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paralleled. He had some of the irritabilitythat so often accompanies genius; yet, takehim as he was, he has left a blank not easilyto be filled up, either in the republic ofscience or the circle of his friends.The lecturer then proceeded to mention

some particulars connected with the career ofBaron Larrey. Entering into the militaryservice of his country, Larrey quickly distin-guished himself as a man of original mind,and as indefatigable in the pursuit of hisprofession. Nor was his singular abilitysuperior to his humanity and strict integrity,qualities which endeared him to Napoleon,who said respecting him that " Larrey wasthe most virtuous man he knew:’With respect to John Hunter the lecturer

gave some interesting particulars; but whalcould be expected to be original which referred to a man so well known to the profes-sion. The lecturer retired amid great ap.plause.

MEDICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON

Jan. 30, Mr. PILCHER, President.

CHRONIC LARYNGITIS SUCCESSFULLY TREATED

BY TRACHEOTOMY.

Mr. LINNECAR related the following case :- The patient was a lady, forty years of

age, of spare habit, and had suiered fromwhat was commonly called a cold andhoarseness for about three weeks. Thehoarseness gradually increased in severityuntil the 4th of December, on which day sheapplied to Mr. Linnecar for advice. Thefollowing symptoms presented themselves :- There was almost constant ringing cough,with little or no expectoration ; voice almostinaudible; breathing extremely difficult, re-quiring great exertion of the respiratorymuscles, and attended with a somewhatcroupy sound ; swallowing much impeded,the attempt to swallow producing a dis-tressing sense of strangulation. She also

complained of headach, constriction at theupper part of the windpipe, and great oppres-sion at the pit of the stomach. The chest was

carefully examined; there was no evidenceof disease extending beyond the larynx ;pulse about 100, small, and rather hard;skin cool. She was ordered half a grain oftartar emetic and half a grain of opium everythree hours. The next morning (the 5th)she was somewhat better, and the cough wasless troublesome. Deglutition was still dif-ficult, but the breathing somewhat easier.Eighteen leeches were now ordered to be

applied to the throat, and two grains of calo-mel and half a grain of opium to be givenevery two hours. On the 6th the cough wasagain more troublesome, and the breathingand swallowing more difficult. A blister i

was now applied to each side of the larynx,and the calomel and opium continued. Inthe evening Mr. Linnecar was sent for inhaste; he found the patient in the utmostdistress; the breathing was almost annihi.lated, and there appeared no hope of savingher life except by the operation of tracheo-tomy. This was accordingly immediatelyperformed by Mr. White, of Charterhouse-square, who had been called in by Mr.Linnecar. The operation was attended withmuch difficulty, from the circumstance of thepatient being unable to lie down or even tothrow the head back so as to raise up thetrachea and put the integuments on thestretch. The introduction of the tracheatube was attended with much irritation, andit was retained in its position with great dif-ficulty. The efforts to eject the tube, how-ever, gradually subsided, and the patientafter a time was able to lie down and pro.cure a little sleep. The apartment was keptat a temperature of 60° or 65°. On the

morning of the 7th she was much better,was free from fever, and breathed with ease,and entirely through the tube ; the voicewas quite gone. The secretion from thebronchi consisted of healthy mucus, whichpassed readily through the tube. Swallow.ing still almost impossible. Mercurial oipt-ment was now ordered to be rubbed on theinside of each thigh ; her strength was sup-ported by injections of mutton-broth. Thetube became obstructed by mucus in theevening, but this was removed quickly. Onthe morning of the Sth it was found that shehad passed a quiet night. The mouth wasnow a little tender; a small quantity of airalso now passed through the glottis, but thevoice was still inaudible ; swallowed a littlebut with much difficulty. From this timeshe gradually improved, and on Sunday, the9th of December, the third day after theoperation, the tube was experimentally re-moved, and the wound covered with wettedlint. The respiration continued easy, and itwas thought unnecessary to reintroduce thetube, but a fit of coughing occurring almostimmediately, suffocation was threatenedfrom the phlegm not being able to passthrough the glottis in sufficient quantity toclear the bronchi. Relief was immediatelyobtained by removing the dressing from thewound. The tube was replaced and re-

tained until Wednesday, the sixth day afterthe operation, when it was finally removed.The voice was then natural, the respirationfree, and the expectoration almost entirelyby the mouth. The wound being left unco-

vered it gradually healed ; indeed, scarcelyany air passed through it on the followingday. Mr. Linnecar had never seen a suc-cessful case of tracheotomy, though he hadwitnessed several cases in which the opera-tion was performed in our public hospitals.He laid great stress on the value of warmingthe atmosphere of the room in which the

