patient,) is calculated to throw but little light on the subject, and its result is not such as to encourage others to penetrate the Esophagus, except as a dernier resort in cases of impending death. The Doctor suggests the propriety of making an opening into the stomach itself, in cases of insurmountable stricture of the Esophagus with progressing inanition, and cites the repeated instances in which perforations of that viscus have terminated favorably. It may be apprehended, however, that the operation performed under the only circumstances that could justify it, namely, impending death from inanition, would not be so apt to terminate favorably as when it has been the result of

accident, and in a system not previously enfeebled by long suffering and insufficient nutrition.

The article on Isopathia or the Paralleli-m of Diseases, by Dr. JOHN M. B. HARDEN, of Liberty county, Georgia, is highly creditable, and evinces much research and correct views on one of the most important classes of maladies. The more we study the effects of the cause of Intermittent fever, the more convinced will we become of its power to give rise to phenomena the most discordant in appearance, yet all traceable by the enlightened physician to the same deleterious agency. and controled by the same class of remedial means. The stamp of intermittency, either complete or partial, is the grand characteristic of all the morbid phenomena, however varied in other respects they may be, that owe their development to this unknown and widely pervading cause.

Dr. TABB's Statistics of Deaths in the Philadelphia Hospital during a period of twelve years, possess much interest, as must do all such papers when judiciously and accurately drawn up. As illustrative of the value of such documents, we will cite a few of the results obtained by Dr. TABB. The treatment of Mania a potu has, it is well known, been generally by opiates, and during the first six years, included in these tables, when this plan was used, the deaths averaged 1 in 10, whereas during the latter six years, when alcoholic drinks were substituted for opiates, there occurred but one death out of 223 cases. Again, in the Women's Asylum, in which neither opiates nor alcoholic drinks were resorted to in the treatment of this disease, there was also but one death in 128 cases. Such facts need no comment, We have long since entertained strong doubts of the advantage of opiates, and relied principally on the cold shower bath as the most powerful and prompt means of allaying the ravings of delirium tremens. The table of diseases of the Respiratory organs, shews that one fourth of the fatal cases of Pneumonia occurred in children under the fifth year of age, and of Bronchitis more than one third. Although these proportions are undoubtedly much greater in the latitude of Philadelphia than in Georgia, they are certainly much greater here than is usually believed, a fact of which the profession will becoma more aware as the use of the stethoscope becomes more general with our practitioners. On the subject of the Exanthemata, it is found that the number of deaths from Measles is much greater than from Scarlatina. It is to he regretted that the proportion of deaths to cases admitted of the same disease, is not included in these tables, with the exceptions given in relation to Mania a potu.

D.

ARTICLE V.

The New-York Journal of Medicine and the Collateral Sciences— Edited by SAMUEL FORRY, M. D. Nov. 1844.

The periodical, the title of which is given above, is published every two months, and has now reached its ninth number, having fully realized and sustained the anticipations of all acquainted with the merits of its very able Editor. We are not of those who regard a multiplicity of medical journals or of medical schools as having an injurious effect on either medical literature or medical instruction. Indeed there is no proposition, the fallacy of which has been more fully established by experience. It is notorious that the number of contributors has uniformly increased in a direct ratio with that of periodicals; and able observers who had never before lent their aid to the advancement of science, by publishing the results of their labors, have been incited to do so by the establishment in their vicinage of a medium of easy access. Nor is the case dissimilar with regard to new medical schools. The very appointment of individ. uals to Professorial Chairs acts as the most powerful incentive to exertion, not only on the part of those who must prepare themselves to teach, but also on the part of all who come under the reach of their influence and who possess sufficient professional pride not to permit themselves to be distanced in the race for scientific distinction. We therefore hail every new journal and new school as the sure precursor of a better state of things within the whole range of their respective influence.

The profession in New-York are justly entitled to an organ of communication with our extensive country, and we sincerely wish the fullest success to the work now before us. Among the contributors to the 9th number, we remark the name of a distinguished physician of a sister city, all of whose articles that have come under our observation, evince a mind well stored with professional as well as literary lore, and a ready pen to communicate the deductions of sound judgment. The article of J. LE CONTE, M. D., of Savannah, is entitled, "Extraordinary Effects of a Stroke of Lightning;" but, not confining himself to the mere narration of the circumstances

attending the case, the writer takes occasion to touch upon various subjects of much interest. The function of menstruation having been singularly affected in two of the individuals who received the electric stroke, the writer reviews the present state of our knowledge of this interesting peculiarity of the human female-the age of its occurrence and final cessation-its connection with the state of the ovaries and impregnation, &c. He then passes to the consideration of the general and local effects of electricity on the human body, and its use as a remedial agent; and concludes with many valuable remarks on meteorology. The whole article is highly creditable to the writer.

Article II. is from the pen of the Editor, Dr. FORRY, and is on the "Nature and History of Vital Statistics," than which no subject possesses more intrinsic value to society. Dr. F.'s attention has been for some time strongly directed to this kind of research-his contributions are therefore always interesting. With the following remark, the writer furnishes a few tables, which we cannot refrain from transferring to our pages.

"All the phenomena of the human frame, but more especially the physiological acts connected with reproduction, the development of man's faculties, and mortality, when examined and measured in a great number of individuals, it has been proved by observation, furnish a mean result equally correct with that of any other physical phenomena."

"As regards diseases, it will suffice to give a few instances from the Fifth Registration of Births, Deaths, and Marriages in England, as presented in the following table:

But even the conditions which seem to depend wholly on accidental causes, have the same constant recurrence, as is shown in the following table in reference to the recruitment of the French army.

NUMBER OF YOUNG MEN IN FRANCE WHO HAVE BEEN EXCUSED MILITARY SERVICE ON ACCOUNT OF BODILY INFIRMITIES.*

The reports of criminal justice in France show the same remarkable constancy as regards the annual perpetration of crimes, and their punishments, as appears from the subjoined tablet:

937

983

895

1,730

1,539

1,272

561

423

359

4,044

3,579

4,222

463

367

342

9,168

9,058

10,286

11,783

9,979

11,259

These results assuredly merit the attention of the philosopher; for it is here seen that even moral phenomena, apparently the most acci

Quetelet's Treatise on Man. Edinburg Edition, p. 109.

+ Ibid., p. 6.