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.
College of Therapeutics.
The large amount of scientific and therapeutic knowledge developed by recent discoveries, but not yet admitted into the slow-moving medical colleges, renders it important to all young men of liberal minds—to all who aim at the highest rank in their profession—to all who are strictly conscientious and faithful in the discharge of their duties to patients under their care, to have an institution in which their education can be completed by a preliminary or a post-graduate course of instruction.
The amount of practically useful knowledge of the healing art which is absolutely excluded from the curriculum of old style medical colleges is greater than all they teach—not greater than the adjunct sciences and learning of a medical course which burden the mind to the exclusion of much useful therapeutic knowledge, but greater than all the curative resources embodied in their instruction.