OP ARTS AND SCIENCES : DECEMBER 10, 1872. 487 



Dr. Henry I. Bowditch alluded to a case of aortic aneurism 

 in which he had, with the assistance of Drs. J. C. Warren and 

 J. J. Putnam, used electricity for the treatment of this usually 

 fatal disease. 



The patient, an adult man, had a pulsation distinctly felt in the sec- 

 ond right intercostal space, which last, with the parts adjacent, was 

 slightly prominent, but not effaced. The respiratory murmur was free 

 throughout both lungs, save in this part, and there it was bronchial to 

 the extent of two or three inches ; dull percussion in the same. Two 

 operations have been made, namely, on November 12 and 17, 1872. 

 Three needles coated with vulcanite were used at each operation. They 

 were introduced about an inch at the first, and from an inch and a 

 quarter to an inch and a half at the second operation. They evidently 

 were introduced into a freely moving current at the first, as seen by 

 the widely moving needle-ends, but into a more solid mass at the sec- 

 ond. The positive pole of the battery alone was applied to them, the 

 negative resting on the right breast on a level with the tumor. The 

 number of cells used (Stohrer's battery) were gradually raised from 

 two up to sixteen at the first, and to twenty-eight at the second. The 

 operations lasted fourteen and a half and fourteen minutes. A little 

 faintness and pulselessness were noticed at the termination of each. 

 They soon passed away. The result of the two operations has been a 

 great solidity of the tumor, with considerable swelling of parts adjacent, 

 which swelling is now (November 26) subsiding. No superficial red- 

 ness or sloughing of the skin occurred. No air appeared in the tumor, 

 as noticed often in Europe, where needles attached to both poles are 

 usually introduced ( Vid. Ciniselli Annali di Medicina, November, 

 1870 ; Eraser's Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, August, 

 18G7). The patient has not suffered at all from the operations. It 

 is impossible, as yet, to say what influence they will have towards 

 his radical cure. But he is more comfortable than before the first 

 operation. 



Six hundred and fifty-first Meeting. 



December 10, 1872. — Monthly Meeting. 



The President in the chair. 



The Corresponding Secretary read letters from Professor 



