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The device had not only abolished the necessity for fre-quent change of the dressings, but materially shortened thetime required for the operation. In one case, that of awoman weighing sixteen stone, the abdominal fat was fourinches thick, and it was impossible to bring the gall-bladderto the surface. The case was successfully dealt with byintroducing a teacup into the abdomen and allowing thecontents of the gall-bladder to fall into it. In another case,where there had been innumerable attacks of severe colicfollowed by jaundice, the gall-bladder was filled with biliarysand. It was out of the question to suppose that this couldhave produced blocking of the common duct, and the casegoes to prove, observations to the contrary notwithstanding,that transient jaundice may be produced by catarrhal inflam-mation spreading from the gall-bladder to the common duct.-The PRESIDENT, Mr. LOCKWOOD, Mr. PYE.SMITH, Mr.CUFF, Mr. SNELL, Mr. CHEESEWRIGHT, Dr. RHODES, andDr. ADDISON made remarks.

ROYAL ACADEMY OF MEDICINE INIRELAND.

SECTION OF PATHOLOGY.

Infective Endocarditis .-Roentgen Photographs.-LocomotorAtaxy.

A MEETING of this section was held on March 26th, SirCHRISTOPHER NIXON being in the chair.

Dr. M. A. BOYD described a case of Infective Endocarditis.The patient was a man, aged twenty-five years, who died,after an illness of three days’ duration, marked bypyrexia, delirium, and petechial eruption. At the necropsythere were found miliary abscesses in the kidney and myo-cardium, and the mitral valve presented an area near themargin of one cusp devoid of endocardium and coated withrecent fibrin. The blood was fluid. Sections made from themitral valve showed extensive necrosis and the marginfringed with compact clusters of cocci. The capillaries ofthe myocardium were plugged with cocci and the kidneyshowed similar conditions. Cultures produced pyococcusaureus. The illness dated from severe exposure to wet andcold. The mode of entrance of the organisms was other-wise unexplained. There had been no disease of the middleear and there was no indication at all in any organ of aprimary seat of disease.-Dr. E. J. M’WEENEY said that on cultivation the staphylococcus aureus was obtained, and aplate cultivation showed the liquefying power of theorganism upon gelatin. The organisms produced a paleyellow colour, and had evidently been circulating in theblood of the patient.

Dr. LANE JOYNT gave a lantern exhibition of a series ofthirty-five X Ray Photographs illustrative of various patho-logical conditions and showing the extent and utility of thisaid to medicine and surgery. Four cases of Colles’ fracturewere shown, of which three cases had fracture of the styloidprocess of the ulna. The bones of tuberculous patients whenrendered visible by the x rays showed some difference fromsound bone. The most noticeable feature was the homo-geneous appearance of the ends of bones, such as the

phalanges, with marked atrophy of the compact covering,and in some cases the shafts of the bones were seen to bein a similar condition. The bones as a whole were moretransparent than sound bone, even in parts not showing theclinical signs of disease.

Dr. COLEMAN and Professor O’SULLIVAN described a caseof Locomotor Ataxy. The patient was a man, aged forty-one years. He had never had syphilis, but had sufferedmuch from exposure to wet and cold. His symptoms begantwo and a half years before his death with lightning pains inthe legs, followed six months later by slowness in micturi-tion and occasional incontinence of urine. Eighteen monthsbefore his death he had transient diplopia, stumbled inthe dark, and felt unsteady on his legs ; about thesame time he noticed numbness of the fingers of his lefthand. The unsteadiness in walking progressed for thenext twelve months, at the end of which time he sufferedfrom painful tenesmus and girdle sensation. On admis-sion to hospital his symptoms were as follows : slightlyataxic gait; incoördinatíon of movements of the arms ; Rom-berg’s sign well marked ; tactile sensation deficient over thedistribution of the left ulnar nerve, less so in the right hand ;thermo-anæsthesia in the left arm and both legs, with slightanalgesia and retarded transmission of painful sensations:

Argyll-Robertson pupil ; loss of knee-jerks and of plantar,cremasteric, and abdominal reflexes. The nutrition ofthe toe-nails and of the skin of the soles of the feet wasmuch impaired. He had old-standing tuberculo-fibroid diseaseof both lungs, and he died five weeks after admissionto hospital from disseminated pulmonary tuberculosis.-Professor O’SULLIVAN said that the post-mortem examina-tion showed thickening and sclerosis of the aortic valves,cavities, fibroid changes, and bronchiectasis in the rightlung and disseminated tubercles in the left. On microscopicexamination the nerves of the cauda equina showed increaseof endoneurium and marked thickening of the inner coatsof the arteries. The cord showed degeneration of the posteriorcolumns, which could be traced from the lower coccygealregion, where the cord was two millimtres in diameter,to the medulla obl4,ngata. The ventral field of theposterior columns was free from degeneration throughout.A narrow zone running along the median septum was freein the lower part of the cord. In the dorsal region themedullated fibres of Clark’s column had entirely dis-appeared. The posterior roots outside the cord were

markedly degenerated up to about the fifth dorsal segment ;from this on to the second dorsal segment they werealmost free, and the path of these undegenerated fibres inthe cord formed a narrow strip, which could be traced along

the outer margin of Goll’s column to the medulla, wherethey ended in the nucleus cuneatus. Above the second

. dorsal segment the degeneration of the posterior rootsrecurred, and was most marked in the cervical enlargement.

, Their path in the cord was marked by a strip of degenerationlying outside the last mentioned and also passing to the

: nucleus cuneatus. Above the cervical enlargement the, degeneration of the incoming roots suddenly ceased. The. degeneration was most marked throughout on the left side.Two of the spinal ganglia which were examined showed

slight proliferation of the layer of cells lining the spacesoccupied by the ganglion cells.

Reviews and Notices of Books.Ospa i Ospoprivivanié: : Pamiati Tenner’a. (Small- pox andVaccination: To the Memory of Jenner.) Vol. I. By Dr.Vaccination: To The Memorry of Jenner.) Vol.I. By Dr.

V. 0. HUBERT. St. Petersburg: The Russian NationalHealth Society. 1896. Price 3 roubles.

FOR this handsome volume we have nothing but praise.Last year, it will be remembered, the Russian NationalHealth Society organised an elaborate commemoration of thecentenary of Jenner’s great work in proving the value ofvaccination as a preventive of small-pox. For variousunforeseen reasons the commemoration was postponed,and was finally held just before the close of the year.A description of the memorial meeting and of theexhibition connected with it appeared in our columnsat the time. The volume now under notice was pre-pared by the secretary of the society and issued on the

day of the meeting. The second volume is in course of

, preparation. The work could scarcely have been put intomore capable hands than those of Dr. Hubert. The presentvolume contrives in the course of some 530 pages to give acomplete history of small-pox and the methods of dealing

.

with it from the very earliest historical times down to the

beginning of the present century. In the earliest chapters: we find a good account of small-pox, or of such scanty

historical references to it as remain, in ancient Egypt, inChina, in India, among the Hebrews, and later among the

Arabians ; and here is included a complete Russian transla,’ tion, the first ever published, of Rhazes’s well-known essay-"De Variolis et Morbillis." A history of small-pox in themiddle ages, followed by a full account of the practice ofsmall-pox inoculation, leads naturally to the epoch-making

.

work of our truly great fellow countryman, who robbed

: small-pox finally and for ever of the terrors it possessed forour ancestors. The story of Jenner’s experiments and the

; final triumph of his discovery is, or should be, well known to; most educated people in all countries, but it bears the