MR. MAYHEW ON USE AND ABUSE OF BELLADONNA. 271 
is accompanied by high fever, a hot skin, a dry mouth, and a 
full bounding or oppressed pulse. Influenza consists in 
typhoid inflammation, affecting in greater or less degree, most 
of the respiratory organs. It prevails usually as an epizootic, 
exhibits a marked tendency to degenerate exudation, and 
produces a soft compressible pulse, coldness of the surface, 
and early extensive and lasting weakness. If Mr. May hew 
is in the habit of mistaking such a disease for pneumonia, 
and treating it as such, there is no wonder that he should 
find his so-called “ pneumonia” “ much more fatal at the 
present time than formerly. 5 ’ 
Pneumonia, it is true, now assumes a somewhat different 
type from that which it exhibited during the first two decades 
of the present century. It has lost something of its sthenic 
character, and does not stand the depletive and antiphlogistic 
treatment with which it was then successfully combated. 
But this well-ascertained fact may surely be explained with- 
out libelling our practitioners as inferior to their predecessors 
in observation and intelligence, or finding them guilty of 
mistaking two such dissimilar diseases as pneumonia and 
influenza. It depends, we conceive, on a change which has 
been gradually taking place during the last thirty years on 
the constitution of all animals, man himself not excepted, 
which has affected the character of all fevers and inflam- 
mations, and has been noticed by many medical authors. This 
growing tendency of disease towards an asthenic type, with 
the consequent intolerance of antiphlogistic treatment, results 
from causes w hich are as yet inexplicable. We observe the 
fact, but have hitherto been unable to discover its cause. In 
large towns the phenomenon is especially notable, partly, no 
doubt, on the unhealthy sanitary state of town-kept animals. 
Such animals, when affected by disease, are particularly 
remarkable for their withstanding badly bleeding, physicking, 
or any of the so-called heroic remedies, and for their requiring, 
even in inflammatory disorders, early and large doses of 
tonics and stimulants. 
In conclusion, allow me to offer a few remarks regarding 
Mr. Mayhew’s use of belladonna. That valuable remedy is 
a narcotic nearly resembling opium in its actions and uses. 
It has been found exceedingly useful in the cure of tetanus. It 
possesses the peculiar property of contracting the iris, and 
develops this effect whether it be used internally or applied 
around the orbit. Although some of the other less charac- 
teristic actions of the drug are noticed, Mr. May hew appears 
to have entirely overlooked tins most remarkable influence on 
the iris. From the general actions of belladonna, we appre- 
