13

The individual in whom this unusual position of the viscerawas found had reached the advanced age of eighty-six, andhad been a remarkably powerful man in his youth, as I learnedfrom himself and some others who had known him for manyyears., Abingdon, Oct. 1848.

ON

AN INSTANCE OF DISEASE OF THE ANTRUM,PRODUCED BY A FALL.

Reported by J. L. LEVISON, ESQ., Surgeon-Dentist,Brighton.

SOME time since, a young woman of this place, about twenty-two years old, applied for my advice, she having a large swell-ing on the right cheek, the size of a turkey’s egg, the loweror broadest part of the tumour being in a line with the upperlip; the swelling extending so high as to affect the eye andthe eyelid. The former was protruded, and the latter almostparalyzed, so that, besides the deformity, the sight of theright eye was seriously affected, and the secretion of tears asource of irritation to the cheek. The tumour was very hard;the surface of the skin red, inflamed, shining, and very painfulto the touch. Considering that disease was connected withthe pituitary membrane which lines the antrum, I carefullyexamined the mouth, and observed that the second molartooth on the affected side was carious, and the gum dark andlivid, and so soft, that it appeared to have been deprived ofall vitality; and at the same time, the foetor was very offen-sive. In fact, the gum presented a similar appearance aswhen there is an effort to throw a piece of dead bone. Inthe present case there was a well-defined line of demarcationbetween the affected portion.(the cause of the local irritation)and the healthy jaw, for the shape of the diseased gum corre-sponded to a piece of bone I could move with the slightestpressure. There had not been any teeth extracted on thediseased side of the face, and it occurred to me that the affec-tion of the antrum had been induced by a blow on the face,or from a fall. That, in either case, a large portion of thealveolar process had been fractured, and the molar toothinjured at the same time, by having its periosteum denuded,or so injured that the inflammatory action was set up, and thetooth ultimately destroyed. Having questioned my patient,her answers proved the correctness of my diagnosis. Shetold me that about ten years since she had fallen down stairson her face, but that she was not aware that she injured her-self at the time, having been stunned. She distinctly re-collected that, soon after the accident, the swelling on herface commenced with some uneasiness in her mouth; that atfirst the tumour was very small, and when it had attained thesize of a pigeon’s egg, she had applied for advice, and wasgiven something to rub it externally, but without any advan-tage ; and that it had since gone on increasing; that she didnot then heed it much, although it was always more or lesspainful; but that she never suffered any alarm until thereseemed every probability she should lose her sight. I men-tion these particulars because few persons of her class giveany history of their cases. It can only be obtained by aspecies of cross-examination.

I removed the carious molar tooth, with the portion of thedead alveolar process, when a considerable quantity of thick,curdy matter came away, some portions being in differentsized lumps. A direct communication was kept up betweenthe antrum and the mouth by means of a conical-shapedtube, and the discharge continued, night and day,.for sometime. For three weeks I injected the antrum, every alter-nate day, with a lotion of about twenty drops of the chlorideof zinc to an ounce of distilled water. About the endof a month the deformity had entirely disappeared, andthe affected side had acquired its normal proportions ;the eye had recovered its natural position and brightness,and the mouth itself had become perfectly healthy. Thiscase forms additional evidence to the opinions I have ad-vanced in previous papers in THE LANCET, that it is inipossiblcfor a surgeon-dentist to do his duty if he have not a knowledgEof general anatomy and pathology, and also a special information of the mouth, its diseases, and treatment.

Brighton, 1848.

APPOINTMENT.—Dr. Berard, professor of physiology at th

Faculty of Medicine of Paris, was appointed Dean of thaFaculty on the 30th of December last.

Reviews.

An Introduction to Botany. By JOHN LINDLEY, Ph.D., F.R.S.,Professor of Botany in University College, London. FourthEdition, with corrections and numerous additions. In twovols. pp. 833. London: Longman & Co. 1848.

The Vegetable Kingdom; or, the Structure, Classification, andUses of Plants. By JOHN LINDLEY, Ph.D. London : Brad-bury & Evans. 8vo. pp. 908.

