Southern Medical and Surgical Journal - Georgia Regents University

1859.] Dr. 0. C. Gibbs. Summary. 781hernia, descending through a congenital passage for the firsttime after the age of thirty years. If this case is not unique,such cases must be of rare occurrence.Miasmata.—In the Lancet and Observer for August, Dr. Harvey,of Springtown, Indiana, publishes a paper upon the aboveever vexations subject. It is difficult to give a synopsis of thepaper that will be sufficiently condensed to answer our purpose.He says, " Those diseases originating from miasmatic causes,are produced by a change in the relative proportion of theseveral gaseous and mineral elements of which the living bodyis composed ;in other words, diseases which appear both epidemicallyand sporadically, and some others, are produced bythe addition to, or subtraction from, the essential elements ofthe body in health." Again, he says, " In intermittent, bilious,and remittent fevers, the crassamentum of the blood is increased,and darker in appearance than in health. The red globulesare darker, and the quantity of serum less than the healthystandard ;the fibrin having been either changed to albumen orcoagulated to a certain extent. Hence we may infer that therehas been carbonaceous matter from external sources added inundue proportion, or a decomposition within the body." Wantof space will not permit us to give the premises upon whichthis is based. Efe adds further, " In such diseases as cholera,dysentery, &c, we must look for other causes ; but these maybe found in other gaseous or mineral elements or compounds,emanating from similar sources as carbon, and also from theearth. My opinion is, that cholera is produced by the action ofnitrous acid gas upon the blood. In certain electrical conditionsof the atmosphere, the oxygen and nitrogen of the air becomechemically united, and form nitrous oxide or protoxide of nitrogen;and these two gasses, being disengaged from decayinganimal matter, become united also, with the same result; andthe resulting compound floats in the air, and is absorbed throughthe lungs, skin, food, &c, into the system. I believe that thegreat amount of moisture in the air, the great heat and electricityevery where in those countries where cholera is raging,causes a greater or less chemical union of the elements of theair, thereby producing nitrous acid gas."The miasmatic element, as productive of disease, and of varyingdiseases, has been an incomprehensible mystery and vexationto observing physicians for all time, and is likely to be forsome time in the future. Some have denied its existence altogether,as an aerial poison, the product, of animal or vegetabledecompsition, and as causative of endemic or epidemic diseases.We will here instance only S. Littell, M. D., of Philadelphia,who refers such diseases to ^electrical agencies, and the late J.