Dr. Locock never saw a case where laceration occurred in the early months of pregnancy. Dr. L. remembered the particulars of a case where the uterus was lacerated in the fourth month, and the ovum escaped into the cavity of the abdomen, and the symptoms of pregnancy were exceedingly strong. Dr. Locock almost doubted whether Mr. Jewel's was an instance of pregnancy at all, for frequently women enjoying sexual intercourse have enlarged abdomens, and many of the other symptoms of pregnancy, which a few doses of purgative medicine will remove.
Two remarkable instances of extra-uterine fœtation were related by Mr. Burnett and Mr. Cæsar Hawkins; and towards the conclusion of the evening the discussion turned on the powers of the ergot of rye. Dr. Locock had frequently tried it in amenorrhœa, and, on the whole, without any very good effects. In one remarkable case, where the lady particularly wished to have children, Dr. Locock having boiled an ounce of the ergot in a pint of water down to half a pint, gave an ounce and a half of this decoction three times a day. After the young lady had taken about half a pint, the most violent convulsions succeeded, which placed her life in imminent hazard, and from which it was long before she completely recovered. She menstruated twice after that, but then the discharge again was arrested, and has never since returned, nor has she become pregnant.
The practice of "bougieing the uterus" in cases of dysmenorrhœa was brought upon the tapis, and excited a good deal of laughter, the members appearing to consider the proposal ridiculous in the extreme.
MR. LAMBERT.
At the last meeting of this Society it was proposed, on the recommendation of the Committee, that Mr. James Lambert should be expelled; and after some discussion it was agreed that the sense of the members should be taken by ballot at the next meeting, Saturday, January 3, 1829. It was thought that proceeding at once to his expulsion might give the appearance of the measure originating with a party, and that the delay would enable the deliberate judgment of the whole Society to be passed upon his conduct.
HUNTERIAN SOCIETY.
Dec. 10, 1828.
Dr. Billing, President, in the Chair.
Mr. Leese, Jun. exhibited to the meeting a specimen of medullary sarcoma, taken from the forehead of a man after death, with a portion of the os frontis. The man was fifty-eight years of age, long asthmatic, and appeared to die of hydrothorax. He never suffered any pain in the tumor, but expressed a sense of distention. It was immoveable at the base, and there were some fissures in the os frontis, from caries. The dura mater at the corresponding part adhered firmly to cranium, and on its being removed some spiculæ from the carius inner table remained adhered to it. There had never been any symptoms of cerebral affection. A tumor of the same nature had formed on the scapular extremity of the clavicle, and had occasioned anasarca of the limb.