ATROPA BELLADONNA. 75 
plant was really to be found a preservative of scarlatina, similar 
to that which the cowpock affords against variola. It was not 
till I had received the authority of the celebrated Soemmering, 
who informed me that he had obtained the most satisfactory 
results with it, when the disease raged epidemically, that I 
determined to employ it. This malady, accompanied by the 
most unfavourable symptoms, and having entirely changed its 
usual character, was at that time producing ravages almost as 
fatal as contagious typhus. I then, for the first time, had the 
happiness to protect from this dreadful contagion almost all 
those who took the Belladonna with a little perseverance (and 
of these there were many thousands); since that time I have 
never lost sight of the discovery, which becomes the more valu- 
able, as the scarlatina has increased during the last thirty years, 
both in violence and extent, in many countries, and I have 
always found the same effects in different climates and in epi- 
demics of opposite characters. Many other physicians have 
equally confirmed the preventive powers of this plant; and the 
German journals are daily filled with proofs of a benefit which, 
with respect to some countries, equals that of vaccination. In 
France, the capital and provinces of which appear less subject 
to these fatal epidemics than Germany, Switzerland, the Tyrol, 
Poland, and the north in general, less attention has been given 
to this discovery, and it has been rejected, it must be said too 
lightly, and without sufficient examination, as may be seen in the 
article Belladonna, in the Dict. des Sciences Médicales. I only 
remember a single observation on this important subject by 
Dr. Meglin, who gives an account of a trial which he gave to 
this preservative during an epidemic of scarlatina at Colmar, 
and which confirms all the assertions of the German physicians. 
The absence of present danger is perhaps the cause of this 
indifference towards a discovery which, important in itself, 
might also be fruitful in results applicable to other diseases. 
At present, however, I shall confine myself to an account of the 
results which have been ascertained (by repeated observations, 
