MEDICAL NEWS.
Dr. J. B. Biddle has been appointed lecturer on Materia Medica and
Therapeutics in the Philadelphia Medical Institute.
From the well established reputation and success of Dr. Biddle as a
teacher, we predict increased popularity to the school with which he is
connected'.
Dr. Bernard IIenry has been appointed to the chair of Physiology
in the same school.	S.
Singular Investigations in a Trial for Murder.—The follow-
ing curious case has excited great attention in the law courts of Berlin :
Sept. 10, 1849, some peasants found on the bank of a rivulet, which
flowed into the Spree, the body of a man, whose head had been detached
by an incision carried between the first and second dorsal vertebrae. The
bead had been so much disfigured by the assassins that recognition was
impossible. Near the body was a small cane, a hat, and a box of allu-
inettes ; some of the clothes were remaining on the trunk.
The day following two physicians drew up a report, which was unsa-
tisfactory and imperfect. Some time afterwards they both in court de-
clared, together with the magistrates present at the examination, in
answer to some questions, that there were no cicatrices from scarifica-
tions, nor marks of tattooage upon the body.
A girl came forward, and stated, that from the accounts published in
the Berlin journals, she felt sure the .deceased was her husband. The
body was disinterred, and she recognized it by the external organs of
generation, as well as by the clothes. Yet the witness was found to be
a prostitute, who never had been married in her life. Other researches
led to the supposition, that the assassin of the unknown individual was
a cattle merchant, named Gottlieb Ebermann. These suspicions, how-
ever, did not last long, for there came reason to believe, that Ebermann
was the man murdered. It was said of him, that he might be recognized
by traces of the cupping scarificator on the wrists, and tattoo marks of
a heart and of the initials “ Gr. E ” on the left arm, both of which points
of identification were asserted by the very surgeons who had bled him.
But Ebermann’s sisters and wife stated, that they knew nothing of such
marks, consequently there was a second exhumation, five months after
the death, but no traces were found on the body. The wife’s evidence
was not considered valuable, as she had been only recently married and
much separated from her husband. A person then came forward, and
declared that he had seen and spoken to Ebermann within four-and-twenty
hours; he, however, was proved a madman. Lastly, a mistress of Eber-
mann stated positively that the little cane found near the body belonged
to a man of small stature, once a postilion, now a brigand, named
Schall, at whose lodgings Ebermann’s own cane had been seized. The
girl recognized the dress, and particularly the braces, which she had
herself worked. There was a third exhumation, December 11, 1851,
twenty-six months after the death, when the girl recognized the body
by something peculiar in the teeth and the beard. On August 11,1851,
this same girl had been nearly assassinated; doubtless by the accom-
plices of Schall, then in prison. The question as to whether the scarifi-
cations and the tattoo marks, seen upon Ebermann’s body by competent
witnesses, could by possibility become effaced by time, was referred to
M. Caspar of Berlin. In his report, taken from the observations made
in a large asylum for aged and invalid soldiers, a class upon whom tat-
too marks are common, he states that out of 36 examples, in 3 the tat-
tooage had become faint with time; in 2, the marks were partially ef-
faced ; in 4, they were completely obliterated: consequently, says
M. Caspar, the marks of tattooage can disappear. A witness came for-
word, and declared, during the investigation, that at 15 he had tattooed
himself on the arm with cinnabar, and that the marks had become en-
tirely effaced. The conclusion of the trial was, that Schall was con-
demned to death.
In L’Union Medicale, Nov. 16, 1852, Dr. Chereau justly observes,
respecting Caspar’s report, that it is not one which should influence a
judicial decision, for it is not stated at what age, with what substance,
and in what manner, the marks were produced in the four instances
where there was complete obliteration. Are the men to be trusted?
How many years elapsed before the marks became effaced ? The ques-
tion cannot be considered in any way satisfactorily settled as it now
stands; indeed, Caspar’s assertions tend to raise doubts, which heretofore
did not exist, upon a point which might be most important in a prison-
er’s favor, viz., the persistence of these stains. There is evidence that
the absorbent glands in the neighborhood of a tattoo mark become filled
with pigment. At the time of writing this report, there is in the dis-
secting-rooms attached to St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, the body of a
native of one of the islands of the Eastern Archipelago, whose skin has
been ornamented to an extent but rarely seen. The whole back, from
the sacrum to the shoulder, is covered with circles, radiating stars, and
feathers; the arms and the thighs are both marked, but the front of the
body is comparatively clear. The absorbent glands in the groin and
about the axilla were of deep black hue; those in the neck of the ordi-
nary white color. Mr. Coote, the demonstrator of anatomy, succeeded
in dissecting out some absorbent vessels leading to the glands in the
thigh, filled with black pigment in long streaks. These indications of
the action of the absorbents were however few, and the tattoo marks
existed everywhere with as much clearness apparently as at the time
when they were first made.
