64 TURNBULL ON RANUNCULACE. 
day, and it relieved him for a time. He rubbed also the extract of 
belladonna, two or three times a-day, and this, he said, certainly 
produced relief for some time; but I am sorry to say, that at the — 
very last he was nearly as bad as at first. He himself maintained that 
he was a great deal better ; he did not allow it, but maintained 
it. I was afraid that he was not improved, but he assured me that 
he was better after he took the iron; that altogether his sufferings 
were not such as they were before he came to the hospital ; but still 
they were dreadful. He appeared to be an excellent man, a man of 
a strong mind, but in his agony the tears were seen running down 
his cheeks. 
“ He will return, but I have no idea of medicine doing him any 
further good. We have given him the most powerful remedies, and 
these have been used in the most powerful manner, although with 
great care, but he is not materially better, and therefore, when he 
comes back it is to be considered whether or not he shall have his 
finger amputated. JI have very little hope, however, in the opera- 
tion, and for this reason—cases have occurred in which the opera- 
tion has failed, the disease having reappeared in the corresponding 
nerves of the other hand, and in the trunk of the nerves the branches 
of which have suffered amputation. Still it may be right to make 
the trial. I have little hope of success, however, for another reason, 
because he has had the affection before in the nerves of the face.’ 
This patient came under treatment, about the end of October, 1834, 
and in detailing his subsequent progress, I shall confine myself to a 
weekly report, in order to avoid repetition. ‘The history which he 
gave of his case was substantially the same as that quoted above. 
He stated, that since December 1832, he had been suffering in an 
extreme degree, that he had been in the hospital about eighteen 
months subsequent to that date, and had been using every remedy | 
that was likely to afford relief, butin vain. He stated, that the only 
ease he had, was from taking large doses of morphia, to the extent 
of from ten to twenty grains a-day ; but that even these procured 
him only a few hours of broken rest. 
The pain was seated in the fingers and wrist of the left hand, but 
particularly in the middle finger, through which, and along the wrist, 
it darted like a stab with a knife. He could not bear the slightest 
degree of motion in any of the joints, either of the fingers or wrist, 
without bringing on a violent paroxysm of pain, and for the same 
reason he could not suffer the middle finger to be touched. His nails 
were long and curved. The ring and little fingers were benumbed 
and painful, and a similar feeling extended up the arm as far as the 
shoulder. He had had no pain in his face for three months, but he 
stated that the pain in the hand, at times, almost deprived him of his 
senses. His appearance was wretched, and indicated the sufferings 
he endured. , : | 
First Week. Under these circumstances, he was ordered to rub 
the saturatedt incture of the root of the 4conitum Napellus, pre- 
