On Natural History as a Branch of Education. By R. PATTERSON, F.L.S. After a lengthened series of arguments and illustrations, the following conclusions were drawn:

That the study of Natural History, independent altogether of any physical or pecuniary advantages, is deserving of cultivation, because it is productive of beneficial effects on both the perceptive and reflective faculties; is accompanied by innocent, yet elevated pleasures; and exerts a powerful influence on the moral and devotional character. Hence it was urged that this study should form a regular part of the course of education in both schools and colleges; and that naturalists should endeavour to place their favourite science in the same position in these kingdoms which it now justly occupies on the continent.

A comparative View of Animal and Vegetable Physiology. By Mr.BARTlett. A comparison was drawn between plants and animals in the processes of digestion, circulation, respiration. The necessity was dwelt on of never losing sight of organic media, and the actions they produce, and of an invisible vital principle, which pervades not only every fibre in the muscular or cellular organism, but every atom of each fluid. The fact of the existence of two great antagonizing principles, in the organic and inorganic kingdoms, was pointed out, and their progressive development in the history of the world was shown by means of a diagrain. Descriptions were given of the comparative circumstances under which the germs of animal and vegetable life are first developed, the conditions of the embryos, &c. The nerves and sensorial powers of animal tissues, and of their supposed analogies in vegetation, were described. The influence of climate, light, &c. on the vegetable and animal kingdoms was considered, and a contrast drawn between the vegetation of the poles and the equator.

Dr. Lankester exhibited a drawing of a monstrous rose, in which the pistil had become a perfect branch. The drawing was by Mr. Denny of Leeds.

Mr. Littleton of Saltash exhibited a common pear, in which a smaller pear had grown from its apex.

Mr. Derry exhibited some vegetable monstrosities.

Dr. Daubeny exhibited to the Section a portable botanical press, which, by means of a small windlass, was capable of producing a great amount of pressure.

Mr. Prideaux exhibited specimens of copper from the bottom of a vessel which had been acted on by sea-water, and was marked on its surface with small semicircular spots, which in many places penetrated through the copper. He wished to know if zoologists were acquainted with any animal that would produce this effect.

MEDICAL SCIENCE.

Observations on a Pustular disease hitherto undescribed by writers on Diseases of the Skin. By Dr. A. T. THOMSON.

From its resemblance to the genus Porrigo, the disease was named by the author Porrigo rodens. The eruption, unpreceded by any marked derangement of habit, appears first upon the checks, in the form of a small group of minute red papillæ, seated upon an inflamed spot; similar groups may appear at the same time on the neck or the upper part of the chest; these soon become pustules, out of which oozes a fluid, which dries into crusts that extend, assuming an irregular circular shape. As the groups of pustules spread, the crusts of those first formed drop off, and leave the cuticle marked with depressions similar to those produced by confluent small-pox. After the continuance of the disease for some time, febrile disturbance shows itself,

and a chronic spreading inflammation of the surface ensues. Dr. Thomson considers the exterior or reticular layer of the cutis to be the seat of the disease. The diagnosis, requisite to distinguish it from other species of Porrigo, and other pustular diseases, was minutely given, and a case detailed exhibiting the author's mode of treatment. The principal remedies were bleeding and alteratives, particularly the iodides of arsenic and of mercury, in minute doses, with the liquor potassæ and the iodide of potassium in sarsaparilla decoction. The frequent use of the tepid bath, with milk and farinaceous diet, were found useful until the termination of the disease, when more generous food and tonics, particularly the syrup of the iodide of iron, and the solution of the chloride of calcium in the decoction of sarsaparilla, were required. As topical remedies, none were found useful but the tepid bath, and a strong solution of nitrate of silver pencilled over the affected parts. The description was illustrated by drawings representing the disease in its aggravated form, and also in progress of decay from appropriate treatment.

Abstract of a paper on the value of Opium as a remedy in Rheumatism, and on the circumstances which should regulate its employment. By THEOPHILUS THOMPSON, M.D.

