clared it to be a collection of animalcula, while Sennebar affirmed that it is a particular species of confervæ. It has been lately described by Barry de St. Vincent as a number of independent green vesicles without motion, constituting plants of the simplest structure in nature. In order to reconcile, if possible, this discrepancy of opinion, and to ascertain the exact truth, Dr. Edwards repeated the original experiments. He put a piece of veal into a large receiver, with water, exposed to the sun; he did not invert the receiver in a basin of water, because his object was to examine not the air emitted, but the green matter produced. Before the green matter was formed, a drop of the water was examined with the microscope; a number of white, transparent vesicles, of various dimensions, were immediately seen moving about with great rapidity; consequently these were animalcules, of the tribe of Monades. When the green matter began to form, a drop of water was again examined with the microscope; monades, of the same figure and magnitude as had been observed before, were again seen, with this difference only, that instead of being white, they were now green. From this experiment it was natural to conclude, that the white, transparent monades had undergone, by the influence of light, the same change that is produced in the blanched parts of vegetables, which, when exposed to the light, are known to become green. It was further observed, that these monades lost all power of motion when the water evaporated. If water were added immediately after the cessation of motion, they again began to move; but if allowed to remain dry for a short time, they never recovered the faculty of locomotion, though they still retained unchanged their form, their color, and their general appearance. It was also ob served, that if any of the monades adhered to the sides of the glass, they would equally lose their motion, and exhibit every appearance of vegetable life. The reason of the discrepancy of the accounts of former experimentalists was now apparent. It was obvious that these vesicles, acquiring or losing, according to the circumstances in which they are placed, the power of locomotion, had been considered by some as animals, and by others as plants. A similar experiment was performed with the leaf of the horsechesnut. The separation of the vesicles of which the tissue of the leaf consists, was observed in the manner already described. As soon as the vesicles at the margin had assumed a rounded form, and had become completely detached from the cluster, they were seen to put themselves in motion, and they continued in full and rapid action. It was further observed, that these vesicles contained smaller vesicles, exactly similar to those in the tubes of conferva, and that these smaller vesicles, when the membrane that contains them dissolves, are also capable of acquiring spontaneous motion. But one fact more was necessary to render this chain of observations complete, and this has recently been supplied. The membranes containing these vesicles have lately been discovered to consist of elementary globules of exactly the same form and size as those which constitute the tis ་ sues of the higher animals; this discovery supplies the link that renders this chain of observations, from beginning to end, complete. We now can comprehend the formation of the moving vesicles which constitute the green matter produced by the decomposition of veal. We have seen that the muscular fibre of all animals is composed of a series of globules; from these experiments we learn, that so soon as this fibre begins to be decomposed, and its elementary globules to be set free, globules precisely similar to the elementary are seen in motion. These elementary globules constitute the species of animalcules termed the Monas Termo. It is probable that a new arrangement of these globules, so as to form vesicular membranes, gives rise to the vesicular monades, which, at first white, become green by the action of light, and form the green matter. We can now understand the appearance of monades from the infusion of vegetable matter, because the preceding experiments show, that when the cellular tissue of plants is in a state of decomposition in water, and is resolved into its component organic parts, these organic parts are capable of acquiring independent life, with or without spontaneous motionmeaning by organic parts, either simple vesicles, or vesicles containing smaller vesicles. As all the preceding observations relate to that elementary structure to which life itself is attached, they must be capable of the most extensive application; because whatever is once ascertained to be true, relative to the elementary organization and action of a living being of any descrip tion, will ultimately be discovered to be true of all, and that in particular they are immediately applicable to the explanation of that primary and essential process of life which had hitherto been veiled in the deepest mystery, namely, the process of nutrition; for the separation, which, under certain circumstances we have seen takes place, of the organic particles of which vegetable and animal