Miscellaneous Intelligence.
Anatomy of the Brain.—Anatomy is considered the driest and most difficult of biological studies, but a careful attention to our description of the brain will show that it is very intelligible. After we get through with the anatomy, the description of organs and their functions is simple and practical. Every one should understand the outlines of cerebral anatomy, and then he can discuss the subject with imperfectly educated physicians, and show them their errors.
Mesmeric Cures of countless variety and marvelous success have occurred all through the present century. But when not effected by distinguished physicians, they have generally been ignored by the press, and their knowledge confined to a very narrow circle. Now, however, since eminent physicians at Paris are engaged, and the word hypnotism is substituted for mesmerism and magnetism, their performances are proclaimed by journalists and even by the medical press. The following is one of the latest reports. The reader will observe that when the medical faculty after a prolonged opposition yield to any new idea, they endeavor to ignore entirely the pioneers by whom the discoveries were made, and by whom an interest was created in the subject while the faculty were hostile. It will probably not be long before they adopt the leading ideas of homœopathy and endeavor to obliterate the memory of Hahnemann.
“Hypnotism has been employed with considerable success in Paris for some time past in the treatment of hysterical diseases, by Charcot and others, but the case recently reported by M. Clovis Hugues, in France, is the most extraordinary application so far on record. A young lady of twenty was attacked six months ago with a nervous ailment which completely derived her of her voice. Electricity was tried, with a certain amount of success, but after a time it lost its effect and was abandoned in despair. As a last resort, her friends applied to Dr. Berillon, the hypnotic specialist. After consultation with Dr. Charcot, he undertook the cure. The girl was thrown into a mesmeric trance by the usual means, and Dr. Berillon suggested that she should say on waking, ‘I am twenty.’ On opening her eyes she uttered these words without the least effort. On the second day the suggestion was that she should converse with Dr. Berillon, and this she also did, but could talk with no one else. On the third day the doctor commanded her to talk with any one and at any time that she chose. She has been able to use her tongue freely ever since.”
Medical Despotism.—The infamous law juggled through the Legislature of Iowa, which deprives every citizen of the right of relieving her neighbor of disease without the authority of a diploma, and renders Christian benevolence a crime, does not produce much effect. The natural healers pay no respect to it. In every prosecution under the law so far, the attempt to enforce the law has been defeated. Juries are unwilling to aid an ignorant Legislature in trampling on the Divine law and the principles of American constitutions.
The Dangerous Classes.—The existence of considerable classes, chiefly of foreigners, who are contemplating murder and rapine, should interest every good citizen. At Cincinnati on the 6th of March, it is said, “The institution of the Paris commune in 1848 and 1871 was celebrated tonight by the Cincinnati anarchists. It was the most revolutionary gathering ever seen in this city, and the speech of Mrs. Lucy E. Parsons, wife of the condemned anarchist, was of a very inflammatory character. The hall was crowded with men and women who drank beer at tables. It was a motley and dangerous looking throng. On the walls were mottoes with red borders, and the entire hall was profusely decorated with large red flags. There wasn’t an American flag in the hall, and above the stage was a picture of the condemned anarchists. Several pictures of notorious Anarchists who have been beheaded for murder and riot were conspicuously displayed. The band played no national airs except the ‘Marseillaise,’ and everything said and done showed a bitter hatred of American institutions. Mrs. Parsons gave a history of the Paris commune of 1871, and said the mistake made was in showing any mercy to capitalists. Her remarks were loudly applauded, although a majority of her audience couldn’t understand one word of English. Dancing followed the speeches, and was kept up all night.”
Arbitration.—In the Sinaloa colony, “Any disputes that arise between colonists will be settled by arbitration. There will be one lawyer to protect the interests of the corporation in dealings with outside parties.” This is a great step in advance. When a true civilization arrives, arbitration will supersede courts, and psychometry will assist in making it perfect.
