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duced on a future occasion in the manner which was intended,at not later than seven months, the patient may probably havea living infant. With respect to the labour itself, it was com-pleted in a little over twelve hours. The use of the india-rubber bag was of great service in dilating the os and render-ing further manipulations easy, and, considering the difficultiesof the case, the patient made an excellent recovery. Thisresult is doubtless in great part due to the short time the softparts were subjected to severe pressure.

DREADNOUGHT HOSPITAL SHIP.FATAL CASE OF SCURVY; POST-MORTEM EXAMINATION.

(Under the care of Dr. WARD.)THE treatment of scurvy is so simple, and is now so satis-

factorily understood, that a fatal case rarely occurs in hospital.In the practice of the Dreadnought Hospital two deaths havetaken place during the past three years. The post-mortemexamination of the second case is here recorded, and is themore valuable as verifying notes of a similar kind includedin Dr. Budd’s valuable treatise on Scurvy in the Library ofMedicine.James G—, able seaman, aged twenty-six, was hoisted

into the Dreadnought on the 4th of May, with another sailorfrom the same vessel, and entered under the care of Dr. Ward.The outward signs of scurvy were by no means well marked,for the gums were but slightly swollen, and very little discolo-ration was observed about the legs. The body and limbs werevery cedematous, but there was no marked ascites. Great

general prostration and feeble pulse, with constipation duringthe preceding three or four days. He complained of difficulty inmicturition; the catheter was used, but little urine appearedto be secreted. He progressed tolerably well during the firsttwenty-four hours, but relapsed, and died suddenly forty-eight hours after admission.

Autopsy, forty-eight hours after death. - There was a

generally blanched appearance and cedematous condition ofthe body ; no rigor mortis. Brain : Tissues of the scalpmuch infiltrated with clear serous fluid; a large quantity offluid flowed from the subarachnoid spaces. Weight of thebrain, three pounds five ounces. Thorax : A pint of serousfluid found in each pleura. Lungs a little œdematous, butnormal in texture. Six ounces of serous fluid in the pericar-dium. Weight of heart, thirteen ounces; valves healthythroughout; tissues of the heart very pale, as were in-deed those of all the thoracic and abdominal organs. Abdo-men : Liver rotten in texture; weight, four pounds threeounces. Kidneys normal, weighing respectively five ouncesand a half and six ounces and a half. The spleen, whengrasped, collapsed completely, breaking up into an amorphoussemi-fluid mass, like black-currant juice. There were aboutten ounces of serous fluid in the cavity of the peritoneum.Coats of the stomach and of the small intestine healthy; theinner coat of the colon and sigmoid flexure much congested,and in many places studded with black spots, irregularly dis-tributed, but quite distinct from the appearances caused bydysenteric congestion or incipient ulceration, evidently super-ficial, and with no signs of active inflammation around them.There was a large accumulation of fæces in the rectum, and agreat amount of flatus in the upper half of the large intestine.A very small quantity of turbid urine was removed from thebladder, which did not clear upon the addition of nitric acid.The shafts of the long bones were sawn across near their extre-mities, and the medullary cavities were found to be filled witha dark, grumous substance of fetid odour. The left lower ex-

tremity was amputated at the middle third of the thigh, andthe parts, being dissected from above downwards, presentedthe following appearances. All tissues sodden with serous effu-sion, particularly the subcutaneous parts ; sanguineous effusionto a greater or less degree between all the muscles of the thigh,but most marked in and around the popliteal space, and gene-rally next to the periosteum. The latter was stripped from thefemur with the greatest ease, and at its lower and posterior partthere was, in an area of about half a square inch, sanguineouseffusion between the bone and the periosteum ; the latter wasuniversally thickened. The outer condyle of the femur was super-licially honeycombed by caries, but the cartilages of the knee-joint appeared unimpaired. Extensive sanguineous effusionsexisted between the superficial and deep muscles of the calf,especially upon the inner surface of the soleus. The periosteum

of both leg-bones was in a precisely similar state as that of thefemur, and along the posterior part of the fibula’s upper thirdthere was extravasation of blood between the bone and peri-osteum. The same appearances may be repeated as descrip-tive of the condition of the foot, effusions being most marked.in the neighbourhood of the ankle-joint, and deeply at thejunction of the tibia and fibula.

It is worthy of remark that in this case no fibrinous deposits’were found anywhere, either between the muscles in the neigh-bourhood of the lower joints, or between the larger muscles ofthe thigh or calf, causing that peculiar hardness on externalexamination which has been always considered one of the chiefdiagnostic marks of scurvy.For the foregoing particulars we are indebted to Mr. Harry

Leach, resident medical officer to the hospital.

Medical Societies.OBSTETRICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON.

APRIL 5TH, 1865.DR. BARNES, PRESIDENT.

