so powerful as not to be exhausted at its source, the effect of a low temperature, acting on the surface of the body, (and the same rule applies to icy potations,) is to increase the vigour of the actions of life. If the original source be exhausted or enfeebled, the effect is to destroy or to enfeeble the constitution. Hence the explanation, why in wintry regions of the earth, the most general effect on the human race is to destroy the feeble and invigorate the strong.

M. Pelletan's views, in this point, are confirmed by the observations of Dr. John Davy, on the effect of a climate nearly equatorial in increasing the heat of central parts of the human body, several degrees above the average standard. This is necessary in those regions, even at the lessened rate of human vigour generally found there, to keep up the currents of caloric from the heart and lungs to the evaporating surface. At the other extremity of the scale, if we apprehend his ideas correctly, we should look to find the Hyperborean race of men, the Laplanders, Esquimaux, and Samoiedes, possessing a lower degree of heat in the centres of circulation than the inhabitants of the temperate zones; an inquiry requiring future labour for its answer.

It is obvious that these considerations will explain the effects of cold as a hygienic agent, in strengthening the human body; as well as furnish a neat explanation of the phenomena of what is called reaction against cold. We know that a similar train of reasonings has passed through some minds; but the memoir of Professor Pelletan is the first instance in which we recollect to have seen it published.

B. H. C.

ART. XVIII.-Die Lehre von der Zurechnungsfähigkeit bei zweifelhaften Gemuthszustanden. Fur Aartze und Juristen praktisch dargestellt. Von Dr. ADOLPH SCHNITZER. Berlin: 1840.

The Doctrine of Responsibility in cases of doubtful State of Mind.

Ir is not extraordinary that in a country of learned men, the subject of Dr. Schnitzer's work should excite discussion. As late as 1838, Professor Mittermaier, an eminent German jurist, published a treatise with a similar title. "De principio imputationes alienationum mentis recté constituendo."

So much has been accumulated, both of facts and reasoning, on this matter, in Europe and our own country, that we purpose, at as early a period as possible, to present a full view of it to the readers of this journal. Dr. Schnitzer has pursued his investigations systematically, and notices, amongst other points, the following:

The imputation of responsibility to those who are pregnant-mania sine delirio, amentia occulta, mania transitoria-on the imputation of illegal acts committed during a lucid interval-monomania-the responsibility for acts committed during sleep, dreaming and somnambulism; the same as to acts committed during a state of intoxication, and the condition of mind induced by habitual drunkenness, and delirium tremens; and the same as to acts committed by the deaf and dumb, and by epileptics. T. R. B.

ART. XIX.-A Practical Treatise on the Human Teeth: showing the causes of their Destruction, and the means of their Preservation. By WM. ROBERTSON. With plates. First American from the second London edition. Philadelphia: LEA & BLANCHARD, 1841. 8vo. pp. 229. Pl. VI.

NEARLY all the writers on the diseases of the Teeth, have maintained the opinion that these organs are possessed of vital properties, and that caries of them is the result of an inflammatory action. Mr. Robertson, on the contrary, comes forward in support of the doctrine, that the teeth are not vital organs, but that the enamel and bone of the teeth are, strictly speaking, inorganic sub

stances; and that their destruction is effected by chemical and not by inflammatory action. He supports this view of the subject by many weighty facts. A single one only we shall notice, but that seems to us almost conclusive as to caries being the result of chemical action. He states that when artificial teeth are fixed to a gold frame or the fangs of natural teeth, "if any crevice or interval, however small, be allowed to exist between the frame and teeth, a recess will then be made for the reception of minute particles of food, and a process of caries will commence in the extraneous teeth, exactly like that which takes place in the teeth naturally contained in the jaw." Page 83.

Cruvelhier, one of the latest writers on the anatomical relations of the teeth, regards them as appendages of the epidermic tissue, analogous to the nails, hair, &c., and like these structures, not endowed with vitality, and we believe that the weight of evidence will be in favour of this view.

We have not space to enter into further details on this subject, but must refer those who are interested to the volume of Mr. Robertson. This is evidently the production of one who has had much experience in dental surgery, and we strongly recommend it to those who practice that art.

ART. XX.-An Essay on the connection of Mental Philosophy with Medicine. By NATHAN ALLEN, A.M., M.D., editor of the American Phrenological Journal and Miscellany. Philadelphia: 1841. 8vo. pp. 32.

THE objects proposed by the author of this essay, is to inquire, 1st. Why the cultivation of metaphysics is so generally neglected by medical men? 2d. To point out the intimate connection of mental philosophy with medicine; and, 3d. To offer some remarks upon the importance of a knowledge of this science to the physician. These are important topics, and Dr. Allen has discussed them in an able manner. His essay is sensible and well written, and will be read with pleasure and advantage.

