Monthly retrospect of the medical sciences : January to December 1849 / edited by George E. Day, Alexander Fleming, W.T. Gairdner.

Date:: MDCCCXLIX [1849]

Credit: Monthly retrospect of the medical sciences : January to December 1849 / edited by George E. Day, Alexander Fleming, W.T. Gairdner. Source: Wellcome Collection.

233/262 (page 231)

$patient, aged 22, was much reduced from an extensive necrosis of the femur, follow¬ ing amputation through the thigh, on ac¬ count of a severe injury of the leg, the operation had been completely successful. It is worthy of remark, that the opera¬ tion has been successful now in four cases in which it has been performed after pre¬ vious amputation through the thigh; the other cases having occurred in the prac¬ tice of Sir A. Cooper, Mayo, and Mr Cox of Birmingham, in at least two of which it was performed on account of neuralgia of the stump, the patients not being so much reduced as in the case of necrosis above referred to.] 322.—Incomplete Fracture of Bones.— In the Veterinarians for July, August, and September, are contained a series of interesting cases of incomplete fracture of the limbs, chiefly of horses, by Messrs Broad, Percivall, Younghusband, and Nelson. They are remarkable from hav¬ ing been almost all unsuspected by their owners, in some cases by their doctors. Thus we have two giving way while being fomented for bruises, one of one day, and another of several day^’ standing, and se¬ veral doing so while the horses were at work, though lame from a kick or blow previously received which had caused the fracture. One gentleman had been warned that his mare had a broken leg; neverthe¬ less, the swelling having disappeared after a few days’ fomentation, he, notwithstand¬ ing advice, took the animal out, and rode her about twelve miles, when she carried him “like a stag.” He took her out again in the afternoon, and when about a mile from home the thigh bone snapped while he was in the saddle. Mr Wilson likewise mentions the case of a gardener near Shefiield, who, while firing a gun as he thought perpendicular¬ ly, received a punch on the shoulder which hurt him ; the pain, however, soon subsid¬ ed, and he was only twice reminded by it of his accident—once when wheeling a loaded barrow, and again when whetting a scythe—till about three weeks after, while engaged in ringing a pig, the clavi¬ cle divided, one end almost coming through the skin. All these fractures were oblique. Here, then, is even a more ex¬ traordinary case than M. Jobert’s (de Lamballe—vide Month. Ret. p. 103) ; be¬ sides suificient corroborative evidence from veterinary surgeons, to show that such cases are not impossible,—nay, that they are possibly not so very rare,—though they may too often he passed over as instances of a previously incorrect diagnosis. 323.—Secretion of Black Matter by the Meibomian Glands. By Mr Hewlett, of Harrow.—The patient, a boy aged six¬ teen, complained that the eyes were pain¬ ful and hot, and that everything looked dark. There was some conjunctival in¬ flammation. The lids, especially the lower, appeared externally and internally as if they had been smeared with some black substance. The boy had not been en¬ gaged with any substance of this colour, and could not account for the appearance. On examining the part with a lens, each meibomian gland could be readily dis¬ tinguished, filled with this dark matter. A zinc lotion, with some diluted citron oint¬ ment, was directed to be applied, and the boy was to be placed under strict obser¬ vation, but without detecting any imposi¬ tion. The discharge continued some days, but gradually disappeared, leaving for some time afterwards eight or ten of the meibomian canals still prominent, and loaded with this dark matter. The vision became clear as the discharge diminished. Provincial Journal, Oct. 3. IV.—MIDWIFERY, AND DISEASES PECULIAR TO WOMEN. 324.—Successful Case of Ccesarean Sec¬ tion, by Mr Cluley ; reported by T. Rad¬ ford, M.D., Manchester. The subject of this case had felt slight pains, according to the account of the friends, about a week ; but Mr Cluley thought that true partu¬ rient pains had only existed about three days, and were so slight as not to re¬ quire his interference. On Sunday, May 20, 1849, at nine o’clock, although the pains were still trifling, the head of the infant was felt, and the os uteri found dilated to the size of a half-crown piece. Mr C. unintentionally ruptured the mem¬ branes at this stage. The pelvis was very considerably al¬ tered from its natural shape ; its sides were flatter; and the posterior division of the ilia, especially on the left side, pro¬ jected backwards ; and the upper portion of the sacrum, and the lower lumbar ver¬ tebrae, had sunk in an inward and down¬ ward direction, so that a great concavity was perceived here. The uterus inclined rather to the right side, and stood consi¬ derably more forward than usual ; its tissue felt soft and compressible. The$