POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



je-j 



nace we had perfect control over the heat. 

 I did not wish to have it too hot at the time 

 of placing the body in it for fear of an ex- 

 cessive generation of gases, but I believe 

 we would not have gained anything by 

 having the heat any more intense ; from my 

 observation I am convinced that the heat 

 required is not so gFeat as generally sup- 

 posed : the action of the heat on the lime 

 gives it the appearance of being intensely 

 hot, but at the same time I noticed that the 

 end of the plate whei'e the flame turned 

 was barely altered just scored a little, as 

 if it had approached nearly to the melting- 

 point. 



" The furnace did not cost $100, and I 

 suppose about 1,000 pounds of coal were 

 consumed." 



Signs of Advance iu Medical Science. 



A significant communication has appeared 

 in the English medical journals, namely, a 

 letter to Dr. B. W. Richardson, from George 

 Wyld, M. D., Vice-President of the British 

 Homoeopathic Society, in which the latter 

 pleads for a reconciliation between homoeop- 

 athists and practitioners of the regular 

 school of medicine. Dr. Wyld in effect 

 maintains that the art and science of medi- 

 cine, as understood by the homoeopathists, 

 so called, of England, and by the regular 

 profession, are now the same. Hahnemann, 

 in his famous essay, entitled " The Medi- 

 cine of Experience," had made no mention 

 of homoeopathy, and the doses there rec- 

 ommended were tangible, not infinitesimal. 

 But, as his views were scornfully rejected by 

 the medical profession of the time, Hahne- 

 mann, in his turn, became intolerant of the 

 views received by the medical profession, 

 and, "out of spite," as one might say, 

 adopted the doctrine of the efficacy of in- 

 finitesimal doses. But everything is now 

 changed, according to Dr. Wyld. " The so- 

 called homoeopathists," he writes, "have 

 almost entirely abandoned the use of glob- 

 ules, and have substituted doses in a tangi- 

 ble form. Further, whereas the early hom- 

 oeopathists denounced all auxiliaries in the 

 treatment of disease, it is now the practice 

 to make frequent use of all remedies of a 

 simple kind, such as occasional aperients, 

 anodynes, opiates, anaesthetics, galvanism, 

 hydropathy, Turkish baths, and mineral 



waters. In short, we define our practice as 

 rational medicine, including the application 

 of the law of contraries, but plus the appli- 

 cation of the law of similars." Dr. Wyld 

 adds that the sentiments he expresses are 

 held by a large number of homoeopathic 

 practitioners. He believes that were physi- 

 cians of his school to be admitted to the 

 regular medical societies and to the pages 

 of regular medical journals, it would not 

 be long before all sectarianism in medicine 

 would be at an end. He demands the same 

 liberty of opinion in medicine as in religion 

 or pontics, and an amalgamation with the 

 regular profession on equal terms. Dr. 

 Richardson asks his brethren to " accept 

 this intended message of peace and good- 

 will in the spirit in which it is written and 

 offered." 



Experiments witli Viper-Poison. In the 



Zeitschrift filr Biologic, Valentin states the 

 results of his researches on viper-poison. 

 The particular species of vipers employed 

 was the V. aspera of LinnEeus. Only one 

 viper out of twenty could be made to bite 

 by external irritation. One viper was made 

 insensible under the influence of ether, and 

 Valentin took the opportunity of squeezing 

 out some of the poison on squares of Swed- 

 ish filtering-paper; he also obtained some 

 of the transparent mucus which had col- 

 lected on the palate near the apices of the 

 poison-fangs. A fragment of this paper a 

 few millimetres square placed under the skin 

 of the back of a frog generally caused death 

 in from six to twenty hours, the cause of the 

 fatal results, the author thinks, being due to 

 the admixture of some of the yellow, oily 

 secretion of the poison-gland with the sali- 

 va. Paper impregnated with the poison re- 

 tained its activity for six months or more, 

 and enough was obtained from one animal 

 to saturate twenty pieces of filtering-paper 

 presenting twenty to thirty-five square milli- 

 metres of surface. It was found that a 

 quantity of the poison not exceeding 

 0.00037 of a gramme is capable of produc- 

 ing, when inserted beneath the skin of a 

 frog, well-marked and persistent symptoms 

 of poisoning and death iu thirteen days ; 

 and quantities varying from one-half to one 

 milligramme killed a frog in from eight to 

 twenty hours. 



