different manner to that adopted by others. He prefers making a pommade by mixing nitrate of silver with hog's lard, and introducing it into the nasal fossæ.

Strychnia and the Woorara Poison.-Dr. Vulpian (L'Union Médicale, Jan., 1857) has made some experiments on animals with these poisons, in consequence of a suggestion by Dr. Thibeaud that they are antagonistic in their actions, and might therefore be employed as antidotes to each other. The result, however, is that Dr. Vulpian does not consider woorara an antidote to strychnia, and that it is equally inefficacious, and may be mischievous, in the treatment of tetanus.

Poisoning by Caustic Ammonia-Efficacy of Chlorate of Potash.-Dr. Fonssagrioes, of Cherbourg (L'Union Médicale, January, 1857), relates a case in which a sailor swallowed a large quantity of caustic ammonia with a suicidal intention. Vinegar and water were administered in abundance, but an odematous and inflammatory condition of the glottis was induced, requiring the application of leeches; and afterwards an enormous quantity of limpid mucus was discharged from the mouth. The chlorate of potash was employed to alleviate this symptom, in the dose of two grammes a day, and in five days the salivation was almost entirely suspended.

Hydrocotyle Asiatica.-M. Fournier (Bulletin Général de Thérapeutique, March, 1857), in analysing this plant, has found that one hundred parts afford fifteen of ash. These ashes consist of a soluble portion and of a part insoluble in water. The soluble salts are the chlorides, iodides, and sulphates of magnesium, sodium and potassium. The carbonates are almost completely wanting. The author prefers the hydro-alcoholic extract, prepared in a vacuum, as the best form for medical use.

Tannin-draught in Chronic Bronchitis.—Dr. Berthel (Bulletin Général de Thérapeutique, March, 1857) recommends the following draught in bronchitis of long duration:-20 centigrammes of tannin, 5 centigrammes of belladonna, 15 centigrammes of hemlock, 90 grammes of infusion of senna, 50 grammes of fennel water, and 50 grammes of syrup of mallow. A tablespoonful to be taken every two hours.

Achillea Millefolium as an Emmenagogue.-Dr. Ronzier Joly (Bulletin Général de Thérapeutique, March, 1857) relates some cases which proved the efficacy of this plant as an emmenagogue. He was first induced to try its powers in restoring the menstrual flux by the case of a young girl of eighteen, who had tried the usual means of cure without effect, and in whom the administration of a strong infusion of the millefolium induced the menses in half an hour. Upon inquiry, Dr. Joly ascertained that, in a village some miles distant from his residence, the women were in the constant habit of using the plant for the same purpose.

Balsam of Copaiba in Psoriasis.-M. Hardy (Bulletin Général de Thérapeutique, March, 1857), Physician of the Hôpital St. Louis, commences the treatment of psoriasis by giving about three grammes of balsam of copaiba, then, during the treatment, the dose is raised to four and six grammes: the copaiba is administered in the morning, fasting, and the interval of meals. This treatment is continued for a certain time at least a month, and sometimes more. But M. Hardy seldom confines his treatment to the employment of copaiba, although he has employed it alone, successfully, in certain cases. In general he associates it with local measures.

Bran-Bread in Diabetes.-Mr. Camplin (Medical Times, May 2, 1857) gives the following directions for the preparation of bran-bread. Take a sufficient 40-xx.

•18

quantity of wheat bran, boil it in two successive waters for ten minutes, each time straining it through a sieve, then wash it well with cold water, on the sieve, until the water runs off perfectly clear: squeeze the bran in a cloth as dry as you can, then spread it thinly on a dish, and place it in a slow oven: if put in at night, let it remain until morning, when, if perfectly dry and crisp, it will be fit for grinding. The bran thus prepared must be ground in a fine mill, and sifted through a wire sieve of sufficient fineness to require the use of a brush to pass it through: that which does not pass through at first must be ground and sifted again, until the whole is soft and fine. Take of this bran powder, 3 ounces Troy; 3 fresh eggs; 1 ounce of butter; rather less than half-a-pint of milk; mix the eggs with part of the milk, and warm the butter with the other portion: then stir the whole well together, adding a little nutmeg and ginger, or any other agreeable spice. Immediately before putting in the oven, stir in first 35 grains of sesquicarbonate of soda, and then 3 drachms of dilute hydrochloric acid. The loaf thus prepared should be baked in a basin (previously well buttered) for about an hour, or rather more. Biscuits may be prepared as above, omitting the soda and hydrochloric acid, and part of the milk, and making them of proper consistence for moulding into shape.