DR. J. BRAXTON HICKS exhibited an improvement on themode of fastening the rope in his ecraseur, which will allowany length of rope to be used, thus doing away with the awk-ward and cumbersome addition of the endless drum of Weiss.Instead of using one hook or button on which to fasten themoving end, two hooks are now employed back to back,whereby two figure-of-eight hitches can be made, sufficient tokeep the rope from slipping. Should, during an operation,the hooks come down to the end of the screw without havingbrought all the noose through the eye or severed the growth,the hitch can be undone, the hooks run up to the top of thescrew, the ropes refastened, and brought down again as at thecommencement. The hooks should be made as neatly as pos-sible, but deep enough to hold two turns of rope.

Dr. MARION SIMS exhibited a new form of Curette for theremoval of uterine fungoid granulations.

Dr. GREENHALGH showed a new form of Uterine Tent madefrom the stem of the laminaria spiralis; the peculiarity beingthat it is a hollow tube instead of the solid stick heretoforeused. He also showed a new Pelvimeter, in which the index-finger is made available for the purpose of measurement, thesize of the pelvic brim being determined by a little contrivancefixed upon the examining hand.The PRESIDENT exhibited an instrument which he had used

for some time past for the purpose of dividing the cervix uteriin certain cases of dysmenorrhcea, metrorrhagia, and sterility.It resembled the scissors used for the same purpose by Dr.Marion Sims.

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Mr. R. KING PEIRCE showed a Foetus, born at full time,.and exhibiting at birth two lacerations : one extending throughthe integuments transversely across the abdomen, about thelevel of the scrobiculus cordis ; a second one across the throat,exposing all the vessels and muscles of the neck. The twolacerations had all the appearance of incised wounds ; but theevidence was clear that they had not been produced by any actof violence other than that of rapid delivery.

Dr. TANNER exhibited a Foetus the subject of Hernia Cerebriand Hernia Umbilicalis. A portion of the membranes werealso adherent to the cranium. He also exhibited a photographof an Anencephalous Fœtus.

Dr. ADOLPH RASCH read a paperON A CASE OF (EDEMA AFTER A FALL ON THE GRAVID

UTERUS; PREMATURE LABOUR; RECOVERY.

The woman, at the end of the seventh month of her second.pregnancy, fell down a steep flight of steps on her abdomen,and soon afterwards found herself swollen all over the lowerhalf of the body. The cedema, increased to such an extentthat her medical attendant considered her case hopeless. Dr.Rasch saw her eight days after the accident. She had enormousoedema of the belly from the navel downwards ; the labia weredistended into huge water bladders ; both legs swollen ; righthypogastric region painful on pressure; a good deal of albu.men in the urine, but no casts ; pulse quiet; tongue clean.

. She never had the slightest cedema before the accident. After-

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a few days Dr. Rasch induced premature labour, and the albumen and cedema then perfectly disappeared. Dr. Rasch considered the case interesting in point of diagnosis ; and helcthat the cedema was produced by the pressure of the uteruson the vena cava inferior, which would also account for thtalbuminuria. The author then specially directed the atten.tion of the fellows to Breslau’s mode of inducing prematurelabour, by simply introducing and keeping in the uterus arelastic catheter.

Dr. TYLER SMITH remarked that this operation was muchpractised by Prof. Simpson in Edinburgh.In reply to Dr. Graily Hewitt, Dr. RASCH remarked that a

distended bladder could not have been the cause of the œdema,as there were no symptoms of retention. He also differedfrom Dr. Hewitt as to the possibility of coagula in the venacava having caused the cedema, as they could not have disappeared so rapidly without symptoms of embolism. He (Dr.Rasch) could not explain the case otherwise than by pressureof the uterus on the vena cava, which was very favourablysituated for that condition where it passes over the right sideof the sacral promontory.

Dr. MEADOWS read the particulars of a Case of Monstrosity,and made some

REMARKS ON THE INFLUENCE OF MENTAL IMPRESSIONS

AS A CAUSE OF BODILY DEFORMITY.

Having first expressed his conviction in favour of the proposition that the mind can and does act in this way, he reviewedand combated the various objections urged against it; the

principal one being the absence of any direct connexion be-tween the nervous system of the mother and that of the fcetusthrough the umbilical cord. He, however, endeavoured toprove-or rather suggested the possibility, as it was not amatter admitting of any distinct proof-that mind, or themental force, was not and could not be thus bound down, asit were, by the anatomical limits of the nervous structures; thatit must have a power of action, if it has any action at all,throughout the entire organism, and in every part of it,whether it possessed nerves or not: in other words, that itssphere of action was only limited by the configuration of thebody. Hence it was inferred that in those tissues where theexistence of nervous elements could not be demonstrated, themental or nerve force might, as it were, pass across the inter-vening matter between any two parts where nerves did exist,just as electricity traversed space between any two conductors.The author then applied this reasoning to the case of the fcetusin utero, and offered an explanation of the mode by whichmind thus acts upon matter by supposing a kind of correlationbetween mental and nerve force analogous to the correlationof other physico-vital forces ; the nerve force being here theactive agent in those nutritive processes upon the changes ofwhich deformities depend.

