and the deaths where the causes were not specified to 72, i. e., 46 males and 26 females.”

We have thus given a slight sketch of this very valuable Report; to have done justice to its merits and to have fully laid before our readers the enormous mass of information it contains would require a volume. It is creditable to the government to have furnished the means, and to the commissioners who have superintended its execution; and our readers, we are sure, will echo our opinion, when we pronounce the Report we have brought under their notice most creditable to the ingenuity, patient industry, and talent of Surgeon Wilde. In conclusion we shall quote the last paragraph, and beg of our readers to consult the work for themselves:

"In conclusion, gentlemen, I have but to remark, that in arranging the following tables of deaths, and in drawing up the foregoing Report, I have endeavoured to place in the clearest light, and to display in the most concise and succinct mannner, the amount of information contained in the documents which you submitted to my inspection. And although I have ventured an opinion on the importance and the character of each class of our materials, I have cautiously abstained from drawing conclusions from premises which may, perchance, be false ;-nor ventured on calculations unless for the purpose of local comparisons, as in the tables of mortality, which, though they do not express the actual amount of mortality, or the actual average duration of life in Ireland, yet serve by comparisons to exhibit the relative healthiness or unhealthiness of particular places, or among particular classes, or of deaths caused by particular kinds of disease; and having in every instance stated the premises, and in many cases given the actual numbers on which such calculations were formed, I have, I trust, stripped them of an assumption of authenticity which they in no wise deserve as a whole. There is, however, independent of all calculations and deductions, a vast collection of statistical facts put together in this portion of the census, of which, no doubt, the statistician and political economist will take advantage. The records and tabularly arranged statistics of the public medical hospitals and sanatory institutions— coroners' inquests-lunatic asylums-jails, &c., are in themselves of sufficient importance to lend character to this portion of our labours; and until some better and more accurate registration of the deaths of Ireland is effected, that which I now beg leave to submit to you may be referred to.”

Descriptive Catalogue of the Anatomical and Pathological Museum of the School of Medicine, Park-street. By JOHN HOUSTON, M. D., &c.

THOUGH a catalogue does not, strictly speaking, come within the range of our Journal, we are, in the present instance, iuduced

usual course.

by the intrinsic merit of this publication, to depart from our The museum of the Park-street School is well known as one of the most valuable in this city. In the department of pathology it is particularly rich, as it contains the most valuable specimens of morbid anatomy which have for some years been met with in Stevens', the Meath, Sir P. Dun's, and the Fever Hospitals, in the practice of Mr. Cusack, Mr. Wilmot, Mr. Porter, Sir H. Marsh, Dr. Graves, Dr. Stokes, other distinguished members of the profession. In the preface we are told that "for the student it was written, and to him it is addressed;" but the practitioner will also find in it much valuable information and food for deep and profitable reflection.

and

many

We cannot conclude without expressing our admiration of the manner in which this little work has been laid before the public by Dr. Houston, assisted by the talented and zealous Curator of the museum, Dr. J. Hill.

On the principal Diseases of Females. By FLEETWOOD CHURCHILL, M. D. Second Edition, with Engravings.

As the first edition of Dr. Churchill's useful work has been already reviewed in this Journal, we have only to inform our readers that the present edition is published in a very convenient form, duodecimo size, that it is illustrated by some excellent wood-cuts by Bagg, from drawings by a talented artist of this city, Mr. Nielan, and that the introductory remarks on the pathology, diagnosis, and treatment of the diseases of the uterus have been remodelled and contain much valuable new matter, particularly on the subject of the different modes of examination of the uterus, and the various forms of speculum in use. Like Dr. Churchill's other works it is remarkable for a clear, terse style, and vast erudition; the notes, and references, and enumeration of the authors who have written on the particular subject treated of, are of great value, and give a complete resumé of the medical literature of all the diseases of females. Dr. Churchill's merits have not been appreciated in this country alone, a second edition has been published in America, nor will it stop here, we are sure, as for a clear, compact, and satisfactory description of the diseases of females we know no work to compare to Dr. Churchill's.

Natural History, Pathology, and Treatment of the Epidemic Fever at present prevailing in Edinburgh and other Towns. By JOHN ROSE CORMACK, M. D., &c. &c.

