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mercurial soreness at his gums; blister operated well; no alvine discharge." He ordered the following mixture:

Take of Sulphate of Soda, two ounces;

Boiling Water, one pint;

Diluted Sulphuric Acid, one drachm. Mix.

Two ounces to be taken every hour, till the bowels are freely opened. On the evening visit, he was told that his bowels had been freely moved; pulse 100; increase of saliva; total absence of pain. Leave off taking medicine.

"November 2d. He feels better in every respect-is convalescent." Here the doctor's communication ends. The employment of cold water internally and externally, during the use of calomel, will, no doubt, startle some of our non-medical readers, particularly those delicate ones, who consider it very improper even to wash, or put a hand into cold water, during the use of mercury. The practice adopted by Dr. Mac Carthy has been, for many years, very common in tropical climates. The dose of twenty grains of calomel is, in our opinion, much too great, and the propriety of administering an infusion of the leaves of tobacco glysterwise, is questionable.

WORMS. Dr. Bremser, in a late publication on Worms, divides the remedies employed for their destruction, or expulsion from the intestines, into three classes: viz. mechanical, specific, and tonic. The first class comprises the filings or powder of tin, cowhage, powdered charcoal, and raw carrots. These articles the doctor believes to be capable of removing worms from the intestines, but he recommends them to be combined with other medicines, because they do not possess the property to remove the cause of their production. In the second class, the author notices cold water, valerian root, onions, garlic, worm seeds, tansy, Jerusalem oak, goosefoot, the Caroline thistle, Angelica bark, linden seeds, Indian pink, Surinam root, cavadilla, the green rind of walnut, assafoetida, camphor, male fern, petroleum, oil of turpentine, cajeput oil, animal oil, empyreumatic oil, fluid mercury, and muriate of barytes. Long draughts of cold water, taken frequently, after a purgative, is highly extolled on the authority of Rosentein and Pallas. Dr. Bremser thinks that salt water acts more efficaciously. The petroleum is recommended to be given in the dose of from 20 to 30 drops, for three mornings successively, and a purgative on the fourth, for the tape worm. The white petroleum has been long used with success in Egypt, as a remedy for tape worm. Larrey says that this worm is but rarely seen in Egypt, and that petroleum is not known there; this, however, is not correct, for in many parts of Egypt there are wells nearly full both of the black and white petroleum. The white petroleum is in great repute, as a vermifuge, in Italy. The muriate of barytes is much recommended as a powerful remedy for the long round worm; being a powerful poison, much caution is necessary in its administration. The seeds of the Jerusalem oak are frequently used in America. Chalmers says, that they are the active ingredient in a medicine, which has been long celebrated in America for destroying worms. The green rind of walnut, in the form of infusion,

or extract, has been much recommended by modern and antient writers.

A physician to a public institution in London, whose practice has been very extensive in the diseases of children, has found the external application of oil of turpentine to the abdomen, as efficacious as its internal use. The third class, viz. tonics, as the Peruvian bark, rhatany root, gentian, rust of iron, &c., are recommended to strengthen the stomach and intestinal canal, after the use of a purgative, or the other vermifuge medicines.

The long Round-worm.-For the destruction of this worm in children, Dr. Bremser recommends a dessert-spoonful of the following electuary, to be taken morning and evening:

Take of Tartarian Southern-wood Seed, bruised,

Tansy Seed, ditto, of each one ounce ;
Valerian Root, powdered, two drachms;
Jalap Root, powdered, half a drachm;
Sulphate of potass, a drachm and a half;

Oxymel of Squills, sufficient to form an electuary.

After taking this electuary three or four days, the intestinal evacuations become more copious and frequent, and commonly much mucus and a few worms are expelled. When the latter effects are not produced, the Doctor recommends the dose to be increased, or to be taken more frequently. If, with this addition, the desired effect follows, he advises the electuary to be continued, proportioning the dose, so as to occasion only a slight augmentation of fæces and mucus, administering also, at proper intervals, the following mild aperient:

Take of powdered Jalap Root, one scruple;

Senna Leaves, half a drachm; Sulphate of Potass, one drachm; Mix, and divide into six parts, one part to be taken every hour, until it operates. According to Dr. Bremser, it is a matter of indifference, whether or not worms are expelled during the use of these remedies; sometimes, he says, they are not passed, until all the symptoms of worms have disappeared. In patients of pallid complexion and general debility, he orders a tonic mixture to be taken, to prevent relapse. With respect to diet, he says, the patient should abstain from the extensive use of farinaceous substances and fat meat, and should eat, in preference, dry bread. He has found this treatment so efficacious, as seldom to require any thing else. The most efficacious and safe remedy for the destruction of this worm, both in children and adults, is the basilic powder, noticed in our second number.

