TREATMENT OF DISEASES. 95 



for six doses, restored consciousness when the flowers of stramonium had heeu 

 eaten by a boy 4 years old; after which a dose of castor-oil was given to work 

 it off by the bowels. 



Remarks.— This is from a Dr. A. "W. Lyle, of Castleton, Ind., in Medical 

 Brief, in which he also gives Dr. Thompson's account of the value of oU of 

 sassafras for henbane and tobacco poisoning, and also says: " It will destroy all 

 Insect life, and is an effectual antidote for the bite of venomous copperhead 

 snakes." He recommends all physicians to try it, and, the author thinks, it is 

 equally good for the people. He does not give the dose in these last cases; but 

 if a boy of four years can take 15 drops, an adult may take at least 40. And in 

 the snake-bites, I would rub it on the wounds also, and repeat as he directs. 



1. ACCIDENT FROM CHLOROFORM — To Prevent, by 

 Mixing Spirits of Turpentine with it.— "A preventive for those acci- 

 dents which so frequently occur in the administration of chloroform to produce 

 anaesthesia (insensibility to pain) has been suggested by Dr. Wachsmuth, of 

 Berlin, Germany: the method consisting simply in the addition of one part of 

 the rectified oil of turpentine (spirits of turpentine) to five parts of chloroform. 

 The oil of turpentine in vapor appears to exert a stimulating or life-giving effect 

 on the lungs, and protects those organs from passing into that paralyzed state 

 which seems to be produced by chloroform narcosis (to benumb, or to become 

 imconscious). It appears that Dr. Wachsmuth, while lying on a sick-bed, acci- 

 dentally breathed the vapor of turpentine, and he experienced from this a 

 strongly refreshing feeling— a fact which induced him to try the plan of adding 

 oil of turpentine to chloroform when using the latter for anaesthetic purposes." 



Remarks.— FeoiTile, even physicians, speak unadvisedly when they say oil 

 of turpentine, meaning the spirits, as it should be called; there is no oil of tur- 

 pentine proper. The sticky mass, as it runs from the trees, is distilled, when it 

 becomes very limpid, i. e., pure and clear, having scarcely an appearance of 

 oil — clear as water, as the common saying is. The only object of this explana* 

 tion is, that no one shall suppose that there is an oil, and a spirit, too ; they ar» 

 both one and the same thing. 



2. Accident from Chloroform— To Prevent by Management. 

 — It is believed that many of the deaths from the administration of chlorofornj. 

 have arisen by the patient lying upon the back, and the tongue, from loss of 

 muscular power or contractility, has fallen back into the throat and thus suffo- 

 cated the patient. This should certainly be looked to by everyone who admin- 

 isters it. The tongue can be held with a cloth, if need be. 



I see also by a recent statement in the Ann Arbor Register that Dr. McLean, 

 of the University of Michigan, in his surgical practice of 25 years, prefers 

 chloroform to any other anaesthetic, and has never had a death occur from it, 

 nor seen a death by its use. He has always used it when necessary, and is a 

 strong advocate for its use, and, all things considered, prefers it to ether. With 

 the foregoing cautions as to the breathing, to prevent suffocation from the 

 tongue falling over the glottis while the muscles are all relaxed by the chloro- 

 form, there need be no apprehension of danger from it; still, I can see no 

 abjection to mixing the turpentine with it. 



