Compiled by R. LUDLAM, M. D., Secretary.

XII. Chronic Diarrhea. Case reported by DR. J. L. KELLOOG. Miss A.- aged 22, Sanguino-Nervous temperament, 3 years ago was well and weighed 148 lbs. At that period reverse of fortune made it necessary for her to make personal effort for her support. Great mortification and depression of spirits resulted, and following these, Diarrhea during three years as hereinafter described.

The affection was ushered in by griping pains in the bowels, soon followed by a discharge-rather slight, of pale color and streaked with blood. Took Homoeopathic remedies and was relieved of the intensity of her suffering in a few days, but from that time to this has scarcely had one evacuation of natural consistence. The discharges have been in number from one to four in twentyfour hours. During the first few weeks had to be up nights as well as days. In consistence the discharges vary from that of a porridge-like substance to that of mush; in color, from dark to a dirty yellow, sometimes tending to greenish. Every day has more or less griping pains before evacuations and at other times. Discharges are copious, sometimes half filling a common night-vessel Appetite- In the morning, no desire for food, constant desire for stimulants and the most stimulating condiments; at noon has a most ravenous appetite approaching a gnawing sensation at the stomach, which, for the time being, is relieved by a full meal. Usually about two hours after having eaten there is a return of uneasiness and distress in the bowels. Anger, anxiety, or grief, excite a motion of the bowels. Coffee invariably induces an evacuation. Active physical exercise seems to delay the evacuations. Moral Symptoms-Mind exceedingly irritable-excitable-desponding-hopeless as to her recovery. Menstrual habits slightly irregular. Form emaciate,-countenance pale and fallen. Extremities inclined to be cold-always so in autumn and winter.

Prescribed Aug. 1st., Lachesis 200, three drops. The first day had no discharge. The second day but one, with less pain and but little change in the character of the stool. The same remedy, but of different potencies down to the 8th, was subsequently repeated with indifferent success. During the month of August, Colocynth, .China, Gummi Gutti and Mercurius were administered with little benefit, except in a measure to relieve the pain.

Sept. 1st., Prescribed Mere. Sol. 3, in the morning, and Veratrum 3 at bedtime. Sept. 13th., Much improved-but one passage daily, nearly natural in consistence, color, and quantity. Has no pain-strength improved-cheerful, and confident of recovery.

Nov. 1., Continues regular. Improved in flesh, and in all respects considers herself cured.

XIV. Coffee Injections in Neuralgia of the Rectum. The Secretary reported the following:-

Mrs. U-, aet 30, three weeks after confinement, which was complicated only by a slight attack of Colitis with diarrhea, and which responded to the ordinary remedies, became excessively “nervous,” anticipating the accident of a milkleg from which she once suffered in New York. This morbid condition of the nervous system was plainly referable to Spinal disorder mixed up with a drug cachexia, and the weather being stormy at the time, she experienced repeated attacks of an erratic Neuralgia. For chronic hemorrhoids, aggravated by her recent confinement, she had used a small enema containing ten drops of Hamamelis virg. 1, twice daily, with the most signal relief. Suddenly one evening, after a comfortable day, she was seized as follows:-There came on a “pricking, as of forty needles in the rectum,” with “pressing down and burning;” a dragging in the coccyx and sacrum, which latter are too tender to lie upon. The pressing down in the rectum is increased by rolling upon the left side, but the pricking and burning are lessened thereby. The pain remits but is intolerable at short intervals. Bowels soluble-moved two hours since and without pain, except in the hemorrhoidal tumor. Is disposed to cough a little, which effort produces great aggravation of the suffering. Strangury at intervals. She rolls about in agony, is excessively nervous, and cannot be composed, to sleep. She had been in this condition some hours when I saw her. When the symptoms first appeared, the nurse, supposing the trouble due to the hemorrhoids, had administered an extra enema of the Hamamelis. but with greatly increased aggravation of the suffering. The poor patient declared she could not live, nor did she desire to, if called to endure such pain another hour.

I gave her a table-spoonful of a strong Decoction of Coffee from the table, once in ten minutes, and an enema of the same article diluted, once in half an hour, to her entire relief. She soon became easy and comfortable and went to sleep. No other remedies were administered.

XV. DR. N. F. COOKE made a verbal report of an interesting case illustrative of the fact that a correct Diagnosis is essential to success in our practical Therapeutics.