ART. XXI.-Boylston Prize Dissertation, for the years 1838 and 1839, on Scrofula, Rheumatism, and Erysipelatous Inflammation. By EDWARD WARREN, M.D., Fellow of the Massachusetts Medical Society. Philadelphia: 1840. pp. 122.

THESE dissertations furnish a very excellent summary of the existing knowledge in relation to three highly important diseases, and will be considered a valuable contribution to our medical literature.

SUMMARY

OF THE

IMPROVEMENTS AND DISCOVERIES

IN THE

MEDICAL SCIENCES.

ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY.

1. Fibres in the Walls of the Gall-Bladder.-M. BARTH exhibited to the Anatomical Society of Paris, a dilated gall-bladder, in the parietes of which were manifest fibres, interlaced, and greatly resembling muscular fibres.-L'Expérience, Nov. 19, 1840.

2. On the varying Proportion of some of the Principles of the Blood in Disease.— MM. ANDRAL and GAVARRET experimented on the blood of 200 patients, or 360 different blood-lettings; and the process followed in their analyses was the same as that used by MM. Prevost and Dumas. They ascertained that, in disease, taking 1000 parts of blood, the fibrine may vary in proportion from 1 to 10 in that quantity; the globules from 21 to 185; the solid matters of the serum from 57 to 104; and the water from 725 to 9151; but it was very rare to find these different ingredients increased or diminished simultaneously. Sometimes only one ingredient was changed in proportion, whether it was increased or diminished; sometimes two were altered, but generally in an inverse ratio, as, for instance, if the fibrine were increased, the globules were diminished, and vice versa. From this remarkable circumstance MM. Andral and Gavarret divide into four classes the diseases which produce an alteration in the composition of the blood.

The first class comprehends those diseases in which the fibrine is constantly augmented; such are the phlegmasiæ.

The second class comprehends those diseases in which the fibrine is never increased in proportion, but often diminished; such are the pyrexiæ.

The third class includes those diseases in which there is constant diminution of the blood globules, as in chlorosis, &c.

In the fourth class are included those diseases or morbid states in which the albuminous matter of the blood is diminished, as in Bright's disease of the kidney, &c.

But this simplicity of arrangement cannot always be observed; for it often happens that many morbid states, each of which produces its peculiar alteration in the blood, are met with in the same individual. In this case they were able to trace distinctly in the blood the indications of this complication.

Besides disease, losses of blood and low diet were found to have a powerfully modifying effect on the relative proportion of the ingredients of the circulating fluid, and somewhat masked, as it were, the peculiar alteration of the blood caused by disease. They chiefly acted, however, on the blood-globules which they diminished; but it was found that, from one blood-letting to another, the globules were not diminished in the same proportion in all patients. In this respect there were very great differences in different individuals; so much so, indeed, that whilst one would between each bleeding lose only from 2 to 3 parts in the 1000, another would lose from 30 to 40.

At the same time that the blood-globules diminished from blood-letting, the fibrine most generally maintained its original proportion, rarely diminished, but sometimes increased.

When the disease was of that nature that the increase of the fibrine was one of its necessary results, this increase took place in spite of blood-letting and diminution of the blood globules. In order that loss of blood should effect the diminution of the proportion of the fibrine, it was necessary that it should be carried to a very considerable extent. It was then found that all the solid ingredients of the blood diminished simultaneously.-Edinburgh Med. and Surg. Journ., from Journal de Pharmacie, Sept. 1840.

3. Existence of Fibrine in the Blood in the Shape of Globules.-Since the time of Hewson, it has been the commonly received opinion, that fibrine existed in a state of solution in the serum of the blood. He arrived at this conclusion from observing that, when a buffy coat was forming on the surface of recently drawn blood, the clear serous-looking fluid collected from its surface with a spoon separated into serum and a fibrinous clot. Subsequent observers having remarked the same fact, arrived at the same conclusion; and it is not a little strange, that, whilst other portions of the blood have been frequently subjected to microscopical examination, this portion, (viz., the serous-looking fluid collected from the surface of recently drawn blood, and which forms the buffy coat,) has been passed over unnoticed. A few observers have, it is true, observed colourless globules in the mass of the blood, mixed with the coloured globules; but their true nature has never been hinted at.

Mr. Addison, on placing in the focus of a microscope, a drop of the serous fluid which collects on the surface of the clot, found it to consist of serous fluid, and "an immense multitude of clear colourless globules." Some of the same serous fluid, removed from the surface of the recent blood before coagulation had taken place, separated into serum and a clot of fibrine. This experiment was frequently repeated, and always with the same result.

