appeared unconnected with the substance of the testicle; the skin over it presented no analogy to that of the scrotum, and it did not appear to me to belong to any known class of tumours. Although several surgeons thought it might be referred, some to the cancerous tumours, some to the fibrous, and some to the tuberculous class, I did not think it possible to adopt their opinion. Observing, moreover, that its origin dated back to the patient's birth, that it was not perceived at its commencement, that it had never produced any pain, that no pathological process had been set up in it, and that it could be cut, or pricked, or pierced through and through, without causing the least suffering; taking notice also of the aspect of the skin which covered its external surface, of its elasticity, of the indurations which it presented internally, of a tuft of hair which came from a kind of ulcer at its posterior part, of a reddish tubercle at the bottom of another opening anteriorly, and of a glairy or grumous matter which the patient had sometimes discharged; I came to the idea that it was a fatal tumor, a product of conception.

Wishing to obtain exact information on the earliest history of so singular a production, I wrote to M. Senoble, physician at Esternay, who answered me thus: "At the age of about four months, the mother of Gallochat came to show me her child; he then had a tumour, or merely a swelling of the scrotum, which I found to be only a pneumatocele. Some months afterwards, I found, on examining him again, a small inflamed tumour, which appeared to me to be a slight phlegmon, and which yielded to simple emollient local applications. I heard no more of him till at the end of three or four years, when I learned that the child's tumour still continued enlarging." Now although these details were very incomplete, they yet strengthened me in my first opinion; which seemed so singular to those to whom I mentioned it, that I alone held it. I therefore planned the removal of the tumour without taking away the testicle, intending to perform a kind of Cæsarean operation on the man. The details of the proceeding belong entirely to surgery, and need not now occupy me; it may be sufficient to state that its results were satisfactory.

The examination of the tumour has enabled me to detect nearly all the anatomical elements of the body of a mammal. Thus, its external layer is evidently cutaneous; the greater part of its substance is a mixture of lamellæ and fibres which give the idea of the cellular, adipose, muscular, and fibrous tissues. In its interior, we found two small cysts filled with matter like albumen or the vitreous humour of the eye; another cyst,

as large as a partridge's egg, contained a greenish yellow and semi-liquid matter like meconium; in a fourth sac there was a grumous substance, of a dirty-yellow colour, concrete, and surrounded with hair. The substance from this last sac, when analyzed and examined with the microscope, presented all the characters of sebaceous matter and scales of epidermis. The hairs did not appear to have any bulbs at their bases. The tuft of hair which was seen externally, protruded from one of these cysts from that which was filled with greenish matter; and the opening in it had some analogy with an anus.

Lastly, in the midst of all these elements, we found numerous portions of the skeleton perfectly organized, evidently belonging (as any one may convince himself by examining the preparation) to true bones, and not to accidental productions. These bones, which were every where enveloped by a sort of periosteum, and of which the several pieces were moveable upon each other, and had distinct articulations, may be divided into three sets. The first group is essentially composed of three pieces, in which I thought I could recognize the clavicle, the scapula, and a part of the humerus. The second group, much larger than the preceding, appears to belong to the pelvis, or perhaps to the base of the skull; the body of the sphenoid, or else the sacrum, forms the central portion. Lastly, the third series seems to comprehend portions of vertebra and fragments of undetermined bones.

Whatever be the name that the different portions I have pointed out may deserve, certain it is that they belong to a product of conception, and to a foetus already far advanced in its development. They are before the Academy, and the correctness of the fact is absolutely incontrovertible. In the monstrosity by inclusion, as it is called, which has been described by Dupuytren, Geoffroy, and Olivier, one of the fœtuses absorbed by the other has always appeared surrounded by a cyst, and in the condition of a foreign body in the tissues of the foetus which has continued alive. In the cases related by Saint-Donat, Prochaska, and others, of the debris of fœtuses contained in the scrotum, there have always been encysted tumours, necrosed bones, and organized parts destroyed by suppuration and in a state of decomposition. In this subject, on the contrary, every thing has continued to live. The abnormal tumor had its own proper colour, consistence, and sensibility, entirely independent of the individual who supported it; a clear well-defined line separated the integuments of its skin from the scrotum. I pinched it with all possible force; I pricked it with various instruments; the

young man himself several times ran a knife into it, without feeling the least painful sensations; and yet all the wounds that were made in it bled abundantly, inflamed, and cicatrized, like those of any other part of the body, and nothing indicated in it the least diseased condition. The substances, and all the elements that were found in it, gave the idea of normal tissues or products, and we were quite unable to discover the existence of the least drop of pus, or of any carious or necrosed bone, any altered cartilage, or the least fungous production.

