ACTION OF POTASSIO-T ART RATE OF ANTIMONY. 365 
used, but by inflammation of the stomach. There was no 
determination to the skin perceptible ; certainly none to the 
kidneys ; and the fasces throughout were unchanged. 
The concluding remark in your note to my paper on Aloes 
and Gentian in the February number of the ‘Veteri- 
narian’ quite surprised me. “ Mr. Goodwin says he has 
long known Gentian to be a laxative.” 
Professor Morton says nothing about this. I have used 
Gentian for upwards of twenty-five years, and watched its 
action too, but never had cause to suspect such a result 
from it. However, such hints should never be thrown away ; 
and, as at the time I read it I had a patient in hospital just 
getting over a long job of obstinate constipation, the result 
of disordered liver, I considered it a very good case to give it 
a trial. He was a chesnut, five years’ old, admitted as far 
back as the l6th February with fever, but would have been 
sent to his duty this day (March 25th) but for this. 
March 25th, give Gentian Jss, in soft ball with Theriaca. 
„ 26th, „ 5vj „ 
„ 27th, „ ^ss on morning and evening. 
„ 28 th, „ Jj „ „ 
„ 29th, „ 3j „ „ 
„ 30th, discharged to his duty. 
The pulse never altered a stroke — it was 40 throughout; 
there was not the slightest sign of laxity of faeces, and my 
impression is that there would not have been had he been 
given a dozen pounds of Gentian alone. 
If Mr. Goodwin will tell us whether he combines any 
drug with it, or has his peculiar way of giving it, he will 
confer a favour on us by a few explanatory lines in the 
c Veterinarian.’ 
I have taken the liberty to send you by the steamer of 
this month a small box containing the seeds of the Butea 
Frondosa , which is a good deal used by native hakrems 
(physicians) as an anthelmintic. Ainslie, in his ( Materia 
Medica Indica,’ mentions that the juice of the seed is given 
for this purpose in some parts of India, and in others that of 
the fruit. The tree grows here ; but the natives only use the 
seed. I have used it for many years, and in most cases 
with perfect success, let the worm be of either species, the 
ascarides or teres, for these are the only sorts which give me 
trouble. (I did once find an extraordinary flat worm in a 
mass of a dozen or more, like tape worms, about half-an-inch 
broad, and ribbed across seven or eight inches long, with 
mouths like leeches, of which I sent a specimen to Professor 
Morton. (I give of the powdered seed ^ij, made into a soft 
