Of this number were cured or relieved Died 325 18 8-351 In all the reports of hospitals we have seen, and, at one time, we were in the habit of examining the reports of all the hospitals in this kingdom, we never saw one without a specification of the number discharged incurable, or by their own requests,-the number discharged cured and relieved, is also always specified. For the last twelve months we have attended at Brentford almost every Tuesday, to give advice to the poor gratuitously. Our only objects in undertaking this weekly excursion, are exercise, for the want of which our health had suffered, to assist a deserving medical gentleman, and to do good to the afflicted poor. During that period we have had at least two hundred patients from this Dispensary, who told us that they left the Charity in consequence of having received no benefit from it!! We may therefore, with some propriety, ask by whom part of the number of 325 was cured; and how the medical attendants can make it appear that 325 out of 351 were discharged cured or relieved, when at least two hundred of the number left the Charity in consequence of having received no benefit from the medicines with which they supplied them? There is an item in the disbursements, which, to the honour of the profession be it said, we never niet with in the report of a charitable institution, viz. 45l. paid to Dr. Ronalds, Messrs. Cooke and Cooper, and Mr. Oliver, for attendance !! The great advantage a medical man receives from an appointment to an institution of this kind is experience, and a man of science highly appreciates it; but these gentlemen, considering themselves entitled to a remuneration for their attendance, suppose their education is completed, and therefore do not require further experience. We have heard the late Dr. Fordyce and Mr. Abernethy say, that a medical education is never finished, that the experience of every day either tended to confirm their opinions, or added to their stock of practical information. The medical officers of the Brentford Dispensary are, in their own estimation, superior to such practitioners. The paltry sum of fifteen pounds annually from such a source, we may venture to say, has not been made on the solicitation of either Dr. Ronalds or Mr. Cooke, gentlemen of science and liberality. We hope indeed that it is a compliment paid to the others by the treasurer. This donation to all of them exceeds one fourth of the annual subscriptions. Now if that sum were distributed among those poor patients, who have not the means of procuring the necessaries of life, it would indeed be productive of much real good. Food is a powerful auxiliary to stomachic medicines; indeed, good medical gentlemen of the Brentford Dispensary, your tonic medicines will fail to increase the strength of your patients, if not seconded by a nourishing diet. You have not to learn that tonic medicines strengthen the system, by enabling the stomach to digest the food it receives, and if the patient is not also supplied with aliment, the strengthening medicine will have no effect on the body. A poor patient of Brentford observed to us, "Pray don't give me any thing to produce appetite, for I have nothing to eat, and to me, nothing is more distressing than the sense of hunger." ADVICE TO SURGEONS.-(Continued from page 864.)— "Nothing shews the force of habit more decidedly than the practice of your branch of the medical profession; for it is said, that surgeons are extremely fond of dissecting dead bodies, as well as operating on their living patients; and this professional partiality has its corresponding utility. "Some part of the unrivalled excellence of Kemble may have been derived in this way. So devoted was he to acting in his early years, that he has been heard to say, that " he would at any time get up in the middle of the night to play Hamlet." "A knight of the black brush was contemplating to retire from business, and on being told of the inconvenience of an idle life, replied, that "He could at any time obviate that evil by occasionally ascending a chimney for his amusement." "It would, however, be a very singular taste for a surgeon to amputate legs and arms in the same way, namely, for occupation of time. It is supposed, however, that the numerous accidents which daily occur will ensure quite sufficient employment for any moderate taste in this way; even the citizen's little leaded garden, may sometimes be useful in this respect, particularly in windy weather, when some potted plant is blown. into the street from the ornamented balcony of our first floors, and fractures the skull of one of the numerous persons passing under it. "You will, on being sent for on such an occasion, have a good opportunity for operating, and will immediately proceed to trepan the pa tient, let the situation and symptoms produced by so dreadful an injury be what they may*."