throat.

I stood and watched the child for a few minutes, and then dropped a single drop of Belladonna (2) into its mouth. The effect was instantaneous - the convulsions ceased immediately, so that the mother said, "I must have given it something to sleep it;" but another woman who was standing by, replied that, "it could not be the medicine, it was so quick." The rattling in the throat ceased in a few minutes, also the dilatation and insensibility of the pupils.

January 5th. The child is quite well; there was a slighter return of the subsultus tendinum about two hours after I left, but this was at once removed by a dose of Belladonna which I had left in the house.

There was a renewal of the symptoms about four months afterwards in a milder form, which were again relieved by Belladonna.

Although I have frequently given Belladonna in various forms of convulsion, I have seldom met with so immediate a result as in the above case, in which there was doubtless a peculiar susceptibility on the part of the patient, and a precise correspondence between the form of the affection and the pathogenesy of Belladonna.

I have recently published a case of convulsions complicating consccutive dropsy, in which, on the third occasion of their occurrence, but the first in which Belladonna was given immediately, the relief was as instantaneous, as in the case related above. (Homœopathic Review, Vol. IX, p. 482.)

I was led to the use of Belladonna, in both these cases, chiefly by the dilatation of the pupils, and judging from the result this appears to have been a trustworthy guide.

The examination of the records of toxicology proves that the presence of convulsions is by no means uniform as a symptom of poisoning by Belladonna. Thus out of fourteen cases related by Dr. Hughes, in the paper referred to above (most of them very well-marked ones), and twice as many alluded to, there appears to have been convulsions present in only about a fourth part, and these for the most part mild and partial. Thus, in the instance of the 150 soldiers who were poisoned by the berries of Belladonna, gathered in the neigh

bourhood of Dresden, which has been already referred to, there was delirium as well as other cerebral symptoms in the case of many of the number, yet in none do there appear to have been convulsions.

It is true that many of the cases of poisoning which have been referred to have been, as in the one last mentioned, caused by the berries having been eaten, whereas the preparation employed in practice by homœopathic physicians is a tincture of the flowering plant as directed by Hahnemann. Our provings also were doubtless made with the same preparation. It appears, however, that there are about the same proportionate number of cases of convulsions in poisoning by the berries as by the fresh leaves. Thus, in the fourteen cases which have been referred to, as cited by Dr. Hughes, out of four in which the berries had been taken, there was one case of convulsions, and in the remaining ten there were three in which there were convulsive movements. I purpose before completing this paper, to refer to all the cases of Belladonna poisoning on record in reference to these two questions; but I think that the reference which has been made will be enough to prove the importance of comparing the provings of our Materia Medica with the records of poisoning cases. In this instance it might be inferred from the former, that convulsions were an invariable, or at least ordinary, symptom of Belladonna instead of being an exceptional one. Our information also appears to be very defective, as to the specific character of the convulsions, for which the various medicines in our repertories included under this head are indicated. There are more than a dozen of such medicines in our Materia Medica, whilst Taylor, in his work on poisons, includes convulsions amongst the general symptoms of the narcotic-irritant poisons of which he enumerates about twice that number. return to our provings of Belladonna, it would be interesting to know how such provings as "convulsions" under the head of this and other deadly poisons were obtained. Great, and almost unparalleled, in merely mundane affairs, as was the devotion of our Founder and his colleagues, yet one can

To

scarcely suppose it was carried to the extent of so greatly imperilling their lives, as such provings as these would seem to imply. Would it be an unlawful curiosity also to inquire how in the case of such an inert substance, in its crude state, as Calcarea Carbonica, the following proving was arrived at ?— "Violent attacks of convulsive laughter. Attack of epilepsy when standing and performing some manual labour, he suddenly fell to the floor over one side, without consciousness, &c."-Hahnemann's Chronic Diseases (Hempel's Translation), Vol. II, page 309.

I observe also in the Materia Medica Pura, as well as in Jahr's Symptomen-Codex, the Belladonna symptoms have "the asterisk" before them, which "marks the symptoms that have been obtained by provers, and have been cured when occurring in disease." In the Chronic Diseases, and in Jahr, the asterisk is also appended to the first of the above quoted symptoms of Calcarea, whilst the second has not the cypher, affixed to mark the symptoms as "empirical." (To be continued.)

