before he finished his last medicine. This case is so slight in itself that I should not have brought it before you but that it appeared to me to have some bearing on the muchvexed question of the curative dose.

Discussion on Mr. Henry Harris's paper.

Dr. RANSFORD had a case very like Mr. Harris's first case with this important difference, that there were no tubercles in the prostate. The subject was an aged clergyman. The bladder was very irritable; the urine drawn off by catheter night and morning. Cannabis sativa 1 materially relieved him and prolonged his life, although the vesical paralysis was not cured. He has found Cannabis indica p in one-drop doses more efficacious in curing acute gonorrhoea than Cannabis sativa o, but in gleet he has still more confidence in Bals. copaibæ, of which he orders two or three drops of a saturated alcoholic solution three or four times daily.

Dr. VAUGHAN-HUGHES said that cases of tubercular hypertrophy of the prostate must be very rare; he had never met with such pure and simple. He was of opinion that Mr. Harris's patient had tubercular deposits in the submucous tissue, and that these spots ulcerated through to the surface and discharged a matter, more or less purulent, bloody, and sanious, which gave rise to excessive irritation in the bladder, prostate, and urethra. Dr. Vaughan-Hughes considered that the hæmorrhage from the urethra during violent and long-continued erection arose from an ulcer in some part of the urethral mucous membrane becoming suddenly torn up by the rapid expansion of the erectile tissues.

Dr. DUDGEON was not quite satisfied from Mr. Harris's description of his first case that the disease was really tubercle of the prostate. In that case would there not have been enlargement of the gland? It seemed to him that the disease might, in the absence of confirmatory evidence on the dissecting table, be assumed to be chronic cystitis with ulceration. As the patient had not yet died he might yet derive some advantage from Argentum nitricum, which had not apparently been yet given by Mr. Harris.

Dr. BAYES thanked Mr. Harris for the very interesting cases so clearly and well related. Urinary_hæmorrhage was often a very obscure affection. Latterly he (Dr. Bayes) had treated two such cases, both of great severity; one progressed favorably, but the other proved fatal. The first of these two cases came under his treatment about twelve months ago; he had been up till then under allopathic treatment: There were frequently recurring

hæmorrhages of very considerable extent, and in addition to clots passed on such occasions masses of villous growth, some of considerable size, were occasionally to be detected in the urine. The microscope showed their structure, and a very good specimen is to be seen among the preparations at St. George's Hospital. The urine was always loaded with albumen and a very considerable quantity of blood-corpuscles, pus-corpuscles, epithelial scales, &c., were always present. He (Dr. Bayes) immediately withdrew all alcoholic stimulants, and slow improvement set in under a course of homoeopathic remedies. Fresh hæmorrhages occasionally recurred (but less frequently than before), and a very severe attack came on in May, the patient being at that time in Bournemouth under Dr. Nankivell's immediate care. The bladder became distended with clots, and Dr. Nankivell washed it out very skilfully. After this the patient returned to London. The urine still albuminous and loaded with pus, still containing at times villous growth. He (Dr. Bayes) now gave him small doses of Sulpho-carbolate of Lime, a grain three times a day, and under this and the careful meeting of symptoms by other remedies the pus speedily disappeared, the urine lost its albumen and became more natural in composition, the patient gradually assumed a healthful aspect, and appears well. No fresh hemorrhage (worthy of the name) has appeared during eight months, and were it not for the occasional appearance of a small clot in the urine the patient might be pronounced well. The second case alluded to was that of an officer. When he (Dr. Bayes) first saw him he was completely exsanguined, suffering much also from dysuria and irritable bladder to so great a degree as to force urination every twenty minutes, day and night. There was no considerable hæmorrhage, but the urine was loaded with pus and albumen. The pain was so urgent that the patient took large and repeated doses of Morphia, but still no longer interval of sleep than twenty minutes to half an hour was yielded. A course of homoeopathic medication relieved the urgent symptoms, and the patient was enabled to sleep two or three hours at a time; so marked was the improvement for a time that the patient and his friends became very sanguine of ultimate recovery. The pus and albumen nearly disappeared under Sulpho-carbolate of Lime, but suddenly paralysis of the bladder set in. A surgeon was called in who very skilfully used the catheter, but this brought on passive hæmorrhage. Constitutional symptoms set in, aphthous ulceration of mouth and throat followed, and diarrhoea and lienteria ended the patient's sufferings. There had been at one time great pain and discomfort in the prostate gland, but this was permanently relieved by a few doses of Aconite 1. In both these cases the effect of many of our medicines was well marked; and he (Dr. Bayes) may, at some future time, give the details, but the point he wished to bring forward at this time was the beneficial action of small doses of

Sulpho-carbolate of Lime in arresting disorganization, and, perhaps (in the first case), in destroying or controlling the development of growths of loose organisation within the urinary cavities.

