xnz: £94 Cfc\£P- ^^rts^.v.^.'.v *< :!v"; « \* INJURIOUS EFFECTS OF " MINERAL POISONS IN THE PEACTICE OF MEDICINE. comprising: an epitome and commentary on THE SYSTEM OF LUIGI CORNARO FOR ATTAINING OLD AGE, AND ON THE NEW SYSTEM OF MEDICINE OF F. V. RASPAIL {Every Man his own Physician), To which the Montyon Prize of 10,000f. was lately adjudged at Paris, EMBRACING ALL THE DETAILS NECESSARY FOR PERSONS TO GIVE THIS SYSTEM A TRIAL, &C. &C. BY HORATIO PRATER, M.D., Ph. D. icoverer of the Fusible Compound of Carbon andSilica ; of the peculiar Agency of Lime on the Tonicity of Muscular Fibre ; of the Permanent Fluidity of the Blood by a Heat o/]40°; of the Acceleration of its Coagulation by Ammonia, Car- bonat of Soda, Sjc. ; of the Cause of the Coagulation of Albumen by Heat; of the Diffusive Power of the Gases; and, conjointly with Fizeau, of MOsei's Images; and Author of " Experimental In- quiries in Chemical Physiology," Ssc. of animal Nitrogen. food Carbon. J 14 Most or all of these substances are found in our food, and it is because they are found there, and because they are found as component parts of the body, that they are mentioned. We say component parts of the body, because there are a variety of other substances found in the excretions of the body, which reason would not seem to authorise us to use, except in very small quantities and experimentally. Such are uric acid, urea, &c. As there would appear to be no harm in using the component parts of the substances enumerated separately, but in the very small proportions in which they exist in the human body* the number of substances employed in such system of physic becomes more than doubled. Thus we have the acids carbonic, phosphoric, sulphuric, muriatic, fluoric, lactic, or acetic; and the radicals of these, carbon, phosphorus, sulphur (fluorine ?), chlorine, oxygen, hydro- gen, and nitrogen (as one of the elements of animal food). Sea-water and mineral-waters may, probably, be added with reason to this list of medicaments, since (with the * This view of the subject makes the practice of medicine, as regards these ingredients, very similar to the homoeopathic, though proposed on totally different grounds. There is also another feature in which the present system has some resemblance to the homoeopathic, I mean as regards encouraging or tending to increase first symptoms of diseases that manifest themselves. Thus it has been already remarked, that when vomiting or purging occur in an otherwise healthy subject, we should give those substances which tend to produce such actions till the stomach or alimentary canal is thoroughly cleared out. But after this is done, we would not continue (as we presume the regular homceopathist would) the use of medicines tending to keep up such actions, but rather the contrary, since, as we have already stated, such symptoms may often keep up from the effect of a bad habit (so to speak) the vital prin- ciple has got into. The homoeopathists are probably right in attempting to increase allfirst symptoms, though they do it on principles different from those advocated in this essay. As a general principle, their system has many advantages over the old Allopathic one ; and one obvious one is, that they do not allow themselves to do so much harm as is constantly being done by many practitioners of the old school. 15 exception of bromine and iodine in small quantities) they seldom contain any ingredients that are not found as a necessary part of the saline elements of the human body. They seem natural purgatives. On reviewing the number of medicaments allowed for the practice of medicine on this system, we believe that all are included that have really been found indis- pensable for the cure of disease. We see that sulphur is among them; and this medicine (useful internally for haemorrhoids) approaches probably the nearest to a specific of any, when used externally, for the itch. Mer- cury (after having, no doubt, often much aggravated syphilis, and ruined the constitutions of thousands) has at last been found out to have no specific power over that complaint, or at all events not to be essentially ne- cessary to its cure. The unassisted poAvers of nature, aided by those necessary adjuncts in most diseases, ab- stinence and rest, have been found fully competent to eradicate this long-supposed, without mercury, incurable malady. And without denying the other famed specific, quinine, a power of stopping intermittent fever, we believe that complaint can be got rid of by other prefer- able means. More especially does this remark apply to arsenic, Avhich is not equal to quinine in efficacy, and never would have been used in intermittent fever at all, but from total thoughtlessness on the part of medical men as to the permanent injury such a powerful poison would leave behind in the system. The use of this me- dicine in intermittent fevers Avas as unjustifiable as the use of nitrate of silver (lunar caustic) for the cure of epilepsy. Although there is a gentleman to be seen whose skin has been permanently and irretrievably dis- coloured by the use of this poison, so that looking more like a corpse than a living being, he is rendered unfit for general society, still, we believe that some medical men 16 are still to be found who would not hesitate to give it, as they say, in small doses! as if, Avhen even it leaves no such external disfiguration behind, it does not leave an equally permanent internal, invisible, irremediable one, of its own creation ! Having attempted to lay down a general rule with regard to the use of mineral substances in medicine, it becomes us to state what restriction we would put on the use of vegetable substances. As a general rule these are preferable to mineral substances not component parts of the body. Thus, an emetic of ipecacuanha is preferable to tartar emetic, sulphate of zinc, or sulphate of copper, which three last ought certainly never to have been in- troduced into medicine at all; for what can have been a greater absurdity when vomiting can be produced by tickling the fauces, drinking hot water, or at all events, by a solution of common salt or ipecacuanha, to seek for other means of effecting the same end, and that too by, I had almost said, such murderous means as poisons! Although there is little reason to believe that vegeta- ble medicines can produce such injurious effects on the constitution as mineral substances (not existing as a part of the system), still we shall be on the safest side to use as few of these as possible, which are not found capable of serving as food. A purgative substance exists in spinach, a stomachic one in the hop (lupulin), and an anodyne one in lettuce (extract of lactucarium); and so of some other vegetable substances. Vegetable medi- cines of this class then seem the surest; and there is little doubt if this extensive field is investigated we shall have many more useful discoveries in medicine, than by trying the virtues of such powerful poisons as strychnine) prussic acid, &c. The rule which I should be inclined to lay down in this case would be, to exclude vegetable poisons (except, perhaps, in homoeopathic doses) from the 17 practice of physic, but not other vegetable substances, as senna, &c. &c, but only to prefer those which are de- rived from articles of food. On the principles just alluded to, animal substances and fluids would appear to merit farther attention than has yet been given them. What Avould be the effect, for instance, of small quantities of rennet (pepsin, or the gastric juice, pre- served by salt) in cases of indigestion, that are not allevi- ated by the usual routine of vegetable bitter infusions ? Or Avould it be Arrong to use the rennet or gastric juice of any but of the same species of animal (as we know this is necessary in cases of transfusion of blood) ? Although there is little reason to think the rennet to be beneficial should come from our own species, still it may be as well to attend to this point. As digestion is so essential to life, many cases of debility and marasmus, not being accompanied with precisely any obvious symptom of indigestion, may be benefited by this substance, which, in combination with the means noAV about to be pro- posed, seems the most rational for attempting to extend life to its utmost extent. The other means now alluded to are the transfusion of the blood of one of its full-grown and healthy off- spring, back again to the old parent, at certain intervals, where the parent, as in Cornaro's case, seems on the verge of death from mere loss of vital poAver. Experi- ments that have already been made on this subject sheAv that the blood must be of the same species of animal; and hence I have imagined that a still nearer approxima- tion to absolute identity Avouldbe advisable. Hence, where there is a family, the blood of one of the healthy adults among these should be preferred to the blood of any person not " connected by blood," as it is called. I need not say how desirable it would be that physiologists should try c 18 this experiment on animals first, and see Avhether there is not a re-vitalising power in the blood of the adult off- spring for its aged parent.* If there be any thing approaching the character of an elixir vita in nature, it seems more reasonable to look for it in the blood of the adult and healthy offspring than perhaps to any other source. I do not, however, think that the inspiration of oxygen at the period of old age, has yet had so satisfac- tory a trial as to enable us to pronounce on its merits. The effect of this gas, therefore, should also be tried on aged animals ; for, though fatal to young animals, it does not seem necessarily to folloAV it should be so to the old; at all events, if diluted with common air in various propor- * " On verra," says Mesmer, truly, " que la marche naturelle et in- evitable est de passer de l'etat de fluidite a celui de solidite." (" Deuxieme Memoire sur le Magnetisme," p. 78. Paris, 1844. Edit. Ricard.) We have found Cornaro thinking that the old should diminish their quantity of food. Should they not also take it in a less concentrated and solid form, like infants, to the nature of which, in fact, they tend to approach ? Should they not also combine acid fruits and a proportion of vinegar with it, to tend to prevent this obvious tendency to increased cohesion —to ossification of old age? Experience must decide. This tendency to ossification may, perhaps, be considered the physical cause of death in most old persons, who die without apparent disease. There is in old age, also, a want of reproductive power in the indi- vidual parts of the body, as well as of the body taken as a whole—a3 well, in fact, as in the act of generation. Perhaps, indeed, the loss of this latter power is dependent on this loss of generative or reproductive power in the individual parts. However this be, it is certain that there is a tendency of most parts to shrink or be absorbed, and not be again reproduced, as we advance in age. Thus come on wrinkles in the countenance, shrinking in the size of the limbs, gradual and almost in- sensible decay of the teeth, till at last their decay becomes obvious from loss of colour and'pain. We may watch this very slow effect on the front teeth especially, in which a gradual loss of substance goes on for years before they exhibit the obvious appearance of decay from change of colour. Of course no reproduction here takes place. Is the same not the case with the nerves ? Is not the amaurosis and loss of hearing of old persons dependent often on this loss of substance (and, perhaps, consequent loss of flexibility) in the optic and acoustic nerves? 19 tions: also oxygen water, and solution deutoxyd hydro- gen. Eggs and oysters, as evidently containing a vital principle, may be used as the nutriment in such cases; for from their exciting nature they seem, perhaps, to im- part a certain quantity of this to those Avho use them as food. Whether on similar principles there can be a com- munication of nervous influence, can also only be learned by experiment. Does the optic or frontal nerve of an ani- mal just killed, laid on the upper eyelid, benefit amau- rosis ? Or the spinal marrow of the same, laid or rubbed on the spine of the debilitated old man, give any additional strength ? I put down these suggestions without being- very sanguine as to their results, but yet as appearing worthy of trial. On similar principles the sleeping of the young with the aged is said to prolong the life of the latter ; which, supposing it a fact, is attempted to be accounted for by the mesmerisers on principles of natural magnetism, but vaguely. However, as the phenomena of mesmerism, undoubtedly true, seem to support the possibility of something like a communication of life by contact, aided by manipulations; and since the effect of the vessels of a living animal, in preserving the fluidity of the blood, seems likewise, perhaps, to favour the same doctrine, researches on this question seem worthy of attention. Although I do not believe that human life would be prolonged to any extent by any of the above means, still it is from such experiments that we are to look for the " aurum potabile "—the elixir vita;—as far as it exists, and not to the administration of drugs and minerals. One point that Cornaro has well considered, as far as possible, is regularity in habits. It should be a general rule not to attempt to alter habits at all; but as this cannot be avoided sometimes, it should be a general rule 20 never to attempt such alteration, but in the most gradual manner. The immense effect of habit on the constitu- tion is shewn by persons gradually enabling themselves to take great quantities of some poisons, as opium for in- stance, with impunity. If they had attempted any change of this sort suddenly, they would inevitably have destroyed themselves. There seem to be no such authentic records of persons having become enabled to take great quantities of mineral poisons with impunity, as of vegetable poisons; for the case of Mithridates is probably not sufficiently well attested for modern conclusions to be founded on. Certainly, in the present state of our knoAvledge, no person has yet come to bear with apparent impunity (I say apparent, for no doubt in all these cases the vital principle suffers more or less) the same quantity of arsenic as of opium. This is all in favour of vegetable poisons (as a general principle) being less injurious than mineral ones. Consisting for the most part, as they do, of the elements of the human body, we should naturally expect they might, in small quantities, gradually come to be decomposed, and be wholly assimilated to the animal textures; in which case they would not, like mineral poisons, leave a fixed metallic basis behind, which, as not existing originally in body, would still require to be ejected by the vital processes. And here we may pause a moment to consider how truly wonderful it is that vegetable poisons, consisting as they do solely of the elements of the animal body, should yet be poisons. Look, for instance, at prussic acid, in which hitherto nothing has been discovered which is not a component part of the simplest animal textures, and yet here we have one of the most quickly fatal poisons of any! Supposing our present chemistry right on this point, one conclusion certainly follows, viz. that a dif- 21 ference in the arrangement of the atoms of matter is per- fectly equivalent to a difference in its original nature, a conclusion arrived at in my experimental inquiry into Liebig's Views on Fermentation {[Lancet, 1842). There it is shewn that the principle applied as to common chemistry—as to the solubility of a substance in a fluid menstruum. It was then naturally to be expected that it would apply also to vital actions, and that the vital principle Avould be affected by peculiarities of the feeblest kind, on account of its presumed great sensibility. Nothing can shew that this is the case more clearly than that the elements of food arranged differently become poisons. It is usual to call oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, and nitrogen, the food of animals and plants ; but the above reflections would justify in saying that these elements, united only in a particular manner, can be regarded in the light of food. In fact we might have arrived at this conclusion from considering that excrementitious matters of animals seem still principally to consist of the above elements; yet, of course, are not susceptible of assimilation. Another reflection that at once leads to the importance of the peculiar manner in which the elements of food should be combined is, that nothing as yet has been found to serve as food to any extent, except animal or vegetable textures, or that which has been formed in a peculiar manner, as yet unknown to common chemistry. This consideration, and the fact that animals all throw off excrementitious matter, and vegetables to some slight extent, since they give off carbonic acid gas,* would almost lead us to conceive that oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, and azote, contain in their uncombined state, or combined * The opinion that they throw off excrementitious matter by the roots, seems to have been rejected shortly after it was proposed. 