them. I cannot doubt, that sympathizing spirits will rise up from every quarter; and that a vigorous co-operation will, at once, be manifest. Surely, many, who have borne the burden and heat of the day, in resisting, under disadvantageous circumstances, Allopathic and every other form of quackery, will not fail to render such aid be in their power, to give, to the present candidates for the profession, facilities for a medical training, far superior to what they themselves have enjoyed.

as may

It is now generally admitted, that the centrality and other advantages of Syracuse, render it the most desirable location for a Medical College of our order, intended to receive a general patronage from the State. I trust, too, that, in the men who are now prominent in carrying forward the enterprise, the friends are ready to repose the confidence necessary to success. From what I have witnessed of the progress of medical truth in New England and its tendency to harmonize conflicting views and interests, and from what I have seen of the manifest tendency towards the same result in this State, I am already of the opinion, that two or three years of sacrificing toil, on the part of those on whom the support of the College now immediately rests, will issue in giving it a character by which it will be commended to the unyielding sympathies of the profession, and may receive a liberal endowment from such as have the pecuniary means of doing much good. Yours, truly,

SYRACUSE, Nov. 15, 1852.

CALVIN NEWTON.

Good Indications-Eclecticism in Kentucky.

Dr. D. J. G., of Hopkinsville, Ky., writes as follows:

"Our cause is upward and onward. This section of our State has been very sickly this year. The Cholera, Dysentery and Intermittent Fevers, have prevailed to a considerable extent. Our success in the treatment of Cholera will compare favorably with Cholera statistics at other points. We visited and administered to fiftynine cases, and of that number lost but two. The Allopathists lost about twenty-five per cent. The Homœopathists about twelve and a half, and our loss was a fraction under four per cent. In Dysentery we have lost no cases as yet, and I have treated near seventy. In this disease the old hunkers loose about one-fifth."

Dr. Wm. W. D. of Paris, Ky., writes:

"Please send me your Eclectic Journal of Medicine; I wish to obtain a correct knowledge of the Eclectic or Reform Practice. I have been educated, and have practiced several years as an Allopath, but have long been convinced of the superiority of your system. I therefore intend to investigate, qualify, and boldly avow myself as an Eclectic Physician as soon as practicable."

A WORD FROM THE WEST.-THORACIC DISEASES.

A Word from the West.

499

The following, from a Physician who writes from Hillsdale, Mich., is a good sample of the spirit and tenor of numerous letters sent us from our subscribers in various parts of the country:

"I am very much pleased with the form and character of your Journal, and more particularly by its useful and interesting contents, it being an able and faithful advocate and defence for the dissemination of the true principles of Eclecticism, sending to almost every grade of society the most needful and much wanted informationright knowledge of ourselves. It is the more interesting to me for this reason: every number comes clothed with more and more of the most valuable part, (in all Medical Journals,) practical information, such as is needed at the bed-side of the sick, as well as general reading matter, for which part, almost every Physician has a strong avidity, as well as for its spirit of liberality and progression, arriving at truth, by the induction of facts, constituting, as it does, the basis of a new Medical Philosophy. And I find its principles are making something of an impression on the minds of those who have long looked on the old hunker exclusivism, as their strong hold and only hope of safety, in sickness, creating a feeling of consideration and interest with the liberal and scientific among the medical community of the West.

I have a few cases under medical treatment, that might be of some interest to the readers of your Journal, which I will in a short time give to you for publication, if you deem them worth a place in your valuable Publication. Please tell me whether the Yellow Jessamine is for sale by you, or friend Hadley, and the cost per pound. I am nearly out of this article, and would not do without it by any means; also the cost of the extract of Yaw Weed, and the best means of transportation." Yours, &c.,

Thoracic Diseases.

WM. H. M.

MESSRS EDITORS :-It may be of some interest to your professional readers particularly, to know that I design to issue, early in May, 1853, a work on Thoracic Diseases, including their Pathology, their Diagnosis, and their Treatment. In order that the physical, as well as the rational and constitutional signs of these diseases may be thoroughly understood, I shall illustrate fully the principles of auscultation, percussion, and their kindred means of detecting pathological conditions.

The work is now in progress, and will shortly go to the press. It is the first of a series which I am about to publish, and will be followed by others on Abdominal, Pelvic, Cervical, Cranial and General Diseases. It will embrace from 500 to 600 pages, will be neatly bound in leather, and will be put at $3 per copy.

The work, in connection, especially with those by which it is to be followed, will supply a want that has long been felt to exist, among

Eclectic practitioners; and already, I am happy to say, have several hundred copies been ordered.

Physicians, in this State, desirous of obtaining it, shall have it sent to them, by mail or express, free of expense, as soon as issued, on condition of their forwarding to me, by mail, at Worcester, Mass., the money, according to the number of copies wanted, on or before the first of March next. Two considerations induce me to make this offer. The outlay, even of any edition, inust necessarily be considerable; and, by the amount of encouragement given, I shall decide what number of copies to issue. CALVIN NEWTON.

SYRACUSE, Nov. 18, 1852.

SELECTIONS.

Placenta Prævia. (Presentation of the Placenta.)

During the practice of my profession in Sydney New South Wales, since 1836, and having during that period an extensive midwifery practice, I have only met with five cases of placenta prævia; in the whole of these cases I invariably detached the placenta previous to the delivery of the child, considering it conduced to the safety of the mother by removing the more urgent and dangerous symptoms. In the whole of the cases, the patient recovered without any unpleasant symptom; but the children were still-born, excepting in the last case, the subject of this communication. In the whole of the cases, the presentation was natural.

