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of Philadelphia, were present. It is said that Dr. Sims met a host of affectionate friends and patients while in England. It would seem that so far as success as a practitioner is concerned, it makes very little difference with the doctor whether he is in New York, Paris, London, or in the other capitals of Europe. His great fame is the same, and to-day he enjoys a reputation in his specialties unequaled by any other living man. Every American should be proud of him as an American, and every young practitioner should imitate him in their professional pursuits. A little episode which occurred between Dr. Beard and Dr. Fourness of the steamship Germanic, caused a very little uneasiness in regard to Dr. Beard, yet it is well known that he is able and willing to "paddle his own canoe."-Prof. Joseph Jones, M. D., of New Orleans, is the president of the State Board of Health of Louisiana.-Woods' Library has proved a great success, and has furnished one of the best set of books ever published in this country as a serial.-The various extracts of malt have received much attention on the part of the medical profession, and have been generally introduced into practice. Parke, Davis & Co., of Detroit, Mich., are producing many new and valuable remedies, all of which are to be found in the Therapeutic Gazette, published by George S. Davis on the 15th of each month. This is a double columned journal of thirty-two pages, with extensive price current and catalogue of remedies. No medical library can be supplied with a more valuable medical journal. Parke, Davis & Co. have one of the largest drug manufactories in the United States.

BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS RECEIVED.

CONSUMPTION AND TUBERCULOSIS.-Notes on their treatment by the Hypophos phites. Second edition. By J. A. McArthur, M. D. (Harv.) Boston, Mass. 1880. Pp. 56.

CATALOGUE OF BOOKS published by Macmillan & Co., including the works issued by the Oxford Clarendon Press and the Cambridge University Press. London, and 22 Bond Street, New York. 1880. Pp. 57.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR: Bureau of Education, Washington, D. C.-Progress of Western Education in China and Siam-Indian School at Carlisle Barracks-Vacation Colonies for Sickly School Children-Circular of Information, No. 5, 1880-Legal Rights of Children-Proceedings of the Department of Superintendence of the National Education Association, at its meeting at Washington, D. C., February 18-20,

1820.

CATALOGUE MARYLAND SEMINARY. Washington, D. C. 1879-1880.

PEORIA MEDICAL MONTHLY. A journal of medicine and surgery. Peoria, Ills. DR. FOOTE'S HEALTH MONTHLY.

TWENTIETH ANNUAL CIRCULAR OF FRIENDS' SEMINARY. 1880. New York.

SURGICAL TREATMENT OF NASO-PHARYNGEAL CATARRH. By D. H. Goodwillie, M. D., D. D. S. 1880. New York.

THE MEDICAL ECLECTIC,

DEVOTED TO

Reformed Medicine,

GENERAL SCIENCE AND LITERATURE.

Editors:

ROBERT S. NEWTON, M. D., LL. D.,

Professor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine in the Eclectic Medical College, of New York. ROBERT S. NEWTON, JR., M. D., L. R. C. S.,

Professor of Surgery and Ophthalmology in the Eclectic Medical College, of New York. Published every month, by THE ECLECTIC MEDICAL COLLEGE, of the City of New York.

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Professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics in the Eclectic Medical College, of the City of
New York; Lecturer on Clinical Medicine, and Physician in
Chief to the Manhattan Hospital.

(Continued from page 430, October, 1880.)

CIMICIFUGA RACEMOSA. Black Cohosh.

This is an indigenous, herbaceous, stately plant (Nat. Ord. Ranunculaceae), growing to the height of eight feet, in rocky woods, from Maine to Georgia. The ROOT is the part used; it yields its virtues to alcohol, and the resulting tincture strongly resembles laudanum in taste.

Chemical Constituents.-The root contains an alkaloid, cimicifu

* Copyrighted, 1879, by G. W. Winterburn.

gin, a resinoid, a neutral principle, a volatile oil, tannic and gallic acids, black and green coloring matters, fat, gum, starch, salts of iron, lime, magnesia and potassa.

Physiological Effects.-Overdoses of cimicifugin (more commonly called macrotin) cause agitation, both mental and physical. Restlessness, apprehensiveness and sleeplessness are the principal factors of its influence. The mind becomes dull and heavy, vision impaired, pupils dilated, and the expression of the eye wild and startled. The head aches severely, mental equipoise is lost, and sometimes a condition resembling delirium tremens is induced; and even when the impairment of function does not reach that degree of aberration, strange fancies take possession of the brain.

Sharp pains in various parts characterize its presence, especially invading the pleura, but also the dorsal and lumbar regions. Associated with these are twitchings and tremors of the extremities, palpitations and precardial anxiety, prickling and itching in the skin, and profuse catarrhal coryza. The bowels show a disposition to diarrhoea, with large papescent stools; the urine becomes profuse, pale and watery, there is pain and tenderness of the testicles in one sex and vaginal leucorrhoea and uterine hemorrhage in the other. Affecting the left side the most, there is a bruised sensation all over, and the general feeling is of weakness, trembling and despondency. There is great sensitiveness to cold air, and profound exhaustion from the most trivial exertion or the slightest excitement.

