304 Proceedings of Learned Societies. 



several examples of enthusiastic investigators whose lives have "been 

 perilled by the self-administration of dangerous re-agents. 



As a rule, these investigations are made, in the first instance, on 

 the lower animals ; but the results so obtained only give a very slight 

 approximation to what would be the nature of the action of these 

 bodies on the human frame. 



We know absolutely nothing of the different constitutional 

 powers in the different animals, so that our only means of acquiring 

 a knowledge of the therapeutical action of remedies is by direct 

 experiment in every case. 



For example, the goat and the sheep are so slightly different in 

 structure and organization that it is difficult even to discover a well- 

 defined specific distinction between the two animals. Nevertheless, 

 many substances are fatal to the sheep that the goat eats with im- 

 punity. A goat will eat at a meal a sufficient quantity of laurel 

 twigs (Cerasus Lauro cerasus) to destroy the life of a cow, a ruminat- 

 ing animal, whose organization closely resembles its own. In the 

 same manner, tobacco — one of the most fatal of all poisons to the 

 human frame — is eaten by goats and monkeys with great avidity, 

 and without any apparent evil consequences. 



Among the most important new remedies which science has be- 

 stowed upon medicine may be mentioned the preparations of the 

 element bromine. 



Bromine, as is well known, belongs to the same group of ele- 

 ments as chlorine, iodine, and fluorine ; each of these, though per- 

 fectly capable of replacing each other in chemical combinations, has 

 a totally different action on the vital organism. 



Chlorine is an essential to the life of all animals, and is supplied 

 in the form of common salt, chloride of sodium. Iodine is, both 

 when simple and in combination, a powerful stimulant, exciting the 

 glandular system. 



Fluorine, though never yet isolated, is in some of its combina- 

 tions a powerful poison. 



Bromine has been discovered by Dr. Gibb to possess, when ad- 

 ministered in the form of bromide of ammonium, Br N" H 4 , a power 

 of producing insensibility or even partial paralysis of the nerves 

 going to the glottis and larynx, or organs situated at the top of the 

 windpipe. 



This knowledge has been at once applied to practical medicine. 

 The painful disease known as whooping-cough owes its chief danger 

 and discomfort to spasm of the nerves going to the respiratory 

 organs. It has been found that the administration of a few grains 

 of bromide of ammonium three times a day has the effect of allaying 

 this spasm, and so preventing the most dreaded symptoms of the 

 disease. 



Having alluded to the newly-discovered metal, thallium, it may 

 be as well to mention that M. Lamy states that continued investi- 

 gation into its properties has resulted in cxtreVnc lassitude and pain 

 in the lower limbs. With a view of determining its real influence 

 on the animal economy, he has administered it to the lower animals,, 

 and he mentions that a decigramme of the sulphate given to a dog 



