of a second screw or tap, C. and which is passed through the cork of the bottle containing the liquid intended to be charged with the carbonic acid. The male screw D. is then passed into the screw E. The bottles thus connected, are held in a vertical position. The soda water bottle undermost, and the spigots of both bottles being then opened, the gas will pass from the soda water bottle to the liquid above, and, to make it abundantly effervescing, two or three bottles of soda water may be used for the purpose.

The value of aërated saline liquids in febrile diseases is universally admitted; but hitherto they have been used in an imperfect state, in consequence of the difficulty of retaining, in sufficient abundance, the carbonic acid gas. The invention of this beautiful instrument has, however, obviated the difficulty, and since it was brought under my notice, I may say that I have administered soda water, particularly in typhus fever, with the most satisfactory benefit. By means of this instrument, a mouthful may be taken at a time, leaving the residue of equal quality; and a bottle once armed and put beside a patient who can help himself, extends to him a comfort which may be readily appreciated. I have introduced it into our infirmary here, with much advantage, and I have little doubt that when it becomes better known it will be esteemed by the profession as a happy auxiliary to our other means of mitigating human suffering.

I am,

Gentlemen,

Your obedient servant, JOHN INGLIS NICOL, M.D.

Inverness, 13th September, 1843.

of powder, in doses gradually increasing from 20 to 60 centigrammes and even more, in fractioned doses in the cours eof twenty-four hours. However, he expressly recommends the greatest care and circumspection in the administration of this medicine; he has seen subjects in whom the smallest doses were sufficient for determining very violent effects and in which it was necessary to diminish the dose of the remedy, or even to altogether suspend its employment. At all events, it is proper, as soon as the disease has yielded, to commence diminishing the quantities of the substance swallowed, still continuing its use for a certain time, in order more surely to guard against relapses.

The author regards nux vomica as deserving the preference over all the other means hitherto extolled against this redoubtable malady; and, in support of his opinion, he mentions a subject who, after having taken enormous quantities of sesquioxide of iron, without deriving any advantage beyond a transient relief, was promptly and perfectly cured by the employment of nux vomica.

Infuse, strain with pressure, and add :-Powdered gum arabic... 12 grammes.

IN TIC DOULOUROUX.*

BY DR. ROELANDS, OF ROTTERDAM. DR. ROELANDS has for six years successfully used nux vomica in prosopalgia, as well in inveterate as in recent cases. He has collected observations concerning twentynine subjects, of which twenty-one were treated by himself, and the others by Drs. Van der Hoven, Von Anckeren, Meerburg. Levie, Krierger, and Jones. Of these twenty-nine cases, twenty-five were cured, and three are still under treatment (two of which are almost cured); the last is that of a woman who would not continue the treat

ment.

Dr. Roelands gives vomica under the form

*Alg. Konst en Letterbode.

Syrup of marsh-mallow.. 24 grammes.
M. S. A.

By chance, this draught remained several hours before it was sent for, and during this time it presented a remarkable change in its color.

The liquid, at first yellowish, gradually became greenish, at first light, then very dark, like a mixture of olive and grass green.

The infusion had been prepared with flowers of arnica of excellent quality, and contained no insects' eggs. It was necessary, therefore, to determine the cause of this transformation of color: the gum and the syrup of marsh-mallow were not the cause of it, as the ulterior experiments demonstrated.

* Gazette des Hôpitaux.

The oil and the minium are boiled together, stirring the mixture without interruption, until the whole has arrived at a proper plastic consistence. This done, the calcined alum is added, and carefully mixed. This operation being terminated, the vessel containing the preparation is removed from the fire, and, when the heat of the mixture is somewhat diminished, the karabè is added, continuing to carefully mix it.

Finally, when the mass is cooled, so that one may touch the vessel containing it, without being burned, camphor, previously dissolved in a small quantity of olive oil, is added and intimately mixed.

The preparation thus obtained should be kept in small ointment pots, closed with a piece of bladder.

This plaster is especially indicated in cases of old rebellious ulcers of bad condition; it assists in a remarkable manner in effecting cure, but it is most particularly suitable when these ulcers have arrived at the period of cicatrization. Dr. Rademacher prescribes it as very efficacious, as a revulsive topic, in certain cases of profound affections.

vered a means of infallibly preventing syphilitic infection.

Dr. Pfeiffer made his experiments on this means by having recourse to inoculation: he put the virus arising from chancres in contact with the puncture during ten, fifteen, or twenty minutes, and in many cases even for twenty-four hours. He pretends that his prophylactic has never failed, and that it was not less efficacious when the syphilitic virus was applied to the mucous membrane of the anus, or to the entrance of the urethral canal in the fossa navicularis.

