FOREIGN. A Description of the Apparatus by which the experiment on the decomposition of Potash by Iron, has been repeated at the Royal Institution, in London. Phil. Mag. No. xxxi. p. 276. HE Apparatus consists of a common gun barrel curved with one large, and one small curvature, and passed through a portable furnace, to which the pipe of a pair of bellows is admitted through an aperture at its side. The curved part of the pipe hangs downwards: to one of its ends an iron tube of about the capacity of two inches, having a ground stopper, is adapted, for containing the potash, which flows out of it, through a very small hole at the lower end. To the other extremity of the bent barrel, a tube of safety is fitted, containing a little mercury or naptha, to prevent communication with the outer air. In the experiment, iron turnings, put into the barrel so as to fill a part of the lower portion of its curve, are heated to whiteness; the potash is then slowly fused, and flows on the turnings, where it is decomposed; and its base is found condensed near the other extremity of the barrel. The proportions from which the best results have been obtained, are about 2 parts of iron turnings to 1 parts of potash. ness. In order to the compleat success of the experiment, the whole apparatus should be perfectly dry, clean, and impervious to air; the turnings free from oxidation, and the potash very dry; which last is effected by heating nearly to red Pure or crystallized potash in its usual state of dryness contains water enough to occasion the failure of the experiment. The tube containing the potash should be surrounded with ice, until the iron turnings are white hot; and that part of the barrel where the metal of the potash sublimes, should also be kept cool during the whole process. The barrel should be carefully luted; and it is proper to examine the lute after it has been exposed to a red heat, in order to repair any cracks which the fire may have occasioned. At the commencement of the decomposition, Hydrogen gas is evolved, and continues to come over during the whole of the process. Towards the end of the experiment, a ve ry intense heat should be continued for some minutes, to drive off the last portions of the metal of potash, which adhere to the iron turnings with great obstinacy. [Lon. Athenæum.] Extract of a letter from Mr. Gibb, Bolton, Lincolnshire, on Capital Operations on the Pregnant Subject, and Urinary Calculi. In your Journal for April last, the Inquirer No. XIII. requested information concerning capital operations performed on the pregnant subject. About eight years ago, at the infirmary of this place, I amputated a leg, above the knee, of a married woman, in the fourth month of pregnancy, who was afterwards safely delivered at the usual time. The disease was white-swelling of the knee, of four years standing, but she was so anxious to have the operation performed, that she concealed her situation. In answer to his 4th query, on urinary calculi, stone is so rare a disease in this town and neighbourhood, that, in fifteen years, I only know of one case in our circuit, where it was necessary to perform the operation of lithotomy, and not more than three or four cases where the calculi passed by the urethra in small pieces. We, almost all of us in the town, drink rain-water from the tops of the houses, kept in cisterns made of brick and mortar, or in water-tubs made of oak. In the country the water most used for culinary purposes and drinking, is in general rain-water, collected and retained in pits made for that purpose in the pastures. The soil is generally strong clay, otherwise a light silt that does not long retain the water. [Ed. Med. & Sur. Journal.] Extract of a letter from Mr. P. Cullen, Sheerness, on the cure of Varicose Veins, by the Ligature of the Vena Saphena. As, perhaps, it may be of general utility, I beg leave to acquaint you, that I have succeeded in curing two cases of varicose veins of the leg, by tying the vena saphena. One was attended with ulcers of the leg, in a man of about 30; the other was not, and in a man of about 24 years of age. In both, the cure was perfectly complete, and the disease had been of some standing. The place chosen for the operation was on the trunk of the vena saphena, three or four inches above the knee. I laid the vein bare by a small incision, passed a ligature under it, and tied it of a sufficient tightness to interrupt entirely the passage of the blood, and obliterate it. The ends of the ligature were left hanging out of the wound, which was dressed with adhesive plaster. On the third or fourth day, the first dressing was removed, and a simple dressing applied, which was done every day, till the ligature came out, which it did of itself on the twelfth or fourteenth day, cutting its way through the substance of the vein completely. After this the wound healed immediately. As long as the ligature remains, the patient should be confined to his room, and the limb kept in an horizontal posture. The effect of the operation is soon