this means, and emollient blisters alone, Mr. Powel lost only six patients out of forty-one affected with cholera. Dr. Chisholm thinks a blister produced by boiling water useful to be mentioned in cases of emergency. He rolls a towel into the form of a printer's ball, dips it into water kept constantly boiling, and applies it to the part to be blistered. In the CASE of a young lady, at Clifton, this treatment roused the energies of life, after the pulse was gone, respiration ceased, and the skin had assumed the paleness of death. The COLICA PICTONUM, or dry belly-ache, caused by excessive drinking, and not by the poison of lead, has almost disappeared in the West Indies, where it formerly prevailed, in consequence of the very great change of manners, from excess to comparative temperance. In Devonshire, where it is endemic, it is caused by copious potations of cold and austere cider; for no lead is used there in the vessels in which the cider is prepared. In Gloucestershire, the cider being of a different quality, does not produce the disease. It is of importance for the young practitioner to distinguish this disease from enteritis, as the treatment must be very different. The colica, then, is characterized by pain at first in the pit of the stomach, afterwards fixed in the umbilicus, and darting from it in twitches all over the abdomen, and spasm, which draws the belly towards the spine, causing the patient to lean forward to obtain ease: the extremities are sometimes paralysed; the circulation is little affected. In enteritis the pain does not diverge in twitches; the abdomen is tumid and hard;, there is no spasın, nor paralysis of the limbs; and the pulse is quick and full. Colica is treated either with opium, followed by evacuants, or by the author's universal panacea, mercurial ptyalism: the latter he recommends particularly when there is any doubt about the diagnosis, and we cannot wonder at this, for the ptyalism can, according to him, lead to no mistake, being so unfailingly applicable to all diseases. In PHTHISIS he speaks very highly of breathing the exhalations from raw sugar, of which he places a vessel, filled with the warmest and dampest sort, in a corner of the patient's room; or has the patient commodiously lodged near the sugar plantation, or the boiling-house. When a voyage is determined on, he recommends, above all others, a ship laden with sugar to be chosen for the invalid. In his chapter on worms, he takes occasion to recommend in high terms, the oleum terebinthine, not only as a vermifuge and deobstruent, but as an anodyne and antispasmodic of great power, particularly in puerperal fever, In one CASE of a poor woman affected with puerperal fever, our author succeeded with the turpentine, to his own astonishment. Bleeding had been previously tried to a great extent, with calomel and other purgatives, without giving relief, and death appeared inevitable; when he prescribed a drachm of the oil every three hours. After the sixth dose, "the disease ceased;" but not, as we should think, so much from the effect of the turpentine as in spite of it, in consequence of the previous measures. Indeed he ingenuously confesses, as he does also with regard to his mercurial ptyalism, that turpentine will not effect a cure without previous bleeding, to the utmost limits of safety, accompanied with purgatives. These alone, however, can seldom or never effect a cure in puerperal fever, in consequence of the sphacelation which so usually follows, and which he thinks the turpentine will so far prevent, that twelve cases in fifteen may be cured. We should be much pleased to think this not exaggerated; but we are still incredulous of the sovereign powers of this violent abdominal irritant, notwithstanding the encomiums which have been so lavishly bestowed on it. When given in a large dose, it produces quick pulse, and effects somewhat like intoxication,which is followed by alarming languor and prostration of strength. In many cases it produces inflammatory pains in the kidneys, succeeded by bloody urine. We wonder why, in the present rage for novelty and for reviving exploded medicines, no one thinks of prescribing it in asthma or phthisis, as was done by Aretæus and the old Arabians. Upon the whole, we recommend, in strong terms, the perusal of this work of Dr. Chisholm's. Amidst much that is not new, and much that is obsolete, we often find him advocating the most recent doctrines and experiments,-which argues much in favour of a veteran and aged physician, retired from practice, and having, as might be supposed, his mind made up on most of the subjects which come under his notice. His great freedom from prejudice, if we except, perhaps, his opinion concerning the contagious nature of yellow fever, raises him very high in our estimation as an independent thinker and unbiassed observer,-two of the most valuable habits of mind which man can possess. With regard to his controversial writings, in which he manifested considerable warmth, and some asperity, he says, that if any of his expressions have injured or offended, he most solemnly abjures them, and entreats pardon for not being aware of their absurdity, and being unsanctioned even by the weakness and ignorance of human nature. This is noble and manly, and deserves our highest commendation. REVIEW OF THE RECENT EXPERIMENTS WITH the Oil of THE CROTON TIGLIUM, PRESCRIBED AS A CATHARTIC. NOVELTY is not excellence though it may assume its appearance, and may, for a time, dazzle the unwary by the glare of its delusions. In medicine particularly, new remedies and new hypotheses ought to be received with extreme caution; and before they can be considered as permanently worthy of confidence, they ought to be carefully and rigidly scrutinized and proved, not by one or two individuals only, who may experi ment and observe under the influence of prejudice, but by many, whose different and opposite modes of thinking may discover injurious or beneficial effects, previously overlooked by the sanguine proposers. We wish, as much as we can, to avoid premature praise of medical novelties, as we conceive it to be our imperative duty to do so, lest we should mislead the young and inexperienced, who constitute a considerable number of our readers. But we are no less anxious to keep pace with the rapid improvements which are daily making in the profession, and to bring forward all the