How is it, we would ask, that we have heard so little for the last six months of dividing the muscles of the eye for strabismus, while during the preceding half year every hebdomadal journal was teeming with fournées of marvellous cures? Is it that all squinting persons are already cured, and the catalogue exhausted? or is it that the relief produced by the operation has proved only temporary, or that the eye-ball has suffered in some other way from the effects of it?

As to the surgical experiments-for we can call them nothing else for the cure of stammering, we have from the very first regarded them with suspicion, if not with utter distrust. Some of them, especially those proposed by Dieffenbach, and adopted by others, are positively brutal. The very idea of dividing the root of the tongue fairly across with a deep incision through its entire substance, and this, too, for an affection which is generally a nervous one, is worthy only of a butcher, whose province it is not to heal but to mangle.

By-the-bye, Dr. Zoude omits to mention, among the various plans of operating, that which has been so loudly praised by a resident in this city, Mr. Yearsley, and followed, if we could give credit to his statements, with such extraordinary success. We live in an age of discoveries truly; and certainly one of the most unlooked for is the almost instantaneous cure of stammering by clipping off a small bit of the tonsils or uvula! We read this gentleman's book on deafness, and do not hesitate to pronounce it a thorough puff. The materials are put together with a good deal of tact, so as to escape the imputation of quackery; but it is too obvious throughout, that it was got up as a mere means of public advertisement. It has, however, probably served the author's purpose; and he no doubt has had his reward. As conservators, however, of professional character, we feel it our duty to discountenance all such practices; as they only serve, in the long run, to bring contempt upon an art, which when followed with truth, kindness and skill, is, in the words of Cicero, almost godlike.-(Rev.)

ANIMAL MAGNETISM PROHIBITED BY THE VATICAN.

This marvel-working science is beginning to attract the notice of the heads of the Papal Church. We suppose that these gentlemen, who have the cure of souls, are somewhat jealous of any layman trespassing upon their peculiar province, that of working on the credulity of the mass.

Little would it surprise us to find that animal magnetism, although now forbidden to be practised by the uninitiated, will, at some future time, be taken up by the priests themselves, as a means of exciting the wonder and thus enhancing the zeal of their followers, while at the same time it magnifies their own authority.

However this may be, it has seemed right to the venerable conclave to pronounce against the lawfulness of the act in the present day.

The Bishop of Lausanne and Geneva, during the course of last May, addressed from his palace at Friburgh a letter to the sacred penitentiary at Rome, in which, after mentioning all the alleged marvels that have been wrought by animal magnetism-such as somnambulism or ecstatic sleep, clair-voyance or the power not only of seeing when the eyes are closed, but also of predicting events and other similar wonders-closes with these respectful interrogatories:

"Perceiving strong reasons for doubting that such effects, produced by an occasional and manifestly a disproportionate cause, can be purel natural, I very urgently request your Excellencies to be pleased in your wisdom to decide, for the glory of God, and the advantage of souls redeemed by Christ, whether, supposing that the announced facts are really true, a confessor or a curate may permit any of his penitents or parishioners

1. To exercise animal magnetism as if it were an auxiliary or supplementary part of medicine;

2. To consent to be plunged into the state of magnetic somnambulism;

3. To consult either for themselves, or for others, persons thrown into this state of somnambulism;

4. To do any one of those three things; even with the precaution of having previously renounced, in the most formal manner, all compact with the Evil One, and all satanic interventions; seeing that, notwithstanding this precaution, some persons have obtained from the employment of animal magnetism all, or at least some, of the effects which have been described."

To this petition, the following pithy answer in learned Latin was sent from the Vatican:

"Responsum."

"Sacra pænitentiaria mature perpensis expositis respondendum censet prout respondet::-usum magnetismi, prout in casu exponitur, non licere. Datum Romæ in S. Pænitentiaria, die 1, Julii 1841.

