while the handle is flattened on two sides, and has a rapid screw cut upon it.

The saddle is made of a sheet of brass, lined with corrugated soft rubber. The brass is firm enough to retain any curve which has been given to it; yet sufficiently flexible to be bent with the hands, so as to accommodate it to the peculiarities of any patient. The corrugated rubber gives the saddle a firm hold upon the skin; and, at the same time, relieves the patient from all sense of unpleasant pressure.

Upon the back of the saddle are two parallel bars, each provided with a slot and a thumb-screw. These bars are secured to the saddle by two more thumb-screws.

The speculum is introduced exactly as the ordinary Sims'. The saddle is applied to the sacrum, so that its lower edge is just above the tip of the coccyx. The handle of the speculum is then passed through the slots in the parallel bars and the thumb-screw, upon the outer bar, is turned outwards to meet the handle of the speculum (at such a position in the slot as it naturally takes).

Then the large thumb-screw is applied to the bar of the speculum, and by its turns the perineum is retracted to any desired degree.

When this has been done, the thumb-screw on the inner of the bars is screwed down to meet the handle of the instrument and the adjustment is complete.

If it is desired to tilt the tip of the speculum further into the hollow of the sacrum, this may be accomplished by changing the relative positions of the screws upon the bars; or the whole speculum may be carried upward by loosening one of the thumbscrews on the saddle, then raising parallel bars and speculum, until the thumb-screw reaches the higher socket upon the saddle.

Thus it will be seen that all adjustments of the Sims' speculum are provided for.

The work of the hand of an assistant, raising the superior buttock of the patient, is done by the Mundé flange; the holding of the speculum is accomplished by the saddle.

It is claimed for this instrument:

1st. That it is absolutely self-retaining under all circumstances, whether the perineum is ruptured or intact.

2d. That it is capable of any desired adjustment.

3d. That it can be applied in ordinary office practice with no more disarrangement of the dress of the patient than is required for the use of a bivalve speculum.

4th. That it is less uncomfortable for the patient than an ordinary Sims' on account of its perfect steadiness.

5th. That having no straps or other complicated device, it is adjusted as quickly as a bivalve.

As to the proof of these claims, it may be stated that the instrument has been in daily use since September, 1885; all ordinary treatments have been applied by its aid, and both unilateral and bilateral lacerations of the cervix uteri have been successfully and most easily repaired through it. The most violent retching efforts have never displaced it, nor has it needed readjustment on account of any movement or straining of the patient. During a recent bilateral cervix operation (with laceration of the perineum to the second degree), there were five distinct paroxysms of vomiting, without the least disturbance of the instrument. In fact, after adjustment, the instrument cannot be pulled from the vagina without the most extreme violence.

It is desirable that each saddle be provided with two specula blades, a long one for ordinary work, and a short and broad one for operations upon the cervix.

The simplicity and perfect working of this instrument will be apparent upon the first practical test.

IN MEMORIAM.

PROFESSOR A. COURTY.

(With Portrait.)

FRANCE and science have just sustained a great loss, a loss which will be felt, in particular, by every physician who devotes himself to the practice of gynecology. Dr. Courty, professor of clinical surgery in the School of Medicine at Montpellier, is dead.

This eminent gynecologist, the son and grandson of physicians, was born at Montpellier, November 2d, 1819. After a thorough education in the classical branches, he began the study of medicine, never neglecting, however, the natural sciences, for which he had a special predilection. He began his medical studies at Montpellier, and came to Paris to complete them. Here, for a time, he drifted away from his favorite subject, surgery, towards embryology, and worked in the laboratory of Coste, professor at the College of France. It was there that he conceived that marvellous work, so often quoted, the subject of his inaugural thesis-The Egg and its Development in the Human Species (1845). In 1846 he took the degree of licentiate in the natural sciences. In 1851, after a brilliant examination, he was appointed demonstrator of anatomy at Montpellier. He had here the opportunity of displaying marked qualifications for a professorship. His method of teaching, the lucidity and conciseness of his lectures, attracted numerous pupils. His duties as a teacher, which are possibly abused in France, for whilst the position entails many advantages, it still tends to smother all originality in many workers, did not prevent M. Courty from publishing many original articles, such, for instance, as: A letter, addressed to Prof. Lordat, bearing on certain questions in general physiology (1847); a memoir on the structure and functions of the vitelline appendages of the umbical vesicle in the chick (1848); on organic substitutions (1848); his thesis for the position of adjunct in surgery, entitled "The Use of Anesthetics in Surgery" (1849); and lastly, Clinical Reports in Surgery (1850, 1851). We have not the space to

IN MEMORIAM.

PROFESSOR A. COURTY.

(With Portrait.)

FRANCE and science have just sustained a great loss, a loss which will be felt, in particular, by every physician who devotes himself to the practice of gynecology. Dr. Courty, professor of clinical surgery in the School of Medicine at Montpellier, is dead.

This eminent gynecologist, the son and grandson of physicians, was born at Montpellier, November 2d, 1819. After a thorough education in the classical branches, he began the study of medicine, never neglecting, however, the natural sciences, for which he had a special predilection. He began his medical studies at Montpellier, and came to Paris to complete them. Here, for a time, he drifted away from his favorite subject, surgery, towards embryology, and worked in the laboratory of Coste, professor at the College of France. It was there that he conceived that marvellous work, so often quoted, the subject of his inaugural thesis-The Egg and its Development in the Human Species (1845). In 1846 he took the degree of licentiate in the natural sciences. In 1851, after a brilliant examination, he was appointed demonstrator of anatomy at Montpellier. He had here the opportunity of displaying marked qualifications for a professorship. His method of teaching, the lucidity and conciseness of his lectures, attracted numerous pupils. His duties as a teacher, which are possibly abused in France, for whilst the position entails many advantages, it still tends to smother all originality in many workers, did not prevent M. Courty from publishing many original articles, such, for instance, as: A letter, addressed to Prof. Lordat, bearing on certain questions in general physiology (1847); a memoir on the structure and functions of the vitelline appendages of the umbical vesicle in the chick (1848); on organic substitutions (1848); his thesis for the position of adjunct in surgery, entitled “The Use of Anesthetics in Surgery" (1849); and lastly, Clinical Reports in Surgery (1850, 1851). We have not the space to