110 REPORT—1857. 
A Brief Suggestion, recommending a more complete Compilation of the Facets 
illustrating the Physiology of Vegetable and Animal Secretions. By R. 
DowDeENn. 
On the Action of some Animal Poisons. 
By M. Fayi, M.D., Professor in the University of Norway. 
On the Action of the Auriculo- Ventricular Valves of the Heart. 
By Dr. GAInDNeER. 
£ The author had frequently found auriculo-ventricular regurgitant murmurs, which 
were not fully explained by the post-mortem appearances. He pointed out anato- 
mical conditions of the valves at the time of their tension, which he believed have 
not been sufficiently attended to ; and that these explained the occurrence in certain 
otherwise obscure cases of regurgitant murmurs without organic lesions of the valves 
or dilatation of the orifices. 
On the Mortality from certain Diseases. By Dr. GARDNER. 
The object of the author was to obtain a more accurate account of the causes of 
death, especially in our hospitals, than yet obtained by the reports afforded by those 
institutions. In the course of his remarks Dr. Gairdner commented upon the returns 
of the Registrar-General, and stated that for the purposes of medical science they 
were in many respects framed so as to mislead, from their referring only to a single 
cause of death in each case, whereas the real fatal issues of disease were usually 
very complex. 
On the Oriental Bath. 
By Evwarv Havcuton, M.D. (Edinb.), M-R.C.S. Ed. 
Antiquarians inform us that some of the most ancient ruins in the world are those 
of hot-air baths; whilst hot-water baths (to lie down in) are so modern as to have 
been unknown to the Greeks. The former kind possesses many marked advantages 
over the latter, both in purifying the blood, and as a simple detergent; being, more- 
over, less liable to overheat the body ; the evaporation from the surface being a safe- 
guard in the case of hot-air which does not exist when a denser medium is employed. 
When the skin has been got to act well, soap and water are then employed to remove 
the impurities thus brought to the surface. The baths of the East are not only more 
salutary than those which we are familiar with, but are infinitely pleasanter ; as the 
bath itself is a chamber permitting perfect freedom of motion. It is also of a social 
character ; a kind of bathing dress being worn of sufficient size to permit persons of 
the same sex to meet together without embarrassment. ‘This kind of bath is univer- 
sally resorted to by Mahometans as a religious duty; indeed, on a rough calculation, 
it may be said to be employed by §th of the human race. No objection on the head 
of climate can be urged against this practice, as it is employed in so many and so 
variable regions; nor could it be used (as it is) by every class of society, if there were 
anything in its nature to prevent it from being self-supporting at a reasonable charge, 
It appears, moreover, that certain forms of disease (here very prevalent) are scarcely 
known at all in those countries, where the bath is in general use; and that it also 
possesses considerable curative efficacy, being capable of removing opium, nicotine, 
alcohol, and other poisons from the blood ; so that it is not unreasonable to suppose, 
that if it were introduced into this country, a great sanitary revolution would take 
lace. These circumstances render it worthy of the best attention of all reformers 
and philanthropists. 
On the Physiological Relations of Albumen. By Professor Haypen, M.D. 
The writer commenced with some preliminary observations tending to show that 
the elimination by the excernent glands of the body of certain of the staminal prin- 
ciples of the blood, was indicative of derangement in the normal proportion of its con- 
stituent elements, whether resulting from temporary indigestion or confirmed disease ; 
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