100 



HUNTER ON TETANUS. 



slight, sometimes copious, and then pro- 

 ducing a degree of debility proportionate 

 to the extent of the haemorrhage ; no dis- 

 turbance of the digestive organs, of the 

 heart, or of any viscus or function, was 

 discoverable. There seemed to be but 

 one defect in the constitution, scarcely 

 explicable except on the somewhat me- 

 chanical hypothesis of a superabundance 

 of blood, accompanied, perhaps, by a 

 defect in the process of sanguification, 

 whereby the blood's fluidity was altered. 

 These ideas, borrowed from the now an- 

 tiquated humoral pathology, served to 

 indicate the method of treatment ; and 

 having no better guide to follow, I pro- 

 ceeded to put the plan thus suggested into 

 execution ; I accordingly advised my pa- 

 tients to live as dry as possible, or, in 

 other words, to restrict themselves to a 

 minimum of drink. 



I directed them at the same time to 

 take about half a drachm of dilute nitric 

 acid daily, in divided doses. Although 

 the reasoning which led to its adoption 

 is scarcely tenable, yet the remarkable 

 success of the treatment renders the re- 

 sult worth recording. 



Hippocrates, in his curious and in- 

 structive work on diet, insists much on 

 attention being paid to the quantity of 

 drink allowed to patients in different dis- 

 eases ; it is singular, however, that he no- 

 where speaks of restricting the quantity 

 of drink in cases of haemorrhage. 



Dr. Williams has lately recommended 

 the dry treatment in catarrhal affections 

 of the lungs attended with increased se- 

 cretion. In young persons, when the 

 sputa are abundant and easily gotten up, 

 I can attest the efficacy of an almost total 

 abstinence from drink. Not long ago, I 

 was called to see a young lady, then on 

 a visit to the house of the venerable Dr. 

 Percival. She had been blistered, and had 

 taken large quantities of squills, ipeca- 

 cuanha, antimonial wine, and other ex- 

 pectorants, and had refrained from solid 

 food, and indulged freely in demulcent 

 ptisans, whey, tea, &c. ; these means, with 

 confinement in her room, had been con- 

 tinued about a week without the slightest 

 benefit ; the cough was incessant, depriv- 

 ing her altogether of sleep, and accom- 

 panied with much wheezing, and an abun- 



dant easy expectoration. All remedies 

 were laid aside, an almost total abstinence 

 from drink observed, and a strikingly 

 rapid cure effected. In his work on diet, 

 Hippocrates gives some hints worth at- 

 tending to ; thus in cases of constipation 

 he recommends a very varied diet, and 

 he does so on good grounds, for a simple 

 uniform diet is very apt to occasion con- 

 stipation. Hippocrates lays much stress 

 on different sorts of exercise in different 

 states of health ; riding, walking, run- 

 ning. Riding and walking, have also their 

 specified varieties, not merely as to dura- 

 tion and velocity, but as to direction, for 

 he carefully distinguishes locomotion ac- 

 cording as it is continued in straight lines, 

 in curves, or in greater or less circles, on 

 flat or on hilly ground, &c. &c. Exer- 

 cise, in curves or in circles, appears to 

 have been a favorite gymnastic remedy 

 among the Greeks ; it is quite neglected, 

 but perhaps undeservedly, for running, 

 riding, or walking, in curves or circles, 

 must bring a number of muscles into play 

 which are comparatively unemployed in 

 rectilinear progression. The effects on 

 the circulating and nervous system, must 

 be likewise different, as is evident from 

 the remarkable disturbance they undergo 

 in the circular swing. — Lon. Med. Gaz. 



ADULTERATION OF QUININE. 



M. Pelletier, of Paris, states that if 

 twenty drops of the pure and concentra- 

 ted sulphuric acid be poured upon twenty 

 grains of suspected Quinine, the solution 

 will present a beautiful crimson color, 

 more or less intense according to the 

 quantity of salicine present. The adul- 

 teration of one part of salicine with nine- 

 ty-nine of Quinine, is, by these means, 

 easily discovered. — Lancet. 



HUNTER ON TETANUS. 



Dr. Hunter says, " Those most sus- 

 ceptible to this disease are of weakly, deli- 

 cate frames, and of suspicious minds, and 

 not of strong and robust ones. In warm 

 climates it is most frequent, and conse- 

 quently it is seldom found in cold wea- 

 ther. The cramp is most frequent in warm 

 climates, and bad fits are most frequent 

 in bed, for warmth seems to have a pecu- 

 liar effect in producing a particular dispo- 



