is a phenomenon not mentioned in any history, that I have seen. I have fuppofed it to be owing to a primary fhade of redness in the iris, which disappeared when the vibratory motion commenced. This, however, is mere conjecture. The deformity is, in thefe cafes, evidently accidental. The two previous children were free from any thing of the kind; and from an extenfive knowledge of the relatives, there is no reason to suppose an hereditary taint. If, as Mr. Buzzi fuppofes, an inordinate appetite for milk, will produce this mal-conformation of the eye, a query arises, whether it be the exceffive ufe of milk during uterine-geftation, or the untoward confequence of inordinate defire, merely? If the former, this would be a common deformity in dairy countries; and if the latter, it will add a new blemish to the direful catalogue of nevæ maternæ! It would have been rational in Mr. Buzzi to impute an unnatural and inexplicable event to any equally unnatural caufe; but it is much to be doubted, whether the fuppofed caufe, in this cafe, bears any fort of relationship to the nature or degree of the event-I cannot but doubt both. JOHN VAUGHAN. DR. JOHN REDMAN COXE. Hiftory of a Cafe of Introfufception. By WILLIAM SHAW, M. D. DEAR SIR, Philadelphia, Nov. 1st, 1805. I HAND you the history of a very fingular cafe of introfuf'ception, which you may give a place in your Museum, if you fhould think it worthy of publication. J. A. became a patient of mine fome time ago; he had fever with flight paralyfis of his lower extremities; for which he was bled and had a mild cathartic given him, and this was repeated on the third day: his diet was ordered to be mild and nutritive. At the end of ten days he appeared fo far recovered as to require no more medical affistance. A few days after he was feized with diarrhoea; he did not make known his complaint until the feventh day. By this time he was very much reduced, but by the operation of a little caftor oil followed by a mild aftringent medicine, his diarrhoea was ftopped about the end of the third or fourth day, when his appetite began to return, and his strength feemingly to increase. Four days had elapfed when the paralyfis of his lower extremities returned, accompanied with fickness at his stomach, which fometimes amounted to vomiting; feeble and irregular pulfe, with his countenance very much dejected; he said he felt as if his bowels were turning from one side of his body to the other, and fometimes they feemed to move from below upwards, fo as to affect his breathing; all this time he complained of very fevere pain. He was ordered a dofe of laudanum (it being late in the evening): next morning he died. I opened the body foon after death; the contents of the thorax were in a healthy ftate: upon opening the abdomen, I found the ftomach, duodenum, and about half of the jejunum very much diftended with wind, the other part of the jejunum was filled, or nearly fo, with more than half of the ilium next to it. At the commencement of this introfufception, a stricture existed which nearly closed the intestine: three other ftrictures were found in the lower portion of ilium; and at each of those strictures a portion of inteftine below, was received into that immediately above, one of about fix, one of four, and a third of two inches. The whole of the small intestines showed a high degree of inflammation to have existed before death, and a part of the largest in trofufception was already in a gangrenous ftate. The received portion of inteftine was very readily withdrawn from the receiving. Would not the furgeon be warranted in attempting an operation for the cure of this disease where the fymptoms fo plainly evinced its exiftence as in the above cafe? There can be but two material objections urged against the operation, viz. the fallacy of fymptoms in difeafes, and the fear of fubfequent inflammation from exposure of the contents of the abdomen, during the operation, to the influence of the air. The first ought always to be a serious objection while any doubts remained of the prefence of the difeafe-the fecond ought not to operate one minute as an objection after the first was removed, and the common means proved ineffectual. We have many inftances where, in confequence of wounds, the contents of the abdomen have been expofed for a length of time much greater than would be required for performing the propofed operation, and yet the perfons have recovered. One of thofe dreadful cafes, came within my knowledge: the man received a wound in the abdomen by falling on a fharp inftrument which paffed into the cavity and let out a portion of inteftine; he afterwards walked about three miles with the inteftine in his hand, and by having the neceffary means ufed, recovered in a reafonable time. Yours, &c. DR. JOHN REDMAN COXE. WILLIAM SHAW. Account of two Cafes of Stricture of the Urethra, removed by Philadelphia, Nov. 1ft. 1805. DEAR SIR, THE HE following is the refult of two experiments which I made with the nicotiana tabacum in the cure of ftrictures of the urethra. It is too well known to furgeons, that the disease in question often baffles every attempt to remove it ; and I am of opinion that every fact relative to the cure of fo painful and so distreffing a disease should be made known. If publishing the hiftory of those experiments, fhould be the means of giving relief in a fingle inftance, I fhall feel myself amply rewarded for the time I have spent in copying them from my notes. T. B. laboured under a ftricture of the urethra feated near the proftate gland about nine months. This disease owed its origin to an improperly treated gonorrhoea. It would be too tedious to relate minutely all the different methods that were employed to remove it: Suffice it to fay, that many trials were made with the common bougie; the gumelaftic catheter, &c. blood-letting general and local, bliftering on the perinæum, feveral courfes of mercury, all the routine of diuretics, &c. and a fpare diet: as a laft refource the caustic was proposed by my worthy friend Doctor Phyfick; but previous to the trial with the cauftic, I was induced, from having frequently evidenced the very powerfully relaxing effects of the nicotiana in the cure of fpafmodic difeafes, to make the following experiment, viz. A fmall-fized bougie was procured, around which I wrappęd a thin fmooth leaf of strong tobacco, previously moistened with water, fo as to enable me to give it a degree of smoothness, that it might with more case pass into the urethra. My bougie being first moistened in a decoction of tobacco, was very gently introduced into the urethra down to the stricture, where it was kept moderately pressed against it for the space of about fifteen minutes, when it paffed the stricture and went into the bladder at this time my patient complained of fickness at his ftomach, and although it was in the coldeft feafon of the year, a confiderable moisture appeared on his forehead; immediately after the bougie was withdrawn he discharged upwards of half a pint of urine, which flowed in a natural stream: the bougie was introduced twice afterwards the fame day, and repeated daily for two or three days, without the leaft difficulty: he has continued free from the disease ever fince. The fuccefs I met with in the above cafe, led me to make trial of my bougie, with a fmall improvement, in a fecond and very fimilar cafe which occurred to me a fhort time after-This was an elderly man who had by times fuffered greatly from a ftricture which existed abou: the commencement of the bulb of the urethra. This cafe had been treated in every respect fimilar to the foregoing, and with no better fuccefs. I made an extract of nicotiana and covered a small bougie with it, and having rendered it smooth, I moistened it in fome of the fame extract liquified by the addition of water: I made an attempt to introduce it into the urethra, which fucceeded after a few minutes gentle preffure with the point against the membrane, which formed the ftricture; a fimilar fenfation of sickness and debility took place in this as in the other cafe, while the bougie was in the penis; the operation was repeated two or three times after this, which produced fuch torpor and relaxation of the sphincter vefice as to render him incapable of retaining his urine; however, |