One of the most remarkable instances of the successive over-valuation and unreasonable disuse of a remedy is exhibited by the history of opium used for the cure of rheumatism. Nearly forty years since, Dr. De la Roche, a London physician, was accustomed to treat the disease with opium in doses of a grain and a half three times a day; at the same time promoting perspiration by warm clothing, and the use of beef tea as diet. The practice, as recommended by De la Roche in the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal,' was to some extent imitated, but not generally adopted, and it soon fell into disuse. Recently, however, the practice has been revived by some of the American physicians, and Dr. Corrigan of Dublin has published accounts of cases in which his principal dependence was on this remedy, and in some of which the results were unusually happy. The object of the present communication is to define the conditions in which this powerful remedy is likely to prove efficacious, so as to prevent as far as possible future fluctuations of opinion respecting it, and to guard against its unfortunate misuse or unjust discontinuance. The author of this paper has adopted the opium plan in many cases with very gratifying results. In one instance of severe rheumatic affection of the shoulders and knees, associated with valvular disease and enlargement of the heart and with gastric inflammation, after the relief of the gastric symptoms, a grain of opium was administered every two hours. The pain was speedily relieved, and after twenty pills had been taken entirely removed; in seven days from the commencement of the treatment the patient walked about the room seeming well, and the peculiar barking which had attended the first sound of the heart had become indistinct.

An artist who had long been subject to severe rheumatism, and whose constitution had been repeatedly shaken by prolonged treatment conducted on the usual plan, was attacked with a violent rheumatic affection of the knees and arms. A single small dose of colchicum wine produced great sickness and depression. He was immediately put on the opium treatment, and his own report five days afterwards was as follows:-" I have followed up the pills, and with this result, that I am free from pain and much stronger, and I am sure this is an excellent way of subduing

the disease."

A young medical practitioner, who had suffered for months from rheumatism of the back and limbs, against which the whole artillery of anti-rheumatic remedies had been directed, with no other effect than that of leaving him pallid, weak, desponding, anxious, and with a threatened affection of the heart, willingly adopted the opium treatment, in doses of a grain and a half every two hours. He took seventy pills in four days, and in seven days was able to visit his patients.

In most of the rheumatic cases in which full doses of opium have been given, the skin has perspired profusely, the quantity of lithates in the urine has been considerable, and the bowels have not been constipated: the relief has been more prompt and complete than that experienced from the common modes of management, and the strength has been rather improved than deteriorated under the treatment. On

the whole I feel justified in adopting the remark of the practical and accurate Heberden: "Præterea meo judicio opium non tantummodo importuni mali præsidium est, sed multum confert ad ipsum morbum tollendum."

The following considerations may assist in determining the limits within which these favourable results may be expected.

The pains of rheumatism generally precede pyrexia, as well as the local redness and swelling, and the fever is in the first instance rather neuralgic than inflammatory. At the onset of such attacks, opium alone might be adequate to effect a cure. In a short time, however, the fever often assumes somewhat of an inflammatory character, and we cannot judiciously dispense with bleeding. In this country there is also for the most part another complication, namely, disordered digestive organs with hepatic congestion, rendering the use of a small quantity of mercury expedient, and in every instance it is important to promote perspiration by suitable clothing and diet. In the neglect of such precautions, opium may aggravate the disease and fall into discredit. When, however, they are observed, and the pulse is sufficiently reduced, the remedy, when freely administered, exhibits peculiar efficacy, and removes the pretext for renewed bleeding, which reaction might otherwise tempt the practitioner to employ, at the risk of aggravating irritation, augmenting the susceptibility of the pericardium to the action of the heart, increasing the tendency to metastasis, and shaking the constitutional strength.

The remedy under consideration appears peculiarly adapted to rheumatic patients in whom the neuralgic element of the disorder is more marked than the dyspeptic or inflammatory. Pain indeed, if not in most instances the most prominent symptom at the commencement of the attack, usually becomes so after the removal of complications by appropriate treatment, and the virtues of opium are signally manifest in those cases in which a slightly soft and bounding character of pulse has been produced by bleeding. The writer offers these recommendations with hope and yet with diffidence, knowing how much time and care are necessary, especially in medicine, to establish a single truth, and how great is the liability to error, even when we seem to follow experience as our guide.

General Observations on the Pathology and Cure of Squinting. By JOHN BUTTER, M.D., F.R.S., F.L.S., &c., Physician to the Plymouth Royal Eye Infirmary.

