sordes; pulse weak and rapid; skin hot; bowels have not been moved since yesterday morning; some clots of blood passed per vaginam; she has also vomited some blood, but only a small quantity.

Dr. Sieveking saw her, and ordered a quarter of a grain of Podophyllum, and three grains of extract of Hyoscyamus in pill at once, twenty grains of chlorate of potash, and three minims of dilute hydrochloric acid in water, a sixth part every hour. 10 a.m.-Bowels not having yet moved, an enema of castor and croton oils was administered, and a large quantity of fæces (clay-coloured and very offensive) brought away; vomiting now more frequent; the patient is very restless, throwing her arms about, and turning from side to side continually; pulse 120 and very weak.

26th.—She lies in a comatose state, with dilated pupils, breathing stertorously; skin cold and clammy, and darker than before ; no petechiae; pulse almost imperceptible; about a pint of blood was vomited during the night. At 2 p.m. she died—that is, on the fourth day after the appearance of the jaundice, and about thirty-six hours after the supervention of the head symptoms.

Analysis of urine.-Specific gravity, 1015; acid; of a dirty brownish-yellow colour; turbid; stains paper yellow. Addition of nitric acid causes faint play of colours, purple and green; sulphuric acid and sugar give a brownish tint, and not purple; ergo suppression and not reabsorption (Harley). The microscope shows crystals of oxalate of lime; jaundiced renal epithelium, also vaginal epithelium, some colourless and some jaundiced; one well-marked fibrinous cast, with epithelial débris.

Autopsy, twenty-four hours after death.-Body rather fat and muscular; light yellow all over. Liver.-weight one pound, thirteen and a half ounces; capsule not puckered or contracted; consistence normal; colour light, and not markedly jaundiced. On section, the texture seems to be effaced in some parts, and everywhere the tubercles are indistinct. Hepatic veins congested. Gall bladder nearly empty. Under the microscope, no secreting tissue at all is to be seen, with the exception of some doubtful débris; the hepatic cells appear to be entirely converted into oil; no excess of fibrous or fibroid tissue. All the other organs are healthy, but more or less jaundiced, with the exception of the kidneys, which are large, rather congested, jaundiced, and show signs of incipient fatty degeneration in the cortical portion.

Dr. Sieveking remarked on the case that the question during

the illness naturally suggested itself as to whether the case was one of acute yellow atropy. The rapidity with which the symptoms supervened, and ran from bad to worse justified a most unfavorable prognosis, and it was early evident that the essential disease was one involving a decomposition of the blood. Although the post-mortem examination disproved the existence of acute yellow atrophy, the entire disappearance of the true hepatic secreting structure and its conversion into oily and fatty matter, rendered it a remarkable case, justifying the term acute fatty degeneration. -Lancet, August 19th, 1865.

[The special interest of the above case lies in this, that the form of disease here described is the precise analogue of that so often met with in poisoning by phosphorus. It is the first time that it has been observed as an idiopathic disorder.-See Brit. Journ. of Hom., vol. xxi, p. 97.]

Instantaneous cure of Coryza.

An army surgeon, M. Luc, seized with very bad coryza, attended by fever, severe cephalalgia, and excessive secretion, determined upon trying the effect of inhalation of iodine vapour. The coryza first appeared at 9 a.m., and the inhalations were commenced at 3 p.m., being repeated every three minutes during an hour, each lasting about a minute. The headache was first relieved, the sneezing then occurring seldomer, the amount of secretion diminishing, and by 6 p.m. all traces of the coryza had disappeared, except a little burning sensation in the throat. Several of the officers have since tried the means with the same results. The inhalation is effected by placing a bottle of tincture under the nose, the hand supplying warmth enough to vapourise the iodine.-(Cited from Revue Médicale of August 31st, in Medical Times and Gazette, November 11th).

[This bit of practice is especially interesting in connexion with the cases of coryza produced by iodide of potassium which we extracted in our last number.-EDS.]

Note on Saccharine Urine. By Dr. WYLD.

My attention has within the last six months been a good deal drawn to the examination of urine with reference to sugar.

It has been objected to Moore's test that the brown colour produced by boiling saccharine urine with a solution of potash, may, unless there be much sugar present, not be distinguishable.

The usual method is to boil up the solution of potash and urine; but Dr. Garrod practises a much more adroit method. He brings to the boiling point the upper portion only of the mixture of urine in the test-tube, and as this portion is thus hotter and therefore lighter than the lower stratum, it maintains its position, and the observer can at once distinguish the minutest difference of colour between the upper and lower strata in the test-tube.

If there be much sugar present, it is difficult to fall into error, but if a small proportion of sugar be present, the deepening of colour produced by boiling is not greater than I have often observed when phosphates or other organic substances, without sugar, were present.

