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struments employed by that operator for

grinding, breaking; and extracting stones inthe bladder. The apparatus has been so

fully explained in this journal, that itwould be useless to give details on the

present exhibition. We take the opportu-nity, however, of advising the gentleman (aMr. Brookes) who showed the manner ofthe various operations, to abandon, on

other public occasions, the use of the invi-dious expression few," when alluding tothe successful cases " of any other opera-tor, to whose disparagement it may bemeant to be employed. The emphasis laidon the word was neither in good taste

nor just, and the merits of Baron Heurte-loup do not require such an attempt to

elevate them above their right standard. jThe exposition of Mr. Brookes was lucid

and comprehensive, and gave satisfaction tothe Society.

MEDICO-CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY.

Tuesday, February 26th, 1833.

MR. LAWRENCE, President.

BYDATID AND AQUEOUS TUMOURS.

Mr. CAESAR HAWKINS contributed a paperthis evening on the subject of hydatidtumours, (the companion to a paper readsome time ago on aqueous tumours,) whereinhe briefly reviewed most of the facts hithertorecorded on the subject of hydatids and theircysts, and added some observations of hisown on their symptoms, degree of fatality,excess of danger in the hydatid over theaqueous cysts, and treatment, with a re-ference to two or three cases which had oc-curred at St. George’s Hospital, treated bypuncture and internal remedies. He com-menced by offering reasonable objections tothe confused and indiscriminate manner inwhich the terms "hydatid," "hydatid tu-mours," " hydatid cysts," &c., had been ap-plied by authors, and showed the distinctionswhich correctness demanded should be madein the several designations applied to thetumours or cavities, the cysts, and the con-tained animalcules, and the mere aqueouscysts which had nothing to do with the realhydatid. The paper successively treated ofthe various component parts of these tu - Imours, the abundance or paucity of the im-prisoned hydatids, and the circumstance of!the cyst sometimes not being capacious ienough to hold the swarm of animalcules Igenerated within, and the consequent re-duction of their coats to a pulpy mass. Withthe number of hydatids he thought the in.tensity of the symptoms increased, and the

r1, hydatid encysted tumour" he regarded asII invariably fatal where it continued to pro-

gress, and was combined with inflammatoryL. action, without which latter, however, thebull of the tumour (tumours of the liverbeing chiefly alluded to throughout the

paper) was the only inconvenience occa-Isioned by its existence. He did not regardhydatids as evidence of malignant disease.The diagnosis of these tumours he thoughtwas not very evident by manual examina-tion alone, unless they were very large. Ofcourse not. To the other means of diag-nosis no additional signs were added. Re-lative to their treatment, the trial by punc-ture was the only mode enlarged on. Theyhad sometimes been opened, he observed,but this plan was not to be regarded either asa a hopeful, or even as an innocuous, course ofproceeding,-the excitement or the increaseof inflammation being risked by it, for itseffectual accomplishment required a larger

I opening than where the simple evacuationof water was contemplated. It was safer,he thought, to wait for the suppuration ofthe tumour, though if the symptoms becamevery oppressive to the patient (not else), heknew no reason why it should not be treatedlike other tumours,--by opening. A caseat St. George’s was thus treated, but not withultimate benefit. Sometimes they wouldspontaneously burst, and the patient re-

cover sometimes they ulcerated throughthe liver into the intestines, and then whenthey burst into the lower and less importantpart of the alimentary canal, they werevoided by the rectum, but when into theduodenum they woe ejected by vomiting,an efl’ect by tar the more serious of the two.Of the medical treatment ofhydatid tumourshe ventured to say nothing, but presumedthat it should be simply conducted on gene-ra! medical principles. Iodine had beentried at St. George’s Hospital with tempo-rary alleviation of the symptoms, though thecase in the end proved fatal. In mereaqueous tumours, commonly called hydatidaqueous tumours, he decidedly, under judi.cious exceptions, recommended puncturewith a trocar, moderate and continued pres-sure being carefully used during the evacu-ation of the fluid, to prevent air from enter-ing ; or, in place of pressure, which mightexcite inflammation, the application of a

cupping-glass to the extremity of the canula.Care must then be taken to get the sides ofthe puncture well together, and healed upagainst the dangerous and penetratmg at-mosphere, by applying long straps of ad-hesive plaster over it, and bandages aroundthe abdomen. Many observations, relative tothe nature and patliology of the disease, wehave not room to notice. A few remarksfrom members followed.Mr. LANGSTAFF, not having beard some

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parts of the paper perhaps very clearly,submitted that as hydatids were decidedlyliving animals, it was wrong to call themtumours. Hydatids occasionally existedunsurrounded by a cyst.