The author in this paper pointed out the different kinds of squinting, their causes, and treatment. He thought that the term "Congenital was often misapplied to squinting, which he considered to arise generally some time after birth, owing to a contraction of the muscle or tendon produced by some internal disease, as fits, worms, measles, small-pox, hydrocephalus. The real nature of squint he ascribed to an hypertrophy or too great strength of one muscle, or to an atrophy or weakness of the antagonist; and drew an analogy between this and other muscular affections, as hemiplegia, St. Vitus's dance, locked-jaw, and the like.

Remedies have been devised in all ages in vain by philosophers, poets, physicians, and mechanics. Some proposed mirrors, reading small print, masks, spectacles, goggles, gnomons, plaisters, funnels, a candle behind the back, bandaging one eye, and even internal medicines. Suffice it to say that there was no remedy known to the close of the year 1839.

The year 1840 shed a new light on this subject. A cure now is almost certain from an operation. Dr. Stromeyer of Hanover, and Dr. Dieffenbach of Berlin led the way. Their examples were soon followed by Mr. Bennett Lucas of London, and also by Dr. Franz, Mr. Guthrie, and others.

The author considered that during the last year (1840) some thousands of squinters were cured perfectly in the United Kingdom, and many hundreds in the three towns of Plymouth, Stonehouse, and Devonport, of whom a great number had been operated on at the Plymouth Royal Eye Infirmary. He considered the operation simple, safe and successful in skilful hands, and had never known an untoward result or loss of vision from it in his own practice, which appeared, from the living instances of patients cured and shown at the meeting, to have been considerable.

Dr. Butter has discarded the tribe of instruments recommended by others, and

performs the operation with only two, one held in each hand, viz. forceps with blunt hook appended, and scissors *.

He gave full credit to the Germans for their inventions, and spoke highly of their medical and surgical attainments. He also briefly alluded to Mr. Tyrrell's most excellent work on the Eye, and considered it very unfortunate for the author that this discovery should have been coeval with his book, which brings our knowledge of ophthalmic diseases well up to the present period, but does "not recommend surgical interference in such cases" as squinting. The only wonder is, why this simple operation, which requires about one minute in performing, should not have been sooner discovered. On the whole, the author considered it to be the most satisfactory and successful of all operations which he ever performed or witnessed.

Facts as yet unnoticed in the Treating of Squinting. By J. V. SOLOMON. The author related certain facts on this subject which had come within his observations.

Observations on two new Fascia connected with the Muscles of the Human Eye. By P. BENNETT LUCAS.

In a treatise on the cure of strabismus by operation, published a year and a half ago by the author of this communication, a description of these fascia was given. Mr. Bennett Lucas's present object is to place on the records of the British Association the existence of these new structures; and to inquire into their physiological uses and vital properties,-" points," as the author remarked, "of great moment, as bearing on the actions of a group of muscles which has at all times been looked upon with the liveliest interest by the physiologist, and which now possesses additional importance on account of the new operation for the cure of strabismus." From the positions which these fasciæ hold to the conjunctiva and the muscles of the eye, the author designated them by the names of "sub-conjunctival” and “sub-muscular"; and having demonstrated their existence by preparations of the human eye, to the satisfaction of the Medical Section, he next proceeded to explain their uses, and to inquire into their practical bearings on the cure of strabismus by operation. On the first of these points Mr. Bennett Lucas observed, that the sub-conjunctival fascia, like the sub-cutaneous fascia of the neck, the groin, and other regions, presented many degrees of density in the different subjects in which it was examined. That it was present in all subjects and at all ages, but that in the young subject it was very delicate. That it was composed of condensed cellular tissue, and possessed elasticity; and that its use was to keep in an expanded condition, and to support the long and delicate muscles destined for producing the motions of the eye-ball; without which provision the eye-ball would be abruptly pulled about in its orbit, and that steady, uniform, delicate and perfect movement which it enjoys would be impossible. Amongst the instances of other delicate muscles being similarly disposed as to fasciæ, the author mentioned the omo-hyoid, the sterno- and thyro-hyoid, the sartorius, &c. In operating for the cure of strabismus, when the sections of the tunica conjunctiva and the sub-conjunctival fascia are made, the author remarked, that one might be confounded with the other, on account of both retracting to the same extent on being divided, and presenting almost identical appearances; but that, in order to distinguish one from the other, the test of their different degrees of sensibility sufficed, the conjunctiva being exquisitely sensible when grasped in a pair of forceps, and the sub-conjunctival fascia being perfectly insensible when thus treated,-points of practical importance, as it is injurious to remove any portion of the tunica conjunctiva in the operation for strabismus, whilst it is often necessary to remove portions of the sub-conjunctival fascia.

