N. MATERIA MEDICA, THERAPEUTICS, AND HYGIENE. 631 



Aristolochia, cultivated and growing wild in the region 

 about Ningpo. It is said to be a powerful purgative, emetic, 

 and antlielminthic, and is the principal remedy for the bites 

 of snakes. Dr. H. F. Hance reports the exports of this drug 

 from Ningpo as very large, amounting in 1868 to six or sev- 

 en hundred tons, and valued at over 26,000. 



No other genus of plants has had such a reputation in 

 these cases as Aristolochia^ through all ages, in every condi- 

 tion of society, and in all quarters of the globe. Greeks, 

 Romans, and Arabs, the Indians of North America, the West 

 Indies, and throughout South America, as well as the inhab- 

 itants of Eastern Asia, testify to the virtues of different spe- 

 cies. Yet modern physicians agree in regarding them as 

 simple diaphoretics, stimulant tonics, and emmenagogues. 

 The fact of this so general but apparently unfounded belief 

 is a curious one. Trimens' Jour. Jjot.^March^ 1873, 72. 



RELATION OF ENTOZOA TO THE GROUSE DISEASE. 



This disease has been a subject of great interest to the 

 sportsmen of Great Britain, the zest of the shooter's season 

 depending very much upon the presence or absence of this 

 affection. Some years ago it was extremely virulent, and 

 threatened an almost entire extermination of the birds. Of 

 late years the disease has been less troublesome. The pre- 

 cise cause has not yet been ascertained, although frequent 

 surmises have been expressed as to a dependence upon the 

 presence of entozoa. Dr. Cobbold, a very high authority 

 upon this subject, gives the details of an examination of dis- 

 eased grouse made by him, and he found that the intestinal 

 caeca were occupied by an undescribed species of strongylus, 

 about one third to one half an inch in lenc^th. The same an- 

 imal was found in healthy birds, but in much less quantity, 

 and Dr. Cobbold was prepared to admit that the health of 

 the grouse was probably affected by the presence of these 

 parasites, and that the disease might result in great part, if 

 not entirely, from the presence of the entozoa. 19^,A^o- 

 vember 9, 1872, 450. 



ANTAGONISM OF BELLADONNA AND PHYSOSTIGMA. 



According to Dr. Frazer, the active principle of belladon- 

 na (atropia) has a remarkable counteracting influence upon 



