ASSOCIATION OF SURGEONS PRACTISING DENTAL SURGERY.

312 Dislocation of the Patella. The was recently admitted under his

patient,

a

lad

aged sixteen, ASSOCIATION OF SURGEONS PRACTISING

into the hospital. He was unloading a coprolite truck, when he slipped off the end of it and struck the inner side of his left knee. On his arrival at the hospital it was found that the inne edge of the

left patella

care

between the condyles of the femur and the head of the tibia, its outer edge projecting forwards under the stretched skin. The patient was etherised, the limb was raised, and by a little manipulation the bone was returned to its natural position. This form of dislocation is said to be very uncommon, and its reduction sometimes to be a matter of great difficulty. Mr. T. Bryant says he has only seen one case. The cause is supposed to be a sudden blow on the patella while the knee is bent. Dr. BACON brought forward a case in which a man, aged forty-six, had been killed outright by one blow with the naked nat. The victim was a chronic lunatic, rather a spare man, apparently in average health, who annoyed another patient in some trifling way, when the latter struck him a blow under the right mastoid process. The blow was given with some force, and from behind. The man who was struck fell, without striking himself against any object, on the floor, and after some convulsive movements died within five minutes. The whole affair was witnessed by two sane men who stood only a few yards off. The necropsy showed that the deceased died from an extravasation of blood at the base of the brain ; there was a clot in the fourth ventricle, and the effused blood compressed the medulla oblongata, thus causing rapid death. There was no fracture, and the effusion of blood was due to the rupture of a bloodvessel at the base of the brain. There was blood-staining of the membranes, more particularly on the opposite side. Dr. Bacon mentioned that the case was peculiar from the suddenness of the death, as, though many died from blows on the head in drunken brawls or from street accidents, very few cases occurred in which death ensued so quickly, and the case had considerable medico-legal importance, as the facts werf beyond dispute, and the assault was witnessed by competen1 observers. The two persons engaged were both lunati( patients in the Fulbourn Asylum, and the encounter tool place in a ward after breakfast, and in the presence of severe persons. was

wedged

DENTAL SURGERY. ,

THE following is a list of Fellows appointed to the offices named below, on Wednesday, Februar) the 15tb, 1882 :President : Mr. Samuel Cartwright. Vice-Presidents : Messrs. J. A. Baker, Thomas Edgelow, Francis Brodie Imlach, S. J. A. Salter, F.R.S., Dr. John Smith. Treasurer : Mr. S. Hamil. ton Cartwright. Hon. Secretary : Mr. J. Hamilton Craigie. Council : Messrs. Edward Bartlett, T. W. W. Fay (LiverW. G. pool), F. Fox, Peter Orphoot, M.D. Ranger, Augustus Winterbottom.

(Edinburgh),

Reviews

and

Notices of Books.

Practical Manual of the Diseases of Children, with a Formulary. By EDWARD ELLIS, M.D. Fourth Edition. pp. 523. London : Churchill. DR. ELLIS’S book is hardly a suitable one for students, but in many ways it unquestionably meets the wants of the general practitioner. In regard to medical books the country doctor in large practice always protests that he cares not for long historical accounts of diseases and elaborate statements of rival hypotheses. Post-mortems, though very interesting, are for him seldom attainable ; but it is all-important to recognise quickly the nature of disease, and, above every. thing else, to know how to treat it. He dislikes long lists of drugs have been tried a few times, but emphatically wishes to know what has stood the test of experience. We have used the word "wants" advisedly, as distinguished from "needs"; for, at all events in regard to morbid anatomy, which in this book receives but scant attention, it is a grave question whether the general practitioner, who has but seldom opportunities for personal investigation, would not be materially benefited by full and graphic accounts of postROYAL MEDICAL & CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY. mortem appearances. The practical bearing is that one may be induced to remember the possibility of complications apt to THE annual general meeting of the above Society will be be overlooked, and also that sometimes one may hesitate in held on Wednesday next, March lst, at half-past five o’clock the application of theoretical therapeutics, which are often a in the afternoon, instead of in the evening, as has lately been series of plunges in the dark. But let us frankly accord to the custom. The following is the list of officers and other Dr. Ellis’s book the credit which it deserves. It meets, in membersof theCouncil for 1882-83, nominated by the Council: great measure, what we have called the " wants" of the general President: John Marshall, F.R.S. Vice-Presidents : S. 0. practitioner. The accounts of the clinical aspects of disease Habershon, M.D. ; J. Burdon Sanderson, M.D., F.R.S. ; are terse and readable. With a few exceptions the book is Timothy Holmes, F. R. C. S. ; Jonathan Hutchinson,F.R.C.S. properly restricted to the manifestations of disease in Treasurer-!: Cbas. Bland Radcliffe, M.D. ; John Cooper instead of wandering far afield into adult ail. Forster, F.R.C.S. Secretaries: Reginald E. Thompson, children,which is a common fault of books of this kind. The ments, M.D. ; M. Berkeley Hill, F. R. C. S. Librarians: Edward H. devoted to treatment are thoroughly practical, and sections John Whitaker Other F.R.S. Hulke, Sieveking, M.D. ; members of Council: Jag. Andrew, M.D. ; Wm. Cholmeley, the directions are given with sufficient detail. There is a M.D. ; James E. Pollock, M.D. ; Sydney Ringer, M.D. laudable absence of sentiment and an excellent tone of Reginald Southey, M.D. ; George Cowell, F. R. C. S. ; Johl independence throughout, and there is considerable dis. Langton, F.R.C.S. ; Henry Power, F.R.C.S.; Howard crimination, especially in regard to new remedies. Marsh, F.R.C.S. ;Septimus W. Sibley, F.R.C.S. Dr. Ellis’s observations about leeches are very naive. He mentions that some practitioners have used them and say they are beneficial in children’s diseases, but for his part he has THE HUNTERIAN SOCIETY. got on well without them. It is satisfactory to note that he AT the annual general meeting of this Society, which practically ignores the use of antimony ; he is thorough in took place in the London Institution on Wednesday, the his devotion to aconite in all acute inflammatory conditions. 8th instant, the following officers were elected for the We cannot say that we have seen such remarkable and ensuing year :-President : J. Hughlings Jackson, M.D. uniform benefit from the use of the drug as appears to have Vice-Presidents: J. E. Adams, Esq., F. Gordon Brown, Esq., obtained in Dr. Ellis’s experience, but it is a safe remedy in Waren Tay, Esq., and M, Brownfield, Esq. Treasurer : the way in which he uses it, and deserves a more extended H. T. Fotherby, M.D. Librarian: P. L. Burchell, M.B employment amongst orthodox practitioners. Orator: George Roper, M.D. Honorary Secretaries We pass to the consideration of some of the defects of R. demerit Lucas, B.S., and G. E. Herman, M.8. Council : Dr. Ellis’s book, which are chiefly though not entirely those T. E. Bowkett, Esq., C. Davidson, Esq., W. J. Dickson, of omission. Dr. Ellis is much in the early part indebted, M.D., E. Dukes, Esq., Alexander Grant, M.A., M.D., of his book, to the teaching of Sir William Jenner. The E. G. Gilbert, Esq, W. T. King, Eq., Stephen Mackenzie, M.D., H Port, M.D., W. Rivington, M.S., G. T. B. lectures on rickets by that distinguished physician, to which is prefixed an account of the four diathetic diseases of childStevem, Esq., R. M. Talbot, Esq. ___________

that