MEDICAL INTELLIGENCE.

Mr. Dempster on the Causes of Marsh Poison in India.

(To the Editor of the British and Foreign Medico-Chirurgical Review.)

SIR,-In the October number of the 'Medico-Chirurgical Review' for 1855, you did me the favour to notice the report of a committee (of which I was the sole medical member) on certain sanitary questions connected with canals and canal irrigation in India, and you concluded that notice with the following

remarks:

"We cannot conclude this notice of the valuable inquiry carried out by Mr. Dempster and Major (now Colonel) Baker, without expressing a hope that we may again hear from them, and that the above summary of the results arrived at by those gentlemen may excite others to institute similar investigations."

In answer to this invitation, I now beg to lay before you some very interesting and important additional facts relating to the subject, which have recently been brought to my knowledge, and which I hope will be found worthy to be communicated to the profession in England and the colonies, through the medium of your journal.

In autumn last, a fever of an unusually virulent character committed great havoc in a "Zilla" or district about twelve miles distant from the city of Allyghur, in the upper provinces of the Bengal Presidency. It was of much importance to ascertain, if possible, what was the real nature of this disease. Was it an epidemic, arising from occult atmospheric or other influences which can neither be foreseen nor counteracted by any means yet at our disposal? Or was it a pure endemic, depending on local, and perhaps easily remediable, causes? These were obviously questions of much practical import to the inhabitants of the district under consideration.

The fever was said by some to be contagious, but mention was also made of a "nulla" (the Korrum) having overflowed its banks, and it was determined to apply my spleen test for malarious fever. The examinations were commenced nine miles from the "nulla," and carefully continued up to it. It was found that there had been an unusual amount of fever all over the district, and

several cases of diseased spleen were brought up for advice. For the test purposes, however, these were not counted, but the by-standers examined just as they came to hand. Till a village was reached three miles from the "nulla," and to some extent influenced by its inundation, no case of spleen was found by an examination so conducted. In this village, however, 60 per cent. had spleen.

On reaching the "nulla" this rate kept up, and in one village (Chandous) which had suffered most from fever, 80 per cent. of the remaining inhabitants were found afflicted with diseased spleen! This at once indicated a severe form of intermittent fever, and many other circumstances combined to confirm this belief-viz. :

1. Three escape channels from the New Ganges Canal enter the "nulla" above the village of Chandous, and fill it to overflowing, even in the cold or dry season, for a distance of some ten miles. During the periodical rainy season this prevented the water from finding an escape, and the country was consequently greatly flooded.

2. The villages above Chandous suffered to no unusual extent from fever. 3. The villages on the "nulla" or inundations formed by it, have suffered out of all proportion to the rest of the country.

4. At Chandous itself, where the canal water enters, 3000 people out of a population of 3600 have been carried off. This mortality was greatly assisted by the flood entering a "Jheel" or shallow lake, and thus increasing the malarious surface to a great extent.

5. The side or sides nearest the "nulla" of other large villages opposite a less extent of inundation, suffered most. The centres and other sides seem to have been protected. This suffering of particular sides of villages was distinctly seen from the tops of the "zemindar's" houses, as on those sides the houses of the villages were observed to be in ruins.

6. Smaller villages close by were overwhelmed by the malaria—that is, were, with here and there an exception, a mass of roofless houses.

7. At about ten miles below Chandous the bed of the "nulla" is larger, or the flood had expended itself in spreading right and left, and there there was no unusual fever.