Dr. RASCH said he had listened with great pleasure to Dr.Meadows’s paper, which boldly took up what was generallyleft to women, but which certainly deserved scientific in-

vestigation. The belief in the influence of mental emotion onthe formation of the fcetus was as old as it was general amongstwomen. The great difficulty was to establish facts, as themothers always recollected something from their pregnancyafter they found something abnormal in their children. Dr.Rasch had seen two cases which had somewhat struck him,and of which he had taken notes. Two boys from differentparts of Germany were brought to him with scarcely any fore-skin, looking exactly like circumcised little Jews, but withoutany cicatrices. Both women narrated, with great emotion,how they had seen during their pregnancies little Jews socruelly treated that they could not forget it ! They both hadbeen present at the well-known Jewish rite. He ought tomention, however, that he had observed the same state inother little boys where no such story was volunteered, andwhere the mothers did not know that this state was abnornual.He considered this influence on the fœtus an open question,which he had made up his mind to help in solving wheneverthere was an opportunity of doing so.The PRESIDENT observed that the instances most strongly

bearing upon the question were those in which pregnant womenstated explicitly the emotions supposed to influence the formof the fcetus in utero which they had undergone. One suchcase had been placed in his hands by Dr. Hassall, of Richmond.Certainly the facts of this were very remarkable, inasmuch asthe event singularly confirmed the statement of the woman Imade before her child was born. Dr. Barnes remarked thatmalformations were common amongst birds as well as quadru-peds , and that in birds it must be concluded that any mental i

impression must be imparted in the earliest stage of develop-ment-i. e., before the ovum was invested with the shell. Hecited an anecdote from Captain Speke, which showed that insome tribes in Africa the belief prevailed that emotion in thefctt7te)- might produce monstrous births. The traveller hadordered his native huntsman to expose the embryo in a preg-nant doe. He shrank from the task, fearing lest the kid strikinghis mind should metamorphose his wife’s future progeny to thelikeness of a fawn.

Reviews and Notices of Books.A Manual of Practical Hygiene, prepared especially for Use

in the Medical Service of the Army. By EDMUND A.FARKES, M.D., F.R.S., Professor of Military Hygiene inthe Army Medical School, Member of the Medical Councilof Education, Examiner in Medicine in the University ofLondon, &c. 8vo. pp. 612. London: Churchill andSons. 1864.

WE owe much gratitude to Prof. Parkes for having filledup a very ugly gap in English medical literature. Hygienehas no recognised part in the teachings of British physic.Such knowledge as the student of medicine may acquire ofthe conditions under which public or private health is best

.preserved he must gather at haphazard, and at a disadvantage.Of physic, the preserver, he is taught little; of physic, therestorer, much. It is still the old story, satirized by Moliere,—if we would but recognise it in a less flagrant modern dress:

" Grandes doctores doctrinæDe la rhubarbe et du sene."

It is true that the national health-condition is not anywherehigher than that in Britain, and that no people practise privatehygiene to so great an extent. But it may be questioned whetherin bringing about these great results physic exercised that influ-ence which ought justly to have been demanded from it. The

history of public health in England too clearly shows thatcivil medicine, like the civil population, was not aroused to adue sense of its responsibility, in regard to public health, ex-cept by pestilence ; and the history of the dead-lock at Scutari,in 1856, as certainly shows that military medicine had veryinaptly learned its duties until subjected to the pressure ofdisaster. This is no question of the exertions or teachingsof individuals. Happily, civil and military medicine hasabounded, and still abounds, with men whose knowledge hasnot been limited by a student’s curriculum, or by the con-ventionalities of a class. We refer to that absence of recogni-tion by the profession, as represented by its schools and exa-mining boards, of the importance of hygiene, both public andprivate, as a branch of the art and science of medicine. It isidle to expect that the profession will ever exercise that justinfluence over the public mind concerning public health whichit should exercise, until such a recognition takes place ; or thatmedical men generally will display until then that lively in-terest in hygienic matters which is necessary in order to foster,amongst the public, a proper appreciation of their moment.

It was to be hoped that the Medical Council would havesuggested the propriety of Hygiene being made a specialbranch of medical study. But hitherto the notes of the whistlefor which the profession has paid so dearly have been pitchedin much too low a key.

It would be well for civil medicine to take an example fromwhat military medicine is now doing. The official inquiry intothe sanitary state of the army which followed the CrimeanWar led, amongst other things, to certain hygienic dutiesbeing assigned to military medical men, and to the provisionof special means for acquiring a knowledge of those duties inthe Army Medical School, Dr. Parkes being appointed to thechair of hygiene. Why should not each civil school of medi-cine possess its class and professor of hygiene ?Few things more clearly show the neglect of hygiene by the

civil medical profession of this country than the fact that