Criticism on the Church.—If any readers of the Journal think its criticisms on the church have been too harsh, because their own acquaintance is confined to worthy professors of the present time, I would call their attention to the unquestionable statements of Hallam, Guizot, and Draper, as follows:
“With respect to the last, the grandest of all human undertakings (i. e., the circumnavigation of the earth), it is to be remembered that Catholicism had irrevocably committed itself to the dogma of a flat earth, with the sky as a floor of heaven, and hell in the under world.”—Draper’s Conflict, p. 294.
“Persecution for religious heterodoxy, in all its degrees, was in the sixteenth century the principle as well as the practice of every church.”—Hallam’s Middle Ages, vol. 2, p. 48.
“When any step was taken to establish a system of permanent institutions, which might effectually protect liberty from the invasions of power in general, the church always ranged herself on the side of despotism.”—Guizot’s History of Civilization in Europe, p. 154.
“There was fighting and fighting between the old and new school, and all on a question that would make a crab laugh,—questions that were hypercritical and infinite, and about which everybody knew nothing at all, and they thought they knew as well as God. Questions were talked of with positiveness, and argued; and, when I look back upon them, I cannot help thinking they were no better than the contentions of children around the cradle. But all this gave me great repulsion for dogmatic theology, and it is a repulsion which I have not got over, and the present prospects are that I never shall.”—Henry Ward Beecher.
Earthquakes and predictions.—Professor Rudolf Falb, of Vienna, it is reported, predicted to an hour the earthquakes which have occurred in France and Italy.
“Writing in the Austrian papers some days ago, he pointed out that the annular eclipse of the sun, which commenced on Tuesday morning at 6.41 Greenwich time, was central at 9.13 P. M., and ended on the earth generally at twenty-five minutes past midnight on Wednesday morning, was likely to be accompanied with strong atmospheric and seismic disturbances. The learned physicist has gained great reputation by previous similar forecasts. His first and great success was the foretelling the destructive shock at Belluno, on June 29, 1873. Nearly the whole of Northern Italy was affected, and upwards of fifty lives were lost. Very shortly afterwards he gave warning of the probability of an eruption of Etna, which followed at the time anticipated in 1874.”—London Echo.
“John S. Newberry, professor of geology and paleontology at Columbia College, being the American authority upon all matters pertaining to the crust of the earth, was naturally interested in the earthquake that visited Long Island on Wednesday. He derides the idea that the local seismic disturbance has any connection with the recent occurrences at Mentone, as the shocks were too far apart, and, if connected, should have been felt within eight hours of each other, whereas there was several days’ difference. His theory, which is amply sustained by observation, is that an earthquake is a movement caused by a shrinking, from loss of heat, of the interior of the earth and the crushing together and displacement of the rigid exterior as it accommodates itself to this contraction. It has been noticed that the earth is shaken along the Alleghany chain nearly every year. It is impossible to predict a recurrence of the shocks, but it is quite probable they will recur. There is a record of 231 earthquakes in the New England States between the years 1638 and 1869.”—Brooklyn Eagle.
Chapter II—Structure of the Brain.
Man a triple being—Materialists and illusionists misconceive him—Relation of the soul to the brain and body—The nervous system; illustration—Embryonic condition—Anatomical descriptions unsatisfactory and the phrenological school incorrect—Exterior view of the brain in the head, illustrated and described—The cerebrum, cerebellum, and tentorium—Interior view of the base of the skull—Bones of the head illustrated—Division of the brain into lobes and convolutions, with illustration—Frontal, middle, parietal, tempero-sphenoidal, and occipital—Anatomical plan or grouping of convolutions differs from their actual appearance—View of the superior surface illustrated—Difference between the irregular convolutions and the angular maps—View of the inferior surface of the brain—Illustration and description of the parts—Interior view of section on the median line—Divided and undivided surfaces-Corpus callosum explained—The two brains and their diagonal relations to the body—Penetrating and describing the lateral ventricles—The serum in the brain—Variations of serum and blood—Variations in hydrocephalus and insanity—Our power to modify the brain and change our destiny—Power of education—Responsibility of society—The lateral ventricles the centre of the brain—Base of the ventricles, the great inferior ganglia of the brain, corpora striata, and thalami—Their radiating fibres inclosing a cavity—The thalami and their commissure and third ventricle—The medulla oblongata, cerebellum, and arbor vitæ—The pons Varolii and crura of the brain—the corpora quadrigemina, pineal gland, fourth ventricle, and calamus scriptorius.