8. In the district generally people died in from five to fifteen days from fever last year. At the village three miles from the "nulla" (where 60 per cent. of spleen disease was found) they died in three days. On the "nulla" (where the percentage of spleen disease among the survivors amounted to eighty) they died in twenty-four hours during the ague or cold stage of the fever.

Some other points of interest were observed, but enough has been stated to prove the accuracy of the test I proposed, and its practical utility in leading at once to the right conclusions in investigations of this nature, in certain provinces of our Indian dominions.

In my appendix to the Canal Sanitary Report I showed why the large military station of Kurnaul had been abandoned.

For a great many years a canal had flowed in the immediate vicinity of that large cantonment, and yet, according to Colonel Tulloch's tables, it ranked in point of salubrity for European troops second or third among all the military stations of the Bengal Presidency. This canal (the Delhi) was an old Mahomedan's work, and only re-opened and improved by us. bed of a large "nulla"-the natural drainage channel of that part of the It occupies the country-and follows its most tortuous windings. So long as the highest level of the water in this canal was below the lowest ground in the neighbourhood of the cantonment, it still performed its office of a natural drain; but when— with the most humane and benevolent intentions-the level of the water in the canal was raised so high that it could deliver water on the low ground opposite

Kurnaul, for the purposes of irrigation, it is obvious that no more drainage could escape by that channel. No other existed; and when the periodical rains came, all the low ground in the vicinity of the cantonment became an extensive swamp, and the troops, European and native, were universally prostrated by fevers of the most virulent type.

A remedy-an expensive one, it is true-might have been applied; but Kurnaul was no longer the important military position it was once esteemed, and Lord Ellenborough abolished it altogether as a cantonment for European troops.

Precisely the same thing has now occurred in the case above related. The Great Ganges Canal is itself constructed on proper principles. It passes along the "Watershed line" of the country through which it flows, and can never interfere with its natural drainage, whatever amount of water it may carry down to fertilize the land. But it appears it lately became necessary to expose a part of the bottom of this new canal, and this was effected by turning three escape channels into the "Kurram nulla," by which it was filled to overflowing, and no other drain for the country being provided, all the low ground in the neighbourhood was swamped during and after the periodical rainy season.

The fatal results of this mistake have been fully detailed above. The whole of this subject has an important bearing on all questions relating to the medical topography of a great part of the Bengal Presidency.

In conclusion, I would respectfully urge on the Indian Government the necessity of strictly enforcing the limits of the sanitary zones recommended by our committee, and of prohibiting canal irrigation within five miles of all large military stations occupied by European troops. If the principles on which these zones were defined be correct, their strict observance becomes of greater importance than ever, now that so large and permanent an addition is about to be made to our European troops in Bengal.

August 31st, 1857.

I remain, yours faithfully,

T. E. DEMPSTER, Bengal Medical Service

An American Opinion of Dr. Fell.

In the American Medical Monthly' for July, 1857, we read some remarks upon the Fell treatment of cancer, of which it may not be mal à propos to present a portion to our readers:

"Quite a commotion has been produced in the London medical world by J. Weldon Fell, M.D., who has asserted that he could remove cancerous disease without using the knife. As we understand the matter, by some hocuspocus he succeeded in pursuading the authorities of the Middlesex Hospital, London, to assign him certain patients to be subjected to his treatment. The Lancet' immediately came down on the whole arrangement, as violating by its secrecy the very principles of professional ethics, and deprecated the position taken by the surgeons of the institution. For this, or for some other reason, Dr. Fell has published a book on cancer and its treatment, in which he gives the formule which he uses, and thus pricks his own gas-bag, which must at once collapse and shrink to flatness itself. Will our readers be so kind as to pause a moment, and if absolutely necessary, take something to strengthen them before they read that Dr. Fell's remedy is- -puccoon!!—that is to say, in English, Bloodroot, in botany, Sanguinaria Canadensis. Hear what Dr. Fell says: 'Many remedial agents were tried without producing the desired effect, and all efforts to cure the disease were for a long time unsuccessful, and apparently hopeless, until I heard of a root used by the North American Indians on the shores of