C. Card. Castracane, M.P.
Ph. Pomella, S.P. Secretarius."

We may avail ourselves of this opportunity to recommend to the perusal of those, who may wish to read a fair and enlightened history of animal magnetism, the work recently published by Drs. Burdin and Dubois, Members of the Academy of Medicine in Paris, and entitled "Histoire Academique du Magnetisme Animal."

In a well written introductory chapter, the authors endeavour to establish a connexion between all the leading juggleries which from one age to another have made their appearance in the world. They carry the reader, without any forced transition, from the oracles of antiquity to the witchcraft of the middle ages, from the devotees of Loudun to the tremblers of Cevennes, from the convulsionists of St. Medard to the exorcisms of Gassner, and lastly to Mesmerism, which the true believers point to us as the era of the doctrine of animal magnetism.

In the work of MM. Burdin and Dubois will be found a most faithful history of all the academic discussions which have taken place on this strange subject. Judicious narrators, they class the various facts according to their epochs, so that the reader follows with interest the course-sometimes slow, at other times most precipitate-of this doctrine; and can readily detect the changes and modifications which some of its modern proselytes have endeavoured to introduce.

They have given accurate accounts of the numerous reports which at different times have been made to different academies by their committees, and minute details of the various experiments which have been performed before them.

Among the reports they distinguish with great care those which, after being elaborately discussed by the members of the learned bodies to which they were communicated, may be regarded as the expression of their opinion, from that one which was read before the Academy of Medicine in February, 1826, but was neither discussed nor approved of, and the responsibility of which belongs exclusively to its author, M. Husson. This is the famous report which, rejected by the disapproving silence of the learned assembly, was received with so much enthusiasm by the admirers of animal magnetism, and which these gentlemen are so proud of putting forward in the way of preface to the history of their wonderful revelations, as a sort of antidote to the famous report of 1784, signed by the great names of Franklin, Bailly, Guillotin, Lavoisier, &c.

M. Husson's report is rather roughly handled by MM. Burdin and Dubois: and, although they have not maintained all the decorum of academicians in

some of their criticisms, it must be acknowledged that the singular position, in which the author has placed himself in reference to the modern occult science, necessarily exposed him to the sharp attacks of reviewers.—Bulletin Med. Belge.

ON THE MEDICINAL PROPERTIES OF FISH-LIVER OIL.

The fish, from the livers of which the oil that has at different times been much recommended in a variety of diseases is obtained, are the cod and one or two species of the ray―oleum jecoris aselli vell rajæ. We learn from M. Tiedemann, a merchant of Bremen who has long dealt in the article, that there are four kinds of cod-oil in commerce. The livers are packed in a cask, end upwards, and exposed for a length of time to the heat of the sun. When the upper layers are removed, the clearest oil is obtained; this is found to become stronger and darker towards the lower part of the cask. The darkest and thickest is used in the manufacture of chamois leather. MM. Gouzée and Gmelin state in their memoir (Bulletin Med. Belge, Janvier 1838), that the clearest oil should be used for internal administration; but MM. Trousseau and Pidoux, in their treatise on Materia Medica, recommend not only the second degree, which has a fishy taste and causes an acrid sensation in the back of the throat when swallowed, but also the third degree, obtained by boiling the residue, and which is of a brown colour, has a most disagreeable empyreumatic smell, and is still more acrid. The opinion of these gentlemen has been confirmed by the experience of most physicians in Germany and Belgium-that the thick acrid oil is much more efficacious than that which is transparent and milder.

Within the last five years, chemical analysis has detected the presence of a small proportion of iodine in fish-liver oil; but it is very doubtful that its medicinal virtues depend upon this principle. However this may be, it is certainly true that the browner the oil is, the more iodine is usually present in it.

tum......

