velocity, even faster than the eye can follow in many cases. They have always been spoken of as developing around decaying animal and vegetable matter. I was very much surprised to discover the manner in which they originate from such substances. I was studying the decomposing muscle of a Sagitta, when I noticed large numbers of Vibrio darting hither and thither, but most frequently swarming about the muscular fibres. I was struck with the similarity of these bead-like strings to the fibrilla of the muscle, and upon close comparison I found that the former were exactly of the same size and had the same optical properties of the latter. Some of these appeared to be attached to the ends of the flat, ribbon-like fibres, and others at times loosened themselves and swam away. I was immediately impressed with the daring thought that these Vibrios were the fibrillaæ set loose from the fibres; but as this was a thing unheard of, and so startling, I for the time persuaded myself that they must have been accidentally attached, and subsequently loosened. However, I continued my observations until I found some fibres in which the fibrille were in all stages of decomposition. At one end of the fibre the ultimate cellules of the fibrille were so closely united, that only the longitudinal and transverse striæ were visible; further along, the cellules were singly visible, and still further they had assumed a globular shape; next, the transverse rows were loosened from each other, excepting at one end; and, finally, those at the extreme of the fibre were agitated, and waved to and fro as if to get loose, which they did from time to time, and, assuming a curved form, each revolved upon its axis, and swam away with amazing velocity. The number of ultimate cellules in a moving string varied from two to fifty; the greatest number of strings were composed of only three or four, often six to eight, and rarely as high as fifty. Very rarely the fibres split longitudinally, and in such instances the fibrilla were most frequently long, and moved about with undulations rather than a wriggling motion. A single ultimate cellule, when set loose, danced about in a zigzag manner; but whenever two were combined, the motion had a definite direction, which corresponded to the longer diameter of the duplicate combination; and if only three were combined, the spiral motion was the result of their united action. What it is that causes these cellules to move I do not profess to know, but certainly it is not because they possess life as dependent beings. This much is settled, however: that we may have pre

sented to us all the phenomena of life, as exhibited by the activity of the lowest forms of animals and plants, by the ultimate cellules of the decomposed and fetid striated muscle of a Sagitta. I do not pretend to say that everything that comes under the name of Vibrio or Spirillum is a decomposed muscle or other tissue, although I believe such will turn out to be the fact; but this much I will vouch for, that what would be declared by competent authority to be a being living, and accounted a certain species of Vibrio, is nothing but absolutely dead muscle.

On the Effects of Absinthe.

M. D. Decaisne, on the question of the effects of absinthe, arrives at the following conclusions:

1. Absinthe, in the same dose and of the same degree of alcoholic concentration as brandy, produces more disastrous and more strongly-marked effects on the economy.

2. In an equal dose absinthe produces intoxication much more rapidly than brandy. The conditions that have been described under the names of acute and chronic alcoholism are much more readily developed under its influence. It must, however, not be forgotten, that the amount of alcohol in absinthe is generally very great.

3. The effects of absinthe on the nervous system are more marked than those of brandy; and closely resemble the effects caused by a narcotic-acrid poison.

4. One of the greatest dangers of absinthe consists in the adulterations to which it is subjected.

5. Absinthe, of good quality, in moderate doses (a glass or two daily), is never unattended by danger, but always produces, in time, disorder, especially of the digestive functions.

6. Absinthe ought to be entirely banished as an article of consumption.

It has been stated by many writers that there is a poisonous principle in the officinal absinthium. This opinion has not been fully accepted; but there can now no longer be any difference on the subject. M. Marcé has laid before the Academy of Sciences a communication which seems to prove positively the existence of such a poison. A series of experiments on dogs and rabbits, which animals were made to take by the mouth the essence of wormwood, showed that this plant possesses poisonous properties. The essence, in doses of two or three grammes, produces in these

animals trembling, stupor, sluggishness, insensibility, and all the signs of great terror. In doses of from three to eight grammes, it produces chronic epileptiform convulsions, with involuntary evacuations, foaming at the mouth and stertorous breathing. These symptoms are transient, and do not lead to death. These results prove, according to M. Marcé, that the liquor known as "absinthe" has a double poisonous action on those who take it in excess-viz., the action of the alcohol and that of the essence of the wormwood, the latter being characterised by stupor, sluggishness, terrific hallucination, and intellectual weakness, all setting in with great rapidity. According to the same author, the liquor sold as absinthe contains about five drachms of essence of absinthium in one hundred quarts of alcohol.-Social Science Review.

