606 A merican Nervousness. [September, 
The ancients classed the divinities as major, minor — Dii 
majores, Dii minores. Similarly, neurotics may be divided 
into major and minor remedies. At the head of the major 
remedies — the Jupiter omnipotence — stands, without question, 
electricity ; then comes ergot. That ergot contracts the 
blood-vessels, and thus is useful in local congestion of the 
brain and spinal cord, is one of the clearly established facts 
in physiology, and is one of the few definite, solid founda- 
tions for therapeutics ; but that this effect on the blood- 
vessels is all that there is in ergot in its action on the body 
no philosophical student of nervous diseases would claim. 
Indeed, this contraction of the blood-vessels must be a 
result as well as a cause. Behind and beyond all this there 
is an influence which we cannot analyse. In some instances, 
very large quantities of ergotine may be given with benefit 
and without any harm that I can trace. I give ergot for 
immediate effects, for sick headaches, and for headaches of 
other kinds, and for long continued action in spermatorrhoea 
and various other conditions. 
Another of these Dii majores of neuro-therapeutics is 
arsenic in its different forms. I use, not only Fowler’s 
solution, but de Verlangan’s, with also the English prepara- 
tion of the chloro-phosphide. Arsenic is a remedy the 
effects of which are not, as a rule, felt at once. It needs to 
be kept up — to be persevered with for many weeks, often- 
times for many months. A well-known physician of New 
York was under my care for severe neurosis of the stomach, 
attended with vomiting of all of his food. Though he ate 
great quantities, he was growing thin and feeble, and he 
rebelled against nearly every treatment that had been 
suggested, or, at least, everything that I gave soon lost its 
effedt. I urged him to use arsenic in small doses ; at first 
he was somewhat averse to trying it, and had made up his 
mind to go to Europe. For a number of months I did not 
see him, and supposed he had gone to Europe. A short 
time since he came to my office and reported that he had 
tried the arsenic as I had recommended, and that the effect 
had been immediate, and, with but a slight relapse, up to 
that time permanent. He had gained in flesh, and regained 
his power to digest food. The remedy, indeed, adted with 
specific effedt upon him. 
Another remedy that perhaps will become, if it is not 
already, one of the major divinities of neurology, is cannabis 
indica. It is one of the drugs by the proper use of which 
the treatment of sick headache, for example, has been, 
within a few years, revolutionised, both for temporary relief 
