Treatment of Hernia— Lectures. 237 



Geology, Materia Medica, Prescriptions, Russia, Amuse- 

 ments of' Science, and Spain, were also contributed by him. 

 This notice is to be printed separately, and may be ,had 

 by the subscribers to the Encyclopaedia, from the Pub- 

 lishers of that work in London and Edinburgh. 



Rupture is so general a disease, and in its aggravated state 

 so frequently and suddenly fatal, that every information 

 which promises relief, particularly from the regular prac- 

 titioner, ought to be universally known. We therefore give 

 the following extract from a work lately published by Mr. 

 Edward Geoghegan, in which an improvement in the treat- 

 ment is suggested. — " I place the patient in a recumbent 

 position, wiTh his shoulders a little raised to relax the trunk, 

 but the pelvis not raised, as that would put the fasciae on 

 the stretch. The knees are to be drawn up. If the parts have 

 not been irritated by handling them, or the body disturbed 

 by jolting it about, or by any such roughness, I proceed 

 directly to apply cloths wet with cold water, expose the 

 entire body naked to the air, the doors and windows being; 

 open. This practice usually succeeds within an hour*. If 

 it does not, I surround the hernia with my hand or hands 

 at about its middle, in the way that I would grasp a gum 

 elastic bottle, to press out its air or other contents, by 

 gently approximating its sides, always holding in view', 

 that the tumour is to be emptied, ana not pushed up. I 

 never press the hernia in any direction, or at all towards 

 the abdomen. When it is small, it may be done with the 

 finger and thumb of one hand. Having applied the hands, 

 I do not remove them for fifteen or twenty minutes, aware 

 that reiterated impulses irritate, and that the effects of 

 compression are lost each time that it is intermitted. : ' — In 



cases of great pain and tension he omits this practice. . 



This practitioner differs from every other so far, as that the 

 usual directions are to press the protruded bowel up towards 

 the belly, which he takes great pains to show is improper, 

 and insists that the contents should be merely squeezed out. 



LECTURES. 



Dr. Adams's Lectures on the Institutes and Practice #f 

 Medicine will commence on Monday theSth Oct. next, at 

 Eight o'clock, at Dr. Anderson's Lecture-rooms, 47, Frith* 

 street, Soho. , 



* In some cases where I could not immediately attend, I have directed 

 th;it cold applications should be used until my arrival* and after an hour 

 they informed me that they were seized with a shivering, that they heard 

 the wind rash out of the hernia, and that they were instantly relieved 



On 



