ly of a mode of treatment he has adopted for ulcers on the cornea. He places on the eye a little wad of cotton maintained by adhesive strips and a bandage. At the end of ten or twelve days, the conjunctivitis which accompanied the ulcer is found to have disappeared, and the latter has cicatrized or been very much reduced in size.

(Gazette des Hopitaux. Bulletin Gén. de Thérapeutique.)

To apply Camphor to a Blister.-This is often recommended to prevent strangury. To obviate the difficulty in powdering the camphor sufficiently fine, we see in the 28th vol. of the Bulletin Général de Thérapeutique, M. Vei proposes a saturated solution of this arti cle in ether. Spreading this on an oily or greasy rag, the camphor is deposited by evaporation.

Test for Bile, by M. PATTENKOFFER (Lancet, Oct., 1844).-Add to the fluid supposed to contain bile, concentrated sulphuric acid until it becomes hot, and then drop into it a solution of sugar; the presence of the bile is manifested by the mixture becoming of a deep pink, or red color, varying in intensity.

Secale Cornutum, its therapeutic action—by M. PAYAN. Gazette Médicale de Paris, June, 1845.-Since Dr. Olivier-Prescot introduced secale cornutum into therapeutics, numerous researches have been made upon it. For a long time it was regarded only as an excitant of uterine contractility, and even this specific property has been sometimes denied. At the present time it seems to be admitted that the secale cornutum acts not only upon the uterus, but also upon the rectum, the bladder and the inferior extremities, whenever these parts are in an asthenic condition. Its therapeutic effect being thus complex, we are compelled to refer its action to some organ which has the power of acting at once upon all these parts. According to M. Payan, the spinal marrow is the organ primarily affected by the action of the secale cornutum, and this opinion of the direct influence of this article upon the spinal marrow is supported by very ingenious reasoning, and what is better, by very interesting cases. These cases place beyond doubt the efficacy of this medicine in incomplete paralysis of the bladder, rectum and inferior extremities; and in all these cases, according to the author, the excitation is transmitted by means of the nerves which have their origin in the medulla spinalis or of the plexuses which emanate from it.

Treatment of Amenorrhea.-Dr. CHAUMET, of Bordeaux, prescribes the following enmanagogue pill, which many times has produced the happlest effects:

Take a pill thus made morning and evening. To aid the purgative effect of these pills, apply mustard and hot water to the feet, and dry cupping to the hypogastrium, and internal parts of the thighs.—(Bulletin de l'Acad. de Méd. Bulletin Gén. de Thérapeutique.)

Return of Suicides in France, during the year 1843.-According to the official returns made for 1843, there were 3,020 suicides in France that year. The Department of the Seine, of which Paris is the capital, furnished 551, or nearly a fifth of the whole number. Submersion or drowning was the mode generally resorted to-1093 individuals had recourse to this means--954 to strangulation or hang. ing-450 to fire arms--206 to asphyxia by charcoal. A fourth of the suicides did not possess the intellectual faculties entire. Among the number were 729 females, nearly a fourth-15 were under sixteen years old, 20 octogenarians, 170 septuaginarians, and 384 sexa. genarians.(Bulletin Général de Thérapeutique.)

MEDICAL INTELLIGENCE.

NEW MEDICAL JOURNALS.-We have received the first four numbers of the Missouri Medical and Surgical Journal, a new periodical, which is published in St. Louis, under the editorial management of R. T. Stephens, M. D. These numbers give evidence of a degree of enterprise and professional ability highly creditable to our brethren in the far West. The Journal is published in monthly numbers, each containing 24 pages. Price two dollars per annum.

We have also received the four numbers of The Buffalo Medical Journal, & monthly periodical of 24 pages, published in Buffalo, N. Y., and edited by Austin Flint, M. D. The original department contains a number of useful articles, and affords proof that there is in that section "sufficient material to commence an enterprise of this kind." Although, from the location of Buffalo, this Journal will come into close competition with some of the older, and established medical periodicals, the field is large enough for many laborers, and we doubt not the ability of the physicians of Western New-York, to perform their part, in the cultivation of the Medical Sciences-and establish a Journal of high character.

Our valued cotemporary, the New Orleans Medical Journal, comes to us with a new name-The Louisiana Medical and Surgical Journal, and with the addition of Profs. Harrison and Carpenter to the Editorial department. These changes have resulted from a union of the New Orleans Medical Journal, with a projected work, under the direction of the Professors just named. We doubt not that this union will prove highly advantageous, as it will enlist the whole profession in that section in its support. The ability with which this Journal has been heretofore conducted, and the valuable accession to its Editorial department, which it has just received, will most certainly secure for it an extensive patronage. We most cordially wish it success. The work is published every other month, in numbers containing 144 octavo pages,—at five dollars per annum, payable in advance.

NECROLOGY.-The death of M. Breschet, one of the Professors in the Faculty of Medicine at Paris, &c., &c., is announced in the French Journals as having taken place on the 11th of last May. He was one of the most industrious and honorable of the Surgeons in the French Capital.

