609 



crease daring the paroxysm ; in two other cases of mania there was 

 a diminution of phosphates approaching to that occurring in delirium 

 tremens. Bright's disease, even attended with acute inflammation, 

 showed no increase. When only a few ounces of urine were se- 

 creted, as in dropsy, no increase was observed ; and none also in a 

 very extreme case of exostosis. In the case of mollities . ossium, 

 there was a decided increase of the earthy phosphates ; and at last, 

 the alkaline phosphates were also in excess, although there was no 

 indication of affections of the nervous structures. 



The following are the general conclusions which the author draws 

 from his inquiries : first, that acute affections of the nervous sub- 

 stance, organic and functional, are the only diseases in which an 

 excess of phosphatic salts appears in the urine ; and in acute in- 

 flammation of the brain, its amount is proportional to the intensity 

 of the inflammation ; secondly, that in a large class of functional 

 diseases of the brain, of w^hich delirium tremens presents the most 

 marked example, the secretion of phosphates is most remarkably 

 diminished ; and lastly, that no chronic disease exhibits any marked 

 excess in the total quantity of phosphatic salts secreted, at least as 

 far as the mode of analysis employed by the author can be regarded 

 as conclusive. \ 



" On the effects produced by Poisonous on the Human 



Frame." By Sir William Burnett, M.D,, K.C.H., Vice-President of 

 the Royal Society. 



The author communicates a report which he lately received from 

 Mr. Jameson, the surgeon of the flag ship at the Cape of Good 

 Hope, of the rapidly fatal consequences ensuing from eating small 

 portions of the liver of a fish, known at the Cape by the name of 

 the Bladder or Toad Jish, the Aptodactylus pimctatus^ or Tetrodon 

 of Cuvier. The symptoms were chiefly pain and burning sensation 

 at the epigastrium, constriction and spasm of the fauces and mus- 

 cles of deglutition, rigidity of the tendons, coma, paralysis and con- 

 vulsions, following one another in quick succession, and terminating 

 in death within twenty minutes after the poisonous food had been 

 taken. Several other instances of the same kind are next related ; 

 and a narrative is subjoined of the case of a seaman who lost his 

 life, with similar symptoms, from the bite of a water snake in Madras 

 roads ; the Coluber laticaudatus of Linneeus (^Hydrus colubrhms of 

 Shaw) ; and also of a ship's company who were all severely affected 

 by eating portions of a large Banacuda {Perca major'). 



The author ascribes the symptoms induced by these deleterious 

 substances to their action on the nervous system alone, there being 

 evidence of congestion only, but not of inflammation, in the sto- 

 mach and other viscera. 



" Further Researches on the Nervous System of the Uterus." By 

 Robert Lee, M.D., F.R.S., Fellow of the Royal College of Phy- 

 sicians. 



The author states, that on the 8th of April 1838, he discovered, 



