ing very quickly, but was the cause of a great deal of trouble and mental anxiety. He thought it advisable, therefore, to remove it. Did not think it wonld degenerate into malignant disease.

DR. CLARK remarked that he did not place much dependence upon the cachectic appearance of the patients in these cases.

Polypus.

DR. COLGAN presented a specimen of polypus uteri. The patient had called some time ago, at his office, and complained of obstinate vomiting, and stated that for the last two or three years she had had frequent hemorrhages from the vagina. Would not submit to an examination, and medication seemed to have no control over the vomiting. Shortly afterwards she gave birth to a seven months' child, and it was during labor that this polypus was discovered, arising from the cervix. In the course of ten or twelve days a ligature was applied, and the mass came away in two days afterwards.

He was sent for again some time afterwards, and found that she could not make water. On examination found a calculus in the urethra.

Tuberculosis of the Testicles.

DR. BARTLETT presented the testicles removed from a patient on the 8th of October, 1864. Four years ago he had gonorrhœa, with more or less inflammation of the testicle. From this, however, as he thought, he had recovered. About two years ago he injured the testicles, and inflammation set in, commencing in the epididymis. From this he never recovered, and after undergoing treatment in several places, he at last found his way into the Kings County Hospital. The testicles were found to be very large and painful, and the scrotum, on the right side, one mass of ulceration. Their removal was determined upon, and the operation was pèrformed by laying the scrotum open, and tying the whole cord. The epididymis, on the right side, was entirely gone, and the seminiferous tubes were filled with tuberculous matter. No spermatozoa were found. In the left testicle, however, some were found, but the greater part of its substance was a mass of tuberculous matter. In the right testicle, the tunica vaginalis was everywhere adherent, and had to be dissected out.

In reply to a question the Doctor stated, that the cord was so short, in consequence of the swelling, that he concluded to tie the whole of it. The contents of the cord were perfectly healthy. Under the microscope the diseased mass of both testicles was found to consist of the tubes of the testicles, increased to double their normal diameter, and filled with the granular, amorphous matter, and shrivelled, granular muclei, characteristic of tubercle. The Doctor supposed that the patient, when he had gonorrhoea, had epididymitis only on the right side, and that after the disease had subsided, the testicle remained enlarged and sensitive.

MONTHLY MEETING, DECEMBER, 1864.

Specimens by Dr. S. F. Speir.

DR. SPEIR presented a specimen of diverticulum from the pericardium.

The patient was a female, and had been complaining for several years of palpitation of the heart. She died of bronchitis.

On post mortem found the layer of the pericardium absent at the place of diverticulum. There was an arrest of development at this point, and when the fluid accumulated there, expansion took place, and this diverticulum was formed. The pericardium was distended with fluid, and the diverticulum extended into the left pleural cavity.

Atrophy of the Heart.

In this case, all portions of the body were atrophied; the heart weighed only four and a half ounces, the natural standard being ten There was no deposit of fat between the muscular fibres.

ounces.

Pyomia.

The subject of this specimen was a man of intemperate habits. Dr. Minor amputated the leg above the knee; pyomia set in, and the patient died. The principal vein leading from the stomach was occupied by clots, some portions of them being surrounded by purulent looking matter. Phlebitis was not apparent. Under the microscope this matter was found not to be pus, but broken down fibrinous matter, blood corpuscles, etc. The lungs and spleen were

tuberculous; in the liver was an abscess, which turned out to be tuberculous.

DR. ENOS supposed that the portion of the clot, in the case of pyomia just related, was owing to some want of vitality in the blood.

Polypus of the Womb.

DR. HART report a case of polypus of the womb. About six weeks ago he was consulted by a lady, 50 years of age, who was suffering from uterine hemorrhage, which was some times considerable, but not at any time profuse. She was married, had never been pregnant, and for the last two years had not menstruated. Her health was perfect; appetite good; slept well, and nervous system in good order. At intervals she was troubled with leucorrhoea, and subject to a serious discharge from the vagina.Ordered a vaginal injection of tannic acid, and administered iron internally, but the remedies did not produce any benefit. About two weeks ago she noticed a small fibrinous mass come away. A few days afterwards she was seized with expulsive pains, which on the following morning became very severe, and continued for two or three hours, when a substance was thrown off, the pains subsiding immediately thereafter, About five days ago she was again seized with pain, and passed the present substance, which Dr. Speir pronounces polypus.