The patient, Mr. C.-, a middle aged man, had been suffering for three years with Chronic Rheumatism which would occasionally put on an Acute type. He had experienced such severe pain that both his joints and limbs were distorted. The feet were very much deformed, the toes overlapping each other. For the past twelve-months he has been free from Acute attacks save in the feet. These latter were so painfully diseased that he could not walk. His face bore an expression of agony; his disposition, naturally jovial, was soured; and he said he “felt as though walking on needles at every step.”

I prescribed various remedies for him,-Nitric Acid, Colchicum. etc., sometimes with apparent, but really without permanent relief. One evening, about two months since, when he was suffering and scolding even more than usual, I expressed a desire to look at his feet. At each bearing of the foot I found a great callosity,-four on one foot and five on the other. The treatment then became very obvious. Removed these deposits, and, to prevent their return, had him wear a cork sole so prepared as to relieve pressure, and from which he afterward experienced great relief and satisfaction. His natural expression of countenance returned, and he “feels like a colt,” as he says. Several eminent medical gentlemen had previously treated him constitutionally for the same infirmity.

XVI. The Causes of Disease. Translated from the French of M. RASPAIL, by G. E. SHIPMAN, M. D. Prefacing this paper, of which we give only a brief abstract. Dr. S. says:

To the Medical philosopher especially, the causes of things have ever been matters of deep interest, and though the search after these causes has not always been successful it has been prosecuted with an ardor which gives promise of success, certain, though it may yet be future. It is the intention of this paper to present the results of the researches in this field of an original thinker of great erudition and unwearied industry. Many of his views are perhaps enthusiastic, but as the opinions of every man who thinks for himself are worthy of consideration, those of M. Raspail certainly deserve a hearing.

In the 1st Division of the subject, as laid down by the Author, we have Physical Causes. Chapter 1st gives us a sub-division of these into the Pneumatic, Dietetic or digestive, and Thermanic Causes of Disease. Chap. II. Causes which proceed by the decomposition of the liquids, and the disorganization of the tissues. These are divided into, a. those which act by the vehicle of the respiration, as acid emanations or exhalations, and basic emanations or exhalations; and b. disorganizing causes which act by the alimentary canal. Chap. III. Causes which proceed by solution of continuity. Of these the first category takes cognizance of Inert or not living causes; the second of Organized or living causes of disease. Dr. S. has selected and given us M. Raspail's views of the First Category embracing the Inert Causes of Disease.

425. I take as a point of departure the introduction into our tissues of a simple briar, a sort of smooth and curved cone drawn out at the ends into a sharp point. Let this brier be thrust into our skin like the coulter of a plough; the direction of this tearing body will be almost immediately indicated to the eye by a red furrow; and to the thought by a sensation of burning, a re-union of two characters, one visible, the other sensible, which by common consent is designated inflammation. As the cause is readily perceived, but little notice is in general taken of the effects; it is a simple case of disorganization readily comprehended by most men. The universal redness of the tissue evidently comes from the extravasation of the blood of the sub-epidermic capillaries, which employ themselves into this furrow by the orifice of their solutions of continuity; blood which undergoes hematiosis by becoming oxygenized in this tissue traumatically pulmonary. For every internal tissue imbibes and elaborates air, as do the lungs, and as Boon as it comes in immediate contact with the air itself, the venous blood is immediately changed into arterial. Hence augmentation of caloric; for we have here condensation of the oxygen of the air, absorption by a liquid and transformation by combination; a local fever; that is to say, alteration by interuption of the regularity of the circulation. At a trifling depth this case of disease cures itself; evaporation suffices for the dedication of the extravasated liquids. As nothing ferments while dry, there is no fear of purulent poisoning; the crust which forms, protects both the subjacent tissues and the vessels which may still be open whether from the inflammatory action of the air or the contagious infection of decomposition; it is a case similar to that of incisions made into a tree, which cure themselves by the transformation of the wounded inner-bark into a new protecting outer-bark.

