IN THE TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 51 
shall be glad to have them corrected ; if they are true, what 
do they point to ? * 
“ Oil, alcohol, and the carburetted hydrogen of mines, con- 
stantly inhaled by the coal-miners, all agree essentially in 
affording to the blood large quantities of combustible sub- 
stances; and I may mention along with this, that I have 
known, during my experience, many instances of young sur- 
geons of small fortunes being compelled to go a voyage in 
a Greenland ship, and thus saved for some time at least from 
hereditary phthisis. Now during these voyages there is great 
consumption of nutricious substances, and perhaps not a 
little of alcoholic fluid. 
“ I infer that the efficiency of the oils, and, generally speak- 
ing, the hydro-carburets in tuberculosis is due to some 
chemical influence which they exercise. This is supposing 
my premises admitted. 
“ In the last part of Dr. Pereira’s works, just published, 
the editors, in seeking to explain the operation of cod-liver 
oil, attempt to return to the idea that it is due to the iodine 
and bromine in the oil. They say — c as the oil contains 
iodine, and as it proves most successful in those maladies in 
which this element proves successful, it has been suggested 
that iodine is its active principle. Taufflied, however, denies 
this, and asserts that the properties of the two are not iden- 
tical, for the one succeeds where the other fails. Is bromine 
the active agent? (It must not be forgotten that iodine and 
bromine are combined organically with some of the con- 
stituents of this oil, and in such manner that they are not to 
be immediately recognised by the ordinary tests. This fact 
may perhaps tend to develop a peculiar action of iodine and 
bromine, and endow them with an efficacy not otherwise 
attainable.)’ 
c ‘ Now in 100 parts of oil there are never more than 0*04 
parts iodine, and as iodine exists in all fish, what possible 
virtue can it have, especially as it no doubt exists combined 
with alkaline or earthy bodies? A fabulous reputation seems 
attached to bromine. I have taken the bromide of sodium to 
my dinner instead of common salt 1 
“The fact is that all the chlorides, bromides, and iodides 
are analogous; they afford a beautiful illustration of the 
greatest law ever observed in therapeutics, and of which very 
few seem to be capable of realising an adequate idea — viz., 
that the chemical properties of bodies are exactly imitated by 
their physiological and medicinal properties. 
u Some years ago, as ad illustration of this great law, I 
selected the group of chlorine, bromine, and iodine, so closely 
