ART. X. An additional Account of the lythontriptic Power of the muriatic Acid, with an Analysis of the calculous Matter discharged in one Case, during its Use; also an Account of the lythontriptic Power of the nitrous Acid, with an Analysis of the calculous Matter discharged in a Case during its Employment. By PETER COPLAND, LittleBytham, near Stamford.

THE attention of Mr. Copland to the lithontriptic proper ties of the muriatic acid, was first excited by cases of its successful employment, related in the fifth and sixth volumes of the Memoirs of the Medical Society of London.

The cases here detailed afford sufficient evidence to induce a farther trial of the muriatic and nitrous acids in calculus. In the first, thirty drops of the muriatic acid were taken in water three times a day; the dose was gradually increased to 'fifty drops, and continued till two ounces were taken, when the complaint was removed. The patient was directed to collect daily, in one vessel, all the urine which could be obtained in twenty-four hours. The clear urine was then poured off, and the sediment collected upon a paper filtre. The sediment thus collected amounted to 104 grains, of a buff coloured impalpable powder.

One hundred grains of this powder subjected to chemical analysis, was found to contain

In the other case, (that of Sir Simon Kelly, of Colster worth, Lincolnshire) forty drops of the diluted nitrous acid were taken in water every two hours, till a sediment appeared in the urine; and afterwards continued four times a day, while necessary. Twenty-seven ounces of the diluted acid were used. A sediment soon appeared, and by persevering with the medicine from November 12, 1805, to April 20, 1806, 600 grains of a light thick coloured powder were col lected; in which, toward the conclusion, a few fragments of

calculus

calculus were found, partially decomposed. One hundred grains of this sediment, subjected to analysis, gave

During the treatment of these cases opium was occasionally given to mitigate pain; costiveness was prevented by mild laxatives; and when the stomach was oppressed by the frequent doses of the acid, it was relieved by taking any convenient spirit diluted with water. It appears, from this gentleman's observations, that the nitrous acid possesses greater lithontriptic powers than the muriatic: and that in many cases of lithiasis, it always procured a discharge of sediment with the urine; and a due perseverance in its use was followed by a removal of the symptoms.

ART. XI. An Account of the Larvae of two Species of Insects discharged from the human Body. By T. BATEMAN, M. D. F. L. S.

As a record of facts, on a subject of considerable interest in the sciences of medicine and natural history, Dr. Bateman's paper may be considered as valuable. Whoever adds one unequivocal truth to a department in science, abounding with, at least, doubtful histories, may be considered as the benefactor of mankind.

Without having recourse to the animalcular hypothesis to account for fever, &c. it cannot be denied but painful, and even fatal cases, have arisen from the existence of the larvæ of insects in different parts of the human body.

In the first case related, the larva of the common black beetle (tenebrio molitor. Lin.) was discharged from the bowels: in the second, the larva of the common house-fly (musca domestica minor. De Geer), was thrown up from the stomach by vomiting.

Dr. Bateman accompanies his details with a general view of the subject, as found in the records of natural history and medicine, and with observations on mistakes which have often misled the physician.

ART.

ART. XII.

Case of Fungus Hæmatodes. By JoHN
HENRY WISHART, Surgeon.

THIS disease occurred in a child three years old. When Mr. Wishart first saw the patient there was a tumour as large as the fist, situated on the right side of the head, surrounding the ear, and extending from the zygomatic process downward on the anterior side of the neck. This tumour was soft and inelastic; the integuments covering the part anterior to the external ear, were of a whiter colour than natural, but immediately behind the under part of the ear they had ulcerated, and a small fungus was observed to protrude, discharging a thin foetid sanies, frequently mixed with blood, and occasionally a slight hemorrhage occurred. A brownish substance protruded from the meatus externus, resembling in colour the surface of the ulcerated part.

From the 10th of August, the time when Mr. Wishart first saw the case, the swelling increased rapidly; a livid spot ulcerated three weeks after its appearance, a fungus grew up from this spot, which frequently sloughed off, but was quickly regenerated, and discharged a large quantity of fœtid bloody matter, and frequently hemorrhage to the extent of an ounce or two occurred. The symptoms became daily more severe, accompanied with pain, which increased with them until the 22d of September, when the child died, exactly fifteen weeks and four days after the appearance of the disease.

