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electricity. This was shown by dissolving a small fragment of sulphate of soda in the water contained in the globe, when the electroscope ceased to be affected; and even common river-water contained enough impurity to produce the same result.

Several experiments were performed to shew the kind of electricity produced under different circumstances. In operating as above described, the boiler was found to be charged with negative electricity; on introducing a few drops of oil of turpentine into the globe containing the water, positive electricity was obtained. In like manner, the steam, after issuing from the exit-tube, was found to be charged with electricity, and this was either positive, negative, or neutral, according to the distance from the extremity of the tube.-Pharmaceutical Journal.

ON SOME PREPARATIONS OF BALSAM OF COPAIVA. By Mr. JACOB BELL.*

Among several preparations of this medicine, Mr. Bell mentions the following. When balsam of copaiva is boiled with liquor potassæ, the mixture separates into two portions, a white oily substance or emulsion, which floats on a yellowish clear liquid. After standing for a day or two, the upper stratum becomes quite clear, the potash being thrown down, and the residue consisting of essential oil. The clear liquid is a solution of the resin in combination with potash. When evaporated to dryness, it assumes the character of the soluble resin. Caustic soda may be substituted for potash.

This liquid is supposed to contain the most active and efficacious portion of the balsam. A small quantity of sweet spirit of nitre is added to it in order to increase the effect.

The following proportions have been found to answer very well. A mixture thus prepared is much less nauseous than the balsam; a dessert-spoonful of it may be taken twice or three times a day :

Balsam of copaiva, two parts.

Liquor potassa (or soda), three parts.
Distilled water, seven parts.

Boil for a quarter of an hour, then add

Sweet spirits of nitre, one part.

Allow it to stand a few hours, then draw off the clear liquid by means of an orifice in the lower part of the vessel.

This, the alkaline solution of copaiva, Mr. Bell considers as in some respects the least objectionable of all the preparations which he has named. Being deprived of the essential oil which is generally considered to be the most irritating principle, it is mild in its action, and it is less nauseous than the other mixtures on account of the perfect union of the alkali with the resin.

STATE OF THE PUPIL IN INJURIES AFFECTING THE BRAIN.

In a clinical lecture on an interesting case of fractured skull with depression of bone, published in the Medical Gazette, Mr. Solly remarks:

"In the examination of a case of this kind, then, it is extremely important for you to enter minutely into all those signs which indicate any injury to the brain. First, the mental condition-this was perfectly normal; he was quite

* Pharmaceutical Journal.

sensible and his manner natural. Next, the state of the pupils-the iris is placed before that expanded surface of the optic nerve, the retina, as an intelligent curtain to guard it from injury. The vital contrivances by which it acts, and by which its action is directed, are so beautifully perfect, that the extent of the opening of the curtain is indicative of the state of the nervous apparatus it is destined to protect, by preventing such an amount of light impinging upon it as would be liable to injure it. In disease of the globe of the eye, the dilated pupil indicates more or less pressure on the retina by some cause in the globe itself, such as a permanently turgid choroid, &c. But if with a healthy eye, but in connexion with a blow on the head, we find a dilated pupil, then we have a sign of some pressure on, or injury to, the nerve in its course within the skull, or the ganglia in which it terminates.

"The dilated pupil, then, indicates very serious injury to the optic nerve, or the nervous centres with which it is connected, though it may happen that, as in the case of very severe concussion, the injury is remediable. The contracted pupil, on the contrary, indicates an irritability of the nervous instruments, an undue excitement of their natural function, not an obliteration of it. You will sometimes see, in the case of injury of the brain, dilatation of one pupil and contraction of the other; where this is the case, you will find the most severe injury of the brain on the side opposite the dilated pupil."

HOW TO MAKE LEECHES BITE.

The leech, which it is intended to apply, is to be thrown into a saucer containing fresh beer, and is to be left there till it begins to be quite lively. When it has moved about in the vessel for a few moments, it is to be quickly taken out and applied. This method will rarely disappoint expectation, and even dull leeches, and those which have been used not long before, will do their duty. It will be seen with astonishment how quickly they will bite.-Med. Gazette, from Weitenweber's Beitr.

REMEDY FOR TOOTH-ACHE.

The Nepeta cataria of Linnæus is recommended by Dr. Guastammachia as a sovereign remedy for tooth-ache, whether it proceeds from catching cold or from caries. The leaves of the plant are to be placed between the affected tooth and the opposite one; this causes a copious flow of saliva, and in two or three minutes the more violent pains are relieved. If the patient cannot keep the leaves in contact with the diseased tooth, he must chew them, and the object is equally attained by the flow of saliva thus excited.-Med. Gazette, from Filiatre Sebezio.

