III. A Process for preparing purer Emetic Tartar by Re-crystallization. By Mr. Fenner, Surgeon at Berkeley. In a Letter to John Hunter, Efq. Read June 4, 1784.

To fecure the due operation of emetic tartar, by obtaining it in perfect purity, is the object of this short, but important pa

per.

IV. An Account of the Diffection of a Man that died of a Suppreffion of Urine, produced by a Collection of Hydatids, between the Neck of the Bladder and Rectum; with Obfervations on the Manner which Hydatids grow and multiply in the human Body. By John Hunter, M. D. F. R. S. and Physician to the Army. Read April 17, 1787.

This is a curious and interefting article, belonging, however, more properly to natural history than to medicine, and exhibiting rather an ingenious theory concerning the generation, life, and decay of hydatids, together with a comparison between those of man and thofe of other animals, than any new pathological or practical remarks.

The larger hydatids are generally found to contain a great quantity of fmaller ones, both fwimming in the liquor, which fills the fac, and also adhering to its internal furface. Dr. H. thinks they are first generated in the liquor, and afterwards adhere to the maternal fac. As they refemble the hydatids of other animals in every refpect, except that they have no neck, nor apparent aperture, and as from the fpontaneous motion of the hydatids, if thick they appear to belong to the animal kingdom, Dr. H. confiders thofe found in the human body as a fpecies of the fame genus. Compare with this a fimilar case in Medical Obfervations and Inquiries, vol. vi. 1784.

V. Cafe of a Gentleman labouring under the epidemic remittent Fever of Bufforah, in the Year 1780; drawn up by himself; with an Account of various Circumftances relating to that Difeafe. Communicated by John Hunter, Efq. F. R.S. Read June 17, 1788.

It is impoffible for us to give our readers any just idea of this case in an abstracted account, as it is, in fact, the diary of a person labouring under a series of the most dreadful agonies for near two months, owing to a particularly malignant species of intermittent, which ufually vifits Bufforah after the overflowing of the Euphrates.

The most remarkable symptoms of this fever are violent headach and thirft, fwelling of the tongue, bleeding at the nofe, conftant inclination to make water, which comes away in drops,

attended

attended with exquifite pain, and which is generally of a deep purple colour; uncommon terror and apprehenfion, with an extreme defire for death; and, toward the end of the disease, vibices, boils, and other cutaneous eruptions.

The pains of this difeafe were, in the prefent inftance, rendered more intolerable by the uncommon heat of the climate, the want of proper medical aid, the neglect of cleanliness, and the privation of almost every common comfort of life.

VI. On the Want of a Pericardium in the Human Body. By Matth. Baillie, M. D. F. R. S. and Phyfician to St. George's Hofpital. Read Dec. 16, 1788.

Dr. B. here describes, with great precision and perfpicuity, one of the least frequent deviations of nature, in regard to the ftructure of animals: and to his description he adds several reflections, from which he draws fuch conclufions as render doubtful, if they do not totally refute, the opinions hitherto entertained concerning the uses of the pericardium.

VII. On Introfufception. By John Hunter, Efq. F. R. S. Surgeon Extraordinary to the King, and Surgeon General to the Army. Read August 18, 1789.

This is an ingenious theory of the disease mentioned in the title; illuftrated by cafes, with fome obfervations on the method of cure.

To this paper is annexed a fupplement by Mr. Home, giving the relation of an introfufception upwards, which Mr. H. confiders as a very rare occurrence, and one which nature generally cures herself.

VIII. Of uncommon Appearances of Difeafe in Blood-Veffels. By Matthew Baillie, M. D. F. R. S. and Phyfician to St. George's Hofpital. Read September 15, 1789.

Dr. B. here gives an account of three uncommon appearances of disease in blood-veffels; the two first of which, with out doubt, are remarkably rare.

ift, A natural cure of aneurism by the fac being completely filled with coagulated blood.

2dly, A total obliteration of the vena cava inferior from the entrance of the emulgent veins to the heart itself. In this very remarkable cafe the circulation was carried on by the commu nication of the lumbar veins with the vena azygos.

3dly, An offification of a part of the venous fyftem.

IX. An Account of Mr. Hunter's Method of performing the Ope ration for the Cure of the Popliteal Aneurifm. By Everard Home, Efq. F. R. S. Afiftant-Surgeon to St. George's Hofpital.

We

We are forry that we cannot do full justice to this excellent paper, without entering into a detail too difproportioned to our general method.

Mr. Hunter's mode of performing the operation for the popliteal aneurifm is now well known to differ from that of other practitioners in this, that he makes the ligature on the lower part of the femoral artery, at some distance from the difeafe; a mode of practice which appears to poffefs many advantages over thofe hitherto recommended, and which indeed is now confirmed by experience.

The motives which induced Mr. H. to try this method were, his being convinced, by the examination of aneurismal parts after death, that the diseased state of the artery is not confined entirely to the fac, but extends along it for fome way; and alfo from the idea, that the cause of failure in the common methods arises from tying a difeafed artery, which is incapable of union, in the time neceffary for the feparating of the ligature. This account is enriched with a number of cafes illustrative of the different positions laid down in it.

X.

A Cafe of Paralyfis of the Mufcles of Deglutition, cured by an artificial Mode of conveying Food and Medicines into the Stomach. By John Hunter, Efq. F. R. S. Surgeon Extraordinary to the King, and Surgeon General to the Army. Read September 21, 1790.