The fortune left by the late Dr. Abercrombie of Edinburg, was $50,000 to each of his seven daughters, besides a considerable sum to the free Church of Scotland, of which he was an Elder. His family presented his library, consisting of 10,000 volumes, to the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburg:

AN INSTRUMENT designed for THE PERMANENT CURE OF HERNIA, HYDARTHROSIS, HYDROCELE, GOITRE, ENCYSTED TUMORS, AND TO DEPOSIT MEDICINES IN THE TISSUES OF THE BODY.-From the favorable opinion expressed by a few friends in regard to the Instrument, a cut of which may be seen on the opposite page, I am induced to offer it with a few remarks to the profession.

It is known that for the past eight or ten years, considerable attention has been bestowed on the subject of hernia. That the interest is not yet exhausted, and the matter still sub judice, may be seen by the following question proposed for the Boylston medical prize for 1847-"Is there any safe and certain operation for accomplishing the cure of common reducible inguinal hernia?"

The recent investigations upon this subject have resulted, I believe, in the pretty general adoption of some modification of the Truss, first proposed by Stagner, (Chase's or Landis's for instance,) and the rejection of any operation for the permanent cure of hernia. The dread of peritonial inflammation, the occasional success of the Truss, and the affection being considered simply an inconvenience, have induced great caution in the adoption of an operation not absolutely required. While a properly adapted apparatus is the correct treatment for rupture in children, and sometimes relieves the adult, still we can with no certainty promise a cure by it in the latter. To effect this we must resort to other means.

That even reducible hernia is something more than an inconvenience to patients, and that the Truss is but a palliative treatment, the many suggestions made, and operations proposed within the few past years, sufliciently attest. Some of these are, (Belmas,) by bladders of gold-beater's skin, sticks of gelatin, &c., deposited in the sac; (Gerdy,) by invaginating the skin and stitching it

A NEW INSTRUMENT-THE UNION OF THE SYRINGE WITH THE TROCAR.

1

1. Gold canula pierced with the stilet, which is as pointed as a needle.

2. Thumb-screw to fasten the stilet, and close the orifice in the piston when the stilet is drawn out. 3. Nob to remove the stilet.

[This cut represents half the size of the Instrument made for me by Mr. Murphy, Jeweller of this city.]

about the neck of the hernial sac; (Guerin and Velpeau,) by subcutaneous incisions and scarifications of the neck of the sac; (Bonnet,) with pins and rolls of linen; (Jameson,) by incision and intrusion of a piece of integument into the ring and retaining it by sutures; (Stith,) incision and insertion into the sac of a piece of kid or buck skin softened in mucilage; (Pancoast,) by trocar and injected fluid. Of these means, that by injection, from the uniform success experienced by it in hydrocele, would seem to merit most favor-the objection to the operation being the want of a suitable instrument, for Prof. Pancoast used a trocar, canula and syringe.

Having been recently consulted by a physician, who had been under the professional care of Professors Dudley and Geddings, and who was ready, as he stated, to submit to any operation, I had concluded to propose to him incision of the sac. A few days after this, Dr. Wozencraft, of Nashville, Tenn., called, and exhibited a small syringe, invented and patented for the cure of hernia, by a Dr. Jaynes, formerly of Virginia, but now of Missouri. This instrument is simply the upper part of a common silver pencil case, having a piston adapted to one end, and the other terminated in a gold pointed canula. An eye or opening near the point, allows the fluid to be injected into the sac after the hernia is reduced. Dr. W. prefers oil of cloves, from three to six drops is the quantity generally introduced, and he says that though hundreds of cases have been operated upon by the inventor and his agents, still no unpleasant consequences have followed. The operation requires repetition in some instances, and he also acknowledges that the spermatic cord has been punctured. His case operated on here, is doing well, and promises success; and so is the one upon which I have operated.

As a substitute for the patented Instrument, the one represented by the cut is suggested. and it may have some advantages over it.

1st. Not being patented, may be used by every physician.

2d. The point being moveable, there will be no danger of wounding other parts, in ascertaining when the canula is in the hernial sac.

3d. The Syringe being of glass, the action of the piston upon fluids, either in injecting or withdrawing them, can be seen.

4th. It may be employed as an exploring needle, to ascertain the contents of tumors, &c.

5th. The canula opens at the extremity and not at the side of the instrument. 6th. In its application to various affections. In hydrocele, for example, a puncture having failed to cure the patient, as soon as a re-accumulation commences, half-a-drachm of tinct. iodine may be injected. I believe the very last suggestion for this affection, was to pencil the tunica vaginals through the canula of a trocar with this article.

Operation with the Instrument.-Fill the syringe with the injecting fluid, by withdrawing the piston. Project the point of the steel stilet beyond the gold canula, and fix it by the thumb-screw in the handle, or ring of the piston. Place the patient in the horizontal position, reduce the hernia for instance, then with the fore-finger of the left hand invaginate the skin of the scrotum and spermatic cord into the abdominal canal. The instrument held as a writing pen, in the right hand, is introduced from above downwards upon the tip of the left fore-finger. The stilet is now withdrawn, the canula ascertained to be in