Had they entered fully into the question, they would have reasoned thus: the experiments of Messrs. Chevalier, Duchesne, and Reynal, and the observations quoted by them, and which have certainly not been made or collected for the particular purpose, attest in many instances a relation of similitude between the physiological and curative effects, sufficiently strong to bring it under serious consideration. If yew has been recommended for amenorrhoea, the primitive effect ought, in order to prove the curative effect to be in opposition to the physiological effect on the womb, to be ascertained upon that organ in a state of marked rigidity. In the absence of all documentary evidence on this subject, we must suppose that the womb was in all the cases cured by the yew, in a state of marked relaxation and atony. And in fact the action of yew on the womb in the different cases related, is manifested when the organ is distended by the foetus and the liquor annii, and its walls unaffected by any contractive effort.

Then, the similarity between the physiological and curative effects being proved, dermatologists will have a real interest in determining the true characters of the eruption with falling of hair which have been remarked in the cases of poisoning.

That is what Messrs. Chevalier, Duchesne, and Reynal, ought to have said, and would have been obliged to say had they been consistent. And they would have added: there is need for experiment with this plant on healthy persons, in small doses, with a view to ascertain if it produces the same symptoms on man as on animals; we shall thus be enabled to gain a knowledge of its sphere of usefulness. These were the conclusions we had a right to expect, and which not having found, we have propounded ourselves in the remarks we have thought it necessary to make in order to bring out the theoretical and practical conclusions of this memoire.

There is yet one point of great interest, and that is the treatment of poisoning by yew. We are not told if M. Dujardin saved the two colts he attended; but nothing is said of the examination of their bodies, and it is therefore probable that they may bave escaped. But it would be very important to know some medicine which would antidote the poisonous effects of the

yew after its evacuation from the stomach. Doubtless the symptoms would furnish indications in any given case, and by the mere comparison of symptoms we may suppose that Rhus tox., Nux vom., and their analogues would render valuable service. Careful experiment is needed however, to ascertain what are the medicines capable of most successfully opposing the action of this poisonous substance.

GLYCERINE,

BY DR. CHAPMAN.

My object is to call the attention of our colleagues to the value of glycerine as a local application in some skin affections, and to suggest its probable value for other purposes.

Scheele discovered it in 1789, and called it the "sweet principle of oils "-hence the very appropriate name glycerine. Some twenty-five years later Chevreul shewed it to be the base of fats and fat oils. To his scientific experiments the art of candle-making is indebted for having become a practical science. He and Gay-Lussac sketched out, in 1825, the proposition for distillation of fatty bodies: it was not carried into effect till 1840, when Mr. George Gwynne took out a patent for this purpose. In 1842 Messrs. Price and Co. began their experiments and finally have obtained purified glycerine by distillation. Formerly this glycerine was considered to be a nuisance an abomination to be got rid of, as all will remember who have suffered from the snuffing out of a candle in by-gone times. Now this pure glycerine is being turned to excellent account; and this is one of the triumphs of modern science.

It is now applied in medical practice; it has been used in photography, and is likely to prove a most valuable photographic agent; it is used as an antiseptic for the preservation of meats and delicate fruits; it is employed as a bair-wash; it is regarded as one of the instruments for the civilization of Africa: this through the palm oil of the wool-headed

gentry, who are described as having an uncommon aptitude for trade.

Mr. G. F. Wilson, F.R.S., thus describes the new process for obtaining and purifying glycerine :—

"Our first step was to do away with the lime process of saponification, and with it our only source of impure glycerine. By our first improvement in separating the fat acids from neutral fats, the glycerine was decomposed by the direct action of concentrated sulphuric acid at a high temperature; and all that remained of it was a charred precipitate. A new process for decomposing neutral fats by water under great pressure led us to look again more closely into our own distilling processes; and the doing this shewed, what we had often been on the brink of discovering, that glycerine might be distilled.

"In our new process the only chemical agents employed for decomposing the neutral fat and separating its glycerine, are steam and heat; and the only agents used in purifying the glycerine thus obtained, are heat and steam. Thus all trouble from earthy salts or lead is escaped.

"In an ordinary apparatus the glycerine distilled from neutral fat is not in a sufficiently concentrated state for most purposes; it should therefore be concentrated, and, if discoloured, be re-distilled. It is then obtained at the temperature of 60° Fahr; it is of a specific gravity of 1240, and contains 94 per cent. of anhydrous glycerine. It can be concentrated to S. G. 1.260, or to contain 98 per cent."