ON THE USE OF THE TINCTURE OF IODINE AS AN INJECTION, IN FISTULA ANI. By CHARLES Clay, M.D.*

After adverting to the beneficial results attending the iodine injection in cases of hydrocele, Dr. Clay mentions a case of fistula in ano, in which he was induced to try the effect of injecting the strong tincture of iodine through the canal of the fistula. The operation was followed by severe pain for a few minutes, with

* Medical Times.

a less degree of smarting, itching pain, for two or three hours after. On the second day the injections were repeated, the pain produced was equally severe with the first day. After this, the iodine was employed every other day for seven times, when the canal was found perfectly closed throughout, and its mouth entirely healed; no other treatment was adopted, except a little aperient medicine occasionally.

"To give iodine injections a fair chance of success," Dr. Clay observes, "they should be well thrown up by a good powerful syringe, (made of glass, as the iodine affects the metallic ones,) and the operator should be convinced that the fluid reaches the whole length of the canal, which in order to ascertain, he should, for the first and the second dressing, wrap a little lint or tow round a bougie, and pass it up the rectum before using the injection, when, if the fluid is conveyed properly, a portion will stain the lint on the bougie. In the case given above, the tincture could not be detected in the rectum after the second dressing. The result of this case was highly satisfactory, and gives room to hope that iodine injections will not only become highly valuable in promoting that peculiar inflammatory action, by which means the exhalents in the serous cavities are effectually obliterated and prevented from pouring out the secretions into those cavities, but also as equally valuable in closing up fistulæ, as in the case just recited. In fistula, however, the injection is required to be much stronger. I use the tincture full strength."

REMEDY FOR COUGH.

The abrupt violation of the decencies of social existence is one of the most annoying consequences of coughing and sneezing. If you happen to have a catarrh, and are not endowed with sufficiently strong powers of mind to be able to resist a paroxysm of coughing, place the end of your fore-finger upon the end of your nose, if you have a nose. In the absence of this central organ, rub your eyes as if you had been magnetized, and look at your watch. If the fit of coughing does not pass off, you will at least pass for an accomplished gentleman.-Diday.

ACTION OF WEAK ACIDS ON COPPER VESSELS PLATED BY THE

ELECTROTYPE PROCESS.

Mr. Warrington, in a late number of the Chemical Gazette, asserts that coppervessels, such as saucepans, extract-pans, &c. silvered by the electrotype process, are acted upon by weak acids, as lemon-juice or vinegar, if allowed to remain in them for a short time. This, he says, must arise from the deposited silver being so porous as to allow the acids to permeate its substance, and the action is most likely assisted by the formation of a galvanic current.

OBSERVATIONS AND RESEARCHES UPON A NEW SOLVENT FOR STONE IN THE BLADDER. BY ALEXANDER URE, M.D.*

Mr. Ure states that, in pursuing some enquiries relative to the treatment of certain forms of urinary disease, his attention was directed to the properties of car

* Pharmaceutical Journal.

bonate of lithia, a substance of which no therapeutic application has been heretofore made. It occurs, nevertheless, as a constituent of various mineral waters, some of which have been found of service in certain unhealthy conditions of the urinary organs.

Carbonate of lithia dissolves in water at the ordinary temperature (60°) to the amount of one per cent. It possesses a faintly alkaline, by no means unpleasant taste. It has a remarkable affinity for uric acid; according to M. Lipowitz, one part of carbonate of lithia dissolved in water, and boiled along with an excess of uric acid, dissolves four parts of the latter, which are held in solution after cooling. Urate of lithia is, indeed, the most soluble salt which that acid forms.

In order to determine the solvent powers of carbonate of lithia, with reference to uric acid and its compounds, at the common temperature of the human body, Mr. Ure instituted several experiments.

On adding pure uric acid to a solution of one grain of carbonate of lithia in an ounce of water, at the temperature of 98°, the quantity taken up was found to be 2.3 grains. Hence, it appears that the solvent power of carbonate of lithia is more than double that of carbonate of soda; nearly double that of carbonate of potash or borax; and about eight times that of bi-carbonate of soda, which is the active ingredient of the Vichy water.

