TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 81 
used was that described by Dr. Bellingham in the ‘Dublin Medical Journal.? The 
pressure was made in the groin (the case being one of popliteal aneurism), and kept 
applied for about an hour, at intervals, its degree being regulated by the patient him- 
self. Inthe progress of the case the instrument was obliged to be changed, and one 
known by the name of L’Estrange’s tourniquet was applied at a different point on the 
limb, but this becoming irksome, a modification of the Carpenter’s clamp, suggested 
by the patient himself, was used, and continued until the aneurismal swelling sub- 
sided, and all pulsation had disappeared. The collateral circulation appeared well- 
established, and the motions of the limb were unimpeded and free from pain. Al- 
though the symptoms of the disease had disappeared, Prof. Harrison had recom- 
mended the instrument to be continued for some time. 
On the Deleterious Effects of Ginanthe Crocata. By Dr. PickeEtts. 
This plant, he observed, was known to be one of the virulent poisons of the indi- 
genous British Flora, but was stated to be very rare in Great Britain by Dr. Smith, 
in the letter-press of ‘ Sowerby’s Botany ;’ this was by no means true as regarded 
Ireland, particularly in Cork, and other southern countries, in which it grows in great 
abundance. Dr. Pickells collected nearly thirty cases of death by eating the root, the 
quantity in one instance not exceeding ‘the top of the finger ;” he described the 
symptoms as exhibited by those cases,—insensibility, convulsions, locked jaw, delirium 
and insanity ; and pointed out the proper mode of treating such cases, by detailing 
several which were cured by the exhibition of strong emetics, diffusible stimulants, 
enemata, &c. He concluded by making some observations on the poisons used by 
the ancients in judicial executions ; he thought that this might have been the plant 
used to destroy Socrates, and not the Coniwm maculatum of modern botany, and from 
the symptom of insanity, he thought that this was the plant designated as the ‘in- 
sane root” by the poet. This plant Dr. Pickells stated to be equally injurious to black 
cattle and horses as to man ; he believed there was no direct antidote known; melted 
butter was given in some of the cases which recovered, and is popularly deemed a 
preservative against its effects. The root is frequently used as a discutient external 
application to tumours, and many of the accidents have occurred by eating it when 
gathered for this purpose. 
New Instrument for the Removal of Calcult. 
Dr. Houston exhibited to the Section a very ingenious instrument, invented by Sa- 
muel M’Clean, Esq. of Dublin, for the removal of calculi after the operation of litho- 
tomy by incision, when the calculus happens to be so large or so misshapen that the 
__ ordinary forceps would be inapplicable for its extraction. The instrument consists of 
a net attached to a circular spring, which admits, by an ingenious mechanism, of 
being pulled into and protruded from a straight, hollow, silver cylinder of about one= 
third of an inch in diameter. This cylinder is to be introduced into the bladder throngh 
_ the incision, and when there, the net is to be thrown over the calculus by means of 
the spring. The spring is then to be drawn again within the cylinder, and the whole 
—cylinder, net, and calculus—removed in the same direction. 
Description of the Sound useful for the Detection of Small Calculi. 
By Dr. Brook. 
On the Circulation of the Blood in Acardiac Feetuses. By Dr. Houston. 
Dr. Young, Sir Astley Cooper, and Dr. Marshall Hall, held the opinion that the 
_ circulation in an acardiac foetus was maintained by the action of the heart of the per- 
_ fect foetus which accompanies it in utero, but this opinion was disproved by the fact 
that such were not always found in twin cases, but occurred singly, as was proved by 
 Blandin and others; but even omitting such cases, Dr. H. argued, from theoretical 
principles, that the efficient cause of the circulation must be the innate vital action of 
the capillaries ; the existence of such a power, he contended, was shown in several 
instances in comparative anatomy : in the earth-worm, the leech, and in the rudimen- 
tary vessels of the chick in ovo. This was the power recognized by Alison under the 
term “ vital attraction and repulsion.” 
1843. G 
