cantharis in hydrophobia, and that its mode of administration was as follows:-The head and wings being removed, they were allowed to soak for four hours in some butter-milk, then dried and baked with lentil flour into cakes weighing a scruple each, which were eaten with wine. From what Dr. Adams says (P. Ægineta, vol. III, p. 154), it would seem that the beetle known to the ancients as the cantharis, was not our Spanish-fly, but the mylabris, or rather melöe cichorii, as Dioscorides and Galen direct the species found among corn to he used medicinally, whereas the cantharis is generally found on trees such as the ash and elder. This species of melöe is that still used in Turkey and in Hindostan for forming blistering plasters.

The cantharis vesicatoria has been frequently recommended as a remedy and as a prophylactic for hydrophobia, and both externally and internally. Polgari (Diss. de rabie canina, 1768) says it is a popular remedy for the disease in Hungary,* and Moncony (Voyages, vol. I.) says that it is universally employed in Greece for the same purpose. Among those who have advocated the use of cantharis for hydrophobia may be mentioned Werlhof (Op. Med. vol. III.) who gave it in doses of one grain every day for six weeks as a prophylactic; Axter (Beob. &c. von österr. Ærzt. vol. I,) who gave a grain every three or six days, and applied the same remedy externally in the form of a blistering plaster over the wound, and this treatment he kept up for five or six weeks. Sophistofh (Marochetti, üb. die Wasserscheu, 1843), physician to a military hospital in the Ukraine, testifies to the value of cantharis in hydrophobia. He gave it in the dose of from 1/4th to 5 grains. Kenspincky (ibid.) a military surgeon in Gamboff, treated both men and animals affected with rabies by means of cantharis internally, and, according to his own account, with great success.

The only detailed case we can lay hand on of hydrophobia actually treated by cantharis is contained in the 4th volume of Frank's Magazine. It is taken from the 3rd volume of the Sulzburg Med. Chir. Zeitung. The observer is Dr. Rust. It runs as follows:-A stout girl of 20 was bit by a rabid dog, in the left upper arm, on the 29th January. There were two wounds about 3 inches from one another, penetrating through the skin into the cellular substance beneath. They were immediately cut out, and the part cauterized with lunar

*Probably the beetle he alludes to is the melöe hungarus which Schenck (Bull. de Phar. v.) states is the Hungarian remedy for hydrophobia.

caustic; and, in order to ward off the danger, Belladonna, combined with Calomel, and subsequently with Sal Volatile, was administered. On the 12th March, after she had taken in all 36 grs. of Belladonna, as many of Calomel, and 24 of Sal. vol., she suddenly became lowspirited, wept continually, complained of pains in the injured arm, principally midway between the two wounds. She was feverish, and had a horror of fluids. She would take a spoonful of water into her mouth with her eyes shut, but was unable to swallow it, and spat it out again. She now got pulv. canthar. gr. j, lap. cancror., sacchar. āā. gr. vj, ft. pulv. dent. d. t. vj, one to be taken every two hours. At the same time caustic was applied to the painful part. The next day, after she had taken nine powders, she had scalding on making water, and, at the same time, the fever declined, the hardness and fulness of the pulse diminished, the fixed pain in the arm went off completely, and she was much more composed. The powders were discontinued, and with great persuasion she was induced to take a few spoonfuls of an oleaginous mixture. On the morning of the 14th the scalding was gone, and she got four more grains of canthar. in the above manner. In the afternoon burning thirst, she asked for beer and drank half a pint. On the 15th, three more powders. She again drank beer, and ate a roll. From the 16th to the 30th daily two powders. She was now able to take her usual food and drink. On the 30th, scalding on passing water again occurred, and was treated as before. From the 5th to the 25th April she again took two grains of canth. daily, and she was dismissed cured on the 28th.

The evidence in this case is not convincing as to its being a case of hydrophobia. Might not the hydrophobic symptoms have been caused by the large quantity of Belladonna taken by the patient?

The melolontha vulgaris, or common cockchafer, was recommended as a specific for hydrophobia by J. Hartmann Degner (Mem. de la Nature, No. 1742.)

According to Noack and Trinks the coccinella septempunctata, or seven-spotted lady-bird, has likewise been used as a remedy for this disease.

The most recent remedy for hydrophobia from among the coleopterous tribe, is the cetonia aurata, or rose beetle, a large shining golden green insect, a frequent visitor of our gardens from May to July. We are not aware that this beetle has hitherto been employed in medicine, or been supposed to possess any medicinal qualities. In the Lancet of

12th September last, it is stated that the attention of the French Academy has been directed to this insect as a specific for hydrophobia. The recommendation comes from a Russian physician, who alleges that it is very much used in Russia for the purpose of curing and preventing hydrophobia; and he asserts that it has already been successfully employed in 1791 cases. The French Academy, as might have been anticipated from its well-known zeal for science, refuses to inquire into the alleged virtues of this as of all new remedies, to the great satisfaction of the editor of the Lancet.

With regard to the probability of any of the above insects being useful in hydrophobia in virtue of their pathogenetic powers, we know little excepting in the case of cantharis, some of the symptoms of which, as recorded in the homœopathic materia medica, have a marked resemblance to some of the characteristic phenomena of the disease.

