We have received the following notification, or summons, of the American Medical Association, and publish it for the benefit of our readers. We regret exceedingly that we will not be able to attend this interesting meeting. We notice in the list of delegates the omission of the name of the delegate appointed to represent the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Lower Canada, Dr. William Marsden, of Quebec. This omission is due to the fact (we presume) of the Secretary of the College having failed to forward the name of their delegate. The request is made, as may be observed, by Dr. Atkinson, Secretary to the Association, that the names of delegates elected to represent medical organizations be forwarded without delay to the Permanent Secretary. We trust that our worthy Secretary of the College will comply with this request without further delay, as Dr. Marsden was elected their representative in October last :

"The eighteenth Annual Meeting of the American Medical Associa tion will be held in Cincinnati, on Tuesday, May 7th, 1867, at 11 o'clock A.M.

"The following committees are expected to report :—On Quarantine, Dr. Wilson Jewell, Pa., chairman; on Ligature of Subclavian Artery, Dr. Willard Parker, N.Y., chairman; on Progress of Medical Science, Dr. Jerome C. Smith, N.Y., chairman; on the Comparative Value of Life in City and Country, Dr. Edward Jarvis, Mass., chairman; on Drainage and Sewerage of Cities, &c., Dr. Wilson Jewell, Pa., chairman ; on the use of Plaster of Paris in Surgery, Dr. Jas. L. Little, N.Y., chairman; on Prize Essays, Dr. F. Donaldson, Md., chairman; on Medical Education, Dr. S. D. Gross, Pa., chairman; on Medical Literature, Dr. A. C. Post, N, Y., chairman; on Instruction in Medical Colleges Dr. Nathan S. Davis, Ill., chairman; on the Rank of Medical Men in the Army, Dr. D. H. Storer, Mass., chairman; on Rank of the Medical Men in the Navy, Dr. W. M. Wood, U. S. N., chairman; on Insanity, Dr Isaac Ray, R. I., chairman; on American Medical Necrology, Dr. C. C. Cox, Md., chairman; on the Causes of Epidemics, Dr. Thomas Antisell, D. C., chairman; on Compulsory Vaccination, Dr. A. N. Bell, N.Y., chairman; on Leakage of Gas-Pipes, Dr. J. C. Draper, N.Y., chairman; on Alcohol and its Relations to Man, Dr. J. R. W. Dunbar, Md., chairman; on the Various Surgical Operations for the Relief of Defective Vision, Dr. M. A. Pallen, Mo., chairman; on Local Anæsthesia, Dr. E. Krackowitzer, N. Y., chairman; on the Influence upon Vision of the Abnormal Conditions of the Muscular Apparatus of the Eye, Dr. H. D. Noyes, N.Y., chairman; on the Comparative Merits of the Different Operations for the Extraction of Vesical Calculi, Dr. B. J. Raphael, N. Y.,

chairman; on the Therapeutics of Inhalation, Dr. J. Solis Cohen, Pa., chairman; on the Deleterious Articles used in Dentistry, Dr. Augustus Mason, Mass., chairman; on Medical Ethics, Dr. Worthington Hooker, Conn., chairman; on the Climatology and Epidemics of Maine, Dr. J. C. Weston-of New Hampshire, Dr. P. A. Stackpole-of Vermont, Dr. Hy. Janes of Massachusetts, Dr. Alfred C. Garratt-of Rhode Island, Dr. C. W. Parsons-of Connecticut, Dr. B. H. Catlin-of New York, Dr. E. M. Chapman-of New Jersey, Dr. Ezra M. Hunt-of Pennsylvania, Dr. D. F. Condie-of Delaware, Dr. Wood-of Maryland, Dr. O S. Mahon-of Georgia, Dr. Juriah Harris-of Missouri, Dr. Geo. Engleman—of Alabama, Dr. R. Miller-of Texas, Dr. Greensville Dowell—of Illinois, Dr. R. C. Hamil of Indiana, Dr. J. F. Hibbard-of District of Columbia, Dr. T. Antisell-of Iowa, Dr. J. W. H. Baker--of Michigan, Dr. Abm. Sager--of Ohio, Dr. J. W. Russell.