Man is essentially a triple organization, consisting of the permanent psychic being, intangible to our external senses, but nevertheless so distinctly recognized internally by consciousness and externally or in others, by intuition and understanding, that the psychic is as well understood and known as the physical being. This being is the eternal man—the material body being its temporary associate.
The physical being, or material form, consists of the portion directly and entirely occupied by the psychic existence—which is called the brain or encephalon, and is in life also beyond the reach of our senses in the interior of the cranium—and the non-psychic structure, the body, which, though not the residence of the soul, has so intimate and complete a connection with the entire brain that during active life it feels as if it were the actual residence of the soul, so far as sensation and action are concerned.
The soul, or psychic being, has external and internal perceptions (for which it has cerebral organs). When the former predominate too greatly, the human body and all external objects are realized most vividly, and the reality of psychic life is not so well realized or understood. Hence persons so organized are disposed to materialism, and either doubt the existence of their psychic being, or are indifferent to it.
On the other hand, those in whom the interior faculties predominate too greatly vividly realize their psychic life, but have more vague and feeble conceptions of material objects, including their own bodies, and attach undue importance to the imaginary and subjective in preference to the objective. The materialists and the illusionists, however, are not entirely composed of these two classes of subjective and objective thinkers. The majority consists of persons of moderate reasoning capacity, who simply follow their leaders.
In making a critical distinction between the psycho-organic brain and non-psychic body, the former may be confined strictly within the cranium, leaving the exterior portions of the head as a part of the non-psychic body; but as they are more intimately associated with the brain than any part below the neck, this distinction is not important; and if the whole head, as the environment of the psychic brain, be grouped with it, it may not lead to any material error. The brain is intimately associated with the entire physical person by twelve pairs of cranial or cerebral nerves, and by the spinal cord, which descends from the base of the brain through a great foramen or opening midway between the ears, and while passing down the spinal column gives off thirty pairs of nerves.
The cranial nerves are all for the head, except the pneumogastric or lung-stomach nerve, which belongs to the organs of respiration, voice, and digestion; and the spinal nerves are all for the body, except a few which ramify in the neck and in the scalp.
The entire nervous system is so instantaneously prompt in conveying to the brain the impressions which originate feeling, and in conveying from the brain the nervous energies that produce voluntary motion and modify all the processes of life, that we feel as if we had sensation and volition in every part of the body; or, in other words, that our conscious existence was in the body; but we rationally know that the sensation and volition occur in the brain, for neither sensation nor voluntary motion can occur if the nervous connection with the brain is interrupted by compression and section, or if the brain itself be sufficiently compressed. When the brain is exposed by an injury of the cranium, the pressure of a finger suspends all consciousness and volition, making a blank in the life of the individual.
Animal life resides in the nervous system alone, and its character is proportioned to the development thereof, of which the brain is the principal mass. A subordinate portion of the general life, however, is in the nervous system of the body, and in proportion as the brain declines in development the relative amount of psychic energy in the body is greater. Thus the body of the alligator after decapitation is capable of sensation and voluntary acts, such as pushing away an offending body with its foot. The character of the life in the body is explained by physiology and sarcognomy. Its universal presence is due to the universal diffusion of the nervous system, of which the accompanying figure, showing the location of the spinal cord and spinal nerves, will give a proper conception. In this figure the spinal cord, with its thirty pairs of nerves, eight cervical at the neck, twelve dorsal in the back, five lumbar in the loins, and five or six in the sacrum (between the hips), is seen descending from the base of the brain below the cerebellum (which is rather too large in engraving), and proceeding throughout the body until lost in fine ramifications which the microscope can scarcely trace, but which quickly inform us if they are touched or disturbed.