BOOKS RECEIVED.

Epidemic Cholera, by G. S. WALKER, M.D. 1866.

St. Louis, Mo.,

Homœopathy: two Letters, by DAVID SCOTT SMITH. London, Edwards, 1866.

Lectures publiques sur l'Homœopathie, par A. IMBERT-GOURBEYRE, Professeur de Matière Médicale a l'Ecole de Médecine de Clermont Ferrand. Paris, Baillière, 1865.

The Anatriptic Art, by WALTER JOHNSON, M.B. London, Simpkin, 1866.

Cholera: its Prevention and Cure, by G. E. SHIPMAN, M.D. Chicago, 1866.

How I became a Homeopath, by W. H. HOLCOMBE, M.D. Chicago, 1866.

The Hahnemannian Monthly, No. 11. (Only three numbers of this journal have been received; we have ordered a copy of ours to be sent in exchange.)

The New England Medical Gazette.

The Monthly Homœopathic Review.

The North American Journal of Homœopathy.

The American Homœopathic 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.

CHELIDONIUM MAJUS, L.

By Dr. O. BUCHMANN, of Alvensleben.

(Continued from p. 451.)

CATALOGUE OF SYMPTOMS.

I HAVE not admitted the symptoms derived from observations on the sick, nor those extracted by Hahnemann out of Horn's Archiv.

I thought I ought to exclude the symptoms given by Trinks (Handbuch der Hom. Arz. 1847, p. 488). "Vertigo with nausea and phantasies in a half waking half dreaming state" (from Kneschke's Summarium, 1836, p. 217), because they occurred after taking a mixture of Extr. Taraxaci, Chelid., Sal amar., and Aq. Mentha pip., so that it is impossible to determine what share the rest of the mixture had in the symptoms.

No more have I inserted the symptoms recorded in the Hygea (Neue Folge, 1 Bd., 2 Heft. Excerpt aus Journal d. l. m. Hom., Mai, 1847) of a man who, in order to prevent the attack of a prevalent typhoid fever, had taken a decoction of Chelid.; for I considered that the sufferings which Dr. VOL. XXIV, No. XCVII.-OCTOBer, 1866.

M M

Cumyn there records at the commencement of the medication, as symptoms of a slight bilious fever, show in the sequel that they were a positive disease.

As regards the Vienna provings I could not procure a copy of the detailed provings recorded in the organ of the Society; and therefore am only able to borrow the symptoms from the scanty abstract printed in the Society's journal. The tincture prepared from the fresh juice was proved from the 19th to 30th of June, 1844. The provers took daily a dose beginning with 5 drops, and increasing gradually to 200. The "Extr. aquos. and spirituos." were

also proved.

Schneller endeavours to attain by the provings an insight into the modus operandi of the medicines upon definite organs and systems, but hardly promises himself practical advantage therefrom, and says it is going too far to look for salvation only in the minute observation of the healthy organism during medicinal provings, and to draw our therapeutic conclusions exclusively from the Materia Medica Pura.

Obs. If Schneller had informed himself more precisely on the subject of homœopathy, he would have learnt that homœopaths too attach great importance to the clinical test, and that it was there they first learnt that they were upon the best and shortest road to success. But the colossal error into which men have fallen by mere observation of the therapeutic action without the guidance of physiological experiment, shall be pointed out below. When Schneller further says, "However, in order to obtain a hint for the treatment of such diseases, especially when chronic, as have hitherto resisted so many attempts at cure, the medicinal provings on healthy persons are not quite useless, for this very reason, that by them we can learn many local specifics." Evidently herein is implied a recognition of the homœopathic therapeutic principle. We also, like him, learn by the provings to know the point of attack of the medicine; but we hold a more minute observation than he approves of to be incumbent on us for that purpose.

The abstract presented to us is unfortunately not calcu