112 REPORT—1868. 
presses upon the pulsating artery may be calculated in grammes. The subject of 
the author’s researches was the febrile pulse of typhus and other fevers, and of 
pneumunia and some other acute inflammations. In all these diseases the arterial 
tension is lowered throughout the period of fevers and elevated temperature. The 
pulse-curvealways becomesdicrotous: instead of the wave being slightly three-pointed, 
it presents only ¢wo elevations with a gap or notch between them, which is more or 
less deep in direct ratio with the violence of the febrile symptoms and the lowering 
of arterial tension. When alcchol acts favourably (as indicated by the decline of 
temperature, slowing of the pulse, and cessation of delirium or stupor), it is univer- 
sally found that the pulse-curve becomes less dicrotous [elevated tension]; on the 
contrary, when alcohol confuses the intellect and aggravates the feverishness, the 
ulse-trace is invariably rendered more markedly dicrotous, the notch being 
asiened [lowered tension]. It is therefore of first-rate importance, when we are 
in doubt as to the propriety of administering alcohol in fevers or inflammation, to 
give an experimental dose, taking comparative sphygmographic traces before, and 
15 minutes after the administration. If arterial tension has been increased, the 
alcohol may be confidently continued ; if it has been diminished, the alcohol must 
be at once diminished or altogether discontinued, for the experimental dose has 
acted as a depressant. 
The above rules are chiefly applicable to the cases in which the pulse is of a 
certain volume, and its sphygmographic curves are large. But there are many 
cases in which the pulse is small, although it presents all the true dicrotism of the 
febrile pulse. It is then of great consequence to ascertain whether the smallness 
of the pulse is due to impairment of the heart-power; and the new arrangement 
for the graduation of spring-pressure enables us to do this with great ease. We 
discover, namely, the exact amount of spring-pressure under which the pulse- 
curves are produced of the maximum size. If the pressure required to develope the 
maximum curye be as much as 200 or 250 grammes, this indicates a good amount 
of heart-power; if, on the contrary, the maximum curve be obtained with a 
pressure of only 100 to 120 grammes, we may be sure the heart is decidedly feeble ; 
and it is preeminently a case for the administration of alcohol. 
Such are the empirical facts which the author has established by an experience 
of many hundred cases of fever and inflammation. The physiological explanation 
of them is by no means so certain. Is the elevation of arterial tension which is 
certainly produced by a dose of alcohol which (under the circumstances) acts as a 
reviving stimulant, while it simultaneously reduces the feverishness, brought about 
by a stimulation of the vaso-motor nerves, causing contraction of the arterioles ? 
Or is it produced by a stimulation of the vagus, whose central power over the 
heart it increases? Or does it act by a general stimulation of the spinal cardiac 
centres, which also might antagonize the excessive action of the heart? The 
author is of opinion that stimulation of the sympathetic is at any rate the earliest, 
and probably throughout the chief, part of the effect of alcohol on the circulation. 
On the other hand, Professor Behier of Paris (who has also observed with the 
sphyemograph the remarkable effects of alcohol upon the pulse in acute disease), 
while admitting the extreme complexity of the problem, is more inclined to believe 
that stimulation of the central power of the vagus has the principal share in the 
tonic and slowing effects of alcohol upon the circulation. 
On the Generation of White Blood-corpuscles. By Dr. Brnter. 
On Electrolysis in the Mouth. 
By W. Kuycory Brineman, L.D.S., 2.0.8. Lond. 
About six years ago the author obtained the Tomes Gold Medal of the Odon- 
tological Society of Great Britain for a prize essay on the Pathology of Dental 
Caries. The theory on which the essay was founded was Electrolysis, and was 
accompanied by various preparations demonstrating the eflects of electrie action 
upon organic matter, torether with the electro-decalcification of enamel and dentine, 
and the transference of the lime-salts to the negative electrode or cathode. The 