22 in any way in which they cannot be used as food, some unknown noxious principles, which must be separated before they can be converted into the animal textures — before they can serve as food. It does not seem impossible in a more advanced state of chemistry that important discoveries should be made on this point. These reflections bring us to consider that at some future period the artificial formation of food may not be a mere chimera. We have heard, even at the present day, of fine sawdust, after having been made to undergo fermentation, being formed into a species of bread. It does not seem, therefore, impossible that other organic combinations (now rejected as useless) might also, by means of fermentation, be so purified (if the expression may be allowed) as to become palatable, at least for the poorest classes. Nay, it seems not impossible that some decidedly inorganic matters, as silica, might, under cer- tain treatment, become nutritious. Silica, in the form of jelly (as precipitated from silicate of potass by an acid), might be tried, mixed in proportions, gradually increas- ing in young animals, with milk, or in adult animals with their usual food. If it served as nourishment, Dr. Brown's opinion as to its convertibility into carbon would certainly gain strength. If the gelatinous silicate seemed to injure the animals, possibly the use of a fer- ment mixed with it might tend to alter the arrangement of particles, and render it nutritive. Similar experiments might be tried with carbonate of lime (a large constituent of animal bodies), though neither in this case nor in that of silica does it seem probable that a ferment would be able to change the nature of the substance. Carbonate of lime should be tried with the phosphate, ammoniaco- magnesian phosphate, or some other substance; as alone its astringent properties might altogether injure the 23 health, by stopping the action of the bowels. However, there seems little reason to believe that chalk could really be made nutritive, except some great changes could be effected in its nature, similar to fermentation. I say similar to fermentation, because a curious fact seems to have been discovered by Boussingault, viz. that if a little butter be mixed Avith rice, and given to animals as food, it will create a great deal of fat, but rice alone will pro- duce no fat.* Now here some mysterious principle seems to be in operation, — something analogous to fer- mentation, by which a small portion of a substance placed in particular circumstances becomes capable of producing its like, for butter and fat may probably be considered as identical, or nearly so. It will be curious, should it ultimately appear that there is a species of what may be called organic fermentation, that is capable of pervading the very living and organised tissues them- selves. But the application of this fact to the production of anything analogous in gelatinous silica or chalk seems very doubtful, seeing that rice is an organised substance, or at least a product actually formed by organic secretion, and not merely deposited in consequence of having been taken from without, as, according to the present state of chemistry, is the case when silica or carbonate of lime form part of the body. However, Boussingault has still more lately found that the ammoniaco-magnesian phos- phate hastens the growth of vegetables, so that the effect of gelatinous silica may be tried also on these. If silica ever can be decomposed (I mean still further than into silicon and oxygen), it seems probable it will be by pre- senting it in the gelatinous form to the animal or veget- able vital processes; since we have already seen, by the example of prussic acid, that mode of arrangement has * Compt. rendus Acad. Sciences, 1845. 24 quite as much to do with rendering a substance nutritive as composition itself, and silica in the gelatinous state is differently arranged (if a simple substance can be so) from what it is as mere silica powder. We have already observed that the only mineral sub- stances we would employ in medicine are those which form part of the body in its healthy condition ; and we have also added in regard to proportions, and only in the proportion in which they exist in the body. This rule, hoAvever, is more worthy, generally speaking, of rigid observance, when we consider the elements of the com- ponent parts of the body than substances formed from these elements; of sulphuric, and phosphoric, and fluoric acids, for instance, than of sulphate, or phosphate, or fluate of lime or soda ; and still more so of sulphur, and phosphorus, and fluorine—the elements. I say, generally speaking, because / do not wish to exclude experience as our best guide in such cases; and we know that sulphur seems to pass off more innocuous from the system than sulphuric acid in the same doses. This, however, is not probably the case with phosphorus and fluorine, which are probably more violent poisons than their acids. In this particular case the general rule probably is, that all these simples, as well as their acids, require some neutral- isation, as a qualification to enable us to give them (except in homoeopathic doses) with impunity. Thus sulphate, phosphate, or, perhaps, even fluate of soda, are harmless purgatives, while the acids and radicals are poisons; except the radical sulphur. It will appear from this that we do not exclude those poisons from our system which form a component part of the human body in its healthy state; on the contrary, we recommend the trial in infinitesimal doses (at first) of phosphorus, fluorine, fluoric acid, deutoxyd hydrogen (taken immediately before decomposition commences), 25 cyanogen (which seems to exist as such in the human body), solid or in solution. Carbon itself is already used by the homoeopathists; and ammonia (hydrogen and nitrogen), more particularly useful as smelling-salts, or for external application, is also taken internally. I know that, on looking over the above list, it may be said we do not exclude some of the most powerful poisons from our system; and that in recommending the trial of the effects of cyanogen, Ave are approaching to prussic acid. I grant it; and admit that while prussic acid and the vegetable poisons should only be used in desperate cases and in homoeopathic doses, I certainly would banish arsenic, copper, silver, &c. from the prac- tice of physic even in such doses, because they are elements which do not exist in the human body naturally, Avhereas all the elements of prussic acid do exist there. AN EPITOME OF M. RASPAIL'S NEW SYSTEM OE MEDICINE, (EVERT MAN HIS OWN PHYSICIAN,) INTERSPERSED WITH COMMENTARIES. " Ridentem dicere verum, Quid vetat ?"— Hob. We have heard of embalming after man's death, When for ever has left him the vital breath. Thus the dead man is kept, no doubt, from decay, And aU sorts of vermin chased from him away; But here in this book of Raspail you will read, That during our life of embalming we've need; That insects assail us within and without; That from these come all ills—both Fevers and Gout; That Camphor and Aloes—these only can save us, And keep that life sound which great Nature gave us. * * » * * We know some love smoking—smoke half the day ; To all our great smokers here then we say,—■ Adopt this new plan, smoke too all the night Your camphor cigar, which ne'er wanteth a light! Thus by you, in your life, no worms will be fed— Quite enough to be eaten by them when you're dead! Author's MSS. AN EPITOME OF M. RASPAIL'S NEW SYSTEM, ire. &fc. INTRODUCTION. The distinguished philosopher F. V. Raspail has written two Avorks on the present subject—a large one in two volumes, and a small pamphlet, which latter, in particular, has had a most extensive circulation, having passed through sixteen editions. The first work is not only filled with details in natural history, but also con- tains proofs that a vast number of diseases, both internal and external, have arisen from the ova of insects or from the presence of acari. In reference to these large volumes, the author of the present work begs to say he has only quoted the parts that relate expressly to medicine, and which contain proofs of the correctness of M. Raspail's theoretical views. He has considered this will be a useful addition to his small work above alluded to, in Avhich, for the most part, no proofs are given that diseases have arisen from " ani- mate contagions," as Dr. Neale some time ago called them. The author has considered, that if people are to be their own physicians they will require, at least, some 30 evidence that Raspail's opinion is based on facts. Such facts, therefore, we have selected from his large work and given in addition to the leading points of his small work, which is little more than a list of the medicines M. Raspail uses, with the modes of preparing them. It is hoped the English philosophical as well as general reader will, therefore, find all in the present work necessary to convert him to RaspaiVs opinion, and also all that is necessary to enable him to prepare the medicines himself. The original large work of Raspail will be read with interest, more particularly by naturalists, being filled as it is with classifications and entomological de- tails, which the great mass of medical men have not time, and often not inclination to follow. It will also be read with interest by the general scientific reader, since every one is interested in the preservation of his health; and there are in various parts touches of exquisite irony, not unworthy the country of Pascal and of Moliere. In a work in every way original, errors of opinion Avere to be expected. The author leaves for naturalists to decide, as we shall see hereafter Raspail attempts to prove, whether Mr. Owen has in his discovery of the trichina spiralis discovered (unknown to himself, so to speak) the eggs of the lombricus, and also, whether hy- datids are really the eggs of the tape-worm, as Raspail considers. There seems in these cases some difficulty in conceiving how such large worms could have got into the muscles and interior of all parts of the body without leaving any traces behind; and the theory of the re- spiration of ova in these cases is beset with many diffi- culties. Yet it is upon these views, as causes of disease, that a great part of Raspail's system is founded. This question of abstruse physiology, therefore, now becomes a question of great practical importance. Hydatids, in particular, have hitherto been generally considered only 31 effects of disease, and physicians have consequently, in such cases, rather aimed at bringing the vital action round to its healthy condition by the use of medicines calculated to correct the state of the digestive and assimi- lative functions, than at destroying the vitality of these now called ova. The author must, therefore, in the present state of this inquiry, consider that Raspail has too hastily almost expunged digestive medicines (car- bonate of soda and bitter infusions) from his system—the secret of Abernethy's success; and also in other cases (which will be found commented on as we proceed) that he carries his doctrine of worms and their ova being the cause of disease too far. Caries of the bones, gout, dia- betes, are, according to him, diseases arising from acari, or worms ; and if we ask why, Ave shall be answered by implication, because he has given Avell-authenticated cases where acari seem to have been the cause of dysentery, &c. (for we must admit he has given cases of many diseases existing contemporaneously with acari and worms). In like way, because he has discovered the acarus which causes the itch, he puts down almost all cutaneous dis- eases to an animate cause. In consequence of having perceived this, we have in the following essay commented with freedom on the opi- nions and facts brought forward by the distinguished republican author (the man, too, who has suffered mar- tyrdom for his political views), and our good opinion of his work is not much diminished by our being often obliged to differ from him; for if he has carried his doc- trines a little too far, physicians hitherto have been far more culpable in almost entirely neglecting these ani- mate causes of disease. Raspail well deserved the Mon- tyon prize of 10,000 frs., which was adjudged to him for the present work; and though we do not consider he has proved this animate cause of disease in many cases 32 he has put down, yet he has rendered it probable by ana- logical reasoning, particularly in the case of all cutaneous diseases ; sufficiently so, at all events, for us to follow his plan of cure as a general principle. The almost only al- teration in any case that we should be inclined to make in it would be to attend a little more to the digestive organs, giving less aloes for the rectum's sake, and more carbonate of soda and bitter infusions " for the stomach's sake;" for whenever he uses bitters it seems to be always for the worms' sake, be they proved to exist there or not. Even supposing hydatids, &c. are only effects (of some mysterious modification of the vital power by disease), still our object certainly should be to try and destroy their vitality in some degree, though not in so marked a degree as if they were demonstrated causes. We have, therefore, throughout this essay, objected to Raspail's system, in the present state of our knowledge, rather as an error of quantity than of quality. The reader will thus be in a position to judge, after pe- rusing the present publication, whether he thinks it advisable that Raspail's plan should be followed out to the full extent he recommends, or only adopted with the restrictions herein suggested. Cases of cure speak best for themselves. We have, therefore, carefully selected from his works the most striking cases of success; and among these will be found cases where his " eau sedative " has supplied the place sometimes of leeches, sometimes of bleeding, and some- times of blisters, the use of all which he condemns. Brought up as we were in the antiphlogistic school, we confess we have read these cases with much interest, tending as they do to shew that the stimulating line of practice is often more rapidly successful than the plan precisely opposite, and in which alone we have hitherto 33 placed confidence. Such is the effect of education and experience on the mind! We have, however, learned by Raspail's book, that even experience has its errors; that there is a short and strengthening way, and a long and debilitating way, of getting rid of diseases ; and that we have hitherto believed but in the latter alone! We must noAV, however, confess our opinions are changed. The candour with which his cases are given entitles them to our full confidence. We have, indeed, left the doubtful and unsatisfactory cases out of our selection; for as medicines cannot renew old or worn-out organs, such cases must occur whatever line of practice we adopt. But the simplicity with Avhich these are given in the original work, sheAvs that Raspail's only object has been the discovery and propagation of truth. Not taking any fees for his attendance (having no diploma), he has not the motives which many have for giving an ex-parte statement. Had he wished to have done so, he would have left out many cases he has inserted. But adopting Raspail's views as to the animate origin of the greater part, if not nine-tenths, of our diseases, as he says, there is another point Avhich we should alter in regard to his preventive and curative measures. We allude to a more general adoption—when aperients or remedies for indigestion are necessary—of saline medi- cines. It Avill be seen above that carbonate of soda is recommended, along with bitters, Avhen the stomach is out of order. Now the carbonate of soda in this case may not only act as a preventive of flatulence, but also, by entering the circulation, as a corrective of the state of the blood, when such salt exists in it in diminished pro- portion, or Avhen from other causes its colour is a little darkened. On the same principle we should prefer the use of Seidlitz poAvders, sulphate or phosphate of soda, or an enema of common salt, when purgatives are required; D 34 since by such means we offer a chance for these salts to be absorbed and mixed with the blood, which we have reason to believe in many cases is defective in the quantity of its saline matter, as it it has been proved to be—as will be seen in the body of this Avork—in the case of cholera. At the same place it will also be rendered probable, that such deficiency in the quantity of saline matter may also be a principal cause of a great many other diseases,—in fact, all those that have an animate origin. We cannot, therefore, too strongly recommend that experiments should be made to ascertain whether in cases of worms the quantity of saline matter in the blood is not diminished. And in the present state of our knowledge, as such point seems highly probable, we would rather, for our own part, take a little less aloes and camphor, and a little more saline medicine as pre- ventives of worms, than what Raspail recommends. We say as preventives, because there is reason to believe that animated ova, of whatever description, cannot come to maturity in a body sufficiently impregnated with saline matters. We would not, indeed, say they could either, when our fluids were thoroughly impregnated with camphor (for, like salines, camphor preserves from putre- faction) ; but then it is to be remembered, that salines —muriates, sulphates, phosphates, and carbonates* — are natural constituents of the blood and living body generally, which is not the case with camphor; and, for Avhat we know, heterogeneous substances—substances not naturally found in the body, may always exert more or less deleterious influence, when taken so habitually as Raspail recommends. Aloes are used rather for the expulsion of worms come to maturity, than pre- * The quantity of iron in the blood seems less liable to variation than that of saline matter; but when found defective, a few grains of sulphate of iron may be put in the water we drink at table. 