The tumour was examined after death. It very much resembled the engraving of Mr. Astley Cooper's case in Mr. Wardrop's work on Fungus Hæmatodes; was as large as the child's head, and weighed forty ounces. It was a fungous mass, soft and friable, had a most offensive smell; and a slice of it compared with a slice of the brain, was in appearance so similar, as hardly to be distinguished from it. An aperture was observed in the squamous portion of the temporal bone, through which a small part of the tumour had passed inward, and formed a depression on the middle lobe of the brain, about half an inch in depth. This portion of the tumour was the size of a small egg, of a round shape, connected with the external tumour by, a narrow neck, and did not adhere to the brain. The dura mater was destroyed at the part where the depression was formed; in other respects the brain was sound.

It is remarkable that the patient's general health was but slightly deranged; for during the progress of the disease, till

within a few days of his death, he slept well, had no thirst, heard distinctly, and even more acutely, it was believed, on the diseased side; vision was unaffected till the four last days of his life; he was never observed to be comatose, and could move the upper and lower extremities frequently.

ART. XIII. Case of præternatural Anus, found in a Portion of Ilium protruded at the Umbilicus. By J. PEAKE, Surgeon.

A CHILD was born with a portion of ilium protruding at the umbilicus, in which was an external opening. Through this passed some meconium, as it did also by the natural The child lived two days.

anus.

ART. XIV. Appearance upon Dissection of two_Dogs,. which were killed while labouring under Rabies. By THE SAME.

No fact relative to the nature or cause of rabies canina should pass unnoticed. Upon this principle it is, that we insert the appearances discovered by Mr. Peake, on the dis section of those dogs. It is to be wished that we had undertaken his examination unbiassed by the opinion that the disease is seated in the mucous membrane of the oesophagus and stomach.

Upon opening the stomach of the first dog, it was found to be nearly empty; containing only a small quantity of short oat straw, some grit, and a portion of gastric juice. The mucous membrane was inflamed at different parts, both in the stomach and oesophagus. The intestinal canal was nearly empty, and of its natural appearance.

The stomach of the second dog was found much distended with pieces of straw and hair, and some grit or earth. Its mucous membrane appeared slightly red and inflamed generally; but at the extremity, near the pylorus, was a greenish spot about the size of a shilling, with a narrow line of the same colour, extending upward; the result, as it appeared to Mr. Peake, of preceding inflammation. The oesophagus was of its natural colour.

Cursory Remarks on Corpulence. By a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons. 8vo. London. 1810. pp. 44.

THAT Obesity is ever an actual disease, if we are not prepared to deny, we cannot fully admit. When it exists to a certain degree, though it may hardly be called a morbid

state

state of the system, yet it may oppress some organs so much, and blunt their functions so effectually as to render life burthensome, if it be not destructive to vitality. Whether in the strictness of language a natural action of the system, and which is peculiarly energetic in the most healthy state, can be considered as a disease, might be disputed, even though nosologists have given it a place in their systems under the generic term Polysarcia. Be this as it may, physicians have not been inattentive to its progress, and have stated with great precision, some instances of the excessive increase of adipose substance. In the Transactions of the London College of Physicians, the case of Thomas Wood, a miller, of Billericay, in the county of Essex, affords a remarkable instance of the inconvenience of corpulency, of a train of morbid effects apparently connected with it, and of as remarkable a relief from alarming symptoms, by persevering in a most abstemious regimen. In his 40th year, Wood be gan to grow very fat. In his 44th year he became disturbed in his sleep, complained of heart-burn, of frequent sickness, pains in his bowels, head-ach, and vertigo. He was some, times costive, and at other times in the opposite extreme; had almost a constant thirst, great lowness of spirits, violent rheumatism, and frequent attacks of gout. He had likewise two epileptic fits. But the symptom which appeared to him to be the most formidable, was a sense of suffocation, which often came upon him, particularly after meals. Whether these are the symptoms that arise out of a sudden accumula tion of fat, we cannot determine; but certain it is Wood was relieved from them all by a course of rigid abstinence. He relinquished animal food, eat nothing but pudding made with flour and water, drank no kind of fluid. Under this spare diet bis complaints vanished, his size was reduced, and he became chearful and alert.

The third volume of the Medical Observations gives an interesting case of a man who died from an enormous increase of internal adeps without its existence being manifested by any great degree of external corpulence. The symptoms were singularly anomalous, and the inspection of the body ascertained that a large mass of fat filled the upper part of the breast; that in the abdomen there was an amazing collection of adipose substance, not only in the omentum, but in the mesentery and mesocolon, where not a vestige appeared of blood-vessels, glands, &c. which all were buried in a prodigious heap of fat. This fat had no where formed a preternatural tumour, or changed its consistence or colour, but was accumulated in an unusual quantity wherever it is natu

rally