their well-known compatriot. On p. 29 the experiments of Drs. Ringer and Murrell should not be classed among "Cases of Poisoning," and on p. 44 the latter physician's name should not be given as "Murril."

We shall hope to receive more work of this kind from the Hughes Club.

Town Eger's Mineral Waters and the Mineral Iron Moor at Franzensbad as Remedies used afar from the Wateringplace. Eger, 1883.

THIS little treatise is signed with the name of Dr. August Sommer, so we presume he is the author. He is evidently of the opinion of the renowned Dogberry that reading and writing come by nature, at least writing English, for he has here written a little book in what is intended for English, but which is evidently that language evolved out of his own inner consciousness. We do not suppose that many Britons could be found-though they are not wanting in audacity-who would be so bold as to attempt to write a treatise in German or French with the sole aid of a dictionary but without the slightest knowledge of the language; but such audacity is by no means uncommon among German and French mineral-water doctors, and the treatise under notice is by no means the only one we have received, which shows that the author's estimate of his knowledge of English is slightly in excess of its deserts.

"Franzensbad," Dr. Sommer tells us," as most wateringplaces that have a natural store for medication in the plentifulness of mineral wells, mineral moors, or such kind of physicks, has been visited during the last years by a great deal more patients, recurring to those remedies, than at any time, and the number of these visitors is still increasing."

And as, of course, the mother tongue of many of these visitors is English, Dr. Sommer is anxious that they should be provided with a little treatise which shall not only tell them all about Franzensbad and its mineral wells and moors,

but likewise introduce them to a doctor who is able to converse with them in their language.

"The rapid prosperity of our watering-place," he goes on, "seems the consequence not merely of a just ruling fashion, but of the eminent progresses of medicine and chymistry, both sciences-inseparable the one from the other-continuing to explore, to recognise, and to adopt successfully substances and qualities of Franzensbad's excellent remedies. To its quick increase there are adding no less the general ways of communication, considerably augmented and cheapened. Indeed, by these ways, now even those patients are allowed to enjoy the watering-place, who formerly, for the kind and gravity of their disease, or on account of their disfavouring fortune, never would have been able to take-so fatiguing and so expensive very often -a journey."

In this style the book goes on with amusing unconsciousness on the part of the author that he is writing nonsense. Some of his phrases are even more grotesque than the specimens we have taken from his introductory paragraphs. Thus: "The use of these remedies, therefore, seems indicated, everywhere there is a downed organ, or a whole system of downed organs, to vivify and to corroborate, or when the sustenance of the organism is to better, in order to lessen and to regulate its excessive excitability; unless there be already any incurable distruction or revolution of the concerning textures." He talks about "chronick goodnatured exsudations," "stowing-appearances," "abluent salts," "silicious-acid conjunctions," "its yieldingness is counted of circa 15-28 liters of water in the minute," "a most pernicious cure," "delucidly considered," "the cold sputter is the best wine-well," "the treatening physician," "aggerated within the blood," "patients whose digesters are rather irritable, support a warmed well better than a cold one." But there is no use multiplying examples of the author's extraordinary English; the whole work is in a similar style. It is, or ought to be, a warning to all not to attempt to write a book in a language with which they are unfamiliar, for the mere desire to attract English

patients to one's consulting rooms will hardly enable one to write understandable English without previous study.

De l'Atrophie axiale du Nerf Optique. Par le Dr. DE KEERSMAECKER.

He

THIS is a reprint of an article by our Belgian colleague in the Receuil d'Ophthalmologie. The disease was of the hereditary character, and was observed by the author in five different members of one family. It is characterised by central amblyopia which generally occurs suddenly at about fifteen years of age, gets worse for several weeks, and then either retrogrades or remains stationary for an unlimited time unless altered by treatment. The ophthalmoscopic sign most generally noted is an atrophic appearance chiefly on the external section of the optic disc and the neighbouring retina. The author offers a theoretical explanation of the hereditary nature of the disease. asks, "May not a person who has a central amblyopia caused by poisoning" (he does not suggest by what) "transmit the defect to his posterity in the same way as guinea-pigs who have had their sympathetic nerve divided transmit the defect to their young ones?" That question seems to us less important than the other one-how the disease is to be cured-and the author gives us his treatment of one of his cases :-Continuous current, Weiss's piles, 8 elements, negative pole on the eye, positive on the temple near the orbit, for five minutes every day. Iodide of Potassium (dose not stated). The result was great amelioration after two months.

