TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 
105 
commencement of fever, where there is great heat of skin and signs 
of vascular excitement, its employment is contraindicated. It is 
also inadmissible in cases where there is decided evidence of vis¬ 
ceral inflammation. When the early stage of fever is past, when all 
general and local indications have been fulfilled, when there is no 
complication with local disease, when the patient lies sunk and pro¬ 
strated, when restlessness, low delirium, and more or less derange¬ 
ment of sensibility is present, when the pulse is quick, when the 
body is covered with maculae or petechiae, and the secretions from 
the skin and mucous membranes give evident proof of what has 
been termed a putrescent state of the fluids, it is then that the chlo¬ 
ride of soda may be prescribed with advantage. It operates, although 
not rapidly, yet energetically, in arresting many of those symptoms 
which create most alarm. It seems to counteract the tendency to 
tympanitis, to correct the foetor of the excretions, to prevent collapse, 
to promote a return to a healthy state of the secretions of the skin, 
bowels, and kidneys; in fact, it appears admirably calculated to 
meet the bad effects of low putrid fever. Its employment does not 
preclude the use of wine or other approved remedies. Dr. Graves 
has used it in several hundred cases of typhus, and strongly recom¬ 
mends its employment in that disease. 
Original Views of the Functions and Diseases of the Intestinal 
Canal , fyc. By Dr. O’Beirne. 
Dr. O’Beirne commenced by stating, that although the great ma¬ 
jority of published and private opinions are strongly in favour of the 
views on this subject put forth in his late work, many objections and 
, prejudices remain to be removed; and that although his mode of 
treating enteric diseases has been most successfully employed for 
nearly twelve years in Ireland, and wherever it has been tried during 
the last two years and a half, it has not yet come into as general use 
as might be expected. He then addressed himself to the objections 
which have been urged against his theoretical and practical views, 
and advanced a great number of facts and arguments to show the 
unsoundness of those objections. Finally, he briefly related several 
cases of dysentery, strangulated hernia, and tympanitis, in which 
the new treatment proved superior to any other, for the purpose of 
removing the prejudices which appear to prevail so generally against 
its employment in those diseases. 
On Purulent Ophthalmia. By Dr. Evory Kennedy. 
Dr. Evory Kennedy gave a report of numerous cases of purulent 
ophthalmia of infants, in which leeching, constant removal of the pu¬ 
rulent secretion, and caustic applications, modified according to the 
violence of the attack, and, in aggravated cases, the solid nitrate of 
silver, applied to the interior of the lids, had proved most successful. 