In p. 426, our author supposes a case resulting from a wound produced by such a thorn or briar which has had its point dipped in some poison. Of this class are dissecting wounds etc., “where the contagion of death will infuse itself into the blood with all its train of most fearful symptoms. The slightest puncture may produce a fatal inoculation. * * * * * * 428. What kind of a disease is it in fact which announces itself almost without a precursory stage by vertigo, obscured vision, lipothymia, swooning, desire to vomit, a burning irregular fever, which in a few moments ascends to the brain; cramps in the extremities, palpitations and oppression at the centre; the nervous susceptibility everywhere aroused; then general prostration, delirium and in three days death? What name will be given to this entity if the cause is not suspected? Is it a cerebral fever, a neurosis, a putrid and typhoid fever, a sporadio case of typhus? The autopsy reveals nothing, and the too rapid march of the symptoms has left nowhere sufficiently deep traces. You then who have surprised the cause in the very act, do you open the deliberation without enlightening any one; and you will have opportunity to appreciate by this one case, the value of medical theories which have for their end to eliminate by the combinations of Symptoms, the unknown, which is the cause of the trouble. The domain of the imagination commences where that of observation ends; and the domain of the imagination is a desert of sand where one has no guide but the stars at night and the mirage by day. The fact and then illusion; the observation abruptly terminated, and then the hypothesis which follows it without connection or order-such is Medicine from the time of Medea, to our day.

429. However that may be, we have here a cause of disease which is simple and which falls quite within the reach of our senses. Let us change the place and we shall proceed, each time, to change the characteristic symptoms of the disease, and according to the nature of the organ which is their seat, we shall see the disease presenting itself as severe or light, curable or mortal.

430. Let some analogous sharp point penetrate deeper into the flesh of the arm or leg; from that moment the scratch will become a phlegmon, of an inflammatory character much more severe, as it will be protected with less care, and as the temperature will be more favorable to the progressing fermentation of the stagnant liquid. In fact the solution of continuity being more profound, and consequently the mass of blood whether venous or arterial, disgorged by the capillaries, being more considerable in this artificial cloaca, the decomposition of liquids will take place more rapidly and upon a larger scale; for the air, that principle of all fermentation, will penetrate there, through a larger orifice. Soon after, the movement of the muscles will displace the point in every direction, they will thus multiply the solutions of continuity and give so much more access to the external air. The inflammation will thus spread from space to space, an interval will be formed between the oxygenated and the unoxygenated blood, an obstacle to the regular circulation; and the abnormal products of this elaboration of a dead and inert liquid, being absorbed with all their most subtle properties, by the adjacent veins will soon carry fever with its consecutive disorders into the whole circulatory torrent, then death.

After remarking at considerable length, upon the liability of any organ or section in the regional anatomy of the body to such an accident, and that the consequent symptoms would go by different names as located variously, we have a catalogue of examples from several authors whose names or cases we need not enumerate. We may however copy one of the most authentic and interesting:

“M'lle Bronhan, Soubrette of the Theatre-Francais, complained, for many years, of pains which she experienced successively in various parts of the body -pains sometimes dull, at others acute, but always of a character difficult to explain. The pain finally became seated in the breast and produced there a growing tumor which led her to fear the formation of a cancer; her physician himself partaking of the same fear. M'lle B. decided to submit to an operation. The evening before the day fixed for the important act, she perceived in her breast a sharp point protruding, which finally perforated the epidermis and showed the point of a needle, which our actress lost no time in extracting, and from that time she was relieved of all the nosological train of her sufferings- her rheumatisms, her coxalgiae, her neuralgiae, and finally her cancer, all resided at the point of the needle, which traveled through her flesh, and bore from place to place an irritation which changed its name according to organs in which it was present-the needle was oxydized over a great extent.”

434. “We have taken as a type, a sharp pointed substance, smooth upon its surface, and which to penetrate deeply must be urged by force from behind. But let us suppose a sharp pointed substance pursuing the course above indicated, itself covered more or less regularly with sharp projections extending towards its base; such are splinters of wood or bone, with irregular asperities which result from the fracture of an organized tissue either woody or bony; such are also the beards of the grasses and many other organs of those vegetables so common about us. The beard, or the splinter, once introduced into the skin, will be susceptible, simply by the play which the motions of the muscles impart to it, to penetrate from space to space, even to organs the most noble and the most necessary to life; to the liver, the heart, the spleen, the intestines, the genital organs, there to produce ravages which will change their name according to their seat, their extent and duration which multiply contacts and combinations in an incalculable progression.”

