Page:A Memoir of Thomas C. James, M. D. - Hodge.djvu/24

 his associates, and anxious as he was for the improvement of medical science, he was unwilling to present his sentiments in written communications to the society. With perhaps one exception, the papers he read were rather the history of facts than the detail of opinions. On the 9th of April, 1804, he presented the history of a case of hydatids. On the 4th of September, 1810, he gave the details of a case of premature labour, artificially induced by himself, in the case of a contracted pelvis, after the expiration of the seventh month, with the gratifying result of safety to mother and child. This is the first record, we believe in this country, of the scientific performance of this operation, for which much credit is due to Dr. James, especially as in America and Europe generally, it is still viewed with suspicious eyes, although in Britain, it is regarded as an established operation in certain defined cases.

On the 7th of August, 1827, he read a paper on extra-uterine pregnancy, in which he seemed anxious to establish the opinion from the historical detail of cases, that ventral or abdominal pregnancy never originally occurred; that tubal or uterine pregnancy had previously existed in cases where the child was found in the cavity of the abdomen; the tube or uterus having been ruptured or ulcerated, so as to allow the escape of the fœtus from its original location into the peritoneal cavity. His reasoning from the anatomy and functions of the parts concerned, from the mode in which the fœtus is sustained, and especially from the facts on record was ingenious and powerful; but facts subsequently detailed seem to confirm the opposite opinion, however improbable, that the ovum may be deposited in the peritoneal surface and there be developed with its contents, in some instances, even to the usual period of utero-gestation.

Connected with his efforts to favour the beneficial influence of the college, and the progress of medical science in our country, was the establishment and support of a most valuable periodical work, termed as evincive of its character the Eclectic Repertory, commenced in the year 1811, and carried on for eleven years with great advantage to students and practitioners of medicine. Although chiefly eclectic from foreign books and journals, many valued domestic and original monographs and cases were admitted, which enhanced the interest and importance of the publication. The names of the editors whose disinterested labours and judicious efforts were for a long time lent to this undertaking have not been published, but were known to most of the members of the college. They were Drs.