freely and also brought away a membrane, resembling a piece of the in testines. As soon as the membrane was dislodged, the tumefaction of the intestines was reduced, they resumed their natural size and flexibility; a simple tonic was ordered once in four hours, for a few days; the the child mended rapidly, and is now comfortable.

FEBRIS REMITTENS.

BY DR. W. KIRKPATRICK.

I was called upon some time ago to visit a person who was, as the messenger told me, in a state of derangement, supposed to be occasioned by an excessive flow of blood to the head. I arrived at the place at eleven o'clock at night, when I found him suffering intense pain in the head, eyes, back, and limbs, and particularly in the back and bones of the legs. The febrile action excessively high, the excretions checked, the skin dry and hot, the tongue covered with a thick brown fur, the stomach nauseated, and the eyes yellow, the pulse beating 110 a minute.Upon interogating the patient, he told me that, for three days preceeding this time, he experienced much languor and drowsiness, with great tenderness of the muscles and abdomen. The afternoon of the fourth day, on returning from a neighbor's, some quarter of a mile distant, he was taken with giddiness, a light chill, and severe pains in the loins, and head. About seven o'clock in the evening, the fever set in and continued to increase in force until eleven o'clock, when I found him tossing, tearing his bed clothes, and two men holding him in the bead. On asking him how he did, he exclaimed, "O what agony! I am burning up!" I pronounced it a case of bilious fever, and treated as follows:

First, sponged the forehead and thorax with cold water. I then administered the following powders : lobelia [brown], one part; polemonium reptans, two parts; asclepias tuberosa, two parts; mentha virdis, two parts; cream of tartar, two parts; administered in half tea-spoonful doses [in warm water sweetened], every fifteen minutes, until perspiration appeared; then gave a lobelia emetic, and, in four hours, followed by a cathartic of the compound powder of podophyllum peltatum; at the same time continuing the use of the foregoing diaphoretic powders every hour. Second day-patient quiescent, and in a gentle moisture.

Evening-some febrile action, with a flatulency of the bowels. Gave, for the bowels, tincture anisum two tea-spoonfuls, assafoetida one do., once in ten minutes, until the bowels were relieved; continued diaphoratic powders every two hours.

Third day-patient free from pain, fever subsided, and relish for food natural; recommended quinine and capsicum in two grains doses, every hour for eight hours.

fra

Fourth day-patient sitting at the breakfast table with family; recommended the following tonic: cornus florida, hydrastis canadensis, sera verticillata-equal parts.

Dose-a tea-spoonful three times a day.

Fifth day-patient rode four miles in a buggy and returned. No symptoms of fever since.--P. M. Era.

[From the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal.]

SMITH ON PARTURITION.

Messrs. Lea & Blanchard have repablished, among a vast number of other excellent treatises appertaining to the highest departments of prac tical medicine, a work new to us in the United States, with this title, viz, "Parturition, and the principles and practice of obstetrics, by W. Ty ler Smith, M. D., Lecturer on Obstetrics in the Hunterian School of Med icine." It is dedicated to Dr. Marshall Hall, who it is presumed, would not tolerate any second rate author's approach. Dr. Smith prides himself particularly in having studied what he calls reflex obstetrics. He says, in effect, that it is a new branch. Taking the whole range of reflex physiology, the cause of labor is only second in importance to the cause of respiration; and no one had perceived, continues the learned writer, that the relation of the ovarian nerves to parturition is the same as the relation of the pneumogastic nerves to respiration; while, in the investigation of the causes of the genesial cycles, in the twelfth lecture, a new field is entered upon, altogether distinct from the reflex motor function. The volume is made up of 26 lectures, abounding in that wisdom which should be the characteristic of those practising obstetricy. It is thoroughly and systematically exact, without being soporofic or unnecessarily wire-drawn. Ticknor & Co., Boston, have it, and physicians generally should have it also.

[From the Physiologico-Medical Recorder and Surgical Journal.]

CONTINUED FEVERS.

Dr. J. Z. Durham says, that in continued fevers, especially bilious, a powder, composed of equal parts of eupatorium, inflata, and capsicum in six grain doses, every three hours, produces the most beneficial results. It excites a mild diaphoresis, cleanses the mucous membrane of the alimentary canal, promotes the alvine action, exerts a most favorable effect upon the portal and urinary circulations, diminishes the rapidity of the pulse, and finally establishes a calm and uniform circulation.

He says, that, phytolacca decandra (poke root), when simmered in sweet oil, makes a cleansing corrective salve for old sores and ulcers, and, if aided by alteratives, itself being a good one, much confidence can be placed in it in the above complaint. One ounce of the root decocted in a pint of wine and given in table-spoonful doses, produces prompt emesis, highly servicable in croup.

The plant is sometimes said to be injurious; my own experience with it has not revealed any poisonous quality, though it may have.

Arum triphyllum (Indian turnip), the doctor says, when combined with hydrastis (goldenseal) and rhubarb, equal parts, in ten grain doses, three times a day, on an empty stomach, or just enough to keep the bow

els soluble, will generally cure the piles. There is no menstruum that can take up the properties of arum-hence, its properties are not imparted to the system until it arrives at the inferior end of the alimentary canal. Probably, it is this insolubility that enables it to act so favorably in hemorrhoids.

