ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS IN LONDON.

ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS IN LONDON.

728 statements, having seen many cases of fatal ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS IN LONDON. pneumonia consequent upon the conditions referred to. Duputryen ...

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statements, having seen many cases of fatal ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS IN LONDON. pneumonia consequent upon the conditions referred to. Duputryen was fully aware of LIST of gentlemen admitted, members on the probability of pneumonia occurring after Friday, Feb. 3, 1843 :-R. D. Edgecombe, and was in the habit of -

operations,

applying G. Beddow, J. Morrison, E. J. Shearman, G. Johnson, J. Vincent, T. W. Smith, C. A. Aikin, M. Macnamara, D. Ross.

blister to the arm of the patient to prevent the mischief. He hoped the paper before the society would have the effect of bringing the stethoscope more into use among surgeons, who, as was well known, at present, almost entirely neglected it as a means of diagnosis. He referred to the necessity of placing a patient after an operation out of the influence of an open window, the neglect of which caution had been often followed by the occurrence of chest affection. a

Mr. ARNOTT observed that after operations the cause of death was frequently to be found in the lungs, but other organs were generally also implicated. Where there was congestion of the lungs there was generally oedema elsewhere, and the pneumonia was often attended with purulent deposits. The liability of the lungs to become affected after operations was well known to Bell and Guthrie twenty years ago, and had been particularly adverted to by them in their published works. He thought the author of the paper was wrong in his physiology when he attributed the occurrence of lung affections after operations almost entirely to the influence of the nervous system, for he (Mr. A.) thought the blood itself was to be looked to As far as the chief source of the mischief. as he could at the moment recollect, these cases were not generally connected with previous long standing disease, or occurred in persons worn out by suffering or drains upon the system ; but were more frequent after operations performed for recent injuries. The experiments of a French physiologist respecting the cause of purulent deposits, had shown that they had their origin usually in the blood ; that physiologist had found that the injection of recent pus into the veins was followed by death in forty hours, and the lungs were found affected with purulent deposits; while the injection of a putrid effusion into the same kind of vessels had been followed by a more speedy death, and the occurrence of oedema, not only in the pulmonary organs, but in the intestines also. The treatment of the cases under consideration was attended with much difficulty. The long affection was often attended with phlebitis near the wound, but the cases were not always beyond remedy. To show that even in some apparently desperate cases the patient might recover, Mr. Arnott detailed the case of a man in whom inflammation of the veins of the forearm followed an injury in that part. In this case formations of matter occurred in various parts of the body, and were opened. The case extended over a period of three months, but the patient ’ ultimately recovered.

NEWS AND CORRESPONDENCE. To the .Edtf.—Sir :In perusing THE LANCET for Jan. 28, 1843, my attention was drawn to a paper on "Catheterism of the Eustachian Tube in Deafness" therein contained, and a comment on a letter from « D. Cronin, of Craven-street, Strand," in the latter of which Dr. C. is mentioned as a pretended curer of phthisis by "traction." A person of this same name and character was, three years ago, professing to the inhabitants of Devonport and Plymouth to " catheterism of the Eusta. cure deafness by chian tube." For a term he flourished, but, finding no beneficial results from his treatment, his patients left him, and at last he quitted the town and was forgotten, and now do I find him turning from deafness to coninjure the" sumption ? Such men as these profession more than all the 11 Parr’s pills quacks, and other such dealers in specific cures for diseases. I am, Sir, your obedient H. R. C. servant,

If J. F. (Lambeth) does not possess any claim on the practitioner to supply the certi. ficate gratuitously, the charge must be considered as good in law. Fairplay, An Admirer of your Writing and Public Character, A General Practi
opinion.

Philanthropos’

letter next week.