Rome. They were beforehand with Sydenham in prescribing the "cool" regimen in cases of smallpox, a disease with which they as well as the Chinese were familiar many centuries before it was first brought before the notice of European physicians by Rhazes. A nutritious diet abounding in oleaginous principles is prescribed for phthisis, in the treatment of which disease we find no mention made of bloodletting, setons, blisters, and the like allopathic abominations. Cholera is to be treated with emetics and purgatives; in acute dysentery the physician is forbidden to stop the stools by astringents, as this will produce dyspepsia, piles, and tympanitis, and one of the drugs recommended is a salt of antimony, which is also recommended as an external application in ophthalmia. Emetics are to be given for diseases of the chest, sickness, and ptyalism. Most of the medicines, which are chiefly valuable in the treatment of these disorders (as Ipecacuanha and Tartarated antimony) are of this character, as shown by homœopathic provings. Purgatives are to be avoided when there are sores on the body, in lung diseases, in infancy and old age, but are useful in piles, colic, and, as we have seen above, in cholera. For further illustrations of homoeopathy in Hindoo practice I must refer the reader back to the section on Materia Medica, at p. 597.

Gynecology, embryology, and infantile diseases.- According to the Hindoo theory of generation, the menses of the female receive the semen of the male, and thereby germinate, producing the embryo. It was supposed that conception could only take place during seventeen days in each month, i.e., during the three days of menstruation and the week immediately preceding and following it. The normal period for the change of life is fixed at the fiftieth year, and the duration of pregnancy is stated at from nine to twelve months. If conception occurs on an even day of the menses the offspring will be a male. The signs of pregnancy are described with great accuracy, and much regard was paid to the gratification of the "longings" so common during that period. It was also believed that the character of the child is materially influenced by the nature of the

objects beheld by the mother at the moment of conception and during gestation. The fœtus was supposed to be endowed with understanding, and to have all the bodily members perfectly formed by the end of the sixth month, but it was held that a child born at the eighth month must necessarily die-a doctrine also taught by Hippocrates. While in the uterus, it was thought that the child retained the recollection of previous states of existence, and the infant's birth-cry was accounted for on the supposition that it arose from regret at the loss of so many happy memories which passed away suddenly at the moment of birth. Parturition was supposed to be effected by means of pressure of air contained in the uterus. The nails, bones, hairs, teeth, vessels, ligaments, &c., of the foetus were supposed to be produced from the semen, and the flesh, fat, intestines, blood, liver, spleen, &c., from the maternal blood.*

During labour the woman is to be attended by four persons of her own sex, and to lie on her back with the thighs separated and legs bent, on a soft bed, in a room with a white, red, yellow, or black floor according to the purity of her caste. She is to be surrounded with male children, to hold flowers in her hand, to be anointed, and take a warm bath, and to drink large quantities of sour gruel which was supposed to aid the expulsion of the child in virtue of its own weight. Malpresentations are to be rectified by manual interference. If the child be dead and cannot be otherwise removed, craniotomy may be performed, or the body may even be removed piecemeal. Recourse is occasionally had to the Cæsarian section, but I cannot discover the antiquity of this operation among the Hindoos. If the afterbirth does not come away within a reasonable time, the mother is to take an emetic, or loathsome substances are to be administered, so as to create a feeling of disgust.

Immediately after the birth of the child a little ghee (melted butter) and salt are to be put into its mouth, a

* This distinction between parts supposed to be formed from the semen and those supposed to be formed from the maternal blood is strongly insisted upon by Galen, who taught that the latter are regenerable and the former unregenerable.

prevails among the The cord is to be

practice not very unlike that which lower classes in England at this day. tied at a distance of eight finger-breadths from the navel, and the infant is then to be bathed and anointed. The mother is not to nurse her child till the fourth day, and most judicious directions are given as to the selection of a wet nurse, due regard being paid to her moral no less than to her physical qualifications.

Most infantile diseases are attributed to constipation, and accordingly the child is to take an aperient mixture once a month to keep the bowels clear and to prevent attacks of diarrhea; but few, if any, other medicines seem to be allowed before the fifth year. The chief other ills to which infant flesh is heir are supposed to be marasmus, erysipelas, and possession by nine kinds of devils.