35 venting their developement; and, therefore, there is no objection to an occasional use of this, of powder of fern-root, &c. (once every three or four months), in case of illness, to see if the disease have its origin in worms. It is singular that Raspail did not suggest this system himself, since Ave shall see, by the following passage, he was as near it as Professor Robinson (to compare small things with great) Avas to that immortal discovery which was reserved for Volta! Under the head Goitre (vol. ii. p. 502), he says this disease seems to arise from some parasitic animate cause that forms the tumour (he has not, however, yet discovered any such presumed acarus, or worm). But proceeding to the part immediately to our purpose, viz. the treatment, he says, " The end of the physician in this disease is, to impregnate the tissues with the salts which are in deficiency, and in consequence of which deficiency the parasitic author of this work is enabled to live there." In consequence, in this disease he recommends a mixture of common salt and sulphate of iron to be taken inter- nally, and also alternated with eau sedative applied around the neck.* AVhether there is a deficiency in iron and salt in the blood in this disease is a subject worth inquiry, and if there be, his plan of treatment is highly rational. Why, therefore, we may ask, has he not recommended the same in cases where parasitic life has been proved to exist, as in cases of intestinal worms, hydatids, &c. ? Or in all those nine-tenths of diseases which he conceives to arise from such causes, or, * On looking at the article Goitre in the " Med. Soi-meme " (p. 192), we see that the internal use of salt and iron is not mentioned. On what grounds, therefore, he has insinuated in his large work that these are defective in the blood of such patients, we do not know. Be he right or wrong in this case, the bearing of the observations in the text is not affected. 36 at least, that large part which arises from acari, or the undeveloped ova of ascarides ? We can only ascribe this to an oversight, and believe that he would, were the subject broached to him, recom- mend a careful analysis of the saline matters of the blood in all diseases ; and the administration of iron and saline matters in all cases Avhere a deficiency of these was proved to exist. The fatal result of many cases where the injection of saline matters into the blood in cholera was tried, shews that we ought never by such violent measures to attempt to cure diseases arising from a deficiency of these mat- ters in the system; for, setting aside the danger from inflammation of the veins (an important consideration), to attempt to increase salts in the body by such in- jections is beginning at the wrong end, and thus is sure to excite and harass (so to speak) the vital principle, which is ahvays accustomed to select the proper quantity of salt necessary for health from our food, and to force it to pass by the way of the lacteals or absorbents only into the blood. Hence salines should be administered by way of injection, or by the stomach ; and in extreme cases, given in strong camphor-water, or along with the powerful vegetable condiments or anthelmintics recom- mended by Raspail. The propriety of attempting in this way to keep the composition of the body always the same as it is in health, cannot be too strongly insisted on. In every disease there must be more or less change in the chemical com- position of the body,—sometimes in regard to its saline constituents, sometimes in regard to its elementary atoms; and the great object of the physician should be to dis- cover and remedy this cause of derangement, since the latest chemical researches prove that the chemical poAvers of the vital principle are far more limited than might 37 have been inferred from Dr. Prout's paper in the " Phi- losophical Transactions" for 1822, and other previous works of various authors. If the proper materials are not presented to the vital principle by way of food (and in some diseases it may require more azote, in others more sulphur, in others more phosphorus, &c), as it cannot form these so-called elements, the body must necessarily become diseased. It is, therefore, to be hoped that organic chemistry will henceforth be made essential to medical practice, which, to be based on scientific princi- ples, requires not only the blood, urine, &c, to be analysed, but also the food itself. It seems highly probable that if there were no fault in the composition of the body, hydatids or worms could neArer prey upon us—at all events so as to injure our health or longevity; for otherwise Ave should haAre been made in vain, Avhich is inconsistent with Avhat we see. All animals (and man among them) are so formed, that by following the system of diet which Nature points out to them, they are able to attain to old age, at which they die only from a loss of power in the A'ital principle. Nature herself indicates the use of salt, of condiments, and, per- haps, to a certain extent, alcoholic liquors. Now these may be called Raspail's natural anthelmintics. We must therefore repeat, that unless disease has actually ap- peared, the habitual use of camphor and aloes seems to be a Avork of supererogation not to be recommended, since they are not constituents of the body in a state of health. Let us not give any reason for inscribing on our tomb- stones, "I was well, I wanted to be better for fear of the worms, and now here I am!"— come, in fact, to them before his time. Camphor and aloes, are, no doubt, very slow poisons; but it is as well not to run even the chances of having five or ten years cut off from our lives when there is no necessity for it. That the reader 38 may perceive this opinion of the camphor system carried to the full extent recommended by Raspail, even to persons in health, is not too severe, it is to be remembered that Raspail smokes camphor all day (sometimes, per- haps, all night), that he always sleeps with a quantity of it under his bed, and that he has taken fifteen grains (!) a-day for the last five years, and a dose of aloes almost every week; and all this to prevent disease. Could he, we might ask, do much more if it were there, and he wanted to cure it ? His opinion of our taking in the eggs of ascarides by respiration deserves consideration. Spallanzani and other naturalists have conceived that the eggs of animalcules, or animalcules themselves, float about in a dry state in the air, and are developed when they fall into a suitable nidus. On this theory the air may be said to be full of life, and it may be asked, May not the eggs of the in- fusoria be useful in supporting our vitality ? May they not be taken in by respiration, and fixed in the tissues as organic globules, and thus made part of the living body, and never in such case pass into the state of animalcules with independent voluntary motion ? Though the eggs of ascarides be deleterious to our life, the eggs of animalcules, or dried animalcules themselves, which come to life on being moistened, may not be so. To throw light on these questions experiments are Avanted, on the effect of air which has been left some time in contact with strong sulphuric acid, or caustic potass solution, on the life of the lower animals ; these might be confined in portions of such air for some days together. If the animals did not live, it might reasonably be pre- sumed that the vitality of the organic matters in the air was necessary to our life. Hence the smoking of camphor with the idea of destroying such vitality would not ap- pear in such event a plan to be recommended. But the experiment is yet to be made. SECTION I. ORIGIN OF DISEASES. Raspail admits but a material origin of all diseases, or of by far the greater portion. Such material causes he divides into two classes: 1. Inorganic; and, 2. Or- ganic, or Animate; in each case the causes in question being, generally speaking, too minute to be discerned by the naked eye. Inorganic Causes.—Let us consider these first. Some irritant, says he, is taken in with our food* which causes gastritis (inflammation of the stomach), or enteritis (in- flammation of the intestines) ; if taken in by respiration, either catarrh, asthma, croup, inflammation of the lungs, or pleura, or consumption (phthisis). If the same irri- tant be carried to the liver, heart, kidneys, we shall have diseases of these organs. He thinks palsy and sciatica arise from similar irritants conveyed and lodged in particular nerves; that diseases of the uterus and vagina often arise from such mechanical irritants carried there by the air.f * " Histoire Naturelle de la Sante et de la Maladie," torn. i. p. 230, Paris, 1845. I purposely have begun my commentary at this part of the work, as being the commencement of the practical portion of it. t Raspail rather directs the attention of physicians to such in- organic causes, than details cases. No doubt fine metallic particles, &c. floating in the air have caused many diseases, as the pulmonic diseases of people employed in large cutleries, &c, shew. 40 Organic Causes. — These he divides into two classes: 1. Those that cause diseases only by germination or developement; 2. Those which disorganise the tissues by reproducing themselves. In the subsequent chapters he brings forward evidence to shew that the first division of these organic causes has occasionally produced diseases; and hence he fairly enough infers they may have caused many more, if a careful attention to the study of causes had been given. At p. 235, he quotes a case to shew that a grain of barley has germinated in the stomach, and caused fever and frequent retchings, the cause of which remained mistaken, till the barley, in a state of germina- tion, was dislodged from the coats of the stomach, into Avhich it is presumed to have penetrated. In like man- ner, a tumour of the nose of a child was supposed to arise from a polypus, till a pea which had germinated in the nose was extracted. Another case is given where intense pains of the right side of the head arose from a bean, Avhich had remained in the ear many years unknown to the patient; and at p. 366 another similar case is given, which was cured when numbers of worms, like the mites of cheese, were driven out by injecting goat's milk. But it is to the second division of organic causes, " which act not only by their developement, but also by the mechanical and destructive action of their nutrition" (p. 337), that wre are especially to look for the full developement of Raspail's theory, illustrated by nu- merous drawings of such acari, and—what is of more importance for his argument—exemplified by cases Avhere constitutional diseases have actually existed at the precise period such acari were detected, either boring into the skin and causing cutaneous diseases, or ejected amidst the excrements at the time the patient was very ill ivith dysentery (p. 367). We will take this case first, as it so 41 stands in the author's work, before proceeding to his remarks on the acari, &c, producing other diseases. The patient, in this case, being a naturalist, discovered by severe scrutiny in his faeces thousands of the acari of flour. On further inquiry as to their origin, he disco- vered that the wood pitcher (cruche) with Avater in which the patient used to moisten his mouth during the night had a crack in it, and in this crack he detected myriads of these acari, which, says Raspail, no doubt left this crack during the night to get into the sick man's mouth and elsewhere, and returned again at day to their hiding- place. It was found by experiment that these acari perished immediately in spirits of wine, or the juice of rhubarb, and it was by rhubarb chiefly that the cure of the dysentery was effected. The acari in question, says Raspail, like those of decayed cheese, are capable of living in heated flour; and, as we have seen, can live in the intestines in conse- quence of their tenacity of life. They live in the join- ings of old furniture, and in houses old or dirty, old wax, collections of dried plants or animals, in ill-conditioned ulcers, and wherever the fermentation caseique can deve- lope itself. Hence it would appear right that the join- ings of all old bedsteads should be well examined not only on account of bugs, but also of these acari; and, no doubt, it is chiefly to prevent the entrance of these into the mouth or nostrils, that Raspail uses his cigarette of camphor during the night, Avhen, as we have observed, they generally begin to move about.* * This acarus is white, and covered over with hairs or bristles (see Raspail's second plate, Nos. 13 and 14). It is certainly much like Mr. Cross's acarus. Raspail, however, says that the acarus in question lays eggs even under the miscroscope (p. 365). Now the mode of propagation of Mr. Cross's acarus is certainly by divisiort, just as Spallanzani tells us is the case with most animalcules. In specimens kindly forwarded me 42 It has been long known that the oestrus ovis (Lin.) lays her eggs in the nostrils of sheep. Raspail quotes from Razoux a case of violent pains in the head, arising from the presence of seventy-two of these same worms, in the nasal fossae of a woman, which are so common in sheep. The pains left her as soon as these worms were discharged. The woman had gained these worms by drinking largely at a muddy pond (" en s'abreuvant a une mare d'eau bourbeuse"), where sheep were accus- tomed to drink (vol. ii. p. 50). Farther on we have a case of large tumour of the hip, from which, when open, 4000 worms (some large, others small and long) were discharged alive,—probably, says Raspail, the larvae of the same species as the last. By sleeping, says Raspail, near where sheep or horses are in the fields in the day-time, we expose ourselves to the visits of this same oestrus, which can live in any part of the intestinal canal or nasal fossae. If a person so circumstanced were to die from the effects of the larvae, dissection might never discover the cause of the disease, for these larvae only seek living bodies, and hence might have been discharged with the faeces previous to death, or been decomposed and killed themselves by the putrid fermentation or fever they had caused in this same human subject. Another case is given where a polypus of the uterus which required extirpation seems to have arisen from an cestrus having deposited her ova there (p. 50). Clot by that well-known philosopher and surgeon, Mr. Weekes, which I kept many days, I observed one slowly day after day to become larger, and at last a division appeared in its centre, which gradually contracted, till at last two insects arose from one. I invite naturalists to a more careful study of the mode of propagation of the acarus of cheese and flour, Bince some persons seem to have considered this identical with Mr. Cross's acarus. 43 Bey, in his work on Egypt, says that Egyptian women are far less liable to Scoulements and uterine diseases generally than European women, which he ascribes to the more frequent use in Egypt among the women of muslin draAvers, whereby so free an access of the external air is prevented. He only looked to the difference of temperature of the air from the human body as the cause of disease : on Raspail's views we may recommend Clot Bey's preventive also on other grounds. At pp. 58 and 59, we haATe cases where the larvae of flies Avere voided with the urine; from the nose of a woman, in 1818, to the number of 1300, who had slept out in the fields, and whom, probably, the fly had mistaken for a corpse; from a tumour, when opened, in the limb of a lady, Avhich had SAvelled to a monstrous size; from all parts of the skin of a young man, the substance of the left eye having been quite devoured by them, and also large places in the ham (jarret) and anus. In this last case the patient died and not a worm was found in the intestines. In 1826 a similar case occurred in Paris, in consequence of the patient having lived much in a ditch. In this case they " escaped by dozens from the nose, ears, and eyes!!" Lastly, he mentions a cage where one has been found in the brain producing mad- ness,—a cause of madness in horses, says Raspail, well known to veterinary surgeons (p. 60). In tAvo of the above cases the patient may be lite- rally said, like Herod, to have been eaten up with worms. I may here observe that Dr. Paris states in his " Phar- macologia" that formerly in Holland the punishment of death used to be inflicted by a total abstinence from salt, —i. e. not an atom of salt was alloAved to enter eA'en into the composition of the bread, or any other article of food, allowed to such culprits. The consequence, it is stated, was that death arose in such cases from the presence of 44 worms in all parts of the body, the criminal being lite- rally devoured by them. Regarding this fact in its most common-place light, we may conclude that insects would far oftener deposit their ova in the living human subject were it not for the presence of salt — a necessary constituent of the blood and muscular fibre, and at the same time a powerful anthelmintic. As, however, a great excess of salt is as deleterious as its total absence, and many diseases probably act by diminishing its quan- tity,* and thus favouring the developement of the ova of insects, we have an indirect argument in favour of Ras- pail's views, viz. that it is advisable to employ camphor, aloes, and other anthelmintics (so to call them), as pre- ventives of diseases. These same views would, hoAveArer, also tend to make us employ saline purgatives a little oftener than Raspail suggests (phosphate or sulphate of soda), as these salts may often be in diminished quantity in the blood. We now come to the section on pediculi (lice). Un- der this we ha\Te evidence from the following case (op. cit. p. 81) that these vermin can live in the intestines of the human subject, for a man having swallowed seA'en or nine, by the advice of a quack to cure jaundice, was seized soon after with violent appetite and marasmus. On opening his body a tumour full of them was found communicating with the intestines. Raspail conceives that the plica Polonica—a disease in which the hair is matted together in a disgusting way—arises from the ra- vages of lice, as they always appear to accompany it; also a cutaneous disease on the heads of children, sometimes * In an analysis I made of human blood during the cholera I, like other chemists, found an almost total absence of salt—the chief cause of its very dark colour in such disease. This defect in the quantity of saline matter probably depended on the salts of the blood passing off with the copious serous dejections. 