posteriorly in the form of a segment of a circle. This circumstance, and the condition of the legs and thighs, afford sufficient grounds for our diagnosis.

What is to be said as to the treatment of this variety of distorted spine may be comprised in a few words, and will be more conveniently introduced here than in any other place. I know of no reason why the treatment of the rickety affection of the spine should be different from that of the rickety affection of the legs and thighs. Of this last I see a great number of cases. In a large proportion of them, heavy instruments of steel have been already applied, with a view to reduce the curvature. In others the same thing has been recommended either by instrument makers or surgeons, but the machinery has not yet been applied. Now what is the effect of this mode of treatment? The original curvature is probably removed, but in order that this object should be attained, the instrument must make pressure on at least two points, one in the limb above, and the other in the limb below, and at each of these points a curvature is produced which did not exist before, so that there is simply an exchange of one curvature for two others. Then the instruments are a great weight and encumbrance to the child. He cannot drag them about so as to take such an amount of exercise as is necessary for the maintenance of the general health. They harass and torment him; and as they are always liable to break, and be otherwise out of repair, they are an endless trouble and expense to the parents. There is only one form of the disease in which, according to my experience, the use of instruments is at all justifiable, and that is one of very rare occurrence, in which the flexure is confined to the superior epiphysis of the tibia, the tibia below the epiphysis being bent outwards, making an angle more or less obtuse with the femur, so that the sole of the foot is with difficulty placed on the ground. With this single exception, I have not seen a single case of rickety curvature of the lower limbs, in which, if the health could be improved, and the general vigour of the system maintained, the curvature did not disappear spontaneously without any kind of local treatment being had recourse to; while, on the other hand, under a continuance of bad health, every kind of local treatment has been ineffectual. I generally recommend that the child should live in the country rather than in a crowded city; that he should be as much as possible at the sea-side; that he should take some preparation of iron from time to time, the bowels being at the same time carefully regulated that he should use a shower-bath every morning, cold in summer, with the chill taken off in winter; and that he should live on a plain but nutritious diet. In the early part of my practice I advised that he should be encouraged to crawl on the floor rather than to use his feet, and that instead of running about out of doors he should be taken into the fresh air in an open carriage. I am now convinced that this advice was wrong; that the general health cannot be maintained without exercise; that the more the limbs are used the better chance is there of the necessary quantity of phosphate of lime being deposited in the

bones; and that as the bones become harder so will they most certainly regain their proper figure, in spite of the weight which they have to sustain. Even in what might be termed a bad case of rickety affection of the limbs, three or four years, and in slighter cases a still shorter period, will generally be sufficient for this beneficial change to be brought about. From what I have already said, you may be aware that I have a more limited experience of rickety disease as it exists in the spine than as it exists in the extremities; but nevertheless I have seen enough of it to be satisfied that the plan of treatment which is the best adapted in the one case is also the best adapted to the other.-Lon. Med. Jour.

On the Nature and Sources of the Contents of the Fatal Stomach, being the substance of a Paper communicated to the Royal Society of London, in June last. By GEORGE ROBINSON, M. D., Fellow of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society of London, and Joint Lecturer on Materia Medica and Forensic Medicine in the Newcastle-on Tyne Medical School.--Whilst all physiologists who have examined the appearances presented by the alimentary canal of the fatus, agree in representing the small intestines as actively engaged in the function of digestion, a remarkable difference of opinion has prevailed as to the source of the nutritious matter there submitted to that process. Harvey, who, of modern physiologists, alone supposes it to enter the intestine through the stomach, adopts the views of the older writers, and concludes, from his observations, that it is the liquor amnii swallowed by the fœtus, which affords the material for chylification. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, perceiving the anatomical objection to this doctrine, which arises from the fact of similar appearances have been found in the intestinal canal of fœtuses born with an imperforate œsophagus, would seem to suppose that the superior portion of the intestines, being irritated by its contact with the bile, secretes a nutritive mucus, by the digestion of which chyle is formed. And Dr. Robert Lee, who is, I believe, the most recent investigator of this subject, has been led by his researches to the conclusion that the liver is the source of the nutritious fluid found in the alimentary canal of the fœtus; the function of that gland being, in his opinion, not merely that of separating from the blood an excrementitious substance, but also that of pouring into the fatal intestines, through the hepatic duct, a quantity of albuminous fluid.

