belly, and particularly from confinement of bowels; and after a time she found herself gradually increasing in size, chiefly on the left side of the belly. Towards the end of June, when she supposed herself nearly three months gone with child, she applied to a professional man for relief. At this time she complained of violent pain on the left side of the abdomen, striking through to the back; of sickness at stomach, and pain in the head; and obstinate confinement of bowels, upon which the strongest purgatives were found to have little effect. Even now there was a considerable tumor on the left side of the body. She told this gentleman she was positive she was with child, but that she was very different in her own feelings from the pregnancy preceding. The above symptoms were so violent as almost constantly to confine her to her bed for some weeks, and even to lead to a suspicion that she would miscarry. After a few weeks, however, she found herself somewhat better, and began to feel the motion of the child distinctly. This distinct motion was observed for six weeks or two months, when it ceased altogether. A circumstance must now be mentioned to which she and her husband imputed many of her sufferings, but which a professional man will consider of little importance. Early in the month of June she was bit by a dog: this excited considerable alarm in her mind at the time, and the impression of her having sustained material injury from that accident remained to the day of her death. In the month of August she removed from the neighbourhood in which she had lived, and bespoke a respectable midwife to attend her in her expected lying-in; and not long afterwards she sent for the midwife, supposing she was about to fall into labour, though not at her full time, in consequence of violent pains in the belly. These pains were so different from labour-pains, that the midwife told her she was not in labour. The midwife saw her several times under the same circumstances. For the relief of these pains, in September, another professional man was consulted. He found her complaining of violent pain on the left side of the belly, which was increased on pressure; the abdomen enlarged to the size of the fifth or sixth month of pregnancy; obstinate costiveness; and a disposition to general emaciation. For the relief of these symptoms, opening medicines and opiates were prescribed. During the months of October and November, the midwife was repeatedly sent for in consequence of this poor woman having pains not unlike labour-pains, with a sensation of bearing down, and an occasional colored discharge from from the vagina. There seemed, however, no disposition in the parts for labour, so that the midwife at length gave it as her opinion that the woman was not with child. About this time a prolapsus of the vagina took place, In the beginning of December, she was again visited by the same professional gentleman, who found her under occasional pains not unlike labour-pains, with a colored discharge, and a sense of bearing down. On examination, he observed something external to the parts, which proved to be a prolapsus of the vagina: there was, however, no disposition to labour. The belly was considerably swelled and hard; the bowels confined: still the poor woman expressed a confident belief that she was pregnant and at her full time, but from the difference in her sensations, not having felt motion for some time past, she suspected the child to be dead. These symptoms continued more or less till the beginning of February 1813, when a violent diarrhoea commenced, attended with pain, and further emaciation of body. Her evacuations in the early part of it were particularly offensive, numerous, and large; and pieces of putrid animal substances were observed among them; and at one time she passed by stool one of the ossa femoris. She now expressed a belief that she was passing the dead child by stool. From the time that the diarrhoea took place, her belly began to diminish in size, and the rest of her body to waste away. These symptoms continued more or less to the time of her death in the following July; but she was able to crawl about in the open air till within a few days of that event, and to take nourishment.* Old Jewry, Sept. 6, 1813. JOHN RAMSBOTHAM, M.D. To the Editors of the Medical and Physical Journal. GENTLEMEN, THE following case having come recently under my care, the to I have taken the liberty to transmit you the particulars, not so much as possessing peculiar claims to your attention, as to prove the decided efficacy of medicine. *It is to be regretted that Dr. Ramsbotham did not attend this patient during her life. As it is, we are indebted to him for the relation of such particulars as he could collect; and we know, that he took great pains to obtain information from every individual who could throw light upon the subject. If any inaccuracy in the statement has occurred, allowance must be made, especially too, as it is entirely owing to the exertions of Dr. R. that the case is recorded.-EDITORS. No. 176. Tt Ellis, Ellis, a young woman of 20 years of age, I was called to see in my vicinity laboring under typhus, apparently of a peculiar malignity. Immediately on entering the room I complained of the excessive fætor, and inquired as to the state of the bowels; and was informed that every thing passed away involuntarily. Her pulse was feeble and quick. Her complaint was constantly of the head, and very significantly putting her hands to the sides of her head. Her tongue (shown by tremulous attempts) was covered with brown fur, and approaching sordes on the teeth and gums. Her anxiety and restlessness was such that she would have picked off every species of clothing but for surrounding attendants; and a constant muttering delirium, with occasional paroxysms of violence. Her incapacity for conversation, or to hearken to any thing that could have been suggested to her, rendered her