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label; and the result not unfrequently resembles that which ’’,lately occurred in the practice of a gentleman residing in -- ipopulous district of London, from whom we received the par- Iticulars. A little girl under his care had been for some timetaking a colourless quinine mixture. The servant selected one

of the emptied bottles to procure some " scouring fluid," where-with to cleanse her fire-irons, brasses, &c. An oilman suppliedher with Vitiiol, without any label affixed to the bottle, withoutany caution as to its poisonous nature; and so it happened thatthe mother, from this unlabelled bottle, poured out a dose of theclear liquid for her child in place of the accustomed medicine.The child luckily did not die, despite the laxity of our lawconcerning poisons, despite the broad-cast method of dispensingpoisons adopted by the oilman. Had she perished from gastro-enteritis, or died miserably from stricture of the cesophagus, ofcourse nobody would, again, have been to blame, for who couldexpect an oilman’s apprentice to appreciate the difference Ibetween olive oil and oil of vitriol, or between Epsom salts and ’,spirits of salts. It is rumoured that llr. Cowper has in pre- z’

paration for the coming Session a Bill to regulate the sale ofpoisons. We trust that he will extend its provisions to preventthe above-mentioned evil.

AMONGST the new-year novelties are the elaborate almanacksissued by various Insurance Companies. Most of these almanacks sdisplay considerable ingenuity in giving prominence to the sur-passing merits of the companies that so generouslydistribute them.But by far the most original is an almanack recently circulated Iby a company established to insure compensation in case of acci-dent. It comprises a cheerful and exhilarating account of all the Iawful accidents and narrow escapes which have occurred, duringlate years, on each day of the calendar. Thus, on the 24thof June,we are told (in capital letters) that the Princess Royal burnther arm, and, on the 17th of December, that the Empress ofAustria had a narrow escape,--the evident deduction being,that these royal personages should have insured themselves inthe above company. It is a pity that the directors of respect-able Insurance Societies should lend their names to such arrant

puffs, or so far forget the high purposes of life assurance as tocompete with one another by means that no amount of supe-riority could justify their resorting to.

THE elaborate work on the Pathology of Cholera now incourse of preparation by the academical professor of surgery atSt. Petersburg is to be published at the expense of the State.Would our English Government but take pattern by their lateenemies in a matter where "fas est ab hoste doceri," there isnow a most fitting opportunity. It is high time that the planof Dr. Marshall Hall for the recovery of persons apparentlydrowned should receive the consideration of the Governmentand his directions for treatment be authoritatively distributedamongst seafaring men and those who earn their bread upon thewaters. " Gentlemen of England who live at home at ease"are little aware how many lives are yearly lost by drowning atsea, or by the treatment pursued in endeavouring to resusci-tate. The cry of "a man overboard!" may be a startling inci-dent in the monotonous life of a passenger-ship in the tropics,but the name of that man is forgotten long before the vesselarrives, and probably his friends, if he possess any, never hearof the mode of his death. It is as much a duty incumbent onGovernment to provide for the preservation of individual lives(and it cannot be doubted that very many may be saved bypursuing Dr. Hall’s plan), as to see that means of collectivesafety, life-boats, &c., are provided on board each ship.

EARLY in the new year will be reopened Queen Charlotte’sLying-in Hospital, which has been some time rebuilding. The

site of the new edifice has, in a manner, reverted to its original

purpose ; for, in olden time, it formed part of the manor ofLilestone, which (as we learn from the Doomsday Book) wasamongst those devoted to the giving of alms.

A REVIEW of some recent poems, &c., from the pen of one ofour most admired writers, Mr. Proctor, -better known asBarry Cornwall, -lately appeared in the A thenaeum. The

critic, his poetic taste overcoming even his reverence for paro-chial authorities, quoted the poem which we append. Thoughhe only implied praise, and did not expressly allude to thestinging truths with which the poem is fraught, yet he hasfallen under the scourge of the relieving officer of Eton. This

parochial Rhadamanthus has written a letter representingrelieving officers generally as a peculiarly sainted and philan-thropic race of beings, brimming over with the milk of humankindness. He accordingly rates our able critical contemporaryin " good set terms" for inserting the poem.As a thin-skinned relieving officer is rather a curiosity, we

trust the guardians of Eton Union will carefully regard thesusceptibilities of their subordinate, and keep from him allthose newspaper reports which, unfortunately, bear witness,from time to time, of the truth of the allegations contained inthe poem. The relieving officers will doubtless present theiradvocate with a testimonial for thus taking up the cudgels intheir defence-something neat and appropriate, and of thebrightest brass.

THE PARISH DOCTOR.