Hydrastis canadensis is estimated by Dr. Durham as the most valuble bitter tonic in our Materia Medica and of incomparable worth. When given in a simple cold infusion, it acts most happily in derangements of the liver, torpidity of the portal circulation, and morbid condition of the stomach and bowels. If given with capsicum, equal portions, in powder, shielded in some pleasant vehicle, it is a superior tonic in intermittents, in dyspepsia, and costiveness.

BEWARE OF POISONS.

BY PROF. I. M. COMINGS.

The following statement we lately saw in a foreign Medical Journal. It is only one of the many instances, that are continually occurring in the practice of those who recommend poisons, in their prescriptions.

While we remain in so much ignorance of the peculiar action of any remedies on the system, it is indeed hazardous to use those which are known to be poison, or to act inimically to the vital principle. This statement is made by Matteucci, a distinguished Italian physiologist. "A patient having been dosed very largely with sulphate of quinine for an attack of intermittent fever, was attacked by paralysis of the lower extremities. For this, moxas, friction along the spine, and strychnine were employed. But the practitioner being in a hurry to complete the cure, applied in addition, electricity to the spine and lower extremities; which had the effect of bringing on immediate tetanus. A similar event has been perceived on electrifying frogs, while under the influence of the alkaloids, morphine. We are not told whether the unfortunate patient recovered or escaped further evils."

We have introduced this extract to show the great danger there is in using, these poisonous agents; and that we have no means of knowing, even by long experience, what changes deleterious to the system may be. going on. How many sudden deaths may be laid to the account of mediciaal doses of poison, which have undergone some chemical change in the system, which the physician does not mistrust!!

Worcester, Aug., 1849.

GOLD FROM VIOLETS.

Mr. R. Hunt, at the Royal Institution, London, states that a friend of his has succeeded in obtaining a minute, though weighable portion of gold, from a quantity of the petals of the blue violet. Ex. paper.

[From the Physiologico-Medical Recorder and Surgical Journal.]

ERYSIPELAS AND SCARLATINA.

BY J. MATHEWS, M. D., MADISON IND.

During the last year, in the region of country where I am located, there has been an unusual amount of these forms of Disease; especially of the first. The Old School men have been unpardonably unsuccess ful. Their poisons have alarmingly increased the mortality, and hundreds have left the busy and happy scenes of life for the stillness of the tomb and the uncertainties of a vailed future. While the New School men have had good success; the mortality in their practice has been very small.

The causes, symptoms, and pathology of these diseases, are presented by all our works on Practice, and any one wishing for that kind of infor mation, can read such books.

The extent of my practice and the simplicity of my therapeutic agents, induce me to make the means I use more generally known; so, if others choose to avail themselves of its advantages in the treatment of these diseases, they can have the privilege.

As soon as I discover that my patient is laboring under either of the above forms of disease, I order a lobelia emetic, preparing the system first by the use of an infusion of sage, and a warm foot bath. After the emetic has operated, purified the stomach, and broken up the vascular embarrassment of the system, I continue the infusion of sage, as a constant drink; warm, while the febrile habit continues, and cool, when absent.

For an external and internal application to the throat, I make a liniment by simmering onions in sweet oil. If the fauces become enflamed, it is taken in small doses internally, and thoroughly rubbed on externally, then applying a soft flannel around the neck. When the erysipelatous swellings appear upon the surface, I anoint the part with the following embrocation one ounce of the bark of bitter sweet, to four ounces of lard, simmered over a moderate heat, which acts most happily in removing such derangements of the surface. If the bowels are torpid, an enema of oil and mucilage of elm is used, and sometimes an aperient.This treatment, notwithstanding its simplicity, is safe, efficient, and prompt.

CAUSES OF CHOLERA.

The physicians in Albany attribute many recent cases of cholera in that city to imprudence in the use of green vegetables for food, especially cabbage and onions.-Ex. paper.

NEW ENGLAND

BOTANIC MEDICAL AND SURGICAL

JOURNAL.

CALVIN NEWTON, M. D., EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR

It has become a matter of serious inquiry, with many of the first practitioners of the day, how to account for the extensive sale and use of quack nostrums, patent drugs, and secret remedies. We have no doubt, that this may be partly accounted for, in the great uncertainty of the healing art, and the poisoning and depleting practice of the Allopathic system. Patients find, that they often recover much sooner by taking some simple remedy, or perhaps some secret nostrum, which has little or no effect on the system, than they do under the treatment of the most scientific practitioner of the day.

But the most prominent cause of the extensive use of these patent medicines is to be found, in the ignorance of the practitioners of medicine. The people-the public desire knowledge;-they want light. They demand, that the physician whom they consult shall understand their case, and prescribe for them with a full conviction, that the remedies he advises, are suited to the form of disease. They ask of their medical adviser, that he should explain to them, the modus operandi, the effects, and the results of the remedy prescribed; and we contend they