45 resembling impetigo, and sometimes rupia. A case 19 also given when the patient had lice boring out of all parts of his body; and then we have the well-knoAvn pedicular disease, where the patient is covered over with lice in the subcutaneous tissue, a disease which, singularly enough, seems as aristocratic as the gout, having killed Sylla, Philip II. of Spain, and some other great person- ages. He gives cases where tumours have been opened and found full of lice to shew that these subcutaneous lice do occasionally penetrate deeper into the body (p. 88). From pp. 130 to 137 we have cases of convulsion produced by a caterpillar thrown up by vomiting; of disease of the liver, in which, after death, a caterpillar was found alive, having produced a schirrus of part of that organ; of vomitings produced by the presence of other anomalous worms (the larvae of a black beetle); two other cases of vomiting from the presence of cater- pillars ; a case where violent pains in the head of a child arose from the presence of a species of caterpillar in the brain (the insect being found there after death), and apparently introduced there by the child smelling a rose. Farther on we have cases where convulsions have arisen from the presence of leeches, introduced into the stomach by drinking copiously of impure water in the fields. But it is not till we have arrived at p. 143 (vol. ii.) that Ave come to the most interesting and im- portant part of the work in a medical point of view, viz. on the presence of ascarides and other worms peculiar to living bodies. In regard to the organ of generation of these worms, he observes, that it constitutes the greater part of the length of the worm (which length is ordinarily from a quarter to half an inch, like a piece of white thread). 46 He estimates the number of eggs in each worm at above 3000. (P. 147.) He opposes the commonly received opinion that this worm lives in the excrements. He says it perishes Avhen plunged there, or in warm or cold water. Being colour- less, says he, it cannot live on the excrements, or it would gain something of their colour. It lives, says he, like a leech attached to the walls of the intestines, and is found only in the faeces in consequences of expulsion by an- thelmintics. It is hermaphrodite, for he has never seen one without ovaries and eggs; but, nevertheless, accouple- ment is necessary for generation, the same worm at times acting the part of male or female. It is oviparous, and generally lays its eggs in the living body, at the surface to which it is attached; but in seasons of despair when expelled from the body, &c. in other places; and these eggs, which are almost an invisible powder, may, in such cases, mount from our utensils or linen, &c. &c. into the air, and thus again enter our system by respiration, and in this way be the unknown cause of almost all the diseases flesh is heir to, and which he enumerates at p. 156 ; this worm, he tells us farther on, being rather than any other the ver rongeur of man. He considers the itching of the nose as a sign of the presence of ascarides in the nasal fossae oftener than in the rectum (at p. 167, he quotes authors who have found at least lombrici there). Redi, he says, found them in the lungs of one female hedgehog, and in the bronchiae and trachea of two others, also in foxes, &c. Bremser and Scharf have seen ascarides in the vagina a cause of nymphomania ; Benedetti found them between the walls of the uterus and placenta in a woman who died pregnant; and Raspail himself has seen them in the genital organs of a child two years old, having got 47 there from the anus. Creeping up in this way, says he, they may sometimes cause fleurs blanches, and diseases of the uterus ; or if they pass into the peritoneum, dropsy or inflammation in the bowels, the cause of such diseases and numerous others remaining undiscovered ; for, be it remembered, says he, they are not visible for some time after their escape from the egg, and the original authors of the disease may have perished before the patient they killed. Singularly enough, catalepsy itself has been traced to this cause by Dr. Kuhn in a child six years old; for, after voiding 200 ascarides with his urine, the child re- covered. (P. 171.) It is all in favour of his theory, that the ova may occasionally be taken in by respiration, particularly in cases where the patient can never go to the water-closet, and, consequently, where a night-stool is used, that in such cases the worms, escaping from the faeces, may deposit their eggs on the stool, chair, bed-clothes, &c. Now, be it remembered, says he, that such eggs may be taken up by the air, that they do not want the incubation of the mother to render them prolific, and also that they may remain so and survive her. Here, then, says he, have we a new origin for an epidemic contagion, for typhus itself in its worst form. (P. 175.) We have already observed that ascarides do not lay their eggs in the faeces, except in cases of despair. He was neA'er able to discover the eggs there; and he says (p. 176) that he has discovered them in his own expec- toration, a confirmation, if it be true, of his theory, that they float about in the air, for this is more probable than that ascarides themselves were present in his lungs. We now come to the second class of worms, the " lombric," a worm a good deal larger than the one last described. On this subject Raspail thinks he has made 48 the discovery, that this worm deposits its ova often on the surface of the muscles; and that what Mr. OAven considered a new species and called trichina spiralis (having discovered numbers of them in dissecting the muscles of the arm), is really only a little " lombric," coiled up spirally on its sac or egg. The lombric, says he, propagates by eggs, but it does not lay them in the excrements : Owen's discovery has taught us one of the places where it deposits them. Redi says he had pre- viously found the same little spiral worm in its egg on the abdominal muscles of an African lizard, and also in the lungs of a fox and other animals. (Pp. 180, 181.) The bitterness of the bile generally stops these worms; but Raspail himself has seen one (p. 182) thrown out from the nose, having mounted up behind the palate from the stomach. It might just as easily, says he, have passed into the trachea or eustachian tube. He pretty clearly makes out that these worms, in many cases, actually perforate the intestines. LeuAven- hcek had always found them strongly attached to the intestines in living animals; and Dr. Leban met Avith a woman who had a tumour above the fallopian ligament, which opened of itself, and a worm of the size of the little finger " et long de sept pouces," came out, but nothing like faecal matter followed. She found herself better, but it was not till three others had passed out of the same opening that the wound healed completely. Other cases of tumours in different parts from the same worms are quoted,* in which, like the above, no faces followed from the opening made by the worm. Consequently, says he, the intestine itself was sound previous to the worms passage and the worm made the opening, as it did not arise from previous disease of the gut. It must be confessed this * See also six cases (p. 184) complicated with disease of the intestines. 49 is much better reasoning than Ave are accustomed to in medical Avorks, and is as nearly proof as possible that these worms can actually perforate the living intestines. Proceeding in the same line of argument, he shews how invagination of the intestines and consequent mortification and rejection by stool of such false or rather true membrane may occasionally arise from these worms sucking, like a leech, at two distant portions of the gut. From the same Avorms may hence, also, at times, arise vomiting of faecal matter, and death from the knotting of the intestines. Further on Ave have cases where these worms have actually been found in the lungs, womb, bladder, kidneys (of dogs as well as men), pericardium, heart, blood- vessels (in these latter causing false membranes, and consequent aneurisms), in the stomach (causing the " globus hystericus" from their rising into the throat), &c. &c. (Pp. 190-202). In his first volume, p. 389, et seq., he proves that the itch arises from the presence of a microscopic acarus, of which he has given figures; and he thinks small- pox, measles, scarlatina, and venereal diseases arise from an animate cause, the insect as yet undetermined.* In the present place (vol. ii. p. 206) he attempts to shew that the cutaneous diseases, leprosy and rupia, arise from the presence of the next genus of worms we are to consider, viz. the (filaria) " filaire;" a thin cylindrical worm of great length, and of which the greater number can live in water or humid earth. * Vol. ii. pp. 312-326 ; also hydrophobia {idem, p. 347) from the pre- sence of a worm, lytta, at the frsenum lingua?. Ambrose Pare says garlic (or onions), with bread and wine, have, in his practice, cured this disease ; so have strong vinegar vapours, or vinegar internally, infused on gentian, in Hervet's practice. Now these, says Raspail, are anthel- mintics. E 50 He thinks this worm, like the preceding, is intro- duced into the body by means of eggs taken in Avith our food or drink, or by respiration; for the skin never offers any sign of perforation until the worm perforates it to come out. He attempts to support this opinion, from having in a chicken Avhich he dissected actually found the ova of this worm in the subcutaneous tissue (p. 208). HoAvever, as he could not produce the worm from these ova, and as the wound by which the worm gets into the skin may heal up, this point is open for future inquiry. The presence of these worms seems common in the eyes of the Negresses in St. Domingo; and they some- times pierce the conjunctiva to escape (p. 209). Of course they must sometimes produce blindness. In this country cases of Avorms in the eye have occasionally oc- curred, one of which will be found in the London Med. Chir. Transactions. He conceives that the "filaire" is frequently taken in Avith the water we drink, and causes a long list of dis- eases, and even caries of the bones, as the Romans con- ceived (p. 213). There is a carious skull in Dr. Hun- ter's Museum at Glasgow, which certainly presents the appearance of having been occasioned by a small worm. " These worms," says he, " dry completely, and revive by moistening, as Fontana, Bauer, and himself have ob- served ; hence they are well calculated to lie dormant in the bones, and continue their work at long intervals." Under the head " Distome du Chien" (p. 220), Avorm of the dog, he says, that the ova are easily taken up by the air, and hence he cautions us against being too intimate with these faithful creatures. Flukes, so common in the liver of sheep, are also found, as he shews, sometimes in that of man. We now come to the tape-worm (taenia), the giant 51 worm of the intestines, which has in different cases been the cause of hysteria, epilepsy, marasmus, and tetanus. Raspail thinks that the hydatid (a thin membranous contractile bag) is nothing else than the egg of the taenia (p. 232). If this theory be true, these eggs have been deposited in the lungs, stomach, liver, abdomen (giving the appearance of dropsy), bladder, uterus, brain, producing every variety of disease (pp. 238, 239). After the aboAre enumeration of the various effects of acari and Avorms, he concludes that nine-tenths of our diseases are the work of such parasites (Resume, p. 241). Passing over his moral causes of diseases and his new classification, we come to the great revolution in the practice of medicine, to which his opinions of the causes of disease necessarily lead. SECTION II. RASPAIL'S NEW MODE OF TREATING DISEASES, FOUNDED ON THE ABOA'E OPINIONS OF THEIR ORIGIN. General Preventives.—Raspail, properly enough, be- gins by a reform in the kitchen, and would have us ha- bitually use more condiments Avith our food. The cook should be told not to be so sparing of salt, pepper, garlic, onions in our sauces; of cloves, dried orange-peel, can- nella, muscade, vanilla, angelica,* &c, in our pastry; these being the most useful species of anthelmintics, as Avell as the most agreeable, and particularly necessary * He says somewhere in vol. i. that a man who lived at Montpelier, to the age of 120 and upwards, attributed his long life to his daily prac- tice of chewing this root. At all events, it is proof that the root is harmless, and hence worth the chances of trial. 52 for the preservation of female health, as females do not smoke or drink so much generous Avine, spirits, or elixirs, as men; all these being useful, as having more or less of an anthelmintic quality. As Raspail, however, would have ladies begin smoking cigarettes of camphor (inhal- ing the vapour of pieces of camphor put in a quill, glass, or ivory tube, and swallowing the saliva so impreg- nated), if they like to adopt this custom, they will have less necessity for the use of other anthelmintics. Raspail has smoked it himself both day and night* for the last five years; and he finds that the only obvious effect is, that it suspends the appetite a little, like smoking to- bacco (p. 372). I may observe, that as this night- smoking may be disagreeable, or perhaps, impracticable to some persons, a piece of camphor inclosed in a linen bag, and placed under the pillow, or tied so as to hang near the mouth and nostrils, would probably be amply sufficient to keep acari and all night vermin from getting into the nose, mouth, or ears, and depositing their ova there. Its power of diminishing hunger, but more par- ticularly its remarkable power when sprinkled in powder over the nates of taking away all A^enereal appetite, as admitted by many old authors, and by Raspail himself (p. 442)—nay, even the very power itself of destroying insect life—shews that camphor is far from being inert, and consequently kitchen anthelmintics should first be resorted to for habitual use. It will be time to try the constant use of camphor, as soon as any disease has ob- viously commenced. Keeping a piece of camphor under the pilloAV, or near the person during the night, is all that in any case of perfectly good health I should be inclined to recommend as a constant practice. During the day no visible insects can get into the nose or mouth unde- * See verses introductory to this Essay. 53 tected; and as to taking in the eggs of acari and ascari- des by respiration, it seems better to run our chances of this, trusting they will be destroyed by our kitchen an- thelmintics, rather than submit to the possibility of in- juring our constitution by constantly breathing camphor vapour; for although Raspail has not obviously injured himself in five years, still we know so little of the nature of life that it is impossible to say he may not have shortened it by this neAv kind of smoking: just in the same way, in fact, as a man may live many years after a copious salivation, and yet die sooner than if he had never submitted to such excessive use of mercury. Be- sides, men in various countries have lived to 100 or above, Avithout the assistance of camphor vapour; and the experiment is yet to make, whether they can ever do so with its constant assistance. Raspail ascribes the power of camphor in destroying priapism, just alluded to, to its power of preventing fer- mentation (by converting the air in contact with it into carbonic acid ?). He has himself kept dead birds (plunged in water in which was a piece of camphor) from putrefaction for months together. We may here observe that camphor, in common with many other agents, has both the power of destroying fermenta- tion— at all events, the putrefactive fermentation — and destroying animalcular and insect life. Whether Raspail's theory of camphor destroying priapism by de- stroying seminal fermentation, and the life of the semi- nal vermiculi, be true, experiment must decide ; and also, whether camphor placed in a room does not tend to in- crease the amount of carbonic acid gas there. Another point on this subject also requires further investigation, before we can come to a correct theory on the mode of action of camphor; it is no less than Avhether camphor only drives acari and insects away by its smell, like 54 musk, lavender, &c. &c, or whether its vapours actually kill them. If the former mode of action be true, then we may conceive the habitual use of camphor to be far less injurious than if it actually kills. Raspail not only smokes it, but has also taken about fifteen grains a-day of the powder internally, for the last five years, without injury. He finds that four or five grains taken at night tend to promote sleep, though, of course, less power- fully than opium (p. 443). It tends to expel worms, as Ave see by the case, p. 444; but still it may only tend to make them leave their hold of the intestines, as they are generally expelled living. A few experiments would clearly be desirable, to ascertain which anthelmintics kill and which only tend to drive worms and insects aAvay. Perfumes, lavender, musk, thyme, violet, rose, Raspail tells us, are anthelmintics, " au premier degre " (p. 378) ; and in the same place he says, that the use of musk about the person may be permitted to the lady to