N. MATERIA MEDICA, THERAPEUTICS, AND HYGIENE. 623 



it should be suspended. Such symptoms, however, soon dis- 

 appear. 4. Its action is narcotic, and it is efficacious against 

 pain, and especially in neuralgia, but its efficacy is less mark- 

 ed than that of opium and belladonna. 5. It exerts a fayor- 

 able action in spasmodic and convulsive neurosis. It has 

 cured mercurial tremor when all other means have failed, 

 and in senile trembling ixwdi paralysis agitajis it has produced 

 an amelioration procurable by no other means. 6. In loco- 

 motor ataxy it is of no use, but in traumatic tetanus it has 

 produced an amount of relief that encourages further trial. 

 20 A, November 30, 1872, 605. 



OZONIZED "WATEK. 



Ozonized water has lately been profusely advertised by 

 several chemical establishments. Competent chemists assert 

 that water is not a solvent for ozone, otherwise rain-water 

 from thunder-clouds would contain it. Professor Bottger, in 

 Frankfort, has examined specimens of such ozone water, and 

 found an acid reaction, but no trace of ozone. The acid was 

 recognized as nitrous acid. Mr. Cams, on the contrary, pos- 

 itively states that ozone is present in considerable quantity, 

 without any free acid. 1 C, 1872, xv., 240. 



PKUNUS BOLDUS, A NEW ARTICLE OF THE MATERIA MEDICA. 



The 7nateria tnedica has quite lately been enlarged by the 

 addition of a Chilian tree, there called the Boldo {Prunus hol- 

 dus, Prioius fragra7is)^thQ leaves of which have an aromatic 

 taste, and contain an essential oil and an alkaloid which has 

 been termed Boldine. This substance crystallizes, and is sol- 

 uble in alcohol, ether, chloroform, and. benzine. It has been 

 recently introduced to a considerable extent into the United 

 States for the purpose of experiment by pharmacists. 1 A^ 

 October ^,1^12, \QS. 



ACTION OF COD-LIVER OIL. 



Dr. Decaisne, who has been investigating the therapeutic 

 action of cod-liver oil, reports as the result of nearly one 

 hundred observations that it is in rickety patients, as j^revi- 

 ously shown by various writers, that cod-liver oil has its 

 most positive and curative action, but that it cures neither 

 scrofula nor consumption. In these three affections, as in all 