Mr. HAWKINS denied that this correctionwas in season, as he had throughout appliedthe word " tumour " to the cyst, and not tothe hydatid within. As for the cysts, hehad himself never seen an hydatid without’one, wherever it might be situated.THE PRESIDENT thought they were some-

times simply embedded in cellular texture,free from any actual cyst. (An assent wasgiven to this by some members.)Mr. HAWKINS thought a cyst one of the

natural results of the contents of the tumour.

The conversation was pursued in a desul-tory manner to the close of the evening.One gentleman related a case occurring at adispensary at the west end, in which a hy-datid tumour of the liver was punctured,and at different times gave exit to severalquarts of fluid and broken-down hydatids.At last the tumour found an opening in the I

bowels, and the man for two or three yearsvoided its reaccumulating contents by therectum, and ultimately quite recovered fromthe disease. During a year or two, in fact,it had not returned. Another gentlemanstated that he had seen a good deal of thedisease in sheep, when a boy, and residingnear his uncle’s farm. The hydatids oc-curred frequently in the cranium (constitut-ing " giddy sheep"), and his practice was totrepan them and remove the cause, whenmany of them would perfectly recover. Inthese cases the hydatids were not in thebrain, though covered by the pia mater.THE PRESIDENT observed that the gene-

ral impression was that the hydatids camedirectly from the substance of the brain. Itwas strange if no gentleman present couldsay whether such was ever, or not, .theirsituation.Mr. STANLEY said that in the museum

at Bartholomew’s there was a hydatid whichwas found embedded in the brain itself ofa sheep, the outer covering of the hydatidconsisting of the pia mater and arachnoidmembrane. In this case there was no en-

veloping cyst. There was also a prepara-tion at the London Hospital, where a largehydatid was discovered occupying the late-ral ventricles in an adult. He also knew ofone that was situated in the connecting cel-lular tissue of the muscles of the thigh, andone in the posterior part of the spine, ineach of which cases no cyst existed.Mr. HAWKINS expressed his opinion that

the hydatid formed first, and that then thecellular texture condensed around it, andformed the cyst, being greater (as in theliver) or less (as in the cranium) according

to the part of the frame in which they oc.curred.The discussion now languishing, and the

clock striking ten, the President suggestedthat the hint given by the chimes should betaken, and the audience retire to coffeeand biscuits. Retired accordingly.

WESTMINSTER MEDICAL SOCIETY.

Saturday, February 23rd, 1833.Dr. SIGMOND in the Chair.

PHYSIOLOGY OF ABORTION—ADVENTITOUS

PRODUCTIONS OF THE UTERUS-ALLEGED

FALLACIES IN OBSTETRICS.

Dr. GRANVILLE having, at a previousmeeting, given notice that he should offersome observations on Abortion, consideredin a physiological point of view, and on

certain adventitious productions of theuterus, addressed the Society at greatlength on the various important topicswhich those questions embrace, and ad-vanced a great number of new facts con-nected with them, which went to show thefallacy of the doctrines hitherto prol;oundedby obstetrical and other writers on thosesubjects.

Dr. Granville made a pointed, and, wethink, a just, allusion to the lamentable de.ficiency of physiological knowledge amongthe profession in this country, while foreignschools and universities present a wholehost of names more illustrious than any thatever before graced the annals of physiology.For twenty such eminent characters whichmight be named, and some of which Dr.Granville did personally name, among thoseof France. Germany, and Italy, not morethan two or three could be recorded in this

country. On the physiology of generation,utero-fcetation, and the previous develop-ment of the ovum and embryo, and theirstructure, not one writer, indeed, or ob-server of eminence, could be named amongus, since Hunter and Sir E. Home, whocould be put in competition with such menas Rolando, Lobstein, Lauth, Boer, Pockels,Tiedeman, Geoffrov St. Hilaire, Seires,Meckel, Breschet, Magendie, Prevost, Du.mas, Dutrochet, Adelon, and others, all

living, and alive to the progress of foetaland generative physiology, respecting whichthey have made incessant experiments andpractical observations.While advancing the several new and in.

, teresting facts to which he directed the at-tention of the Society, Dr. Granville exhi-bited several exquisitely-executed drawingsby Mr. J. Perry, illustrative of those facts,; and showing the several parts of the human