"Secretaries of all medical organizations are requested to forward lists of their delegates, as soon as elected, to the Permanent Secretary. W. B. ATKINSON, M.D.,

215 Spruce Street, Philadelphia."

THE NEW BRITISH PHARMACOPOEIA.

THE Dublin Medical Press of the 6th of February state that the new edition of the "British Pharmacopoeia" will be issued sometime in March, and it believes that the alterations that have been made will be found satisfactory. It says: "The objectionable plan of indicating the presence of opium in the names of many of the compounds has been altered, and the Dover's powder, paragoric elixir, opium pill, and other preparations containing opium, are again called pulvis ipec. co., tr. camph. co., pil. saponis co., pulv. kino co., &c." The two compounds of mercury, lately called calomel and corrosive sublimate, are now called the subchloride

and perchloride of mercury. Old friends, such as the acetum scillæ, acetate of morphia, and the iodide of lead, are again introduced; while new preparations, such as the Calabar bean and the oxalate of cerium, have found a place.

WE have much pleasure in stating that Messrs. Fannin & Co., of Grafton street, Dublin, have kindly consented to act as our agents for Ireland. Books for Review, addressed to us in their care, will be safely forwarded to us.

CHEMICAL AND MEDICAL NEWS.

On a New Class of Compound Ammonias. By M. A. WURTY, Academy of Sciences. December 24, 1867.

The isomerism between pseudo-amylic alcohol and ordinary amylic alcohol, which Dr. Wurty has shown to extend to the ureas, is in this note proved to extend also to the ammonias. He has here described isoamylamine. To prepare it, pseudo-amylurea is heated for some days with very concentrated caustic potash, and then distilled from baryta. The new ammonia boils at 78-5°: its density at zero is 0.755. Like amylamine, isoamylamine possesses a strong ammoniacal odour, it mixes with water, precipitates metallic oxides, and dissolves oxide of copper. The hydrochlorate crystallises in brilliant octahedra, which are efflorescent in the air. The platinous salt is very soluble in alcohol; this distinguishes it from amylamine, the platinous salt of which is insoluble. The gold salt is also soluble.

ACTION OF CHLORINE ON AMYLENE.-M. Bauer, in an article in Zeitschr. Chem., p. 380, stated that at 17° C. chlorine is absorbed by amylene without any sensible disengagement of hydrochloric acid; at the boiling point the disengagement takes place, and at the same time there are separated:-1. Chlor-amylene, C10 H9 Cl., boiling from 90° to 95° C.; 2. Chloride of amylene C10 H10 Cl2; 3. Clorinetted chloride of amylene, C10 H9 C1.8, crystallising in camphorated mases; 4. Bi-chlorinetted chloride of amylene, C10 Hg Cl.4,—a heavy limpid liquid, boiling at 230° to 240° C.

Dr. Horace Green, LL.D., Member of the Medical Society of the County of New York, Fellow of the N. Y. Academy of Medicine, and up to the period of its discontinuance, President Professor Emeritus of Theory and Practice of Medicine in the N. Y Medical College, died November 29th at Sing Sing, N. Y., aged 64 years. His name was prominently connected with the subject of the introduction of the probang into the trachea, and the injection of tubercular cavities, both of which matters gave rise to an animated discussion before the Academy.

What the late Professor Mutter did for Philadelphia, the, widow of the late Professor Valentine Mott has done for New York. At an expense of more than $30,000, she has purchased, enlarged and fitted up, at No. 58 Madison Avenue, between 27th and 28th streets, a building, in which are deposited the medical library, and the surgical instruments of her late husband, the distinguished American Surgeon, Valentine Mott.-Medical and Surgical Reporter.

