CURRENT LITERATURE.
On the Belief of Excessive and Dangerous Tympanites by Puncture of the Abdomen : a Memoir. By J. W. Ogle, M.A., M.D. Oxon., F.S.A., Consulting Physician to St. George's Hospital. (Churchill.)— In this very interesting volume, Dr. Ogle has unquestionably made out a good case for his theory, notwithstanding that some eminent authorities are opposed to the treatment he advocates, or view it with suspicion. The peritoneal cavity is no longer the bugbear it was to surgery, and, thanks to the antiseptic treatment, itself an outcome of the greatest of modern discoveries in medicine—that of the existence of morbific germs, and of the part they play in the production of many diseases and pathological conditions incident to surgical operations—may now be dealt with in a manner that would have made the hair ef the older surgeons stand on end with horror and alarm. To the lay mind, it seems, indeed, still a terrible thing to puncture the abdomen ; but the cases cited by Dr. Ogle show most clearly that even where no good is effected, no harm results. In animals, such tapping of intestinal gas is by no means an uncommon operation, and it is rather singular that in view of the success of the rude farm operation, the careful and guarded use of a fine trocar should have been regarded with so much distrust in the case of man. The cause probably has been that want of close observation which Sir James Paget, in one of his recent admirable addresses, has so much regretted. A curious account of the veterinary operation is quoted from Mr. Hardy's well-known novel, " Far from the Madding Crowd." In the notes contained in the appendix to this volume, more or less connected in substance with the question of the evils of tympanites, are some valuable remarks upon the diaphragm muscle, or midriff, called by the Greek physicians 4pivEs, by reason of its being the supposed seat of the intelligence—a theory which reminds us of the choice of the pineal gland, now known to be the remains of a cyclopic visual organ, as the abiding-place of the soul—a muscle which does no doubt, in a secondary yet surprisingly sensitive way, respond to the variations of emotion, and, further, is the essential organ of respiratory movement, deriving its power wholly from an extremely limited tract of the cerebro-spinal system by the aid of a pair of thin nervous cords, still known as the phrenic nerves, which con- nect it with that centre. Altogether, the book throws great light, collected with abundant learning from various sources, upon a little-explored corner of medical practice.
Previous page
