Natural History. ' 169 



of water, and directs that a table spoonful of this solution should 

 be taken twice a day in half a glass of wine, or sugar and water. 

 Persons who have had no objection have taken the pure solution* 



In cases where the enlargement of the thyroid gland has been 

 accompanied by the same affection of the lymphatic ganglions of 

 the neck, bitter and tonic roots, such as gentian, ^c, have been 

 added to the alkali ; and also purgatives administered, such as 

 rhubarb and senna, with anise or fennel seeds, the whole infused 

 in a bottle of good wine, of which a quarter of a glass has been 

 taken two or three times a day. 



In one case, among many others, relief was afforded to a young 

 person who had several enlarged glands on each side of the neck, 

 even after it had been proposed to extirpate them by a surgical 

 operation, the remedy being continued for several months. In 

 other cases, very old suppurations of the glands have been corrected 

 and cured, after they had resisted various modes of treatment. 



When, in 1820, Dr. Coindet proposed the use of iodine, M. Pes- 

 chier also applied it, but, except in one instance, always with the 

 solution of soda. In one case, where tincture of iodine alone was 

 used, the disease resisted the medicine for six weeks, and, at the 

 end of that time, had become hard, producing a sensation of stran- 

 gulation. Leaving off the use of iodine, Dr. Peschier first gave 

 purgatives, and then alkali, and attained the end required. 



From that time M. Peschier says he has resumed the exclusive 

 use of sub-carbonate of soda, and always with success. He sug- 

 gests the propriety of observing, whether the inhabitants of those 

 places where the water is slightly alkaline are not less liable to 

 goitre than in other places ; and whether mixing habitually a small 

 quantity of soda in the water intended to be drunk, would not 

 entirely prevent the occurrence of this disease in places where it 

 is now most readily manifested. — Bib. Univ. xxvii. 146. 



6. On Digestion in Ruminating Animals, by MM. Prevost and 

 Royer. — The experiments of these philosophers were made on 

 sheep, the stomach of ruminating animals offering many facilities 

 in the examination of the phenomena of digestion in consequence 

 of its division into four parts. 



The masticated food, moistened with saliva in the mouth, passes 

 by the oesophagus into the paunch (herbier), a large cavity, occu- 

 pying the greater part of the left side of the abdomen ; its internal 

 surface is provided -with papillae, formed from the mameilated 

 tunic, which are covered with an epidermis, readily separating into 

 plates and shreds. The paunch communicates by a large aperture, 

 with the second division placed to the right of the oesophagus : the 

 mameilated tunic here presents folds which project consider- 

 ably, and circumscribed polygons, the areas of which are covered 

 with fine papillye. The food in this division is less solid than that 



