EDINBURGH MEETING. 
529 
doubtless found in most European ponds and lakes, so completely are those near to us 
exhausted that the Hamburg dealers, who are our principal suppliers, are compelled to 
obtain them from the very centre of Russia. It is believed that England and France 
take about 200,000,000 of these animals annually, representing a trade of about 
£400,000 sterling. I mention leeches chiefly to notice an interesting specimen of the 
cocoons formed by them for the ova, which belongs to the Warrington Collection in 
the Museum of Science and Art. 
The order Crustacea has almost disappeared from our Materia Medica ; it, however, 
still has a prominent representative in our shops in the form of the curious internal 
shell of Sepia officinalis , called cuttle-fish bones, which are chiefly used for dentifrices, 
for which they are well adapted. Occasionally, too, we find the curious bodies called 
crab’s-eyes ( Oculi cancrorum) or crab-stones ( Calculi cancrorum). They are curiously- 
shaped concretions, chiefly of carbonate of iime. which are found in two lateral pouches 
of the stomach of the river cray-fish (Astacus fluviatilis'), but only just previous to the 
moulting of the animal, or before its shell is thrown off; they seem, indeed, to be stores 
of mineral matter secreted for the purpose of supplying material for the new shell, as 
they disappear during its formation. They had a reputation formerly in medicine as 
antacids, and were prepared for use by being levigated and made into a paste with 
water, and worked up into small conical shapes, or rolled out and cut into lozenges. 
As their virtues were found to be due only to the carbonate of lime, Greta praeparata , or 
chalk similarly prepared, has displaced them. Thus knowledge simplifies our opera¬ 
tions, and instead of sending to the rivers of Astracan for crab’s-eyes at an expense of 
some shillings per pound, we are taught to find at our own doors the same material in 
another form and in unlimited abundance, as one of the chief constituents of our island 
home. The claws of the common crab {Cancer pagurus) w'ere similarly used. 
Rising from the invertebrate animals to those of the vertebrate division, we find 
the order of Reptiles, which formerly was so important in the absurd compositions of 
the ignorant empirics of the dark ages, when, witchcraft was often allied with the me- 
diciner’s art. W e no longer place any faith in— 
in— 
or even in— 
“ Fillet of the fenny snake j" 
“ Eye of newt, and toe of frog 
“Adder’s fork, and blind-worm’s sting.” 
and, as far as I know, no reptilian preparation is now found in the drawers or on the shelves 
of the British pharmaceutist, except sometimes that very rare substance the alligator- 
musk. But I have mentioned the Order for the purpose of showing that abroad some 
of the old notions still prevail; and even in Geneva, within the last few years, a medical 
man has been recommending his patients to eat the small lizard called SkinJc (Scincus 
officinalis ), as stimulant and sudorific medicine, as if our Materia Medica did not contain 
enough stimulants and sudorifics of more easy preparation and agreeable nature than 
cooked lizards, even if they have such properties. 
Fishes yield us nothing but isinglass, to which I have before referred, and the oil pro¬ 
cured from the livers of several species. Within the present century cod-liver oil has 
become a medicine of great importance, though probably not more entitled to it than 
many other animal and even vegetable oils. It is formed from the livers of the cod-fish, 
and the medicinal preparation in no respect differs from the commercial cod-oil used 
largely for lubricating machinery, burning in lamps, and other purposes, except, per¬ 
haps, in its more careful preparation, which may possibly render it less offensive to the 
palate. 
The vast quantities imported come chiefly from Newfoundland, where the cod- 
fisheries are so extensively carried on. When the fish are caught they are split open, 
gutted, and the livers are collected and taken ashore, where they are either exposed to 
the sun, and yield the oil as they slowly decompose, or, as I believe, now they are treated 
more skilfully, in melting-pans with artificial heat. The comparatively small quantity 
prepared in this country is thus carefully treated. 
Besides the cod-liver oil, that made from several species of shark has also obtained 
some reputation as a medicine, and probably with equal justice; and the same may be 
said of the liver-oil of the skate and ray, which are sometimes used. 
