the ball outwards and inwards." This is a morbid picture which shows distinctly the peculiar relation of this medicine to the motor nerves of the muscles of the eyes, and that it causes a loss of voluntary power over those muscles. In Cina we find only a few indications of involuntary action of muscles; we have for example, "palpitation of the muscles of the eyebrows a kind of convulsion:" also, "the upper eyelids were so weak that they could scarcely open." But nothing is said of any affection of the oculo-motorius, while, nevertheless, it is a fact that in worm cases the squinting that was present more or less with other symptoms, was quite removed by the Cina. Stammering. It is my firm conviction that this morbid affection, when not depending on organic defect, is always curable at the commencement. Although I have only seen two such cases in my practice, yet from the speedy cure that took place in these, and from their utility in similar muscular affections, I think we may safely reckon on the favourable action of specific medicines in stammering. The first of these cases was a boy of 5 years old, in whom the father had remarked that for about fourteen days, as soon as he began to speak, he had to repeat the first syllable of the first word three or four times, but when he got over this difficulty he could speak pretty fluently. When he stopped for awhile, and began to speak again, the same difficulty presented itself. In this patient there was a strong disposition to worms, and here the Spigelia was successful in removing the evil in a few days. It was given in the 6th dilution, a dose night and morning. The other case of stammering occurred in a girl of six years old, of lymphatic constitution, with a swelled upper lip and nose, which latter discharged constantly. The affection of the speech had lasted for several months, and was of this character: that she appeared as if frequently she made the effort to speak, and opened her lips and brought out a sound which she repeated several times, and then was silent. On the whole, she spoke much less than usual, and that with great difficulty, and it was easily remarked that the tongue moved heavily. Calcarea 9 was given every morning for three weeks, and did such good service, that after it was followed up by Bovista for fourteen days, the case was quite cured. 400 ON THE FOOD OF INFANTS, BY MR. H. TURNER, CHEMIST. AN article on this subject in the last number of the Journal, has reminded me, that I ought to make public, a method I discovered many years ago, of preparing what has been repeatedly mentioned as a desideratum, viz., a food for infants, which shall contain all the constituents of the mother's milk in their proper proportions, and which shall be at the same time cheaply and easily prepared. The best food for infants is undoubtedly that which nature herself provides, viz., the child's own mother's milk; but sometimes mothers have no milk, or not sufficient for the child's nourishment, and in some cases it is expedient for other reasons that she should not nurse. In such cases it is usual to seek for a wet-nurse, who generally turns out a nuisance in the house, barely endurable. If the nurse has lost her own child of nearly the same age as the one she is engaged to suckle, her health good, and all parties satisfied, then nothing can be said against the arrangement; but if her own offspring is living, and if it has to be taken from her, and deprived of its own proper nourishment, an unnatural and cruel wrong is inflicted on the poor helpless and innocent sufferer; and if, as is often the case, the selected nurse is a mother but not a wife, the encouragement to immorality is so direct and positive, as to be shrunk from by all right minded persons, and vice is rewarded with a good home, good living, and little or no work. In other cases the infant is "dry-nursed," or "brought up by the hand," that is, if it should not happen to be killed by the process, as is too often the case, and then of course it is not "brought up" at all. That improper food is the cause of much infant mortality there cannot be a doubt, and if there were, it would be removed by a Report* lately printed and circulated by Drs. Whitehead and Merei, giving the results of their most careful and painstaking investigations into the causes of mortality and disease amongst children. This report shews that more than 50 per cent. of children in Manchester die before they reach the age of five years, and of these by far the greater part die during the first year, the deaths being in the following relation to ages. Under 12 months, of 146 patients 20 died, or 14 per cent. nearly. From 1 to 2 years, of 105 patients 8 died, or 7 per cent. From 2 to 3 years, of 65 patients 4 died, or 6 per cent. From 3 to 4 years, of 53 patients 2 died, or 4 per cent. Above the age of 4 years to the 13th, of 161 patients no deaths had occurred. The same Report shews that "70 per cent. of the deaths occurred from abdominal diseases; 72 per cent. were partly cases of deranged digestion, in most instances combined with diarrhoea, of either dietetic or atmospheric origin." It also shews that the number of badly developed children amongst the "hand-fed" was six times as great as among those fed with the milk of the breast alone. Here then we have an appalling amount of mortality, disease, and imperfect development, arising from errors in the diet of infants. The question is-Can it be avoided? And the reply-It can. How? If we examine the constituents of the human milk and compare them with those of the cow, we shall find that they differ considerably. The following table shews the composition of different kinds of milk, as given by Henry and Chevallier. * Children's DISEASES: First Report of the Clinical Hospital for Diseases of Children, Manchester, containing an account of the results of the first 520 patients treated by A. S. Merei, M.D., and J. Whitehead, M.D. VOL. XV, NO. LXI.-JULY 1857. 2 D From the above it will be seen that the milk of the cow differs from that of woman, in this principally, that it contains less sugar of milk and more caseum. The excess of the latter may be got rid of by precipitating with rennet, but this is a very troublesome process, and is open to other objections which it is not needful to notice, as I am about to suggest a much simpler method of accomplishing the end. It is obvious that by diluting the milk with water we can lessen the relative proportion of caseum, and by previously dissolving sugar of milk in boiling water in the proper proportions, and diluting fresh cow's milk with it, we accomplish the two objects of lessening the relative quantity of caseum and increasing the relative quantity of sugar of milk at the same time. The following formula will give these results as nearly as is necessary for practical purposes, and it has the sanction of experience. Dissolve one ounce of sugar of milk in three-quarters of a pint of boiling water, and mix with an equal quantity of good fresh cow's milk; let the infant be fed with this from the feeding bottle in the usual way. Always wash the bottle after feeding, and put the teat into cold water, and let it remain until wanted again. The water in which the sugar of milk is dissolved should be thoroughly boiled to ensure the complete solution of the sugar of milk, and also to expel the air from it, which might cause flatulence. If the child requires to be suckled in the night, a little of the prepared milk may be warmed in a pipkin by means of a spirit lamp. The occasional addition of a little fresh cream to the above food will be beneficial to the child. I have had one of my own children fed as above from birth, and the results were all that could be wished. I have also recommended it in many other cases, and it has always been carried out with satisfaction. ELECTRICITY, BY DR. CHAPMAN. THE ancient philosophers had wonderful intuitions, and made marvellous guesses at truth. Even that singular agent, electricity, whereby we could now send a message to Saturn or Jupiter, or to any point in space, if only the wire could be laid, was not altogether unknown to them. The word itself is derived from the Greek one, signifying an amalgam consisting of four parts of gold and one of silver, and also signifying "amber." Those ancient philosophers had a distinct appreciation of the intercommunion of atmospheric and telluric influences; and they went beyond our atmosphere to lunar, solar, and stellar influences. Their mythology expressed for the initiated their philosophical views of the powers of Nature, while to the populace it conveyed only vague and sensuous notions of gods and goddesses. Such men as Solon and Lycurgus, Pythagoras and Socrates, Eschylus and Plato, Demosthenes and Isocrates, no more believed in gods and goddesses than we do. They were theists, and believed in the Demiurgos: the FIRST CAUSEthe cause of causation, the Sole Independent Life, the Life-giving, on WHOм all inferior life depends. "In Him we live and move, and have our being." That Pythagoras carried back with him to Greece, from Egypt, not a few of the precious seeds of the doctrine contained in the Hebrew Scriptures, is beyond a doubt. But |