sive, but a deep and picturesque ravine, as it were, between the mountains. Our feelings at arriving on this consecrated ground were peculiar and delightful, and such as cannot be well appreciated by any but a medical man. We eagerly sought out what may be supposed to have been the ruins of the Temple of the God of healing Art, dedicated to that deity, and built, it is believed, over the spot in this valley which he is related to have been born. We found in several places confused heaps of ruins, which however were not sufficiently defined to say positively to what character of edifice they belonged, or whether they were a part of the temple or of the ancient city of Epidaurus.

Desirous of rendering proper homage to our great tutelary divinity, we examined carefully every group of ruins, in order that we might be sure of doing justice to the great object of our visit, and, after inspecting them all with the hope that we might discover some fragment of the shrine upon which the votive offerings were placed, or one of those tablets upon which, it is said, the cures of the great physician were inscribed, and which might enable us to identify the actual locale of the temple and its altar. We gave up the search in despair; and concluded to select the great amphitheatre as the most suitable spot for the performance of the ceremonial we contemplated; and accordingly prepared the necessary material for commencing operations.

This immense theatre, incredible as it may seem, would accommodate within its enclosure, I should imagine at least 30,000 persons. It is on the steep side, as usual on the hills, and seemed to us from its imposing grandeur and remarkable preservation, to be an appropriate place for our intended oblation to the God Esculapius.

Let us stop for a moment to say a few words of this wonderful ruin. With the exception of that of Tramezas in Greece, and the Coliseum in Rome, and that of Nismes in France, it is not only the largest, but the most perfectly preserved edifice of the kind existing anywhere; and it would seem, from the extraordinary width of the seats, being twice that of any other we had visited, that it was admirably adapted, if not specially designed, for the comfort of invalids who probably resorted thither not only for the agreeable recreation of witnessing theatrical amusements and feats of gladiatorship, but also for medical treatment and advice under the renowned father of medicine in person. The poor as well as the rich, the lowly and the proud, the titled prince and the commoner of the land, irresistibly attracted by his fame and his great deeds, especially as the surgeon both of Jason and Agamemnon, flocked hither from all parts of the Continent, and even from Asia Minor, Egypt and Rome, and the distant Islands, to avail themselves of the consummate skill of the great master, who here, no doubt, within these noble walls, often personally officiated in his sacred rites and mysteries, and established, and held, and immortalised by his triumphant success, before tens of thousands of enraptured spectators, the first great clinique and cencours of our healing art.

The consciousness that I might possibly be standing on the very spot once consecrated by the presence of the great father of medicine, and where he delivered his oracles to adoring multitudes, and that I too, perhaps who might say, without egotism, that I had done the "medical state some service," was probably the only American surgeon who had ever visited this hallowed place, and that my voice, as once the commanding tones and inspired discourses of my great predecessor were, was now heard in its echoes through the same mountain ravine, produced together thrilling emotions of delight and trains of vivid thoughts, that language could but poorly pourtray.

It must be admitted, from historic evidence furnished by Homer and others of the siege of Troy, that even anterior to that remote period, both Esculapius and his two sons had unquestionably greatly distinguished themselves by remarkable cures in medicine or surgery, especially in the latter, to have attained a reputation so brilliant and extended as was that of these three

famous Greeks. What they did probably within this beautiful valley, or within the enclosure of this magnificent amphitheatre, and in various other places, was no doubt as great for those days as have been for our times the exploits of professional men among the moderns.

As a traveller and humble representative of my profession from a new world, a terra incognita to him who has rendered this spot so illustrious and enduring in renown, I felt it my duty to make a propitiary sacrifice to his revered memory and name, and to his wide spread reputation as the ruling deity of our invaluable art. Having directed my servant, before leaving Napoli, to provide for me one of the tutelary emblems of Esculapius, the barnyard cock, of glossy black plumage, I now assembled my companions in the arena of the theatre to listen to a Grecian clinique by an American surgeon, and to witness the performance of a surgical operation which, I may venture to say, never before had been performed in this ancient land, even by Esculapius himself or either of his gifted sons. The victim designated for this honourable sacrifice having been transported from Napoli on one of the baggage horses, I requested my servant to introduce him into the arena. After a suitable exordium, setting forth the nature and gravity of the case, the solemnity and sacredness of the place, and the difficulty and importance of the operation about to be performed, I commenced, scalpel in hand, previously and properly denuding the neck of the feathers, to lay bare the common carotid artery of one side, the patient being firmly held upon one of the seats of the theatre, now again after a lapse of 3000 years, to be devoted to anatomical and surgical uses. With the able assistance of my excellent friend and companion, Dr. Jackson, of New York, after having laid bare the important vessel, and with proper caution separated it from the deep jugular vein and par vagum, I introduced carefully underneath it, by means of a curved eyed probe, a silk ligature, and then tied the artery. After waiting a few moments, and finding that the animal, so far from experiencing any inconvenience from this modern and dangerous operation, submitted to it with a grace and heroic resolution befitting the distinguished honour conferred upon him, we concluded, upon consultation, to tie the carotid of the other side, which was also done in a similar manner. I remarked to the pupils present at this Greco-chirurgical clinique, that this was the twentieth time I had tied this important vessel, having performed it nineteen times on the living human subject in my native country. It is a coincidence not improper, perhaps, to mention, that shortly before leaving my own country the last time I tied the carotid with success on a young man who, about a year before, had the same artery tied on the other side, making perhaps the second remarkable instance of a human being recovering after both these arteries had been successfully secured.

