hollow polygonal tubes, some hexagonal, others pentagonal, and others quadrangular; each of these tubes is divided, internally, by a fine membrane into several dissepiments, connected by blood-vessels. In each of the organs, from two hundred to twelve hundred of these tubes have been counted in individuals of different age and size, some regular but others irregular, which may form electric batteries. Each organ is also traversed by arteries, veins, and nerves, in every direction, which last are remarkable for their size.” 398.

The two surfaces of the electric organ are supposed to be positive and negative. Almost always concealed in the mud these torpedos can kill the small fishes that come within their reach, or benumb the large ones. When attacked by the enemy, they can disable him by invisible blows. The Gymnotus Electricus has ten times more power than the Torpedo.

"It is stated that when the animal is touched with only one hand the shock is very slight; but when two hands are applied at a sufficient distance, a shock is sometimes given so powerful as to affect the arms with a paralysis for many years." 402.

"Humboldt gives a very spirited account of the manner of taking this animal, which is done by compelling twenty or thirty wild horses and mules to take the water. The Indians surround the basin into which they are driven, armed with long canes, or harpoons; some mount the trees whose branches hang over the water, all endeavouring by their cries and instruments to keep the horses from escaping for a long time the victory seems doubtful, or to incline to the fishes. The mules, disabled by the frequency and force of the shocks, disappear under the water; and some horses, in spite of the active vigilance of the Indians, gain the banks, and overcome by fatigue, and benumbed by the shocks they have encountered, stretch themselves at their length on the ground. There could not, says Humboldt, be a finer subject for a painter: groups of Indians surrounding the basin; the horses, with their hair on end, and terror and agony in their eyes, endeavouring to escape the tempest that has overtaken them; the eels, yellowish and livid, looking like great aquatic serpents, swimming on the surface of the water in pursuit of their enemy." 403.

In a few minutes two horses were drowned. One of the electric eels (more than five feet long) gliding under the belly of a horse, discharged its battery on the region of the heart, and repeated the assault. The animal, stupified by the reiterated shocks, fell into a profound lethargy, and sunk under the water, where it was drowned.

These formidable gymnoti, however, are soon exhausted by their electric discharges, and become harmless, till their powers are recruited by rest. "Swimming half out of the water, they flee from the horses instead of attacking them; and if they enter it the day after the battle, they are not molested, for these fishes require repose and plenty of food to enable them to accumulate a sufficient supply of their galvanic electricity." 403.

The fishing-frog, or sea-devil, as it is sometimes called, presents a remarkable instinct. It is often six or seven feet in length, yet it has neither defensive arms, nor force in its limbs, nor celerity in its movements. It makes up for the want of all these by cunning and stratagem. It plunges in the mud, or conceals itself among stones or sea-weed, letting no part be seen except the filaments that fringe its body. These appearing like worms, form a kind of bait by which the fishing-frog allures other fishes within its grasp, when it suddenly swallows them down its enormous throat!

We had hoped to conclude our Review of Mr. Kirby's work in this article, but find that it would require too much space. In our next number we dedicate ten or a dozen pages to reptiles, birds, and mammalians.

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MEDICO-CHIRURGICAL TRANSACTIONS; published by the ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. Volume the Nineteenth. Oct. 1835.

THE eighteenth volume was not complete by one-half; but, in consequence of the royal charter accorded to the Society, they have deemed it best to affix an index to the half-volume, and commencing with the nineteenth volume at once. The charter and bye-laws are prefixed; and now the "ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY" is fairly launched into the world. We wish it success.

The volume before us contains nineteen articles, a large proportion of which are of a pathological character. As they are not connected by any indissoluble or even natural ties we shall select the following for notice in the present Number of this Journal, and complete our notice of the remainder in our next. Some of the shorter papers will be found by our readers in our Periscope.

The contents of the volume may be arranged under three, or perhaps four heads:-Medical, surgical, and physiological. Pathology can hardly be separated from any of the above branches. We shall take the medical department first.

I. CASE OF PULMONARY PHLEBITIS. BY ROBERT LEE, M.D. F.R.S.

A young woman, 20 years of age, was delivered of her first child in the Parochial Infirmary of St. Martin's, 30th Nov. 1833. The labour was natural, and she went on well for five days, when a rigor occurred, followed by a profuse perspiration, dyspnea, pain in the left side of the chest, and over the abdomen. The pulse was rapid. Bleeding, calomel and opium and purgatives were employed. Diarrhoea and deep-seated pain in the re gion of the uterus were added to the other symptoms. She died on the 29th Dec. the pulse varying from 120 to 150, two shivering fits occurring each day, followed by profuse perspiration. There was some cough, with mucous expectoration. Dr. Lee got permission, through the assistance of Mr. Gosna, to examine the body. The following is the report.