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operation was performed. He preferred theuse of a tube to the removal of a circularpiece of the trachea, for he thought in thelatter case that the edges of the wound

might become thickened, and the passage ofair into the lungs obstructed. The irritation

produced by the tube was at first great, butit soon subsided.Mr. KINGDON thought the two points for

consideration in the case were the state ofthe atmosphere in which the operation wasperformed, and the period at which it wasdesirable to remove the tracheal tube. He

thought that the leeches and blisters wouldhave been more effectual had they been ap-plied at a greater distance from the larynx.Mr. HoopER had seen many successful

cases of tracheotomy in the hospitals. Herelated a case which occurred in his ownpractice. A dissipated, bloated man gotvery drunk. and could not articulate; hegot into a street-cab, and was driven aboutfor several hours during a cold night. Inthe morning Mr. Hooper was called to seehim, and found him suffering from severe in-flammation of the throat. He was bled,purged, leeched, and blistered, but the in-flammation increased rather than abated.At seven in the evening the breathing hadbecome completely obstructed, and the manappeared to be dying. It was at once de-termined to open the trachea, which wasfound to be somewhat difficult from inabilityto lift up the patient’s head. A small por-tion of the trachea was cut away, and apiece of quill, which was at hand, placed inthe onenin!!:. Relief was immediate upon the

operation, the patient laid down comfortablyand went to sleep. A tracheal pipe wassubsequently introduced and retained forthree days ; the inflammation in the upperpart of the throat subsided, the externalwound healed, and the man got quite well.In this case no caution was taken respectingthe temperature of the room, which, how-ever, was, no doubt, important.Dr. ALISON had seen several successful

cases of tracheotomy performed by Mr.Liston in the wards of the Edinburgh Hos-pital. The operation was not a formidableone when it was resorted to sufficientlyearly, and the inflammation was confined tothe larynx or the upper portion of thetrachea.Mr. PROCTOR had seen the operation of

tracheotomy in two cases of children withcroup; they both died. He extolled thetartar emetic as a most effectual remedy inkeeping down action in cases of inflamma-tion.

Mr. LiNHEOnR, in answer to Mr. Kingdon’sremark, applied leeches over the trachea;they had been useful. Recollecting Dr.Farre’s caution, he had placed the blistersas far off the seat of mischief as possible ;they were located on each side of the throat.

Mr. PILCHER said, that the operation oftracheotomy was a most important and inte.resting one. It was doubtless a very un-successful operation in infants suffering fromacute laryngitis, and in them in consequenceof the large quantity of fat over the trachea,and the movement up and down of the pas-sage in the convulsive efforts to breathe, itwas a difficult operation. Sometimes, too, asmall quantity of blood got into the trachea,and the little patient died upon the table.In adults, where the trachea was superficial,and who, knowing the value of life, wereable to keep comparatively quiet, the opera-tion was not so difficult. He had performedthe operation on two children, one withcroup, the other with a foreign body in theair-passages. Both patients died, the latternot from the operation, but from the mischiefproduced by the foreign body. He hadtried the effect in one case of passing a tubeup into the larynx through the wound made bythe operation; the patient was thrown nearlyinto convulsions. The tube passed down-wards without producing much irritation.The excito-motory doctrine explained thesephenomena.Mr. BisHOP inquired whether an elastic

tube passed through the larynx, in somecases of obstruction in that organ, might notbe preferable to tracheotomy ?

Dr. MARSHALL HALL had seen the opera-tion performed in five cases. One of thesewas a case of chronic laryngitis, a very raredisease, and he believed never occurring tochildren. In them it was always tracheitis.No benefit would result from tracheotomyunless the disease was confined to the

larynx. In the first case in which he hadseen tracheotomy performed the patient wasan elderly woman, who suffered from diffi-culty of breathing and swallowing, conse-quent upon chronic laryngitis, and aug-mented in paroxysms. One symptom of hercomplaint, which was diagnostic of the dis-ease, consisted in the inability to snuff up thenostril, as it was necessary to effect this thatthere should be a certain quantity of air re-spired. In this case the effort to mercurialisethe patient failed; tracheotomy was per-formed. The tube was retained for somemonths; the woman did well, and wasliving still. This case was recorded in the10th volume of the "Medico Chirurgical

Transactions." In the other four cases the

patients were all children. In one thelarynx, trachea, and bronchial tubes, werefound affected after death ; in the secondcase the child had obstructed breathing froma scald of the glottis ; the patient seemed in

this case to die of secondary asphyxia, and; in another case the child died from the bae-morrhage consequent upon the operation.

