46. TURNBULL ON RANUNCULACE#, 
glish pint in twenty-four hours; and could not by any means be made 
to exceed that quantity. 2 : eo 
For six weeks after he came under treatment, the plan pursued 
was similar to the one already described. Mercury, squill, the ace- 
tate and super-tartrate of potass, digitalis, colchicum, spirit of nitrous 
ether, juniper, broom seed, &c. were all had recourse to without 
the slightest benefit, and the same want of success attended the 
exhibition of elaterium, gamboge, and other drastic purgatives ; these 
last produced large watery stools, but without bringing about any 
apparent diminution of the swelling. There now appeared no hope 
of recovery : all the means likely to procure relief had been put in 
force, and had only added to the distress and debility of the patient, 
so that it became necessary to abandon them, and look out for some 
other means of cure. ee | | 
In this emergency it was resolved upon to make trial of the Ve- 
ratria externally, and a box of ointment, made with four grains of 
the alealoid and an ounce of lard, was accordingly directed to be 
rubbed over the surface of the abdomen at bed-time. The whole 
quantity was applied ; and in the course of the night, and following 
morning, the patient evacuated no less than eight pints of urine, 
which had caused a marked diminution of the swelling, both in the 
abdemen and extremities, and was attended with considerable relief 
to the breathing and circulation ; but, along with these effects, the 
medicine had caused such an alarming prostration of strength as to 
render the administration of stimulants absolutely necessary, for 
three days before the ointment could be repeated ; at the end of that 
time, when the patient appeared somewhat recovered from his weak- 
ness, a fresh quantity was prescribed, in which, however, a less pro- 
portion of the Veratria was used, owing to the violent constitutional 
symptoms caused by the first. On this occasion, two grains only 
were rubbed on, yet the diuretic effects were scarcely less marked 
than before ; and these were again accompanied by a degree of 
debility which, although not so great as in the preceding instance, 
still made it a matter of necessity to repeat the stimulants, and to_ 
delay the third application for five or six days. 
On both cecasions, after the first effects of the ointment. had 
subsided, the quantity of urine diminished considerably, but the 
swelling became daily less in magnitude, and the patient went on 
improving ina manner that could not have been anticipated. On 
the fifth or sixth day from the second rubbing, a third, with an ounce 
of ointment containing two grains of Veratria, was directed to be 
made use of, as before ; and from this time the dropsy rapidly dis- 
appeared ; the patient gained strength sufficient to enable him to take 
active exercise ; and at the end of three weeks from the first applica- 
tion of the Veratria, he was completely cured, and has since had no 
return of the disease. : 
_ The only collateral treatment employed in this case, along with 
the 'Veratria, consisted in the daily exhibitien of purgative medicine, 
not with the view of producing any change upon the disease by its 