Knowing this and other sources of fallacy inherent in the potash-test, chemists have proposed the copper test. Fehling's copper test is the most recommended. It consists of a solution of sulphate of copper, tartrate of potash, and caustic potash.

We are told that if this solution be added to saccharine urine, and heat applied, oxide of copper in the form of a yellow or reddish deposit is thrown down.

I recently, however, convinced myself that almost every specimen of urine I procured and so treated, threw down a copious yellowish or reddish deposit. I found also that the same sample of saccharine urine threw down a deposit of very variable colour according to the amount of copper used, and the time the specimens were boiled. I have further found that some samples of urine which contained no sugar threw down a deposit when tested with copper, not distinguishable to the eye from the deposit sometimes obtained from saccharine urine; so that one of the most accomplished organic chemists of the day, on one occasion, on my presenting him with two such samples could not point out to me, from observation alone, the one which contained sugar.

On mentioning this fact to an allopathic physician whose speciality is the kidney and abnormal urines, I asked him if medical men were not, with regard to diabetes, occasionally deceived by urine tests? He replied that they were, and that he had frequently demonstrated the non-existence of sugar in the urine of supposed diabetics sent to him for examination.

The conclusion I draw from these observations is-that the testing of urine with reference to sugar is not invariably so simple a matter as is generally supposed, and that in doubtful cases it is advisable that the opinion of an adept in organic chemistry should be obtained.

It is reported that diabetes mellitus is on the increase in this country. Is it not possible that this apparent increase, if it exists, is only apparent, and that the opinion arises from greater attention than formally being drawn to sugar-tests, and from these tests sometimes misleading the practitioner? Reported cures of diabetes mellitus may have their foundation sometimes on the same error.

This is an important question, for the mistaken application of an almost exclusively animal diet would certainly occasion great inconvenience, and might even endanger life.

The Editors of the British Journal of Homœopathy.

SIRS,-When I practised allopathy a few years back, I had seldom any great difficulty with my cases of gonorrhoea; moderate doses of Copaiva or of Tincture of Iron internally, and a weak solution of Sulphate of Zinc as an injection, generally soon put matters to right; but since I adopted Homoeopathy, I confess I have not been able to obtain such good results from the treatment of this disease as I formerly met with, and as my experience with our medicines in other affections leads me to hope for. My want of success may possibly be due to my having made use of low dilutions, although I am indisposed to give much heed to this as a cause of failure, as a friend who has tried high dilutions tells me he is far from satisfied with their effects. I should much like to see this matter ventilated in your columns, and should be greatly obliged to you if you would kindly permit me to put the following queries to your readers :

1. What amount of success have you had in the treatment of the above disease? and

2. What medicines, and what dilutions of them, have you had most occasion to give?

I am, yours, &c.,

NEMO.

A New Prophylactic Method for Smallpox.

IN the Wiener med. Wochenschrift (an allopathic Journal), No. 6, 1865, is the following:

"We take from the Gazette Médicale of the 12th November, 1864, the following wonderful proposal of Dr. G. Severin, extracted from an Italian medical journal called L'Ippocratico, for bloodless vaccination, or, as it is called, homœopathic vaccination. Severin advises, after the example of Dr. Louis Codde of Genoa, to administer to children we wish to vaccinate, the 30th dilution of vaccine matter; he asserts that 'this method of vaccinating never fails.' He instances three children of one family who, thus vaccinated by the mouth, had, after the usual period, beautiful and perfect vaccine pustules, accompanied by the usual fever, &c. He also mentions one case (his own niece) to whom her parents gave more than the prescribed dose (two drops three times a day), and in consequence she had very violent fever and a large number of pustules. Severin appeals to his colleagues to substitute for vaccination with the lancet this vaccination by the mouth. The Gazette Médicale thinks that in spite of its improbability, it ought to publish this appeal, we do the same.”

Dr. Schneider of Magdeburg calls attention to this proposal in the Allg. hom. Zeitung for the 6th November last. He says that Vogel has found that vaccination performed in the usual way was insufficient as a protective against smallpox, unless it was followed by an eruptive fever; but as it by no means always happens that an eruptive fever follows ordinary vaccination, therefore, notwithstanding that the vaccine pustules may be perfectly developed, the patient may not be at all protected. As the eruptive fever was stated to follow the process recommended by Severin, Dr. Schneider resolved to try this plan of "vaccination by the mouth" on an extensive scale, especially as a smallpox epidemic was raging in Magdeburg. He got a drop of cowpox lymph from a vaccinator in the town and made with it three dilutions on the centesimal scale; with the third dilution he moistened some globules, and gave one dose of these as a prophylactic against the prevailing epidemic. The families of Mr. v. W. and Dr. L., got the first doses on the 29th and 30th September. On the 8th October he saw on Mr. v. W. a number of small pocks on the neck, the arms, the back, and on the right hip; they were dis