supersede that of camphor cigarettes, if she pleases ; and that turpentine or tar vapour may be substituted for it by the poorer classes. Now, it is almost certain that all these odoriferous substances have rather the power to drive away insects than to kill them ; whereas tobacco (particularly in in- fusion) and mercury actually destroy them,—this latter killing the pediculi pubis in a very short time. If the venereal disease, and if caries of the bones, depends on an animate contagion, as Raspail supposes (though he admits the insect has not yet been found), certainly at first sight there would appear to be no better medicine than mercury for such affections; since this may be made actually to reach the interior of the bones, where we may presume it would not only drive away, but ac- tually seize the worm in its work of devastation, and at once destroy it! 55 But on further reflection we shall see that the great objection to mercury, tobacco in infusion (for in smoke it is rendered comparatively harmless, by having been decomposed by fire), and the list of poisons is, that they cannot kill worms or insects without more or less injur- ing the vital powers of the patient. The same power that kills parasitic life must, in eight cases out often, tend itself to destroy the life preyed on. It is hence that we find that practice does not bear out the utility of mer- cury in caries, and that, in fact, some surgeons of exten- sive practice have properly rather attributed disease of the bones to the too copious use of mercury, than to the venereal disease itself,—a position, if it be true, which would shew that caries often takes place from an inani- mate cause. But, to conclude this digression, it may still be said, though mercury poisons lice, it may still not be able to poison acari, or some intestinal worms; * for Ave know that poisons to one form of life are not necessarily poi- sons to all others. This reflection brings us again to the position with which we started, viz. that experiments are wanting on this subject both as to odoriferous sub- stances, and as to anthelmintics strictly so called. I shall close these observations on camphor, by stat- ing that Raspail makes his " Pom made Camphree" by melting three parts of lard, and then putting one part of camphor powder in it, and stirring till the camphor is dissolved. Powder of camphor is easily prepared by dropping a little spirits of wine on camphor before pow- * Redi, says Raspail (p. 525, note), considered mercury an anthel- mintic ; but as the men who work in quicksilver mines are much tor- mented with worms at the anus, Bremser seems to doubt its vermifuge powers. But, says Raspail, this is the best evidence of it, for the worms have been driven there by such power. The probability, there- fore, seems, that mercury would destroy these as soon as lice, if in suffi- cient quantity. 56 dering it. Camphorated alcohol is made by leaving camphor in alcohol, and camphorated oil in the same way, only in this last case applying a gentle heat. He does not mention camphor water (made by leaving a piece of camphor in a bottle of water corked, until it tastes strongly of camphor). I would, however, recom- mend a glass to be drank night and morning, in cases where worms are suspected. The camphor in this case is well dissolved* Eau Sedative.—Take of liquid ammonia 1500 grains or drops, and put therein thirty grains or drops of alco- hol saturated with camphor. Leave the mixture to combine one or two hours, and then add one " litre" (pint and quarter) of water, in which you have previously dissolved 450 grains of common salt. Put the mixture in a well-stopped bottle (glass stopper). For delicate skins he only uses 80 instead of 100 grains of liquid ammonia. In the case of cerebral fever, and for applications on the cranium, he uses 130 grains. lstdeg. 2d deg. 3d deg. Salt Avater.....8 parts 10 parts 16 parts Camphorated ammonia . 1 — 1 — 1 — In general he only uses the second degree. To make the eau sedative without the trouble of weighing, he recommends as follows:—Put salt in a tumbler of water till the ivater can take up no more. Put two little elixir glasses (petits verres) of liquid ammonia in a pint of water, then half a "petit verre" of cam- phorated alcohol; agitate, then mix with the tumbler of salt water; re-agitate, and cork well. * Aloes may be taken at the same time. Camphor, as existing in camphor-water, seems far more likely to find its way into the torrent of the blood, and thus to destroy animate ova existing in any part of the body, than taken in lumps undissolved. 57 The employment of the eau sedative is by means of compresses dipped in it, taking care, if for the head, that none gets into the eyes. The hair, too, ought to be oiled to diminish its slightly caustic effect on the hair. Mode of Action.—He thinks it is absorbed through the skin; and of course, if it be, it will have the effect of diminishing all viscosity in the blood, and rendering this more fluid. At all events, after extensive practice with it, he finds that cerebral fever soon disappears under its use, the pulse falling sometimes from 180 to 80,* and the skin becoming fresh, though previously burning. As after long applications it becomes red, he at first only begins by lotioning with the hand. This eau is his great substitute for blistering, when used so as to produce red- ness of the skin; and for bleeding, when used so as to make the pulse fall. Like the Homoeopathists he never bleeds; but, in opposition to them, he advocates the copious use of spices—of wine and spirits, too, in mode- ration. Aloes.—He recommends four or five grains of the extract of aloes to be taken in the evening, and a bowl of broth after it (any other warm fluid will do as well), once a-Aveek, even to persons in health. If in the morn- ing by eight or nine o'clock it has not operated, the next Aveek double the dose should be taken. It is, how- ever, so difficult to conceal the taste of the aloes by taking it in this way, that persons would do well to try the powder made into pills with conserve of roses, or moistened crumb of bread, and then rolled in liquorice powder. Aloes is Raspail's principal vermifuge, and by its action on the rectum it tends, no doubt, to drive ascarides even from this, their last place of refuge. It * See his " Medecin de Soi-meme," art. Eau Sedative. 58 also, in many of Raspail's patients, has caused a return of the menses after they have ceased a year. I may, how- ever, observe, that in case of a tendency to piles persons should be cautious in the use of this medicine; the safest way in such case is not to take it all. I knoAv that Raspail (p. 504), considering even piles to be caused by acari or some other parasite, recommends glysters of aloes in such diseases. But as he gives no cases, Ave may well for the present retain the old opinion as to their origin in general, and use only mild purgatives (castor oil, cream of tartar, and sulphur, &c.) which do not tend to irritate the rectum, and thus often, perhaps, cause fistula,—that most painful and disagreeable complaint. Tar-water.—Put a little tar at the bottom of a de- canter, and fill Avith water; let it remain till impreg- nated with tar. This water is an anthelmintic. Decoctions or Infusions of Fern-root, and of Pome- granate-root.—These anthelmintics are made by boiling or infusing the above roots in Avater. He recommends a trial of these anthelmintics when camphor and aloes have, by repetition, lost some of their poAver. Fern-root, in doses from half an ounce to an ounce, may be taken in powder, two or three mornings in succession, in honey or treacle. Assafoetida in glyster or pills.—These anthelmintics he recommends when there is reason to believe the worms have penetrated the flesh. Assafoetida, says he, is readily taken up, and penetrates all the tissues (p. 544, note). Camphor, Cubebs, and Copavia.—Recommended espe- cially Avhen it is necessary to use anthelmintics that pene- trate more especially the urinary and genital organs (note, p. 455). Beet-root Powder.—I do not observe this to be men- tioned in his large work, he probably not having tried 59 it when that work was written. Ho tells us (Medecin de Soi-meme) his reason for trying it Avas, because infu- sion of beet-root is known to get to the bones and colour them; and he has never been able to find any Avorms or insects living on that root. Hence in its crude state he infers it is disagreeable, if not poisonous to them. On all these grounds it seemed well-suited for destroying the worm Avhich he supposes is the cause of caries of the bones. He says the infusion of the powder has the taste of liquorice (reglisse), but the exciting property of coffee. He makes it by infusing fifteen grains (one gramme) in half a pint of tar-water. He also puts a minute quan- tity of iodide of potassium to it. He has tried it in some cases of rickets and scrofulous caries with advantage; but says its use requires caution, as it may tend to ren- der the bones less solid by combining with their earthy constituents. He recommends physicians to try it in caries. I should suggest, by itself, without tar or iodide of potassium; for this purpose fifteen grains of madder- root, dried at a heat below boiling-water, is to be put into a pint of water and boiled. A wine-glassful may be taken three times a-day for three days; and then left off for a week, or altogether.* The above are not the only medicines he employs. On the contrary, on looking over his " Succedanea," he may be said occasionally to resort to most of the articles of the Materia Medica, except the salts of arsenic, lead, copper, silver, gold, antimony (except tartar emetic for a vomit in case of poisoning, p. 547), and mercury, except its submuriate, or calomel. He says, he admits calomel on account of its great insolubility; but I may oppose to this, that insolubility does not preserve from the con- * Med. de Soi-meme, p. 106. 60 stitutional effects of mercury, as Ave know by its power to salivate,* and as might reasonably have been inferred from the folloAving experiment which I made on a cat many years ago with sulphat of lead, conceiving from the statements of Orfila and others that the insolubility of this substance would have prevented constitutional effects. I found, however, after the cat had been made to eat bread and milk with which sulphat of lead was mixed for some days, that a decided palsy of the limbs took place to my dissatisfaction, and the poor animal, in a state of half-delirium, committed a sort of suicide by jumping out of an open window. After such experi- ment, I cannot have faith in sulphat of soda, which is still recommended in medical works, as an antidote for poison by the salts of lead, on account of its forming an insoluble sulphat. This may, perhaps, be one step better than leaving the soluble salt; but a far better step is to get it all out of the body as soon as possible. It seems to me, therefore, that the Avisest plan is not to rely on insolubility, but to exclude mercury in all its forms from medical* practice, except, perhaps, in some peculiar cases of venereal disease, where the patient's occupations prevent him from giving the non-mercurial practice a fair trial. Neither should I employ tartarised antimony as an emetic until ipecacuanha and all other vegetable emetics had failed. This is Raspail's general line of practice, as he tells us, with regard to prussic * Besides, when he has so many vermifuges, it is contrary to his own principles to use a noxious mineral agent, until all other vegetable worm medicines have failed. He says he has given calomel to the amount offifteen grains even to infants, without injury. As he admits, however, it is apt often to be very injurious in consequence of bad pre- paration, it seems far better never to use it until all other substitutes have failed, and even then never in such large doses. (Med. Soi-meme, pp. 66, 67.) From one to two grains in sugar is the common dose for infants. 61 acid, belladonna, hemlock, strychnine, stramonium, &c, all of Avhich are likewise totally banished from his prac- tice ; opium i lone being permitted when camphor is not powerful enough to produce sleep in exhausted subjects. In this line of practice I need not say I agree with him, ex- cept, perhaps, in desperate cases, to allow the vegetable poisons in homoeopathic doses; the necessity for Avhich I leave to be decided by further experience. Raspail admits the iodide of potassium, but says in his small work, he doubts if it has done any good in his practice, —a sufficient reason for discontinuing it (except as it may be found in mineral waters), knowing that it has often done a great deal of harm by causing absorption of the healthy glandular tissues, Avhen given as a remedy for goitre. He admits salts of iron, sulphat and phosphat of soda; and thus, in fact, may be said, without being aware of it, to adopt a line of medication similar in its general features to the one already proposed by me, with the exception of his theory of disease, and his consequent recommendation of vermifuge medicines, Avhich he still, be it observed, draws almost entirely—and with justice— from the vegetable kingdom. On this subject he has brought me over in many respects to his opinions, as I shall state a little more at length when I have selected a feAV cases from his work, as proofs of the correctness of his views. Cases (Accidents).—The eau sedative applied ten days on a tumour as large as the fist on the ankle, arising from a kick from a horse, cured it completely. In a case in which all the internal surface of the hand had been laid bare, camphor powder was sprinkled over the part; no suppuration followed, and the next day the excoriated surface was dry and gradually healed (p. 405). Observations.—In the first case the eau sedative sup- 62 plied the place of leeches, the regular routine practice in such cases ; in other words, inflammation was cured by a violent stimulant, for such is the eau sedative, notAvith- standing the name he has given it. In the second case a stimulant also prevented suppuration, and thus shortened the time of cure considerably. Burns.—Camphor poAvder is to be sprinkled over the wound, and covered over with lint on which the camphor ointment is spread, so as not to let the Avound be exposed to the air. The eau sedative is to be applied around the part where the wound is. In this way, he says, he cured a child whose face was a mask of scars, the eyelids being glued together. Apoplexy.—The head and neck to be covered over Avith cloths wet with eau sedative. Spine to be well rubbed Avith camphor ointment, subsequently a purgative clyster. Aloes to be given by the mouth as soon as signs of life, and the patient to be put in a bath in which, after it is half full of water, four ounces of alcohol saturated Avith camphor, and one and a half pound of common salt, are to be put and stirred with a red-hot iron rod, Avhich bath he calls his alkino - ferruginous bath. Patients have recovered in a quarter of an hour by this treatment,—a remarkable case of which he gives at length in his small work (p. 136). He has also seen palsy cured in a few minutes by the same plan. He also gives cases where fish have been restored, almost like a miracle, by the eau sedate (Med. de Soi-meme p. 137). Violent Pains in the Head.—In p. 483 of his large work he gives his own case, in which intense pains of the head continued many days, and at last caused loss of sight, apparently from the pain the light gave. It occurred to him to make the lotion which he calls eau sedative, and which Ave have seen in the first case he uses 63 instead of leeches, and in the last (apoplexy) instead of bleeding. This was the first time of trying it, and, he says, scarcely a few minutes passed before he felt better. He used it a month at intervals, Avhen he was quite restored ; his sight only remaining permanently affected, being noAv obliged to use convex glasses to read. He says the eau sedative penetrated through the bones of the cranium, dissolved the congestions, killed the larvae or worms (which he supposes to have been the cause of this violent attack), and likeAvise dissolved them (p. 486, end). Observations.—No doubt if ammonia and common salt, the base of his eau sedative, find their way through the bones of the cranium, they will at least liquefy the blood. But I think it very doubtful Avhether they can do so,—at all events in sufficient quantity; for by experiments out of the body, I know that it wants a considerable quantity of ammonia to break down a clot, and no doubt more to dissolve Avorms. I hence have little hesitation in concluding that his theory of the mode of action of the eau sedative is erroneous. It probably resolves congestions by stimulating the vessels, and forcing their contents onwards still undissolved. It is also probable that his headach did not arise from worms; but as he tells us in another part of his work that he has voided ascarides, of course I would not venture to say decisively that these had not made their way even into his brain. But, notwithstanding these opinions, I perfectly agree in the propriety of his mode of treatment, and am ready to acknowledge the benefit he has done to medicine, by enabling us to treat local inflammations, apoplexy, &c, without leeches and bleed- ing, which, by Aveakening the patient, always lengthen the convalescence. Asthma.—He thinks this often arises from the ova of 64 ascarides deposited in the bronchial tubes. He quotes the case of Madame Simon (aged 60), Avho had an attack every winter that threatened her life ; and also the case of a man (Clamart). Both these and many other cases Avere cured by the use of the cigarette of camphor; frictions with camphorated alcohol on the thioat and lungs; internal use of aloe3 by mouth and injection; aromatic nourishment, i.e. highly-seasoned meats; and gargles of salt-water. If the camphor cigarette be not active enough, a little camphorated alcohol is to be put on a cloth, and held to the lips during the paroxysms (Med. Soi-meme, p. 139). See also large work, vol. ii. p. 454, for two other cases greatly benefitted by similar treatment. Diarrhoza : Dysentery.