l64 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [anNO I674. 



Taking it for granted, that it is the least part of a physician'-s and surgeon's 

 skill, to know the constitution of the parts according to the usual course of na- 

 ture in sound bodies, and that the main consists in the inspection and con- 

 sideration of particular subjects dead of remarkable diseases, and thence com- 

 posing an anatomy useful in practice ; the author declares that he used in his 

 work that perished by the fire, the same method in the anatomy of men and 

 women deceased by considerable sicknesses, that he did in his Anatome Refor- 

 mata, made up of his observations taken from sound corpses. As for example, 

 what is the situation, shape, colour, connection, substance, &c. of the brain, 

 lungs, liver, intestines, and the like, in such as died of the apoplexy, epilepsy, 

 consumption, fevers, dropsy, jaundice, small-pox, cough, &c. ; solicitously 

 examining the preternatural constitution of every part, in those and other dis- 

 eases, in order to the better understanding of the places affected, and the con- 

 junct causes.* 



III. La Lettre de Charles Drelincourt a M. Porree, sur la Methode, pre- 

 tendue Nouvelle, de tailler la pierre : avec trois autres a Monsieur Vallot, 

 Premier Medicin de sa Majeste. A Leide, 1674, in l2mo. 



These letters were written by the learned author, on the occasion of a new 

 lithotomist in France, pretending to cut all sorts and sexes of mankind for the 

 stone in the bladder, how large soever, without any considerable medical pre- 

 paratives ; which, as to men, he would perform by introducing into the anus 

 some fingers of his right hand, well oiled, and thereby finding the stone im- 

 mediately, and thrusting it into the neck of the bladder, where it is to be held 

 fast by an assistant ; and thereupon having withdrawn his right-hand fingers, 

 he would place his patient in a due posture, and then oil some fingers of his left 

 hand, and slide them into the same place, turning the neck of the bladder, to- 

 gether with the stone, towards the small left trochanter, till with his right hand 

 he could draw the skin of the perinasum towards the right femur, where it is to 

 be held with his left thumb, and then with a fit single instrument he would make 

 a semi-lunar incision, and so without any other mystery, as he speaks, draw 

 out the stone, and then apply healing medicines. 



As to women, he would perform the operation dirigendo digitos in sinuin 

 pudoris, &c. 



Of this operation Monsieur Drelincourt observes; first, that it is an inven- 

 tion as old as Celsus himself, 1600 years ago. Secondly, that it cannot be used 



* Since Bartholine's time, morbid anatomy has been prosecuted with great diligence by De Haen, 

 Ludwig, Stoll and "Walter, in Germany; by Sandifort, in Holland 3 by Morgagni, in Italy; by 

 Lieutaud, Portal and Pinel, in France; and by the Monroes, the Hunters, Baillie and others, in 

 Great Britain. 



