still incomplete, and the question has not been settled; for although, as a rule, greater success has been attained in hospital practice under the lower, though still infinitesimal, dilutions than when the 15th centesimal was uniformly given, yet, on the other. hand, Watzke, a man of rare observing powers, as well as solid judgment, found that in the provings on the healthy certain symptoms were evoked by the dilutions which were not observed when the drug was given in the immediate fractions of the drop or grain. He has candidly stated the facts in 1848, and also that he has had cures with dilutions above 3rd centesimal; but the subject was evidently to him still open to further experiment before positive conclusions should be drawn; and he certainly did not draw any conclusion favorable to the practical use of higher dilutions as a rule,—a fact that may be seen by reference to his much more recent "One Day of my Practice " published in this Journal some years ago.

The statistical reports of Eidherz, in 1862, also give countenance to the belief that the 6th or 9th centesimal dilution acted more favorably in pneumonia than the lower, though still infinitesimal dilutions.

The paper published by Dr. Bayes some time ago, in which he gave the doses usually prescribed by our colleagues in this country, proves very little beyond the fact that most of the British practitioners have accepted the common opinion first imported into this country along with homoeopathy, viz., that low dilutions are best for acute diseases, and high dilutions for chronic diseases. This opinion does not seem to be founded on any series of comparative trials, and we are at a loss to account for its general acceptance except on the ground that it was authoritatively put forward by some writers who first secured the attention of the profession. Almost every new convert adopted it and passed some years of his professional life without questioning its truth. It is evident from the statistics collected by Dr. Bayes that many have remained in this stage of their first impressions, and have continued to repeat, like parrots, the opinion they first adopted on the authority of others. Some have indeed cast aside the trammels of authority, and have discovered that this rule for the dose has no foundation in practical experience, but most, as is evident from Dr. Bayes' statistics, have remained fossilised in the notions they originally adopted,

and amid the busy exigiencies of their practical life have apparently lost the power to throw off the routine habits and ideas they started with. Thus it happens that statistics of the practice of homœopathists in this country show an overwhelming majority still practising in the way they first learned to practise, who have had, perhaps, neither the time nor the inclination to obtain fresh experience for themselves, but have been only too willing to accept a rule which comes recommended to them by its apparent simplicity and by what they deemed to be respectable authority. Every one conversant with recent homœopathic literature knows that this supposed rule for the dose is not true, but it is equally clear that the true rule for the dose has not yet been discovered. -EDS.]

Guaco and its Uses.*

THIS species of twining plant grows wild in the fields of New Granada and Venezuela, and is met with usually in glens, at the margin of rivers, and sometimes attached to the boundaries of gardens.

No one knows when the Indians and negroes of Santa Fé first employed it as an antidote against the venom of snakes. This property was kept secret amongst them until 1788, when Señor Mutis discovered it by an artifice. Ten years later he thus wrote to Señor Zea: "Nobody in this place dies of snake bite. Horses, sheep, &c., are cured as well as man when there is an opportunity of giving them guaco juice."

When the negroes wish to guard against snake bite, and to be able to carry snakes about them with impunity, they resort to inoculation. They make six incisions-two in the hands, two in the feet, and one on each side of the chest. The juice is extracted from guaco leaves and put into the incisions, after the manner of vaccination. Previous to the operation two spoonfuls of juice are swallowed. It is advisable for the initiated person to take the juice every month for five or six days; because if this be omitted for some time, his vulnerability returns and a fresh inoculation will be necessary.

* Translated from La Reforma Médica, Oct. 31st, 1873, by George Moore, M.D.

As the plant drops its leaves in the dry season, and as the pure juice from them cannot be preserved many days without undergoing decomposition, the following preparation must be made for future use. Take the leaves only and squeeze out the juice through linen; put it at once into a bottle containing an equal quantity of spirit; shake this mixture well together, then cork the bottle and let it rest for eight days. At the end of this time all the sediment has fallen to the bottom, and the clear tincture remaining above is decanted into another bottle, which should be tightly corked to keep its contents in good condition for use when wanted. The tincture is applicable to the same purposes as the pure juice, except that the latter is alone fitted for inoculation.

Applications.-1. For snake bite, three large spoonfuls of the pure juice are to be taken immediately, and at the same time a cataplasm of the powdered leaves is to be applied to the wound. These are to be repeated every day until the patient is well. If nothing but the prepared guaco is at hand, he should have three spoonfuls of it, and it should be rubbed into the bite, repeating these measures as with the pure juice and the cataplasm. Larger doses are required for horses, cattle, and other animals.

