EXTERNAL APPLICATION OF VERATRIA, ETC. 31 
bled, generally and locally ; blisters and embrocations were repeat- 
edly employed, but still no abatement in the severity of the symp- 
tems took place. Along with these means he had also used large 
doses of carbonate of iron, arsenic, mercury, Opium, morphia, sul- 
phate of quinine, nux vomica, &c., without effect; and when he 
came under treatment, he had been taking prussic acid in a quantity 
sufficient to affect the nervous system, and with as little success as 
from the measures which had before been resorted to. 
_ Ass it appeared, from the history of the case, that the patient had 
been in the habit of indulging his appetite for food and drink toa 
considerable degree, and as his digestive organs appeared somewhat 
deranged, he was directed to take small doses of blue pul with 
Epsom salts ; and along with these means the Veratria ointment 
was prescibed, of the same strength as in the preceding instance ; 
and from the fact of there being no distinct interval observable 
betwixt the paroxysms, he was directed to rub it over the seat of 
the pain twice a day, and to renew the friction at any other time 
should the attack come on. | : - 
In the course of four or five days he returned very much improved 
in every way. His general health appeared better ; the disease 
had been greatly relieved, for instead of being almost always pre- 
sent, as had been the case for so long a time, it had been broken up 
into distinct accessions, and these were attended with comparatively 
little pain: he was therefore directed to discontinue the regular 
application of the ointment, and to employ it only when threatened 
with a renewal of the paroxysm: soon after this, he gave up the 
use of the internal medicines which had been prescribed for him, 
and he went on gradually improving under the influence of the 
Veratria alone ; the intervals became longer, and the fits less and less 
paicful, until at the end of four weeks from the time he came under 
treatment, he returned home perfectly free from pain, and I believe 
has been so ever since. 
CASE III. 
_A apy, forty-eight years of age, has been affected with severe 
tic-douloureux, situated in the middle of the left side of the face, 
for a period of twenty-two years. She has made use of every 
possible medicine, particularly of carbonate of iron, which she had 
taken for three months in very large doses, but without experienc- 
ing any benefit. : 
The paroxysms are irregular in their duration, but never shorter 
than twelve hours, and they return generally at the end of three 
days, sometimes at the end of a week, but seldom longer ; and 
during the interval she is not altogether free from pain. 
A short time before this patient came under treatment she had 
an attack of paralysis; from which, however, she had recovered, 
with the exception of a slight palsied appearance of the countenance. 
There were no very marked symptoms of derangement in the diges- 
