Stramonium. It was used without benefit. Nothing more was done from this time until she was sixteen, except that care which a judicious mother gave in regard to diet and exercise.

At this time she was treated two months with animal magnetism, which at first mitigated, then gave no relief.

We were then consulted, and prescribed Cuprum aceticum, in connection with electricity. These acted the same as the magnetism; relieved, perceptibly, at first, but soon went back into the old habit. At this time we prescribed Bromide of Potassium, two drachms to half pint of water, a dessert spoonful three times daily. The relief was greater than at any previous time, both in severity and frequency, which gave hope that the remedy given stronger might be used with greater benefit, which proved true. She was given three-grain doses, three times daily, at first, and increased until she took ten grains at one dose, all the time improving. Hoping the doses might be lessened, we began to diminish, but it would not do, and the ten and twelve-grain doses were given until the case was entirely cured, in about six months. No ill effects have resulted. The patient has remained well eight months, and is now eighteen years old; her intellect sound. She appears to be healthy, and a more beautiful young lady can scarcely be found.-Am. Hom. Obs.

Nitrate of Uranium in Incontinence of Urine.

A young girl troubled with weakness of the bladder from infancy applied for treatment. She was unable to retain the urine without causing extreme pain, amounting almost to spasms, during the day, and at night passed it freely, without waking, and in cold weather in very large quantities. On taking cold, bloating of the bowels and extremities, also of the face; some tenderness of the bowels, with frequent pain in the left side; appetite poor and extremely dainty, craving sweets; always complaining of derangement of the stomach; very thin and pale; for several years under allopathic treatment, receiving no benefit, and for two or three years under homœopathic treatment, without any better success. (Cantharides, Tabacum and many other remedies were used.)

At the age of twelve commenced the treatment with a few doses of Nitrate of Uranium 3rd trit. This produced relief at

night for a month or six weeks. It then returned. But for the period of a year, administering Nitrate of Uranium 3rd, a small dose every night, there was a gradual relief, less frequency through the day, with less uneasiness and less quantities at night, and less pain until full control was gained. The 1st dilution was then administered, increasing the dose from time to time, until another six months brought almost a sure recovery, with good appetite, sound flesh, and ruddy complexion. She remains well.-Am. Hom. Obs.

Dysentery cured with Hamamelis Virginica.

By C. H. LEE, M.D.

A. S has had dysentery for nearly a week. I found him in a bad condition, emaciated and ghastly, with hippocratic countenance; bowels moved every fifteen minutes, of pure blood, with severe tenesmus, and a crampy pain around the umbilicus just before stool. I ordered the family to keep the stools in order to see how much blood he would pass in twenty-four hours, and to my astonishment there was a little over a quart per day for three days; no appetite, great thirst, tongue coated brown and parched; calls a great deal for sour pickle. I gave him Arsenicum, Merc., Ipec., Colocy., without beneficial effect. Finding in the "New Provings," article, Hamamelis virg., symptoms nearly similar to this case, I gave him the first attenuation every hour in water. Saw him the same evening. He was much better, bowels moved four times in the morning, but towards night no stools.

The next morning I found him much improved. One stool only through the night. Desired bread and milk. I continued the Hamamelis, and my patient is now well.—Am. Hom. Obs.

A Case of Enteralgia. By E. M. HALE, M.D., Adjunct Professor of Materia Medica, &c., in Hahnemann Medical College.

I report the following case, not because of the importance of the disease, or the curative means made use of, for similar cases and equally rapid cures are met with very often in the practice of every physician of our school.

The suggestions, however, which grow out of the history of the case, and its allopathic treatment, are what make it worthy of interest.

A generally healthy little girl, about six years of age, was attacked one evening with severe paroxysmal pains in the bowels. During the day the child had partaken of green corn and other vegetables, but not in greater quantity than usual. She had however been engaged at play on the lake-shore, throwing pebbles out upon the water an unusual exercise for her.

The mother very naturally gave a little peppermint water. The pains continued, however, through the night. In the morning, on the supposition that it was caused by indigestible food, a small dose of oil and some syrup of rhubarb were given.

On Tuesday she was no better, but rather worse, and an old school physician of eminence, a Professor in one of our Medical Colleges, was called in. At this time there was no fever, vomiting, headache or diarrhoea; nothing but the pain, which occurred every thirty or forty minutes; not so severe as to confine the child to its bed. On this day and the next two succeeding the child was given Calomel, Opium, and Turpentine in the usual orthodox doses. Sitz baths, enemas, fomentations, &c., were also prescribed as auxiliaries. But at the end of the third day of allopathic treatment no improvement was manifest. In fact the patient was decidedly worse. The abdomen became tumefied, sensitive, and much flatulence escaped with the evacuations caused by enemata. The diet had been gumwater, and the child was growing weak.

