ditis; and in two, lardaceous degeneration. In several instances, rapid or sudden death has arisen from the cardiac lesion. The functional disturbances produced by syphilitic lesions of internal organs have no specific character. Each organ manifests its lesion by disturbance of its proper functions; and hence the symptoms proper to these affections vary not only with the organ affected, but with the seat and extent of the morbid change. The elements of diagnosis must, therefore, be sought for in the presence or previous existence of the internal manifestations of syphilis, and in the antecedents of the patient. It is well, in any case, to take into consideration age, and other etiological circumstances; to examine most carefully the liver, which is most frequently affected; and to note the state of the kidneys, the presence of syphilitic disease in which often produces albumen in the urine. The simultaneous disease of several viscera is worthy of attentive consideration; but the special foundation for diagnosis is, to gether with the period (tertiary) at which the symptoms appear, and the peculiar progress of the numerous manifestations of visceral syphilis by special cachexia, by which these are almost always accompanied. In general, the prognosis of syphilitic disease of the viscera is to be regarded as serious, in proportion to the importance of the organ or organs affected. Specific treatment, consisting of mercury and iodide of potassium, has often been found by M. Lancereaux, when used in proper circumstances, to rapidly remove serious symptoms, even when threatening a rapidly fatal termin ation. This treatment is useful for syphilitic inflammations and tumors, but has no effect on cicatrices. It must not be forgotten, that the prolonged us of these remedial agents is demanded. In this way, we may best obviate the tendency to a recurrence of the disease.-Gaz. des Hopitaux, 17 Mars, 1864. NITRATE OF SILVER IN DYSENTERV.-M. Caradec relates in the L'Union Medicale six cases of dysentery, treated in the following manner: After giving, when the patient is seen in the early stage of the disease, a purgative of sulphate of magnesia, or castor oil, M. Caradec orders an enema of nitrate of silver night and morning, preceded by a copious enema of marshmallows, or linseed. The quantity of nitrate of silver varies, according to the circumstances of the case, from three-fourths of a grain to a half for children, to four or five grains for adults, in about four ounces of water. A few drops of laudanum are added to each enema. The injections are continued at the same strength until there is a marked change in the evacuations, and at a lower strength until all discharge of mucus and blood, and all diarrhœa, have ceased. In cases where the disease has been seated too high to be reached by enema, M. Caradec has given the nitrate of silver internally, in doses not exceeding one-sixth of a grain three times a day.-Bull. Gener. de Ther., 15 Mars, 1864. SYPHILITIC DISEASE OF THE BRAIN-RECOVERY.-A woman, aged 30, was lately admitted into the Lariboisiere Hospital, under M. Duplay, with a well marked pustular syphilitic eruption on the arms. During several weeks, she complained of very severe occipital headache; she had obstinate vomiting, in consequence of which, the iodide of potassium which had been administered to her produced no effect. The patient now began to grow feeble; she stumbled, walking became more and more difficult, and at last she was confined to bed. While lying down, she had perfect voluntary power over both the lower and the upper limbs; there was therefore no ordinary paralysis, nor wasting palsy, but great muscular weakness. She had also double converge t squint, complicated with diplopia. The intellect and sensation, and B the principal functions, remained intact. She had no fever, nor cough; nutrition was interfered with by the vomiting. M. Duplay diagnosed a syphilitic affection of the cerebellum. Mercurial treatment was employed; and in a week there was marked improvement. The pain in the head was less; the vomiting had ceased. The patient recovered her strength, and was soon able to sit up in bed, and to stand; the squint also disappeared. At the end of six weeks, she was dismissed cured; and, when seen some time afterwards, remained well.-Gaz. des Hopitaux, 5 Mars, 1864. PURPURA HÆMORRHAGICA: INTERMITTENT SYMPTOMS: SUCCESSFUL TREATMENT BY IRON AND QUININE.-Dr. Nyssens of Maeseyck relates the case of a girl aged 13, to whom he was called, and whom he found suffering from purpura hæmorrhagica. At first he prescribed perchloride of iron; but, in dressing the patient for two or three days, he observed that the symptoms-bleeding from the gums aud nose, etc.