The above résumé of the leading doctrines of Hindoo medicine, imperfect as it is, has extended to a much greater length than I had anticipated, and it now becomes necessary to draw it to a close. I shall be very glad if it may induce any one who has not yet read Dr. Wise's work on this subject (which has formed the basis of my remarks) to set about the perusal of it, feeling confident that he will be well rewarded for his pains. As the accomplished author was unfortunately unable himself to superintend the correction of the press, numerous clerical errors occur on nearly every page, and he himself tells us that in some cases modern doctrines have been referred to as forming part of the classical Hindoo science and art of medicine. Perhaps, also, exception may be taken to one or two more general statements of a chronological nature, and the literary style is deficient in point of that ease and fluency which the author's final revision and corrections would doubtless have imparted, had he not been prevented submitting his work to such scrutiny. But, notwithstanding these blemishes, the book is highly useful and instructive, and must have cost the writer much labour and inquiry. And relating as it does to the very earliest form in which the science of medicine was presented to mankind, and that from which all European schools of physic are descended, the subject VOL. XXXII, NO. CXXX.-OCTOBER, 1874.

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cannot fail to interest those who have been taught to regard this kind of antiquarian research not as the mere pastime of learned leisure, but as throwing light upon much that concerns us all in the practical work of our daily lives, and conferring unity upon much that at first sight appears dissonant and heterogeneous; not as mere digging in a barren waste for the perishing records of the past, but rather as cultivating a fertile field richly charged with the sown seed of the future.

CASES OF ZINC POISONING.

By J. W. VON TUNZELMANN, M.D.

A Sequel to Cases of Lead Poisoning from Well-water, which were reported in the January number of this Journal.

HAVING recently given an account of some cases of lead poisoning which occurred at Wimbledon last summer, and which were traced to contamination of well-water with lead, from the action of the water on the leaden pipe by which it was drawn from the well (owing to the peculiar condition of the water, which consisted, briefly, in the absence of carbonate of lime and the presence of traces of nitrous and nitric acid and ammonia), I have now to relate the injurious consequences which arose in one family (that in which Cases 1 and 3, there related, occurred) from drinking the water of the well after a pipe of galvanized iron (i.e. zinked iron) had been put into it in the place of the leaden one.

1. The young lady who had suffered from diplopia (Case 1, above related) remained quite free from her trouble, after returning from a stay of two months at the Lakes, for about three months, when suddenly, in February this year, after having for two days suffered from a feeling of languor with aching in the lumbar region, the diplopia returned. On being sent for I tested the water which the family were

drinking, but could not detect lead in it. A specimen was then sent to Dr. Frankland, and he reported that it was virtually free from lead, the quantity being so small that it could not be weighed. Subsequently it was found to contain 58 grains of zinc per gallon, the presence of zinc having been suspected, and attention drawn to it further by a discovery made by the young lady's mother, on inspecting the filter one day, of a scum on the water in the upper chamber of the filter; this she removed and brought to me; it had a metallic lustre, and as it promised to explain the state of things I requested that it should be sent to Dr. Frankland to be examined. He reported that it was carbonate of zinc, and that the water was, in consequence, extremely dangerous. The use of the water was, of course, immediately stopped. An oculist was consulted, who gave his opinion that the diplopia was owing to paralysis of the sixth pair of nerves, the left being more affected than the right.

The diplopia increased and decided strabismus became developed, which was not the case when the patient suffered from the effects of lead, to which the previous occurrence of diplopia was due. The left eye was more affected than the right, in consequence of which a pair of spectacles was recommended having a dark plate opposite the left eye. This was grateful to the patient, as it prevented double vision.

This patient complained also of pain in the back (lumbar region), and the urine was dark and turbid, which was unusual with her, though she had suffered in the same way when under the influence of lead last summer.

Change of air, first to the country and then to Brighton, caused a steady but very gradual improvement, and by the beginning of June the strabismus had so much diminished as to be scarcely perceptible. After that the young lady went to Scotland on a yachting expedition of about a month, and returned without wearing her spectacles, the diplopia having quite left her, and a slight amount of stiffness in the movements of the eyes only remained. Other members of the family have suffered also.

2.-A younger sister, who two years ago had suffered