Students' Guide to the Examination of the Pulse. By BYROM BRAMWELL, M.D., 2nd edition. Edinburgh : 1883.

In this second edition the author gives a full account of Dudgeon's sphygmograph, with illustrative woodcuts, but his illustrations of pulse-tracings are all, as in the first edition, done by the less correct instrument of Marcy.

264

GLEANINGS, THERAPEUTIC AND PATHOGENETIC.

Cases cured by Aconitine.

In a work recently published by Drs. Laborde and Duquesnel, entitled Des Aconits et de l'Aconitine, we find a number of cases of cures by the alkaloid which do not teach us anything new concerning the therapeutic power of Aconite, but are interesting as corroborating the curative action of the drug which was first discovered by Hahnemann's experiments.

OBS. 1. Prosopalgia.-In May, 1875, we were consulted by a lady aged twenty-five, who complained of horrible pain in the whole left side of the face, which nothing she had used had succeeded in mitigating. This lady generally enjoyed good health. About the end of February, the cold being exceptionally severe, she went out of her house at night with nothing on her head, while snow was falling. Her sufferings date from that time. They commenced by a painful point beneath the orbit and towards the temple, which gradually extended through the whole cheek and to the mastoid and sub-occipital regions. The teeth are sound but the gums are congested, red, and painful through their whole extent. The menstruation is regular. The expression of her face is that of suffering, her features are pinched and retain a timorous immobility, as if she dreaded the slightest movement or touch. Merely stroking lightly the cheek with the finger suffices to bring on an attack of pain with lachrymation, salivation, and fibrillary spasms. The sub-orbital, temporal, superior, and inferior maxillary regions, are especially sensitive to pressure. The neuralgia is continued, but the evening and nocturnal aggravations are so severe that for some time back the patient has had to be watched lest she should do herself an injury

in her fits of despair. She only sleeps for a few hours in the morning when completely worn out by pain and insomnia. She can hardly take any food, especially of a solid nature. She has wasted away considerably and is excessively weak. Opiates only gave temporary relief at the commencement, but this was not maintained even when their dose was increased. These having failed it was resolved to give Aconitine. One granule (containing milligramme) of Nitrate of Aconitine was prescribed, to be taken at 6 p.m., a second granule five or six hours afterwards, a third next day, about noon. The first two granules gave such relief that the patient, in spite of orders to the contrary, took the third granule in the night. She soon presented the symptoms of an overdose of Aconitine: general sense of coldness, tendency to faint, præcordial anxiety, nausea, and finally vomiting. These accidents soon subsided spontaneously, and had completely disappeared when the patient came to me next day and confessed that she had gone beyond my prescription, but that she felt she was cured. She was delighted to say that for the first time for two mortal months she had been able to sleep, and had escaped her frightful tortures. In spite of this unmistakeable result she was ordered to continue the treatment, but not to take more than two granules during the night and one during the day. This she did, and the third day all pain had completely disappeared, the sleep was perfect, her countenance serene, appetite returned, and she could perform all her household duties. She continued to take one granule at night and one during the day for another week, then only one granule at night for another week. She has now been quite well for fifteen months.

OBS. 2. Prosopalgia.-A young lady, residing near the preceding case, wrote to us in November, 1875:-"I have pains all over the left side of the face, just like those from which Mrs. X— suffered, who was cured by you. I shall feel obliged if you will tell me quickly what to do, as I cannot hold out long against them." I concluded from this brief statement that Mrs. B- had facial neuralgia, but I knew not under what circumstances the disease had arisen, what was its cause, what its duration, or whether it was symptomatic or idiopathic.

I asked her for information on these points, and was told that the neuralgia on the left side of the face had suddenly appeared