—were not relieved, and were aggravated in alternate days, and that the patient also presented rigors like those of intermittent fever. He therefore gave quinine in addition to the iron. The effect in relieving the symptoms was at once obvious; and under the continued use of iron and cinchona, with nutritious diet, the patient perfectly recovered. Gaz. des Hopitaux, 3 Mars, 1864. EXTERNAL APPLICATION OF IODINE.-In the second part of the sixth lecture upon "New Remedies and their Therapeutical Applications," delivered by Professor Samuel R. Percy, at the New York Medical College and Charity Hospital, and published in the American Medical Times for March 1st, there are a few practical remarks upon the external use of Iodine, deserving a place here. Professor Percy thinks that "For ordinary application to adults, both the tincture and the compound tincture are too weak in iodine, and I am in the habit of preparing a compound tincture in preference to a simple tincture, as the iodide of potassium makes the iodine more soluble, not only in the alcohol, but by the absorbents of the skin." "The preparation I usually use is made by dissolv ing half an ounce of iodide of potassium and an ounce and a half of iodine, in a pint of alcohol of about eighty-six per cent." "If but one application of the iodine is needed, or if the application is made at long intervals, I usually apply over the spot painted by the tincture a good coating of iodinal collodion, made after the following formula: Take of iodine, two drachms; Canada balsam, one drachm; collodion, four ounces; dissolve first the iodine, then the Canada balsam in the collodion." This is applied by means of a camel's-hair brush, after the application o the tincture. "By this the pores of the skin are not immediately closed, and the iodine exerts a more energetic effect, and the evaporation of the iodine is to some extent prevented by the outer covering of collodion. The balsam is added to prevent its cracking." Ointments of iodine deteriorate very rapidly, and soon become inert tinctures evaporate rapidly, and are not absorbed, unless some means are adopted to prevent evaporation. We think the plan adopted by Professor Percy is even more effectual than the one ordinarily practiced, that of covering with oiled silk.-Medical and Surgical Reporter. ORIGINAL PAPERS. LIBRARY OF THE IVERSITY OF Calabrine or Physostigmine, a New Alkaloid obtained from the Calabar Bean. [Translated from the French, from the "Gazette Hebdomadaire," of June 3d, 1864, for the PACIFIC MEDICAL AND SURGICAL JOURNAL.] THE very energetic properties possessed by the Calabar bean, (Physostigma venenosum), left no doubt of the existence of an alkaloid even more active than that of the nux vomica. Experiments have just been made by Messrs. Jobst and Hesse (of Stuttgard). These chemists have subjected the Calabar bean to a series of researches, and according to the results of their examinations, it seems that the active principle of these seeds is contained in cotyledons only. They have obtained it by treating the beans with alcohol, then treating by ether the residue left after the evaporation of the alcoholic solution. The etherized solution, in its turn evaporated, leaves the pure physostigmine (calabarine). The physostigmine is in a brownish yellow mass, amorphous, and is at first separated in the form of oily drops. It is easily soluble in ammonia, caustic and carbonated soda, ether, benzine and alcohol, less soluble in cold water. It is entirely precipitated from its etherized solution by animal charcoal. The watery solution has a slightly burning taste, a reaction distinctly alkaline; it gives an abundant red brown precipitate with the biiodide of potassium, and a precipitate of hydrated oxygen in a solution of chloride of iron; dissolved with hydrate of potassa it disengages vapors which have a strongly alkaline reaction. Acids dissolve it easily, and give place to solutions of salts, which are frequently of a dark red, and more rarely of a dark blue color. The hydrochlorate of physostigmine gives precipitates of reddish white with tannin; pale yellow, with chloride of platinum; bluish, with the chloride of gold, a reaction taking place; reddish white, with the bi-chloride of mercury. Twenty-one beans gave but a small quantity of the alkaloid. Two drops of the watery solutfon of the alkaloid placed upon the eye, caused the pupil to contract at the end of ten minutes to about a twentieth of its natural diameter. It remained in this state during an hour. At the end of