Mr. HARRIS, in reply, said that he was by no means prejudiced in favour of his diagnosis of the first case, and should be pleased if its favorable issue showed that he was mistaken. He would gladly avail himself of Dr. Dudgeon's suggestion as to the use of Argenti nitras, though he feared the case was now too far advanced for any treatment to be of much benefit. Dr. Vaughan-Hughes had suggested that the tubercular deposit might be in the submucous tissue; that no doubt was possible, but Mr. Harris was of opinion that it was really in the gland structure itself. Tubercular disease may exist without any .hypertrophy at the beginning; it is said there is sometimes a slight enlargement, but as the disease progresses the gland really diminishes in size. In this case there is certainly no hypertrophy, nor has there been at any time any difficulty in getting rid of the urine. That the hæmorrhage in the second case was not due to stricture nor to ulcer in urethra is shown by the fact that a No. 12 catheter was passed without difficulty and without pain. The last case was not brought forward as a striking cure of warts, but simply to show that a cure appeared to be effected by Thuja 12, a similar result not having followed the use of that drug in the first dilution.

SPECIFIC MEDICATION IN RELATION TO

SURGERY.

By Dr. W. S. CRAIG, of Scarborough.

(Read before the British Homœopathic Society.)

HOMEOPATHY being a system of therapeutics is more intimately related to the practice of physic than to surgery, and consequently homoeopathic practitioners have a tendency to cultivate medicine to the neglect of surgery. The teaching of Hahnemann exerted an influence in the same direction since he inculcated the desirability of curing the external manifestation of diseases from within by medicine rather than attacking them from without. While acknow

ledging the value of this teaching, it is a question whether we do not often trammel ourselves unnecessarily by endeavouring to avoid surgical interference when it would very much expedite the cure and even increase the efficacy of the medicinal treatment. I think I have seen prolonged attempts to remove paronychia, nævi, wens, ganglia, and various external tumours with medicine, which, I am sure, would have been materially expedited without detriment by judicious surgical assistance. It is also desirable that homoeopaths should maintain their status as competent surgeons, the more so that their command of the homœopathic therapeutics gives an immense advantage in carrying surgical and obstetrical cases to a successful issue. The rapidity and precision with which inflammatory reactions and other complications in operative surgery are controlled by the homoeopathic medicines, are very striking when contrasted with the indirect, disturbing, and exhausting remedies in ordinary use. Of this I had a gratifying experience some time ago, in the case of a rather severe accident which came under my care. A farmer, while superintending a thrashing machine, had his clothes caught by the horizontal revolving shaft; he was whirled round the shaft, and struck violently on the ground with each revolution. He was bruised all over and sustained a comminuted compound fracture of the right forearm, and a fracture of the right tibia and fibula. I amputated the arm a few inches below the elbow, and adjusted the leg in sandbag splints. The action of Arnica in removing the ecchymosis was very striking, and the immediate effect of Aconite and Belladonna in checking the reactionary fever, with a tendency to erysipelas of the face, was most satisfactory. Within eight days the patient was able to sit up in a chair and write a letter with his left hand. It is my object to direct your attention to the satisfactory results of a combination of homoeopathy with surgery, confining myself to such operations as should be within the scope of every general practitioner.

For example, diseases of the rectum are the source of many alarming and obscure derangements of the health, VOL. XXXII, NO. CXXVIII.—APRIL, 1874.

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and we frequently meet with patients suffering from these diseases who have run the gauntlet of medical treatment of all sorts without relief. Direct surgical interference is absolutely necessary, and this, again, must be supplemented by specific medication, directed towards the removal of the hepatic congestion which underlies the morbid condition of the bowel.

The following cases will illustrate my meaning.

Many years ago I was called to see a widow lady, æt. 38, reported to be dying from disease of the heart. I found her propped up in bed, excessively pale and oedematous. The heart was visiby agitated, but auscultation disclosed no sign of organic disease. The urine was free from albumen, and there was no history of menorrhagia, or any other hæmorrhage, to account for the evident anemia. Inquiry as to the existence of piles or loss of blood at stool was met with a decided negative, nevertheless I determined to examine the bowel, when I found two vascular tumours bleeding on being touched, which I could not hesitate to regard as the immediate source of the whole serious train of symptoms. After an unsuccessful attempt to remove them by medicine, the piles were destroyed by ligatures passed through their base and tied each half separately. On the separation of ligatures a course of China, Nux vom., Carb. veg., and Lycopodium removed the oedema and completely restored the chylo-poietic functions. Her restoration to health was rapid and permanent. This is a very simple case and was appreciated much beyond its deserts, but the credit of the cure would have been lost to homœopathy if I had exhausted the patience of the sufferer in my attempt to cure her with medicine alone.

Last summer a gentleman, æt. 32, was brought into my consulting room in a state of syncope from hæmorrhage from the bowel. He had been under the care of a homœopathic medical man for several months, reputedly for disease of the heart. The heart exhibited no evidence of disease beyond functional irritation. Examination of the bowel revealed two large bleeding hæmorrhoids. These were removed by ligature, after which all other symptoms rapidly