It cannot properly be said that the spinal cord proceeds from the brain, nor on the other hand that the brain proceeds from the spinal cord, for they originate simultaneously in a soft, jelly-like condition in which the microscope cannot detect the latent structure, not as they are in the adult, but as they are in the fœtus in which they first appear, with a structure similar to that of the lowest class of vertebrate animals, the fishes.
From this embryonic condition, in which there is very little resemblance to the adult brain, its progress has been carefully traced by many observers, but chiefly by Tiedemann, through all the stages of life before birth into the soft, infantile form of the human brain. Some knowledge of this embryonic growth is necessary to a correct understanding of the adult brain, its essential plan, its growth, and the correct estimate of its development.
I have not found in our anatomical works what I consider a satisfactory exposition of this subject. Beginning as a student with Spurzheim’s anatomy of the brain, which ought to have been the clearest and most complete of all, I found it so obscure and unsatisfactory that until I had made many dissections I had no very clear understanding. I have never found any pleasure in the writings of Spurzheim. In more recent authors the anatomical details are very abundant indeed, and sufficient to tax the memory heavily, but without that system and philosophy which appeal to the understanding and make our conceptions satisfactory, as I hope to make them to my readers, who must have very incorrect conceptions of the plan of the brain, if they have relied upon the writings of Mr. Combe and his successors of the phrenological school, none of whom, so far as I am aware, have really understood cerebral anatomy.
Let us approach the subject by taking an exterior and general view, then by tracing the embryonic growth of the brain, and the interior connections of its fibres, until we are fully prepared to judge of its development as it lies in the skull, and to understand the relation of each organ to all other portions. Then we can study its functions with a clear understanding of the relations of the organs to each other, which is the material basis of psychic science, and with full confidence in our ability to judge and compare living heads and skulls of man and animals.
Let us take an exterior view by removing one half of the skull from the right side of the head. This enables us to see that the front portion of the brain rests above the sockets of the eyes, coming down in the centre as low as the root of the nose, but a little higher exteriorly. When we touch the forehead just over the root of the nose, our finger touches the lowest level of the front lobe, the seat of the intellect; but when we touch the external angle of the brow on the same level, we touch a process of bone, and our finger is fully half an inch below the level of the brain.
In the posterior view we see that below the great mass of brain which is called the cerebrum there lies a smaller body, shaped much like a small turnip, called the cerebellum or little brain, separated from the cerebrum by a firm, horizontal membrane called the tentorium (covering the cerebellum), on which the cerebrum rests.
The position of the tentorium can easily be ascertained in your own head by the fact that where it crosses the median line there is a little projection of bone called the occipital knob, very prominent on some persons, barely perceptible on others. After locating the occipital knob, a horizontal line forward will give us the portion of the tentorium. When we carry this line forward just over the cavity of the ear, thus locating the tentorium, we easily recognize below it the rounded prominence on each side in which the two hemispheres or halves of the cerebellum lie, with a depression between them on the median line. To make these and other observations on the head (which no one should neglect), the hand should be placed firmly on the scalp, so that as it slides on the bone we feel the form of the skull beneath. In most persons a distinct depression will be felt along the line of the tentorium, separating the cerebrum and cerebellum—the cerebellum being located at the summit of the neck, and extending down about as low as the end of the mastoid process, which is the large, long prominence just behind the cavity of the ear.
The cerebellum may be regarded as the physiological and the cerebrum as the psychic brain, for the cerebellum is void of intelligence and volition, but has important influences on the body. It may be considered, like the spinal cord, an intermediate structure between the controlling and conscious brain and the corporeal organs.
