could easily be inferred from the very conspicuous protrusion of the knee joint forwards, but the limb was perfectly straight and firmly united. DISLOCATION OF HIP JOINT OF TWENTY-EIGHT YEARS' DURATION OSTEOTOMY-REMOVAL OF DISTORTION.-Thos. D., æt. 42, admitted to Ward XXI, 26th June, 1879, with shortening of the right leg and stiffness of the hip joint. When standing erect the right heel was nine inches from the floor, the thigh forming with the leg an angle of 120°. On examination, Dr. Macewen found that there was a dislocation of the head of the bone on to the dorsum of ilium near the ischiatic notch. The injury was occasioned by a fall from a horse twenty-eight years ago. 7th July.-Subcutaneous osteotomy was performed on the neck of the femur, and the limb was straightened and put up in a long splint. 31st July.-Dressed for the first time, when the wound was found to be perfectly healed. The splint was taken off and extension applied. On the 5th August patient was allowed to leave his bed. He was kept in the ward until he could walk easily, with a slight increase (nearly one inch) to the sole of his shoe. This was effected in the first instance by the use simply of a piece of cork in place of a boot specially formed for the purpose, which the patient will use afterwards. He was dismissed well on 29th August. FROM DR. CAMERON'S WARDS. FRACTURE OF FEMUR THE MEANS OF RECTIFYING A LIMB DEFORMED WITH ANKYLOSIS OF KNEE JOINT.-This case is similar to the two preceding, with this difference, that it is an osteoclasm and not an osteotomy. John L., æt. 23, was admitted to Ward XVI, on 16th June, with a simple fracture of the right femur at the junction of the middle and lower thirds. On examination the knee joint was found to be ankylosed, with considerable flexion of the limb, the result, as it afterwards appeared, of acute disease of the joint in childhood. He had in consequence "talipes equinus." Being intoxicated on admission he was extremely violent and would not allow the leg to be extended. It was therefore put up temporarily in a Macintyre splint by Mr. Limont, house surgeon. On the following day Dr. Cameron resolved to take advantage of the fracture as a means of rectifying the deformity, and accordingly the limb was put up straight in a long splint, with extension by means of a nine pounds weight. This was necessary as there was 4 inches of shortening. At the end of No. 10. X Vol. XII. five weeks it was taken down, but as the limb was not yet sufficiently firm the splint was re-applied and kept on for three weeks longer, when the bone was found to be firmly united. The limb is now perfectly straight, and the patient can go about the ward without assistance of any kind. There is so little shortening that a high heeled boot will be all that is required. It is interesting to note that this accidental osteoclasm took somewhat longer to unite than a fracture treated in the ordinary way, while an osteotomy would have united in half the time. MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES. GLASGOW SOUTHERN MEDICAL SOCIETY. MEETING XIV.-15th MAY, 1879. MR. NIVEN, Vice-President, in the Chair. DR. DUNLOP showed a case of SYPHILITIC RUPIA undergoing cure. The treatment had consisted of iodide of potassium during the day, and bichloride of mercury at night, with vapour baths twice a week. In MR. GILMOUR narrated two cases of PAINFUL CARUNCLE. the first case the affection had lasted twelve or thirteen years. The tumour, which was situated immediately behind the meatus urinarius, was occasionally touched with caustic, but with no permanently good effect. It was eventually removed with the thermo-cautery, the operation resulting in a complete and immediate cure. In the second case, the operation was not quite so successful, as the cautery touched the vulva, which left a somewhat larger surface to heal. In this case also there was incontinence of urine both before and after operation, which proved rather troublesome. Mr. Gilmour also gave the details of a case in which he had incised the cervix uteri for dysmenorrhoea. The uterus was exceedingly small; it was held down by a tenaculum, the metrotome (exhibited) was pushed home, and a bougie afterwards introduced. The result was in all respects favourable. Dr. Dunlop found it necessary, in cases of painful caruncle, to remove a portion of the wall of the urethra. Dr. E. Duncan was opposed to the operation of division of the cervix uteri: he thought that less dangerous measures, such as gradual dilatation, were better adapted to the accomplishment of the end in view. OF THE ELBOW JOINT. DR. MACFARLANE presented a specimen of STRUMOUS DISEASE The operation (excision) was performed on 15th April last. The result was good. The principal peculiarity in the case was the fact that the patient was a lunatic and epileptic. The DR. MACFARLANE next showed a LUNATIC PATIENT (male) suffering from a well marked CATALEPTIC AFFECTION. patient was first found to be stiff on 15th April last, and since that time his condition had not varied much. His body and limbs retain for a considerable period whatever position they are placed in; there is absence or diminution of sensation everywhere except on the inner aspect of the thighs and in the sacral and gluteal regions. The patient is only partially conscious; his pupils are generally dilated, though on one occasion they were found to be much contracted and on another unequal. Temperature normal. Respiration slow, 7-10 per minute during the day; there is an abnormally long pause between inspiration and expiration. Dr. Macfarlane believed that these symptoms were due