discernible. First by a sinking, or diminution of the swollen knotty vein, and a kind of tickling sensation which is felt around the ankle, described by the patient as if a mouse was creeping over it; an indication of the blood forcing some other passage, most likely through the venæ comites, or internal veins. When the cure is completed, the limb returns to its natural size, loses its unwieldiness, and becomes, like the other, free and easy in all its motions. At least so it happened in these two instances above mentioned. I should be very glad to know if any other of your correspondents have attempted this, and with what success. Remarkable Instance of Parturition. [Ibid.] The public newspapers recorded the following birth in the month of May last:-At the poor-house in Stoke-uponTrent, Staffordshire, Hannah Bourne, a deformed dwarf, measuring only 25 inches in height, was, after a tedious and difficult labour, safely delivered of a female child, of the ordinary size, measuring 21 inches and a half, being only three inches and a half shorter than the mother. The child was in every respect perfect, but still-born; the mother is likely to do well. [Ibid.] New Medical and Surgical publications. Dr. Adams is preparing a new edition of Mr. Hunter's Treatise on the Venereal Disease. The object of the work is as follows. The text will be preserved without the smallest alteration. A long commentary will be added to the introductory chapter. Prefaces will precede, or commentaries follow, those chapters which have been thought obscure, or in which the doctrines have been disputed. The few points in which the commentator has differed from Mr. Hunter, (none of which materially affect the doctrine) will be stated, with the reasons for such difference. That a work so necessary for every practitioner may be as extensively circulated as possible, the publishers have agreed to comprise the whole in one octavo volume, on as easy terms as the bulk of the materials will admit. Dr. Kentish, of Bristol, Eng. has formed an establishment where the Faculty may order heat or cold, in any proportion, to be applied to a patient, either locally or generally; he has also published an Essay on Warm and Vapour Baths, with hints for a new mode of applying heat and cold for the cure of Diseases, and the preservation of health, illustrated by cases. Dr. Stock, of Bristol, has undertaken a life of the late Dr. Beddoes, with the approbation of his family and friends. The long expected Reports of the Preventive Medical Institution at Bristol, have been left, by the late Dr. Beddoes, in some degree of forwardness. They will be completed and published, as soon as possible, by Mr. King and Dr. Stock. The former of these gentlemen has been surgeon to the institution from its first commencement, and the latter has been connected with it since the month of March, 1804. Mr. Macartney is about to publish a small work, on the relations between external and internal parts, by which the situation of any important blood-vessel, nerve, &c. may be precisely ascertained in the living body. The subject will be illustrated by plates, and accompanied with practical and surgical observations. Preparing for the press, and speedily will be published, a SYSTEM OF SURGERY, in 4 vols. 8vo. by JOHN THOMSON, ' M. D. one of the Surgeons to the Royal Infirmary, Professor of Surgery to the Royal College of Surgeons, and Regius Professor of Military Surgery in the University of Edinburgh. This work is intended to exhibit a concise view of the present state of the principles and practice of Surgery, illustrated by numerous historical and critical remarks; and will contain full and accurate references to the best and most original sources of information, relative to the Anatomy, Pathology, symptoms, and treatment of Surgical Diseases. [Athenæum.] Speedily will be published, A SYSTEM OF SURGERY, in 4 vols. 8vo. by JAMES RUSSELL, F. R. S. E. Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, one of the Surgeons of the Royal Infirmary, and Professor of Clinical Surgery in the University of Edinburgh. [Ibid.] Dr. Forbes, of Edinburgh, is engaged on a translation of Pliny's Natural History, with scientific and eritical notes and illustrations: a life of the author, and a preliminary dissertation on the origin of Natural History, and on its progress and gradual improvement. One great object which the translator will keep in view, is to accommodate Pliny's descriptions to the nomenclature of Linnæus. The work will extend to six or seven volumes in octavo. [Ibid.] On the first of October, will be published, "AnatomicoChirurgical views of the nose, mouth, larynx, and fauces, with appropriate explanations and references, by Mr. J. J. Watt, surgeon." The engravings will be four in number, containing six views of the parts, of their natural size, and accompanied with the same number of outline figures of reference, with an additional anatomical description of these organs, by Mr. W. Lawrence, Demonstrator of Anatomy, St. Bartholomew's Hospital. [Ibid.] |