618 
PLEURO-PNEUMONIA. 
worm to Louis XVI for 18,000 francs. At the present time 
fern rhizome is but seldom employed in this country, partly 
because the efficacy of Madame Nouffer’s treatment is referred 
to drastics used, and partly because other agents, especially 
oil of turpentine, kousso, and areca nut, had been found more 
effectual. “ It is an excellent remedy,” says Bremser, 
against Bothriocephalus latus (the tapeworm of the Swiss), 
but not against Tcenia solium (the tapeworm of this country); 
for though it evacuates some pieces of the latter, it does not 
destroy it.” — Materia Medica. 
If it possesses the powerful qualities some would attribute 
to it, it would be worthy of trial with the lower animals, but 
we are not aware of its having been successfully employed. 
The buds of some ferns, especially those of the common 
brake, Pteris aquilina, are boiled and used as a vegetable, and 
the quantity of sugar, gum, and starch which they contain, 
points them out as being highly nutritious. 
With these remarks we conclude our notes on the non- 
flowering acotyledonous plants, and shall begin with a 
description of the flowering plants in our next. 
(To be continued .) 
Pathological Contributions. 
CATTLE PLAGUE. 
In the Government of Lublin the disease is reported to be 
dying out, but it still prevails in several districts in the 
Government of Warsaw. In Polish Russia the pest also 
continues to commit considerable ravages. 
PLEURO-PNEUMONIA. 
In Great Britain pleuro-pneumonia is reported to exist in 
fifty-four counties ; the malady, therefore, is still on the in- 
crease, and there does not appear to be any abatement in the 
degree of malignancy which has been characteristic of the 
recent attacks. 
In Ireland the affection, so far as can be judged in the ab- 
sence of official returns, shows no signs of cessation. We 
learn from a local paper that an alarming outbreak of lung 