IN no branch of science has, we were about to say, so great astride been made within a few years as there has been in

botany. This expression, however, may be said to be in-

correct, as it is only within a few years that botany has becomea science. It would be certainly more correct to say that anew branch of science has been established. It is but a shorttime since that botany meant little beyond a cataloguing of aseries of hard words coined to designate plants. The termnow includes a knowledge, not only of the names and uses ofplants, but of their external and internal organization, and oftheir anatomical and physiological phenomena-the lawswhich regulate the dispersion of species, and moreover thelaws of vegetable life by which the luxuries and comforts ofmankind may be augmented, &c. Assisting in progress ofdeveloping the science, there is no name more honourably as-sociated than that of Dr. Lindley, and we hail every freshattempt that he makes to add to our knowledge of the vege-table kingdom with pleasure.

The recent appearance of the work named first at thehead of this article eminently gives occasion for also drawingattention to the great and comprehensive work next named,which was sent forth -about two years since. Evidently :&work of excessive labour and research, we are sure that thepains, which every page of the "Vegetable Kingdom" bespeakshave been bestowed upon it by the author, will be fully com-pensated for by the estimation in which the work will continueto be held by the botanists of this, and, we may venture to say,of other countries. It is, in truth, the best work on systematicbotany that has been produced in any language.

It is now nearly 150 years since our countryman, John Ray,first attempted to classify plants by taking into account moredefinite characters than were observed in the previous distinc-tion of plants, and in his " Historia Plantarum" left behincthim the foundation on which all the natural classification of

plants by Jussieu and De Candolle, and others, have been basedsince his time-a method of classification which Linn2eus him-self felt to be the only true one. The artificial method inventedby Linnoeus, by its apparent simplicity for a time led away moststudents in botany from the correct path of observation, andmade it more difficult for those who laboured in the field of

botany to establish in England the only correct and reallyuseful system of classifying plants-viz., according to theirgeneral resemblances, or, as it is called, the " natural system."It was long allowed to us to be contented with a most viciousand imperfect classification of plants. Dr. Lindley must feelmuch gratified to find the advocates of the old Linnæan

system fast dropping away from it, until not even one is left.We remember the time when he stood, as it were, almost

alone, the avowed enemy of the old system in England. Andwe are delighted, in chronicling his success, to be able to

’ appeal to the present volume as a triumphant answer to the; once oft-repeated objection to the natural system-viz., the- supposed difficulty of mastering the details. If there be some-

what more difficulty in hiving up a knowledge of the charactersof the natural orders than in. any empirical system, it is amplycompensated for by the much greater facility in the deter-mination of genera.

This volume, although in some measure resembling " TheNatural System of Botany," cannot be properly called a new

3edition. It is fairly entitled to the appellation of a new work.t The diagnosis of the several natural orders are concise and

decided, and the more detailed account of the characters Qf

14

the group which follows, is clearly given. Appended is a veryfull description of the affinities of the order under discussionwith other plants. The geographical distribution is then

given, and the uses and properties of the several plants con-tained in the order are of the most ample description.The list of genera and species enumerated after the notice

of each order, is the most complete, containing all discoveries’

up to the date of publication. Too much praise cannot bebestowed upon the manner in which the illustrations, bothwood and glyphographic, accompanying almost every order,are designed and executed.

Dr. Lindley has attempted a new step in his endeavour toreform the nomenclature, and one we think tending in theright direction to make botany a more universal study. It is,no doubt, exceedingly difficult in any science to change the«old and long-used names, however desirable. But there canbe no doubt that the hard names have closed the field of

botany to many, and have set up (what was really otherwisean easy task) to those unacquainted with Latin and Greek, an-apparently impassable barrier to its study; students have been- frightened at the very threshold of the science.

The volume possesses a copious index-a novelty in worksof this description, and an innovation we should be glad to seefollowed by many authors we could name. The slovenly wayin which indexes to good books are often made, renders themoccasionally comparatively useless. Immediately before theindex, is placed an artificial analysis of orders, which will be’found of infinite use. It is after the same model as the onethat appeared at the commencement of the " Introduction tothe Natural System," but in this volume considerably im-proved. It is not to the student merely that this analysis willbe found acceptable.