substances are composed, is a process which must, in a general point of view, bear a great analogy to that by which animals, in the course of digestion, convert vegetables into their own substances, and plants appropriate to themselves the animal matter contained in the soil. From the whole of what has been stated, the following general and highly important conclusions are deducible-That the simple organic constituent parts of plants and animals dissociated, in certain circumstances, are capable of independent life; that in this state they are susceptible of two different modes of existence, one in which they are incapable of motion, the other in which they are capable of great locomotive power; that, therefore, the same simple being may be modified so as to exhibit the appearance of vegetable or animal life; that the death of a being, the organization of which is complicated, does not destroy the susceptibility of life in its organic constituent parts; that a certain process of decomposition gives life to these parts when separated, after the cessation of life in the entire being of which they were primitively a portion; that this process of decomposition consists in a separation and modification of the organ ic parts, or of the most elementary organs; that a total decomposition or resolution of the vegetable or animal substance into its ultimate chemical principles, namely, carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and azote, is the only thing that can utterly destroy all susceptibility of life in the constituent parts; that so long as organization, however simple, remains undisturbed, there is a capacity for life, and that the transformation which hourly takes place during the progress of nutrition in general, and of digestion in particular, a transformation of vegetable into animal, and of animal into vegetable substance, together with the restoration to life of those substances that are used as food, and which, when thus used, are destitute of life, is not confined to the living apparatus of animals, but is capable of taking place out of them. was performed by the intrepid Lisfranc, with complete success. The attachments of the tumor ran down among the pterygoid muscles, but the chief was to the condyle of the lower jaw. The hemorrhage was profuse, and the danger and difficulties of the operation such as to have appalled almost any other surgeon. From the London Med. and Phys. Journal. On the Inefficacy of the act of Vo- I was called, a short time since, to Susan Walmea, a young woman, aged sixteen, residing at No. 5, William Street, Newington; the messenger informing me that she was laboring under violent pain of the stomach, suspected to arise from poison. I found her writhing under great torture, The facts on which these de- which she referred to the epigasductions rest, together with the tric region; her tongue was loaded evidence by which their validity with a thick buffy coat; her is established, we have stated breathing quick and oppressed; with great conciseness, perhaps her pulse imperceptible; her greater than is consistent with body cool, the extremities icy leaving on the mind so strong a conviction as is warranted of their value and completeness; fully to expound and illustrate them, would require a much larger space than it is possible to allow to such an object; we have, therefore, contented ourselves with giving, in a short compass, an account of the present state of our knowledge on this very interesting and important subject. Westminster Review. EXTIRPATION OF THE PAROTID A case is related in the Revue cold. She complained of a "burning heat" in the mouth, and a sensation of constriction of the fauces, or "choking," as she termed it, amounting almost to suffocation. Her thirst was insatiable, and she called incessantly for water. She had vomited severely for two hours, and her bowels had been frequently purged with dark and offensive motions. I asked her what she had taken? to which she replied, fifteen pennyworth of laudanum and half a teacupful of arsenic. The matters she had vomited had not been preserved, and I had no means, therefore, of knowing what had been thrown up; but, aware of the extreme tenacity with which arsenic adheres to the mucous membrane of the stomach, I considered it my duty to cleanse this organ mechanically, notwithstanding the exhausted state of the patient indicated the probable approach of dissolution. Two quarts of water were injected with the stomach pump, and withdrawn ; when two quarts more were thrown in and withdrawn, in a similar manner. I was proceeding to inject a further quantity, when a change of the unhappy patient's countenance and appearance warned me that death was nearer at hand than the symptoms had at first foreboded. I therefore withdrew the tube, caused her to be laid into bed, and she expired ten minutes afterwards, having survived the fatal dose about six hours. . By an officious interference of some persons about me, the portion of fluid first withdrawn from the stomach had been thrown away; but, on inspecting that of the second operation, I discovered a pulverulent precipitate, which I subsequently ascertained to