The sub-muscular fascia was demonstrated as highly elastic, and attached to the neurilema of the optic nerve behind, and to the sclerotica, at the points of insertion of the recti muscles, in front; and that it also was in intimate connexion with the muscles of the eye, at the very situations where the section of them was made in operating for the cure of strabismus.

Observations on Asthma. By Mr. Rumball.

*Invented by himself, and made by Mr. Smith, in the Borough.

Some Observations on a Case of Deafness, Dumbness, and Blindness, with Remarks on the Muscular Sense. By Dr. Fowler.

The case was that of a young woman in the Rotherhithe Workhouse; she was born deaf and dumb, and was blinded by small-pox when three years old. She is now about twenty, and does not hear the loudest efforts of the voice, but starts on a poker held by a string against her ear being struck against a grate, or when her nurse stamps on the boarded floor. Touch was the only sense which others used for communicating with her, or she employed in examining persons or objects. She possessed both taste and smell, but did not appear to have used them. Until the age of fourteen or fifteen her existence appeared merely animal, but then a marked difference took place in her habits; she became as attentive to dress and personal decorum as any other girl. She feels her way without a guide to every part of the workhouse, recognizes all its inmates by the feel of their hands, makes her bed, and sews, not only plain work, but even the more intricate parts of dress. She is very tenacious of what she deems her own, and was much pleased with a shilling which was put into her hands, smiling, curtseying, and feeling it eagerly for some time afterwards. The author deems the true key to so much and minute information derived from touch alone to be the development of the muscular sense, and of the reciprocal influence of the adjustments of the different organs of sense on each other, by which all the exquisite attainments of the artisan, the musician, the sculptor, the painter, and even the orator are regulated. Several instances were given of the existence of this sense in the lower animals, and practical suggestions made for its application in educating the deaf and dumb, particularly when these defects are complicated with blindness.

Abstracts of an extraordinary case of Albuminous Ascites, with Hydatids; of five cases of Hepatic Abscess, and of two cases of Phthisis. By Sir D. J. H. DICKSON, M.D., F.R.S.E., F.L.S., Inspector of Hospitals, and of the African Institute of Paris.

J. Prendergast, æt. 46, who had been invalided from this hospital two years previously, and subsequently in Haslar with ascites, was re-admitted, greatly emaciated, and with the abdomen enormously enlarged, on the 11th of September last. The dyspnoea and oppression were so great, that, though with little hope of benefit, it was deemed advisable to attempt to relieve him by tapping, on the 17th, but about a pint only of a yellow, gelatinous looking fluid, slowly escaped through the round canula, and he died on the 27th of September, 1841.-Sectio Cadaveris, thirty-one hours post mortem. The abdomen was much distended by a clear semi-concrete matter, nearly resembling half-liquefied calves-foot jelly, while a thinner effusion occupied the interstices between the intestines and viscera, which had been inseparably accreted by pre-existing inflammation of the peritoneal coat. A great quantity of this matter covered the peritoneum, and adhering to its processes, was detached in filmy vesicular masses, and also nearly filled the cavity of the pelvis. Other globular bodies, more distinctly invested by a fine, pellucid membrane, accurately resembled hydatids; some of them being smaller, were appended to larger ones, which were attached by pedicles to the peritoneal surface of different organs, or in firmer cysts were imbedded in their structure, especially in the spleen: these vesicular cysts were of various sizes, from a small grape or nut to that of an orange, but they decreased in distinctness of organization as they increased in size. The more fluid portion of this jelly-like effusion, coagulated by heat, and on being tested by the nitric acid and acetic acids and tincture of galls, &c., was found to consist chiefly of albumen with a smaller proportion of gelatin.

Sir David Dickson subsequently communicated abstracts of five cases of hepatic abscess, the contents of two of which made their way through the diaphragm and were discharged by expectoration; one, by opening it externally, and another into the cavity of the abdomen. These cases were accompanied by some remarks on the infrequency of serious organic diseases of the liver, which, though at variance with the very generally received opinion, are corroborated by extensive necroscopic investigations during seventeen years at Plymouth Hospital.

In a concluding paper he adduced two cases of phthisis, one of which terminated 1841.

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