trace of its poisonous agency, or any subsequent ill consequences. Mr. Ireland prescribes as follows: B. Liquor arsenicalis 3ij.; tincturæ opii gtt. x. aquæ menthæ pip. 3 iss. ; to which was added half an ounce of lime-juice: the medicine being taken in a state of slight effervescence. The embrocations and clysters mentioned by him, cannot be regarded as having had much to do with the cure, but were no doubt useful in some degree. On one occasion only did Mr. Ireland amputate the finger on account of the extent of the laceration. In the remaining instances he contented himself with paring the edges of the wound and dressing it superficially. It is well admitted by most physicians that arsenic will cure chorea, if given in proper doses and for a sufficient time. Mr. Martin, of Reigate, and Mr. Salter, of Poole, have adduced abundant evidence of the great powers of arsenic in the cure of this disorder. Now, having a due regard to the condition of the nervous system in these two instances of its disturbance from such different causes, I think we must conclude that arsenic operates specifically and powerfully in that direction. Dr. Taylor tells us that it is not a corrosive poison, and although four or five grains have been found sufficient to destroy life, patients have recovered after taking sixty. Such a case is upon record; it was published by Dr. Roget. A grain of arsenic every half hour sounds somewhat heroical, but I should like to see this remedy tried in hydrophobia as Mr. Ireland used it to quell the effects of the snake poison. I think it may be shown that arsenic powerfully and specifically stimulates the semilunar ganglion and its tributaries presiding over the organic life of our bodies. Its "evacuant" operation is an incident of prime importance in cases of poison. It should always be given on these occasions until the patient vomits and purges abundantly.-Association Med. Journal, Sept. 16, 1853, p. 812. 171.-ON GALLIC ACID IN THE TREATMENT OF PURPURA By T. P. J. GRANTHAM, Esq., Burgh-le-Marsh, Lincolnshire. [Gallic acid has long been known to be a valuable remedy in passive hemorrhages. The following cases show its value in purpura.] Case 1. Mr. E., a farmer and miller, aged 60 years, came under treatment on the 18th November, 1852. Two days previously, he had noticed a soreness of the tongue, and perceived that the saliva was bloody. The symptoms of purpura were well marked. The gums were spongy, and they bled freely. The tongue and the buccal mucous membrane were dotted with purple fungoid excrescences, some of which were as large as split peas, and from them blood oozed. The breath was offensive, and the appetite was impaired. The urine contained a considerable quantity of blood. Petechiae were scattered over the thoracic and dorsal regions; and there was a large ecchymosis on one arm, and another on one of the thighs. The gallic acid was administered in five-grain doses every three hours, and two compound rhubarb pills were given at bedtime. On the 20th, the purple excrescences had shrunken and ceased to bleed; the petechia and ecchymosis had faded; and the urine was free from blood. On the 30th, the improvement had been sustained. He was quite well again. He said that the first dose of medicine seemed to do him good. Only four scruples were taken. Case 2. This was a more serious case, several days having elapsed from the first setting in of hemorrhage from the nose before the patient came under my care. Master C., aged 16 years, a draper's apprentice, was seen by me on the 21st June, 1853. He was greatly exhausted and blanched from epistaxis, hæmoptysis, melæna, hematuria, petechiæ, and ecchymosis. He was immediately ordered to take gallic acid in doses of three grains every three hours, and subsequently in five-grain doses every two hours. The pil. rhei. comp. was given as an aperient. The treatment was followed by most marked benefit, and before a week had elapsed, all hemorrhage had ceased. On the 5th July, a slight recurrence of epistaxis happened, owing to his having too soon resumed active exercise. But the bleeding was quickly checked by a few doses of the acid, and complete convalescence speedily followed. Case 3. H. B., aged twelve years, son of an agricultural labourer, after three weeks' illness from typhus then prevalent in the village where he resided, was seized on the 16th August, 1853, with hemorrhage from the nose, gums, and bowels. The tongue was dotted with purple spots, and the back sprinkled with numerous small petechiæ. The treatment adopted was the same as in the former cases. On the 17th, hematuria was superadded to the other symptoms, which were very severe. On the 18th, the hemorrhages began to abate. On the 20th, the spots on the tongue and the petechiae had faded; the hemorrhages had nearly stayed. On the 21st, a severe return of epistaxis occurred, from picking his nose. This was followed by alarming prostration of strength. He was ordered to take the acid every hour, and to have his nose plugged. On the 22nd, all bleeding had ceased. On the 30th, I found that there had been steady and daily improvement since last report. On the 31st, he was convalescent. This was a severe case, as the patient's strength had been so much reduced by a previous exhausting disease, and accordingly it was necessary to push the acid to a considerable extent.