TEEATMENT. 101 



Take of spirits of turpentine one ounce, and of castor oil seven 

 ounces, to be given only once as the first dose ; take sesquicarhonate 

 of ammonia and powdered Peruvian hark^ each one drachm, powdered 

 ginger thirty grains, and peppermint water six ounces, to be taken 

 three times a day. Boil one ounce of mutton suet in a half pint of 

 new milk, strain and give every night ; and give four ounces of 

 brandy in a half pint of Unseed tea every morning. Each of the 

 above doses to be increased or decreased accordinor to circumstances. 



The limits of this Eeport will not permit an extended 

 review of these various prescriptions; and it is doubtful 

 whether it would be possible to assign any satisfactory reason 

 for the successful action of many of them, if such could be 

 truly predicated. 



It would be unwise for instance to rely upon a remedy as 

 a mere de-odorizer of the alimentary canal, inasmuch as such 

 an agent would be unnecessary if convalescence were once 

 established, and useless, if it did not exert a decided influence 

 in mitigating the fury of the disease. It is also to be observed 

 on the most cursory examination of the list of therapeutic 

 formulae we have given, that many neutral salts, such as the 

 chlorates and nitrates of potash, &c., and others of which 

 sodium is the base, enter as chief ingredients ; their combina- 

 tion with acids, stimulants, sudorifics or narcotics, promis- 

 ing to their authors some remote chance of relief. We are 

 far from asserting that these salts could not be supplied at 

 certain stages of the Pest with decided benefit ; but we point 

 to these recipes more as exhibiting the sheerest empiricism, 

 at least in the motley admixtures proposed by each enthusi- 

 ast, and according to his fanciful conceit of their essential 

 value. It is in this and not in any invidious sense, that we 

 have as we think, very fairly designated them as nostrums. 



Further on we will notice such of the remedies cited as from 

 other analogies may claim to have specific virtue in arrest- 

 ing the peculiar ferment of the Pest ; but now let us pass 

 to the consideration of those which if given in a state of 

 health in large and repeated doses, would tend to the devel- 

 opment of a morbid action, very similar to that we are con- 

 sidering. This we need hardly remind the intelligent reader, 

 brings us to the consideration of the homoeopathicity of cer- 