—He quotes the case of a man, Avho had been almost given up by the doctors, labouring under the former of these diseases, who was cured in a fort- night by frictions with camphor ointment five times a-day and two or three times a-night, camphor cigarette, alcohol on the region of the liver, and highly-seasoned diet. Wrhen this man came to Raspail, he had been so reduced by the antiphlogistic diet that he could not get out of his arm- chair without assistance, and did not expect to live (vol. ii. p. 492). Dysentery, like diarrhoea, often depending on the presence of acari or worms, requires the same treatment; except that where acid fruits have been taken, the internal use of two or three doses of carbonate of soda is recommended. Fevers, Typhus, 8pc.—Raspail considers typhus fever especially as arising from an animate cause, though, in this case, he gives no instances Avhere he has actually found acari or worms in the alimentary canal. The success of his anthelmintic practice in this disease would appear to bear him out in his conclusions, as AAre shall 65 presently state ; but it is to be hoped that physicians will hereafter attempt to discover this animate cause, if such it be. A girl of fourteen, Avith burning pain in the head, skin darkish, and who had lost the power of understanding any question put to her, was treated by eau sedative to the head and neck; camphor ointment, frictions, and cam- phor, held to or put near the mouth; aloes internally, spiced diet, &c.; and in three weeks she was quite well, but altogether unable to remember that any questions had been put to her at the time stated above. A young woman was found by her mistress on the ground in a state of insensibility, voiding both upAvards and downwards black matters, and in a state of burning fever. Treatment same as the above, and the next morning she was able to walk, and, in fact, cured. Two other cases of a similar character are to be found at pp. 207, 208 of Med. Soi-meme, along with these. Many years ago I myself caught the typhus feA'er from some hospital patient. Coming on as usual with shiverings, it continued its course till I became delirious. My chief or only medicine after a purgative was a glass occasionally of port wine. Under this treatment the fever gradually subsided, but left an abscess behind, Avhich in the course of time was also cured. The great debility I felt was the cause of my taking to Avine instead of the antiphlogistic treatment; and in this respect I may be said to have adopted Raspail's plan, without having his or any other particular theory of the disease in Ariew. Although I should not exactly recommend wine so early in the disease, as this might have been concerned in causing the abscess, still such treatment was probably better than adopting the bleeding system, F 66 which was general with hospital patients at the time. Raspail's intermediate course is better. Fleurs Blanches (Leucorrhcea).—He considers this disease also to arise from an animate cause. He says that camphor powder or ointment introduced into the vagina, with aloes, &c, occasionally, " triumphs infalli- bly " over the disease. Ophthalmia (Inflammation of the Eyes).—He puts this even down commonly to an animate cause. " The inflammation of the conjunctiva," says he, " does not last three days, if very fine camphor powder is bloAvn on it two or three times on different occasions." The operation gives a little pain, and produces a flow of tears. In the other affections of the eyes (amaurosis, &c), he uses camphor ointment on the eyelids, eau sedative on the temples, and camphor powder as snuff (vol. ii. p. 509). Observations.—We here see that he applies his sti- mulating system with success, even in inflammation of the eyes. It is singular that, according to Clot Bey and other authors, the stimulating system—viz. a strong solution of sulphate of zinc and alum—succeeds best in the Egyptian ophthalmia, and that leeches and the anti- phlogistic treatment fail (Clot Bey's Egypt). This may give us confidence in Raspail's treatment of inflam- mation of this delicate organ. Nevertheless, common inflammation of the conjunctiva gets well in this country by the antiphlogistic treatment, as all physicians know. Itch and other Cutaneous Diseases.—It is singular in his account of the itch, he does not ment'on sulphur ointment, which, nevertheless, as physicians well know, approaches almost to the nature of a specific. He re- commends camphor ointment, &c, which Avould pro- bably also cure it; but he gives no cases. He gives, 67 however, a bad case of impetigo cured by the application of camphorated alcohol, &c, and one of prurigo by camphorated ointment. He recommends much the same treatment for all cutaneous diseases, conceiving them all of animate origin, though he has only discovered the in- sect in one of them, viz. the itch. Venereal Diseases.—These he considers also to be of animate origin, but does not consider that Dr. Donne has discovered the acarus causing them. He considers the mercurial practice whether internal or external poi- sonous and injurious even in the mildest form, such as only slightly affecting the gums. No doubt the disease can be cured without this ; but still many who have had large experience conceive that where the patient is not entirely his own master a very mild mercurial course is ad- visable. It is certainly desirable that the use of mercury in this complaint were done away with altogether. Ne- vertheless, it must be confessed Raspail has not given enough cases to make us rely at present with perfect con- fidence on his treatment. Only two are given of a mild character. His plan of treatment is to take a little camphor three times a-day in a wine-glass of decoction of sarsaparilla, to a pint of which fifteen grains of iodide of potassium have been added ; pommade, or powder of camphor, to all ulcerated parts, or ecoulements; tar-water in all drinks, and injection of the same, or of camphorated oil in Ecoulements; camphor cigarette, and well-seasoned diet, with generous wine.—Med. Soi-mime, p. 218. In his large work he gives experiments which tend to shew that the disease cannot be communicated by sexual intercourse, when camphor powder is used immediately after impure connexion as a preventive of contagion. Before the camphor was applied the parts were well washed (vol. ii. p. 520). These experiments probably lead him to conceive that camphor has also a curative 68 action. It is, however, to be observed that he uses sar- saparilla and iodide of potassium largely, both of which (according to many authors) pretend almost to specific claims in the cure of syphilis. Certainly they are far preferable to mercury, supposing their claims well grounded. Raspail, hoAvever, much modifies this treat- ment of venereal diseases by using at the same time spiced diet and good wine, a plan condemned by Dr. Thomson and the non-mercurialists generally. It is to be hoped Raspail's treatment will meet Avith that practice on a large scale, which can alone enable us to pronounce an opinion on its merits. White Swellings and Mortification of old Age.—In p. 237 of his small work a very bad case of white swell- ing is given, cured by compresses of eau sedative and the use of the camphor ointment; and at p. 244 a case of a mortified ulcer of the leg in a man aged eighty-three, which soon got well under the camphor treatment. Whitlow.—At p. 225 two cases are given where cam- phorated alcohol, &c. succeeded. In one of these cases black spots like gangrene had appeared. I here close my account of Raspail's treatment of disease. As he treats almost all other diseases on the same principles, but gives no other striking cases of cure than those above mentioned, I have thought it unneces- sary to make any further selections from his works, since it is in every body's power to try the camphor treatment in any disease when once the general plan of proceeding is known. REMARKS ON THE EXAMPLES OF LONGEVITY BROUGHT FORWARD BY SIR J. SINCLAIR ; HIS OBSERVATIONS ON TRAINING; JERNITZ'S RECIPE FOR THE ELIXIR OF LONGEVITY; AUTHOR'S RECIPES FOR INDIGESTION, COUGH, PILES, TOOTHACHE, AND FOR PURGATIVES ; ON BLEEDING, GOUT, DIABETES, VENEREAL DISEASES, AND THE MEANS OF THEIR PREVENTION, FROM PERSONAL OBSERVATION ON CASES, S;c. SfC. 8fC REMARKS, 8fc. Sfc. Str J. Sinclair, in his Code of Health and Longevity (edit. 1818), has given brief notices of seven or eight individuals who have lived to 112 years, and upwards. Zortan, a Dutchman, the oldest of these, lived, it is said, to 185 ! In our own country, Jenkins lived to 169, and Parr to 152. It is to be regretted that Sir John could not obtain any information of importance as to the mode of life of these individuals, except that Parr's maxims were, " Keep the feet warm, and the head cool; rise early, and go to bed soon; be moderate in diet, and sleep if you are inclined to get fat" (p. 61). Probably Parr himself did not attempt to diminish his quantity of sleep, since he seems only to have recommended this step to those inclined to get fat. In my remarks on Cornaro, I have considered the propriety of attempting to diminish the quantity of sleep that each individual is inclined to take, very doubtful; and I find Sir J. Sinclair says that those undergoing the training discipline are recommended to go to bed at ten o'clock, and to sleep about eight hours. He adds, " Eight hours' sleep is generally reckoned necessary, 72 though much depends on habit. The ancient athleta) were permitted to sleep as many hours as they chose" (p. 36, Appendix). Very little liquid Avas allowed these athletae, and the same is the case with the modern system of training, the quantity of liquid taken during the whole day being recommended not to exceed three pints (p. 33). The guides in Switzerland also always recommend travellers to take little fluid ; being of the same opinion as the trainers, that drinking increases transpiration, and all transpiration which is not the result solely of exercise is weakening (p. 34). Something, however, must depend on habit in this case, for I found I could get through more work up the mountains by rather plentiful draughts, in proportion as the transpiration was great; and Sir John gives a case where a gentleman resolved to adopt this system of drinking scarcely any thing, and that only wine, who died very shortly afterwards from the effects of inflam- mation (p. 56). The tendency to this must obviously be increased by this dry diet; and hence, probably, the chances to be cut off prematurely; though I have no doubt that the system is good, when, as in training, the object is to acquire a temporary increase of strength. It is remarkable also that the trainers begin by an emetic and an ounce of Glauber's salts taken every two days for six or eight days. The ancient athletae also adopted emetics and glysters at the commencement. Game-cocks and race-horses are also purged previous to being put on their regimen. Very little salt or spices are allowed to trainers; but vinegar is allowed, as it tends to render less fluids neces- sary (salt and spices having the opposite property), and also promotes leanness. Malt liquors, also wine and water, are allowed, but no spirits; tea, like all fluids, should be taken nearly cold; under-done mutton and 73 beef are preferred among solids; and pies, vegetables, and cheese are avoided. Stale bread is used. Such is the general outline of the system of diet found the most effectual for raising animal strength to the highest pitch; and, by adopting the system only partially, persons of a weak constitution will no doubt be able to add to their strength. Indeed, it would not be desirable to folloAv it out completely for more than two or three months between the ages of eighteen and twenty; for the probability seems that if training Avere kept up very long, it would rather tend to shorten life by pre- disposing to inflammatory complaints (as already ob- served), and also on the principle that all long-continued and A'iolent excitement tends sooner or later to produce a degree of debility and also to dispose the person to excesses. Thus Galen says the ancient athletae rarely preserved their strength so as to be able to appear in public longer than five years, and that they were generally short- lived ; partly owing, no doubt, to the excesses they gene- rally run into when out of training (p. 40). But, as Sir J. Sinclair says, many boxers have lived to upAvards of eighty, and that training does not wear out race-horses or game-cocks, we may agree with him that it would be advisable that most men should go through one system of training regimen for a month or two ; and this seems to leave the body stronger than before the training began, at least for some years. " The union of vigorous exercise and pure air is the great secret for the acquisition of strength. Diet itself is but of secondary consideration'" (p. 37). Hence, con- tinues Sir John, the inhabitants of the SandAvich Isles, " who use no stimulating food or drink," were found stronger than many British seamen. Under such cir- cumstances it would seem advisable to try the training system, using the same amount of exercise in pure air, 74 but without so much stimulating food or so much malt liquor. The ancient athletae took water or sAveet wine, but Avater alone is never allowed to modern trainers (p. 33). We have seen that Raspail recommends a dose of aloes occasionally ; and, as evidence that aloes cannot be injurious to the constitution (at least where piles do not exist), we may here give the general outline of the receipt for Dr. Jernitz's elixir of longevity, by taking from seven to nine drops of which daily, Jernitz himself lived to 104, his son to 100, and the whole of his family to a great age (Op. cit. p. 241). An ounce and a drachm of powdered aloes; one drachm of powdered zedoria, and of powdered or bruised gentian- root ; ditto of saffron; ditto of rhubarb, and of ditto of the theriaque of Venice. Pour a pint of brandy on these, and leave it well stopped for nine days, shaking fre- quently. The brandy may now be poured off, and put in a glass-stopped bottle. Another pint of brandy should now be put on the mass remaining at the bottom, and left a similar time. It may then be mixed with the former, and put aside for use. The liquors, of course, in each case are to be quite clear before they are poured off, and to be kept in good ground - glass stopper- bottles. It is remarkable that aloes form by far the greatest portion of these ingredients, and so far it resembles Raspail's system; having an advantage, probably, over that by using also gentian, another bitter, the peculiar action of which is to strengthen the digestive powers. Hence Jernitz recommends it to be taken for indigestion. Dose for this, two tea-spoonsful in four of tea; for colic, two ditto, in four of brandy ; for fits of gout (the fit ap- proaching), three spoonsful, quite pure ; for worms (see Raspail), one ditto before eating, for eight days; for 75 dropsy, one ditto, in white wine, for a month ; for ague, one ditto pure, before the cold fit; and if the fever, says he, is not cured by the first or second dose, it will un- doubtedly be so by the third. For sickness at the stomach, one spoonful quite pure is to be taken. It should not be taken after milk or salad. I have thought it as well to copy this receipt, as some persons may wish to try it daily. I, however, should not be inclined to recommend more than its occasional use. Longevity is evidently hereditary; so that Jernitz's son attaining the age of 100, may partly, at least, be ac- counted for by his father having lived to 104. I shall now add some other receipts which I have found useful in my own experience, referring the reader who may wish for information on that most important of fluids, the blood, to my work on its properties in health, and in the diseases, scurvy, cholera, &c. published at Highley's, 32 Fleet Street. For Indigestion.—Compound infusion of gentian, an ounce; tincture ditto, a drachm; carbonate of soda, ten grains. This quantity (i.e. two tablespoonsful) to be taken tAvice a-day, two hours before eating. As it keeps well, eight ounces of the mixture may be made up. This mixture is also indicated along with aloes, camphor, &c. suggested by Raspail in cases of worms. (See our Introduction to Raspail's Essay, pp. 32, 34.) Cough Mixture.—Water of acetate of ammonia, three drachms; wine of ipecacuanha, ten drops; syrup of white poppies, half a drachm; water, one ounce. Have eight ounces made up, and take two tablespoonsful whenever the cough is troublesome. I have frequently prescribed this, and found it often gradually succeed in removing a fixed pain in the side accompanied by cough. 76 Medicine for Piles.-I find Dr. Peschier, of Geneva, in a pamphlet which he gave me Avhile there, cured a very bad case of these merely by rest, low diet, and camomile in homoeopathic doses. I state facts, without presuming to decide whether the camomile acted on the disease or not. I have known them yield to rest, cream of tartar, and sulphur powders, and ointment of pow- dered nut-galls and lard, for which Raspail seems to substitute camphor-powder and lard, or camphorated alcohol, — a plan that may be tried last, as a painful one. Toothache.