A similar remark may be offered respecting the possibility of the dis-
appearance of cicatrices. If there have been a complete loss or division
of integument in its whole thickness, the mark remains obvious till
decomposition after death destroys the tissues. If the skin be only par-
tially destroyed, there ensues a cicatrix of a different kind; one much
more resembling the natural structure of the skin, unattended with con-
tractions, and capable of becoming very faint, and liable to be overlooked,
except upon close examination. We have no hesitation of expressing
our opinion that Caspar’s report does not tend in any way to invalidate
the statement which has heretofore been received in courts of law—
namely, that tattoo marks and cicatrices are indelible.—London Med.
Tinies and Gaz.
[The following Communication was accidentally omitted in the Origi-
nal Department. It is therefore introduced in this place.—Eds.J
The Modus Operandi of Acids in Scurvy. By Wm. H. White,
M. D.—In presenting the following views to the notice of the medical
public, it is not so much the object of the writer to enter into detail
as to the symptoms and appearance of the disease termed li Scorbutus,”
as it is to advance a few ideas relative to what he believes to be the
state of the blood and the modus operandi of acids and vegetables con-
taining acids, and to shew forth the reason why, if possible, it is, that
these articles should, and do operate beneficially in the cure of this
disease.
The disease zVseZ/’has been treated of by nearly all writers on medicine
since about the middle of the sixteenth century. And all have
advanced, in their different essays, the same idea relative to the state of
the circulating fluid. They speak of it as if there were a deficiency of
some of its constituent parts, which is supplied to the blood by the acid
administered for the cure of the disease, and the deficiency being re-
moved, the patient is restored to health.
That the seat of the disease rests entirely in the blood, is admitted on
all sides; and that medicines prove of little benefit unless at the same
time acids or fresh vegetables be administered, is as unanimously admitted.
But the ground upon which we wish to differ in opinion from those
invariably expressed by different writers is, that there is actually no
deficiency in the blood, but on the other hand an excess, and that excess
an alkaline principle which successfully opposes the taking place of that
chemical change which the blood should undergo in order to be of a pro-
per chemical constitution. This alkaline principle (soda or potash)
exists in 'the blood in excess, owing to the patient having been deprived
of the food from which the system might obtain acid in order that it be
neutralized, and the salts of the blood be formed.
If we examine the blood taken from the arm of a scorbutic patient,
it will be seen to have undergone considerable chemical change, which
is manifested by its very dark appearance, and its being in a completely
dissolved state,—not coagulating unless there has been inflammation
present.
Now, should we take such blood as soon as drawn from the arm,
and add to it an acid, it will assume its natural appearance and
color, and will coagulate the same as that taken from the arm of
a healthy individual. In like manner will the acid operate upon
the blood of a scorbutic patient when given him, by its being taken into
the circulation and restoring the l>lood to health—not by the blood
taking and assimilating a portion of the acid to itself merely,—but by
its producing a chemical change in the blood : The acid, in its
round with the circulation after it has been absorbed, comes in contact
with the alkaline principle (soda or potash) which is in excess, and
neutralizes it and forms the salts of the blood. The system having been
previously deprived of the material from which it might obtain the acid
to produce this change, the alkalies have been allowed to increase to
such an excess as to produce the disease. And the very moment the
patient has administered to him the acid or the food containing it, he
commences rapidly to advance towards the stage of perfect recovery.
If we were to credit one class of writers we would be led to believe
that the disease consisted in an excess of “fibrine,” and on the other
hand, to credit a second class, that it consisted in a deficiency of fibrine
and an excess of red corpuscles. But we believe the most rational con-
clusion is, that the blood possesses alkaline principles in excess, and the
acid, by neutralizing them, forms the salts to which the blood is legiti-
mately entitled.
Ph iladelph ia, Jan. 1853.