BOOKS RECEIVED. 
359 
Supposed Poisoning by Shell-fish. —The ‘Glasgow Evening Citizen ’ says that 
three persons had died suddenly, death having been caused, as is supposed, from eating 
shell-fish. It appears that Mr. Forbes, on his return from Manchester, had brought 
with him some Norwegian crab shell-fish, and invited some friends to supper, when they 
all partook of the fish, and on the following morning were seized with choleraic symp¬ 
toms. Mr. Bain, one of the party, was taken to the hospital, when everything that 
skill could suggest was done; he died in the evening. Mrs. Darling and Mrs. Merry had 
the prompt assistance of several medical men, but the former died the same evening, 
and the latter on the following morning. The other members of the party, having been 
slightly affected, recovered. The symptoms were those of cholera, but were supposed to 
be due to something poisonous in the shell-fish. Dr. Moon, who attended Mrs. Darling 
and Mrs. Merry, is of opinion that those ladies died of cholera, and Mr. Bain’s case is 
reported as one of choleraic diarrhoea, but Dr. Gairdiner, who was called in, would not 
take upon himself to say whether the deaths were traceable to cholera, or to the eating 
of the crabs. 
Accidental Poisoning. —The ‘ Manchester Courier ’ records the following case:— 
An inquest has been held at Manchester on William Hart, a chemical labourer, aged 
seventy. Peter Hart said his father was manager at Tennant and Co.’s chemical works. 
Witness was a chemist there, and was carrying on experiments in the laboratory, when 
the deceased came in and sat down. The deceased’s practice was to make some tea, 
which he put into a “ beaker ” vessel or anything else that was at hand. All at qnce 
the deceased started up, made a confused noise, and ran towards witness, calling out 
‘Water, water.” Witness gave him some water, with which the deceased rinsed his 
mouth, and witness then saw that his father had drunk out of a beaker which contained 
a strong solution of caustic soda. Witness took deceased home in a cab, where, although 
medical aid was promptly brought into requisition, he died of brain fever that morning. 
The beaker out of which the deceased had drunk stood on a table near where witness 
was evaporating a solution in another vessel. Deceased had worked at the place for 
twenty years, and perfectly understood his business, and the table at which witness was 
standing was separated from that on which the beaker was placed out of which the 
deceased had drunk. The jury returned a verdict of “Accidental poisoning.” 
Wew Form of Medicated Pessaries. —At a meeting of the Dublin Obstetrical 
Society, Dr. Kidd exhibited a new form of medicated pessary, made by Mr. 
Pakenham, whose object appears to have been to meet the following conditions:— 
1st. That it can be introduced by the patient herself. 2nd. That it will bring the 
medicinal agent into contact with the mucous membrane of the vagina and uterus, and 
retain it there suflSciently long to allow of absorption, or of such local action as may 
be required. 3rd. That it will not be offensive to the patient, soil her clothes, or 
prevent the medicine having due effect, by allowing it to escape from the vagina. In 
manufacturing this pessary, Mr. Pakenham rolls a small portion of cotton, to which a 
thread has been attached, on the end of a glass rod, giving it the form and size of the 
ordinary conical medicated pessary. He now dips it rapidly into melted cocoa-nut 
butter, so as to give it a uniform thin coat, to preserve its shape, and give it firmness. 
As soon as the cocoa-nut butter is cool, the glass rod is withdrawn, and the pessary now 
resembles an empty cartridge case, which may be charged for use by introducing into it 
the medicinal agent to be employed, and which may be used either in the state of dry 
powder, or mixed with glycerine or water. The end of the charged cartridge is now 
plugged with cotton and cocoa-nut butter, and it is ready for use .—Dublin Quarterly 
Journal of Medical Science. 
BOOKS RECEIVED. 
Malaria, the Common Cause of Cholera, Intermittent Fever, and its Allies. By 
A. T. Macgowan, L.E:C.P. Loud. London : John Churchill and Sons. 
Little Experiments for Little Chemists. By William Henry Walenn, F.C.S., etc. 
London: T. J. Allman, 463, Oxford Street. 1866. 
Archives of Dentistry. Vol. I. Edited by Edward Truman, Dentist in Ordinary 
to Her Majesty’s Household. London: John Churchill and Sons, New Burlington 
Street. 1866. 