Now, even though a quantity of albumen may be present in the bile taken from the hepatic duct, it is surely desirable that the impossibility of the nutritive contents of the small intestine having been derived from the fœtal stomach should be clearly demonstrated, before we admit the correctness of this latter conclusion as to their source. But it will be seen by a reference both to systematic writers, and to the authors who have more expressedly treated of the fœtal functions, that the evidence yet advanced is by no means sufficient to establish any positive opinion on this point.

Dr. Lee thus describes the result of his own examination of the stomach in several human'fœtuses: "The stomach of the fœtus I usually found in these cases distended with a semi-transparent, ropy, mucous, and occasionally acescent fluid without any sensible admixture of albuminous or other apparently nutritious matter." Dr. Blundell, whose opinions on any point connected with the uterine or foetal functions I consider to be worthy of every attention, has but the following brief allusion to the subject: "The stomach of the fœtus is not unfrequently empty, or nearly so; and when it does contain anything, if I may judge from some two or three observations, this matter consists of a mucous secretion mixed with the gastric juice." And in the systematic works on physiology, I do not perceive any mention of the subject further than an incidental statement that the foetal stomach contains a mucous fluid. The time which I could myself devote to this inquiry, and my opportunities for conducting it, have been too limited to enable me to attempt anything like a full and final settlement of the various questions connected with this department of fatal physiology. The few facts which have fallen under my notice are, however, sufficiently distinct to establish some positive inferences, and I can only hope that the results of this rude effort may induce others better qualified for the investigation to extend and complete our knowledge of this interesting group of functions.

My attention was first attracted to the subject in the autumn of last year, by an accidental observation of the stomach of a fatal rabbit, and having subsequently examined the fœtuses of other animals, I met with a number of curious facts, of which the following is a brief

account.

Observation 1. During the last ten days of its uterine existence, the stomach of the fatal rabbit is invariably distended with a semitransparent fluid, of a dark green colour, extremely viscid, and coagulating by heat into a solid opaque mass. Viewed microscopically, it is found to consist of a clear liquid, suspended in which are numerous cells of different shapes, and several large globules of oil. When heated in a watch glass over a spirit lamp, it assumes the appearance of a piece of baked custard; and on dropping it into boiling water, it also instantly solidifies. Dried by a more gentle heat, it forms a brittle substance like gum, which, on being dissolved in water, answers to every test of albumen. A small quantity of the fresh liquid which had been excluded from the air in a test tube, on being examined at the end of six months, though it had acquired a disagreeable odour, was found to retain all its chemical properties, coagulating as readily as when recently obtained. The stomach was in these cases extremely pale, and presented very little vascularity; whereas the small intestines were plentifully supplied with blood-vessels. The chymous substance which the latter contained, was evidently derived from the stomach, becoming however more opaque, as it gradually assumed the situation of the meconium. This latter substance, of a bright green colour, exhibited a curious reaction with strong nitric acid, the addition of a few drops of the latter instantly causing it to assume a bright scarlet hue.

In three instances, a liquid, precisely resembling that contained in the stomach, escaped from the mouth of the animal as it lay on its side before being opened; and in two other cases, the same substance was found in the esophagus. The liquor amnii of these animals is a transparent, almost colourless fluid, exhibiting scarcely any indication of the presence of albumen. In two instances where I had an opportunity of watching the fœtus through the transparent membranes, it was observed to swallow the liquor amnii, and from its continuing to perform the act of deglutition after its removal from the uterus, the stomach was found extremely distended with air, each mouthful of which appearing as a little vesicle, was preserved distinct by the viscidity of the stomachic fluid. The facts detailed in this observation are drawn from the examination of more than thirty animals.

Observation 2. The uterus of a rabbit, killed about the tenth day after impregnation, contained six fœtuses, an inch and a half in length, and the tissues of which were still very gelatinous. Through the transparent walls of the abdomen, the dark globular stomach of each was distinctly visible, and on opening the peritoneal cavity, it constituted, with the exception of the liver, the most prominent object presented to the eye, being in every case distended with a liquid of a dark green colour. This fluid was perfectly transparent, presented no microscopical object, was not at all viscid, and did not undergo any change on the application of heat or nitric acid.