When, on the other hand, one observes that the tumor was as large as a fist-that the surgeon who saw the child when four months old scarcely took notice of it, and that he took it at first for a pneumatocele, and then for a little phlegmon, which terminated by resolution-it is difficult to believe that its volume was as considerable at the birth of the patient as it was the time when I first saw it. Such a mass in an infant would certainly have attracted great attention both from the physician and the family. We must remember, moreover, that, according to M. Senoble's statement, the tumor continued to grow at least up to the age of six or seven years, and that the young man, who says that it has always had the same appearance, can scarcely charge his memory so far back as that time of his life: we must therefore conclude that the portions of the foetus which I have described have lived and been developed simultaneously with the individual who bore them, and that there were thus two beings united to one another.

Now how could this take place? Did a part of the fœtus, the remainder of which has disappeared, become attached, during intrauterine life, to the scrotum, in such a manner as to remain there in the form of a graft?-or can this be the remains of a fatus which at first passed into the abdomen of another, and then descended by the tunica vaginalis, and has at last worn away from within outwards the envelopes of the scrotum?-or, lastly, have we here a creation, the unaided product, of the testicle? But I desist; these are delicate questions in high physiology and in transcendental anatomy, which I am neither able nor willing to broach till the preparations which suggest them have been submitted to the judgment of the Academy.-London, from Paris Medical Gazette, Feb. 15, 1840.-Medical Examiner, June.

The following interesting facts were communicated to the editor of the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, by Dr. Silas Brown, of Wilmington.

FACTS IN RELATION TO VACCINATION.

I submit the following statement of such facts as have recently come under my observation, hoping that they may prove useful in convincing the skeptical of the efficacy of kinepox as a substitute for small pox. Many reports have been in circulation among the people, in this vicinity, detrimental to the expansion of cowpox, which have caused a delay of vaccination till the smallpox has broken out in some of their families. One is, that it will serve only a temporary purpose; and unless re-vaccinated, a person is as liable to have the smallpox after vaccination as before. Another is, that it only answers a partial purpose, and will not wholly insure a person against variola or varioloid, and therefore he may through life live under continued apprehensions and fears of the contagion of those varieties of the same disease.

It is not my object to give a detailed account of the treatment of my patients, but merely to show that the cowpox has been an effectual antidote to smallpox in the several instances to be described.

About the first of February last, the smallpox made its appearance in four different families, in one of our school districts; the subjects were four scholars; the first a lad about 18 years old, the second a girl about 12, the third a girl of 9, the fourth a boy about 8. Neither of them had ever been vaccinated. The family to which the first belonged consisted of four members, all adults, besides the patient, two of whom had been vaccinated and two had not. They were all vaccinated as soon as the eruption gave satisfactory evidence that the patient had the smallpox. It proved a severe case; the face was so swollen that the patient's eyes were closed for several days. The eruption appeared on the 4th day of February and ran through its course without a secondary fever, and he speedily recovered his health. Now it is the 4th day of May, and neither of the vaccinated persons has suffered any sickness, except what follows vaccination.

The second broke out on the 5th day of February, and a similar case to the first, till the 13th, when the secondary fever took place, accompanied with cough and inflammation in the lungs, which continued till the last of the month before her fever manifested any abatement, and her friends despaired

of her recovery. She is now restored to health, May 4th.The girl lived in the house with her grandmother, uncle, aunt, and a large family of cousins. The uncle, aunt, and several of the cousins had never been vaccinated till two days after the eruption appeared upon the patient, when the whole family were vaccinated, and have suffered no inconvenience, except from vaccination, to the present time, May 25th.

The eruption upon the third patient appeared on the 5th of February, was of the distinct kind, and ran a regular course. The secondary fever was slight, and the patient recovered without any distressing symptoms. The parents of this child had been vaccinated nearly 30 years, and part of the children about three years. The remainder I vaccinated two days after the eruption appeared upon the patient. The youngest, a child about two years old, kept with its mother, who had the care of the patient, night and day. About the 11th day after vaccination, the child had a sore arm and other symptoms accompanying cowpox, and appeared more feverish than the other children vaccinated at the same time. the 14th day from the eruption of smallpox on the other patient, the infant broke out with varioloid, which passed off in a very mild manner, and was the only case of varioloid which occurred among the numerous members of the above-stated families. Is it not probable this child had received the contagion previous to vaccination?

On

The fourth patient broke out on the 7th of February. His disorder ran a regular course, and terminated favorably. The family consisted of four adult persons and one infant. The mother of the patient and the infant had not been vaccinated previously to the sickness of the patient, but they were soon afterwards, and the other members were re-vaccinated at the same time. Now it is the 25th of May, and none of them have suffered any sickness, except what is consequent to kinepox.

I was called to a child the 8th of April, in a neighboring town, about six months old, with an eruption which proved to be smallpox of the distinct kind, and which ran a favorable course. The parents of the child and other children of the family had been vaccinated. The mother nursed the child to the close of the disorder, and none of them suffered any inconvenience from contagion.

I think, in the above stated cases, the evidence adduced must convince the doubting part of the community, and amply testify to the efficacy of cowpox as a substitute for