at the simplest things; again, she was melancholy and low-spirited (c.); great loss of memory; she talked confusedly; her friends laughed at her and could not understand her altered manner; she was quite unable to write; having written a letter she burnt it because she could not read it (c.); scalp became exceedingly scurfy (c.); dazzling mist before her eyes (c.); profuse and fluent coryza (c.); looseness of the front teeth, they feel as if too long and are painful on chewing (c.); soreness of the throat, w. difficulty of swallowing (c.); sour dry taste; on taking anything to moisten her mouth, it leaves a clammy taste (c.); pressure at stomach, as though she had eaten too much (c.); dryness in the windpipe, w. hoarseness. At first she had a peculiar dry cough at night, which was afterwards followed by a sensation as if she had too much phlegm in the chest, and lastly a thick yellow expectoration (c.); axillary glands m. swollen; bruised aching pains in both shoulders, worse when at rest (c.); her feet felt as if dead or asleep (c.); dreadful horrid dreams (c.).

Note.-The order and succession of the above symptoms were unfortunately not observed.

In a middle-aged male, fr. gtt. (L. & R.), three times a day. After several days, dryness of the mouth (c.); aching pains in the bowels, w. cold shivers; acute griping pains, more confined to 1. hypochondrium (c.); urging to urinate, but inability to do so, w. constant bearing-down feeling (c.).

In a middle-aged male, fr. gtt. (L. & R.), three times a day. After three days: constant but ineffectual urging to stool (c.); he cannot bear to sit down, so painful are the protruded varices (c.); continual burning pain in the rectum (c.); hard stools (c.).

Mercurius Sol.

In a middle-aged female, fr. gl. 3 (L. & R.), in 8 oz. water as before. A dessertspoonful every third morning: Irritability and ill humour (c.); diarrhea, w. m. wretchedness and dejection of spirits (c.); pain in the sinews of l. thigh, which are sore to the touch (c.); feverishness, w. considerable chilliness (c.); hard glandular swelling in upper pt. of l. thigh, which afterwards suppurated (c.); itching pimples and watery vesicles over the arms and different parts of the body.

In a young female, fr. gl. (L. & R.), in 8 oz. water, as before. A dessertspoonful every second morning: her head feels

bound round as w. a cord (c.); it feels heavy and swollen (c.); her eyes are hot, a kind of dry heat (c.); shooting diarrhoeic feeling in lower bowels (c.).

In a young female, fr. gl. (L. & R.), in 8 oz. water, ast before. A dessertspoonful every third morning. After two doses: profuse bleeding fr. the nose (c.); painful inflation of abdomen; rumbling sensation in the bowels (c.); involuntary twitching and a kind of spasmodic adduction of legs and thighs (c.).

In a young female, fr. a drop of the 5th potency, a sixth part four times a day. After five to six days: chilliness while at stool, ceasing after the evacuation (c.); discharge of clotted blood mixed with the faces, but without any straining (c.); dry sore throat and wheezing at the chest (c.); peculiar sour-smelling sweat; her fingers became all shrivelled, and a cold damp bedewed her feet (c.).

In a middle-aged female, fr. gl. (L. & R.), in 8 oz. water, as before. A dessertspoonful every two hours. After several doses : intolerable itching all over the body, afterwards assuming the appearance of nettle-rash (c.).

Mercurius Bin.

In a young female fr. grs., three times a day. After four days: intense shivering, followed by feverishness (c.); pain on pressure at epigastrium (c.); painful swelling of tonsils, and submaxillary glands (c.); distension of abdomen about the navel, w. pain at that part on pressure (c.); loud and bitter belchings (c.); hot perspiration (c.); nausea, while passing a diarrhœic stool (c.); frightful dreams (c.); aching pains fr. hips to ankles, as though she had walked many miles, felt more particularly in the bones (c.); catching pain under r. breast oppressing the breathing (c.); urine thick and dark, on being passed (c.); frequent desire to urinate; she cannot hold her water for a moment (c.); bitterness of taste (c.); profuse flow of saliva, and aching pains in teeth of lower jaw (c.); swelling; hot and inflamed state of r. side of nose, w. coryza (c.); sensation in frontal region, as if her head was bound round w. a tight cord (c.); pains in the bones of the head, chiefly the occipital (c.); low-spirited, and disposed to cry (c.); excessive giddiness, everything seems to reel round her (c.).

Note. The above symptoms were registered in the exact order of their occurrence.

(To be continued.)

Cause of Goître.

M. Maumené is led, from his observations and experiments, to believe that the cause of goître is the presence in drinking-water of fluorides. These, he asserts, are peculiarly abundant in the water of goitrous districts. M. Maumené gave, for a period of five months, fluoride of potassium to a dog, at the end of which time a swelling similar to goître appeared in the neck. The dog then made his escape, but three years afterwards was again discovered with a swelling, which appeared to M. Maumené to have all the characters of goître.—Med. Times and Gazette, May 5th, 1866.

