TRAXSACTIOXS OP THE SECTIONS. 99 



if there had, it would have been resisted by a coagulum of blood filling 

 it, and which had formed at the instant of the experiment ; and even a 

 little on the end of the cone for the purpose of soldering up the minute 

 aperture left by the rupture of the cellular sheath. We perceive, 

 therefore, that the haemorrhage from even a large artery may be 

 arrested, by the strength of the cellular tunic, when aided by the dis- 

 position of the blood to rapidly coagulate. This is soon followed by 

 the tendency which all arteries possess to contract, when there are no 

 parts beyond them that require a supply of blood. We thus find the 

 explanation of the vessels on the face of a stump having a less ten- 

 dency to bleed, than when the same arteries are tied in aneurism. 



Dr. Macartney read a letter from Mr. Darby, of Bray, near Dublin, 

 describing the entire success which attended the application of a mode 

 of treatment identical in principle with the views above explained, in 

 a case of amputation of a child's hand. No ligature or pressure was 

 used. The stump was covered with a light piece of lint frequently 

 dipped in cold water, and on the tenth morning the wound was almost 

 perfectly healed. On these grounds the author expresses hopes that 

 the day will arrive in which the use of the ligature will become unne- 

 cessary. He is fully persuaded, that in the operation for aneurism, 

 (provided the collateral vessels were enlarged,) by making a simple in- 

 cision and uncovering the artery, and treating it afterwards by cold, 

 rest, and elevated position, and thus producing union without inflam- 

 mation, as in other cases where wounds heal by the process of approx- 

 imation and natural growth, the main artery of the limb would become, 

 from the sense of exposure, by degrees impervious, which would be 

 evidently preferable to the sudden interruption of the circulation. 



Another case is mentioned by Dr. Macartney, occurring in his own 

 experience, where the application of ice to a wound of the femoral 

 artery stopped haemorrhage, when other means had been unsuccess- 

 fully resorted to. 



On the Sounds produced in Respiration, and on the Voice. 

 By Pe-xton Blakiston, M.D. 



Dr. Blakiston commenced by showing that the respiratory sound, 

 coarse and intense, when heard in the trachea, became gradually 

 weaker and softer as it approached the periphery of the chest, at 

 which point the sound, during expiration, had almost totally disap- 

 peared. The air, in passing along the trachea and bronchial tubes, 

 would meet with solid obstacles, and therefore be thrown into sonorous 

 vibration at every alteration of direction. The divergence of sound, 

 caused by the subdivision of those tubes, and the diminution of their 

 calibre, would necessarily tend to soften and weaken the respiratory 

 sounds from the trachea towards the air vesicles ; but the sound pro- 

 duced by inspiration was carried up to the ear placed on the chest 

 by the current of air during that act, while that produced by expi- 



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