Though we found our feathered patient, also had apparently sustained no serious injury, we deemed it suitable to the occasion to make a further and more solemn sacrifice by dividing the spinal marrow of the intrepid chanticleer, and thereby terminating his martyrdom, and giving a brilliant finale to our ceremonies by offering up his whole life to the god of physic. The body was then transferred to one of the baggage-horses and carried with us to Athens, where we arrived two days after. And to complete the funereal rites, we there devoted his remains to the cause of gastronomy, by having them served up to us in an excellent supper under the walls of the Parthenon; flattering ourselves at the same time with the consoling idea, that among the gorgeous array of canonised deities, heroes, kings, generals, orators, and poets whose statues once adorned every summit and quarter of this proud city, she who was the tutelary goddess of Athens, Minerva, the protectress of Science, and especially that form of this deity called MinervaHygeica, so named after a daughter of Esculapius, was looking down from the Acropolis with smiling approbation at this convivial result of our labours in honour of her renowned father. The last finishing stroke was to secure from the wreck of the victim as os hyoides, commonly called the merrythought, for my museum in America.

University of Pennsylvania.-Medical Department.-The Medical class of this Institution numbered, during the last session, 363 matriculates.

At a Public Commencement held the 26th day of March, 1842, the following gentlemen received the degree of Doctor of Medicine.

At the Commencement in the Arts, held in July, 1841, the following gentlemen received the degree of Doctor of Medicine.

L. N. Burge,

Ga.

Conception.

Joan T. Clarke,

M. P. Linton,

Intermittent Fever.
Acute Gastritis.

Tunstall, Robert B.

Va.

Tyler, Samuel

Md.

Va.

Va.

Iron.

N. C.

action of medicine.

White, John F.
Woodland, T. W.
Wright, John J.

ART. I.-ON THE ECLECTIC TREATMENT OF DELIRIUM

TREMENS.

BY THE EDITOR.

In a recent work (Practice of Medicine, vol. 2, p. 346. Philad. 1842) we have stated, that the course pursued by us, in the treatment of delirium tremens, has been entirely eclectic, in many cases expectant, and that the results have been such as to satisfy us. Under the view which we entertain of the nature of the affection,-that the irregularity of nervous action is usually induced by the withdrawal of an accustomed stimulus, and that the recuperative powers are, generally, entirely sufficient to bring about the necessary equalisation, we have treated the mass of the cases which have fallen under our care without either excitants proper, or opiates. In the first instance, an emetic is given at times, if the patient is seen whilst labouring under the effects of a debauch, or any particular reason exists for its administration; and afterwards a state of tranquillity in the chamber is enjoined—the intrusion of too much light and noise being prevented; and, where the stomach will retain it, gently nutritious and easily digestible diet is prescribed; the bowels being kept open by gentle cathartics: and this has comprised the essential part of our treatment. In time, the hallucinations have disappeared, sleep has returned, and entire restoration supervened.

The preceding remarks are a proper prelude to the statistical account of the Women's Lunatic Asylum, at the Philadelphia Hospital, for the years 1840 and 1841, which is under our charge during the six months commencing on the first of November, and ending on the first of May; and under that of Dr. Pennock for the other half of the year. It may be proper to add, that since November 1, 1841, to the present time, (May 1,) not a drop of alcoholic liquor has been used in the treatment of delirium tremens in the Women's Asylum, although some severe cases in the third stage have occurred, which, notwithstanding, terminated most satisfactorily.

Patients admitted into the Women's Lunatic Asylum of the Philadelphia

The fatal case was not seen by us. The patient died on the morning after her admission into the hospital, and had been treated in the city for nearly a week previously.

ART. II.-Account of the POST-MORTEM examination of a Case of DEAFNESS, in which were found an abnormal State of the OSSICULA AUDITUS, with other irregularities in one Ear, and Destruction of the MEMBRANA TYMPANI and disorganisation of the soft parts in the Tympanum, &c. in the other.

BY JOSHUA J. COHEN, M. D. OF BALTIMORE.

[The following valuable communication was read before the American Philosophical Society, at a recent meeting; and is noticed in the "Proceedings" of that body. It has rarely happened that opportunities have been embraced for examining into the condition of the organ of hearing in cases of deafness, or that they have fallen within the observation of an investigator so competent as the author of this Paper.-ED.]

The facts contained in the following paper have been deemed worthy of note, as adding one more example to the few on record of the undeveloped or rudimentary condition of a portion of the organ of hearing in man. For this reason the case has been thought of sufficient interest to claim the honour of the attention of the members of this society. Although the irregularity belongs to a very minute structure of the human body, it is nevertheless connected with an important organ, whose whole structure is minute, and in which every deviation, however slight, from the usual normal state, must influence, more or less, the proper exercise of its function.

Those members of the society who have been engaged in investigating the pathological conditions of the organ of hearing, and have felt, like myself, even with our present improved methods of investigation, the difficulties attendant thereupon, from the want of a series of well-observed facts, will, I am sure, receive with due attention, every contribution that may tend, in the slightest degree, to illustrate the condition upon which manifestations of disease depend.

CASE. While engaged in September last in some investigations upon the ear, at the Baltimore County Alms-house, my attention was called by Dr. Cunningham, one of the resident physicians, to the case of a man (æt. about 40) who had just died, and who, during his residence of six months in the