disadvantages as well as the excellencies of what is new. 412 Croton oil is not a new medicine, but one revived, which has been long obsolete; for it has been occasionally used in the East from an unknown antiquity: the Arabian physicians also employed it, and many years ago it was tried in Europe, under the name of grana tiglia, or Molucca grains, but soon laid aside, on account of the violence of its operation. The English practitioners in Hindostan have recently made many trials with it, in order to form an estimate of its value, and of the practice of the natives. Among these we may mention with praise, Dr. John Fleming, Dr. White, Dr. W. Ainslie, Mr. Ingledow, and Observations and Experiments upon the Chemical Composition of the Seeds of the Croton Tiglium, and the Oil which is procured from them. By John Nimmo, M. D., (Glasgow.) Journ. of Science, XIII. 62. Medical Report, by D. Uwins, M. D. Month. Mag. Aug. 1821. On the Croton Oil, by Henry Perry, Surgeon, Observations, &c. on the Oil of Croton. By J. Repository, XVII. 8. Lond. Med. Repos. XVI. 374. Lond. Med. Repos. XVI, 16. On the Croton Tiglium, &c., by W. T. Hiff, &c. M. D. F. R. S. E. &c. &c. &c. &c. Mr. Marshall. Within the last year, a great number of experiments have been made with it in this country, in almost every variety of cases where a drastic purgative was indicated. The result of these trials we shall lay before our readers, after a very short account of the medicine itself. The croton tiglium is an arboraceous plant, ranking among the tricocca of Linnæus, the euphorbia of Jussieu, and in the order monæcia, in the monadelphia class of the sexual system. The whole plant, according to Rumphius. (Herb. Amboin. IV. 98.) but particularly the leaves, is so exceedingly acrid, as to inflame and swell the mouth, lips, and fauces, the burning heat being felt even to the anus. The shell of the nut, according to Dr. Nimmo, is quite inert. The root is milder than the grains, but, in the form of powder, is a very powerful cathartic. The seeds, or grains, are the most generally used. They are about the size of filberts, and have a thin shell, which is, in preparing the medicine in the East, taken off, after they have been torrified, and the kernels pounded, and the mass made into pills, with honey, each containing half a grain of the crotor, two or three pills forming a full dose. In this form, the croton acts as a watery purgative, operating in one or two hours. The EXPRESSED OIL OF THE CROTON NUT, however, is what comes more particularly under our review, and of this, Dr. Nimmo has given a valuable scientific analysis, which we shall now state. By treating twelve drops of the oil with four drachms of alcohol sp. gr. .826, a solution of about two-thirds of the oil took place, possessing all the acrimony and activity of the medicine, and leaving a third portion insoluble in alcohol, even with the aid of heat, and possessing no acrimony whatever, but quite inert, and slightly rancid. His supply of the oil being exhausted in this experiment Dr. Nimmo was fortunate enough to procure some of the nuts, whose kernels-he bruised in a mortar, and treated with alcohol, as before. He found that eleven. parts of the mass out of the forty were taken up by the alcohol, possessing all the acrimony and other properties of the solution formerly obtained from the oil. The insoluble residuum was tasteless, but from its tinging the paper in which it was dried by heat, it evidently contained a fixed oil. This he treated with a new re-agent-purified oil of turpentine-procured by agitating eight parts of the impure oil with one part of the strongest alcohol, pouring off the floating impurities, and repeating the same process three or four times, till the oil is rendered nearly tasteless and without smell on pouring off the impurities which the alcohol has dissolved and floated to the surface. To those who are partial to turpentine as a medicine, this must prove an invaluable process. The worst of it is, that however pure the oil may thus be rendered, it speedily changes, and becomes again charged with impurities as at first. The twenty-nine parts of residuum, having been accordingly digested, for a suitable time, with oil of turpentine thus purified, nearly half of it was dissolved, while the remainder was insoluble, as under. 27.5 acrid matter soluble in alcohol. Croton seeds 32.5 fixed oil soluble in ol. Terebinth. purif. 100 parts. 40. farinaceous matter insoluble in neither. In repeating and varying the analysis, Dr. Nimmo found these first results to correspond. The action of sulphuric ether was next tried, and was found to be an equally good solvent, with the oil of turpentine. By pouring the ether on 198 grains of the bruised seeds, and filtering the whole with a close covered filter, Dr. Nimmo obtained two drachms by measure of oil, exactly like the purchased specimen, and he thinks this method of obtaining it preferable to the torrefaction and expression used in the East. Dr. Nimmo thinks also, that olive and castor 'oil, either have been or may be used to adulterate the genuine croton oil; but its purity may always be ascertained by the following process :— Let a very light phial be counterpoised in an accurate balance: pour into it fifty grains or more of croton oil; add alcohol, which has been digested upon olive oil, of which it dissolves so little as not to injure, in the smallest degree, the alcoholic solution for subsequent use: agitate well; pour off the solution, and add more alcohol in the same manner, till the dissolved portion is diffused in such a proportion of alcohol, that each half-drachm measure shall contain equal to one dose of the croton oil for an adult. By placing the phial near a fire, to evaporate what remains of the alcohol in the bottle, if the remainder be to that which has been abstracted by the alcohol as 55 to 45, the oil is genuine ;-if olive, or any other oil, little 'soluble in alcohol, has been added, the residuum will be in larger proportion. But if castor oil has been employed, the proportion of the residue will be smaller than in the genuine medicine. Dr. Nimmo justly prefers the solution of the oil in alcohol to any other, as furnishing the most correct mode of apportioning the dose, it being when saturated of equal strength. For preventing the acrid heat which it produces in the mouth and throat, Dr. Nimmo recommends the formula, |