448 Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland.

Gastric Ulcer with PerJoration and Acute Peritonitis.

MR. M. A. BOrD exhibited a stomach showing acute perforation from gastric ulcer. The patient was admitted to the Mater Misericordi~e Hospital with symptoms of acute peritonitis, and died in some hours after admission. On opening the abdominal cavity, a circular rent, about the size of a six- pence, was visible on the anterior surface of the stomach, a quarter of an inch above the attachment of the great omentum, and midway between the cardiac and pylorus and slightly over-lapped by left lobe of liver, which did not quite prop it up. In the opening some half-digested fragments of egg were found, and other portions of the same material were found scattered through the peritoneal cavity. The coils of intestine were adhering by soft, lymphy exudation, were of a bright pink colour, and, when raised, showed here and there beneath them small purulent collections. The peritoneal cavity contained about a quart of flaky serum. The interior of stomach showed a large ulcer, or rather excavation, about two and a half inches long by two inches broad, extending fi'om its posterior sur- face across greater curvature and up anterior wall to the site of the rupture. The pancreas, which was adhering, formed its floor, and was deeply excavated, as if digested by the gastric juice. The stomach was hour-glass in shape, from the contracted margins of the ulcer, which showed intense venous enlargement. Mr. Boyd a l luded to this venous thrombosis Of some portion of the gastric mucosa as the starting point of the necrotic process.

THYMUS GLAND.

THE literature of the thymus gland is scanty, and Dr. Jaeobi's paper on the "Pa tho logy of the Thymus Gland " is an acceptable addition. From it we abstract the fo l lowing : - - " He found that tuberculosis of the thymus is not rare, and syphilis is found in it in two fo rms- - gummata and connective tissue disease. The gland is very liable to absorption from pressure. In d iph the r i a he found no characteristic changes in it."--Transactions of the Association of American Physicians. Medical News, Vol. L I IL , No. 16.

]ETHER AS A DIURETIC.

IN a case of fatty heart, with dropsy, albuminuria, swelling of the liver, severe dyspnea, and continual sleeplessness, with irregular heart action, Dr. Bamberger recommended the patient to undergo the Oertel " cure" in the mountains. The dyspncea, however, increased to such a degree that the attending physician had recourse to injections of ether with a Pravaz 's syringe. The effect was most satisfactory. The dyspncea was relieved, and a great increase in ttle amount of the urine soon got rid of the dropsy.mBritish Medical Journal.