A PAIR OF ARTIFICIAL FEET TO MAKE A WOMAN TALLER.

should use chloroform in such of this kind, both on account of the safety of the patient and our own responsibility. Hence I consider myself justified in recommending the use of apparatuses having well regulated and permanent orifices for the admission of atmospheric air."" The views of M. Devergie have been warmly discussed at the Academy of Medicine, where the frequency of death by asphyxia, and the great advantages attached to the use of apparatuses, were put in question. This discussion induced M. Ludger Lallemand, who has made numerous and important experiments on anaesthetic agents, to write a letter to the Academy, in which he defends the following propositions, the subjects of his experiments having been taken from several classes of vertebrated animals, from reptiles and from birds :"The action of chloroform is in a direct ratio with the activity of respiration and circulation. The rapidity and intensity of anaesthetic phenomena are also in a direct ratio with the quantity of chloroform administered within a given time, viz., with the degree of concentration of the inhaled vapours; but this rapidity and intensity are identical quoàd their nature and mode of evolution. Chloroform, by an elective affinity, accumulates in the nervous centres, the excito-motor properties of which it suspends, as also the sensitive and motor power of the cerebro-spinal nerves. It has been found, by chemical analysis, that the brain and spinal marrow contain about ten times more chloroform than the blood and highly vascular organs (as, for instance, the liver), the analysis being made on equal weights. I have always seen, in chloroform inhalations, respiration stop before circulation: the action of the heart and arterial pulsations lasted from one to six minutes after the complete abolition of respiratory movements. All the animals which were left uninterfered with after the breathing had ceased died, although circulation still existed at the time the inhalations were stopped. Ten times out of twelve I succeeded in recalling life into dogs and rabbits by s means of instifflation into the lungs practised with a bellows and tube, the latter being introduced into the trachea. This insufflation was each time begun after the cessation of the heart’s contractions, and was carried on until respiration was re-established. Insufflation acts by artificially eliminating the chloroform, and by stimulating the excitability of the nervous system. The chloroform is thus very rapidly driven from the organism, and the pulmonary surface is the normal outlet for this elimination, in which latter the cutaneous surface is concerned in a very limited degree. Death can be explained neither by paralysis of the heart nor by asphyxia depending on an insufficient amount of air supplied to the lungs; for I have killed dogs, which presented the phenomena decribed above, by injecting the vapour of chloroform into the jugular vein. It should, however, be stated, that I

b me.

Now I conceive that

a manner as

to

prevent

any

we

error

is observed after asphyxia; but this circumstance should be attributed to the persistence of the heart’s action, and to the diminished permeability of the lungs depending on arrested respiration, these two phenomena leading to the accumulation of blood on the right side of the heart. It seems to me that death is chiefly owing to the abolition oj the functions of the nervous centres, which latter gradually lose their vital properties under the narcotic influence of th. chloroform which accumulates in the cerebro-spinal substance. It appears to me indispensable, in surgical ansthesia, tc dilute the vapour of chloroform with a large, and, as far ai practicable, regulated proportion of atmospheric air, because the intensity and rapidity of action of such vapour are inE 7’ direct ratio with its concentration." It should be added that M. Ludger Lallemand, who i! secretary to the Societe Médicale d’Emulation, was assisted ii his experiments by a committee of the Society.

found,

on

post-mortem examinations,

venous

congestion,

as

the pile is composed of zinc, charcoal, and dilute sulphuric acid saturated with bichromate of potash. The tension is kept up by means of a current of air directed into the fluid, and the wires will thus remain at the proper temperature for the most

protracted operations.

New Inventions IN AID OF THE

PRACTICE OF MEDICINE AND SURGERY. A NEW FORM OF COTTON WOOL PESSARY.

MR. WALTER BRYANT has sent us a new, simple, inexpenand very efficient form of pessary, devised by him for cases requiring uterine support, or the employment of medicated substances in the vagina. The pessary is composed of cotton wool, encased in a pyriform net. It is softer, less irritating, and far more cleanly than the sponge or caoutchouc pessary, and readily absorbs astringent or other solutions which may be prescribed. The mouth of the net is closed by a stout silk thread, which hangs through the vagina, and allows of the ready withdrawal of the pessary. Weare assured that Mr. Bryant’s ingenious contrivance is being extensively used in the treatment of uterine disease.

sive,

A PAIR OF ARTIFICIAL FEET TO MAKE A WOMAN TALLER. THE

lady for whom the above are made being only three feet high, whose legs and feet have never grown since an accident in childhood, but in other respects being perfectly formed, long had the wish to appear of more natural height, to escape the too general observation which her low stature caused. She applied to several mechanicians at home and on the Conten inches

tinent without effect, and came at last to Mr. Pratt, the instrument-maker, of Oxford-street, who has succeeded in adding nearly eight inches to her height, making her appear, in fact, four feet six inches, and which accords with her figure admirably.

The engraving represents the manner in which the lady’s feet are disposed of, the boots being rivetted on to a steel plate, to which is attached two steel supports, with joint at the toes

keep them off the ground in walking, the supports being filled in with cork, and fashioned to represent the natural feet, on which a pair of boots or shoes can be put at pleasure. After on the supports nearly three months, the lady writeswalking 4c I am more and more pleased with the supports every day I " I can ride on horseback the same as ever." wear them.

to IHPItOrE3fEIVTS 3BT THE APPLICATION

OF THE

GALVANIC

CAUTERY.

M. BROCA communicated very lately to the Academy of Medicine of Paris certain improvements in the apparatus to be used for the application of the platinum wire, raised to a white

heat by the galvanic current. He stated that M. Middeldorpf, the originator of the method, employs a battery of large dimen-

sions, high price, and requiring nearly ten quarts of fluid; and that, by means of an apparatus invented by M. Grenet, all

these drawbacks are removed. The latter has contrived a pile With constant tension, though requiring only one kind of fluid;

THE

LATE

HUGH MiLLEB’s MpsEUM.—At

a

meeting

of the Edinburgh Town Council on Tuesday last, the Lord Provost reported the steps that had been taken to secure for the country the valuable geological museum of the late Hugh n

Miller.

217