-Association Medical Journal, September 9, 1853, p. 793. 172. Turpentine in the Treatment of Purpura. By WM. SMITH, Esq., Chesterfield. [Mr. Smith's attention was led to the use of this remedy from the mention of it in Dr. Copland's Dictionary. In a case he relates, the patient being a child six years old, purpura first appeared on the lower extremities, in the autumn of 1852, though no medical advice was sought until the spring of the present year. He says:] In the case now narrated, the child had for some time lived chiefly on animal food, in fact, on the usual farm-house diet-bacon. On my first examination of her, March 15th, 1853, several very large ecchymoses were present on the legs, and one of the size of an egg on the forehead, the result of a slight blow. The smallest pressure produced them. There had been considerable bleeding from the nose on several occasions, and once from the bowels. There was oozing of blood from the gums. The urine was high coloured, and the alvine evacuations pale and generally constipated. I treated this case first with purgatives, and then with diluted sulphuric acid. She was also ordered to suck oranges, drink lemonade or weak beer, and to eat rhubarb tarts. The case did not progress with this treatment; the epistaxis was, indeed, somewhat diminished, but the other symptoms continued much the same. Under these circumstances I gave the child citrate of iron combined with citric acid. This succeeded better, and after three months' perseverance, cutaneous discolorations ceased. The progress of cure was, however, extremely slow, and a relapse has since occurred, but the patient has again recovered under the use of the citrate of iron. The second case occurred in a little girl, aged 4, generally strong and active, and residing in a spacious house situated near a tannery. This case was very acute. There was first remarked in her a disinclination to food, especially vegetable, and extreme irritability of temper. The bowels were extremely constipated. These symptoms ushered in the attack. The lower extremities became weary and stiff towards evening, and three large elevated spots, varying from the size of a fourpenny piece to that of half-a-crown, appeared upon them. These spots became rapidly purple and soft, and gave the impression to the touch of fluid blood under the skin. In the morning they became yellow, and gradually were absorbed, but others, larger and higher up the legs, succeeded. Two formed of a very large size in the hams, and the skin became so thin that I thought it would give way. The child, in three days, became pallid and exsanguine, and her pulse very sharp and hemorrhagic. After using a mercurial purge, I at once resorted to the following mixture: B. Olei terebinth. 3 ss.; olei ricini 3j.; mucilaginis, sacchari, āā, q. s.; olecaryophyl. gtt. iv.; aquæ dist. ad 3 viij. Misce ut fiat mistura, cujus sumat cochlearia ij. vel iij. bis vel ter in die. The effect of this mixture was most satisfactory. The purpuric spots rapidly disappeared, the bowels acted copiously and naturally, the appetite of the child became good, and the temper cheerful. I certainly believe that in all passive hemorrhages, turpentine will be found most valuable in its effects; and in this class of diseases we must generally place purpura.-Association Med. Journal, Sept. 9, 1853, p. 792. 173.-Lupulin (the Alkaloid of Hops) as an Anaphrodisiac.-M. DEBOUT, of Paris, editor of the Bulletin de Thérapeutique,' has found lupulin extremely useful in chordee, priapism, traumatic orgasm, and spermatorrhoea. The lupulin should be used in powder, and triturated with lump sugar. The dose is from fifteen to thirty grains. M. Ricord and M. Puche have carried the dose from one to three drachms without any unpleasant effect.-Lancet, July 2, 1853, p. 8. 174.—Administration of Ether in Capsules.-In the 'Journal de Médecine et de Chirurgie Pratiques' for April, 1853, M. CLERTAN, of Dijon, states that he has for some time been accustomed to give ether in capsules in nervous affections. After several years of observation, by himself and others, he concludes that ether, when introduced in a known dose, pure, and without loss, into the stomach, has an effect which was totally unknown until the preparation of the ether pearls (perles d'éther). According to the old plan, the ether became partly volatilized before passing half way down the œsophagus; and what arrived in the stomach was dissolved in water, and in a state favourable to rapid and sudden volatilization. M. Clertan has several times seen neuralgia, hemicrania, and gastralgia, arrested instantaneously by from one to three of these capsules; while ether draughts, and ether in syrup, had been largely given without any effect. The editor of the Union Médicale' for April 12th, in noticing M. Clertan's preparation, states that the ether capsules are already employed extensively by M. Trousseau, M. Pidoux, and other practitioners in Paris. The advantages of the capsules are: 1. The ether can be administered in a known dose-each capsule containing four or five drops. 