TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 157 
consequence of his experience of the treatment of such complaints at 
the New Town Dispensary of Edinburgh, as well as in private practice, 
where he had administered the oil of theCroton Tiglum in a large num- 
ber of cases. The author selected some of the cases, particularly of 
epilepsy, wherein he had produced entire relief from that very grievous 
malady, and he mentioned especially one instance where a cure had 
been effected after this disease had existed for upwards of twelve years. 
On the Effects of Air when Injected into the Veins. 
By Dr. J. R. Cormack. 
The author objected to the theory published by Sir Charles Bell, 
who ascribes death, when it takes place, to the effect which the air 
produces on the medulla oblongata. This Dr. Cormack denied, and 
stated that it requires a large quantity of air to be injected in order to 
produce death, when, in every instance, the heart was found distended 
in its right cavities, and its functions arrested from this cause. Dr. 
Cormack communicated some notices of the diseases occurring in 
Tangier in Barbary, the principal of which are elephantiasis, inguinal 
hernia and hydrocele, with every form of dropsy. Intermittents are 
frequent, typhus rare. When cholera broke out, upwards of one-tenth 
of the native inhabitants perished in a few months; the Moors, being 
fatalists, took no precautionary measures, whilst of the 300 Christian 
inhabitants not more than two or three perished. 
On Mnemonics. By Dr. MacDonatp. 
The object of the paper was to show grounds for a new and more 
philosophical classification and treatment of insanity. It is incapable 
of abridgement. 
On the Physiological and Medicinal Action of Bromine and its Com- 
pounds. By Dr. R.M. Grover, Lecturer in the Medical School of 
Newcastle. Communicated by Dr. J. Ret. 
The study of the physiological action of remedies bears the same 
relation to therapeutics as physiology itself to pathological science ; 
and thus, as the investigation of this subject seems well calculated to 
throw light on the physiological actions of chlorine and iodine, which 
cannot, like bromine, be exhibited pure in experiments, it seems worthy 
of being pushed as far as possible. 
Whether bromine be taken into the lungs in the form of vapour, or 
in the fluid form into the stomach, or injected directly into the circu- 
lation, it acts purely as a corrosive and irritant. Its action on the 
prime vie is different from that of hydrobromic acid, into which 
bromine is converted when absorbed into the circulation. The author 
extends this observation by analogy to chlorine and iodine, and their 
respective hydracids. - 
