CHINESE MEDICINE FOR HYDROPHOBIA. 
333 
that the University of London has been singularly fortunate 
in obtaining it, when already a hospital exists — the Royal 
Veterinary College — that answers, in great part at least, to 
the intentions of the donor.] 
THE IODIDE OE AMMONIUM. 
The above-named salt, it appears, is likely to supplant the 
iodide of potassium in therapeutics. Dr. Richardson has 
extensively employed it in phthisis pulmonalis, chronic 
rheumatism, and in a variety of forms of strumous disorder 
attended with glandular enlargements, with considerable 
success. Its action is in many respects analogous to that of 
the iodide of potassium, but its effects are more rapidly 
evidenced. Sometimes it produces diuresis, and its influence 
in the reduction of glandular swellings, is said to be exceed- 
ingly well marked and satisfactory. As an external appli- 
cant, the iodide of ammonium may be made into a liniment; 
glycerine, or the soap liniment, being the menstruum ; and 
thus applied it is easily absorbed. 
MUSCULAR EIBRE STIMULATED BY LIGHT WITHOUT THE 
AID OE NERVES. 
M. Brown Sequard has forwarded a paper on this sub- 
ject to the Royal Society of Great Britain. Haller mentions 
the fact, but it appears either to have been lost sight of or 
repudiated by modern anatomists. M. Brown Sequard’s 
experiments prove that some portions of muscular fibre — 
the iris of the eye, for example — are affected by light, inde- 
pendently of any reflex action of the nerves. The effect is 
produced by the illuminating rays only — the chemical and 
heat-giving rays remaining neutral. The iris of an eel was 
found to be susceptible of the excitement sixteen days after 
the removal of the eyes from the head. This muscle, how- 
ever, so far as is yet known, is the only one on which light 
causes this effect. 
CHINESE MEDICINE EOR HYDROPHOBIA. 
The following appears in the Opimone of Turin : “ A mis- 
sionary who has just returned from China states that, in that 
country, a kind of polygala is successfully used as a cure for 
hydrophobia. This plant has thick leaves, and its stem con- 