’

A new edition of the " Introduction to Botany" has forsome time been a desideratum, and we are now supplied withone which brings the work down to the present time, andfurnishes the student with the most complete compendium ofbotanical science in the English language. This treatise

occupies two volumes, and contains more than half as much.more additional matter than the preceding edition. We arenow presented with an account of the cell theories of

Schleiden, Nageli, Mohl, and Thwaites, with the most recent- :researches and hypotheses on starch granules, on pollengrains, on the ovule, fertilization, &c. Additions are, in factmet with in the dissertations on almost every topic includedin the subjects of vegetable organography and physiology.We are surprised, however, to note the non-appearance, from’this edition, of the chapters on phytography, (an exposition ofthe rules applied in the description and naming of plants,)which, in the former edition, occupied but few pages, and yetcontained much useful information, and of such a sort, too,as is not commonly supplied by botanical writers.We have yet to observe the absence of additional pictorial

illustrations, which, on several recently-discussed points, were’certainly required, and ought not to have been omitted, in sopurely a descriptive science as botany. The occasional diffi-

culty of illustration, arising from the deficiency just mooted,is indeed got over by the author, but, in our opinion, in abighly objectionable manner-viz., by a reference to others ofhis works, and particularly to his " Elements of Botany," thestudent of the more comprehensive work being thus referred- to a mere outline of the science, and that for matters whichshould rather have found place in the former. Such devices

display more of the spirit of the book-maker than we like tosee in so eminent a man of science as Professor Lindley. Inthe edition of the standard work now before us, there is alsomore of patchwork apparent than is pleasing to the reader.’The opinions and observations of various botanists which areintroduced, are not, in most cases, wrought into the substanceof the text, but appear as unconnected extracts from treatisesand magazines. Such gives the work an unfinished appear-ance. We still catch a glimpse, as it were, of the scaffolding

- the author’s notes on the blank pages of an interleaved copy- whereby the structure has been raised, and the presentedition elaborated. But, notwithstanding the defects pointedout, the new edition of the " Introduction to Botany" hasconspicuous merits, and high value as a most comprehensivework.

The General Index to the British and Foreign Medical Review.Edited by JOHN FORBES, M.D., F.R.S., &c. London:Churchill. 1848. 8vo. pp. 303.

To expatiate on the value of an index to those who possessthe series of the volumes to which it refers, or to those whohave occasion to refer to them even but casually, is perfectlyunnecessary. Our readers generally know the nature of thecontents of the Britisje and Foreign Medical Review, during thetwelve years that Dr. Forbes presided over its management;and though we, on just and sufficient grounds, differed fromsome of the doctrines occasionally put forth, we bear willingtestimony to the great ability which on most occasionscharacterized that management. The Review gave a veryfaithful transcript of all that occurred, both in this countryand abroad, during the period referred to. An index, there-fore, to matter so highly important, must be invaluable to allby whom such information is required.

A Treatise on Diseases of the Heart and Great Vessels. By J.HOPE, M.D., F.R.S., &c. Fourth edition. London: Churchill.1849. Post 8vo. pp. 611.

VEP.Y little requires to be said about this new edition of Dr.Hope’s well known work on Diseases of the Heart. The pub-lisher has judged wisely in producing it in a form more conve-nient and less expensive than any of its predecessors. This hehas accomplished by the omission of some unimportant con-troversial matter, and of the plates, and by printing it in asmaller compass. Thus, while all that is essential is retained,the value of the book is increased by the addition of some notesand cases left in MS. by the author, and directed by him tobe inserted in this edition.For our knowledge of diseases of the heart, which is at this

moment better established than that concerning any otherorgan of the body, we are in no small degree indebted to thezealous inquiries and pursuits of the lamented author. He

brought that knowledge, in the last edition of his work, downto the latest moment, and from that time to the present verylittle further information has been acquired. We are there-fore not far wrong in saying that this new edition, as it is un-doubtedly the best work, as a whole, on diseases of the heart,is also the latest and most complete.

Medical Societies.

WESTMINSTER MEDICAL SOCIETY.SATURDAY, DEC. 16.—J. WEBSTER, M.D., F.R.S., PRESIDENT.

CASES OF PERINÆAL ABSCESS SIMULATING AGUE.

MR. HENRY SMITH related the particulars of a case of perinæalabscess, where the symptoms were so similar to quotidianague, that it was treated for that disease for several weeks.The patient was a middle-aged gentleman, who had been illfor a month when Mr. Smith first saw him, and he found thathis symptoms and history were sufficient to lead to the sup-position that he was labouring merely under an attack of in-termittent fever. On the third day after the first visit, thepatient called his attention to a painful sensation he had inthe perinseal region, and, on inspection, a tumour was dis-covered ; and, on closer examination, it was found to containmatter. The matter was evacuated in large quantities, andon the following day a stricture was discovered, and a smallcatheter passed. The patient was greatly relieved, and reco-vered quickly, having had no return of the rigors, or otherfeverish symptoms, since the operation. The author ob-served, that although it was far from uncommon to meet withcases in which symptoms simulating ague accompanied diseases