traordinary retention of chalybeate pills in the intestines, and suggests a salutary caution in the employment of such remedies, especially to those females who empirically resort to them. but both concurred in stating, that none had been used within the preceding six months. For From this time the pills passed were collected, and above fifty were thus obtained. The identiF. G., a delicate girl, 17 years ty of the pill was established by old, who had never menstruated, chemical analysis; Mr. Cuff, a was seized with acute pains of very intelligent chemist of this the head, and general fever, city, having demonstrated the the health having for sometime chalybeate impregnation. previous been been in a declining the most part they were passed state. Three children, in this separately; a few masses, howefamily, had fallen victims to hy- ver, were discharged, in which drocephalus, a fact which render- from six to eight were conglomeed the assemblage of symptoms, rated. At first they were swolin this case, sufficiently formida- len to about twice the original ble. A hot skin, parched tongue, size, but evaporation of the fluids flushed face, with eyes bright and absorbed, soon reduced them, so sparkling, added to the severe that when compared with pills pain of the head, and inordinate taken from a fresh box, oven the action of the heart, denoted active outward appearance perfectly disease within the brain. The corresponded. attack yielded to prompt and decisive treatment, the particulars of which I need not detail, the object of this paper being to record an unexpected occurrence which took place in the course of it. Under the early purging it was notified to me, that the pills administered were passing unchanged. Satisfied that they were little likely to remain undissolved, I directed the pills discharged with the stools to be saved, and, on inspecting them, I readily perceived that they were none of those which I had prescribed. I now learned, for the first time, that twelve months before, this girl had been persuaded by a lady to employ Hooper's pills as a remedy for amenorrhoea, and that she had, at different times, taken three boxes of forty pills each. The mother and daughter were not agreed as to the precise time when the last were taken, The long retention of these pills was itself sufficiently extraordinary; but the degree of mischief occasioned by such a quantity of iron being so long lodged in the bowels, demands more serious scrutiny. It appears to me to have injured in two waysby disordering the bowels, and by producing excitement in the heart and arteries, with determination of blood to the brain. The bowels were in a highly morbid condition, the stools being foul to a degree, greatly exceeding that of ordinary febrile motions, and continuing so in despite of active and steady purging. The abdomen was concave, so as to give the impression of the parietes being nearly in contact with the spine; it was tense, its skin harsh and dry, and a diffused tenderness pervaded the whole. The irritability of pulse, too, was unusually slow in yielding; for though bloodletting, purging, calomel, antimony, and digitalis, made due impression on the more formidable symptoms, the action of the heart continued inordinate, and palpitation, with throbbing pulsation in the head, prolonged distress, and very slowly abated. It is almost superfluous to add, that the general emaciation was considerable. Hooper's pills, I believe, con HEMIPLEGIA, CURED BY CARBO- WILLIAM WALTERS, an unhealthy sist chiefly of iron and myrrh. CASE OF CHOREA, PRECEDED BY Prepared in large quantities, and remaining an indefinite time in the shops, they acquire great hardness, and possessing naturally but little solubility, it is not surprising that they should pass through the bowels unchanged. The retention of such a quantity, for more than six months, is less easily comprehended, and only to be understood on the supposition of their having lodged in the cæcum, or in the expansions of the colon, found between its annular bands. Being thus insoluble, it may be conceived that they were harmless, further than as a foreign body exciting mechanical irritation, This supposition, however, ean hardly be maintained, when it is recollected that though undissolved, so far as regards their obvious bulk, they were permeated by fluids to the extent of doubling their size, and that a means thus existed for the saline ingredients escaping, and mixing with the intestinal fluids. I can conceive nothing more likely to excite the heart and arteries inordinately, and dispose the body not only to general inflammatory action, but more especially to acute disease within the head, than such a medicinal agency continuing uninterrupted for so long a period. The boy stated that he had been ill upwards of six weeks, being first attacked suddenly in the night with loss of power on the right side of the body; to this shortly succeeded universal chorea, and the affection was so severe that the muscular agitation continued even during sleep. In the absence_of Dr. Elliotson, his colleague, Dr. Scott, directed a purging powder, composed of scammony and calomel, to be given every second morning; and at the same time, leeches to be applied to the temples. This plan of treatment was continued without producing any melioration till the 9th of October, when Dr. Elliotson prescribed two drachms of the carbonate of iron, to be taken twice a day. On the 13th of October, the report was, that the chorea was rather less. On the 24th, no further improvement had taken place, and the carbonate of iron was directed to be taken three times a day. On the 7th of November, finding the disease did not yield, Dr. Elliotson The facts here recorded are directed the carbonate of iron to be exhibited every six hours. The report made on the 20th states, that the patient is much better; he is quiet during sleep, and can hold objects more firmly. On the 28th, he was still improving, and on the 15th of December there was scarcely any disease remaining. On the 25th of December he was reported as quite well, and left the Hospital shortly after. The improvement which took place in the boy's countenance and bulk, during the exhibition of the carbonate, was very striking, and its effect in controlling the disease was no less remarkable. When the boy was admitted, he could scarcely walk or stand, and the agitation of the whole body was very great, continuing, as we before observed, even in sleep. During the time that the patient was taking the carbonate of iron, he took aperient medicine only three times. We had an opportunity of seeing the boy about three weeks after he left the Hospital; he was then living as servant in a family, and was in perfect health. CURE OF THE DEAF AND DUMB. "Dr. Andre, of Brussels, whose fortunate cures of three children born deaf and dumb, have already been mentioned, has just operated with the same success on the son of M. Maurus, baker, at Bruges, aged fourteen years. We find in the Gazette of West Flanders, the details of this operation, which took place on the 26th of Dec., and for which the lad came to Brussels with his father. The perforation of the left ear was effected in less than five minutes, and, at the same moment, the