—If a black spot has only just made its appearance, the best way is to get it filed out; if there be a hole in the tooth, stop it with camphor, or lint dipped in camphorated alcohol or tincture of opium. If the pain still continues, get the gum well lanced, or you may do it yourself with a sharp penknife, and occasionally rub the gum and take in a mouthful of warm water to encourage the bleeding. This will save many a tooth, which people are apt to get drawn much too soon. Only a few days ago I stopped a most excruciating toothache of two days' standing by lancing the gum. Purgatives.—Morison's pills are generally considered to be composed chiefly of gamboge and aloes ; but from the watery nature of the evacuations they produce the author would consider that elaterium entered also into their composition. He has himself tried them (No. 2) in a full dose, in which case they produced evacuations very similar to what would have occurred had Epsom salts been taken, except that they acted more especially on the rectum; indeed, too much so to be taken with safety where piles or a tendency thereto existed. In subsequent trials he has taken them in half the dose recommended by Morison, in which case also they pro- 77 duce watery evacuations without that violent and sudden action which, except in cases of great inflammation and fever, is not desirable. Having tried, also, frequently the compound gamboge pills, the colocynth, and com- pound rhubarb pills of the pharmacopoeias, and also poAvdered aloes (recommended by Raspail), the author can confidently assert, that this tendency to produce watery evacuations is peculiar to Morison's pills, and renders them a useful medicine in inflammations, or de- rangement of the health, occurring so frequently in con- sequence of the accumulation of hardened faeces in the rectum. The author's peculiar views lead him to prefer Seidlitz poAvders, Epsom or Glauber's salts; but where people object to these from nausea, &c, or where, as is sometimes the case, they are inefficient completely to unload the bowels, half the usual dose of Morison's pills (No. 2), at least to begin ivith, taken just before going to bed, will be found an useful substitute. As another peculiarity of these pills is their very quick action, it should be borne in mind that they are best taken as late as possible if taken at night. Where, on an emergency, a full dose is required, they may be taken in the morning, and will be found to operate in tAvo or three hours—a great advan- tage this in some cases of inflammation or oppression of the rectum from hardened faeces. Two of the compound gamboge pills at night and half an ounce of Epsom or Glauber's salts the following morning, with half an ounce of infusion of senna, will operate very poAverfully and produce very liquid evacu- ations, particularly if a large quantity of Avarm weak tea be drank immediately after taking the salts—a proceed- ing that should always be adopted when saline medi- cines are taken. The patient also should abstain from eating for at least two or three hours after having taken the salts and senna. 78 Gamboge pills, salts and senna, taken as above, will produce much the same effects as Morison's pills, with the exception of not acting so much on the rectum. They will, therefore, I conceive, have an advantage over Morison's pills where piles exist. But where these do not exist, Morison's pills possess the advantage of pro- ducing liquid evacuations—of washing out, as it were, the alimentary canal—without our being obliged to taste physic. I apprehend where an anthelmintic is Avanted a patient would do as well to take three of Morison's pills (No. 2), as ten grains of aloes recom- mended by Raspail; and as I am of Raspail's opinion that some precautions should be taken against worms, I would certainly recommend a dose either of one or the other occasionally. Jalap and scammony may also be used, if preferred. Where the object is completely to unload the bowels they will much assist aloes, both as to general action and also its action on the rectum, which by itself alone is often but slight. I have been induced to incorporate the above re- marks on Morison's pills in the present work,— 1st, Be- cause I have tried their effects on myself and found a beneficial peculiarity in them, which may exist indeed in other pills, patented or not, but of which I cannot speak from personal experience ; 2d, Because Morison has re- peatedly stated on his oath that they contain no mineral admixture; and, lastly and chiefly, Because Morison has been (as far as I know) the first man in this country to object to the exhibition of poisons in medicine. I am not certain whether I derived my ideas on this point from his notices in the Hygeist or not. I believe they occurred to me quite independent of him, and certainly of Ras- pail, for the present Essay on Cornaro was chiefly written at Venice before I knew any thing of Raspail's views. Nevertheless, I most firmly agree with both on 79 this most important point, and of course admit their priority of publication, and I shall not hesitate to con- fess that I think Morison entitled to the thanks of the public for the objections he has printed against the use of poisons in medicine. Without professing to be a man of science, Avhich he Avas not, he had sufficient common sense to see the uncertainty of medicine and sufficient moral courage to bear the opprobrium of " quack," or any other appellation. I am not going to attempt to set him forth as a martyr in a public cause, for he worked, and probably properly, for his own interest. But, mo- tives apart, I do not hesitate to say, that if I were com- pelled to choose between a physician who is in the habit of giving at least any mineral poisons and trusting to Morison's pills for constitutional disease, I would not hesitate to give the preference to the latter; and if I ever consented to take mineral poisons it would only be when Raspail's plan, mesmerism, hydropathy, homoeo- pathy, and every other had failed. But I do not think that the misery and misfortune of even the most malignant disease Avould ever induce me, even then, to give it a trial, for it is a system so contrary to all sound views on physiology. I am not going to contradict the testimony of many medical men as to the disappearance occasionally of diseases during the administration of these poisons; but what I say is, Have you seen your patient six or seven years afterwards ? is he not of an unhealthy as- pect ? and has not the poison sown the seeds of another chronic disease ? As Alexandre Dumas says, " Water your cabbage with a weak solution of arsenic, and let an animal eat your cabbage; give then the animal to your friend to eat, and you will not the less poison him be- cause you have done it by an infinitesimal dose, because by this means (the ancient method of slow poisoning) you have produced a chronic disease, the origin of 80 which even the wisest of the faculty could not have divined." There are enough chronic diseases without our adding to their list by the administration of poisonous minerals. So much for purgative medicines; but the best habit- ual aperients are brown broad, fruits, greens, and moist sugar in tea or coffee. Brown bread itself is generally sufficient. It is better to try this than resort to purga- tives, except occasionally when the presence of worms is suspected. Bleeding.—We have already seen that Raspail, by his eau sedative, dispenses with the use of the lancet. Neither the homoeopathists nor hydropathists bleed. Dr. Dickson, in his amusing work, the " Fallacies of the Faculty" (1845, pp. 14, 194), gives a table to shew that out of a certain number of cases more recovered who were not bled than who were bled, even in apoplexy. The late Sir G. Lefevre also considered, and no doubt pro- perly, "that large bleedings tended to produce dropsy and chronic affections." To give Morison his due on this point too, it must be admitted that he seems always to have opposed bleeding; and Mr. Tothill, member of the Royal College of Surgeons (who practises on Mori- son's plan), gives many cases of acute inflammations cured without bleeding. At the same time Dr. Dickson Avas, however, probably the first Avho shewed the ad- vantage of the non-bleeding system by tables,—i. e. in a scientific Avay; and it is to be regretted he still prescribes poisons. Gout.—I Avas acquainted with a country surgeon in large practice who, when an attack of gout seemed ap- proaching, used to take a warm stomachic medicine, such as the recipe for indigestion above given, only infusing bruised cloves at the same time with the gentian. This mixture, attention to diet, and warmth to the part, Avas 81 his remedy,—certainly a more harmless one than eau medicinale, or colchicum. The hydropathic system and mesmerism have also benefitted gout, so here is a choice of treatment. In fact, in this case, as in most others, we Avork in the dark, and it is best to try simple means first, as they sometimes cure unexpectedly. Clot Bey says gout, consumption, and hydrophobia, are unknown in Egypt; and as it is chiefly men of fortune whom the gout attacks, two years in Egypt might very properly be recommended to them after ordinary means had failed. The same remark applies to incipient consumption (for in any other stage the suggestion is useless). For this complaint I have a patient out there now. Diabetes. — I have known a bad case of this disease to be cured principally by confinement to meat and stale bread for food, the latter in as small quantity as possible, with sherry and water as drink. Many cases are on record of its having also been cured by living some time in a very hot climate, which acts by exciting the action of the skin. Venereal Disease.—It is difficult to get this complaint out of the system when once in ; many secondary symp- toms, which withstand the routine practice of decoction of sarsaparilla, are benefitted by the cold-water cure, i. e. by the sweating part of this plan. I shall here make a few remarks on the prevention of ven real diseases. We have seen that Raspail recom- mends finely powdered camphor, and states that, by the use of this, a party he knew voluntarily exposed himself to many bad cases of infection without contracting the disease. It would be as well, however, to use the cam- phor in a less dry state, as in certain constitutions it might cause a degree of inflammation, as it always pro- duces more or less of a burning sensation when applied to mucous surfaces. This property of camphor, there- G 82 fore, should be diminished by the admixture of a little water or solution in oil. Without presuming to deny the efficacy of camphor, I may here state, that while at Naples some years ago, I mixed some very fresh gonor- rhoeal matter Avith solution of chloride of lime, and found it to render the same of a brownish hue—in fact, to decompose it. There seemed little danger, under such circumstances, of rubbing this on the glans penis and about the entrance of the urethra; which was accord- ingly done, and without any symptoms of venereal disease subsequently appearing. Chloride of soda was found, in a French physician's (Coster's) experiments, to succeed equally well; and not to produce the unpleasant astringent effect which folloAved the use of chloride of lime. I have known a gentleman employ the chloride of soda, mixed with about half its quantity of water, for years without contracting any venereal disease, though he must, doubtless, often have exposed himself to such risk. To be certain, hoAvever, of no evil consequences following, he ahvays used it both before and after con- nexion—a necessary precaution, no doubt—as well as mixing it with a little water at first, since if too strong it may tend to cause inflammation. As the chloride has been tried by the French physician in other cases of infection—in plague, itch, &c.—and found always to destroy the infecting power, I do not hesitate to recom- mend this in preference to camphor, as having, I think, stood a better trial. It has not only prevented disease for years, but its use during the same period has done no injury to the person using it—an important con- sideration. In order to lose none of its power, it should be kept from the light, and in a well-ground glass- stopper bottle. There are two particular reasons why I thought it as well to allude to the prevention of this disease : 1. Be- 83 cause a lotion for this purpose is sold at an exorbitant rate at one of the largest patent medicine warehouses in London, the utility of which lotion I should consider vert doubtful; and, 2. Because gonorrhoea, or a very similar disease, may sometimes be produced in men by leucorrhoea, menorrhagia, or other non-venereal diseases in women; so that, in fact, an ignorant man might in such case be led to suspect his wife unjustly. Let him, under such circumstances, then, use the solution of chloride of soda as a preventive of infection. Solution of chlorine holding mercury in solution has been sold in Paris for the object in question, but neither this nor chlorine alone are at all to be compared with solution of chloride of soda, as this, from its harmless, non-astringent nature, may be used before as well as after connexion, which is not the case so well with the above, but which is absolutely necessary to ensure against contagion; at all events in very susceptible subjects. I have in a former part of this work stated my aversion to the use of mercury in all its shapes, and if asked how I would supply its place, I answer by extract of taraxacum or dandelion. This acts on the liver, and promotes the secretion of bile ; and if it does not succeed in certain cases, horse exercise, or, if objected to, jump- ing, Avill be found of certain operation,—at least, in most cases in which medicine can avail. Hence it never can be justifiable to use mercury in any disease, except, perhaps, sometimes in primary syphilis, when the patient objects to the tediousness or discipline required by other modes of cure. I still hope to see mercury banished from rational medicine, even in these rare cases, in a year or two, by further experiments on the non-mercurial treat- ment of primary syphilis. Enough has been said above to shew my bad opinion of that medical practice in which the use of metallic 84 poisons is allowed; it is almost superfluous to state, therefore, that I would Avish to have them excluded as rigorously from our food and drink. For this pur- pose, it would not be useless to have a sort of " travelling " chemical professor, whose office should be to analyse the water of our public companies, and see that it was free from lead and even zinc in this iron-zincing age. An Edinburgh professor some time ago shewed that water in particular circumstances takes up an appreciable portion of lead. If, then, our travelling professor were not alloAved to journey into people's houses to inspect the cisterns and kitchen utensils, he certainly ought to be allowed to see that water enters there free from mineral poisons. Dr. Girtanner, only a few years ago, very properly expressed his belief that life was at present shortened in consequence of our being obliged to take in more or less lead, copper, and tin, with our food and drink.* What, then, will be said when Ave also take these poisons wholesale, by way of physic? Let us hope from this time forth we shall hear no more of lead, antimony, tin, bismuth, zinc, arsenic, or scarcely even mercury, as medicines, indeed; as to gold, silver, and copper, they are evidently much more in place, and no doubt far more useful,in the pocket than in the body. Talk about medical reforms in charters and increased exclusiveness: let us begin at the beginning. The Pharmacopoeia wants its vomit as well as its purgative; and until it is thoroughly cleansed of all its extraneous metallic matters except iron (which Nature herself admits there, since she has placed it in our very blood), I should consider a law which would oblige men to live or die by the recipes of some of my medical brethren, though they be legally qualified men, as similar on the part of the government to licens- * Dictionnaire Infernal, art. " Girtanner," p. 253. 