130 EIGHTH REPORT — 1838. 



the ear-piece, which of course becomes moveable to a greater or less 

 angle with the cylinder, as circumstances may require. 



Mr. Baird detailed a case of successful excision of the elbow joint. 

 The patient was presented to the Section, and considerable motion was 

 shown to exist in the joint; so much so, as to enable him to pursue his 

 ordinary occupation in a glass manufactory. 



On Fractures. By T. M. Greenhow. 



In illustration of this communication a model of a new sling fracture 

 bed was introduced, applicable to every fracture in the lower extre- 

 mity, but peculiarly adapted to the treatment of compound fractures 

 of the femur. The following advantages were attainable by this ap- 

 paratus: — 1st, Ease of position; 2nd, Easy and gradual extension by 

 means of a screw at the termination, beyond the heel of the patient, 

 whose action was connected with the ancle joint and instep ; 3rd, Fa- 

 cility of examining and dressing the limb in cases of compound frac- 

 ture, without disturbing the fractured ends; 4th, The freedom of slight 

 motion enjoyed in such a way as to be of no injury to the process of 

 reparation. Mr. Greenhow detailed some interesting cases treated with 

 this apparatus, demonstrating its peculiar advantages. 



Case of Anthracosis in a Lead Miner. By Dr. Crawford. 



The attention of the profession was first drawn to the subject of an- 

 thracosis, or black infiltration of the lungs, in 1831, by the late Dr. 

 James C. Gregory, and subsequently other cases have been published 

 in the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal. 



Dr. William Thomson, of Edinburgh, has also pviblished a paper, in 

 the London Medico-Chirurgical Transactions for 1836, on black ex- 

 pectoration and black matter on the lungs. 



The subjects of all the cases made public have been either coal- 

 miners or moulders in iron work, whose occupations have seemed to 

 give countenance to the opinion that the disease originated either from 

 the inhalation of coal-dust, gun-powder smoke, lamp smoke, choke 

 damp, or the impure air of mines, consisting of a mixture of carbonic 

 acid gas and the atmospheric air. In some of these cases there was, 

 during life, dark-coloured expectoration with evidence of serious orga- 

 nic disease of the lungs, c. g. phthisis ; in others, there was bronchites, 

 witliout expectoration of this dark matter; in a third class there were 

 bronchites and emphyseura of the lungs, likewise without the dark- 

 coloured matter ; and in the fourth and last class there was found, after 

 death, the black matter, no symptom nor sign of cliest affection of any 

 kind having been present during life. 