2. The capsules are inodorous; so that ether can, without their knowledge, be given to persons to whom its smell is repulsive. 3. The capsules permit neither evaporation nor decomposition of the ether; they may be kept a year at least, or indefinitely, according to M. Clertan. 4. The ether arrives in the stomach without irritating the membrane of the mouth or pharynx, or producing cough; and it produces its sedative action by its rapid absorption.-Association Med. Journal, Sept. 2, 1853, p. 779. 175.-String fellow's Electro-Galvanic Pocket Battery, for Medical Purposes.This invention was cursorily mentioned in a report of the proceedings of a late meeting of the Medical and Chirurgical Society. The principal feature in which it differs from former contrivances consists in its being composed of a number of compound bars or plates, permanently arranged in series, one, two, or three of these forming a battery. One sufficiently large for personal use is composed of two of these series, or twenty-two bars, which will occasion a sensible shock; or, under continued application, is powerful enough to cauterize the skin. Its power can be so regulated as to supply an electric current of any less intensity that may be required; and the efficiency of these batteries is shown by the fact, that one consisting of six bars, excited by water alone, will decompose that fluid, and produce a mild continuous current, through any part of the body. These batteries are also constructed of much higher power; the value of which, from their ready applica tion in urgent cases, as well as for various scientific purposes, cannot fail to be ap preciated by all persons interested in, or acquainted with, the numerous medical and other important uses to which electro-galvanism may be successfully applied. The portability and neatness of this battery is one of its recommendations. We feel assured that where electricity has been found beneficial, this miniature galvanic machine will prove of value. It is easily employed, and well adapted for the relief of nervous invalids.-Lancet, July 2, 1853, p. 9. 176.-Removal of a Gold Ring from a Young Lady's Finger.-[In a letter to the editor of the Lancet, DR. CASTLE, of New York, thus describes a plan of removing a ring from the finger, after many others had been tried in vain. He says:] I at once proceeded to the house of the patient, and found the young lady in a most deplorable state of mental agony, the doctor embarrassed, and the family in a high state of excitement. I procured some prepared chalk, filled in the ring, and covered all round the finger with the preparation, and succeeded in drying the abraded flesh; then with a narrow piece of soft linen I succeeded in polishing the ring, by drawing it frequently and gently round the ring between the swollen ridges of flesh. I then applied quicksilver to the whole surface of the gold. In the course of three minutes, by gentle pressure with the nippers, the ring broke into four pieces, to the relief of all parties. In a similar manner (without the chalk) I extracted a small brass ring, which a child had (child-like) inserted into the cavity of its ear. The operation was more tedious and more painful, but equally successful. The modus operandi of the mercury.-It at once permeates and amalgamates with the metals, with the exception of iron, steel, platina, and one or two others. It immediately crystallizes, and becomes as hard and as brittle as glass, and with the same ease can be broken.-Lancel, Aug. 6, 1853, p. 134. [Dr. Newnham, in a note to the Lancet,' gives the following method: "Wind closely and tightly round the finger as far as the ring a piece of well-soaped twine; then, with the end of a needle or probe, force the end of the twine beneath the ring, and gradually unwind. The ring will come off with the twine."]-Lancet, Aug 20, 1853, p. 178. 177.-On the Different Kinds of Whey.-[We have heard so much lately of the cures performed by several kinds of whey, that the various receipts below may not be uninteresting.] The following is a translation of the directions given in the Pharmacopoeia Borussica' of 1829, for the preparation of five different kinds of whey: 1. Serum lactis dulce, Sweet whey.-Take an ounce of the dried stomach of a calf, infuse with six fluid ounces of cold water for ten or twelve hours, add an ounce of this liquor to nine pounds of fresh cow's milk, warm gently, and after coagulation is effected, decant and strain the liquid. 2. Serum lactis dulcificatum, Sweetened whey.—Take three pounds of cow's milk, boil, and at the commencement of ebullition add one drachm of bitartrate of potash; when the coagulation is effected, and the whole has become cool, strain, and boil with a sufficient quantity of white of egg beaten up into a froth, until the albumen is coagulated; strain, and add as much prepared chalk (or shells) as is required to neutralize the acid, and filter. 3. Serum lactis acidum, Sour whey.-The former without addition of the chalk. 4. Serum lactis aluminatum, Alum whey.