"Inspection. The uterus had undergone the reduction of volume usually observed a month after delivery, and no morbid appearance was at first discernible in any of the abdominal or pelvic viscera. On slightly drawing up the uterus towards the brim of the pelvis, the fimbriated extremity of the left fallopian tube was seen adhering by lymph to the back part of the body and cervix of the uterus, and in the folds of the broad ligament near the left ovarium, an abscess about the size of a walnut was observed. On the left side, the veins of the cervix and body of the uterus were all gorged with purulent fluid, and lined with thin, ash-grey coloured false membranes; in the muscular tissue of the anterior part of the cervix uteri, was a small sloughy abscess. The left obturator, and the uterine branches of the internal iliac vein, were filled up with a soft yellowish coagulum of lymph, which adhered to the inner coat of the vessel, and contained pus in its centre, and was continued downward along the external iliac, terminating abruptly a little above Poupart's ligament. It also extended upward about half an inch into the common iliac, and terminated in a loose blunt point. A firm clot of dark-coloured blood, which did not adhere to the lining

membrane, filled the greater part of the remaining portion of the common iliac vein. Near the termination of this vessel, a coagulum of lymph, similar to that in the external and internal iliac veins, existed, which closely adhered to the inner membrane, and passed into the vena cava.

The whole vena cava, between its commencement in the common iliac and the entrance of the hepatic veins, was lined with a soft, yellowish-coloured pultaceous mass of lymph and pus, which adhered, in some parts loosely, and in others firmly, to the internal tunic of the vessel. The entrance of the right spermatic vein into the vena cava was closed with a firm false membrane, and the coats of the vena cava, above and below, were twice their natural thickness. The greater portion of the right spermatic vein was lined with dense false membranes of a bluish colour, and its coats were thickened and contracted.

The serous surface of the middle and inferior lobes of the lungs on the right side was covered with soft, yellow lymph, and their substance was hepatized. On cutting into the left inferior lobe the pulmonary texture was found dense, and of a dark red colour; and pus escaped from two branches of the vein, which traversed this portion of the substance of the lung. On careful inspection of the venous trunk and branches of the left inferior lobe of the lungs, all the appearances usually seen in inflammation of veins in other internal organs of the body were observed. The trunk of the vein, near its entrance into the left auricle of the heart, was found plugged up with a soft, yellowish-coloured clot of lymph, firmly adherent to the inner surface of the vessel, and extending into several of its principal branches in the substance of the lung. The coagulum of lymph on the outer surface was of a bright scarlet colour, when separated from the vein. The smaller branches of the vein, into which the solid lymph did not extend, were filled with pus, and in some parts were coated with a delicate layer of yellow lymph." 47.

The preceding is the only observation of pulmonary phlebitis which has fallen under Dr. Lee's notice. The case is remarkable for the great extent of the disease in other veins of the body. There can be little doubt that we have too much neglected an examination of the interior of vessels.

II. SINGULAR LACERATION OF THE PERITONEAL COAT OF THE UTERUS. By W. H. PARTRIDGE, Esq.

Mrs. B. was suddenly seized, when in the eighth month of pregnancy, with abdominal pains and bilious vomiting. In two hours serous, and then sanguineous discharge per vaginam. Opium, and afterwards some brandy, allayed the vomiting; but labour came on in six or seven hours from the commencement of the attack, and she was delivered of twins in two hours more. Great exhaustion succeeded-and the abdominal pain continued. An opiate was administered, without relief. She expired shortly afterwards. On opening the abdomen, a quantity of thin, dark-coloured blood was found, amounting to about 40 ounces, but no coagula. The uterus was well contracted, and, on its posterior surface, were several transverse lacerations, all more or less curved in form, with the convex part towards the fundus uteri. They averaged from half an inch to two inches in length, and were very various in depth. The cause of these curious lacerations appears to as inexplicable. There are a few similar cases on record; but they lead to no practical results.

III. OBSERVATIONS ON FIBRO-CALCAREOUS TUMORS IN THE UTERUS. By Dr. R. LEE.

Perhaps we should have carried our division farther, and left a head for midwifery-we beg pardon, OBSTETRICY. The pure physician and surgeon are fast losing some valuable portions of practice the physician-accoucheur hemming them in on one side, and the general practitioner driving them out of the other! Then they are clipped down by the dentists, the oculists, the aurists, the spine-doctors, the liver-doctors, the lung-doctors, the gout-curers, the shampooers, the vapour-doctors, the pox-doctors, cum multis aliis. However, we do not quarrel with these divisions of labour, seeing that they are productive of good in other sciences, and are probably beneficial in the healing art.