Lake Superior, which the Indian traders told me was used by them with success in these affections. . . . . And no doubt some poor squaw, suffering from this dreadful disease, was the first who applied it, after having tried all the simple herbarium of the uneducated savage without success, and then in despair applied the bruised bloody pulp of the white flowering puccoon.' This is the old dodge of Indian doctors' which with us in America is at once understood, deceiving none but the most ignorant. In sooth, if all the wonderful remedies ascribed to the Lake Superior Indians had been discovered by them, it would be abundant evidence that they were a most industrious set of men in the study of remedies. We remember to have read of an expedition for determining the boundaries of one of our Southern States, which on emerging from the untenanted forest, found an Indian settlement, where the women used puccoon to colour the areola about the nipple as an addition to their beauty. The number of similar spots on the shirt bosoms of the party the next day was noted as remarkable. Can Dr. Fell's theory have sprung from this ?"

The paper concludes with some reflections upon our gullibility, which a certain feeling of self-love prevents our transferring to these pages.

BOOKS RECEIVED FOR REVIEW.

A Treatise on the Cure of Stammering. By J. Hunt, Ph.D. Third Edition. 1857.

On the Urinary Secretion of Fishes. By John Davy, M.D. Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin. Vol. XXI. Edinburgh, 1857.

General Board of Health. Papers relating to the History and Practice of Vaccination. Presented to both Houses of Parliament. London, 1857.

The Structure and Functions of the Eye, illustrative of the Power, Wisdom, and Goodness of God. By George Spencer Thomson, M.D. London, 1857.

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The Principles of Moral Insanity. Lecture by John Kitching. York, 1857. (Reprint.)

The Asylum Journal of Medical Science. Edited by J. C. Bucknill, M.D. July, 1857. The Baths of Germany, France, and Switzerland. By Edwin Lee, M.D. Third Edition. London, 1857.

Essay on the Mechanism and Management of Parturition in the Shoulder Presentation. By W. M. Boling, M.D. Montgomery, Ala.

The Medical Profession in Great Britain and Ireland. By Edwin Lee, M.D. don, 1857.

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The Retrospect of Medicine. Edited by W. Braithwaite. January-June, 1857. The Liverpool Medico-Chirurgical Journal. No. 2. 1857.

The Half-Yearly Abstract of the Medical Sciences. Edited by W. H. Ranking, M.D., and C. B. Radcliffe, M.D. Jan.-June, 1857. The Assurance Magazine. No. 28. The Journal of Psychological Medicine and Mental Pathology. Edited by Forbes Winslow, M.D. July, 1857.

History of Civilization in England. By H. T. Buckle. Vol. I. London, 1857.

Medical Reform a Social Question. Two Letters. By Joseph Sampson Gamgee, Staff-Surgeon, &c. London, 1857.

Professorship of Materia Medica in the Queen's College, Belfast. Testimonials in favour of Henry M'Cormac, M.D. Belfast,

1857.

Thirtieth Annual Report of the Directors of the James Murray's Royal Asylum for Lunatics, near Perth. Jan., 1857.

Testimonials in favour of Charles Wilson,

M.D.

Waverley Journal, conducted by Women. Vol. IV. No. 37. July 11, 1857. The Dial Register. No. 1. July, 1857. Annual Report of the Royal Edinburgh Asylum for 1856.

On the Hæmantlion, an Instrument to facilitate the Examination of Blood in Disease. By Horace Dobell, M.D. (From the Journal of Arts.)

How to Work with the Microscope. By Lionel S. Beale, M.D. London, 1857.

The Use of the Microscope in Clinical Medicine. Illustrated. By Lionel S. Beale, M.D. London, 1857.

The Doctrine of the Duration of Labour. By J. Matthew Duncan, M.D. (Reprint.) The Druggists' General Receipt Book. By Henry Beasley. London, 1857.

Hydropathy, or the Natural System of Medical Treatment. By E. W. Lane, M.D. London, 1857.

Suggestions for Observations on the Influence of Cholera and other Epidemic Poisons on the Lower Animals. By Lauder Lindsay, M.D. (Reprint.)