be arsenious acid; very inconsiderable in quantity, however, amounting to a few grains only. On the following morning I opened the abdomen, and, having put a ligature around the cardiac and pyloric extremities of the stomach, I separated the organ, and removed it to my house for examination. The inspection being undertaken rather with a view of furnishing evidence of the cause of the patient's death, than of tracing the morbid effects of the poison, and my leisure not allowing me an investigation further than was necessary to satisfy ju dicial inquiry, the result has not enabled me, probably, to furnish any new fact involved in the phenomena of poisoning by arsenic ; my object in this communication being to engage professional attention a striking fact, important in its relation to therapeutical agency. The stomach, on being opened, was found to contain about twenty ounces of fluid, which had been injected previous to the death of the patient. On the removal of this fluid, the surface of the stomach presented universally a bright vermilion blush, with patches of a brownish red scattered here and there, but chiefly on the posterior lateral surface, in the pyloric half of the stomach. These patches were somewhat pulpy, rather loose in texture and adhesion, more glossy than the surrounding parts, and gelatinous in appearance. In fine, they were portions of the mucous membrane in a state of disorganization, and might be detached by being pinched between the finger and thumb, leaving the muscular coat denuded. Near the small extremity of the stomach, lay two masses of powdered arsenic, enveloped in a sort of reddish jelly, which doubtless consisted of the mucous membrane disorganized by the contact of the poison. These were scraped off with a spoon, and the powder separated by repeated washing in cold water. I did not weigh it, but I should guess the quantity of arsenic to have been at least half an ounce. Here is the point to which I would direct the attention of the medical practitioner. Vomiting, assisted by copious dilution, during two hours, had not detached the arsenical powder from the surface of the stomach; and so entangled and blended was it with the softened mucous membrane, that I believe no action of the organ itself could have separated it. The injection of a strong current of fluid, by means of Read's stomach syringe, failed also to detach the mineral; so small, indeed, was the portion of arsenic washed up with the liquid, that, as I remarked before, only a few grains subsided in the vessel in which it was received and allowed to rest; and the chemical tests which I employed gave but very faint traces of arsenic in solution; the sparing solubility of arsenic in water may account, probably, for the latter circum stance. From these facts, I think that the following conclusions may be adduced;―That the efficacy of emetics in dislodging arsenic from the stomach is confined to a limited time after the poison has been swallowed; but what may be its extent, or at what period the disorganization of the stomach commences, which agglutinates and fixes the mineral to the surface of the organ, I have not had sufficient experience to ascertain; it being probably determined by the quantity swallowed, by the quality and volume of ingesta, and perhaps by other accidental circum stances. In the present case, the stomach contained no solid matters, the patient having eaten no food through the day. In the absence of positive information on this point, would it not be the safest practice to resort at once to the use of the stomach pump in these cases? As an indirect reply I must be allowed to express my conviction that, had I been earlier in attendance on this unfortunate person, such is the force of the fluid propelled by the syringe I employed, a power which gives it a distinguishing superiority to any other, I should have used it successfully. And here I will take leave to notice an opinion that has been given of the inexpediency of the pump in emptying the stomach, from a notion that the operation might be performed by a tube only, on the syphonic principle; the case 1 have related is a sufficient commentary on such a principle. I have to state in conclusion, that I ascertained the poisonous substance to be arsenic by a concurrence of all the tests which were employed, as limewater, nitrate of silver, ammoniuret of copper; and, lastly, by its reduction to a metallic state. Newington, August, 1826. AN OVERDOSE OF HYOSCYAMUS. The widow Rankin and her daughter had breakfasted on what they supposed to be hyssop tea, but which, in reality, contained an almost entire young plant of hyoscyamus niger. The mother, who had taken a larger dose than the daughter, was soon seized with giddiness, vertigo, &c. and when Mr. D. arrived, he found the old woman in a very merry mood, being completely delirious, singing, and imitating with her hands the occupation of spinning. Her pupils were dilated-hands and feet cold-face pale, and covered with perspiration-pulse small and irregular-and she was incapable of comprehending what was said to her. The daughter was not nearly so much affected. Six grains of tartaremetic, and a 8 |