158 REPORT—1840. 
Bromine exerts an action on the rectum like that of iodine; it is 
also tonic and diuretic. Its remedial virtues are chiefly conspicuous as 
an external application in the treatment of scrofulous, syphilitic, malig- 
nant and specific ulcers. In these cases it appears to act as an ex- 
citant, and by diminishing the fcetor, and perhaps as a mild caustic. It 
appears also, from some cases observed by the author, to be a useful 
remedy in some chronic diseases of the skin. 
The bromides of potassium, sodium, barium and mercury, resemble 
much more the chlorides of those bases than the iodides in their phy- 
siological action. The bromide of potassium is a good tonic. The 
bibromide of mercury has no advantage as a remedy over the bichloride, 
contrary to what has been asserted in France. 
The bromide of cyanogen has a double action ; in a powerful dose it 
acts like prussic acid; in a more moderate dose it occasions most vio- 
lent symptoms of irritant poisoning, and is perhaps the most powerful 
irritant known. Ammonia is its best antidote. 
The chlorides and bromides of olefiant gas, likewise chloroform and 
bromoform, exert a very remarkable physiological action, whether in- 
troduced into the stomach or injected into the circulation. In the 
former case they produce in a large dose death by coma; in a smaller 
dose loss of power over the voluntary muscles, sensibility being re- 
tained, along with symptoms of obstructed respiration, arising from 
effusion into the lungs. In such cases the mucous membrane of the 
stomach is found blackened, and the lungs congested; the bronchi filled 
with frothy serum, and here and there spots of pulmonary apoplexy in 
the substance of the lung. When injected in large quantity into the 
blood, these substances cause almost instant death, producing great 
congestion in the lungs, and destroying the irritability of the heart. 
In smaller doses they produce death in the course of a few hours, 
with much the same symptoms as those which attend their introduction 
into the stomach. 
On the Treatment of Pertussis by Cold washing of the Chest. 
By Dr. Hannan. 
The chest is to be freely yet rapidly washed with the coldest water, 
to which a little vinegar, alcohol or Eau de Cologne is added, and 
immediately rubbed most firmly with a hot towel, to produce very de- 
cided reaction on the surface; to secure this the washing is to be 
done in an apartment of at least comfortable temperature, or the pa- 
tient put into bed. By this, repeated three or four times daily (at 
least morning and evening), the disease, he averred, is cut short, in 
many instances mitigated, and its course abbreviated in others. Seve- 
ral cases illustrative of this were read. He advises it in all stages, 
and would not be deterred from using it in bronchitis ; and though not 
certain of the propriety of it in peripneumonous complication, he is 
not inclined to regard that as a decided contra-indication of the remedy 
in question. He referred its usefulness in this disease to its rendering 
the system unsusceptible to cold (one great, nay, the greatest cause 
