ART. 111.-Report of a case in which a Testis was found in the Abdomen of a man post mortem. By GEORGE W. BAYLESS, M. D.

In making an autopsical examination, at the Louisville Marine Hospital, May 23d, 1840, of the body of Dunham, a boatman, aged 27 years, large and muscular, we found in the left iliac region, about an in inch and a half from the internal abdominal ring, a testis, about one inch in length, three-fourth's of an inch in breadth, and half an inch thick. From an inspection of its exterior, its organization seems to be perfect. We made no dissection, being desirous of preserving it entire in situ. It has a complete peritoneal investment, and is attached by a peduncle of this membrane to the walls of the abdomen, obliquely upwards and backwards from the ring. It hangs loosely in the cavity of the abdomen, and seems to have been arrested in its descent, by an adhesion of, what would have been, if it had descended into the scrotum, its anterior convex edge, to the side of the fundus of the bladder. The adhesion is firm, and almost ligamentous, in its appearance; and there being no trace whatever of recent inflammation, it is fairly inferible, that it was contracted when the testis was in its passage from its original situation to the scrotum. This supposition is strengthened by the fact, that the epididymis is drawn off about three-fourth's of an inch from the body of the testis, seemingly by the contraction of the gubernaculum testis, which is firmly adherent to it. This last fact, the separation of the epididymis from the body of the testis, not only renders it probable that the descent of this organ was arrested by a mechanical cause, as the adhesion above mentioned, but it also stregthens the sup

position of the contractility of the gubernaculum, by which the transition of the testis is thought to be effected. The vas deferens leading from it is about the same size and appearance as that of the other side, and takes its ordinary course by the side of the bladder to its vesicula seminalis, which is ahout a third or half an inch shorter than its fellow of the opposite side, and is also only about two-thirds of its breadth. The internal abdominal ring, canal, and external ring are large, permitting, without difficulty, the passage of the little finger, and terminating in a cul de sac lying within the scrotum, about two inces long and an inch and a half wide. Hernia seems to have been prevented by the testis' covering the mouth of the internal ring, its peritoneal peduncle being sufficiently long to allow its assuming that position, where, indeed, it was found, and seems most inclined to lie.

All the corresponding parts of the opposite side are perfect in their organization and development, and all occupy their ordinary situations.

No history of the indidvidual could be obtained, but from his athletic form, and the full development of his generative organs, there can scarcely arise a suspicion, that, impotency existed in his case. This fact possesses some value in its bearing upon legal medicine, and as connected with the question of castration, which sometimes comes up in courts of justice.

The specimen has been placed in the Pathological Cabinet of the Medical Institute of Louisville, where it may be seen. June, 1840.

ART. IV.-A Case of Paralysis of the Bladder terminating fatally. By F. WALTON TODD, M.D., of Port-Gibson, Mississippi.

DR. W. was called a few days since to see a negro man, who being delirious was unable to say what was the matter with him; and though he had a family it was not ascertained, that for several days he had not evacuated his urine. He seemed to be suffering intensely, and, in a way which was not intelligible, referred to some abdominal distress. Upon examination it was thought, that there was a preternatural distention of the urinary visicle, and a flexible catheter was introduced without difficulty; but no urine passed. A metalic instrument was then used, but with the same result; he was finally placed so that the water would gravitate, but all without effect. In a few hours he died, and upon examination the bladder was found immensely distended, with a thin, not unnatural fluid; the catheter which had been introduced was found to have penetrated the bladder successfully, which contained four or five pints of water. There were no traces of inflammation; no morbid appearances, within the bladder, prostrate gland, or urethra; no obstruction in the urinary passages, but a perfectly normal condition of the internal coat of the bladder and urethra. I look upon this case as one confirming the fact, that in paralysis of the bladder urine will often not pass by the catheter, without grasping and compressing the visicle, and sometimes cannot be drawn off except by paracentisis. I have since seen an analogous case reported by a Parisian writer to the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, where M. Cruveilhier had no better success with the catheter unaided by compression.

June, 1840.

REVIEWS.

ART. V.-Crania Americana; or a comparative view of the Skulls of various Aboriginal nations of North and South America: To which is prefixed an Essay on the Varieties of the Human Species. Illustrated by seventy-eight plates, and a colored map. By SAMUEL GEORGE MORTON, M.D., Professor of Anatomy in the Medical Department of Pennsylvania College at Philadelphia; member of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia; of the American Philosophical Society; of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; of the Boston Society of Natural History, &c., &c. Philadelphia; J. Dobson, Chesnut street. London; Lumpkin, Marshall & Co., 1839. Letter press, p. 296, folio,

THIS volume is the product of a bold and somewhat original enterprise in the highest branch of natural science we mean anthropology. And of that enterprise, wide and varied as are its scope and bearings, high its purposes, and important its aim, it is not unworthy. Nor does any thing perhaps contribute more to its attractiveness and value, than its simplicity and unpretendingness-its freedom we mean from self-glorifying theories and doctrines, and more especially from iron dogmas, and air-woven hypotheses. It consists almost exclusively of an immense body of facts, no inconsiderable portion of them new, collected in a laborious and protracted course of reading, observation, and multiform research, and neither misinterpreted, perverted, nor misapplied, in subservience to

the influence of preconceived notions.

Instead of itself

broaching or even propagating crude opinions, or giving existence and shape to any thing like a premature and ephemeral system, it aims at the ascertainment and confirmation of elementary truths, out of which, as imperishable materials, substantial and lasting opinions and systems may be hereafter constructed.

Dr. Morton, in the great work before us, has neither so restricted his scheme, as to fit it in all respects to the study of man, as an individual, nor so expanded it, as to suit it espe cially to that of mankind as a single body. He has given to it rather an ethnographical character-adapted it, we mean, to researches into the conditions, analogies, differences, and relative standing of mankind, as divided into tribes, families, and nations. And, if we mistake not, he has had, as a physiologist, the discernment to perceive, and the firmness and independence, as a man and a writer, to select and avow, the veritable ground, out of which those differences of human condition and standing essentially arise. In plain terms; without professing to be a phrenologist, and apparently, if not really, unconscious that he was so-and certainly without any predetermined intention to be either an advocate or an opponent of the new scheme of mental philosophy—under these circumstances, our author's production is as strictly phrenological, as any of the publications of Gall or his followers. And, as will appear hereafter, the entire and fast multiplying host of his facts, as far as they bear on the science, (and from their inordinate number, they might be called 'legion") are expressly confirmatory of it. In no respect could its warmest advocates change them for the better, or even wish them changed—we mean as regards their phrenological bearing. In all time to come therefore, the “Crania

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