CANADA

MEDICAL JOURNAL.

ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS.

Clinical Surgery. A Lecture on Fracture of the Lumbar Vertebræ, delivered at the Montreal General Hospital. By GEORGE E. FENWICK, M.D., Demonstrator of Anatomy, McGill University, &c. The patient stated to be shortened in stature one inch and one quarter. Recovery. Case reported by MR. WILLIAM GRANT. GENTLEMEN,-The subject of our observations to-day will be fracture of the vertebræ, having special reference to the case in ward No. 16, still under observation. It is, of deep interest in consequence of its unusually favourable termination. The man is at present able to walk about without fatigue, and although somewhat stiff in the back, we may regard him as convalescent.

He has been in Hospital for the past four months, and the bulging of the spinous processes and arching backwards of the vertebræ in the lumbar region are sufficiently obvious to attest the correctness of the diagnosis as regards the nature of the accident were the facts wanting of the early observation of the case. We are indebted to Mr. Grant, the clinical clerk, for the following notes of the case.

Gregory McIntosh, æt 26 years, employed as a teamster by the Grand Trunk Railway Company, a stout muscular well-built man, has always enjoyed good health, met with the following accident: On the 16th October last he was driving his waggon loaded with trusses of packed hops. He was seated on the top of the load, and while passing through an arched stone gateway, stooped forward, imagining that there was ample room without the necessity of his descending from the load.

When about the centre of the arch his shoulders came in contact with the masonry above, as the horses moved forward, the space became narrower, and he was forcibly bent forward with his head between his knees. In this position he became wedged in so tight that the horses could proceed no further, and in this state he remained until some men about the premises came to his relief, and extricated him. When taken down from

the load he became insensible, probably fainted, and was carried to his house. He was seen by two medical gentlemen, who declared that his back bone was broken and advised his removal to Hospital. He was admitted into Hospital that same afternoon, under the care of Dr. Fenwick, when the following condition was found to exist: there was considerable bulging of the spinous processes of the lumbar vertebræ, the soft parts were swollen red and puffy; there was great tenderness, the slightest attempt at examination produced agonizing pain, the spinous processes were separated from the bodies of the vertebræ, and they appeared to be separated from one another: the second, third and fourth lumbar vertebræ were engaged in the displacement, the first, third and fourth lumbar spines were considerably elevated, forming an arch backwards at this region of the spine. Attached to them and likewise displaced were the lamina and transverse processes, so that the back at this point, instead of presenting the usual hollow, bulged outwards. There was no loss of sensation or motion in the lower extremities but the catheter had to be used for a few days after admission to relieve his bladder. On admission, the house surgeon, Dr. Drake, had him placed on a firm hair mattress with his face downwards, a pillow was placed beneath the abdomen and a bladder of ice put on the back over the seat of injury. This treatment was continued, and at the end of a few days his diet, which at first was withheld, was increased, and perfect rest enjoyed. The bowels were sluggish, and the rectum had to be washed out with injections. At the end of about ten days he was able without assistance to roll over on his side but would hastily return to the position on his belly, as this change increased his uneasiness. While lying on his face he was comparatively comfortable; suffered no pain or uneasiness. His appetite was remarkably good throughout, and he passed a large quantity of light coloured urine with a heavy sediment chiefly of earthy phosphates; a little later, a gutta-percha splint was moulded to his back, and retained in its place by a bandage; this gave great support. In the course of a month or six weeks he was able to change his position in bed and lie over on either side. The back felt very weak, and he was at this period still unable to support the weight of his body; but gradually though slowly, he improved, and about the middle of January, or three months after the receipt of injury, he was able to stand and walk with the aid of a stick. He states that his stature has been diminished by one and a quarter inches: this assertion is coroborated by some of his friends.

Fractures of the spinal column or injury to the osseous envelope, of the spinal cord possess more than usual interest to the surgeon. As