latterly by gin and smoking, and having discontinued them, he now remains free from it. Mr. Wilkinson adds, that his patient is a man of sober habits, and that he was induced to take gin and smoke tobacco, under the supposition that the practice would prove beneficial, by relieving his stomach and composing his system.

As medical gentlemen, particularly physicians, in much practice, seldom take the trouble to make proper inquiry respecting the articles of diet or habits of their patients, we hope this case will induce our nonmedical readers, when afflicted with disease, to ascertain how far any particular article of diet, or indulgence, may have been instrumental in producing the malady, in bringing it into action when predisposed to it, or in keeping it up. This we conceive, indeed, to be more the province of the patient than of the medical attendant. Any information derived from this source, cannot fail to throw much light on the nature, &c. of a malady to an intelligent practitioner.

PALSY OF THE LOWER EXTREMITIES. - To Mr. RICHARD WILLIAMS, an experienced scientific surgeon, of Aberystwyth, the profession and public are indebted for the following case of this very distressing disease.

History of the Case.-MARY MORGAN, when about eleven years of age, caught a severe cold, in consequence of falling asleep upon the ground, which was attended with considerable fever and delirium.

She was visited by an empiric in this neighbourhood, who bled her in each foot, and administered some medicines. Shortly afterwards she entirely lost the use of her limbs, and continued unable to move even her toes for upwards of eight years.

In the month of May last, when Mr. W. visited her, he found her general health was not much impaired by long confinement. She complained of great coldness in her lower extremities, which were somewhat emaciated. Her feet and ancles had become cedematous, and the sensation of feeling was very much diminished.

He could not discover any irregularity in the spine, although he suspected the cause of her complaint to exist in that part.

Treatment. Upon the 1st of June, 1820, she was electrified for the first time, and sparks were passed through her legs for a quarter of an hour. Two setons were made in her loins, one upon each side of the spine. She was directed to go into a hot bath, temperature ninety-eight degrees Fahrenheit, at bedtime, three times a week, to wear long flannel drawers, and to rub her limbs night and morning with an embrocation, composed of the following liniment:

Take of Olive Oil, six drachms

Water of Ammonia, two do.

Spirit of Turpentine, four do. Mix.

When the electric spark had been continued daily for a week, the shock was substituted for it; and she was electrified regularly every day for ten weeks, with the exception of five days, from a coated jar capable of holding one pint. During this period she gradually got better; and the electricity was again repeated almost every day till the second week in September, and occasionally till the middle of November, when he did not think it necessary to employ it any longer.

On the 9th of September Mr. W. ordered her to bathe in the open sea, and she did so three times, feeling a glow upon her skin when she

came out of the water; but as the weather became cold and tempestuous, he desired her to return to the use of the hot bath.

The setons were kept open for three months, and then converted into issues, which have not yet been healed up.

On this case, Mr. WILLIAMS made the following observations: The effect of the electric fluid was to produce a sensation of warmth and increased action of the pulse; and as she regained the use of her limbs, the shock was more severely felt.

At the expiration of a fortnight she was able to move her feet, and in three weeks to raise them from the ground; in six weeks she could turn herself upon a chair; in about two months she could support herself in the erect posture; and in fourteen weeks she could stand alone upon the insulated stool, and bear to have shocks passed through different parts of her body in that situation.

For the first month the electric shock was confined to the hips, legs, and thighs, and applied in the course of the nerves. It was afterwards drawn through the spine in various directions, as well as through the nates, knees, and ancles, with manifest advantage. Her knees remained weak for a long time; and it was not until they had been frequently electrified that she was able to sustain her own weight, so as to walk about without any manner of assistance whatever: and I have now the satisfaction to add, that she is in every respect perfectly recovered.

RUPTURE-A lecturer on surgery and anatomy, in London, whom we consider the most scientific surgeon in Europe, observes in a letter, dated the 19th of February, "in the brief announcement of your proposed operation, for the cure of the Inguinal Rupture, you have not said what you mean to do with the hernial sac." When we proposed to effect a cure by obliterating as it were the abdominal ring by adhesion, we of course meant to effect at the same time an obliteration of the sac. This may perhaps be more effectually accomplished in a few days, by a seton in the same manner as employed by POTT and others, for the radical cure of Hydrocele, or by removing that part, which may be termed the neck of the sac, with the cellular membrane. But if the incision be made across the bottom of the abdominal ring, so as to divide the sac, we conceive that an adhesion would take place at both ends. The lecturer adds, "I should not attempt such an operation, lest in some cases I should induce inflammation of the peritoneum, and in others fail from the propulsive force, which is great, overcoming the weak resistance made by adhesion." In reply to these objections, we shall only state, that we have certainly met with cases of rupture, which were evidently cured by adhesion, occasioned by the pressure of a truss, with a powerful spring; and if the inflammation, so excited, did not extend to the peritoneum within the abdomen, we can have no good reason for supposing, that the slight inflammation which may follow an incision, would advance upwards to a serious extent. Of our method of operating for the hare lip, he speaks in terms of approbation.