Extending the argument by a practical illustration of the effects of these little “arrow headed substances” upon the respiratory surfaces, our author enquires, p. 436:

“What physician would divine the nature of these disorders if the patient should not reveal to him their accidental cause? None. After the revelation of the cause, each one would consider himself capable of it, and calling to his aid all the resources of the vocabulary, be will favor us impromptu with twenty symptoms which would have led him to diagnosticate the nature and the cause of the disease, and finally the differences which this accident presents from such a spontaneous disease from which it has taken the mask. * * * * ”

437. “During the year 1824 there appeared near the environs of Pesth in Hungary an epizooty which raged chiefly among the flocks of sheep. The animal seemed all at once seized with an unusual restlessness; it leaped up frightened and as if pursued by some invisible demon, its fleece might be seen to shudder here and there and the pain seemed to be most acute upon the least approach of the hand; the unquiet rams butted with their horns without objects and without anger. To such an extreme of agitation, there succeeded a state of apparent calmness; the animal languished, the eye became dull and dejected, the head hung low, the gait slow and painful, eating at first as much as usual nevertheless becoming rapidly emaciated. Then disgust followed, even in the richest pastures,-soon the disease assumed a grave character, sometimes cough, at others diarrhea, at others again a kind of ascites; a fever was always present-a slow and ataxic fever. The skin was covered with fetid ulcers; at other times it appeared healthy and in good condition, nevertheless at this very time the animal fell as if struck by apoplexy. An ill-omened sanies trickled frequently from the mouth and eyes; the animal laid down resigned to die, and if on the first appearance of the symptoms the animals were not immediately slaughtered, they soon became putrid and the owners were not sure of securing even the skin, devoured as it was in large patches by this devastating disease. Was it contagious? or an infection? In the stables they were not troubled, but they only needed to go to the infected pasture and they bore away the germ of the disease, which however, they did not communicate to others. Commissioners were appointed to visit the place to study this new disease; never were the precursors, the symptoms, the phases, the crises, classed and observed with more care and in a more exact manner; the reports scientifically drawn up occupied many sessions, and during the course of the discussion the disease took a multitude of different names; none analyzed it better than those who had never seen it; it was never better described than at a distance; it was thought that the admirable description of Virgil, more than one peculiarity of which was recalled by this epizooty, was not forgotten by the philologists of the assembly. The disease then was very well studied; the limits of the centre of infection were topographically determined; the direction of the minds, the temperature, the range of the barometer were exactly set down every day.

But what was the cause of the disease? Must such rich pastures be abandoned in a country where such rich pastures were none too abundant; or was there rather a hope to purify them, to make them salubrious or less injurious for cultivation or pasturage? What were finally the means to employ?

438. An observing botanist put an end to these wise discussions and this disease “passed by a single work from the domain of Pathology to that of the Genera Plantarum. The entity of the contagion, the malignity of the epidemic influence, the archaeus of Van Helmont, the stimulus of Brown, the germ of the contagious virus, the inflammation of Stahl and Broussais, the spirit of evil, in fine, as the red skins called it, that mysterious cause of such ruin and so many ills, this unknown disease with so many titles, had nevertheless a name in our catalogues; it was inscribed there under the name of Stipapennata, a high grass of the sandy pastures. * * * * * * * *

439. Furthermore, men are not beyond the reach of such accidents, but they readily divine their nature and relieve themselves promptly. Desfontaines relates that nothing so incommodes the traveller to Africa, as these flowrets of the Stipapennata, which, insinuating themselves, into their garments, begin to bore and penetrate the flesh, occasioning the acutest pain. If man was not so organized, that in this case he could use his five fingers and his tongue, he would carry the dart without knowing its nature, and without ability to remove it, and would perish like the sheep under the wound of a straw. Sarragin relates that the quills of the porcupine once introduced into the flesh, work their way among the muscles, till they meet and penetrate one of the viscera, whence death ensues.

Omitting the detail of cases quoted in support of these views, some of which are very reliable and interesting, we read again.

444. But if, in place of an entire spike or beard, we have to do with a broken one merely-a powder composed of its spiculae-from that moment the disease would preserve its place in the nosographic table, because the cause, reduced to dimensions too minute to be appreciated by the eye. will be discharged unnoticed and confounded with the substance of the pus. Whoever has endeavored to find in the living subject, or even in an autopsy, in the products of decomposition, the palpable traces of the mechanical cause? The Scapel cuts, lays open, cuts off, but never analyses; and how many things pass beneath its edges, carrying with them as rejected the solution of the riddle and the end of disputation?

445. Fix your thoughts now upon that which surrounds us; calculate how often, at certain seasons, deglutition or inspiration may receive from a breath of air, the pulverised debris of these harvests of the spikes of obscure grasses which line our roads, streets and alleys, and say, if many of our epidemics, so scientifically studied, may not have been in their essence or in their complication, the work of these little straws?