The tentorium does not entirely separate it from the cerebrum, for anteriorly it is open to permit the passage of the fibres which connect the cerebrum with the spinal cord and the cerebellum,—fibres which pass up midway between the right and left ear, so that a bullet fired horizontally through from ear to ear would sever the connection of the cerebrum with the bodily organs, producing instant death. This will be understood by looking at the profile of the interior of the right hemisphere, on which we see the position of the pons and the medulla and their relation to the cerebrum by their ascending fibres. As these ascending fibres correspond to a position just above the cavity of the ear, and as they are the channels of all muscular impulses, the reader will perceive that breadth of head immediately above the cavity of the ear must be associated with muscular impulsiveness.
The position of the cerebrum in the cranium may be best understood by sawing the head in two horizontally, taking out the brain, and looking down into the base of the skull, in which we see anteriorly a shelf for the front lobes, behind which are the cavities for the middle lobes, and behind that the rounded cavities for the cerebellum.
Thus the front lobe occupies the highest plane, resting on the vault of the sockets of the eyes, and extending back as far as the sockets. The middle lobe lies behind the sockets of the eyes and above the cavities of the ears, its base being as low as the bottom of the sockets of the eyes and corresponding nearly with the upper edge of the cheekbone, as it extends from the sockets to the side of the head just in front of the ears. In the posterior base of the skull, the reader will observe an opening (foramen magnum or large foramen) through which the spinal cord ascends. The spinal cord is exposed in the neck below the foramen.
Going back, we find the middle lobe rises higher, ascending over the cavity of the ear and resting upon the ridge of bone in which the apparatus of hearing is situated, thus reaching the level of the tentorium, on which the occipital lobe rests.
The bones of the cranium seen by looking down into the basis of the skull, as above, are the frontal bone over the eyes, the sphenoid bone, behind the sockets of the eyes, extending from the right to the left temple, the temporal bones, forming the ridge that holds the apparatus of hearing, and extending up about two inches on the side head, and the occipital bone at the back, between the two temporals, meeting the sphenoid bone in the centre of the base. The cerebellum rests in the deep double concavities of the occipital bone, and the spinal cord ascends through the large opening (foramen magnum) in the middle of its base, assuming the form called the medulla oblongata.
When we fully understand this view of the base of the skull, let us look at it in profile, and observe the frontal bone connected by the coronal suture to the parietal and the parietal by the squamous or scaly suture to the temporal, and by the lambdoid suture to the occipital. The sphenoid or bat-wing bone appears in the temples by its wing, between the frontal and temporal, while in the centre of the base its solid body is between the frontal and occipital.
The sphenoid bone is in contact with organs of sensitive delicacy, refinement, and inspiration, the occipital with organs of vital force, the temporal with organs of appetite, excitement, and force, the frontal with organs of intellect and refined benevolence, the parietal with the organs of virtue, amiability, self control, and general strength of character, which make a superior person.
Modern anatomists do not divide the brain into front, middle, and occipital lobes as would seem most natural, by erecting vertical lines from their bases, but follow up the oblique courses of the convolutions so as to extend the front lobe into the upper surface of the brain, and extend the middle lobe from the middle of the upper surface backward into the region of Self Confidence, giving the name of temporo-sphenoidal to its lower portion behind the sockets of the eyes and over the ears, which name is taken from the temporal bone, that contains the apparatus of hearing, forming the middle of the basis of the skull, and the sphenoid bone, which lies just back of the sockets of the eyes, supporting the front end of the lower portion of the middle lobe, called temporo-sphenoidal.
The sphenoid bone thus sustains the region of Sensibility, while the temporal bone lodges the organs of the most sensual, selfish, and violent impulses, the action of which is downward into the muscular and visceral organs of the body. The sphenoid bone as it extends up touches the base of the front lobe and of the Ideal region, where it assumes the name of Somnolence. (See the profile view of the cranium.)
The upper portion of the middle lobe has been given the name of parietal, as it has a general correspondence with the parietal bones, while the occipital lobe has a general correspondence in position with the occipital bone, as will be seen by comparing the plan of the brain seen in profile with the engraving of the cranium.