In the fifteenth and sixteenth volume of these Transactions, Dr. Lee endeavoured to give some account of those uterine affections which are the products of inflammation in one or more textures which enter into the composition of the organ: in the present volume he takes up the subject of tumors, not malignant ;-and especially the fibro-calcareous tumors and polypi-occasioning some of the most important affections of that class of uterine diseases. We regret that we shall not be able to do sufficient justice to this important paper, evincing great research, as well as accurate observation. We shall do our best, however, to comprehend its principal

features in this article.

The fibrous tumor (fleshy tubercle of W. Hunter,) is sometimes met with as small as a pea-in other cases, as large as a cricket-ball, or larger. It is generally of a globular form, or kidney-shaped, presenting, when cut into, a laminated or radiated semi-cartilaginous structure. In some cases the structure is granular, appearing like a congeries of smaller tumors, each having a thin capsule. The centres are sometimes found softened or liquid. In other cases, the density seems to increase with age, till the whole mass becomes cartilaginous, without vessels containing red blood. Or calcareous depositions are gradually formed in the substance of the tumor, till it is partially or wholly converted into carbonate and phosphate of lime They vary in density from that of pumice-stone to marble. In many cases which are glanced at, from other authors and contemporary practitioners, these tumors were accompanied by little or no pain. In the following case there was malignant ulceration in the uterus, and the sufferings were protracted.

Case. Mrs. B. aged 62, had suffered for many years from weight and uneasiness in the back, loins, and hypogastrium, with purulent or sanguineous discharge. She was married, but had no children. She ceased to menstruate at the age of 45 years. On examination, the hollow of the sacrum was found occupied by a large tumor, hard and connected with the posterior part of the uterus. The os uteri had undergone little change; but the fætor of the discharge and constitutional symptoms led to the suspicion of organic disease. In the course of severe suffering, some small irregular concretions escaped from the uterus, with temporary relief-and this occurred several times afterwards. In the month of November, 1833,

after a long day's journey, she was attacked with rigor, vomiting, acute pain and other symptoms of peritonitis, which carried her off in 48 hours.

Inspection. Dr. Webster was present at the examination. The usual effects of peritonitis were present. The fundus and body of the uterus were destroyed by malignant ulceration; and to the posterior part of the organ was attached a large fibro-calcareous tumor, filling up the hollow of the sacrum, and displacing the rectum. The ulceration had extended through The concretions were chiefly com

the parietes of the uterus to the tumor.
posed of carbonate of lime and animal matter.

A somewhat similar case has been recorded by M. Louis. And several others have been collected by our indefatigable author, for which we refer to the volume itself.

Fibrous tumors, when situated between the peritoneum and muscular coat of the uterus, give rise to no irritation, hæmorrhage, or derangement either of uterine function or general health. But when they attain a large size, and occupy a considerable space of the abdominal cavity, they produce all the numerous consequences of enlarged ovaria, from which, indeed, during life, they can seldom be distinguished. Under the peritoneum of the uterus, they do not prevent pregnancy; but when adherent to the posterior part of the body or neck of the uterus, they sometimes produce fatal consequences both to mother and child, by impeding its progress through the pelvis.

"When fibrous tumours are imbedded in the proper tissue of the uterus, women are frequently barren, or if they become pregnant, abortion takes place in consequence of the uterus being incapable of undergoing the necessary development in the latter months of gestation. When the ovum is not prematurely expelled, death may take place in such cases from uterine hemorrhage, soon after delivery. M. Chaussier saw a woman die from flooding, soon after giving birth to a full grown child, and there was a large fibrous tumour in the posterior walls of the uterus. This tumour was not situated so as to present an obstacle to the passage of the child through the pelvis, but soon after delivery it was perceived that the uterus had not the power of contraction. Profuse hemorrhage took place from that part of the uterus in which the tumour was lodged, the flow of blood could not be arrested, and the patient died." 111.

Dr. Lee examined the body of a woman who died after embryotomy of a still-born hydrocephalic child. The liquor amnii amounted to sixteen pints. Profuse uterine hæmorrhage followed the placental delivery-she died on the third day. He found a hard fibrous tumor, the size of a hen's egg, embedded in the muscular coat of the uterus, where the placenta had adhered. But we are unable to follow the talented and unwearied pathologist through this long and important paper. We can only make room for one short extract in conclusion.

"With respect to the treatment of the various tumours which have now been described, I have few observations to offer. Iodine, mercury, and all other remedies have little effect either in arresting their growth or promoting their absorption. Women who have fibrous tumour formed in the walls of the uterus, should avoid mechanical pressure of the hypogastrium, violent bodily exertion, and every other cause which may excite inflammation or a determination of blood to the organs within the pelvis. Where congestion has taken place, it should be removed by local blood-letting, mild cathartics, and anodynes. Profuse uteNo. 63.

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