well-nigh specific; and so it in a manner seems to be when a sore is rapidly approaching the last stage of healing. The same may he said of various solutions and ointments. Yet dare one of us affirm that had water only, or dry lint only, been applied, or had nothing been used, the sore would have been an hour later in healing? Yet, so strong is faith in these applications that the practitioner just emerged from the schools is apt to take what he thinks will be the most rapid course, and so astringents are resorted to at once, and thus a raw surface is so teased and irritated that Nature takes twice the time to do her work of repair. A sore which, if let alone, or covered by some simple only, would have healed in a few days or weeks, may be so fretted as to endure for months. It must have frequently fallen to the lot of seniors to be consulted by patients and practitioners about sores which seem to have baffled all skill and every sort of application, and when the advice has been given to apply simple water-a bit of wetted lint-to do, as it were, nothing at all-the sore has rapidly healed. I know of no stronger test of confidence in my own humble skill which I ever incur with those who consult me than when, visit after visit, with reference to slow-healing sores, I say, go on with wet lint if you please! Yet I fancy it is the right course both for the patient and surgery. Occasionally some, under the impression that nothing is being done, will cling to the mysterious-looking black or yellow lotion-to the so-called specific alterative; even a month of slow poisoning with mercury may be preferred to the laissez faire system; but the generality of patients are satisfied with a resonable explanation."—From a Lecture by PROF. W. FERGUSSON.

BOOKS RECEIVED.

The Cattle Plague, a disturbance of the Electric Force or Spirit of Life in the Blood.

A Day with the Rinderpest, by Two Members of the Medical Committee of the Cattle Plague Association, &c.

Fistula in Ano: a New and Successful Treatment, without

Knife or Ligature, by JOHN PATTISON, M.D. London: Turner, 1866.

Effets toxiques de l'Ammonite Bulbeuse, &c., par le Dr. E. HERMEL. Paris: Baillière, 1865.

L'Homœopathie dans les Hôpitaux. Paris: Baillière, 1865. The Cattle Plague, its Pathology and Treatment, by A. C. POPE, M.R.C.S. London: Turner, 1866.

Diseases peculiar to Women, with a New and Successful Treatment for the same, without the use of Caustics, by JOHN PATTISON, M.D. London: Turner.

L'Acide Phénique, par Dr. JULES LEMAIRE. Second edition. Paris: Germer Baillière, 1866.

The Homœopathic World.

A few Comments on the Remarks on Homœopathy made by Dr. C. HANDFIELD JONES, M.B. Cantab, by DAVID SCOTT SMITH. London: Edwards, 1866.

Valedictory Address delivered at the Eighth Annual Commencement of the Homœopathic Medical College of Pennsylvania, by ADOLPH LIPPE, M.D., Professor of Materia Medica. Philadelphia, 1866.

The Monthly Homœopathic Review.

The North American Journal of Homœopathy.
The American Homeopathic Observer.

The Western Homœopathic Observer.

The Chicago Medical Investigator.

L'Art Médical.

Bulletin de la Société Homœopathique de France.
El Criterio Medico.

Neue Zeitschrift für Hom. Klinik.

LONDON: J. E. ADLARD, BARTHOLOMEW CLOSE.

THE

BRITISH JOURNAL

OF

HOMEOPATHY.

PURELY SYMPTOMATIC SELECTION OF
MEDICINES AND RADICAL CURE.

By Dr. V. MEYER.*

UNDER this title we have already published several cures of the above kind, and are now reminded to select two corroborative cases from our practice, by the excellent instances of cure communicated by our able colleague Doctor Lippe to the American Homeopathic Review, some of which have been republished in our paper, and more will be given hereafter.

1. In June, 1863, a young woman, æt. 19, consulted me on account of a violent headache. She visited me in the company of her mother, who related that her daughter, according to the opinion of their family doctor, was suffering from chlorosis, which, indeed, was evident at a glance. The catamenia had appeared for the first time when she was sixteen years old; and for about a year from that period she menstruated regularly every five or six weeks, although the discharge was never very high-coloured, and was rather deficient in quantity. Suddenly, however, menstruation stopped altogether, and the patient, who had hitherto enjoyed * Allg. Hom. Zeitung, vol. lxxi, No. 25.

VOL. XXIV, NO. XCVII.-JULY, 1866.

A A

excellent health, and had got over all the complaints of childhood very lightly, became pale, lost flesh and appetite (formerly very good), and, in short, by little and little acquired all the usual symptoms of chlorosis. The best and most nourishing diet, a free exhibition of iron, and even a five weeks' course at a chalybeate spa, had improved her state but little, and that only temporarily; nor had the slightest trace of the menses reappeared for two years. But, continued the mother, it is not these complaints which have brought my daughter to you, for she has complete confidence in our family physician, and would cheerfully wait till he should succeed in curing her, if she could only be relieved in the mean time (her own words) from a malady that has plagued her almost daily for the last seven months, and renders her incapable of any occupation-namely, a very violent pain in the head. She had been told that homoeopathy was good for this; and even her gallant family doctor, who had tried many remedies in vain, had approved of her resolution to come to me, with a sarcastic smile. So she had come to me, begging that I would remove her headache by homœopathic treatment, which being accomplished, she would trouble me no further, and again resign herself into the arms of allopathy.

During this speech I could not myself avoid a quiet smile; and as I knew that both mother and daughter would report my every word and movement to their physician, who considered himself amongst the élite of the profession, I examined the patient's gums with superfluous care, turned up her right and left eyelids, and finally applied the stethoscope to the jugular, and then replied that her request was rather a difficult one, inasmuch as there was an intimate connection between the headache and poverty of blood, and that, so soon as the latter should be removed, the former would disappear of itself. The mother replied that her physician had told her the same story; but she had heard that in such cases homœopathy was more successful than allopathy.

Next I made them describe the pain in the head circumstantially, and learnt as follows: the headache has appeared

several times nearly every week for more than the last six months. It begins soon after rising, and generally lasts the whole day. The pain itself is a sensation of tearing or rooting up, increased by motion, especially by walking in the open air, when every step is attended with a violent jerk in the head this, however, is even worse on lying down.

It is most tolerable when sitting still, or else on walking about the room for a long time. At such times the head is confused, often too with a feeling of emptiness, almost destroying the power of thought. Any concussion, even loud speaking, increases the headache: on quickly moving the head, the patient is at times conscious of a feeling as if the brain were shaking in its bony chamber.

These were the most prominent characteristic symptoms, and they appeared to me sufficient to determine the choice of the proper remedy. I naturally excluded all pathologicoanatomical data, as it would have been a vain undertaking to open an attack on the chlorosis, there being no probability of successfully removing that complaint in fourteen days; and I do not think my new patient would have been constant to homeopathy longer than this period, if she had derived no benefit within the fortnight.

Of all the remedies which I compared, Spigelia appeared to me to possess the greatest number of analogous symptoms. It has amongst its pathogenetic characteristics the tearing and rooting pain in the head, aggravated by motion, walking in the open air, and lying down; alleviated. by pacing the room: in short, almost all the abovedescribed symptoms. I gave three globules Spigel. 30 in a sugar powder, with instructions to take it the same evening, and to report to me how she felt in eight days. The patient came at the appointed time, and informed me that, two days after the dose, a slight attack of no long continuance had come on, but nothing further. Gave Sacch. lact. Eight days later it was reported to me, with many thanks, that the patient still continued free from all pain in the head. About three months afterwards I met the young lady in the street, having the same chlorotic complexion. She related to me, with great joy, that during all