* * * * * * * * *

447. We have just studied some interesting cases of the introduction into the air passages of foreign bodies whoso very structure explains the regularity and uniformity of the morbid phenomena. The relative position of the larynx sufficiently demonstrates how it happens that these foreign bodies introduce themselves into the lungs rather than into the alimentary canal; these bodies which advance creeping must insinuate themselves into the first cavity which they meet in their course. But the alimentary canal, as one may readily presuppose, is not exempt from like accidents; it is evident indeed from the very nature of deglutition, that it is more frequently exposed than any other part.

Now, here again, when the foreign body is brought to view, it is but an accident hardly worth a mention; when it escapes observation (and what is it which does not escape observation, during the twenty-four hours which separate the visits of the physician-visits which last but a few minutes,) then the learned science seizes its rights and the disputation has full sway; the more obscure as it is more profound, it recedes from the light in its very effort to penetrate its subject.

448. Read all the cases which Science has registered of different foreign bodies introduced accidentally into internal organs; how laconic is the description, how simple the history, how meagre the symptoms detailed.

According to Ant. Benivenius, a woman of Tuscany swallowed a pin. Three years after she discharged it by the umbilicus without any consequent derangement of the health.

According to Valescus of Tarentum, a young girl in Venice passed in her urine a needle three inches long.

Monsieur de Rohan, says Ambrose Pare, had a fool named Guion who swallowed the end of a sharp sword three fingers long or thereabouts and twelve days after passed it per anum.

And all other descriptions are as brief as these-when the foreign body is of such dimensions that its presence admits of no doubt.

But when the foreign body is of such minute dimensions as to escape our sight, Oh! we shall then have a journal of observations from hour to hour, the better balanced by the worse, a succession of aggravations and ameliorations; and at the end of this interminable train of exact observations, comes the eternal refrain of Death and Autopsy with their endless disappointments.

449. Are there then no bodies, except those of a certain dimension, which may happen to introduce themselves into our organs? And has Nature fixed as a measure of these dimensions, the extent of our sight? It seems to me on the contrary that those cases of introduction should be the more frequent the more minute the foreign bodies are; for under this form they find fewer obstacles. Now why does not the analogy of the consecutive effects of the introduction of foreign bodies of a large size lead us to assign to the introduction of those of a small size the cause of phenomena entirely and proportionally similar?

For, finally, all this reasoning reduces itself to the following formula which carries its evidence with it:-A CERTAIN CAUSE HAVING PRODUCED A CERTAIN

EFFECT, A CERTAIN EFFECT SHOULD ALSO BE PRODUCED BY AN EQUAL CAUSE.

450. Hence, in making an application of this axiom, which I shall call a counter-proof, if it is certain that a foreign body introduced into the lungs induces there according to its dimensions and its exterior forms, one or the other of the numerous affections which we have registered in our catalogues under the name of catarrh, asthma, croup, peripneumonia, pleurisy, emphysema, empyema, phthisis, pulmonalis etc; why should not these affections always and in all cases be the effect of foreign bodies of dimensions less appreciable to our gross methods of observation?

451. A foreign body in the stomach induces there all the sufferings of gastritis; in the intestines all those of enteritis. Why should not gastritis and enteritis always be the effects of analogous foreign bodies?

452. The same of diseases of the heart; the same of diseases of the liver and of the spleen, icterus or intermittent fever:

453. The same of diseases of the vagina and uterus.

454. The same of diseases of the urinary passages and of calculi in the bladder, which the presence of a foreign body introduced in a visible manner and acting as a nucleus, too often produces. The mechanism of a stony formation being once recognized, does it not suffice to explain all other cases of a similar nature even when the dimensions of the nucleus are such as to elude our sense?

455. The same of rheumatic or arthritic pains, of nervous spasms. The introduction of a needle into one of our muscles is sufficient to determine, with the most acute pains, the loss of locomotion; why. in general, may not every loss of motion, coxalgia, paraplegia etc., arise from an analogous cause acting not hypothetically, but quite simply and in a mechanical manner, by dividing the muscular and nervous filaments which it meets in its passage, thus cutting off communication between the passive and the active organ, the contractile organ and the organ whose electrical influence induces contraction.