Iie threw out a hint that the operation of, tracheotomy might be serviceable in those, cases of apoplexy following epilepsy, in which

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the patient died from impeded respiration inthe larynx.A MEMBER had seen the trachea fixed by

a hook in a case of tracheotomy performedby Mr. Quain at University College Hospi-tal ; the proceeding was thereby facilitated.

After a few words from other members thesociety adjourned.Feb. 6th.-The society was occupied this

evening by a discussion on scarlet fever.From the statements of the various speakers,the disease would appear to be epidemic insome localities, whilst in others not a singlecase had occurred. With respect to thetreatment of the disease nothing new couldbe suggested, and with regard to the prophy-lactic power of belladonna no satisfactoryevidence could be given.

ROYAL MEDICO-BOTANICALSOCIETY.

Jan. 25. Dr. SIGMOND, in the chair.

MR. FOOTE, senior secretary, read a paperby M. Guibourt on the Ceylon moss, a largequantity of which had been sent to M.Guibourt by a pharmacien at Nantes. Themoss has been described and figured byTurner under the name of the fucus liche-noides, by Agardh as the sphaero-coccuslichenoides, and by Lamaroux as the gigar-tina lichenoides. This, moss or alga, is inwhitish ramifying filaments, about three orfour inches long, and about the thickness ofstrong sewing-thread. It appears to becylindrical to the naked eye, but under themicroscope it offers an unequal, and, as itwere, nervous or reticulated surface. Itsbranches are either dichotomous, pedulated,or simply alternate. It has a slightly saltishsavour, and is scarcely, if at all, soluble incold water. Iodine colours it of a blackishblue, mixed with a red tint; it thereforecontains amylaceous matter.The Ceylon moss affords by boiling an

abundant nutritious jelly, admirably suitedfor invalids and for persons convalescingfrom long illness. The residue of the decoc-tion may also be employed as food ; it maybe dressed in the same manner as the legu-minous vegetables. Such, in fact, is its prin- 1cipal use in the country where it is indige-nous.

Some fine specimens of native medicinalplants were placed on the table by Dr.Houlton, among which was the prunuslauro-cerasus, with respect to which Dr.Houlton mentioned that a patient of his whohad been engaged for several hours strippingthe leaves from the branches, was after atime seized with all the symptoms of poison-ing by prussic acid, from which he recoveredby the use of medicinal and dietetic stium-lants.

Feb. 8th. Earl STANHOPE, President, in thechair.

THE ARTEMISIA ABSINTHIUM.

Dr. HOULTON read a paper this eveningon this subject. The common wormwood,he said, had been noticed as a medicinalplant from the earliest period of medico-botanical history, and although it enteredinto many officinal preparations of the conti-nental pharmacopoeias, had not been admittedinto our own since 1788. It had, however,never been rejected from the materia medicaof the Royal College of Physicians. It isat the present time but little employed in theregular medical practice of this country. Itis a well-known perennial plant, growing invarious parts of Europe, the Crimea, Bar-bary, and Newfoundland. We have severalother indigenous species of the same genusthe only one whose resemblance might leadto a mistake is the artemisia vulgaris, ormugwort. The stem of this is of a darkpurplish colour, whilst that of wormwoodhas a white hoary appearance ; also the iu-tense bitterness with some pungency, andthe strong fragrant odour of wormwood,readily distinguish it from the mugwort,which is but slightly bitter. Although nowriters have disputed the virtues of theartemisia absinthium, some have objected toits employment as a medicine on account ofits nauseous flavour; and Dr. Murray says,in the " Apparatus Medicaminum," that inall cases the more grateful bitters should bepreferred in practice, but the flavour andodour, though disagreeable to some persons,is not so to all. It has had numerous medi-cinal properties ascribed to it, the chief ofwhich are antiseptic, anthelmintic, deob-

struent, tonic, and stomachic. It has beenemployed with success in jaundice, dropsy,gout, worms, dyspepsia, intermittent fevers,and various kinds of cachectic diseases. Ithas been said by some to have a narcoticproperty. Linneaus asserts he has never reomarked any narcotic etfects resulting fromits employment : some have attributed to itthe power of rendering bitter the flesh andmilk of animals who take it, and have as-serted that infants at the breast have beenaffected by the milk of mothers who havetaken the extract. The plant has been em-ployed in the form of powder, extract, con-serve, tincture, wine, distilled water, andessential oil. The doses ordered in works onmateria medica appear too large; for in-

stance, half a drachm of the powder, or anounce and a half or two ounces of the infu-fusion made with six drachms of the herb totwelve ounces of water. An infusion madewith half a drachm of the dried herb (freedfrom the stalk) and ten ounces of boilingwater, allowed to stand for an hour, will pro-duce an infusion sufficiently strong; an

ounce and a half may be taken as a dosethree times a-day. The tincture made in the