85 ing a system of slow poisoning. I repeat we are obliged to work in the dark in medicine, and that Morison's pills may succeed when most other medicines have failed, or Morison's pills may fail when other modes of treatment may succeed. Under such circumstances, at least let us do as little harm as possible, and not pretend to teach Nature, by putting metals into the body which she has not put there herself. I shall now return again to Sir J. Sinclair's work, since I observe he states briefly that he considers Cor- naro's plan of life will never be generally followed, on account of its requiring so much self-denial. As there is something in this observation, certainly, I shall here say a few words on Avhat appears the best mode of coun- teracting the bad effects of excess in eating or drinking. Since the dinner-meal is almost universally a much heavier meal than Cornaro's, it may sometimes be neces- sary to adopt the French plan of taking a small cup of cafe noir afterwards, or better, a few glasses of a stronger wine than Cornaro took (such as sherry, for example), taking care also to use no mental or bodily exercise for at least two hours afterwards; but after this period has elapsed, exercise will be additionally desirable to complete digestion. Mr. Abernethy is stated to have slept daily immediately after dinner; most animals do so; and in Sir B. Harwood's experiment, the food of the dog that was made to run immediately after a full meal was found undigested, while that of the one fed at the same time and in similar quantity, and allowed to sleep, was completely assimilated. But, assuredly, if we eat more 86 than Cornaro, though we should more particularly avoid exercise just afterwards; we should, on the whole, take a proportionately greater quantity of exercise than he did. This is necessary to prevent the surplus remaining in the system, and producing disease. Additional work is put on the kidneys in this case, and the urine passed three or four hours after a full meal is generally turbid ; a sign that we have eaten too much, and that we should carry off such excess now by a walk. If this does not succeed, and flatulence, furred tongue, &c. &c, remain as habitual symptoms, our medicine for indigestion (p. 75) may be commenced, weak brandy and water, without sugar, being used as drink for dinner; but an adequate amount of exercise at proper times will generally render this unnecessary. Sir J. Sinclair met with an old woman above eighty who attributed her long life to a walk of a mile or two, which she always took every day, an opinion in which she was most probably right. As an increase of exercise is the remedy I would suggest for excess of eating (for we all take more than nature requires), so it is also the only one for excess in the use of alcoholic liquors. Sweat these out by strong exercise, if moderate does not succeed. APPENDIX. On Mesmerism — Author s Successful Attempt at Partial Self-Mesmerisation, with Theory — Author's Experi- ment on the Effect of Gelatinous Silica on a Cot — Experiments on the Antiseptic Powers of Camphm- and Carbonat of Soda, fyc. tyc. Having, at page 19 of this work, expressed my belief in mesmerism (at all events, to a certain extent), I shall here state some of my reasons for such belief, and com- mence with some experiments made on myself, certainly to me the most satisfactory evidence of truth in such a matter, at least, while consciousness remains. I believe they entitle me to the discovery, such as it is, of the possibility of partial self-mesmerisation; and if it be possible for some persons to mesmerise themselves, this is a great step towards proving that mesmerism depends rather on a peculiar sensation produced in the individual, than any actual communication or abstraction of a certain supposed fluid. Fainting obviously depends on a sensa- tion, though of a different kind, for a person may, of course, faint without loss of blood. Let any one close his eyes, and then let another 88 person or himself draw the inside of the middle or fore finger very lightly downwards over the upper eyelid, for many times in succession, and it will in some cases (for the effect is not, perhaps, even general), be found im- possible to open the eyes till a current of air is directed on them, or till the eyelashes or under eyelid are touched. The experiment should be made five or six days in suc- cession for a quarter of an hour each day, to give it a fair trial. I succeeded on a second or third trial in making the above experiment on myself some time ago, after having often had mesmerism tried on me in vain to produce any further effect. A person mesmerised me thus far lately at Brussels, by passes slightly touching the points of hair on the head and over the face without having touched the eyelids or eyelashes at all. We may infer from this, that the loss of power of opening the eyes is dependent not on any fluid or influence directly transmitted to the eyelids, but to an influence on the body generally, which is afterwards more especially directed to the eyelids by the vital principle, and causes the loss of power in question. This inability to open the eyes is well known as an incipient mesmeric effect. I have known a case of a person who, by her own confession, never could be more mesmerised than this, though she had been experimented on by myself and others a great number of times. I found when the mesmeriser had thus destroyed my power to open my eyes, that he restored it immediately on two occasions by blowing, at my request, against a thick sheet of brown paper placed over them without touching, and sufficiently large to cover my face and a great part of my body. As I did not perceive any motion in the external air next my face, I think I can only have derived the power of opening my eyes from 89 some influence that passed directly without air, through the paper itself. Second Experiment. — Repeated this last experiment, putting a thick pasteboard-box over the face, and paying still more attention to the air. A breath against this box, TOO SLIGHT FOR ME TO PERCEIVE NOW CERTAINLY, enabled me to open my eyes directly. The box was a little larger than the face, and deep enough to cover both ears Avithout touching any part. Third Experiment. — Mesmerisation by the same in- dividual. No effect, except a slight weight on the eye- lids, but not sufficient to prevent my opening them myself. Fourth Experiment.—Mesmerised in the evening after dinner, feeling at the time very sleepy. It is singular that no more effect was produced this time than the last. Indeed, the mesmeric manipulations rather tended to keep off ordinary sleep, contrary to what I had expected. This, however, tends to confirm the supposition that the mesmeric is totally different from common sleep, as was to be presumed. Fifth Experiment.—No effect. Sixth Experiment. — No effect, though continued, perhaps, longer than any of the previous experiments. The above experiments, with one exception, were made on successive days. In the case alluded to, there was only the interval of one day; and it is curious to observe that my susceptibility to mesmerism seemed to diminish by repetition, contrary to the general rule. It, however, probably, did not diminish. The reason of such apparent diminution I conceive to have arisen from my being in a better state of health after the second mesmerisation, whereby the operator's power was diminished, for the experiments were continued the same length of time, or nearly so, in each case, viz. about half-an-hour. 90 It was in consequence of having, about two years ago, made similar experiments to the above first and second experiments, that the theory of hearing, itself depending on the vibration of an elastic imponderable medium, and not on the air, suggested itself to me; and my review of the arguments for and against this theory will be found at length in the " Mechanics' Magazine " for that period. 1st, That there is a spiritual power within us which perceives far more quickly than we can, and, 2dly, also on some occasions perceives effects which we cannot perceive at all, I consider to be demonstrated by numerous points in physiology. Without going into details, our being obliged instantly to close our eyes when any one suddenly thrusts his hand forward to them, is a proof of the first position ; for here an instinctive spiritual power closes our eyes for us before our will has time to operate. And as a proof of the second position may be instanced the movements of the fingers of a thoroughly practised mu- sician, and, perhaps, also the vomiting or purging which generally follows the introduction of any substances in- jurious to our constitution into the stomach. [The reader who Avishes to see similar metaphysical points discussed at greater length, is referred to the work " Thoughts," published by Simpkin and Marshall in 1839.] Now to apply these facts to our first and second mesmeric experiments, it is pretty clear that such spi- ritual power may perceive a motion in the air which we cannot perceive. Although, therefore, /, in such ex- periments, could perceive no motion, it might; and of course I could not say there was no motion, for to have been certain of this my face should have been enclosed in an air-tight box, which is, perhaps, next to impossible. Consequently, I cannot pretend to say that the cause of my regaining the power to open my eyes did not depend 91 on this presumed spiritual poAver being excited by a movement in the air too slight for me to perceive. If this conclusion be not the right one, then we seem necessarily forced into the belief of the doctrine of a mesmeric medium, subtile enough to pass instantaneously through thick paper or pasteboard, which is generally agitated by any movement in the air, but which may be agitated and made to pass through paper and pasteboard, leaving, of course, the air that generally accompanies it, behind. On this view of the subject, the demesmerising power of a current of air, which Mr. Braid, in his work (On Hypnotism, p. 30), confesses he could not account for, depends on such motion in the air, causing a motion in an imponderable medium. It follows that the demonstration of such a medium is not more than probable from the above experiments, since I could not be quite certain that no motion in the air about my face took place. Mesmerisation and de- mesmerisation by the will alone, without any motion in the air, must be considered the sole best evidence of the existence of such a medium. The Rev. H. Townshend and others state they have succeeded in mesmerising by the will alone, the patient being sometimes half-a-mile or so off; but, in this case, it is also necessary to be sure the patient was not aware of the mesmeriser's inten- tions, for in two cases of this sort which I examined, I traced the whole of the supposed mesmerisation to this knowledge on the part of the patient. When I arranged the experiment so that they could not know when it was to begin, it failed perfectly. Without, therefore, presuming to say that Mr. Townshend was deceived, or that mes- merisation by the will alone is impossible, I certainly shall not believe in it without the satisfactory evidence of personal experience. The present reflections, how- ever, seem to speak to a certain extent in its favour, 92 since they display clearly the fact of a spiritual power distinct from ourselves, being able to perceive what we cannot, even with all our best attention, perceive. If it be possible for a volition of the human mind, then, to put this medium in motion, as Townshend thinks, there is no difficulty to believe that a spiritual power within us may perceive this motion, though we cannot perceive it, and consequently be so affected as to cause the mesmeric state in a very susceptible individual. Mark, then, in mesmerising by the will alone at great distances you act first, necessarily, on a spiritual power in the person dis- tinct (so to speak) from self, and such power has been proved to be far more susceptible of impressions than we are. It is only a question of distance, then; and why not be susceptible at great distances if the cause be strong ? I want but facts to believe. I have had an opportunity while this work has been going through the press to try the experiment with gela- tinous silica (suggested p. 22) on a cat. I commenced with half a teaspoonful well mixed with milk, and find- ing the animal not at all injured by this quantity, I re- peated it three or four times, till at last the quantity given amounted to two or three teaspoonsful, the animal still taking it freely, and being uninjured by it. In order to see if the silica passed off with the faeces, I put these into a crucible and kept them at a red heat for two or three hours, until all combustible matter was destroyed. The powder remaining behind was of a greyish white, and I should say amounted to one-fifth or one-sixth of the bulk of the faeces incinerated. Mu- riatic acid being poured upon them, no effervescence took place ; nor by long digestion, either in this or nitric acid, was there scarcely any solution effected, whether diluted Avith water or not. It hence consisted almost entirely 93 of dry silica powder. I may observe that the silica ap- peared to have acted like chalk in increasing the con- sistency of the faeces, Avhich were also of a lighter colour than usual. They Avere passed about twenty-eight hours after the animal had taken the last two teaspoonsful of the gelatinous silica, and consequently ample time had been alloAved to the digestive and assimilative powers to act upon and decompose it, if possible. Some faeces passed by the animal about three hours after the last were much more Avatery and darker, and contained silica, though in less proportion than the last. The cat, I am glad to say, has remained quite well now three weeks after the experiment. Subsequent authors appear to have been unable to repeat successfully Dr. Brown's experiment of the con- version of silica into carbon, and the present experiment would seem likewise to support Smith, Brett, and others, as to the impossibility of succeeding; for if the vital powers cannot effect such transformation (and the pre- sent experiment supports the opinion they probably can- not), it is not very reasonable to expect it can be effected in the chemist's laboratory. I should have stated at the end of the Essay on Cor- naro (p. 24) that both phosphorus and phosphoric acid have been tried on the human subject, and that the former acts on the generative organs something likecantharides, and that the latter (far less dangerous) appears to act as a tonic, like dilute sulphuric acid. Phosphorus should never, of course, be used but in homoeopathic doses—if even then. As regards Fluorine, it is very doubtful if it has even yet been isolated. I have lately made experiments on the antiseptic power of strong camphor-water, and though it seems to 94 have such poAver, it is inferior to salt-Avater, or solution of carbonat of soda, in preserving animal substances from putrefaction ; as regards milk, in two trials it failed altogether. In my Essay "On the Anti-Inflammable Powers of Carbonat of Soda and other Salts," pub- lished in the Philosophical Magazine for 1839, I have given many experiments to shew that carbonat of soda preserves both animal and vegetable substances from putrefaction; and I may here add that I have since found carbonat of soda to take aAvay the bad smell from meat, even after it has begun to decompose. Such being facts, I cannot doubt that one object of the soda in the blood and body generally, is to aid the vital power in preventing decomposition, since, in the paper above alluded to, it is shewn that milk was preserved from mouldiness, and kept free from a bad smell, for three weeks, by solution of carbonat of soda alone. I do not by this mean to assert that such antiseptic power is confined to carbonat of soda; on the other hand, there can be little or no doubt but that all the other saline matters in the body act equally as antiseptics, the common salt it contains having been known to act as such on dead matters from time immemorial. The above considerations lead me to put even addi- tional stress on the passage marked in Italics at p. 34 of my introduction to Raspail's Essay, since camphor-water is obviously not so powerful an antiseptic as saline solu- tions. I, therefore, here again may recommend carbonat of soda—not indeed, perhaps, as a vermifuge, but what is better—as a preventive of worms, acting along with other salines in really purifying the blood by tending to keep it red, fluid, and free from even the slightest symp- tom of putrefaction. The quantity of this salt that nature has put in the bile shews at once how essential it is for healthy assimilation and digestion. I repeat, then, 95 until worms have appeared, let us use more soda, com- mon salt, &c, than Raspail recommends. When they have appeared it is time to insist more on camphor, aloes, and vegetable anthelmintics generally. I have stated in the note, p. 41, that Mr. Cross's acari propagate by division. Being anxious to ascertain whether they propagated by ova also, as Raspail says the acari of cheese do, I lately wrote to Mr. Weekes to for- ward me the extract from my letter to him on that sub- ject in 1843, made on acari he sent me enclosed in a glass tube. He has kindly done so, and I find by these observations, made with much care, and written while still fresh in memory, that these acari seemed to propagate ^>oth by division and eggs; but certainly by eggs, or ^ivaparowsly:— 1 " The three remaining acari Crossi gradually en- larged in size, their bodies becoming almost divided into \wo; and shortly afterwards eight or ten little ones ^re found moving over the tube. Now all are dead. These little ones might have burst ova, as you say ; but I did not see them. They were scarcely visible except for their motion." I may here state that Mr. Noad has not been able to repeat the experiments of the production of Mr. Cross's acari in closed atmospheres, although he tried during two years; and that having lately myself much observed the mites which live in dry cheese, they appear very similar to the acari in question, though without seeing both side by side, I could not pronounce on their iden- tity. For the present, therefore, I deem it the wisest plan to have no opinion on this difficult subject. Having just received from Mr. Noad himself an account of his experiments, I shall conclude this work by stating, 1st, that Mr. Noad's apparatus consisted solely 96 +/¥>;*+*n of glass and iron; and, 2dly, that although no acari ever appeared within the receivers, yet " hundreds made their appearance, after about six months, on and about the j terminal cells of the batteries, of which the circuit was j kept closed during the whole time; but not in those bat- j teries where it was left incomplete, though several were | tried in the same room as the former." It would appear to follow from this extract, that the nature of these acari is to congregate in the vicinity of an J electrical current,—perhaps, in consequence of the decom- \ positions there going on; much, in fact, on the same principle as Raspail mentions their place of abode generally to be in old furniture, ill-conditioned ulcers, and where- soever the fermentation caseique (as in old cheese) is J present. Taken which way we will, their appearance I\ only about a closed electrical circuit is a curious fact; j Where decomposition is going on, they certainly havu more chance of finding nourishment. j Against all this Mr. Weekes writes me that Mr) Cross has lately succeeded in closed atmospheres. J^< 'j THE END. LONDON: GEOROE BARCLAY, CASTLE STREET, LEICESTER SQUARE. NLM015974191