After keeping a human urinary calculus, consisting of uric acid with alternate layers of oxalate of lime, in a solution of four grains of carbonate of lithia in an ounce of water at the temperature of 98°, for five hours, it was found to have lost five grains of weight, being at the rate of one grain an hour. The calculus was deeply eroded in different parts, but the delicate lamina of oxalate of lime remained intact, imparting to the surface the appearance of deep etching. The menstruum acquired a pale yellow tinge, and there fell down from it on cooling, a light flocculent deposit of urate of lithia, in which silky crystalline tufts could be distinguished by help of the microscope. It was still alkaline to litmus.

It deserves notice, that when fresh healthy urine is rendered alkaline by carbonate of lithia, no deposition ensues.

"A very large proportion," Mr. Ure observes," of the stones which occur in the urinary bladder of man, are composed in whole or in part of uric acid. Of all the various menstrua hitherto recommended, none appears to promise more favourably than the carbonate of lithia, from the promptitude and energy with which in dilute solution it attacks calculi of this description. If by means of injection we can reduce a stone at the rate of a grain or more an hour, as the above experiment would lead us to anticipate, we shall not merely diminish the positive bulk of the calculus, but farther loosen its cohesion, disintegrate it, so to speak, causing it to be washed away in the stream of the urine. Cases may present themselves in which it may be expedient to conjoin the use of the lithontriptor; but only occasionally and at long intervals. It is the frequency of repetition which renders that instrument so hazardous,

"It may be presumed, moreover, that the plan of throwing in a weak solution of this kind, would generally exercise a beneficial influence in obviating irritation, by removing the sharp angular points and asperities of the broken fragments, where the practice of crushing is adopted."

Mr. Ure has been prevented from trying the carbonate of lithia, by its extreme scarcity.

It appears, however, that the mineral called spodumene, which is found at Killiney, near Dublin, contains, according to Stromeyer's analysis, 5.6 per cent. of lithia, so that the carbonate might be obtained without much difficulty, if a demand should arise for it.

ON THE TREATMENT OF GONORRHOEA, BY SUPERFICIAL CAUTERIZATION OF THE URETHRA. By G. B. CHILDS, Esq.*

After some observations upon the prejudices which exist in the medical profession against "bold practitioners," Mr. Childs explains his mode of treating gonorrhoea at its commencement, when pain and inflammation are present, attended with discharge.

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Immediately a patient applies to me, I introduce an instrument, a modification of Lallemand's caustic-holder, smeared with oil, carrying it as far back the passage as from the symptoms may be deemed expedient. The caustic being exposed by pressing the stilet forward, the button at its extremity must be rapidly rotated between the thumb and fore-finger of the right hand, in order that no part of the mucous lining may be left intact, whilst the instrument is at the same time gradually withdrawn from the passage.

"In a few hours, a considerable degree of inflammation comes on, and in some instances slight bleedings, but these symptoms are but temporary, and subsiding leave the membrane almost free from discharge.

"In most cases of gonorrhoea the inflammation does not extend beyond three or four inches from the orifice of the urethra; this was called by Mr. Hunter its specific extent; further back than this, therefore, the instrument need not generally be passed.

"One application of the caustic I have sometimes found to destroy the virulence of the disease; but when, after the irritation attending the first application has subsided, any discharge remains, we should again resort to its employment. Whilst pursuing this treatment internal revulsives are to be administered in the form of copaiba and cubebs combined, and the penis is to be enveloped in a cold saturnine lotion.

"With such means as these we shall rarely fail to check the disease in a few days; an assertion I could easily corroborate by the recital of cases, did I feel it might be requisite so to do."

Mr. Childs disposes summarily of any objection to this plan on the grounds of the chance of stricture or epididymitis ensuing, by asserting that the chances of these affections are considerably less the earlier we destroy the specific inflammation attending gonorrhoea.

"The first and most important indication in the treatment of gonorrhoeal urethritis is to make such an impression on the inflamed vessels as shall change the original character of the disease, and substitute, in its stead, simple common inflammation of a sufficient extent to overcome the diseased action; and I feel assured, nothing can so effectually induce this as superficial cauterisation."

EVIL CONSEQUENCES OF THE TOO EARLY APPLICATION OF THE STARCHED BANDAGE IN A CASE OF SIMPLE FRACTURE OF THE FORE-ARM. By D. M'CASH, Esq.t

Some time since, Mr. M'Cash was called upon to visit a boy twelve years of age, who had just sustained a fracture of both bones of the fore-arm, about midway between the wrist and elbow. Unfortunately, the author was fresh from reading some glowing accounts by Velpeau of the successful application of la bandage immobile, in cases of simple fracture newly contracted, and, pleased with the nature of the details, resolved on giving it a fair trial in the first suitable

Medical Gazette, July 28.

+ Medical Gazette, July 21.

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