Ascarides. The destruction of these worms it is very difficult to effect, in consequence of their being enveloped in mucus, and the great rapidity with which they are generated. Dr. Bresmer has found the following mode of treatment sometimes successful, and always to palliate. In the first place, in order to remove the worms from the upper part of the large intestines, he directs the electuary, recommended for the long round-worm, to be taken morning and evening. If it should not operate on the bowels, he

recommends a small quantity of jalap powder to be added to each dose; besides this, he advises the following lavement to be administered twice a day:

Take of Wormwood and Valerian Root, bruised, of each

an ounce;

Tansy Seed and Orange Peel, bruised, of each half

an ounce;

A

Mix, and infuse a table-spoonful in a pint of boiling water, in a close vessel, for twelve hours; the liquor to be then strained through cloth, andļa spoonful of the fœtid oil of hartshorn to be added. If the patient be what is generally termed nervous, he recommends a spoonful of fresh hog's gall to be added to each clyster. The patient, he adds, should endeavour to retain this mixture as long as possible, and to persist in the use of the remedies several weeks. clyster of olive oil he has found to allay the itching generally attendant on this disease. Clysters, of the decoction of the Surinam root, aloes, lime water, sea water, strong infusion of worm seeds and Indian pink, pomegranate, decoction of aloes, and infusion of tansy, are occasionally very beneficial in bringing away these worms, when lodged in the lower part of the rectum. When there is much irritation in the rectum, or externally about the anus, a decoction of oatmeal, with castor oil, is recommended.

Tape Worm.-The symptoms of the presence of this worm, do not differ from those denoting the existence of the long round-worm. The expulsion of parts of it, is the only certain proof of its existence. The ordinary vermifuge medicines, in general, fail in producing its entire expulsion. To prevent its reproduction, is also very difficult. Dr. Bremser states, that he has never known this species to be expelled by the ordinary remedies. In the course of ten years he has had five hundred patients with the disease, amongst whom there were two children, of about a year and a half old. Only four had recourse a second time to the use of the remedy he employed; and, in one only, had the disease re-occurred in the course of two years. For the expulsion of this animal, he commences with the electuary recommended for the long round-worm. When that quantity is taken, he advises the patient, having his mouth full of water at the time, to take two large tea-spoonsful of the vermifuge oil of chabert, which is made in the following manner:

Take of Fætid Oil of Hartshorn, one part;

Rectified Oil of Turpentine, three parts; Mix them well together, and let them stand for four days; then distil the mixture in a sand bath, and draw off three-fourths of the liquor.

Dose for an adult, two or three tea-spoonsful, once in a day.

The mouth should not be rinsed after it, with the view of removing the oil that may adhere to it, He may, if the taste be very disagree able to him, chew a little cinnamon or cloves. If this dose should excite head-ache, or much irritation in the stomach, the dose should afterwards be decreased; and if it should excite nausea on taking it fasting, it may be administered an hour or two after breakfast. The pain on making water, which sometimes follows the use of this

remedy, may be prevented or removed, by taking the almond emulsion, with camphor, and a small proportion of the nitrate of potass. By proceeding in this treatment, the patient, on the expiration of ten or twelve days, should have taken from two to three ounces of the oil. The Doctor then recommends the patient to take the mild aperient powder, (noticed above,) and after its operation, to have recourse again to the use of the oil. He has in general found four ounces of the oil, taken as above directed, to succeed; but in some cases, that had resisted the ordinary remedies, he has found it necessary to continue its use, till the patient had taken seven ounces. He recommends the treatment in all cases to be continued after the expulsion of the worm, some time longer, with a view of destroying the predisposition of the system to the production of the animal, or the vitality of an ovum it may have left behind.

A much more speedy remedy for the destruction of the tape worm, is the white petroleum, or the spirit of turpentine; the third dose of which generally succeeds in effecting its expulsion. The white petroleum, or naptha, is more efficacious than the spirit of turpentine, and, at the same time, less stimulating to the stomach, and more pleasant to the palate.