456. That these inductions should be stamped with falsity it would be necessary that Medicine should be a Science without any point of contact with all others, cast beyond the domain of actual nature, having separate laws, separate reasoning, separate truth, while the physician in treading upon the threshold of its sanctuary should resign his distinctive character as man, divest himself of his power to perceive and reason, to see and foresee, to observe and to judge; he should then empty from his cranium that cerebral organ in which thought is elaborated and reasoning completed. Has man in fact ever reasoned in Chemistry, in Physics, in Astronomy etc., with that incoherence and that duplicity of formulas which characterize medical reasoning?

457. Surrounded by dangers, in this world where everything is active as well as ourselves, let us well remember that it is to the smallest matters that we are most frequently the victims, for the very reason that it is against these we guard ourselves the least; these are spirits since they are invisible, but spirits which torture us after the manner of natural bodies.

If then it is certain and demonstrated that such a body acts by cutting the thread of everything which is soft, by opening the canal of everything which circulates, every time that I shall find these filaments severed, these canals emptied in this manner, I shall have the right to suspect the action of a foreign body analogous by its structure and its organization.

XVII. The Hamamelis Virg. in Intestinal Hemorrhage. The Secretary read, notes of the subjoined case communicated by L. PRATT, M. D., of Rock Creek,

III.

I was called inst March to visit the case referred to-a young man aet. 19. Some six months before the present sickness he had Intermittent Fever which was treated with Quinine. Had not enjoyed good health since that time-could endure ittle exercise-easily affected by changes of weather which frequently produced slight chills, and occasionally diarrhea-had a poor appetite and a feeling of general weakness most of the time. For two weeks before I saw him he appeared dull and inactive-had frequent chills and flushes of heat, was restless and slightly delirious at night. For three nights before the first visit he had had a watery diarrhea. Also he complained of pains in the back, limbs, and head. His tongue was coated with a dark yellow fur, with a portion through the centre almost black, very dry and cracked, pulse small and frequent, great prostration of strength, trembling of the hands und subsultus. Very little urine secreted, and that of a dark brandy color. Gurgling sound after or while drinking-sordes on the teeth, continued heat of the body with cold feet, intense thirst for cold water and internally feeling of heat in the bowels.

Prescribed Rhus tox. and Arsenicum alternately every three hours. The patient seemed to improve a little until the third day, when I was suddenly called to see him again in consequence of Hemorrhage from the bowels. The blood passed by the rectum amounted to at least two quarts before I saw him. He had stools of blood about once in fifteen minutes. Prescribed four drops of the Mother Tincture of Hamamelis virg. in a tumbler of water, a desert-spoon-full to be taken every ten minutes until the discharges were arrested for an hour-omit for an hour, then to take one more dose. Afterwards omit until a relapse occurred. I was not able to see the patient again until twenty-four hours later. Ordered the dose to be repeated immediately after each passage of blood. Found the next day that it had twice returned, but was at once arrested by a single dose each time.

This patient took for the week following Arsenicum 3 and China 12. alternately every three to six hours. Afterwards for three days took the Arsenicum at night only, for diarrhea, and a doge of China at 9 A. M. and 3 P. M. daily. Discharged, and has since enjoyed good health.

In the above case the blood discharged was of a dark grumous nature. The prompt suppression of these stools is one of the many proofs of the efficacy of Hamamelis in passive Haemorrhages. Its use is of course empirical, having been recommended by different authorities as of service in Hemoptysis and in Hematemesis.

In order to decide intelligently whether or not it is adapted to any given case with or without hemorrhage, we should know its pathogenesis more fully. It is probable we shall then learn that the cases where, its action has bee so marked are these where the totality of the symptoms corresponds with those of the remedy. And this knowledge can only come by a careful proving of the drug itself.

XVIII. HALE'S Medicated Glycerine as a Topical Application. DR. LUDLAM called the attention of the Members to the value of Glycerine a vehicle for our remedies when we desire to apply them locally. Adopting the suggestion of Dr. E. M. Hale, as set forth in the Nov. No. of THE AMERICAN HOMOEOPATHIC REVIEW, he had employed it frequently and with the most satisfactory results. The following cases illustrate its use:-

a. A little infant of some three months became sorely affected with a form of Eczema-the E. Rubrum. Various extra-professional measures were resorted to to heal the surfaces which were irritated and excoriated by the constant exudation of a thin, acrid, serous fluid. But all these means failed. The case became a very bad one-next akin to the pustular, E. Impetiginoides. The eyes, ears, axillae, umbilicus and the folds of flesh in the neighborhood of the joints and of the nates, were all “raw” with the successive eruption of new vesicles and their extravasating liquid. A neighbor's child had died of the same disorder