PILES. Sirs,-The mode of treating piles by medicated injections, noticed in your 61st Number, as practised by Mr. Blacket, is by no means new. I have been in the habit of employing astringent, emollient, and anodyne injections for many years in cases of local piles with the most decided advantage. This disease is very frequently attended with in

flammation of the internal membrane of the lower end of the rectum and anus, and not unfrequently with excoriation or very superficial ulceration; and these occurrences, which take place without the distension of the hæmorrhoidal veins constituting piles, are often mistaken by the ignorant for piles. In such cases Mr. Blacket's injection, a solution of nitre, is productive of very acute pain, and never fails to increase inflammation. The injection I generally employ, is a weak solution of vitriolated zinc and copper, as the following:

Take of Vitriolated zinc, one drachm;

copper, six grains;

Pure water, eight ounces.

I inject about an ounce (lukewarm) by means of a four ounce lavement syringe with a small rectum pipe. In many cases I have found the external application of it to succeed. To allay itching about the seat of the disease or in the neighbourhood, whether arising from piles or any other cause, I have found this lotion to succeed after other cooling and alterative applications had failed. The decoction of oak bark, recommended in an early number of your valuable Journal, as a remedy for piles, I have also found to merit the high character you have given it. Indeed, in a case of long standing, the most distressing I ever met with or heard of, it effected a complete cure in the course of a few weeks. As piles are generally of a critical nature, astringent applications should never be employed till the disease is (as you have very properly observed in this and other cases) rendered local, either by an abstraction of blood, or a mild cooling purgative medicine. If the patient be subject to a determination of blood to the head, or predisposed to apoplexy, both these remedies will be necessary.

I am, Gentlemen, your constant reader and friend, London, Jan. 23, 1821. J. B. THOMPSON. CHILBLAINS.-Sirs,-With the view of promoting the benevolent object of your Journal, I have enclosed a copy of a receipt for an ointment which I have found very beneficial in the cure of Chilblains, both in the incipient or inflammatory stage, or when advanced to ulceration. When in the inflammatory state, the part should be well rubbed over with it by means of a warm hand, and afterwards kept covered with soft thin leather. When ulcerated, it should be applied on lint, sufficiently large to cover the surrounding inflammation.

I am, Sirs, with respect, your obedient servant,

February 6, 1821. J. A. L. Member of the College of Surgeons. Ointment for Chilblains.

Take of Spermaceti ointment, six drachms;

Prepared calomel, two scruples;

Rectified oil of turpentine, one drachm. Mix.

BUCHU LEAVES.-A physician well acquainted with these leaves, informs us that the natives of the Cape highly esteem them as a remedy for a great variety of diseases, particularly rheumatism, gleet, and indigestion; and that he has found an infusion of them highly beneficial in cases of gleet, fluor albus, chronic diarrhoea, and the indigestion of gouty and rheumatic subjects. He states, that the remedies of savages merit more attention than the new ones of practitioners of a civilized country, because it is the beneficial effects which keep up their reputation among

the former, whereas the latter generally bring forward a remedy merely to give publicity to their own names. In our next number we expect to be enabled to give the result of our experience with the infusion of these leaves. GOUT AND RHEUMATISM.-Our correspondent at Birmingham informs us, that a clergyman in his neighbourhood, who had been a martyr to gout, has taken the wine of the Colchicum Seeds with most extraordinary benefit, under the direction of Dr. Booth, an eminent physician of that place. The alcaline wine of the seeds noticed in our Jast number, appears in nearly all the prescriptions written in London, for rheumatism and gout, and its almost immediate beneficial effects have not only astonished the patients, but also the prescribers. This Wine is now sold, with very explicit directions from this work, to ensure a proper exhibition of it.

A gouty gentleman of Birmingham speaks in very high terms of the Tincture recommended by Dr. Wilson, in his Treatise on Gout, and we have no reason to say that the Alcaline Wine is superior to it. The writer of this article has taken the Alcaline Wine with the most decided benefit, not only in removing rheumatism, or rather rheumatico-gouty pains in the extremities and back, (which it effectually did in two days,) but also improving his general health, by invigorating the stomach and bowels. The disordered state of the stomach and head ceased with the affection of the back and extremities. From Paris and Vienna we have received very favourable accounts of the Colchicum Seeds, as an antirheumatic and antithritic remedy, which we shall give in detail in our next number.