boy heard the ticking of a watch and the barking of a little dog. The operation of the other ear took nearly half an hour, because the lad, too deeply affected by his new sensation, could scarcely contain himself." TAPPING THE PERICARDIUM. A girl named Skinner, fourteen years of age, residing in White Street, Cartergate, in this town, had this operation performed on Wednesday, the 14th ult. She was attacked with rheumatism in January last, at which time Mr. Jowett, the parish surgeon, detected by the use of the stethoscope, that the pericardium was inflamed. By the adoption of very active measures, the severity of the disease was subdued, and she appeared to be recovering for sometime; but the stethoscope, conjoined with other signs, indicated that considerable effusion or dropsy had taken place into the pericardium. On the 13th of February she became much worse, and on the 14th was so bad, that it was evident she could not survive the night, unless some relief was afforded. operation having been previously proposed, was then consented to, and performed the same afternoon, by Mr. Jowett, in the presence of Dr. Manson, the consulting physician, an assistant, and the patient's friends. It was at first intended to have drawn the fluid out by means of a syringe pump, fitted with proper apparatus, but an accidental circumstance occasioned what has since proved a material improvement, namely, the evacuation of the fluid into the left cavity of the chest, which being in a healthy state, absorbed it in a very short time. Within twelve hours after the operation, there was a manifest improvement, and we are happy to say, that though she still remains in a very exhausted state, considera The facts it contains, and as comprising the information which is scattered through many voluminous works. The subject which it embraces is such as to entitle it to the attention ble hopes of recovery are entertain ed. It is with great pleasure we announce, that this important and dangerous operation has been performed, for the first time, by a townsman. Desault, an eminent French surgeon, attempted it twen- of every medical practitioner. It ty years ago, but discovered, after seems to us to fill a space which is the patient's death, that he was not occupied by any single work in mistaken in the complaint. M. the English language. The accuLaennec and several others, have rate plates annexed to it must be since proposed it, but no one, till considered as adding greatly to its the present instance, has hitherto ventured to perform it; and should value." it prove successful, it will redound This work is so clear and instincto the credit of our ingenious and tive, that it will be of great utility skilful townsman.-Nottingham, in every family where there are Eng. Review. children, by enabling those who have charge of them, early to sus BOSTON, TUESDAY, MAY 22, 1827. pect or to ascertain the presence of BRERA. We beg leave to call the attention of our readers, professional and domestic, to the treatise on worms, which is advertised in this day's paper. The first part of the work contains the natural history of all the principal worms which inhabit the human body; in the second the author treats of their origin in the human system; in the third he describes the various diseases, general and local, produced by worms; the fourth and last division of the work is devoted to the best methods of curing these diseases. In five excellent plates all these worms are represented of their natural size, and the engravings exhibit also dissected and magnified views of them. The medical Professors of Harvard College have expressed the following opinion of the work. these unpleasant inmates, and in many instances to obviate the causes which favor their production. To the practitioner it is almost indispensable in enabling him seasonably to perceive their influence in occasioning a number of the disorders to which we are subject, and in rendering others more complicated and obscure, and more difficult to relieve. All these circumstances, and others, in favor of the work, have been more fully pointed out and acknowledged both by English and American reviewers, than can be repeated here. Those physicians who have felt the aid to be derived from Brera, in their attempts to destroy human worms and to cure the singular and dangerous complaints which they often produce, would feel that their efforts and resources would be comparatively nothing without his facts and remedies to work with. An opinion has sometimes been ex "This book appears to us highly. valuable on account of the numerous pressed that all children have more ed for this sudden illness and death of a child, who was just before in perfect health to all appearance. On examining the body after death, a number of large and still living worms have been found in different parts of the stomach and bowels. No other cause than the presence of worms can be given for this unexpected and painful event ;-hence no child who has many or few worms is safe till they are expelled from the system. We say few, because we have seen this fatal event to follow, as far as could be ascertained, from the presence and irritation arising from one or two worms only. It is certain that from the want of grateful food, from something taken into the stomach which disturbs worms, or from some other unknown cause, they are capable by their movements, or by compressing, pricking, or in some manner not satisfactorily explained,-in some of these ways, they are capable of irritating and paining the nerves of the alimentary canal so as to bring on insensibility, or fits in so sudden and powerful a manner that no remedy can be interposed, in time to save the victim. Much of the preservation then of children must consist in ex pelling these worms before they have done the mischief they are capable of effecting. "To decide the uncertainty where worms are suspected, and effectually to expel them where they are known to exist in the human body, is not the least embarrassment of the physician's occupation," and that this book will materially aid him in such an attempt, no one will doubt after reading it. Brera's Treatise has appeared successively in the following lauguages; the Italian, the German, the French, and the English. The American edition is considerably enlarged with new matter. Lee's Pills.-It seems that five pecks of these articles are manufactured a minute, by steam. Where, in the name of all that is found for such a consumption? bilious, are the mouths to be Consumers must be manufacturedby steam also, or pills will become as cheap as they ought to be.— N. Y. Courier. The annual report of the Vaccine Establishment in London, states, that 503 deaths occurred from smallpox within the last twelve months, only within the bills of mortality; those of the year preceding were 1,299. The late Dr. Horne, Bishop of Norwich, among his collection of anecdotes, has the following:-In one of our universities there were: six physicians; of two, their breath was very offensive, one was remarkably slender, two were exceedingly quarrelsome and turbulent, and one They were called plague, pestilence, was very ignorant of his profession. and famine, battle, murder, and sudden death.-Mirror. |