That fish oil has been long known as a remedial agent, is proved by the narrative in the Apocryphal book of the Bible of Tobias and the Angel: Tobias is ordered to take the heart, liver, and gall of the fish that he has caught on the banks of the Tigris, and use them in a prescribed manner. Pliny too, in his Natural History, expressly states: “lichenes et lepras tollit adeps vituli marini, murœnarum cinis cum mellis obolis ternis, jecur pastinaca (raia) in oleo decoc.... Quidam delphini jecur in fictili torrent, donec pinguetudo similis oleo fluat, ac perungunt." The inhabitants in many parts of England, Holland, and Germany have been from time immemorial in the habit of employing cod-liver oil in the treatment of chronic rheumatism, rachitis, &c. ; but it was not until Michaelis about the middle of the last century, and subsequently Dr. Percival (1790) and Dr. Darbey (London Medical Gazette, vol. 3, p. 392), drew the public attention to its effects, that it has been at all generally known to medical men. There are numerous reports of its efficacy in the German Journals, references to all of which are given by Dr. Delcour in the number of the Archives de la Med. Belge, for last June.

The physiological effect of fish-liver oil appears to be that of a general stimulant of the whole body. It is apt to produce nausea and even vomiting at first; but after a short time it ceases to do so, and often the appetite very sensibly improves under its use. The urinary secretion is generally increased in quantity, and often a copious deposit of lateritious sediment takes place. The skin and also the uterus are stimulated by its use; hence its utility in several cutaneous diseases and in amenorrhoea. From its established efficacy in scrofulous and other cachectic states which indicate an unhealthy state of the nutritive process, it has been regarded by many as a general roborant, more especially of the alimentary canal and of the lacteal and vascular systems. In most cases where the

blood is poor and thin, the best authorities assure us that a long continued use of fish-liver oil exercises a very salutary influence. If this be the case, we can readily understand how it may act in the cure of scrofula, rickets, chronic rheumatism, inveterate affections of the skin, many diseases of the bones, glands, &c. We have already said that in our opinion the therapeutic properties of cod-oil cannot be justly attributed to the small portion of iodine which exists in it. We are quite aware that in many parts of Holland it is given for a length of time to children of a scrofulous family, to prevent the development of the constitutional affection, so common in that country.

But there is this marked difference between the two remedies; iodine, which is so powerful a remedy against enlargements of the thyroid and other glands, has very little effect in diseases of the bones, whereas it is in these intractable cases that the oil has been found to produce its most beneficial consequences. We are far from denying that the oil may owe part of its properties to the iodine contained in it, and that its action in simple scrofula and in amenorrhea may depend upon this active principle; but how shall we thus explain its influence in rachitis?

We must here notice the opinion of M. Hoebeke, that a long use of fish-oil has in numerous cases been followed by a deformity of the pelvis in women, who had previously borne children without any unusual difficulty. In all his cases the deformity was observed to have affected chiefly the transverse diameter and the outlet of the pelvis-whereas that arising from rickets is usually at the inlet, and in an antero-posterior direction.

Now, although we do not dispute the accuracy of the statements of M. Hoebeke and others, we feel much inclined to question the explanation which they give, when they attribute the deformity of the pelvis in women, who had been previously well made, to their having taken large or long-continued doses of cod-liver oil. It seems to us more probable to suppose that the softening of the pelvic bones had been an accidental occurrence, quite unconnected with the use of this medicine. We know from the history of other cases that this disease of the osseous system often commences after delivery and not unfrequently during gestation; that its progress is always increased by the latter state; that it has many points of resemblance with chronic rheumatism; that it usually commences with pains in the back and pelvic region; and that it induces a deformation of the pelvis, which is different from that caused by rickets and similar to that observed by M. Hoebeke. The committee, appointed to report upon the memoir of this gentleman, very justly observed that in the district where his cases occurred, the climate was damp and unwholesome, and the inhabitants living in great destitution and poverty; that these causes must necessarily have produced great distur bance of the nutritive process; and that the circumstance of cod-liver oil having been taken by the women, in whom the deformity of the pelvis was observed, was probably a mere coincidence, and by no means the cause of the osteo-malacia.* This view is the more probable, seeing that this peculiar affection has not been observed in other districts, in which fish oil is largely used as a medicine.

