210 Proceedings of Societies. [May 



8. A short statement drawn up by a native, relative to an injury of the hip 

 joint, of 10 months duration; and the patient whose case was related, came 

 before the Society for examination. 



y. A letter from M. Tierney, Esq. inclosing a copy of a communication from 

 Sir M. Tierney, relative to the efficacy of Cajeputi Oil in Cholera ; 50 drops are 

 recommended to be administered in half a wine-glass of tepid water, and repeated 

 every half-hour, until 250 or 300 drops have been taken. Sir M. Tierney states 

 this remedy to have been used successfully in the severest cases of Cholera ; and 

 that two or three doses, if given early, are usually sufficient to arrest the disease. 

 The statements of the effects of Cajeputi Oil, in Cholera occurring in Calcutta, do 

 not correspond with the good effects, which by the above account appear to have 

 followed its use in England ; that medicine having proved entirely inert when 

 administered under circumstances which authorised expectation of the patient's 

 recovery by the uses of ordinary remedies ; as much as six drachms by measure 

 having been given to one patient in the course of five hours without the least effect. 

 By a report published at Madras, it appears that Cajeputi Oil has been recently 

 tried in H. M. 54th Reg. at Trichinopoly, during a severe epidemic visitation of 

 Cholera; the effects of that remedy are stated to be very temporary, and by no 

 means so beneficial as Mr. Hamiltom, the Surgeon of the Regiment, had been led 

 to expect. 



The following papers wei-e then read and discussed by the meeting. 



Dr. Casanova's replies to the questions proposed by the President at the last 

 meeting of the Society ; namely — 1st. Whether natural small-pox ever succeeds 

 to a vaccination, in which the specific characters of the vaccine disease have been 

 developed. — 2nd. Whether a person having had the true vaccine disease, and 

 having been thereby protected from variola for a certain time, may become after- 

 wards liable to contract the natural small-pox. — 3rd. Whether the true vaccine 

 disease, by transmission through numerousindividuals, be preserved unchanged, or 

 be capable of undergoing any particular alteration, whereby its prophylactic 

 properties are diminished ; or if the virus be deteriorated or capable of change 

 in different climates. 



The author observes, " This is the question which agitates the public mind ; 

 shall we be safe from small-pox, if we are vaccinated ?" He then offers the 

 following replies to the queries ; 1st, he has sufficient reasons for asserting, that 

 in general the individuals reported to have had variola after vaccination, have in 

 fact either had spurious cow-pox ; or that the disease which has supervened after 

 vaccination, instead of being variola, was merely one of the numerous exanthe- 

 mata which resemble variola in some respects, but are exceedingly different in 

 many of the essential characters. He goes on to state, that vaccine lymph taken 

 from a perfect vesicle, and used at the same time in several subjects, is liable to 

 produce genuine vaccine in some, while an imperfect vaccine may be developed 

 in others ; and supports this statement by reference to printed reports of numerous 

 experiments made by Dr. Romay and himself at the Havannah, in 1825; which 

 authorise him to say, that spurious vaccine may repeatedly affect the same person, 

 but when the true vaccine has been developed and gone through its regular course, 

 the person is during the rest of his life insusceptible of either true or false vaccine 

 disease, or of the natural small-pox. He farther refers to experiments made in 

 various countries, which tend to confirm his opinions : the most remarkable state- 

 ment which he points out is the summary of observations made by 43 medical 

 men at Philadelphia in 1828, relative to a variolous epidemic, which raged in that 

 city; where 80,000 vaccinated persons resided; and it appeared that only one death 

 from variola took place on that occasion, among the above number of vaccinated 

 persons. 



With respect to the 2nd question, Dr. C. does not consider that his opportunities 

 for investigation authorise the expression of a positive opinion ; but he has 

 never met with a single case that would support the conjecture of some physicians, 

 that the security afforded by vaccination against variola is liable to wear out. 

 He proposes that the subject should be submitted to the test of experiments ; 

 but as several years would be requisite to settle the question in this way, he 

 observes, that so many medical men must now exist, who having been vaccinated 

 formerly, and afterwards repeatedly exposed to variolous contagion annually, he 

 thinks an appeal to our professional brethren in this country may be at once 

 conclusive. With respect to Mr. Mercer's seven cases reported at the former 

 meeting of the Society, he only acknowledges one to be variola (case 4), and that 



