Miscellanies. 197 
istered'in Jarge doses ; and several members of the society have ex- 
perienced these secondary effects in the most decided manner. 
Further, since iodine acts not only on the internal surface of the 
intestines, but also on that of the connected parts which open into the 
digestive tube, upon the glands of the mouth and the stomach, it must 
_ also increase the saliva, the gastric juice, the pancreatic fluid, the bile, 
&c. It must therefore modify, extensively, the process of assimila- 
tion and nutrition, if employed in suitable doses and under appropri- 
ate circumstances. Now, if iodine possesses a character of this kind ; 
if, as has been said, it stimulates the activity of various glands, we 
certainly cannot refuse it the power of resolving inveterate swellings 
and indurations of the glands. 
_ But what physician would restrain the use of a medicine so power- 
ful, to the treatment, singly, of goitre? may we not expect from iodine 
the best effects in diseases of the abdominal viscera, occasioned by 
the weakness of the digestive tube, to the stagnation of the blood in 
_ the vessels of those parts, in scrophula, and other similar affections. 
It promises to afford eminent service in those cases in which the veg- 
lative process of the animal economy is in a suffering state, from a 
i ution of vital energy. The employment, however, of this medi- 
cme demands the greatest precaution ; if administered in excess, it 
may easily give rise to inflammation or a morbid relaxation of the 
Parts. Two, three, six or eight drops of the tincture will be the or- 
dinary dose, which should be repeated only once in twenty four or for- 
ty eight hours, and taken each time in a little water. F. J. RiestEr. 
Jour. des progres des sciences Medicales, 1830, Tom. II. 
(Additional selections from foreign Journals, by Mr. C, U. Suppanp.) 
1 Pinguite,a new argillaceous mineral.—(A. Breithaupt, Schweig- 
Ser’s Jahrb. ; 1829, H. 3, S. 303.) This mineral is not unlike green 
earth; but its greasy lustre or fracture, entirely distinguishes it 
from that substance. Compact. Hardness =1. Specific gravity 
~#315. “When heated in a glass tube, it gives off much moisture. 
It comes from the mine of New Beschert Glick, in the Saxon Erzge- 
Tg; and occurs in a gangue of Heavy-Spar engaged in gneiss.— 
Vatrouch fiir Mineralogie, Jc. 1830. 8. 86.) 
2. Pp. runnerite.—The violet blue mineral found along with apo- 
Phyllite in the island of Hestoe, one of the Faroés, and hitherto ar- 
7anged as a variety of cuboidal caleareous spar, has been, by Esmark, 
s 
°n account of its form and large proportion of silica, put forth as a_ 
se Species, which he names Prunnerite, in honor of Prunner, the 
382) of Cagliari, in Sardinia.—(Edin. New Phil. Journ. 1820, p. 