It is astonishing that analogy did not lead physiologists or anatomists long ago to this very result; for, on examining any portion of fibrine with the microscope, each fibrilla is always found to present the appearance of a congeries or string of globules. This discovery will also explain many circumstances connected with the physiology of the blood, hitherto not properly accounted for. It will go far to explain the appearance of the buffy coat on blood drawn from a vein, as the different specific gravities of the fibrinous and red globules, in particular conditions of the blood, may account for the greater or less thickness of the fibrinous layer on the surface.-Ibid., from London Med. Gaz., Dec. 18, 1840.

4. The Physical and Moral Qualities observed in Adult Age are evinced at Birth. M. BLANCHET, from a long series of experiments and observations extended over twenty-five years, has arrived at the conclusion, that the future size, character, &c. of an individual may be pretty accurately guessed at a few days after birth.

His first series of observations had reference to the size of the individual. He marked the heights of 100 new born children, born between the years 1805 and 1810, and divided them into three classes according to their height. 1. Those who were shortest, and whose height did not exceed 16 inches, 6 lines, twentyfive in number. 2. Those of middle stature, sixty in number, whose height did not average more than 18 inches, 6 lines. 3. Those who were tallest, fifteen in number, whose height reached 20 inches, 6 lines. After a period of twenty years the survivors of these one hundred individuals, seventy-five in number, were again measured, and with the exception of seven individuals, they were found to hold to each other the same relative stature. Thus, those of the first class had attained a height of only 4 feet 11 inches to 5 feet. Those of the second class, that of 5 feet 3 inches to 5 feet 4 inches. Those of the third, 5 feet six inches to 5 feet seven inches, French measure. Of the seven exceptions, one had passed from the first to the second class, one from the first to the

third, and one from the third to the first. The other four were out of the way, and their stature could not be ascertained.

His next series of experiments were on the development of the brain, as connected with the intellect of the individuals. But we refrain from giving any detail of these, as they take for granted certain phrenological doctrines which do not appear to be proved. He embodies his conclusions in the following

words:

1. That the male infant, born at the full period, bears the impress of the character, inclination, and intellect which it will have at 25 years of age.

2. That the quantity and quality of the intellect (esprit) depends on the volume of the brain; but is influenced much by the greater or lesser development of its anterior or posterior parts.

3. That in 100 men, 13 are born stupid, 2 idiots, 7 with a good share of intellectual endowments, 2 men of genius, 1 disposed for deeds of cruelty, 2 with superior intellectual endowments, 22 with a greater share of spirit than ordinary, and 51 with good common sense. Ed. Med. and Surg. Journ., from Bull. de l'Acad. de Med., November 15, 1840.

PATHOLOGICAL ANATOMY.

5. Acephalocysts in the Brain. By Dr. MICHEA.-Acephalocysts are so rarely found in the brain, that we record a notice of two cases which we observed in the practice of M. Martin Solon. The symptoms in this first case, in a man fifty-three years of age, resembled those of sanguineous effusion into the right hemisphere of the brain, followed by hemiplegia. The dura mater was found very vascular, with slight serous effusion into the arachnoid cavity, and injection of the pia mater. Opaline vesicles were found in both hemispheres, but mostly in the anterior lobe of the left, of the size of large peas, containing a diaphanous liquid, the centre of which was occupied by a small, globular, opaque milky-white body, without head or tail visible by the microscope. The second case was an epileptic patient, aged twenty-three, in whom the acephalocysts were found in smaller numbers.-B. and F. Med. Rev., from Gaz. Méd. de Paris, November 2, 1840.

13

6. Rupture of the Fallopian Tube from accumulation of the Catamenial Fluid. Dr. MUNK was requested, early on Tuesday morning, October 24, 1837, to visit R. S., æt. 18, who, on his arrival, (about an hour subsequently.) was evidently in articulo mortis. Her pulse was barely perceptible, but extremely rapid; the skin was covered with a cold and clammy perspiration; there were low muttering delirium; tracheal rattle; the facies Hippocratica; and a continual involuntary discharge of the alvine contents. She died in a few hours.

"Upon making some inquiries into the history of the case, I was informed that she had never menstruated; that about eighteen months previously, when the evolution of the external organs of generation and of the mammæ rendered probable the speedy appearance of the catamenia, she suffered from headache, pains in the back and limbs, cold extremities, and a heavy dragging sensation in the pelvic region, with some bearing down pains. These symptoms, after a brief continuance, subsided, but returned in five or six weeks; again ceased, and then returned after a shorter interval. This state of things continued for three or four months, the symptoms upon each recurrence remaining longer, and becoming more urgent, whilst the intermission became shorter in duration, and less perfect; so that at last there was no intermission, but manifest exacerbations occurring every fourth or fifth week.

"In January, the lower part of the abdomen began to swell; a deep-seated tensive pain was felt in the pelvis; all her symptoms were aggravated, and there was in addition occasional vomiting. She still, however, kept about her usual employment, and took, by the direction of a neighbouring practitioner,