to the disease. During the time he was under our care, nearly all the anodyne extracts, the prussic acid, calomel, infusion of peach leaves, uva ursi, and mucilaginous decoctions, as that of marsh-mallow root, Iceland moss, &c. lavements and external irritants, had a fair trial. The medicines which afforded the most relief were, pills of the extract of henbane, hemlock, and a very small proportion of calomel with an infusion of the uva ursi. During the use of these remedies, he, however, sometimes experienced a recurrence of obstinate retention. The failure of every medicine, that was (in our opinion) likely to afford relief, we considered sufficient to justify our prescribing the Buchu leaves. We accordingly ordered him to take two table spoonsful of the infusion of the leaves, (made by infusing half an ounce in a pint of water) three times a day. After taking this medicine regularly for one week, he was very considerably better, being able to retain his urine five hours longer than he had done for ten years; and when we saw him, at Brentford, on Tuesday, the 27th instant, he told us he was free from any affection of the bladder, and enjoyed a better state of health than he had done for many years. The medicine, he said, evidently strengthened his stomach. In a case of gleet, of long standing, attended with considerable irritation at the neck of the bladder, and other symptoms of diseased prostate gland, this infusion succeeded in effecting a cure in the course of three weeks. This patient being of an inflammatory habit, took only two table spoonsful of the infusion twice a day: when he exceeded that dose, he became feverish, or, as he expressed himself, "it produced general irritability, which he had often experienced from taking an extra glass of wine.' Notwithstanding this general effect, his local complaint continued to decrease. , , PARTURITION.-SIRS, Being a student in medicine, and intending, at no distant period, to attempt, like Dr. Hastings, to make some figure in the literary world, I am encouraged to enquire of you, or of some of your subscribers, who practise midwifery, if, in any case of twins, or any circumstance or circumstances, immediately or remotely connected with the case, a practitioner is justified in leaving a patient after delivering her of one infant, for twenty hours, and postponing the delivery of the other for that time? A case of twins lately occurred in this city, which terminated to the great disgrace of the profession, in the opinion of every class here. The day after the lady (young and healthy) was delivered, Mr. or, as you would with propriety say, Mrs. called, and delivered her of another; after which, he observed, with a philosophic composure, peculiar to a certain class of practitioners, that he knew, when he left her, that there was one, if not more, remaining in the uterus, and that she would do all the better for the interval of ease, he had afforded her. The supposed advantage she derived from this very humane indulgence, was, the termination of all her worldly concerns in a few days!! Now, Sirs, you say, in your 24th Number, that midwifery is brought to a degree of greater perfection than any other department of medicine; if this be really the case, you will be able to satisfy the good breeding married ladies, and those who are anxiously looking forward to the blissful state of marriage, all that art could possibly accomplish, was done, to secure the lives of the mother and the twins. The infant, last introduced into this " Vale of Sorrow," shook its head, cried, refused the bitter draught, and took its leave for ever. Intending, as I have observed, shortly to appear in the literary world, as a supporter of the dignity of the profession, and to follow the learned Dr. Philip to London, to return again to this place with all the knowledge I may be able to collect from Abernethy and hospital practice, I am, as you may imagine, most desirous to keep up the confidence of the good inhabitants in the healing art. I am, your constant reader, Worcester, March 15, 1821. A PUPIL. We conceive, that in no case of twins, an accoucheur can safely leave his patient after the delivery of one infant. Having ascertained that another remains, he should proceed in the delivery, or, if the exhausted state of the patient should render a short delay necessary, he should not, in our opinion, quit her till the delivery be completed. We are not aware of any circumstance, that can warrant a delay of twentyfour hours, or the absence of the accoucheur for twelve hours. We suspect, in the above case, the accoucheur was not aware that there were twins, till his visit on the following day. We shall be very happy to receive the opinion of an experienced practitioner, on the practice of the accoucheur, in this case, which, we find, from two correspondents, has excited a great sensation in the minds of the married ladies of Worcester and its vicinity. SUDATORY.