to some cerebral mischief, probably tumour or softening. Strychnia was given in small doses, and the constant electric current occasionally employed. MR. TINDAL related a case of MALIGNANT DISEASE OF THE ARM AND SHOULDER. Patient was a girl, who had always enjoyed fairly good health till 27th December last, when she fell on and injured her arm. When examined immediately after the accident no fracture or dislocation could be discovered. The pain and swelling continued to increase, and in about three weeks the part was noticed to communicate a semifluctuant sensation to the hand. The pulse on the injured side was smaller than that on the other. About the end of January Dr. Dunlop amputated the arm at the shoulder joint; in fourteen days the stump was completely healed, except at one small point. The disease recurred, however, and at the present date the patient is dying, the tumour at the shoulder being nearly as large as a man's head. DR. DUNLOP showed the CERVICAL VERTEBRÆ OF A HEADLESS CHILD found in an ashpit in Argyle Street, and a child's head found in the River Clyde ten days after. He pointed out that in the neck there were two vertebræ wanting (the axis and atlas), and that the head had attached to it an axis and atlas. There was, further, a small portion of bone attached to the third cervical vertebra, and an exactly corresponding piece was wanting in the axis. These facts proved beyond doubt that the head and the neck belonged to each other. MEETING XV.-29th MAY, 1879. MR. NIVEN, Vice-President, in the Chair. DR. DUNLOP showed three patients, two boys and a girl, on whom he had OPERATED FOR GENU VALGUM, and photographs of the cases taken before the operations had been performed. In one case, that of a boy, aged 17, there had been great deformity, and before his limbs were ultimately straightened both thigh bones were divided, also both leg bones, and in the left limb the fibula as well. These sections of bones were not made at one time. The lad was able to walk and stand erect, and since the operation there had been 3 to 4 inches added to his stature. The other two cases were equally successful and satisfactory. Dr. Dunlop then described shortly the steps of the operation, and remarked that it was one which was fairly accepted by most surgeons. He had operated on about 30 cases. In that number there had been one death, from blood poisoning, on the fourth day after operation. The facts connected with the fatal case have already been recorded in this Journal. DR. CARMICHAEL exhibited a pair of DUPRÉS' SURFACE THERMOMETERS, for comparative observation. Each instrument is like the ordinary clinical thermometer, but the bulb is elongated, bent at right angles to the stem, and twisted into a flat coil which rests on the skin. The bulb is protected by a metal or vulcanite capsule which falls down over it. Dr. Carmichael then read some notes of cases in which he had used the instruments. In several cases of phthisis he found that the temperature was invariably higher on the diseased side, the difference occasionally amounting even to 1-6° F.; as the patients improved in condition the difference decreased. When hæmoptysis occurred, the temperature of the side from which the blood came was sometimes higher, sometimes lower than that of the other side. In a case of incipient hydrocephalus the difference between the temperatures of the two posterior parietal regions was 2° F. In a case of paralysis of the left limb from syphilitic spinal meningitis, the tempera ture of the surface in the dorsal region was always higher to the left than to the right of the spinal cord, and this relation was preserved through a considerable number of observations. The results of observations made at other parts of this patient's body were indecisive and variable. In the course of the discussion another case was mentioned, in which the statements of a man who claimed damages from a railway company on account of injury, were corroborated by testing with the surface thermometer, the special value of the method in this instance being that symptoms were thus brought to light which it was beyond the patient's power to simulate, and over which he could have no possible control. MEDICAL ITEMS. UNDER THE DIRECTION OF ALEX. NAPIER, M.D. The Physiology of the Turkish Bath.-Mr. W. J. Fleming has made a series of experiments on himself, to determine the effect produced on his body by immersion in hot, dry air. The conclusions at which he has arrived are as follows:-A very large quantity of material can be eliminated from the body in a comparatively short time, by immersion in hot, dry air, and although the greater part of this is water, still solids are present in quantity sufficient to render this a valuable emunctory process; the average loss of weight per hour was 44 ounces. The temperature of the body and the pulse-rate are markedly raised. The average rise in temperature was 37° F., this point being always reached at the end of 50 minutes, but, on the few occasions on which the experiment was prolonged to 60 minutes, a tendency to fall during the last part of the time was observed; the maximum rapidity of the pulse (116) was reached also after 50 minutes' immersion. The respiration falls at first, but afterwards is less influenced than would be expected prima facie: at 10 minutes after entering the hot room the average rate of the respiration was 20-8 per minute, at 50 minutes 25.4. The urine is increased in density and deprived of a large proportion of its chlorides, while, if anything, there is an increase in the amount of urea. The principal effect upon the arterial |