A change of medicine seemed requisite and therefore Quinine, Opium, and Turpentine were given and continued for the next three days, at the expiration of which time the child was much worse. The paroxysms of spasmodic pain were frequent, severe, and agonizing; the little sufferer wringing her hands nervously at every recurrence. To make matters worse the Turpentine had begun to manifest its pathogenetic effects, such as scanty, painful urination, and finally retention of urine so that it became necessary to introduce a catheter. No nutriment but gum-water was allowed.

The case was now getting obstinate, if not serious, as was evident by the conduct of the medical attendant who applied a blister of Cantharides to the abdomen, gave Ether, Morphine, and Turpentine. This treatment was also continued two or three days, when the sufferings of the patient not having been lessened except when stupefied by the narcotics,—the family became alarmed, and probably

the physician, for he called in consultation the most eminent allopathic physician in this city, who concurred that the case was very obstinate and perhaps serious, and suggested the administration of Blue-mass and Opium, which was accordingly prescribed, together with hop-fomentations. The latter was immediately applied; the former was not administered, for at this juncture it was decided by the family to call in a homoeopathic physician.

I visited the child about ten p.m. No anodyne had been given for several hours, and the screams and cries of the little patient were very painful to witness. The paroxysms of pain occurred every fifteen or twenty minutes. The pulse was not above normal, the temperature of the body natural; the abdomen was swollen, tympanitic, sensitive to pressure, and the position was on the back, with the extremities drawn up. The tongue was coated brown, with its tip slightly red-the whole tongue was very dry.

For an hour after the hop-fomentation, some relief seemed to be derived from it, but the pains recurred with increased severity. I could not learn that any definite diagnosis had been given, until the last day, when the physician in attendance, and the consulting physician also, inclined to the opinion that it was a case of “Inflammation of the Colon." The pain, in fact, seemed to occupy the ascending, transverse, and descending colon, but here all resemblance to "Colitis" ceased. I could not do otherwise than promptly decide that the case was not one of actual inflammation.

What then was the disease I was called on to treat? Originally a simple spasmodic colic, it had been irritated into an enteralgia, in which the primary disease hardly existed, or was complicated with several drug diseases, which, united with the original malady, had resulted in an "obstinate if not serious disorder." Dr. Inman* would perhaps decide that the case was originally one of myalgia of the abdominal muscles brought on by the excessive (because unusual) straining of those muscles in the act of throwing pebbles, and for its cure he would have prescribed only rest, a warm wet compress, tightly drawn around the abdomen, and a small dose of Opium, and it is not improbable that relief would have followed this simple treatment.

Viewed from the progressive Allopathic "standpoint," occupied by such men as Hammond, Trousseau, or Inman, how does the treatment of the above case appear?

In the first place the mother had given Castor Oil, which was the * See Inman on Myalgia.

very best agent to remove any irritating substances remaining in the bowels-therefore the Calomel was altogether superfluous. Moreover, as there was no inflammation present, and as according to Allopathic authorities, Calomel "powerfully depresses the vitality," its use must have been positively injurious.

The Turpentine was used continuously in disease-exciting doses, as witness the retention of urine, &c.

The constant use of opiates was not proper after it was known not to act as a curative agent, i.e. after the first day. Opium," says Stillé,* « causes torpor of the muscles of the bowels," a very improper thing to do when gases collect in the intestines.

We are sure that not one of the above-mentioned Allopathic physicians would sanction a blister upon the abdomen in a case of spasmodic colic.

The diet of the patient during the nine days of Allopathic attendance, it must be recollected, was gum-water, and but little if anything else. We will ask what this had to do in preventing the recovery of the child. Let us inquire of the late Surgeon-General Hammond, whose bold conscientiousness in prohibiting Calomel and Tartar Emetic in the army, cost him his official head. No wonder the Allopaths look upon him with horror, as a heretic and apostate !

For the benefit of those who may not have perused Dr. Hammond's "Memoirs I will give an abridged statement of his experiment with Gum Acacia.

After detailing his experiments with albumen and starch, which showed conclusively that neither article would support life alone, Dr. Hammond writes concerning Gum:

"The chemical constitution of Gum differs from that of starch

only in containing two additional atoms of oxygen. It is never found a component part of the bodies of animals, and of the vegetable substances ordinarily used as food by man, few, if any, contain it. It is, however, occasionally employed in the sick room, from an idea, formerly very prevalent and not yet entirely extinct, that it possesses great nutritive power, and it is sometimes met with as an ingredient of certain sweetmeats.

"Notwithstanding that it is exceedingly soluble in water, the recorded experiments of several physiologists tend to show that Gum is possessed of little or no nutritive value, or capability of supporting respiration, owing to its almost complete indigestibility.

* Stillé, Mat. Med., page 659, vol. i.