I travel by day, I travel by night,In the bhsteriiig sun, in the drenching rain;And my only pea.ure, in dark or light,Is to help the poor, in pain.The Parish pay me-what? PWere it only the money, I would not roam,But enjoy the little that I have gotBy my own Preside, at home.But hunger and thirst, and pain and woeEntice me on; and they pay me well,When I beat down the devil Disease, you know-’Tis for that my old age I sell:

’ I give up my comfort, my crusty wine,’

bIy slippers, my books, and my easy chair,And go where the paupers starve and pine,With help. But for this, I swear,I would spit on the fat, false, bloated menWho strut oii the vestry floor,And toss ’em their twenty pounds again,That they squeeze from the parish poor.Last night0 God! what a night of cold,With the wind and the stinging hail !What a night fur a lamb that had left the fold,And had wandered, weak and pale!Yet there she was,-on the midnight thrownBy the rascal that bars the gate,And the lying relieving officer (knownFor relieviiig-tlie parish rate !)These knaves, they are high in their masters’ books,Have a sum upon which they drawTo keep up their credit, tho’ each one looksTo be sure he’s within the law.

But gentleness, kindness, love-that lendTo the gifts of the heart a grace,They reach not the pauper that has no friend,

, They suit not the guardian’s place.Their duty is known,-to keep down the rateAnd the poor within proper bounds,And to pay (that he may not be too elate)The doctor with-teceuty ottiti /

EXPERIMENTS ON THE ACTION AND SOUNDSOF THE HEART.

DR. G. B. HALFORD has lately given some interesting andoriginal demonstrations and experiments on the heart’s actionand sounds, at the following hospitals-viz., St. Bartholomew’s,St. George’s, St. Mary’s, and the Middlesex.The subjects of the experiments were dogs, which were sub-

mitted to the full influence of chloroform, and then the lec-turer proceeded to remove the whole of the anterior part of thethorax, having previously inserted the nozzle of a bellows intothe trachea, and maintained artificial respiration (chloroformed

20

by dropping the fluid into the valve of the bellows). Thesethings having been done, the artificial respiration being con-tinu,ed, the heart’s action was clearly and beautifully seenthrough the transparent pericardium, and the movements ofits several parts carefully noted. The lecturer stated mostpositively that all observations on the heart’s action, after theremoval of its investing, restraining, and regulating membrane-the pericardium, were useless as applied to the action of theheart enclosed in its " caul," and moving with the smoothnessof the eye in its socket. As well might we look for perfectuniform action of the muscles of the forearm without theirfascix and inter-muscular septa, as to look for perfect and uni-form action of the heart without its pericardium. That cele-brated anatomist, Cruveilhier, had given us, in the GazetteMidicale, Aug. 7th, 1856, a description of the heart’s actionin the case of an infant born with ectopia of the heart; but heseems to have forgotten, in the minuteness of his observation,that what he was beholding was a lusus naturœ, not destined(because not perfected by the Almighty) for more than a fewhours’ fruitless and irregular struggles; for, strange to say, itpossessed no peuicardium, had no support, but by its owngravity made its fixed point where in the natural heart thereis most movement-viz., at its connexion with the aorta andpulmonary artery. He doubted not for one moment theaccuracy of M. Cruveilhier’s observations, but they referred toan imperfect, and not to a perfect, machine.But to return to the heart contained in the pericardium, and

in situ, the following are the principal facts to be noticed :-1st. When the ventricles contract-that is, at the time when

the impulse is given by the ventricular fibres, the bases of theventricles descend towards the apex, and the auricles imme-diately follow, occupying part of the space previously taken upby the ventricles in their relaxed, distended state, and whichis explained by the loss of their contents during contraction.

2nd. When the auricles contract, they recede in the oppositedirection, and the distended ventricles again occupy the spacereceded from, by the contracting auricles.The lecturer showed that, by the above simple action, a

reciprocity or compensation exists between the auricles andventricles, and that, although the chambers of the heart are- continually receiving and discharging their contents, yet thisis so regulated as that the bulk of the contents of the peri-cardium (in which must be included the first portions of theaorta and pulmonary artery) is always the same. For instance,at the time of the contraction of the ventricles, the loss of thebulk of the fluid they are ejecting is made up, or compensatedfor, by the bulk of the fluid pouring into the auricles, and bythe increased capacity, and hence increased bulk, of the peri-cardial portions of the aorta and pulmonary artery : and so on;but want of space prevents further following out this interest-ing part of the subject. The lecturer asserted that if the ven-tricles contracted in any other direction than that of from baseto apex, the auricles could not receive blood, but that, accord-ing to his views, and to the evidence of one’s eyes, the con-traction of the ventricles permitted, by the recession of theirbases, the pouring in of blood to the auricles; and, further,that the contraction of the auricles both caused and permittedof the complete distension of the ventricles.