SOFTNESS OF THE BRAIN.-A Dr. Rostan has published "Researches on a Disease," which he and his friend Dr. Palmer of Tamworth suppose to have been hitherto little known, and which have received the name of "Softening of the Brain!" That the public may not think unfavourably of the faculty for not having discovered the malady, the learned Doctor observes," although there exists a number of latent and very obscure diseases, it does not follow that they have been ill observed. The very knowledge of such exceptions constitutes, on the contrary, a proof of more advanced observation!!" So, according to the Doctor's opinion of his discovery, he is a man of "advanced observation!!" He relates no less than 22 cases to prove the frequency of "softening of the brain," and concludes with a promise of publishing more!! The Doctor's practice, like that of Dr. Hastings of Worcester, (noticed in our 61st No.) has not entirely deprived him of the great advantage of "post mortem" examination of his patients, that is, in common language, an examination of their bodies after death. For evidence of softness or softening of the brain, we need not take the trouble of dissecting bodies. The writings and practice of many physicians, and the success of regular and irregular quacks, afford incontrovertible proofs of the general prevalence of this malady. As Dr. Shirley Palmer deems the "Researches of Dr. Rostan" of that importance, as to notice his cases in his contributions to "Morbid Anatomy," we must not offer that medical censor or critic so great an insult as to pass over them all in silence.

A woman aged 41, who had been for some years blind, but who had never suffered any "paralytic seizure," suddenly fell down deprived of

sense and motion, without any premonitory symptom, and was carried to the Infirmary." Among the symptoms, which the Doctor and old women of the institution discovered, he notices the following, "Reclination on the back; head fixed for a moment, then turned to the right or left; arms raised in all directions, with a sort of agitation; left hand incessantly fixed on the forehead, the right very moveable, never passing the level of the skin. On being touched or pinched, she raised herself with an expression of anger; and when questioned, seemed to listen and remained motionless. The skin warm, pulse strong and very frequent, respiration, action of the heart and sound of the Thorax (chest) natural; jaws constricted, but still separable; tongue red and dry, evacuations natural!” The Doctor ordered a blister to the nape of the neck, FIFTEEN leeches to the anus, and purgative lavements; the latter of which, he says, could not be administered in consequence of the "violent agitation of the patient!!” The following day, he found her more calm, imbecility complete. To the remedies prescribed, he "ordered cream of tartar." On the next day, "The mouth was drawn to the left; motion of the right arm and leg considerably diminished; on pinching the arm pain after a lime was felt. Could not articulate and put the left arm to the forehead." The following day, she could not swallow; after which she continued to sink so rapidly, that in two days more, she discharged her debt to nature!!

On Dissection, the learned Doctor states, he found "the exterior natural; the walls of the heart thickened; the left side enlarged; the membrane of the brain, termed Dura mater, thin and transparent: and the anterior Lobes anteriorily SOFTENED and ADHERENT; and all the neighbouring part of the right hemisphere of the brain exhibited the same alteration, especially near its lower point, where the organ was pulpy, and as it were purulent. The optic nerves, and other portions of the brain, natural."

A woman, aged 69, was admitted an in-patient of the infirmary, on the 21st of May 1820, for a slight catarrhal affection; "On the 12th of June she became suddenly senseless, and presented half an hour afterwards, complete loss of consciousness, motion, and sensibility, paṛticularly of the left side; pale countenance, slight contortion of the mouth to the right, contracted pupils, frequent and difficult respiration, pulse hard, frequent, and regular." The learned Doctor ordered twelve leeches to be applied to the neck, and purgative injections to be administered. On the 13th, he ordered the leeches to be reapplied, and the injections to be continued; on the following day, a blister to the nape of the neck, and mustard poultice to the feet. The symptonis, for ten days, remained unaltered. The pulse then became less frequent, and strong; respiration natural; palsy of the left side complete; general insensibility of the skin, particularly on the left side; tongue inclined to the right; pupils contracted; intellectual faculties recovering." Four days afterwards, the tongue was dry and blackish; bowels costive; he ordered Peruvian bark, with rhubarb. On the further expiration of twelve days, the tongue was very dry, and blackish; the left pupil dilated; purging, (which had continued five or six days); the weakness and difficulty of articulation continued to increase; the mouth and longue sooly." The purging continued, and on the expiration of ten days, her