-M. La Beaume, of Southampton Row, Russellsquare, employs this species of dry, warm bath, in his practice, with decided advantage. It is very portable, and used in bed without the least personal inconvenience or trouble; affords almost immediate relief from pain, restoring the balance of circulation, and invariably producing a copious perspiration: hence it has been found very efficacious in the cure of obstructions and torpidity of the liver and bowels, many diseases of the skin, dropsy of the extremities, indolent swellings, rheumatism, &c. M. La Beaume continues to employ the air-pump vapour-bath with success in cases of gout, palsy, diseased joints, contractions, &c. This apparatus is applied to the affected limbs, not only on the parts more immediately attacked, but also on the system, by determining the circulation to the surface, and counteracting diseased action. Some interesting cases of the successful application of electricity and Galvanism, in chronic affection of the stomach and head, obstruction and torpor of the liver and bowels, &c. which have occurred in M. La Beaume's practice, we intend to give in our next Number. PASTILES, CEMENTS, &c.-SIRS, The insertion of the following receipts in your excellent work, will embolden me to make further communications. I am, Sirs, your obedient servant, Feb. 20, 1821. Odoriferous Pastiles.-Take of Benzoin gum, Frankincense, of each 2 drs. Styrax, Cascarilla bark in powder, C. B. Nitrate of potass, of each 1 oz. Charcoal powder, 1 oz.-Mix, and form into a mass with mucilage of gum arabic and oil of turpentine. Curry Powder.-Take of Coriander seeds in powder, 12 oz. tion, well dried, should be dry place. Black pepper, do. 6 oz. Cayenne pepper, 11⁄2 oz. True turmeric powdered, yellow, 3 oz. Cummin seeds, do. 3 oz.--This composikept in a bottle, with a glass stopper, in a Cement for glass or metals.—Take of Gum mastic, 10 grains, Rectified spirit of wine, 2 drs. Add 2 ounces of strong isinglass glue, made with brandy, and 10 grains of the true gum ammoniac. Dissolve all together, and keep it stopped in a phial. When intended to be used, set it in warm water. ADULTERATED WINES.-It is well ascertained that winemerchants sometimes add alum to red wine, to communicate to it a rough taste and deeper colour; now this mixture may produce in the system ill effects of a more or less serious kind. Several means have been proposed for the discovery of the fraud in question, but many of them have proved ineffectual. Dr. Orfila of Paris recommends the following as the most certain. The wine is to be discoloured by means of a concentrated solution of chlorine; the mixture is to be evaporated until it is reduced to nearly the fourth of its original volume; the liquor is to be filtered; it then possesses the following properties when it contains alum: 1st. It has a sweetish astringent taste; 2d. It furnishes a white precipitate (sulphate of barytes) with nitrate of barytes, insoluble in water and in nitric acid; 3d. Caustic potash gives rise to a yellowish white precipitate of alumine, soluble in an excess of potash; 4th. The subcarbonate of soda produces a yellowish white precipitate (subcarbonate of alumine) decomposable by fire into carbonic acid gas, alumine, easily recognisable by its characters. GERMAN SAUSAGES.-Dr. J. Kerner has discovered that German smoked sausages, a favourite food of the inhabitants of Wirtemberg, often contain a powerful poison. It has been observed, that the effects of this peculiar poison are most manifest in spring time, or the month of April, in a manner more or less alarming. In a periodical paper, which appears at Tubingen, Mr. Kerner has just published a number of observations on the subject, and he states, that he has now in the press, a work in which he intends to give a full account of it. It appears that out of 76 persons who were indisposed in consequence of having eaten sausages, 37 died in a short time, while others remained valetudinarians for years. Liver sausages he has found to be the most dangerous. In general (says M. Kerner) the poison is formed in hashed and seasoned meat, after being stuffed in an intestine and smoked. This animal poison, he says, is distinguished from all others by this circumstance that it does not attack the brain or spinal marrow, while it paralizes the whole lymphatic system. Sometimes the patient, for many months together, ceases to feel his heart beat, whilst the pulsation of the arteries remains invariable. All the observations of M. Kerner are supported by numerous cases which have come within his own experience. POISONED MEAT.-Mr. Cadet, of Paris, states, that he has been required by the police authorities, five or six times within the last fifteen years, to analyze meats, bought at the sausage shops at Paris. Those meats had proved poisonous, according to the statements of several physicians, and every means were taken by the legal authorities to discover the cause of these results. Mr. Cadet analyzed all the meats; examined all the vessels in which they had been prepared; analyzed the matters vomited, or found in the stomachs of the patients after death, without being able to find any trace of mineral poison by any of the tests in use: there was not an atom of copper, arsenic, or antimony; nor any evidence of malevolence or negligence. The shop-keepers were never brought into a court of justice; but similar accidents have recurred from time to time at Paris. The police officers have visited the pig-dealers, and have been satisfied that the pigs were fed with nothing but wholesome substances: the use of poison for rats, with which animals the places abounded, was interdicted, and every precaution taken that could be suggested. "What then," adds Mr. Cadet, "is this poison which is found in sausage-meats? Is it prussic acid? Is it a new matter? It is not the result of decomposition, or at least of putrefaction, because it exists in meats perfectly well preserved." THE TAR OIL LIGHTS.