:

Mr. H. begins with remarking, that many difeafes which are not mortal in themselves may occafion death in a secondary manner of this kind is that defcribed in the prefent article, which is dangerous only from the want of a fubstitute for deglutition. "In fuch inftances," fays the author, "it becomes our duty to adopt fome artificial mode of conveying food "into the ftomach, by which the patient may be kept alive "while the difeafe continues, and fuch medicines may be "administered as are thought conducive to the cure."

The cafe related in the paper is a fuccessful inftance of the practice recommended. The inftrument employed was the common probang, over which an eel's-fkin was drawn and tied, both at the extremity of the piece of spunge, and alfo where that body joins the whalebone; immediately above which last ligature a longitudinal flit was made. To the other end of the eel's-fkin was fixed a bladder and wooden pipe, for containing and conveying the food and medicines.

XI. Of a remarkable Deviation from the natural Structure in the Urinary Bladder and Organs of Generation of a Male. By Matthew Baillie, M. D. F. R. S. and Phyfician to St. George's Hofpital. Read Fanuary 18, 1790.

BRIT. CRIT. VOL. I. AUG. 1793.

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Dr.

Dr. Baillie here gives an accurate defcription of a defect of structure, which is certainly very extraordinary; but, in our opinion, by no means fo uncommon as he imagines it, as we have ourfelves feen feveral inftances of the fame kind.

The cafe is fimply this: There is an almoft total deficiency of the os pubis, and a penis split, as it were, for the greater part of its length, on the upper part, and through which, therefore, the bladder naturally prolapfed.

XII. A Cafe of Emphysema, not proceeding from local Injury. By Matthew Baillie, M. D. F. R. S. Phyfician to St. George's Hofpital. Read July 19, 1791.

This cafe is remarkable for the quick formation of air, caufing the emphysema, which diftended not only the whole cellular membrane under the skin, but also that between the membranes of the thoracic and abdominal vifcera, and alfo greatly diftending the ftomach and inteftines. The patient had been admitted into St. George's Hofpital for an anafarca and afcites, and this change in her disease took place only two or three days before her death.

From an attentive confideration of all the circumstances of the cafe, Dr. B. is led to conclude, that the air must have been fecreted by the blood-veffels.

XIII. A Cafe of unufual Formation in a Part of the Brain. By Mr. A. Carlife; communicated by Dr. Baillie. Read Oct. 25,

1791.

The uncommon phenomena which appeared on examining the brain of the perfon alluded to in this cafe, were a total want of the falx, and of the usual divifion of the cerebrum into two hemifpheres.

XIV. Hiftory of a fatal Hemorrhage from a Laceration of the Fallopian Tube, in a Cafe of an Extra-uterine Fetus. By John Clarke, M. D. Phyfician to the General Lying-in Hofpital in Store-freet, and to the Asylum for Female Orphans." Read Oct. 25, 1791.

As a better general abridgment of this interefting cafe than its title announces cannot eafily be given, we content ourselves with extracting it, and refer our readers, for further information, to the paper itself.

XV. Some Obfervations on the loofe Cartilages found in Foints, and most commonly met with in that of the Knee. By Everard Home, Efq. F. R. S. and Affiftant Surgeon to St. George's Hofpital.

The formation of the loofe bodies defcribed in this paper,

which are by no means peculiar to the joint of the knee, fince they have, at different times, been found in other cavities, has always been a matter of much obfcurity; nor had any fatisfactory account of their origin been given, as Mr. Home juftly obferves, until Mr. Hunter made them the object of his investigation.

Mr. Hunter's doctrine of the vitality of the blood being granted, and the circumstance of extravafated blood becoming vafcular, and affuming the ftructure of the parts to which it is attached, being alfo fully confidered, the application of these data to the explanation of the origin of these loose bodies was cafy, and only wanted a few facts to establish its truth. These facts are all brought under a general view in this paper, and are given in cafes accurately related, where the coagula, in various ftages of organization, were found, fome pendulous, and others quite loofe.

This ingenious effay concludes with an account of the operation neceflary for relieving the patient.

XVI. An Attempt to improve the Evidence of Medicine. By George Fordyce, M. D. F. R. S. Fellow of the Royal College of Phyficians, and Reader on the Practice of Phyfic in London.

Whether we confider the motives which induced Dr. F. to publish this paper, or the manner in which he has treated the fubject, he equally deferves the praise and thanks of all thofe of his profeffion who are anxious for its improvement, and undoubtedly of all patients who may hereafter be benefited by it.

The object of the effay is to render the evidence arifing from the hiftory of the causes, and progrefs of diseases, and from the operations of the various medicines that may have been employed to cure them, more complete and fatisfactory; for, as the doctor justly obferves, "The evidence on which medical know

ledge is founded, has hitherto been principally deductions "from the practice of medical practitioners, made by them"felves, and communicated to the public."

This object he proposes to obtain by means of printed tables, which are not only to direct the practitioner to every kind of information, which may render the hiftory of difeafes complete, but will alfo become a faithful regifler of every event.

This table is divided into horizontal and perpendicular columns; the first intended to comprehend an account of various circumftances preceding and attending the commencement of the difeafe; the second are to serve for the daily reports, or occurrences, as they happen in its courfe. Accordingly, the horizontal columns give an account of the climate, changes in the proceffion of the feafons, prevailing epidemics, temperament, peculiarities

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