The plan of the brain is given, instead of an engraving of the actual convoluted surface, to simplify the study to the learner. An examination of the brain itself or of a good model offers at first sight such a vague and irregular mass of convolutions, differing so much in different brains, that any systematic arrangement would seem impossible. But by studying the subject more extensively and considering the structure of the simpler brains of animals, in which the complexity of the human brain is reduced to simpler forms, a mode of grouping and classifying the convolutions has been adopted by anatomists which is illustrated by the engraving, in which we see, not the numerous convolutions of a well developed human brain, but the groups in which they have been arranged by the aid of comparative anatomy.
The front lobe is grouped into the superior, middle, and inferior convolutions, or groups of convolutions, and the ascending frontal; but the inspection of a brain would show an irregularity of forms in which a casual observer would be puzzled to trace this arrangement.
The appearance of the brain, divested of its membranes, when we look upon its superior surface, is shown in the annexed engraving, in which it is presented as it lies in the head when the cranium and membranes are removed which form the rim of the figure. The front lobe is the upper portion, and the outline of the nose is just visible. In the full exposition of this subject hereafter in a larger work, I propose to show the exact seats of the various functions in the convolutions, which are much more irregular than the angular figures we make on the surface of the head to show the average positions of organs. Of course no intelligent person supposes the psychological maps and busts of the organs to be representations of the brain, or anything more than approximations to the true interior organology, which, however, do not lead to any great error, as adjacent portions of convolutions have very analogous functions.
When we place the brain on its upper surface and inspect the bottom, we observe at the back the cerebellum, which dips into the neck, the middle lobe, which is over the ears and the side face, and the front lobe, which rests over the eyes.
We observe posteriorly the medulla oblongata, on the face of which we may observe the crossing of the fibres, and on the side of which we observe the origins of many nerves. Above the medulla we observe the pons Varolii, just above which we observe the fibres ascending to each hemisphere under the name of crus cerebri, or thigh of the cerebrum. Next we see the optic nerves crossing on the median line, the olfactory nerve, running under the front lobe, which is separated by the fissure of Sylvius from the middle lobe. There is also a glimpse of the corpus callosum at its anterior end, obtained by pulling the front lobes apart at the median line.
Let us next cut through the head exactly on the median line, dividing the right and left hemispheres, and look at the inner face of the right hemisphere. We observe that it has convolutions, just like the exterior surface, which do not join across the median line, but are separated from those of the left hemisphere by a firm membrane (an extension of the dura mater or principal investing membrane) called the falx, which is removed, leaving the convolutions in view.
The reader will observe that it is only in the lower portion of the engraving that he sees any surfaces produced by cutting to separate the right and left halves of the brain. It is by these structures which are here divided that the right and left halves are connected, so that the whole brain is adapted to acting in a unitary manner.
The first section we encounter as we pass down is that of the corpus callosum, a body of white fibre firmer than the external surface of the brain, and therefore called the corpus callosum or callous body, which consists of white nerve fibres gathered in from nearly all parts of the brain on each side and crossing the median line. We may regard it as a mass of representative fibres rooted in the soft substance of the convolutions or gray matter of the brain generally, and thus connecting across the median line the corresponding parts of the right and left brain.
It must be borne in mind that the brain like the body is double, and that every organ is fully developed in each brain, so that no amount of injury or paralysis of organs would deprive us of any faculty, unless corresponding parts were destroyed in each hemisphere.
The left brain governs the right half of the body, and the right brain governs the left half, the connecting fibres having their crossing (called decussation) in the spinal cord. Hence the left brain is usually more fully developed in the occipital and basilar regions than the right, in right handed people, as may frequently be detected by a careful examination of the head, or an inspection of the interior the skull. The left brain, also, seems to have a general ascendency over the right; so that paralysis of speech is most generally produced by disease in the region of language on the left side.