-In a considerable district of the town lying on the west side of Tottenham Court Road, a very improved kind of street lamps have been introduced, which in the whiteness and intensity of their lights far exceed the street gas lights, under the same bulks of flame; each of these lamps being independent, there is no danger of a whole district being left in darkness at once, through an accidental or designed stoppage or destruction of the gas main, nor are the inhabitants burthened by any expense of service-pipes, and the many etceteras of that mode of lighting. On inquiry, we have learned that these lamps have been supplied by the Honourable Major Cochrane, under patents to his brother Lord Cochrane, and to himself: the former being, for the mode of distilling and managing the oil, and the latter, for the construction of a lamp, calculated for burning this pellucid and very volatile and inflammable oil, closely resembling, if not identically the same with purified naphtha, which oil, in its greatest perfection, is prepared in Scotland, at once from the coals, as is said, by a relative of Mr. Cochrane. The essential oil prepared from the gas-work tar is found, whenever the wicks of lamps are trimmed the least too high, to deposit carbon on the wicks, which the Scotch oil never does; and in such case to occasion lamps supplied therewith to smoke, and sometimes, owing to the very great volatility of this gaswork oil, a smoking lamp has been filled with explosive vapour, which has taken fire and destroyed the lamp glass: accidents which have never happened with the use of the Scotch oil. From the facility of preparing this oil at any colliery and in any quantity, and from the cheapness of its conveyance to town by the canals, we anticipate that this mode of lighting our streets and roads will, ere long, become very general. THE PYROLIGNEOUS ACID.-At the last anniversary of the Whitehaven Philosophical Society, two specimens of meat, cured with the pyroligneous acid, were exhibited. These were prepared on the 7th of September, 1819. One was hung up at home, and the other sent out to the West Indies, to try the effect of climate upon it, and brought back on the return of the ship to that port. Both specimens were pronounced by ail present who tasted them, to be perfectly fresh, sweet, and fit for use, after a lapse of 15 months. AGRICULTURE.-Last year, Mr. Talla of Gateshead, Northum berland, transplanted from a seed bed to a piece of land worked by the spade, wheat, which he ranged into rows six inches apart: this yielded seventeen coombs per acre. Another piece of land, upon which the rows were planted twelve inches apart, yielded fifteen coombs. Another piece sown in drill, and a fourth in broad cast, yielded nineteen coombs The produce of this land, by ploughing, is usually about six coombs. A field of seven acres, in the county of Surry, was prepared last year by the spade for barley. The labourers earned in the winter at the rate of 15s. per week, twopence per rod being paid for digging; and the proprietor believes it would have cost him double the expence if he had ploughed it. per acre. THE CANADIAN PILE OINTMENT.-For this "most ex"traordinary and most valuable discovery, the afflicted with piles are "indebted to an able and humane medical man, who, during his travels "through North America, made it his constant study to discover from the "native Indians whatever he considered would contribute to the benefit "of mankind. The inestimable receipt for making the Canadian Oint"ment, for the speedy and effectual cure of Piles, under which many "thousands of his fellow creatures labour without relief, he was so lucky "as to obtain from a native." The proprietor " tried it, and found it to prove completely efficacious. It has since been the means of effecting numerous cures on persons most dreadfully afflicted by that most dis"tressing disorder, the Piles. For that painful complaint, for which "hitherto nothing but palliatives have been employed, with little or no "effect; but by means of the CANADIAN PILE OINTMENT, a com"plete cure may be speedily effected. "To confine the benefit of such a most valuable remedy to himself "and friends, would indeed amount to a crime of the blackest hue; he "has, therefore, conscientiously and disinterestedly discharged a duty by "giving the afflicted with Piles an opportunity of curing themselves. "In three or four days after using the remedy, the piles will completely "disappear, never more to return again!!" Hence it appears that, like that most invaluable discovery of the wonderful properties of the Elephant's Milk, in the "effectual cure of a certain class of diseases," by the celebrated and humane physician, Dr. Campbell, the public are indebted to the natives of India for the valuable discovery of this infallible remedy for piles, and like the elephant's milk, we find, on analysis, that it is composed of articles to be found in the shops of every druggist in England!!! The composition of this wonderful discovery, the Canadian Ointment, is brimstone and grease!!! The common remedy for the disease to which dogs are subject, termed the mange. An ointment, composed of balsam of sulphur and spermaceti ointment, is a |