Without fear of drying up an “Issue” in this case, I prescribed three pellets of Rhus Tox 8. to be given thrice daily, and ordered, through our excellent Pharmaceutists HALSEY & KING, the following preparation:

R. Tinct. Calendula 2. gtts xx.

Glycerine oz. 1-2

Apply locally to the diseased surfaces by means of a feather, morning and evening. This patient began immediately to improve and soon recovered.

The Calendula with the Rhus would undoubtedly have cured the case without the Glycerine, but it was a most happy and grateful vehicle to the former, and by its property of excluding the atmospheric air-a great desideratum in such instances, certainly contributed somewhat to the speedy relief which followed.

b. Mrs. S- had had for thirty years what is vulgarly denominated salt-rheum, affecting especially the skin about the joints of the fingers, and more or less the whole surface of the hands. Characteristically it was only observable and troublesome in the winter season. Urtica urens 2 employed as above directed, with the Glycerine, cured the disorder entirely, without creating any injurious consequences whatever. Glycerine alone is a good application for this vexatious” infirmity, but it can scarce be styled curative. In my practice the Urtica urens has acted like a specific, though I do not apprehend it would prove such in all cases. Conjoined with the Glycerine I consider it very valuable, and my experience is by no means confined to its use in the single example just cited.

In one case of Herpes-H. Proeputialis, I employed the Rhus toz. 2. with Glycerine, and with the same good result. The case was an aggravated one, but the above named preparation alone, soon effected a cure. I have not prescribed any remedy with the Glycerine of a lower potency than the second dec, for the reason that the results are quite as satisfactory thus far as any that I could expect from the Mother Tincture, as recommended by Dr. Hale. Examples might possibly occur in which the lower forms of a remedy would be indicated locally, as they sometimes appear to be constitutionally, but such are of course very rare.

In certain varieties of Erysipelas, medicated with Bell., Rhus tox, in the Crusta, Lactea-Impetigo Larvalis, with Calendula, or Viola tric; in the Tinea Capitis-Porvigo Favosa, with Nitric; acid; in Infantile Dysentery, with Nux vomica,Aloes, or Angustura, as a soothing enema to subdue the tenesmus; in Acute Articular Rheumatism, with the Actoea racemosa, Bell, Rhus etc. in Hemorrhoids, with Hamamelis, etc, etc., we may find the Glycerine to be .one of the few successful and really valuable judantia within reach of the Profession.

XIX: Arsenic at a Hygienic Agent in Phthisis Pulmonalis.: Ds N.F. COOKE detailed some very interesting cases in which he had employed this, article in Phthisis with good results. He was first led to prescribe it thus in consequence of its reputed power to diminish the quantity of Oxygen required to work the machinery of the animal organism. A grand indication in the treatment of Phthisis is to lessen the labor of calorification. When the calorificient digestion is not performed properly, the general system of course, suffers, and, if the same. oxygenation of the tissues be required as before, the wear and tear is shown by emaciation, debility and general-disorder. The Cod Oliver Oil is an aid to this function, reaching, the same indication in Phthisis from exactly the opposite direction, but whether so. well or so effectually as the Arsenic, it doth not yet appear.

Dr. C. thought the latter exceedingly valuable in cases where from some cause the digestive and assimilative functions_: are so discovered that the necessary nutriment is not supplied, and it .becomes absolutely imperative to relieve the respiratory apparatus of extra labor in supplying oxygen to the economy. Under these circumstances the Dr. is satisfied he has kept patients alive with the Arsenic for months, and in one case for nearly are years, who, otherwise, must have succumbed to the destroyer at a much earlier period. Eventually they die; but if by any such means we may prolong life to the society of friends and the like perquisites of existence, it becomes our duty to attempt it.

He gives a low trituration, at long intervals, and, excepting in one case, has not witnessed any constitutional symptoms worthy of note Taken in this manner it is not in the way of other remedies prescribed upon pathogenetic indications, any more than the Cod's Oil; and under proper regulations he believes may be continued indefinitely.

The Dr. has promised to elaborate his report, and we hope hereafter to to be able more fully and satisfactorily to present his views and experience in the direction indicated.

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