The trials, to the number of forty-two, which this physician made in the Venereal Hospital of St. Petersburg, under the rigid surveillance of a commission, gave the same results.

in a little warm water).... Mix well, and add to the mixture :Chloride of lime Pure soda soap. Tincture of thuya occidentalis 60 Warm water.... 30 to 60 Volatile oil of girofles 2 F.S.A. a saponaceous mass. Dr. Pfeiffer prescribes washings with this soap on the genital parts immediately after coition.

......

Dr. Dietrich confirms the good effects attributed to this new compound in the trials which he made at Munich, in order to assure himself of the reality of the results obtained by the physician of St. Petersburg. However, he found it less efficacious in cases of existing syphilis, although Dr. Pfeiffer affirms that he had prescribed it with success for combating the already developed symptoms of this affection.

The fourth part of the mixture indicated in the above formula is sufficient for one dose; for, besides that, we also obtain balls of soap of the size of a nut.

ard in a room, and in furnishing him, at discretion, with brandy diluted with twothirds of water; as much wine, beer, and coffee as he desires, but containing onethird of brandy; all the food-the bread, meat, and the legumes, are steeped in brandy and water. The poor devil is continually drunk and dort. On the fifth day of this regima, he has an extreme disgust for brandy; he earnestly requests other diet; but his desire must not be yielded to, until the poor wretch no longer desires to eat or drink; he is then certainly cured of his penchant for drunkenness. He acquires such a disgust for brandy, that he is ready to vomit at the very sight of it.

BELLADONNA IN PHIMOSIS AND PARAPHIMOSIS.*

BY M. DE MIGNOT.

M. DE MIGNOT having successfully applied an ointment of belladonna in cases of phimosis and paraphimosis, recommends its employment in every case before having recourse to the knife. The ointment is made in the proportion of 12 grains of the extract of belladonna to 30 grains of simple cerate, and the prepuce is rubbed with this every hour. The dilating power of the belladonna soon begins to act, and in many cases an operation may be avoided. When the inflammation is violent, and the pain intense, he recommends the addition of a little opium and mucilage of quiace seeds.

PARALYSIS OF THE UPPER AND LOWER EXTREMITIES FROM EXOSTOSIS OF THE VERTEBRA OF THE NECK, SUCCESSFULLY TREATED.†

BY DR. SKODA.

A DAY labourer, aged 23, was received into the Allgem. Krankenhaus of Vienna, the 23rd March, 1841, complaining of difficulty in moving his upper extremities, especially of the left arm, and having had some sense of rigidity in his lower limbs. He then complained of difficulty in moving his head, which by and bye could only be rotated, not inclined in any way. Pressure over the arch of the

third cervical vertebra caused considerable

* L'Experience, and Edin. Med. and Surg. Journ. October, 1843.

† Oester Med. Zeitung, No. 5, 1843, and London and Edinburgh Monthly Journal of Med. Science.

pain. The patient was put upon the use of the hydriodate of potassa internally, and a salve of the tartrate of antimony was rubbed externally over the seat of the pain in the neck. This was without influence. Infusion of arnica, with tartrate of antimony, and then nux vomica, were next prescribed, and the spine was freely cupped. These measures seemed to have some slight, but only a very passing effect upon the disease. In the middle of July, the patient complaining of severe pain in the neck, a renewed examination of the part discovered a hard, circumscribed, unmoveable tumour of the size of a walnut. It was not itself painful on pressure. An ointment of mercury and hydriodate of potassa was now directed to be rubbed into the part night and morning, and various resolvent remedies were prescribed. On the 3rd September, the patient had a convulsive attack, and then suffered so much from dyspnoea, that he was threatened with death from asphyxia. In the beginning of December, the medical service was taken up by Dr. Skoda, who ordered the treatment by inunction to be immediately begun. One ounce of a salve, composed of equal parts by weight, of mercury and hog's lard, was rubbed daily, one half at night, and the other half in the morning, into the soles, legs, and insides of the thighs, and lateral and posterior parts of the thorax and abdomen. The mercurial foetor was apparent in the breath after the seventh inunction. After the fifteenth friction, a slight depression was apparent in the tumour in the neck. After the sixteenth, the patient was able to move his fore-arm, and to turn his head. From this time he improved rapidly, and after twenty-four days' treatment upon this plan, when it was given up, he might be considered as well; he had recovered the use of his limbs, and might have returned to his occupation, had not an exostosis of the knee seemed to make some farther attention necessary.