The objection made by my medical colleagues was, that by such a mode of proceeding, it afforded no chance of saving the life of the child; but the great facility it afforded of arresting the more urgent symptoms, and placing the mother in comparative safety, overruled, in my opinion, the objection; for those members of the profession who have witnessed the alarming state of the patient when called to a case of this description, will recollect that the first thought which arises in their mind is, by what immediate remedy can the life of the mother be saved? and of course by arresting the hæmorrhage as rapidly as posible, the latter object is attained. The case I now bring before the profession proves, however, that by adopting the primary detachment of the placenta, and effecting an immediate and rapid de livery, the life of the child may also be preserved; for in this case I consider, the child being small and the delivery effected with unusual facility and rapidity, the preservation of the life of the infant may be attributed to that circumstance.

On the 20th of May, 1851, about nine A. M., my immediate attend ance was requested in an urgent case, in consultation with Dr. M’Vitie,

the messenger stating that his wife was dying from flooding; but no labor had yet come on. On my arrival, I found the patient (Mrs. B., aged twenty-seven,) lying pale and cold, the pulse weak, and scarcely perceptible, but perfectly sensible; the uterine contractions were very feeble. For the last week it appears she had been subject to occasional floodings, but not to such an extent as to occasion any alarm, until this morning, when with slight uterine pains, the hemorrhage became so profuse as to alarm the patient and her friends, and induce them to send for their medical attendant. On his arrival, seeing the urgency of the case, he requested me to be called in consultation, and I was immediately sent for. On examination, I found the vagina full of coagula of blood, and could just feel the edge of the os uteri a little open, but soft and dilatable; and I thought I felt something like the placental mass near the edge of the os uteri, but it was too high to enable me to determine positively. Considering the case, from the symptoms, to be a case of placenta prævia, and at all events the state of the patient requiring immediate delivery, we explained to the woman and her friends the urgent nature of the case, and the necessity of immediate delivery to save her life. Their consent was readily obtained; and after administering stimulants, I proceeded to deliver her immediately. On passing the hand up the vagina, and reaching the os uteri, I found the placental mass lying over it, and firmly attached over the inner portion of the left side, occupying half the portion of the os uteri. I proceeded to detach the placenta, which being completed, and the os uteri being perfectly dilatable, as I expected from the previous hemorrhage, I ruptured the membranes, found the presentation natural, grasped the legs, and brought them both into the vagina, and assisted also by slight uterine efforts, the child was soon, expelled. Observing signs of vitality in the infant by a few convulsive gasps, I placed it, still attached to the placental mass, into warm water, and proeceded to resuscitate it by the usual means, and succeeded, after the interval of a few minutes, it making in cry vigorously. The mother during the day remaining week and exhausted, but by the administration of quinine and ammonia, aided by light nourishment at intervals, on the following day I had the gratification of seeing her cheerful and stronger, with her living infant in her arms. She gradually recovered her strength, and by the termination of her month was in excellent health and strength, and nurses her infant well. The child proved strong and healthy, and remains so to this day. The child was a female, and the mother had previously had two children. Sydney, Feb. 18, 1852.

On my relating this case, a few days since, to my friend William Bland, Esq., one of our oldest and ablest practitioners in the colony, he furnished me with the following result of his experience, which I considered of sufficient importance to request him to convey in his own words, in consequence of which he sent me the following letter: SYDNEY, Feb. 18, 1852.

My Dear Bennett,-In cases of placenta prævia my practice, for upwards of twenty-five years, has been as follows:-Without the

least violence, but, at the same time, with the least possible delay, (that is, as soon as the dilation or dilatability of the os uteri would permit,) to separate and extract the placenta-a handbasin of warm water about 98 deg., having in the meantime been prepared immediately to receive it. By the first part of this measure the safety of the mother was secured; by the latter part of it the child. The following were, with me, the grounds of the above prompt and decisive interference :-1st. The imminent danger of the case, which, if anything could be done, brooked no delay. 2nd. The conviction that the complete, early, and rapid, though cautious and gentle, separation of the placenta from the uterus, was the readiest and most certain means of allowing the placental vessels of the uterus to contract, and of thus at once arresting the hemorrhage, while, in furtherance of the same object, by the extraction of the bulky mass of the placenta, with the consequent complete evacuation of the waters, the utmost attainable contraction of the uterus itself could as promptly as possible be ensured; while, again, by the immediate immersion of the placenta on its extraction in the tepid bath prepared for it, the circulation between the foetal portion of the placenta and the fœtus would be promoted and ensured during an ample period of time for the completion (whether by art or otherwise, and with or without the aid of medicine as the case might require) of the delivery of a living child.

I will only add, that whether the above theory be correct or not, the result of it in practice has far exceeded my most sanguine expectations. Believe me, my dear Bennett, yours most sincerely, [London Lancet.] WILLIAM BLAND.

Code of Ethics of the American Medical Association. Adopted May 1847.

CHAPTER L

Of the duties of Physicians to their Patients, and of the obligations of Patients to their Physicians.

ARTICLE I.

Duties of Physicians to their Patients.

A physician should not only be ever ready to obey the calls of the sick, but his mind ought also to be imbued with the greatness of his mission, and the responsibility he habitually incurs in its discharge. Those obligations are the more deep and enduring, because there is no tribunal other than his own conscience to adjudge penalties for carelessness or neglect. Physicians should, therefore, minister to the sick with due impressions of the importance of their office; reflecting that the ease, the health and the lives of those committed to their charge, depend on their skill, attention and fidelity. They should study, also, in their deportment, so to unite tenderness with firmness, and condescension with authority, as to inspire the minds of their patients with gratitude, respect and confidence.

2. Every case committed to the charge of a physician should be treated with attention, steadiness, and humanity. Reasonable in

1