Our present business with this agent is to consider its use for medical purposes. Mr. Headland has, at my suggestion, made sundry preparations of glycerine, and has triturated it. I am engaged in making experiments; whether it has any direct and specific medical action I am not yet prepared to say; but my object in sending this brief notice of this seemingly important agent, is to request our colleagues to prove it. My own experience of its value as a skin-remedy is, to myself at least, quite satisfactory. For chilblains and chapped hands, for cracks of the lips, for painful irritation of the skin, for ulcers, acne, and various other affections, I have

found it an excellent topical remedy. It soothes the skin and keeps it moist. It has been used by our allopathic brethren for some years, in skin diseases, with the most unequivocal success.

For internal use the purified glycerine of Messrs. Price and Co. should be employed, to secure its freedom from lead. For external use, also, it is obvious that the really pure glycerine should be used.

The medical history of this agent runs thus: Mr. De la Rue in 1844 applied it to a burn, and to an irritating cutaneous affection; and soon after Mr. Startin introduced its use into the Hospital for Skin Diseases. He thus expresses himself on the value of this agent:

"Another very efficacious means remains to us in glycerine, which, as a palliative in squamous affections of the skin, has not, to my knowledge, been hitherto made known or adopted; in fact, it is peculiar to myself, and although I have not as yet addressed the profession or any learned body on the subject in accordance with my intention when my observations are matured, I will, nevertheless, here announce it for your consideration. It consists in the employment of this liquid, discovered by Scheele at the end of the last century, which has the property of remaining fluid and resisting evaporation under any temperature to which the body can be exposed. Indeed, I have wetted a common dinner plate with it and kept it in an oven whilst a joint of meat was cooked by its side, and the liquid has experienced no evident change or diminution. The facility with which this body mingles with water or other fluids, even oils, renders it an invaluable adjunct to lotions, poultices, embrocations, and applications, the utility of which may consist, not only in diminishing temperature by evaporation, but in softening and relaxing the heated and inflamed skin. The tendency to dry up and adhere to the part, as is well known, often frustrates the beneficial effects of these applications. and various counteractive expedients have, consequently, been adopted, as the addition of fatty matters, or covering the lotion, poultice, &c., with oiled silk. Now this is rendered totally un

necessary by the addition of glycerine. You will perceive it has the appearance of oil, and when rubbed on the skin it furnishes a thin coating or varnish, which even the microscope fails to distinguish as different from the ordinary secretions of the part Half an ounce of the liquid added to half a pint of lotion, will prevent the skin from becoming dry. . . .

"In the use of glycerine internally, I have had little experience, but it is a mild stimulant, antiseptic, and demulcent, and might be employed to sweeten many articles of food or drinks for those invalids whose disordered digestive organs forbid the use of sugar. I briefly enumerate some of the diseases of the skin in which I have employed glycerine as a local palliative with most benefit and success. These are; pityriasis or dandriff, lepra, psoriasis, lichen in its advanced stage, eczema, impetigo, and prurigo. I have found glycerine also a useful addition to lotions in the encrusted forms of lupus or herpes exedens, and for various syphilitic or strumous eruptions, having a tendency to produce fetid discharges and hard crusts; for which reason also, it has proved of service in the scabbing stage of small pox to prevent scars and pitting. As a wash also for the hair, and for chapped hands and nipples, combined with a little rose water and a few grains of borax, the glycerine being in the proportion of from one-eighth to one-sixteenth, this remedy furnishes, perhaps, one of the most elegant and efficacious preparations which have been introduced. It may also be combined with soaps, which it renders peculiarly softening and detergent, particularly for individuals who have a hard or dry skin."

Those who wish to read Mr. Startin's communications, in extenso, on the subject of glycerine, will find them in the Medical Times, vol. xiii (1846) and vol. xxi (1850).

In the Lancet of June, 1849, Mr. Thomas Wakley reports a number of cases in which glycerine has been useful or curative in cases of some kinds of deafness; and in the same periodical, in the course of the same month and year, Mr. Wakley's results are confirmed by Dr. Gardner and Mr. Erasmus Wilson.

M. Cap, however, seems to have been the first to recognize the value of glycerine, in a great variety of medicinal preparations