-(To be continued.) BUGS. SIRS, Observing that you insert every species of information that is likely to prove useful to man, I am encouraged to acquaint you with an effectual method of destroying bugs, which, in this metropolis, are to be found in almost every house. It consists in brushing the parts of the bedstead and wall in which they lodge, with the rectified oil obtained from coal, sold under the name of Petroleum Oil, at about sixpence a quart. The brush should be well charged with it, that it may run into the cracks, &c. The oil is very clear. For mahogany bedsteads, it may be coloured with the alkanet root. This oil is a powerful poison to all vermin, and such is the dislike they have to its odour, that they desert the place that has been brushed over with it. Being very inflammable, it should not be applied by candle-light. I am, Sirs, your constant reader, THOS. R. JONES. City Road, April 17th, 1821. "There is a fracture "The writer accidentally happened to call in when some country surgeons were proceeding to trepan a youth, who had fallen from his horse and fractured his skull. He stopped them suddenly: "Pray, gentlemen, what are you going to trepan for ?" of the skull," was the answer. "True, but I perceive there are no symptoms of depression, nor of any injury of the brain; and you will give the patient less chance of recovery than he has at present; for, if you do trepan, you add injury to injury." They consented to desist, and the patient soon got well. What would have been the result had the trephine been used, is another affair!!" THE No. 66. To JUNE 1, 1821. VOL. VI. TIC DOULOUREUX. DR. CARTER, Physician to the Kent and Canterbury Hospital, has lately published the following case of tic douloureux, which was cured by the carbonate of iron, as directed by Surgeon Hutchinson. "Thomas Wanstall, aged fifty-eight, a person who had, till within the last few years, led an intemperate life, was admitted an out-patient of the General Kent and Canterbury Hospital, December 22, 1820. He stated, that about the middle of October last he was seized by a most violent pain, commencing at the upper jaw, and extending in a short time over the whole of the left side of the face to the temple. Conceiving that his malady was nothing more than toothach, he had one of the grinders extracted; which was extremely decayed; but the removal of which gave him no relief. A second tooth was drawn, which proved to be sound; and subsequently a third, of the lower jaw; still the pain continued as severe as ever. He was never quite free from it; but several times a day he had a paroxysm so violent as to make him roll about upon his bed, and to incapacitate him from giving any description of his sufferings. At night he got no rest, owing to the pain and the beating at the temples, which, to use his own expression, was exactly like the ticking of a watch. Several blisters had been applied, lotions had been used, and various medicines had been taken, but nothing had appeared to afford him the least relief, excepting opium, the good effect of which was transient. "When the man presented himself at the hospital, he was suffering severely. His head was wrapped up, for he could not endure the least air to blow upon the affected parts. He was in a state of general debility; pulse feeble; tongue foul; bowels costive, probably owing to the opium which he had taken. I prescribed decoction of bark, with ammoniated tincture of guaiacum, every three hours, and ten grains of Dover's powder at night, and a laxative to be taken as soon as possible. "This plan was persisted in for three weeks, with evident advantage to the patient's general health, but without the pain of the face being in the least degree mitigated. "On the 13th of January he began taking a scruple of the carbonate of iron, every three hours, made into an electuary, with confectio aromat, and syrup. "26th.-Had been quite free from pain for four days. His appearance was much improved, and he complained of nothing but numbness of the side of the face. February 3d.-No recurrence of pain. Iron discontinued. Ordered to take decoction of bark, with the tincture, spirit of lavender, and aromatic confection, thrice a day. "Sth.-Numbness nearly gone. No return of pain. He remained perfectly well." Mr. Robinson, a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons, in London, has found the Peruvian bark to succeed in curing a well marked case of this disease, which had resisted the common routine practice of anodyne liniments and plasters, bleeding by leeches, extraction of teeth, the internal use of opium, tincture of castor, &c. Two ounces of powdered Peruvian bark were divided into twenty-four equal parts, one of which was exhibited every hour, in a little milk, and a cordial draught every three hours. The patient persisted in the use of the Peruvian bark regularly, for nine successive days, after which she had not the slightest return of the disease. The leading physicians of the continent speak highly of the beneficial effects of the carbonate of iron in this disease. Although it has been very generally employed in this country, we have not heard of a case in which it has failed, either to cure the disease, or to afford very considerable relief. Mr. Hutchinson, we understand, will soon publish a new edition of his valuable Treatise on Tic Douloureux, with a considerable addition of cases, to illustrate the benefit of his mode of treatment. RHEUMATISM, &c.-Dr. Uwins has published the following case of Rheumatism, cured by the wine of the colchicum seeds, under the direction of Mr. Burgess.