The Worms of the Teeth, which some empirics pretend to destroy, by their mode of curing tooth-ache, Dr. Bremser has ascertained to be the seeds of henbane, which they employ to fumigate the diseased tooth, which they artfully exhibit, after the operation, to induce the patient to place confidence in their mode of treatment. This practice we have noticed in an early number.

RHEUMATISM, &c.-Dr. Balfour, of Edinburgh, has published fourteen' cases, to illustrate the efficacy of compression and percussion, in the cure of rheumatism, debility of the extremities, &c. The first is a case of rheumatism affecting the right side of a woman aged twenty-six years. It had been so severe as to confine her to the bed two months before the Doctor was consulted. Dr. Poole, of Edinburgh, had attended her regularly for six weeks, during which time he had gone through the common routine of practice, without producing any beneficial effect, except a slight improvement of her appetite.

"The patient," the Doctor states, "was compelled to lie night and day upon her back, with the limb extended and equably supported on the bed. In no other position could she suffer it for a moment, without the most exquisite pain; every attempt to move it occasioned the most frightful screams. It is impossible, indeed, to conceive a human being in a more distressed and helpless condition than was this woman. There was no external appearance of disease in the limb, but the very idea of any thing touching it was intolerable to the patient. Notwithstanding, I was convinced, from ample experience, that nothing but compression and percussion could be of avail. I proceeded, therefore, under the regulation of the patient's feelings, to apply the former, first with my hands, and afterwards with a bandage. I beg leave here to state that, as friction was totally inadmissible in this case, so my practice, in the cure of rheumatism and complaints allied to it, is quite different, not only

VOL. VI.

3 H

in principle, but in the mode of application, from that of Mr. Grosvenor of Oxford. I have, moreover, had patients who had been previously under his care, and who say the same thing.

"At first, I proceeded with so much caution and delicacy, that three-quarters of an hour were required to go through the operation every day. For the first eight or ten days little progress seemed to be made. An evident amendment, however, was now observable. The parts could be handled with much more freedom. I now applied percussion to the sole of the foot, in order to give a tremulous motion to the whole of the limb. This accelerated the cure greatly. At the end of a fortnight I began to lift the limb from the bed, and to bend and extend it alternately. Formerly, when the limb was in any degree elevated, the whole limb was seized with tremor, attended with agonizing pain: I instantly checked these tremors, by drawing a bandage very tight round the ancle. This may appear extraordinary, but it is not the less true. Tremor of the inferior extremities can be checked at any time, by grasping firmly the tendon of the heel. The cure now went on rapidly; and, within a month from the time I was called in, the patient was on her legs." Dr. Poole, notwithstanding the illiberal attack made on Dr. Balfour's practice, by some of the medical gentlemen of Edinburgh, by terming it empiricism, continued to visit the patient; and on the recovery of the patient, like a man of science, addressed a letter to Dr. Balfour, in which he observes, in speaking of the very favourable result of this treatment, "It was, to my unqualified conviction, justly attributable to the scientific, safe, and most obviously efficacious operation, which happily superseded my practice."

The second case is rheumatism of the arms, of a few months standing. The patient was captain of a passage smack: he had lost forty-five cups of blood within three months, and was, at the time the Doctor saw him, so weak, as to be almost incapable of walking. "He could," says the Doctor, "neither put on or take off a stitch of his own clothes." The Doctor commenced his system of percussion and compression, and in a short time he experienced such relief, as to be capable of dressing himself without assistance. The following day, the captain took his steward with him to the Doctor, to receive instructions to apply the remedies, in consequence of having resolved to accompany his vessel to London the subsequent day. When the Doctor accidentally met the captain, about two years afterwards, he told him, that he had followed his directions, and that the pain and rigidity of his back, shoulders, and arms, were speedily removed by it.

The following case of palsy, in a young lady, "of fine form and stature," in the Doctor's opinion, we give in his own words.

"The disease consisted in a partial loss of sensation and power in the left inferior extremity, from the middle and back part of the thigh downwards. The patient could walk, but without confidence. In throwing her weight on the limb, she was always afraid of coming down; and her foot could not grasp the ground. There was no pain in the limb, unless a prickly sensation, to the extent of about a hand-breath in the thigh where the disease commenced, might be

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