British Association for the Advancement of Science. 31 



100 tons, without damage ; but beyond this it would not be 

 safe. He had tried it repeatedly in asthma. The principle was 

 applicable topically, and parts of the body could be submitted to 

 the action of the machine, modified so as to be suitable to them. 

 He exhibited a contrivance, of a long tin tube, made air-tight, 

 and with a piece of wet bladder round one end, which was open } 

 at the other end, which was closed up, a small exhausting air- 

 pump was placed. A patient, with a paralytic wrist, put his arm 

 into this ; the wet bladder was tied round his arm at the top, to 

 make it air-tight, and the atmosphere was then pumped out of the 

 tube. The atmospheric pressure being taken off, the limb be- 

 came turgid, the circulation was increased, and the part affected 

 was soon cured. There was another adaptation of the same con- 

 trivance to the limbs, to draw off the effect of congestion of the 

 brain ; and one to stop haemorrhage in an injured hand, limb, or 

 other extremity. An exhausting pump was fixed to the end of a 

 bladder, the limb was put into the bladder, and the neck then tied 

 round to make it air-tight. The air was then completely ex- 

 hausted by means of the pump, which compressed the bladder so 

 close to the skin as effectually to stop even the pores of the skin. 

 The same contrivance of a bladder and exhausting pump was 

 also applied for the cure of ulcerated legs, by preventing evapo- 

 ration of the ulcers, by exhausting the air, and making the col- 

 lapsed bladder adhere tightly all round. For irregular surfaces 

 he thought the instruments of particular value, since no dry-cup- 

 ping could be used there. If this plan had been known when 

 those melancholy deaths from dissection cuts took place in Dub- 

 lin, and dry-cupping could not be had recourse to, it would have 

 been fortunate. The machine would be particularly advantage- 

 ous in withdrawing blood from particular parts to others more re- 

 mote. Thus, in cases of congestion of blood in the head, where 

 bleeding had been carried to such an extent that it would not be 

 safe to carry it further, owing to the great general loss in the cir- 

 culation, blood might be made to accumulate in other parts, as in 

 the legs. The case of a well-known brewer in Dublin was treat- 

 ed on this principle, and recovered. Sir James then enumerated 

 the kinds of cases where the apparatus might be used, — asthma, 

 defective external circulation, aneurism, tumors, paralysis, &c. 



Structure of the Brain. — Mr. Carlile further adverted to the 

 particulars of several dissections of the brain in his possession, 