A DAY WITH THE RINDERPEST.

ANXIOUS to ascertain by personal inspection how it fared with the cattle under the charge of our veterinary surgeon, we resolved to pay a visit to the scene of action. Sunday being the only day on which we could get leave of absence from our home-engagements, we left London by the evening express of Saturday, the 9th of December, and although we travelled by the Great Eastern we reached Norwich without accident, about the proper time. We received a cordial welcome from our colleagues of Norwich, who kindly undertook to convey us on the following morning to the farms, about eleven miles distant, where the trial of our system was being carried on.

The fine old market-place of the city of Norwich was full of lighted stalls, and presented a picturesque and somewhat VOL. XXIV, NO. XCV.-JANUARY, 1866.

I

foreign appearance; and we learned that it was market-day, and that the inns had all been thronged with farmers whose sole subject of discussion was the amount of success that was attending the trial of homoeopathy in the cattle disease. This has become the topic of the day in Norwich, and the disputants wax as warm over it as they used to do about the doctrines of Free Trade, when that dreadful heresy was first promulgated in this country.

On the following morning, we started about nine o'clock, in company with Mr. Lord, V.S., Inspector of Cavalry at Canterbury, who has long been known for his success in the treatment of the horses under his care by our medicines. The Minister for War, on being applied to by the "Association for the Cure and Prevention of the Cattle Plague by Homœopathic Method," granted him leave of absence, and placed his services at the disposal of the Association.

When we arrived at our destination we were met by our veterinary surgeon Mr. Moore and his two assistants Mr. Emmerton and Mr. Robert Moore, and eagerly inquired what success they had obtained. Mr. Moore was by no means so ready to answer this question as we were to ask it. He spoke doubtfully, at first we thought, despondingly. "They had," he said, "several deaths, and expected more. But we should see for ourselves, and judge of the kind and amount of success."

Accordingly, he took us into a shed in which there where seven beasts, all ill, and here for the first time we realised the almost overwhelming difficulties and insuperable obstacles that attend bovine practice.

There stood, or lay, the patients! The shed itself was a rude structure, the back consisting of hurdles with a tarpauling curtain, which could be let down so as partially to keep out the cold wind. The height of the building was about five feet at its lowest part, and seven feet at its highest. The stalls were separated from one another by posts and rough paling. In front, there ran troughs-mostly full of lumps of raw turnip. The animals were not tied, but were moving about uneasily. They had straw for litter. We were

told that this was a very fair specimen of a cow-shed, and that the farmer made every effort to do all that could be done for his poor smitten beasts.

Having taken a general survey of the place we proceeded to make an examination of the different "patients." There lay a cow evidently very ill, the nose and mouth all slobbered with a glairy mucus. The eyes dim and often turned up; the breathing very rapid and short. The first question we put was, "How long has this cow been ill ?" "I cannot tell," was the reply, and this was the usual answer. "It was ill when I came; how long it had been so, I have not been able to discover." Here was a difficulty new to those who have not had experience in treating dumb animals. The poor beasts can tell you nothing! The history of the case, which to us, whose intercourse is with sick humanity, is all important, enabling us to discriminate between various apparently similar morbid phenomena and to prognosticate the probable course and issue of a malady, is a dead blank in a cow-shed. All we were told is, that there seemed nothing amiss with the beasts when they were out in the fields, and now that they are driven in we discover that every one of them has the disease in an advanced stage! When we pursue our inquiries on this point, we discover that we have to do with a disease which has a long latent, as well as incipient state. That between the moment of infection and the very first premonitory symptom, from six to ten days elapse. That the incipient stage is so ill-marked as to be entirely over-looked by the usual attendants of the cattle, and that the animals are not considered to be unwell at all, until they are in an advanced stage of the disease.

Unable to obtain full and positive information as to the course of the attack, we proceeded to examine the appearances which the animals presented at the time of our inspection. It would be out of the question in this hasty sketch to attempt a detail of all the symptoms, all we can do is to notice one or two which were pointed out to us by Mr. Moore as characteristic of the disease, and as throwing light upon its pathology. The first of these is found in the nose.