against this explanation of the action of the saline waters, which is not merely palliative, but in many cases absolutely curative (the italics are mine, J. H. C.), and we must be content with the empirical fact, that the springs of Ems, Obersaltzbrunnen, and Seltzers, have often alleviated or cured chronic laryngeal catarrh

"Spray baths and inhalations have been established of late in many well-known watering-places, particularly at the "brine (Soolbäden). The most simple baths of brine-spray are the promenades and galleries along the salt-works of Kreutznach, Kosen, Elmen, and Reichenhall. The atmosphere there is heavily charged with a weak solution of sodium.

Whether, and how, inhalation of the brine-spray acts as a remedy for laryngeal catarrh, is still a question The diet for chronic catarrh of the larynx must be similar to that for the acute; salted articles, indeed, particularly the roe of a herring taken fasting, are in especially good repute."

From the above it will be seen that in the treatment of catarrh, acute and chronic, in the situation more frequently attacked, chloride of sodium or natrum muriaticum as we still call it, in some form or other plays a very prominent part. As to the "how" of its action it is no explanation for us to say it is specific, but it is a matter of no small importance to be able to refer to the effect of the drug on the healthy and find it produces the very disease that it

cures.

But whilst I was taking nat. mur. 30 its effects on me were not curative only. On the morning of the 27th, the third day after taking the first dose, and having taken altogether about ten drops, as soon as I awoke and drew in air by the mouth, pain in all the front teeth, upper and lower, compelled me to close the mouth and breathe through This was troublesome more or less all day, but gradually wore off towards evening. But it did not altogether leave me for five days, and it continued longest on the right side. Drinking hot tea also made the teeth ache. As far as I remember this condition was something quite

the nose.

new to me.

On the evening of the 27th I had violent irritation of the left side of septum of the nose at its extremity. The next morning at the site of the irritation there were a number of minute vesicles on an inflamed and painful base, which speedily coalesced to form one; a scab formed and this has lasted eight days, and is not yet completely healed. A herpetic vesicle in this situation is also quite new to me.

Struck with the novelty of these symptoms I consulted Allen to see if he could give me any explanation, and greatly was I amazed with the result. Symptoms 654-659 bear directly on the teeth affection. Great sensitiveness of the teeth (especially the right side) to air. Great sensitiveness of the teeth (especially of the right lower jaw) to the inspired air. Great sensitiveness of the teeth to cold."

As for the nose, symptom 561, amongst others, runs: "the tip of the nose became red, hot, and painful, afterwards a group of vesicles as large as the head of a pin developed, became filled with transparent lymph, and at last confluent and formed a scab." There is a great preponderance of left nostril symptoms.

The catarrh symptoms fill nearly half a page of Allen. 569 "very violent sneezing," 582" violent fluent coryza and at times stoppage of the left nostril," &c., &c.

The strong affinity of the medicine for mucous membranes throughout the body, and its power of producing catarrh is well brought out in the provings. Its power of controlling catarrh of the upper part of the respiratory tract it has been my good fortune to experience. In treating colds formerly one of my greatest difficulties had been in deciding which of the many indicated remedies was most indicated in the particular case. To determine the question I often had to search for symptoms remote from the catarrh I wished to control, and my success had not been very brilliant. In the cases above recorded, beyond the catarrhal symptoms there were none that specially indicated natrum mur. above any other remedy, they were not by any means typical cases for the remedy in the way of habit of body.

The choice of the 30th dilution was merely an experiment. Being desirous of testing the power of the higher dilutions and determining, if possible, for my own satisfaction, the relative merits of the higher and lower dilutions, as one of Dr. Burnett's cases was cured by the 30th, I thought it a good opportunity of giving the higher a trial. The result has been so far to strengthen my belief in their curative powers-further experiment is needed to determine their comparative curative value-and to make me cautious about ignoring statements of their pathogenetic effects.

Review, May 1, 1879.

In conclusion I must join the general voice in thanking Dr. Burnett for bringing this noble remedy so prominently before us, and the above few cases, not by any means all, are recorded as a substantial expression of my gratitude, knowing that the best thanks any one can render to an earnest worker, is to follow up and add to his work. 83, Berners Street, Ipswich. April 4th, 1879.

NOTES ON TABACUM,

BY S. H. BLAKE, ESQ.