Whatever occurs on one side of the body is in relation to the opposite side of the head. Paralysis, if not dependent on the spinal cord, is dependent on the basilar region of the opposite side of they brain; and conditions of the right eye affect the lower margin of the left front lobe, in which the perceptive organs are situated.
If we thrust our fingers into the brain immediately under the corpus callosum, pushing away the delicate little structure called the septum lucidum (or translucent septum), and pressing down fornix (which is a thin, horizontal nerve membrane) we find that our fingers enter a cavity by pressing its walls apart, of which the corpus callosum is the vault or roof,—a cavity which may be explored back and forth, far into the interior of the occipital lobe within an inch of the surface, and far into the front lobe, near the surface of the frontal convolutions, as well as downwards and forwards into the bottom of the middle lobe (the part called temporo-sphenoidal). These extensions of this great cavity or ventricle are called the anterior and posterior horns (cornua) and the descending horn (cornu).
Their importance arises from the fact that in these ventricles of the right and left sides of the brain a watery fluid, effused from the blood, called serum, exists, which also extends downward along the spinal cord, and which has to do with the pressure and equilibrium of the various parts. When there is a strong pressure of blood to the brain on account of its unusual activity, especially in the activity of the emotions, the serum of the ventricles and also in the substance of the brain is absorbed, and the brain acquires a more compact texture, which is found in all persons of strong mentality, the brain being hardened by exercise, as well as the muscles. But when the action of the brain is feeble, and the blood in an impoverished condition, there is a greater tendency to the exudation of fluid; the substance of the brain is thereby softened, and serum, to the extent of one or more ounces, is frequently found in the ventricles, especially when the brain is much impaired by disease of its substance. In some cases of hydrocephalus pints of serum are effused, distending the brain and head enormously, and in many cases of insanity the ventricles and membranes of the brain are distended with serum. “Pritchard on Insanity” speaks of this distention of the ventricles, which were “very full of serum” in twenty-nine out of a hundred cases, and “in twenty-three ready to burst,” and “in ten among twenty-four melancholies astonishingly distended.” Dr. Spurzheim dissected a case of hydrocephalus, child of eighteen months, with two and a half pounds of water in the membranes of the brain; and James Cardinal, who died at the age of thirty years in London, had a pint of water in the lateral ventricles, and about nine pints between the brain and its membranes.
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT.
☞ The first two numbers of the Journal were unavoidably delayed. The May number will appear in advance of the month.
The Business Department of the Journal deserves the attention of all its readers, as it will be devoted to matters of general interest and real value. The treatment of the opium habit by Dr. Hoffman is original and successful. Dr. Hoffman is one of the most gifted members of the medical profession. The electric apparatus of D. H. Fitch is that which I have found the most useful and satisfactory in my own practice. Mr. Fitch has recently perfected certain improvements in the Galvanic Battery, which enables him to furnish the best and cheapest which has ever been offered by any manufacturer. The American Spectator, edited by Dr. B. O. Flower, is conducted with ability and good taste, making an interesting family paper, containing valuable hygienic and medical instruction, at a remarkably low price. It is destined to have a very extensive circulation. I have written several essays in commendation of the treatment of disease by oxygen gas, and its three compounds, nitrous oxide, per-oxide and ozone. What is needed for its general introduction is a convenient portable apparatus. This is now furnished by Dr. B. M. Lawrence, at Hartford, Connecticut. A line addressed to him will procure the necessary information in his pamphlet on that subject. He can be consulted free of charge.
Dr. W. F. Richardson of 875 Washington Street is one of the most successful practitioners we have, as any one will realize who employs him. Without specifying his numerous cases I would merely mention that he has recently cured in a single treatment an obstinate case of chronic disease which had baffled the best physicians of Boston and Lowell.
Dr. K. Meyenberg, who is the Boston agent for Oxygen Treatment, is a most honorable, modest, and unselfish gentleman, whose superior natural powers as a magnetic healer have been demonstrated during eighteen years’ practice in Washington City. Some of his cures have been truly marvelous. He has recently located in Boston as a magnetic physician.