We regret extremely that our limits will not permit us to lay an analysis of this valuable work before our readers in this Number, but we hope to be able to do so in our next. The fever at present prevailing in some towns of Scotland differs materially from the usual type, and presents many points of resemblance to that observed in the epidemic which appeared in Dublin in 1827, described by Drs. Graves and Stokes. These eminent Physicians have given the details of several cases presenting features exactly like the yellow fever of tropical climates, and it is strange that in the epidemic now described by Dr. Cormack, several cases of yellow fever have occurred, presenting not only the symptoms, but the same pathological appearances as were noticed in the Dublin fever. In our next Number we shall enter more fully into these particulars. Dr. Cormack has performed his task in a manner highly creditable to him; the cases are recorded most accurately and minutely, and the deductions drawn from them are rigid and conclusive. We could not pronounce a higher encomium on this record of a very remarkable epidemic, than to say, that it deserves a place beside CHEYNE and BARKER'S "Report of the Epidemic Fever in Ireland," a distinction to which it is well entitled.

Elements of Natural Philosophy. By GOLDING Bird, M. D. THE fact that a work of this kind was required for the student of medicine seems evident from the circumstance that a second edition has been called for within a short time from its first appearance. It is unnecessary to point out the utility of such an undertaking. for there is hardly a department of medicine or surgery which does not require a previous knowledge of the general laws of physics before it can be properly studied. Hitherto this knowledge has been acquired from different sources, as most works are so encumbered with technicalities, and are so elaborate, as to repel rather than invite the student, and consequently, few of those readers, for whose benefit the present work has been undertaken, have had an opportunity of acquiring any thing like a useful knowledge of physics. This deficiency has hitherto been supplied, to a certain degree, by the lecturers on the different branches of medicine, as for instance, acoustics is usually spoken of preliminary to a course of lectures on diseases of the chest; optics is touched on by the lecturer either on the

pathology or the physiology of the organ of vision; hydrostatics by him who teaches the laws which regulate the circulation; electricity, magnetism, polarization of light, and thermomics, by the teacher of chemistry; and some of the principles. of mechanics must be explained by the lecturer on surgery. Seeing then, that an acquaintance with the science is absolutely indispensable, we feel pleasure in giving a favourable opinion of the above Treatise to our readers. We do so the more cordially, as we know Dr. Bird to be both a scientific and an excellent practical physician, and we therefore recommend his treatise as being not only one of the best on the subject, but as the only one adapted for the student and practitioner of medicine. The paper, type, wood-cuts, and "getting up" of the work, are entitled to the highest praise, and the style and arrangement are both lucid and concise.

SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE PATHOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF

DUBLIN.

SESSION 1841-1842.

Seventeenth Meeting, 19th of March, 1842.
PROFESSOR GREENE in the Chair.

1. Chronic Laryngitis; obstruction of the Rima Glottidis.— Doctor Corrigan said he had received a preparation from his friend Dr. Scott of Kilkenny, which he considered of sufficient importance to lay before the Society. It was a specimen of laryngitis of the form denominated subglottal by Cruveilhier. There was no disease of the cartilages nor of the lungs. The patient was a woman æt. 40, and of spare habit, who had been suffering from chronic laryngitis for seven or eight weeks, during which various remedial means were tried without benefit, when she applied for Dr. Scott's advice. At this time she was very weak, her respirations hurried, about thirty in the minute, and accompanied by a loud crowing sound similar to that of croup. The pulse was 120, quick and feeble. Nothing remarkable could be discerned in the throat, and pressure on the larynx caused no pain. There was no dulness in any part of the chest, nor any stethoscopic phenomena, except occasionally some slight mucous and sonorous râles. The croupy sound of the inspirations was heard louder and more distinct when the stethoscope was applied to the larynx. The patient died on the next morning. When the body was examined it was found that the rima glottidis was almost completely closed by two white, firm, mammillary bodies, situated immediately above the arytenoid cartilages; a small blowpipe could barely be passed between them. It was evident that but little air could have passed through the glottis in this obstructed condition. The epiglottis was healthy; the mucous membrane of the larynx and trachea was red, and the larynx itself diminished in capacity. The trachea and bronchi, even to their minutest ramifications, contained a frothy mucus. The lungs appeared congested. Within the cranium the pia mater was very vascular, and the surface of the brain congested. Dr. Cor rigan observed, that in this case the disease had probably commenced as the oedema glottidis of Bayle, and that the swollen part had afterwards become solidified. This change in the part appeared to have taken place at the end of seven weeks from the commencement of the