The intestines were in these animals extremely minute and tortuous, translucent, and almost void of meconium, or any other coloured substance. The quantity of liquor amnii was greater than that met with in the former observations, and its opacity, on the application of the tests for albumen, if anything rather more distinct.

Observation 3. In a foetal lamb examined at a very early period (for its weight did not exceed two ounces,) the stomach contained two drachms of a clear, citron-coloured liquid, which was neither viscid, nor did it present any opacity or change on the application of heat and nitric acid. The quantity of liquor amnii was relatively large; six ounces of it were collected, and in its colour, consistence, and chemical properties, it precisely resembled the fluid obtained from the fœtal stomach. The intestines were very minute and tortuous, and with the exception of a small quantity of serous fluid, apparently empty.

Observation 4. In another foetal lamb which was fully developed and ready for birth, the stomach, on being opened, presented a substance differing very much from the liquid just described. It contained an ounce of a viscid, transparent semifluid mass, suspended in which and gradually subsiding in it, so as to form a sediment, were numerous minute, oval, brown particles, in shape and colour very much resembling grains of linseed, but somewhat larger, and around each of them was a quantity of an extremely tenacious, gelatinous substance of a yellow colour. Neither the supernatant liquid nor the liquor amnii evinced the presence of albumen, though both possessed considerable viscidity. A substance precisely similar to the yellow

gelatinous sediment found within the stomach, existed in considerable quantities upon the fleece, the legs, and the whole exterior of the animal; but on the most careful examination I could not detect in any other part of the fatal structures or appendages, a single particle corresponding to the brown oval masses met with in the stomach.

The intestines, in addition to some meconium, contained a chymous mass, the liquid portion of which was distinctly albuminous.

Observation 5. The liquor amnii of a fetal calf, (which was examined at a very early period, when its body weighed only nine ounces) was of a citron colour, neither viscid nor coagulable by heat or nitric acid, but instantly formed an opaque membranous coagulum on the addition of a little acetate of lead, or proto-nitrate of mercury. The stomach of the same animal contained two drachms of a fluid, which in every respect resembled the liquor amnii, and which, on standing, did not present any sediment or coloured flocculi. In the intestine was a small quantity of meconium, which, on being heated with nitric acid, exhibited the usual change of colour, from a green to a reddish hue.

Observation 6. In another fœtal calf of considerable size, (presumed to be in the ninth month of uterine existence, and which was examined twelve hours after death,) the stomach contained four ounces of a yellow glairy fluid, in which, as it lay in the stomachic cavity, were suspended three or four fibrinous masses of a dark, brown colour. On allowing these matters to stand for some hours in a cylindrical glass vessel, the quantity of the coagulum or sediment was very much increased, so that its bulk ultimately became equal to the tenth part of that of the supernatant liquid. This latter was slightly opaque from the presence in it of innumerable minute globules, resembling those formed during the coagulation of albumen, and though extremely viscid, it furnished no coagulum on the application of heat and nitric acid singly and in conjunction, the only effect produced being the gradual formation of a pellicle on its surface as the liquor evaporated. Of a few other tests which were applied, sulphuric and muriatic acids caused no change whatever in the appearance of the fluid; ferro-cyanide of potassium, assisted with acetic acid, tincture of galls, sulphate of copper and alum, slightly increased its opacity, and the addition of a drop of solution of acetate of lead or proto-nitrate of mercury, was instantly followed by the appearance of an opaque membranous coagulum.

Imbedded in the coagulum or sediment, which was of a reddish brown colour and semi-transparent, were several thin yellow scales, perfectly opaque, and insoluble in boiling liquor potassæ, whereas the remainder of the fibrinous mass readily dissolved in that liquid. From the clear solution thus obtained, copious flakes were produced on its neutralization by muriatic acid.

In the mouth of this animal was found some glairy fluid, very similar to that met with in the stomach; and lying on the outer surface of the gums, particularly those of the lower jaw, were several of the peculiar yellow flakes just described.