HOW TO CURE A COLT). 
367 
lepsy. His account of the action of this salt was so favourable that a commission was ap¬ 
pointed to investigate the subject, and their report was that valerianate of atropia is de¬ 
cidedly preferable to many of the so-called antispasmodics, and that it offered the great ad¬ 
vantage of replacing two drugs notoriously variable in their action—belladonna and vale¬ 
rian—by a combination of their active principles, which was far more steady and cer¬ 
tain in its action. The method of administering it is in granules, each of which con¬ 
tains a milligramme, or about one sixty-seventh of a grain of the salt. One granule 
daily is the proper dose to begin with in an adult, and, iu the course of a week, a second 
granule may be taken daily. This is the maximum dose, any excess inducing dilatation 
of the pupil and disturbed vision. The author quotes the names of more than twenty 
physicians who have written to confirm the value of atropia and its salts as therapeutic 
agents. Taken internally, the salts of atropia have been found serviceable in the 
treatment of epilepsy, chorea, neuralgia, hysteria, tetanus, intermittent fevers, and those 
forms of disease of the respiratory organs in which the nervous system is specially in¬ 
volved, as asthma, hooping-cough, and certain forms of nervous bronchitis. 
It has been found by Bouchardat and Crosio that cases of severe neuralgia, in which 
opium, henbane, and sulphuric ether have failed to give relief, have yielded to the local 
application of an ointment composed of five centigrammes (three-fourths of a grain) of 
atropia and four grammes (about a drachm) of lard. Pescheux has reported a case of 
tetanus which he cured by the aid of subcutaneous injection of sulphate of atropia, and 
Behier, Richard, and other French physicians have practised the same treatment with 
success in cases of severe localized pain. One part of sulphate of atropia may be dis¬ 
solved in 100 of water, and from one to five drops injected. Slight symptoms of bella¬ 
donna poisouing sometimes exhibit themselves in these cases, but are merely transitory. 
The smaller dose should be first tried. 
As a caution to our ophthalmological friends not to let solutions of atropia fall into the 
hands of their patients, we may mention a case recorded by Behier, in which an old man 
drank a solution of sulphate of atropia ( 013 to 100 grammes of water) which had been 
prepared for the purpose of dropping into the eye to facilitate an ophthalmoscopic exami¬ 
nation. The dose swallowed was one-fifth of a grain. The following were the most 
marked symptoms i—An acrid taste in the throat, slight embarrassment in the manage¬ 
ment of the tongue, muscular weakness, a difficulty in walking, which soon became an 
impossibility, and disturbance of vision. Knowing the antagonism of morphia and 
atropia (described by Graefe in 1862g M. Behier prescribed ten drops of laudanum every 
ten minutes. Each dose diminished the intensity of the symptoms. The patient took, 
on the whole, seventy-six drops,—a dose which, if he had not previously taken the atro¬ 
pia, would undoubtedly have produced symptoms of poisoning by opium. 
The rapidly increasing use of the ophthalmoscope will probably cause a considerable 
augmentation in the number of cases of poisoning by atropia. Liebreich (in 1863) re¬ 
marked that the symptoms of poisoning consequent on the instillation of atropia do not 
so much depend upon the quantity absorbed by the eye itself as upon the quantity which 
makes its way through the lachrymal passages into the nose, pharynx, and stomach. 
When these lachrymal passages are completely obliterated, a strong solution may be ap¬ 
plied to the eye for any length of time without inducing the slighest general disturbance, 
lie consequently recommends that, in order to prevent as far as possible this mode of 
escape of the solution into the nose, etc., the patient should incline his head as forward 
as possible during the period of instillation, should blow his nose and gargle frequently, 
and should press one of his fingers against the inner angle of the eye, so that the 
lower lachrymal point should be drawn down. In cases where these rules cannot be at¬ 
tended to (as when a patient is confined to bed), he recommends the application of a 
small wire apparatus which effectually prevents the escape of the solution. Professor 
Buignet’s excellent memoir concludes with a description of this instrument and of the 
method of applying it .—Medical Times and Gazette. 
HOW TO CURE A COLD. 
The following is extracted from a lecture, by Dr. G. Johnson, the Professor of Medi¬ 
cine in King's College, and may prove interesting to our readers:— 
The exciting cause of a catarrh, in the great majority of cases, is a chill, or some 
