1824.] • Medical Report. 



proRrcKsi^cly cooled lliiough S° of Fah- 

 reiiiu'it bctiue the I'leczirig point is 

 I cached, are the means employed by 

 the Creator for prevenling the per- 

 petual increase of ice, nnlil at length 

 no water or hahitable clime would have 

 remained on the earth's surface. Silli- 

 man's Journal, No. 7. 



A preparation of perfectly pure gold, 

 for the gold-wire and leaf uiauufac- 

 lurer's and other uses, may be made, 

 by dissolving ordinary fine gold, in 

 thin plates or grains, in moderately 

 strong hilric acid, into which muriate 



361 



of soda is, scattered at intervals, whilst 

 a geulle heat is being applied ; — dis- 

 solve (hen snijihalc ot iron in cold 

 Wiiter, filter it, as well as the solution 

 of gold, and then mix ten or twelve 

 parts of the former with one of the 

 latter, and set bye the mixture for 

 tvventy-four hours, or more ; boil the 

 brownish precipitate in a little pure 

 nitric acid, wash then the gold with 

 distilled water; and finally, melt it 

 with a little pure nitre, and a perfectly 

 fine gold will thus easily and cheaply 

 be obtained. Technical Repository. 



MEDICAL REPORT. 



Report o/Diseases and Casualties occurring in the public or private Practice oftlte 

 Physician who has the care of the Western District of the City Dispensary. 



*T"'HE circumstances under which those 

 ■*- ettiisions take place, that are called 

 dropsical, are several and various. You 

 liave tirst an inilammatory action of ves- 

 sels, which occasions a siiperabiindance of 

 discharge into inlcinal cavities : this over- 

 plus may next be induced, by a deficient 

 energy in that part of the organization 

 which serves again to receive into the 

 system a portion of the fluid emitted from 

 the exlmlent vessels ; or it i3My be brought 

 about by local plethora, or congestion, 

 such congestion being tlie consequence, 

 «itlier of erroneous action in the overladen 

 vessels, or of obstructions in otiier parts of 

 the frame. And with all, nay, perhaps, 

 above all, there is in some a constitutional 

 tendency to the manifestation of this form 

 «f disease, that brings the actual malady 

 into being with an almost inexplicable 

 facility. When, therefore, the term water 

 in the brain is used to denote a single and 

 sole essence, it is employed with deficient 

 inforuiation as to its source and circimi- 

 Ktance ; for it may be congenital, and then 

 incurable by art; or it may be the sequela 

 of inflammation, and in tllatca^e remedia- 

 ble only during the presence of the preli- 

 minary state; that is, of the state prior to 

 the effusion; or it may be congestive, and 

 then most simnlativc ab-nrigine, of the 

 last stagey or the efTiLsion, wliicli is the 

 inalady in its lull and final form, may sud- 

 denly occur as a rush of water impetuously 

 breaks through its conlining n:ounds; or it 

 may gradually, and in a sort of perco- 

 lating manner, make its way into the 

 Lrain from the distended and com|)re8sed 

 vessels. In most cases, the tendency to 

 its production is of scrophulous o\i</u\ ; 

 this sciopliula consisting partly of that 

 delicacy in the vascular organization 

 wliicli renders it rliflicult, witho\it disor- 

 der, to encounter the rubs and roughs 

 that growing life is heir lo. 



■ Now the great difficulties and delicacy, 

 with respect to the prognosis of this com- 

 plaint, consists in deciding whether the 

 compression of, or irritation in the brain 

 under which your little patient evidently 

 labours, be n\erely a fulness or inflamma- 

 tion of ihe vessels, or whether it be from 

 the actual presence of the extraneous 

 lliiid, for in the latter case we have little, 

 very little indeed, to hope from medicinal 

 interference; wlule, in the former, judi- 

 cious interposition of remedial measures 

 njay promise and accomplish much good : 

 but even here, con-.tilutional predisposi- 

 tion will often stand up with fiu'ious and 

 formidable force against the exertions of 

 the physician; and, on the other hand, 

 nature will now and then step in and 

 availably co-operate with medicine in 

 taking up an eft'usion from the brain, and 

 pouring it into one or other of the bodies' 

 emunctories. So that despair ought 

 never, perhaps, to paralyze exertion, even 

 in apparently the most confirmed kind, 

 and hopeless period of the disorder. 



The distinction above alluded to may 

 often, with some correctness, be taken 

 frnm the kind of pulse which is preseut; 

 for, when a large extravasation or effusion 

 lias taken the place of mere fulness, you 

 have immediately that jerky, slow, half- 

 intermittent pulse, that characterizes apo- 

 plexy under some shapes of this latter 

 disease, and which pulse always accompa- 

 nies the second stage of hydrocephalus 

 when the malady goes through tiie regular 

 course of primary iidiammation and sub- 

 sequent discharge from vessels. 



is it a (act, or, if it be, is it an explica- 

 ble fact, that water in the head is more 

 frCquent now than formerly? Dr. Wall, 

 of Oxford, assuming this to be the case, 

 thinks that the circular defences, which 

 used to be woin round the heads of chil- 

 dren, but which are in this country dis- 

 continued^ 



