gestion had disappeared, but a nasty muco-purulent discharge existed. I now ordered Merc. cor., 3, every two hours, and saw the child again in four days. There was no decided improvement, and I now ordered a lotion of Tannin grs. x, Aqua ziii; the lotion to be used three times a day. Merc. cor. 3 to be continued. On seeing the patient four days after it was much better, and in sixteen days quite cured.

I

I will now relate two cases of ulceration of the cornea. may remark that there are two varieties of this form, viz., ulceration of the proper substance of the cornea, and ulceration of the conjunctiva corneæ, and you find these both require different treatment, because the treatment that applies to one is totally useless for the other.

A girl, æt. 19, asked my advice about a speck which was situated on the right eye. On examination I found a superficial ulcer of the cornea. She only complained of a feeling of something on the eye, and a certain amount of dryness. I prescribed Podophyllum 3, three times daily, and at the end of a fortnight she was quite cured, and nothing was visible on the eye. I believe that in ulceration of the conjunctiva corneæ Podophyllum is specific.

A young man consulted me about something which was situated in his left eye. He had been under allopathic treatment for some time, but with no benefit. He complained of a sensation of sand lodged in the eye, and occasionally violent stitches. On examination I found an ulcer situated in the cornea proper. I prescribed Ars., 2 trit., every three hours for a week. On seeing him I found that the feeling of sand in the eye was gone and also the violent stitches, but no improvement otherwise. I now ordered Podoph. 3 every three hours, for a week, but with no benefit. I then ordered Merc. cor. 3 every three hours, and dusted in a little Calomel with a camel's-hair brush, and asked him to come and see me every third day. I continued this treatment for about seventeen days, when the ulcer had almost disappeared. I then prescribed Sulph. O morning and evening, and at the end of six weeks from the commencement of the treatment he was quite cured.

Cerebral Exhaustion or Break-down from Over-study.

By Dr. DRYSDALE.

In consequence of the mental hard work required in training for the professions or University honours, we frequently meet with a greater or less break-down of the cerebral faculties, so that the patient is unable to endure continued application to business of any kind, and in consequence becomes nervous and depressed. If this continues long he falls into desultory habits, becomes hypochondriac, and stands a fair chance of being thrown out in the race for life altogether. In these cases and in other nervous diseases I have observed, and find the same remark made by Brown-Sequard, that it is better not to go on long advising total rest and abstinence from business, with frequent change of air and scene &c., all of which are essential at first, but we must counsel the return to a moderate amount of steady responsible daily occupation. To this and the usual hygienic rules we must add steady perseverance in specific treatment with medicine chosen in accordance with the homœopathic law. Often we do not get the opportunity of a full trial of steady perseverance in homœopathic treatment, as these patients are changeable and full of whims ; so they go from one physician to another and give no plan a fair trial.

But sometimes we meet with sufficient success at the first to induce the patient to continue the treatment. The following is a case which may serve for encouragement both to ourselves and similar patients.

A young clergyman broke down in studying some years ago and was attacked with extreme restlessness, fits of drowsiness, headache, &c., so that he was obliged to give up all work for nearly four years. Then he improved so that he was able to undertake duty about a year ago, but has since gradually become affected with the following symptoms, so that he fears. he must give up work again. On 6th of June, 1873, he complained of great excitability, and on the least surprise or mental emotion he is seized with tremor all over, and palpitation. He has frequent headaches characterised by a dull throbbing all over the head, worse at night, especially after being in company

or a close room. Loss of memory; bowels costive, and if two days confined he has dull headache and general oppression. The sleep is usually heavy and unrefreshing, but after the least excitement he often lies awake for hours with restless fatigued feeling and itching of the skin here and there. Buzzing in one Fits of melancholy and causeless depression, and he fancies he has all sorts of diseases.

ear.

He was ordered two drops of the 1st dec. dilution of Sabadilla night and morning daily, and two grains of the 1st centes. trituration of Platina at noon every second day.

On the 3rd of July he stated that the bowels were opened naturally, the excitability and headache were less; no buzzing in the ear and the causeless fear was relieved. Other symptoms the same.

Prescription: four drops of Anacardium 1 cent. night and morning daily; two grains of 1st dec. trituration of Santonine at noon every second day.

On 6th August he was better of all the symptoms and complained only that his memory and intellectual powers were still too easily upset by work. Ethusa cynapium drop of the pure tincture night and morning every second day.

On the 10th October he reported that he was perfectly well and had been so for the last few weeks.

175

MISCELLANEOUS.

ON INFINITESIMAL DOSES.

To the Editors of the British Journal of Homœopathy.' GENTLEMEN,-Possibly the appeals lately made by Dr. Black and others for experimentation with what may be called reasonable doses of drugs homoeopathically indicated may be helped forward by serious consideration of the following statement of facts which probably not one in a hundred of our practitioners has fairly looked in the face.

The first centesimal dilution of a drug contains ordinarily one hundredth of a drop of the mother tincture, or one hundredth of a grain of the crude substance. As all further dilutions are made by adding ninety-nine drops of Spirit. vini to one drop of the dilution below, the second dilution will contain one ten thousandth of the original drop or grain, the third one millionth and so on. And the simple rule results that in order to know what fraction of the mother tincture or crude drug we have in any dilution, it is necessary only to place double that number of ciphers after unity as the denominator of a fraction with unity for its numerator.

After the figure I

As an instance take the 3rd centesimal. add six ciphers for the denominator, and write 1 for the numerator thus 1,000,000, or one millionth.

It will therefore be seen that the fraction which will represent the quantity of the actual drug contained in the thirtieth dilution of any medicine will be one identical with that given for the 3rd, except that in place of six ciphers there will be sixty.

Dilution No. 3 as above shown contains one part of the drug in one million parts of the Spirit. vini; and when we get to dilution No. 6 the quantity of spirits of wine to each drop of the drug will have mounted up not to the double of the million, be it

observed, but to a billion of drops, that is, to a million millions, a proportion inconceivably large.

In truth as soon as dilution has gone beyond No. 3 or the millionth, the mind fails to grasp the figures which represent the proportion of the diluent.

I have said that sixty ciphers must find place in the denominator of the fraction which will represent the quantity of a drop in the 30th dilution, but some of our physicians are using the 200th dilution (or suppose themselves to be using it), and for the fraction representing the quantity of any drug which the 200th dilution would contain FOUR HUNDRED CIPHERS would be necessary.

Has any serious thought been given to this?
Perhaps the following may help some to think.

The pharmacopoeia gives 76,800 as the number of minims in a gallon. Say that there are 10,000 drops in a gallon, for we can afford to cast in any number of odd thousands or millions without affecting appreciably the stupendous aggregates with which we have to deal. Sixty ciphers in the denominator represent the 30th dilution; strike off four of these and the remaining fifty-six with the unit preceding them will represent the number of gallons of spirits of crude wine with which a single drop or grain of any drug must be mixed in order to give the said 30th dilution.

Now, as this number of gallons is altogether beyond conception as a mere statement of figures, consider the following.

If a person were to drink a gallon of water every second for one year, the quantity drank would be 31,536,000 or say 32,000,000 gallons. If for a million of years a million of gallons were drank every second, the thirty-two would be followed by only eighteen ciphers. But all this quantity would be simply as nothing in comparison with the amount needed to mix with a single drop or grain of any drug in order to form the 30th dilution.

I have not the data for the calculation, but I question whether the whole bed of the Thames from its source to the sea contains the quantity of water that would be needed to mix with a single grain of any drug in order to turn the whole into the 200th dilution.

Think of one grain of common salt or one drop of aconite mixed