from four to six hours it had recovered its original dimensions. Taken internally, physostigmine is as venomous as the most dangerous cyanurets. As much of the alkaloid as may be obtained from a single bean *The German chemists, authors of the discovery of a new alkaloid, propose to give it the name of Physostigmine. M. Debout, in the Bulletin of Therapeutics, suggests that of Calabrine as more euphonious. having been administered to a rabbit, at the end of five minutes the animal fell, remained without motion, and expired twenty-five minutes after-that is, half an hour after having taken the poison. Physostigmine determined the contraction of the iris of an animal that had been some time dead. Two drops of the aqueous solution having been placed on the eye of a rabbit an hour after it had been killed, by mechanical means, the pupil contracted to one-fourth the size of that of the other eye. A rabbit put to death by physostigmine did not present this phenomenon, but it was observed in a slight degree in another animal poisoned by cyanuret of potassium. Hence, it may be seen that the muscles, even after death, are still susceptible of being influenced specifically, not only by the galvanic current, but also by physostigmine. Contributions to the Physics, Etc., of the Sacramento River. By THOS. M. LOGAN, M. D., Sacramento. [Page 145, P. M. and S. Jour. Vol. vii.] MR. EDITOR: —The paper in your journal, with the above caption, forms no part of the proceedings of the California Academy of Natural Sciences and cannot be made to bear their endorsement. You will therefore confer a favor by making this correction. By order of the Cal. Acad. Nat. Sciences, HENRY N. BOLANDER, In giving place to the above notice, it is due to Dr. Logan to say that when he stated the fact that his paper had been read before the Cal. Academy of Natural Sciences, he had no idea of conveying the impression that it had received the endorsement of that body. The publication of the paper for the first time on his own responsibility in this journal, shows that he determined to have no endorsement of it. As a part of its history, he had no right to suppress the fact that it had been read before the Academy. HISTORICAL SKETCHES. BY V. J. FOURGEAUD, M. D. XV. MEDICINE IN CHRISTIAN EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES. WHILE the Arabian school of medicine was flourishing, all Europe, except that portion occupied by the Saracens, was still plunged in darkness. Intellectual Greece had degenerated to such a degree that a few of her sons, who had found an asylum in the eastern capital, were the only representatives of her ancient learning in the Christian world. After the taking of Alexandria by the Arabians, amid the general ignorance which prevailed everywhere, Constantinople continued to give some faint signs of mental culture, not indeed by any original talent, but by the occasional productions of compilers and commentators. Nonus, a Greek physician of the tenth century, practiced in Corstantinople, and compiled a work on special therapeutics, from the writings of Oribasius, Aetius, Alexander Trallianus and Paulus Ægineta. * In the eleventh century, Psellus, also a Greek practitioner of Constantinople, following the example of the Arabian alchemists, published a treatise, in which he speaks of the art of making gold, † and he exhibited his fondness for the occult arts and sciences in his book entitled "De operatione Dæmonum dialogus." His medical works are mere compilations, and are buried in the dust of European libraries. In the beginning of the thirteenth century, the Crusaders having laid siege to Constantinople, took the city by storm, pillaged it with remorseless cruelty, banished or maltreated students and men of letters, and placed a Latin prince on the throne of the Eastern Empire. The precious remains of Hellenic learning contained in her libraries, the valuable Grecian sculptures which decorated her forum and hippodrome, were not spared in the undistinguishing rapiue, "nor," as Hallam remarks, were the chiefs of the Crusaders more able to appreciate the loss than the soldiery." Rome and Venice divided the spoils; the relics which abounded in the Eastern capital being the share of the former, and such remnants of the precious works of art, of letters and-sciences, as had escaped blind and ruthless destruction, fell to the lot of the latter. A succession of Latin princes possessed during fifty *Theophanis Nonni epitome de curatione morborum græcè et latinè. Gotha et Amsterdam, 1794-1795, in 8, 2 vol. † De veritate et antiquitate artis chimiæ. Paris, 1561, Pouchet, op. cit. p. 130. |