DR. SPEIR stated that the tumor was composed of cells and cor. Puscles, and was undergoing fatty degeneration.

REGULAR MEETINGS, MARCH AND JUNE, 1865. Action of Medicines on the Blood- Vessels. BY R. CRESSON STILES,

M. D.

The following experimental researches were undertaken with the desire of extending, as far as possible, the influence of the anatominal generalizations of Bichat and the discoveries of modern histologists into the domain of practical medicine. The field of

research was chosen as near as possible to that of practical medicine, in order that the results of experiment might be controlled by the experience of numerous observers among practitioners,

instead of affording interest to the professed cultivators of abstract physiology merely, whose numbers are few, and with the tendency of whose pursuits whatever there is of magisterial influence and of practical conservatism in medical authority has but limited sympathy. Physiology is not far in advance of the position which chemistry held before the time of Lavoisier, but the movement which is drawing within the domain of the Science of Vital Dynamics the dependent science of Pathology, (dependent, if legitimate scientific dependence exist at all,) which leads the physician to seek in diseases the affections of an organism re-acting in accordance with definite laws, rather than entities whose slightest variations in form and shade, in flying clouds of symptoms, are to be depicted in endless and useless detail, must affect also the classification and employment of therapeutic agents.

The several tissues of the body manifest varied and delicate differences of re-action to the agents employed in their study. These differences, due to molecular constitution, they doubtless possessed, with others of still greater delicacy, while forming a part of the living organism, rendering them subject to the variations of nutrition or function, which are the essential elements in all medicinal action. The influence of sulpho-cyanide of potassium and of upas upon the voluntary muscles, that of strychnine upon the afferent nerves, and that of wourara upon the motor nerves, give proof of relations subsisting between these substances and tissues respectively which other tissues do not share, or in which they participate to but a slight extent. The power of carbonic oxide gas to paralyze the blood corpuscles, rendering them inert in hæmatosis, and that of a temperature of 115° Fahrenheit to paralyze and make rigid the voluntary muscles, while the same temperature leaves the motor nerves intact, lend further proof of the independent vital re-actions of the different anatomical elements of the body. That these relations should be more familiar to physiologists than to practitioners is simply because they have been studied by the former; that many of the most familiar and useful articles of the materia medica have like relations I propose to show. Similar considerations are applicable to the generation of diseases. The development of the Trichina Spiralis in the striated muscles exclusively, its presence ceasing, as I have seen it, with the

upper third of the esophagus, leaving the remainder of an apparently homogeneous canal uninfested, is a type of the mode in which other less vitalized morbific agents seek out certain tissues of particular physical or molecular constitution upon which to exert their activity.

Some of the most valuable revelations of experimental physiology have resulted from the study of the nervous system. The demonstration of the separate motor and sensory endowments of the anterior and posterior spinal nerves by Bell and Magendie, the determination of the powers of the principal centres of the cerebro-spinal system by Marshall Hall, Flourens and Longet, the recognition of the influence of the sympathetic upon nutrition, calorification, secretion, and the activity of the nervous centers by Bernard and Brown-Séquard, are examples of what has been accomplished in this field of research. It is characteristic of the nervous system, that its functional activity is brought into play by the simplest physical influences, rendering it particularly suited to experimental investigation. To the student of experimental physiology, or to the pathological anatomist, the fact cannot fail to present itself, that the office of the nervous system is rather of a passive nature, serving to call into action and regulate processes of far greater independence; both are led to regard the nervous system as an instrument whose wonderful harmonies are evoked by the play of forces external to itself. Not only has experiment shown that in death from inanition, while the blood loses over seven-tenths of its weight, and the muscles over four-tenths, the loss of the nervous system is less than one-fiftieth; but when we witness on post-mortem examinations the almost uniform complete integrity of the nervous system amid the wreck of other systems and the waste and decay of the rest of the body, and after death accompanied with the most violent nervous commotions, we are forced to regard the nervous system as an instrument of sluggish nutritive changes, rather acted upon by the blood and the organs which it supplies, than itself generating its own forces and possessing the active nutrition necessary to such manifestations of energy. The nervous system has too long given sanctuary to all manner of fugitives from physiological law.

Except from our own individual sensations, we know nothing of