12 
For all this, nicotine has scarcely been used in medical 
practice ; its medicinal dose is not even determined. Infusion 
of Tobacco 20 grs. to 8 ozs., in the form of an enema to relieve 
strangulated hernia, is mentioned in the British Pharmacopoeia. 
Tobacco is spoken of unfavourably in medical writings ; and, 
though its action is very like that of Digitalis, it is dismissed in two 
pages of Dr. Ringer’s book on therapeutics, whereas thirty pages 
are devoted to the history of the use of Digitalis. Professor 
Haughton, quoted by Waring in his work on therapeutics, advises 
the employment of nicotine in preference to the use of crude 
Tobacco infusion, and his suggestion is well worth the attention 
of experimentalists. 
The study of the peculiar retraction of the eye of dogs 
suffering from nicotine may tend to elucidate the nature of the 
amaurotic blindness that happens to some smokers. Children 
suffer in health from tobacco-smoking to a greater extent than 
adults whose organs are more firmly developed. 
Gilmour, now dead, told me that the aborigines at Kulloo, 
Eyre’s Creek, who use Pituri, keep it entirely from the younger 
members of the tribe. Are these poor Australians not, then, on 
a parity in intelligence with the latest of our anti-tobacco 
societies who are recommending legislation against youthful 
smokers ? Tobacco has a well-marked soothing effect sufficiently 
evident in its operation on others. I do not speak from 
personal experience, as I neither smoke nor enjoy the fumes of 
Tobacco. If one could believe Hood’s poetry on “ my Cigar,” 
the use of it becomes intelligible to non-smokers. A few days 
ago I was called to tie the radial artery of a young fellow on 
board a steamer just arrived in the river, and from his bloodless 
and exhausted condition it was not prudent to give him chloro- 
form. The patient was enduring much pain from multiplied 
bandages put on to control the bleeding. “ If you will only 
allow me to smoke,” he said, “ I will bear the pain of the 
operation.” He accordingly had his pipe filled and lighted, and 
he submitted to the operation with as much quietude as if 
chloroform had been administered. Pow T dered Pituri acts 
powerfully like snuff; one finds this out in handling that 
prepared by the natives, much of which is comminuted and dusty 
The narcotic Solanacece tindiScrophulariacece, widely scattered 
over Australia, are objects of much interest, and I have to request 
the Queensland Philosophical Society to aid me in endeavouring 
to obtain them for examination. Duboisia Ilopwoodii should be 
known by the aborignal title ; I propose, therefore, to name it 
Duboisia Pituri. 
Another suspected Duboisia, is called Anthocercis Leich- 
hardtii; but to its habitat there is no clue. The corolla lobes are 
said to be more acute than those of D. myoporoides, but the foliage 
