204 New Publications. 



are most easily produced, because at each pore there is a cor- 

 responding elongated gap, or a small canal proceeding from the 

 axis. If one of the laminae is raised from the surface of these 

 fissures, we see very distinctly the small canals, which are all 

 nearly parallel, with a diameter nearly equal, proceeding from 

 the centre towards the surface ; but the irregularity in their 

 calibre, and their intercommunications with each other, also go 

 to prove that they are gaps left in the bony substance at the 

 time it is secreted by the dentary pulp, and not pre-existing 

 tubes, which would assume a very different kind of uniformity. 

 M. Dujardin, moreover, has not been able to perceive the re- 

 gular ramifications attributed by M. Retzius to the canals, nor 

 the waving fibres which this anatomist states to be distinct from 

 the cylindrical hollow tubes. He concludes by pointing out 

 the difference which the structure of the teeth of fishes exhibits 

 from that of the mammalia. As an example, he takes that of the 

 pike, and at once found that it split, as did the others, with 

 most ease in the direction of its length, whilst on the whole 

 it is much softer. Their centre is composed of a fibrous 

 bundle, as Malpighi had previously announced, and here he 

 found irregular shut lacunae of a considerable size. The cor- 

 tical part, which is about ^y of a line thick, separated from the 

 central portion by a circle of compressed lacunae, is composed 

 of laminae or fibres of a particular structure, bent outwards, 

 and wholly different from the enamel or bony substance of 

 other teeth. 



20. Summary of Researches upon the Anatomy of the Pelvis, 

 by Mr Alexander Thomson. The author states that these re- 

 searches are connected with a great work upon Hernia, and 

 that it is chiefly for the purpose of elucidating this part of 

 surgical pathology, that they have been undertaken. He 

 points out successively the general arrangement of the diffe- 

 rent fibrous laminae, which occur in the parietes of the abdo- 

 men, and the neighbouring parts, and thus determinates the 

 number of curvings which such hernia ought to have, accord- 

 ing to the region in which it occurs. From these statements 

 he deduces many remarks, on the application of bandages, and 

 operations, and the various manifestations which in certain 

 cases may supersede the necessity of the scalpel : finally, in those 