situation truly deplorable. I advised that she should have infusion of tea liberally; opened the window, and desired it to remain so; put on a large blister upon the nape and shoulders; and gave Pulv. Antim. gr. xij. and Calomel, gr. vj. to be taken in honey every twelve hours. The first dose caused a profuse perspiration; the second acted usefully upon the bowels. She took four more such doses, and the feculent matter assumed a less diseased appearance gradually. At this period the head-ache had entirely left her; the motions were voluntary and relieving; the pulse firm and 86; the brown fur substituted by a greyish hue, but that moist, and confined to the centre of the tongue; looks distinctly at me, and smiles with gratitude; wants pen and ink to write to her father in Yorkshire. The day following I called to see that she had not relapsed, and found she had slept quite sound, and eaten several oysters. I think I may affirm, without the fear of contradiction, that had this young subject been loaded with bark and opium, she would soon have ceased to exist; and allow me to acknowledge my small tribute of the incalculable obligations medical men in particular, and society in general, are laid under to the laborious exertions and judicious treatment recommended by Dr. Clutterbuck in such fevers. I have the honor to subscribe myself, Bread-street Hill, Your's, &c. EDWARD SUTLIFFE. COLLEC COLLECTANEA MEDICA, CONSISTING OF ANECDOTES, FACTS, EXTRACTS, ILLUSTRATIONS, QUERIES, SUGGESTIONS, &c. RELATING TO THE History or the Art of Medicine, and the Auxiliary Sciences. On the Heat evolved during Inflammation of the Human Body.. By THOMAS THOMSON, M.D. F.R.S. HAT the heat evolved by the human body is very considerable, and that in cases of inflammation this heat is very much increased, are facts with which every body is ac quainted; but I am ignorant of any attempt hitherto made to estimate the increase of heat that is given off in cases of inflammation. On that account I think it worth while to record an observation which I had an opportunity of making upon myself, during the course of last winter. It is far from determining the whole heat given off during the inflammation; but as it is at least an approach towards accuracy, and as I was at as much pains as possible, considering the situation in which I was at the time, I conceive the statement will add another and a curious fact to animal physiology. During the month of January last, in consequence of walking about in rainy weather in thin shoes for a considerable part of the day, and afterwards sitting for several hours with wet feet, I caught a violent cold, which was attended with fever, and among other inflammatory symptoms a throbbing pain took place in the right groin, accompanied with swelling of the inguinal glands. To prevent this pain from proceeding to suppuration, I applied, for four days successively, and 36 times each day, two cotton cloths successively wrung out of cold water to the swelled part. The average temperature of the cold water employed was 40°. The cloths were removed when they felt hot; and from several trials this appeared to indicate a temperature of about 90°; so that each cloth, and the water which it contained, was heated at an average 50°. The first cloth dry weighed----530 grains The second -- 458 + 458 The first when wet weighed 1459 or 929 water + 530 cloth The second 1434 or 976 I made several experiments to determine the specific heat of cotton, but found it attended with unexpected difficulty. When Tt 2 When cotton wool is employed it is so elastic and bulky that you are obliged to use a much smaller weight of it than of the hot water with which you mix it. This occasions great inaccuracy. When cotton cloth is employed, a considerable time elapses before you can mix it properly with the water, and this occasions uncertainty. I state, therefore, the results which I obtained with considerable hesitation. The specific heat of cotton, by my trials, is 0.55, that of water being 1. I shall therefore consider it as half as great as that of water. We may, therefore, substitute for the two cotton cloths a quantity of water equal to half the weight of each. We may say, therefore, that 2399 grains of water were heated 50 degrees 18 times a day for four days together, making a total of 30 pounds troy heated 50° in the course of four days by the inflamed part. This is nearly the same quantity of heat that would have been requisite to heat 8 lbs. of water from the temperature of 40° to that of 212°. This amounts nearly to seven wine pints. So that in the course of four days this small inflamed spot gave out a quantity of heat sufficient to have heated seven wine pints of water from 40° to 212°; yet the temperature was not sensibly less than that of the rest of the body at the end of the experiment. The inflammation, however, was gone, and did not again return. Nor was this quantity of heat, considerable as it was, the whole that was evolved. Some was lost by the evaporation of the moisture from the wet cloth, which must have taken place to a certain extent, and some must have made its escape during the night, when the wet cloths were applied very irregularly, and at long intervals.-Annals of Philosophy. Additional Observations on the Effects of Magnesia in preventing an increased Formation of Uric Acid; with Remarks on the Influence of Acids upon the Composition of the Urine. By WILLIAM THOMAS BRANDE, Esq. F. R. S. Prof. Chem. R. I.-Read before the Royal Society, June 3, 1812. In a paper which I had the honor of laying before this society, about three years ago, and which is published in the Philosophical Transactions, some cases are related, illustrating the effects of magnesia in preventing an increased formation of uric acid, and some experiments are detailed, instituted with a view to discover its mode of action. Since that period, many opportunities have occurred, both For 1813, p. 106. to |