Dr. Delcour has collected together a number of cases of genuine rachitis and of scrofulous disease of the bones of a very unfavourable character, in which the most marked benefit was unquestionably derived from the use of this remedy. The high authority of many of the reporters is a sufficient guarantee for the full accuracy of the statements, and we only regret that want of space prevents us from giving them here at length. When we mention that such a man as M.

* By referring to the number of the Medico-Chirurgical Review for October, 1839, p. 549, in which will be found an account of M. Hoebeke's extraordinary success in Cæsarian operations, it will be perceived that we took a similar view of the subject.-Rev.

Bretonneau has been convinced from the results of his own experience of the efficacy of the remedy, we need say nothing more.

As to its effects in inveterate rheumatism, especially when this occurs in a lymphatic and weak habit of body, our author remarks: "There is not a practitioner at Verviers, where chronic rheumatism complicated with scrofula is exceedingly common, who has not had occasion to observe the admirable effects of cod-oil in such cases. By its use a number of persons, who for a length of time had been almost paralytic and martyrs to protracted suffering, have been not only relieved, but perfectly restored to health. Like every other remedy, it does not succeed in all cases; but it has the advantage of being never hurtful. We again repeat that it is much more efficacious in weak than in robust plethoric constitutions."

M. Tauflieb has recorded in the Gazette Medicale for Nov. 1839, two most interesting cases, in which patients, who had been quite helpless and bedridden for several years in consequence of the swelling and stiffness of their joints, regained, after five or six months treatment, the complete use of their limbs.

Professors Graefe and Ammon have used the oil in several cases of obstinate rheumatic ophthalmia with decided advantage. Their report will be found in the Ophthalmological Journal of the latter for 1832. M. Carron de Villards speaks favourably of it as an application to specks and ulcers of the cornea, unaccompanied with inflammation; and the editor of the Archives de la Med. Belge has given a most favourable report of it in such cases, in the Annales d'Oculistique.

The dose of the cod or ray liver oil is from two to four table-spoonfulls for an adult, and as many tea-spoonfulls for children, in the course of 24 hours: the patient should close his nostrils, when he swallows it. To counteract the unpleasant eructations, a small portion of anisette, or of rum or brandy, may be taken immediately afterwards. If the mouth be previously gargled with any of these liqueurs, the taste of the oil will be much disguised. Dr. Fehr recommends the following formula for children: of cod-oil an ounce, of subcarbonate of potash one or two drachms, of oil of the calamus aromaticus three drops, and of syrup of orange-peel one ounce-one or two spoonfuls for a dose night and morning. Or an emulsion may be made by triturating the oil well with gum, sugar and water. When the stomach will not retain it, it may be administered in the form of enemata; and this mode of exhibition has succeeded in a good many cases.”—Archives de la Med. Belge, Juin 1841.

Remark. The use of cod and other fish oil is scarcely known as a remedy in this country, at least by medical men. We have indeed heard of cures being effected with it by extra-professional doctors in cases of obstinate rheumatism, and affections of the joints, &c., which had baffled the regular practitioner; and we see no good reason why the latter should not avail himself of a new remedy, when those in ordinary use fail, merely because it is a favourite with some empirics. There can be no doubt that fish oil must exert no inconsiderable effects on the system, independently of the iodine which it contains; its penetrating balsamic properties seem to be somewhat analogous to the class of the terebinthinate medicines, most of which are recognised to be most rapidly absorbed, and pervade every organ and part of the body. Those, who may wish to have more details on the subject will do well to consult the memoir from which the preceding observations have been extracted.-Rev.

PHTHISIS PULMONALIS, WITH A FISTULOUS OPENING IN THE PARIETES
OF THE CHEST.

The following case, exhibiting a very rare complication of phthisis, deserves the notice of the pathologist.

No. 87.

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