40 | TURNBULL ON RANUNCULACEA. 
- js increased by pressure, but particularly by attempts at motion, and 
the same noise and sensation are present when it is bent and ex- 
tended as in the hip-joint. The swelling in both situations is white 
in appearance, puffy, and somewhat elastic. The sufferings of the 
patient are much aggravated by change of weather ; and attempts | 
at motion in the affected joints are attended with so much pain that 
he is compelled, in walking, to lift the whole extremity without 
bending it, by exerting the muscles of the opposite side. — 
For the removal of the disease, he had proviously resorted to 
most of the remedies in common use. Besides having taken inter- 
nally every thing that appeared likely to afford relief, he had em- 
ployed to the parts themselves, bleeding, counter-irritation by means 
of blisters, &c., and embrocations of every kind ; all of which had 
failed in procuring any other than a temporary abatement of the 
symptoms. 
Under these circumstances this case first presented itself, and 
with the view of giving a fair trial to external applications, the af- 
fected parts were ordered to be rubbed with croton oil twice a day, 
until a very free eruption came out, and this plan was followed 
with considerable success for about six weeks, during all of which 
time the irritation was kept up by repeated frictions with the oil. 
Kiven this, however, at last began to lose its effect ; and the pain, 
which had at first diminished considerably, now appeared to be 
rapidly on the increase, and as there was no objection to the appli- 
cation of the Veratria, it was prescribed. 
An ointment made with twenty grains of the alcaloid to an ounce 
of lard, was ordered to be rubbed for twenty minutes twice a-day 
over the knee and hip of the affected side ; and after it had been 
made use of a few times, the troublesome symptoms began to de- 
cline. ‘The pain went quite away, and the swelling and the rigidity 
became rather less : so that at the end of ten days or a fortnight, the 
patient could bend both the diseased joints, and could walk almost 
without inconvenience. The disease itself is, of course, not re- 
moved ; but he can now take exercise on foot, and move the articu- 
lations with freedom. : ; : 
In changeable weather a slight return of the pain sometimes takes 
place, but this is at once removed by rubbing the part with the 
ointment for a few minutes; and the patient is now in a comfort- 
. able condition. 
CASE V. 
Mr. B.,a gentleman about forty-five years of age, was seized two 
years ago with an attack of rheumatism which terminated in a 
chronic affection of the joints of the right arm and hand. He expe- 
renced great difficulty in making use of the muscles of the shoulder 
from the pain which always attended upon any efforts at motion : 
the elbow-joint was stiff and painful, and he was obliged to carry 
the fore-arm in a sling. The articulations of the fingers were 