-5. Serum lactis tamarindinatum, Tamarind whey. In these respectively a drachm of crude powdered alum, or one ounce of the pulp of tamarinds, is employed instead of the bitartrate of potash. Other pharmacopoeias direct the preparation of a variety of whey with vinegar, or with Rhenish wine; in the latter case the proportions are eight ounces of wine to three pounds of milk.—Bril. and For. Med. Chir. Review, July, 1853, p. 149. 178.-On Ferruginous Collodion. By M. ARAN.-Having observed the utility of the salts of iron in erysipelas, M. Aran, to facilitate their application, combined them with collodion, forming a preparation which united the compressive and astringent effects. It consists of equal parts of collodion and Bestuchef's tincture (ethereal tincture of perchloride of iron). Spread on the skin, it forms a somewhat thinner pellicle than ordinary collodion, but it is much more supple and resisting, so that the XXVIII.-21. limb can be moved in any direction without the cracking which takes place when collodion alone is used. Its adhesion is also more prolonged.-Bull. de Thérap xliv. 370.—Bril. and For. Medico-Chirurgical Review, July, 1853, p. 277. 179.-ON THE ANÆSTHETIC PROPERTIES OF THE LYCOPERDON PROTEUS, OR COMMON PUFF-BALL. By BENJAMIN W. RICHARDSON, Esq. [Mr. Richardson's attention was first directed to this subject from a friend mentioning to him that bees were sometimes stupefied with the smoke of this fungus before the contents of the hive were removed. They gradually recover from the insensibility, and thus the cruel necessity was obviated of destroying them by the fumes of sulphur. He then commenced a series of experiments, illustrating its effect upon animals. He says:] My first experiment was made on the 29th of last March. A kitten was placed in a bell-shaped glass vessel, open at top and bottom. Smoke from a piece of the fungus ignited was allowed to rise pretty freely into the bell; but several interruptions occurred, so that thirty-five minutes elapsed before any positive effect took place. By that time, however, the creature was fairly narcotized. A cut in the ear produced no sign of pain. The breathing was reduced to eight respirations per minute, and the temperature of the body was lowered. From time to time, after removal from the bell, I counted the breathing and the heart-beat, and found them gradually increasing in number, and the body becoming warmer. The sleep however, was profound; and, after a period of two hours, no sign of sensibility to pain could be elicited. I laid the animal down by the side of her mother, and in the morning found her skipping about as well as ever. The second experiment was performed on a dog. It was placed in a box, in which it had sufficient room to turn round, and in which the atmospheric air could enter freely from the top. The smoke of the fungus was admitted through the bottom of the box, and the animal was fairly narcotized in a quarter of an hour. On remov ing it on to a table in the narcotized state, a deep puncture was made in the nose: blood of a bright red colour flowed freely, but no sign of pain was given. The symptoms that preceded the narcotism were those of intoxication: the animal turned round several times; power in the legs ceased; and it fell down at last on its side, insensible; the bowels acting involuntarily. For five minutes after the anesthesia had come on, the respirations numbered forty-eight per minute; but the heart-sounds were steady, and comparatively slow; the first sound corresponding to each inspira tion. The body was warm. Five minutes later, there was a convulsive fit; but the body was still insensible, and the pulse forty per minute. The pupil was dilated and fixed, but the head was drawn back when a light was brought near to the eye. Three minutes later, the animal was becoming conscious, and wagged its tail when spoken to, but showed no pain when pricked with a knife. At a quarter past nine it commenced to wince when pinched, and crawled about in a reeling manner. From this time, the recovery was rapid; aud in ten minutes the creature seemed as well as though nothing had been done to it. In a third experiment, at which Dr. Crisp was present, a dog was again the subject. There were the same symptoms of intoxication, but complete narcotism set in in six minutes. In this case, the narcotizing agent had been given more freely and steadily than in the previous cases. Eighteen minutes after removal from the box, the animal remained insensible to pain, but was conscious when spoken to. Blood drawn from the nose was of a bright red colour. The other symptoms were very similar to those described in the last experiment. Two minutes later, rallying com menced; and in twenty minutes the creature had quite recovered. We remarked. that the sensibility returned in the fore legs previous to returning in the hinder ones. Finding that the impure fumes of the burning fungus were rather painful te breathe, as they produced some degree of irritation in the throat, and caused the eyes to water, I made them pass through a solution of caustic potash, previous exposing the animal to their influence. This was easily done. The smoke, being produced in a large closed vessel, was forced by water-pressure through a Wolf |