-David Cotter, aged 41, a labourer, living at No. 3, Star Court, complained of having most severe pains in his head, neck, shoulders, and elbows, which deprived him of sleep, and confined him to his chamber. Mr. Burgess saw him on the 20th of March, and ordered him to take a drachm of the colchicum seed wine, two or three times a day. A few days after, the patient called on Mr. Burgess, and told him that he was well enough to sell fruit in the street. A liniment was also applied to the part. Dr. Uwins adds, "another practitioner writes word that he is about to transmit some cases of rheumatism, proving the efficacy of the colchicum seeds.-Mr. Shearman, a respectable surgeon, of Tibshelf, in Derbyshire, observes, "after having read the observations of Dr. Williams respecting the efficacy of the seeds of the colchicum, I was induced to try the remedy in a few cases under my care, and I feel pleasure in saying, that I have not been disappointed." He adds two cases of chronic rheumatism, in which it succeeded in removing the disease, and in establishing health. Some physicians of London prescribe the root in preference to the seeds, because it acts more powerfully on the stomach and bowels.The root uniformly reduces the vital powers, and in some cases of rheumatism and gout, attended with general debility, it has proved very injurious. The seeds, on the contrary, seem to act specifically on the disease, and at the same time, to improve the general health; and its effects in allaying pain and removing the cause of the disease, do not depend on its irritating the stomach or bowels, or exciting purging. A Dr. Scudamore, who has endeavoured to induce the public to suppose that he is better acquainted with the nature and treatment of rheumatism and gout, than any other practitioner, by making a voluminous book on the subject, recommends the extract of the root. If he were acquainted with pharmaceutical chemistry, he would know that the medicinal virtues of roots, are injured by the long boiling, necessary to re duce the decoction to an extract. When the small quantity of three grains of a powdered root is a sufficient dose, it is ridiculous to make an extract from it, which cannot possess any superior advantage over the powder, but is in many respects very inferior. A man whose practice depends on advertising a book, must occasionally have recourse to novelty of some kind or another, to keep his name alive in the public mind; and some of this respectable class of physicians, and we are sorry to say, surgeons, recommend their patients to a particular chemist for their preparations, who charges the medicines at a most extravagant price, in order to enable him to make his worthy patrons the stipulated allowance, for their kind recommendation. This system of quackery is, at this time, carried on in this metropolis to such a disgraceful extent, that we are collecting facts, for the purpose of exposing the shameful traffic, and the names of those who are engaged in it. When the most eminent physicians in Germany and France think themselves handsomely remunerated for a visit, by a fee of five francs, (4s. 2d.) is not the conduct of the physician or surgeon extremely mean, if not dishonest, who contracts with a druggist for an allowance of a shilling on every box of pills, and sixpence on every draught, which he compounds from the prescription he recommends to him, after receiving from the patient one guinea for his advice? Prussic acid, infusion of senna, syrup of sarsaparilla, extract of stramonium seeds, guttæ nostræ, pilul. nostræ, &c. have proved very beneficial to some physicians and surgeons. The composition of guttæ nostræ, et pilulæ nostræ are only known to the master of the shop!! CROUP.-Professor Chapman of Pennsylvania, in a communication on the pathology and treatment of this disease, states, that simple as his mode of managing it is, he always approaches it, in the early stage, with a greater certainty of curing it, than any of the other complaints of infancy or of childhood. "Called in on the commencement of the attack," says the professor, "I endeavour to vomit the child very freely, by a solution of emetic tartar, given at short intervals, being more certain and powerful in its operation than any other article. At the same time I order the child to be put into the warm bath for ten or fifteen minutes. This remedy proves very useful, by promoting the operation of the emetic, and equalizing the circulation. If the emetic does not operate, or if after the operation, the desired effect be not realized, I bleed copiously, and repeat it, and also the warm bath. An attack must be extremely obstinate, if it does not yield to this treatment. Nevertheless, it sometimes continues with little or no abatement, when abstraction of blood by leeches or cupping will be necessary. The cups should be applied to the sides or back of the neck, for when placed on the front, they will by pressure or suction greatly impede respiration, and sometimes threaten suffocation. Twice I have seen the effects of this practice so violent, that I believe death would have ensued, had not the cups been removed. As means of local bleeding, leeches are far preferable to any other. Next I put a mustard poultice or blister over the throat, or in some instances these may precede them. The foregoing treatment failing, or where the symptoms become so alarmingly violent as to demand immediate relief, I bleed till the patient faints. When the loss of blood is carried to this extent, I may almost say that |