Citric Acid as an application in Cancer.

In the Lancet of May 5th, 1866, Mr. Richard Willis writes"In your Journal of the 26th ult. is a report by Mr. J. Denny of three cases of cancer where citric acid had been applied to soothe pain, with good results. Having a case of cancer, which commenced some years since as an enlarged submaxillary gland, supposed to be caused by a carious tooth, but which has proved malignant, and, from its size and situation, not removable, and the pain at times excessive, I prepared a lotion of Citric acid, one drachm to eight ounces of water, and ordered it to be brushed over the tumour, and the mouth to be rinsed out with it as often as he pleased. It has afforded perfect relief from pain."

Another correspondent sends, apropos of the subject, the following cutting from the Times of August 23rd, 1865:-" Dr. Brondini, of Florence, finding by accident that a lemon, called for in her agony by a patient suffering from cancer of the tongue, assuaged the pain, tried a gargle composed of four grains of crystallized Citric acid to 350 grains of common water. He now uses a pledget of lint saturated with this solution to treat other affections, with instantaneous relief. He does not put it forward as a cure,"

Local Anesthesia.

Since the publication of Dr. Richardson's method of producing local anesthesia by an ether spray, Dr. Henry J. Bigelow, of Boston, has published, in the "Boston Medical and Surgical Journal," an article on the same subject, in which he claims to have discovered, that a petroleum naphtha, which he proposes to call "rhigolene," is better adapted to the purpose of local freezing than ether. He says::

"When it was learned here that Mr. Richardson, of London, had produced a useful anesthesia by freezing, through the agency of ether vapour, reducing the temperature to 6° below zero, F., it occurred to me that a very volatile product of petroleum might be more sure to congeal the tissues, besides being far less expensive than ether. Mr. Merrill having, at my request, manufactured a liquid of which the boiling-point was 70° F., it proved that the mercury was easily depressed by this agent to 90° below zero; and that the skin could be, with certainty, frozen hard in five or ten seconds. A lower temperature might doubtless be produced, were it not for the ice which surrounds the bulb of the ther'mometer. This result may be approximately effected by the common and familiar 'spray-producer,' the concentric tubes of Mr. Richardson not being absolutely necessary to congeal the tissues with the rhigolene, as in his experiments with common ether. I have for convenience used a glass phial, through the cork of which passes a metal tube for the fluid, the air-tube being outside, and bent at its extremity so as to meet the fluid-tube at right angles, at some distance from the neck of the bottle. Air is not admitted to the bottle, as in Mr. Richardson's apparatus, the vapour of the rhigolene generated by the warmth of the hand applied externally being sufficient to prevent a vacuum, and to insure its free delivery: 15° below zero is easily produced by this apparatus. The bottle, when not in use, should be kept tightly corked, a precaution by no means superfluous, as the liquid readily loses its more volatile parts by evaporation, leaving a denser, and consequently less efficient, residue. In this and in several more expensive forms of apparatus in metal, both with and without the concentric tubes, I have found the sizes of 72 and 78 of Stubbs's steel-wire gauge to work well for the air and fluid orifices respectively; and it may be added, that metal

points, reduced to sharp edges, are preferable to glass, which, by its non-conducting properties, allows the orifices to become obstructed by frozen aqueous vapour.

Freezing by rhigolene is far more sure than by ether, as suggested by Mr. Richardson; inasmuch as common ether, boiling only at about 96° instead of 70°, often fails to produce an adequate degree of cold. The rhigolene is more convenient, and more easily controlled, than the freezing mixtures hitherto employed. Being quick in its action, inexpensive, and comparatively odourless, it will supersede general or local anesthesia by ether or chloroform, for small operations, and in private houses. The opening of felons and other abscesses; the removal of small tumours; small incisions, excisions and evulsions, and perhaps the extraction of teeth, may be thus effected with admirable ease and certainty and for these purposes surgeons will use it, as also, perhaps, for the relief of neuralgia, chronic rheumatism, &c., and as a styptic, and for the destruction, by freezing, of erectile and other growths. But, for the large operations, it is obviously less convenient than general anesthesia, and will never supersede it. Applied to the skin, a first degree of congelation is evanescent: if protracted longer, it is followed by redness and desquamation, which may possibly be averted by the local incisions; but if continued, or used on a large scale, the dangers of frost-bite and mortification must be imminent. It may superfluous to add, that both the liquid and the vapour of rhigolene are highly inflammable."

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Mineral Waters of Vals (Ardèche).

We have had the opportunity of examining, tasting, and applying in practice some water from one of the springs in the above source. The particular specimen which fell under our notice was from the spring named Magdeleine; but there are five others, St. Jean, Précieuse, Désirée, Rigollette, and Dominique, derived from the same locality. The last-named differs completely from the others. It contains 1-33 parts of free sulphuric acid to the litre, with a very appreciable quantity of arsenic in combination with iron. It is said to have been found useful in intermittent fever, as well as in scrofulous, syphilitic, and skin affections. From