3rd. When the ventricles contract, and their bases descend,the aorta and pulmonary artery, being elongated by injection,likewise descend, and their pericardial portions at the sametime are suddenly and greatly distended, but by their elasticitythey as suddenly react upon their contents.

4th. The impulse is felt all over the ventricles during theircontraction. The finger and thumb spanning the diameter ofventricles are perceptibly further separated during the con-traction of the ventricles, and approximated during their relax-ation.

5th. The apex is not tilted forward during the contraction ofthe ventricles, so as to give any blow to the thoracic parietes.From what is stated above, it is evident that any part of theventricles being in contact with the parietes of the chest, willgive, during contraction, an impulse, an ctp)-)a)-e)it blow; andin disease also, the heart beating here and there as the casemay be, whether one of enlargement or displacement; but theywho, marking such impulse, refer it to the heart’s apex, hadbetter begin to reflect, and to be more exact both in their phy-siology and pathology.The next experiment referred to the origin of the sounds of

the heart, which the lecturer contends is valvular, and to provewhich he proceeded thus: The heart being exposed as above,the sounds were perfectly audible through the medium of astethoscope. A pair of bull-dog forceps was applied to the 1superior vena cava and another pair to the inferior vena cava,

just as they enter the heart; the pulmonary veins, entering theleft auricle were also compressed between the finger andthumb, so that the heart became empty. A stethoscope wasnow applied, and, although the heart contracted forcibly, nosound was heard; the forceps and the fingers were removed-that is, blood was re-admitted-and both sounds returned. Thevessels were again compressed, and all sound ceased; the bloodwas again permitted to flow through the heart, and both soundswere restored.In the above experiment, by preventing the flow of blood

through the heart, the valves cannot be made tense, and hencecannot produce sound; that is to say, the mitral and tricuspidhave no longer to resist the backward pressure of the bloodduring the ventricular contraction, while the semilunar do notmove, being kept firmly shut down by the pressure of theblood in the aorta and pulmonary artery; but remove thefingers and forceps-i.e., re-admit blood, and then the mitraland tricuspid valves are not only called into play, but throwninto powerful vibration, resisting the pressure of the blood inthe ventricles; the semilunar valves are forced upon and againcalled into action and made tense, and both first and secondsounds are restored. Therefore the first sound is heard whenthe ventricles contract, and the auriculo-ventricular valves aremade tense and completely separate the cavities of the ventri-cles from the auricles, and the tension of these valves producesthe first sund. When the second sound is heard, the ventri-tricular systole has ceased, the aorta and pulmonary arteryhave reacted on their contents, and the cavities of the ventri-cles are separated from the systemic and pulmonary systemsby the closure of the semilunar valves, the tension of whichproduce this sound.

Before concluding his remarks at the several hospitals, Dr.Halford stated that he wished particularly to draw the atten-tion of the profession to the writings of Billing and Bryan.Dr. Billing’ had been the first to state accurately the cause ofthe sounds, and his writings were of great value to all whocared to reflect. Mr. Bryant had not only most logically sup-ported the same views, but had published a theoretical paperon the heart’s action, which his (Dr. Halford’s) subsequent andrepeated observations had proved to be correct.

Correspondence.

THE SCOTCH UNIVERSITIES.

"Audi alteram partem."

To the Editor of THE LANCET.

SIR,-Will you allow me a short space in your columns tomake a few remarks on an article which appeared in your im-pression of the 13th inst., and which, while commenting onMedical Reform, referred in an especial degree to the necessityexisting for it in Scotland. Agreeing with you that our modesof instruction and training are far from being perfect, yet I can-not nor will not subscribe to any opinion which reduces Scot-land as a place for medical education so much below Englandas that article would lead us to infer. You are not singular inyour depreciation of everything belonging to Scotland. Uponthe same liberal principle which is crammed into MasterJohnnie Bull with his rump-steak, " that one Englishman isequal to at least six Frenchmen," the greater part of the Eng-lish press and people have ceased blackguarding John Crapeauand have taken to sneering at everything belonging to Scot-land ; her customs, history, associations, yea, even her religion,have been scoffed at repeatedly by men holding responsible sta-tions in English society and literature. Now, our Colleges andMedical Schools must have their share of abuse. These havebeen contemned and depreciated for-to the Englishman-theall-sufficient reason, that they are not English.In the same number of THE LANCET, a series of advices and

patronizing encouragements are given to the authorities of ourNorthern universities ; our woeful ignorance is kindly suggested

* THE LANCET, May 19th, IS32. "First Principles of Medicine.’’ "OnDisease of the Lun!!s and Heart."

t Ibid., February 8th, 183,1; and other parts of the same Journal in 1833and 1832.