2. The same treatment should be adopted against the bites of the scorpion (alacran) and those of dogs and other rabid animals, continuing in the latter case for forty days.

3. In rheumatism and gout give daily two spoonfuls of the pure juice or of the tincture, and rub the painful part with one or other of these forms of the drug, or apply a cataplasm.

4. For the injuiries due to mechanical violence, apply the same treatment for a few days, with the difference that the dose should be three spoonfuls.

5. When the catamenia are suspended, two spoonfuls should be taken every day until the case is cured. The same treatment is required for other obstructions of the abdominal viscera and for liver disease. In the latter disease we should also apply cataplasms of the leaves over the right hypochondrium, or rub in the tincture.

6. He who suffers from chronic and refractory ulcers should take daily three or four spoonfuls of the pure juice or of the tincture, and also put cataplasms of the leaves on the ulcers, or dress them with the tincture.

7. The treatment of tetanus consists in lapping cloths saturated with the tincture round the jaws and head of the patient, and in giving three spoonfuls of the same preparation or of the pure juice, repeating the dose as is done with opium in like cases. In spasm of the stomach, give four spoonfuls of the juice, or, better still, of the tincture, and apply the above mentioned cloths to the region of the stomach.

8. In "la ética," i. e., hectic fever, consumption, give an infusion of the leaves, made with hot water.

9. For asthma, use the same measures as are described in the fifth paragraph.

10. In tertians and all fevers with chills, four spoonfuls of the tincture or of the pure juice should be administered at the beginning of the rigor, and continued in equal doses, fasting, for a month.

11. The author of the memoir from which some of these remarks are drawn does not say how Guaco is to be employed as a vermifuge. In my opinion we should give the pure juice, or the tincture, in doses of one spoonful for children and two for adults, fasting.

12. In order to cure hemicrania radically it is necessary to give fasting two spoonfuls of the juice, or of the tincture, and as much more a little before meals.

13. For toothache, some of the juice or the tincture should be rinsed in the mouth, and applied on cotton to the painful part.

Cases.-Guaco has proved successful in so many different diseases, that if every case were referred to it would be necessary to write a treatise; hence, I shall here confine myself to the most remarkable of those which the aforesaid memoir contains, and to few of the many which have come under my own more immediate notice.

1. In 1828, a servant of the Sras Martinez was bitten in the hand by a coral snake. The tincture was given and within eight days she was perfectly well. The same remedy cured, in 1830, a servant of General Juan de Escalona. She was bitten in the finger by a snake of unknown species, and was under treatment for three days. Sr. Antonio Rodriguez, who had caused himself to be inoculated with Guaco, was on such familiar terms with the most venomous snakes, that he had always some of them in his

house, in his clothes trunk, and even in his bed. On one occasion he carried a rattlesnake in the crown of his hat, and some friends to whom he showed it having irritated it, it bit him in the head when the hat was put on, but without the least bad result. Inoculated persons acquire a certain power over snakes, as is proved by what frequently took place in the district of Argua where two boys who had been inoculated by Señor Benitez used to go out into the fields, catch snakes, and return playing with them.

2. The author of the memoir does not mention any instances of the bite of the alecran, nor has anything reached me through other channels.

3. According to the statement of the late Dr. Cristóbal Mendoza, Governor of Venezuela, four negroes were bitten by a rabid dog. Three of them were treated by the usual remedies and died of hydrophobia; the fourth was treated with Guaco and escaped. Señora Porte, sister-in-law to General Juan de Escalono, and her servant were bitten by a rabid dog. Both at once took daily three spoonfuls of pure Guaco juice, applying it also to the wounds, and continued this for forty days. They did not fall victims to this terrible disease. Sr. Pedro Alcalá was bitten in the arm by a mad dog and escaped by virtue or Guaco treatment. It must be noted that two of the dogs just mentioned bit various animals all of which died rabid. Last year and this hydrophobia has been very rife amongst dogs in the whole province, and Guaco has been increasingly employed with the best results. have been assured that for this reason the English Consul has written to London some interesting accounts of the virtues of this plant.

I

4. A woman, named Serafnia, suffered from rheumatism for ten years, and became crippled by it. She then took Guaco, which restored her health and the use of her limbs, and I have seen her walking along the street without difficulty. A trustworthy person informed the author of the memoir that a foreigner whom the gout had crippled was so thoroughly cured by Guaco that shortly after his recovery he made a journey on foot from this city to Guavia, and that the complaint did not return.

5. A child of Cárlos Mendoza fell from the second story of the house into the court below and was badly injured in the face and all over the body. Cataplasms of the leaves were applied to the