Of the pathogenetic action of the melolontha vulgaris, we only know that it is said to excite strangury.

Although the coccinella septempunctata has been admitted into our materia medica, we know very little of its physiological effects, and that little bears no resemblance to the symptoms of hydrophobia,

The cetonia aurata is utterly unknown to medicine, so that we cannot tell if it possesses any pathogenetic action whatever.

With respect to the action of the melöe majalis and proscarabæus, we have more information, but nothing in their recorded physiological effects corresponds to the symptoms of hydrophobia. In that inexhaustible pathogenetic cyclopædia, Frank's Magazine, we find many cases of poisoning by these two beetles. The symptoms produced were, however, almost solely upon the urinary organs, diuresis, strangury, hematuria, mucous urine, together with occasionally cutting pains in the abdomen, vomiting, purging, and profuse perspiration. Two deaths are recorded from the ingestion of the proscarabæus, but unfortunately the symptoms are not given.

It is probable that the physiological effects of these two beetles, if sufficiently proved, would show a great analogy with those of cantharis, to which insect they are nearly allied. In their known power to blister the skin and to excite strangury and bloody urine, they precisely resemble the cantharis, and possibly a further investigation would show an equal power to produce hydrophobic symptoms. But who will prove beetles? The stomach almost heaves at the mere idea of swallowing such disgusting creatures, and we are lost VOL. XV, NO. LXII.-OCTOBER, 1857. 2 Y

in astonishment in reading the records of beetle-cures, to find that so many poor patients had the courage to gulp down daily one, two, and even three of that very repulsive looking creature, the melöe majalis.

Hungry the man who first from shelly cloister,

Drew forth and swallowed down a living oyster,

'tis said, but what was his hunger in comparison with the desire to be well, which induced the patients to take into their stomachs the lurid monsters prescribed for them.

However, we confess we would rather prove any of the coleopterous tribe than some of those insects of a different order which have been tested by some of our colleagues abroad, such as the cimex lectularius, the pediculus capitis, the blatta americana, and the aranea diadema. The last, to be sure, was only tested in the 30th dilution, which was making things as pleasant as possible when the subject of experiment was a venomous spider.

Mercury in the Liver of Workers in Mirror Manufactories, an experimental evidence of Localization of Metallic Poisons.

BY ROBERT BURTON,

Chemical Student at the University of Erlangen

(From the "Medical Times," July 11, 1857.)

It is a well-known fact, that in certain cases of metallic poisoning the liver is an organ whose tissue appears to exercise a peculiar attraction for many metals, whether introduced into the system by the alimentary organs, the skin, or the lungs; and the metallic presence has been detected in this organ by analysis after death.

This holds true in a remarkable manner with regard to quicksilver, which has thus been repeatedly discovered in cases of mercurial poisoning.

It is further interesting to know that those whose labours in the quicksilver mines, and some of the arts (e. g. silvering mirrors) expose them to the action of mercurial vapours, are the subjects of chronic poisoning by this metal; and in such cases a localization of its particles in the system, and more particularly in the liver, takes place.

An interesting case of this nature was published a few years ago, by Dr. E. von Gorup Besanez, present Professor of Chemistry in

the University of Erlangen (in "Jenaische Annalen für Physiologie und Medecin," tom. ii. p. 241).

In this case Dr. von Gorup Besanez found distinct traces of quicksilver in the liver of a woman who had for sixteen years worked in a mirror-manufactory, and was then attacked with symptoms of hydrargyrosis, of which she died in one year. Although during the whole year previous to her death this woman was entirely removed from the mercurial influence, nevertheless the metal was demonstrated with certainty in the liver after death, thus experimentally proving, that, corresponding to the remarkable avidity which the liver shows for mercury, there exists as remarkable a localization of the metal in the tissues of that organ-in other words, that the liver, with a maximum of absorbent power, seems to possess only a minimum of excernent power in regard to Mercury.

Considered in the light of its medico-legal bearing, the question, "how long after the administration of Mercury, or other metallic poison, it may be found in the liver," becomes evidently one of the highest importance, and, as such, demands publicity for every fact which can be brought to bear upon the elucidation of this subject. I therefore offer no apology for publishing the following:

Dr. Froumüller, hospital surgeon at Fürth, near Nürnberg, forwarded lately to Professor von Gorup Besanez the liver of a woman who had worked in a mirror manufactory to within a few weeks of her death, and the investigations for the discovery of Mercury in this liver, entrusted to me by the Professor, were made under his direction in the laboratory at Erlangen, the most scrupulous care in securing the perfect purity of the re-agents and cleanliness of the apparatus having been observed.

Following the method of Fresenius and Babo, the liver was cut into small pieces, and boiled in a water bath with hydrochloric acid and chlorate of potass, until all the organic matter, except certain particles of fat, was as far as possible reduced to a homogeneous fluid. Through the clear fluid obtained a stream of sulphuretted hydrogen gas was passed for some hours, and the precipitate collected on a filter was well washed, and dissolved in the smallest possible quantity of nitro-hydrochloric acid. The residue, after careful evaporation of this solution, was dissolved in water.

A simple galvanic apparatus, consisting of two plates, connected at one edge, one very thin, being of gold, the other of zinc, was immersed in this watery solution, and after a few hours the gold had