THIS valuable medicine has not attracted so much attention as many more important remedies in throat disease, partly it may be from the frequency of its exhibition by smokers, and partly from the variety of the symptoms requiring its exceptional use in some infrequent forms of disease. It is difficult to obtain two specimens of tobacco of the same quality, and different varieties possess great differences of degree in their physiological effects. Some cheaper kinds cause great irritation of the pharyngeal, faucial, and tonsillar mucous membrane, with a sense of heat and dryness, in some persons even amounting to pain. In small quantities it at first increases secretion, especially the saliva, but if persevered with, a chronic form of pharyngitis may ensue, with frequent hacking and hawking up of a scanty, tenacious mucus, detached with difficulty from the pharyngeal mucous membrane. But the best Virginian tobacco does not produce these symptoms in such a marked form, and is said to contain less nicotine than the common varieties.

We occasionally catch glimpses of its curative action, towards which the following case points, two of the most important items being the chronicity of the case, and the fact that this person had been a non-smoker from youth upwards. He is a small man, with dark hair, somewhat anæmic, and reports his case thus: "My age when I began smoking was twenty-seven. My uncle, to whom I sat next in a chair, found my breath very offensive, and I was frequently told of it at business. I took pills, brimstone, &c., without any effect (only a day or two better), and when I took to smoking, I found that the cure for it.

"The symptoms were, after dinner very dry, and hacking away in the throat, without anything to spit out. Very dry, and frequently drinking water, &c., but since taking to a pipe after dinner, it has removed all this, and I find that if I don't smoke it returns after dinner. I take no pills now, and only at the change of seasons I want medicine. My digestion, too, was much improved by smoking."

Among the provings of tabacum, we find, in Jahr, "Burning in mouth and throat, nausea, itching in throat." Allen adds, under Nicotine, "Frequent scraping in throat. Sensation as though a sharp brush had been drawn through œsophagus to stomach, dysphagia, nausea, hiccough. Frequent eructations, or eructations with vomiting, with some relief. Disagreeable sensation from stomach upwards and downwards, with eructations. Sense of emptiness and faintness in stomach and intestinal canal persistent. Scraping-burning taste, especially low down in the throat, causing hiccough and hawking. Face pale, features drawn." Hempel gives a case, "Loss of appetite, constipation, heat, with flushed face, violent thirst, pulse 120" (after excessive doses of tobacco), all these symptoms being relieved by smoking in moderation."

Dr. Ringer says, p. 435, "Smoking in excess disorders digestion, lessens appetite, inducing restlessness at night, with disagreeable dreams, weakening both mind and body, chronic pharyngitis, mucous membrane looking dirty-red velvet, constant hawking, and also chronic dyspepsia, and a thickly coated tongue."

From these symptoms it is clear that tobacco must possess a great influence over the gastro-pharyngeal tract, and further that many of its symptoms, issuing as they do from the cerebro-spinal system, a debilitated condition of these organs may be a still further indication for its usefulness as a medicine.

The patient to whom I have referred had never been acquainted with homœopathic treatment, and the taking of the tobacco was not owing to any pre-conceived theory of its curative action. The clinical symptoms pointing to theuse of tobacco in this case we may sum up as follows:

Offensive breath, deficient digestive power.

Dryness of the throat, with hacking.
Deficient secretion from the throat.

Thirst for water and other liquids.
Constipation moderate.

Increase of symptoms after dinner.

The homœopathic relationship of these symptoms to the effects of tabacum on the healthy is at once evident, and we may note the power of the medicine to control them at the very hour of their onset (after dinner). We see in this one method of the working of the homoeopathic law, by which it carries out the relief or cure of the diseased organism. The more similar the pathogenesy to the diseased state, the more energetic the effects of the medicine may be at the very time of the increased activity of perverted physiological action.

Liverpool, April, 1879.

FRENCH PROVINGS OF ARGENTUM.

BY J. MURRAY MOORE, M.D.

Ir is always interesting to the homoeopathic reader to find in general-nay, even ephemeral-literature, any item confirming those invaluable "provings" of remedies upon which we base our practice.

In a recent newspaper I found the following statements, quoted from Dr. Manonvrieg's article in the Bulletin Médical du Nord:

These

"It has been repeatedly noticed for years that bankers' clerks, after having handled for some days in succession large quantities of silver 5-franc pieces, suffer from disorders of the respiratory and digestive organs. have been ascribed to a dark green metallic dust, which is raised by taking the coins from their bags, weighing them, and replacing them. In the years 1872 and 1874, when the money paid by France to Germany as indemnity was returned to France through mercantile transactions, the clerks spent several weeks in handling the coin, and the symptoms of this dust disease were very marked."

I will now interpolate the numbers of those particular symptoms in Allen's Encyclopædia, given under argentum metallicum, which this record confirms, and readers of the Review who possess that great and costly, but necessary, work, can verify my quotations at their leisure.

66

The symptoms of this peculiar disease are frequent sneezing, coryza (74, 78, 72); and angina (222, 224, 225,