Therapeutics.-Prof. Biddle, of Jefferson Medical College, says: "The effects of cimicifuga are not very accurately known."* Well, let us see. In therapeutic action, this drug is related to aconite and arsenic, caulophyllum and ergot, arnica and digitalis. It is used in diseases of the eyes, in neuroses, and in affections of the muscular, vascular, ovario-uterine and respiratory systems. Thus it will be seen its range of action is extensive; it has been thoroughly proved and accepted; and the consensus of clinical experience is unmistakably in favor of its polychrestal virtues.

I. Excruciating pain, and the concomitant symptoms, in the eye

*Materia Medica, 8th Ed., 1878, page 309.

balls and the surrounding integument and tissues, is characteristic of cimicifuga poisoning. But long before these physiological sequences were noted and tabulated, the drug was in frequent use in ophthalmic diseases. You will find occasion to use it in hyperæmia and hyperæsthesia of the conjunctiva, iris, and retina, due to over use; in æsthenia of the muscular and retinal tissue; in photo phobia from mere weakness; in dimness of sight or double sight; in paralysis of the optic nerve; in dilated pupils, with black musca volitantes; and in both catarrhal and rheumatic ophthalmia.

The pains which particularly indicate cimicifuga are within the eyeball, are aching, sore, and fixed; resemble rheumatism rather than neuralgia; are often severe without any outward indication; and are increased by movement.

II. Cimicifuga is essentially a cerebro-spinal remedy, being, in large doses, to both brain and cord a depressing irritant, acting inversely to nux vomica. You will find occasion to use it in several cerebro-spinal diseases. In irritation and congestion of the meninges, as well as of the substance of the cord, it seems to deserve confidence. I have used it here but rarely; reliable observers, however, speak of it as being unvaryingly successful. In various forms of headache I can speak with personal certitude. It is useful in periodic nervous headache (recurring every day at the same hour); in passive congestive headache; in headache arising from over study or excessive fatigue; in the cerebral confusion and distress of drunkards—or rather, when resulting from a "spree;" in headache at the menopause in nervous, hysterical women, or at the menstrual period, when the flow is too frequent and too profuse; and in headache from night watching, or from exposure to damp, cold wind.

The character of pain, which is indicative for cimicifuga, ispain which presses from within outwards, with a tendency to involve the eyeballs; the head feels so heavy and full, that every time he moves it he has the sensation as if the cranium opened and shut; the pains are aggravated by movement, and are generally alleviated in the open air. The absence of gastric disturbance is a further indication for this remedy.

When these conditions exist, with sensitiveness to cold air, you can give cimicifuga with every assurance of success. B. Ext. cimicif. fl. gtt. v. et aquæ 3 ij., teaspoonful every half hour until relieved.

In the treatment of mental disorders it is one of our most valuable drugs. It is recommended by Sir James Y. Simpson, and my own experience is concurrent, in the treatment of women, who, during pregnancy and after confinement, suffer from great mental disturbance, sometimes amounting to actual mania.

In eight or ten days she was altered and changed in a marvellous degree, but all for the better. On the third or fourth day, she informed me that the cloud of misery which had been darkening her existence suddenly began to dissolve and dispel, and in a day or two more she felt perfectly well again, in gayety, spirits and energy.— Simpson.

The condition is one of profound melancholia, with indifference and suspicion to those about her, apprehensiveness as regards herself, and obstinate insomnia. If this last symptom be present, cimicifuga will generally cure cases of melancholy, no matter what the cause; and even when the disorder arises from some incurable physical disease, it is, at least, palliative.

You will find it useful in those depressed states following the prolonged or excessive dependence on stimulants and narcotics. In delirium tremens, I should not very well know how to get along without it. It not only restores the mental balance, relieves the muscular tremors, and overcomes the persistent sleeplessness, but it also reaches the gastric symptoms, and corrects the tendency to ganglionic degeneration.

Cimicifuga is beneficial in chorea, whether uterine, rheumatic, purely psychical, or arising from cold or fright. Dr. Sidney Ringer dissents from this, and says that it fails altogether when there is no history of rheumatism. But other equally careful observers state, and my own experience inclines me to concur in the opinion, that it is of undoubted value in all cases of chorea that are aggravated by the emotions, at the menstrual period, or are caused by suppressed menses, provided there is more or less melancholy and insomnia. I should hardly be inclined to put much trust in cimicifuga unless these latter conditions were present.

Cimicifuga does not reach actual ganglionic lesions, and where the tremors and involuntary movements are caused by structural changes, it will be useless. It is not, therefore, available in epilepsy, although Dr. Gardner Coe says he has seen cases much benefited,*

* Probably because used with other remedies.

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