INDIAN REMEDY FOR SMALLPOX. 
777 
have fared but little better. The sturdy hawthorn makes an 
attempt to look gay every spring ; but its leaves, as they come 
out, dry up like tea-leaves, and soon drop off. The farmer 
may sow if he pleases, but he will only reap a crop of straw. 
The ears will have nothing in them. Grass grows, but it 
soon turns brown, and, for all the good it is, it might as well 
not grow. Cattle will not fatten on it; and, worse still, it 
makes sheep throw their lambs. Cows, too, in some situa¬ 
tions, more exposed to the vapours, get a cough, and cast 
their calves; and the human animals suffer from smarting 
eyes, disagreeable sensations in the throat, an irritating 
cough, and difficulty of breathing. 
Swansea has suffered as much as St. Helen's. The imme 
diate district, which is subjected to the direct and concen¬ 
trated influence of the copper smoke, is entirely denuded of 
vegetation ; the hill-sides have not a blade of grass upon 
them. Here sulphurous acid and arsenic are the noxious 
vapours. The effects of arsenic only extend a few hundred 
yards, but within this area poison everything. Grass grows, 
but kills the animals that eat it; and, instead of having their 
appearance improved, as common belief would have expected, 
ponies fed on arsenical grass acquire a peculiar shaggy and 
starved appearance, their knees swell, they get lame and hide¬ 
bound, their hair falls off, and their teetii fall out, and 
necrosis supervenes. No wonder that the farmers give up 
grazing on such tracts of land ! the influence of the sulphu¬ 
rous-acid vapours extends for miles, and is seen principally 
upon vegetation. It burns up the leaves, checks the natural 
growth, and stunts a plant. One witness showed specimens 
of plants which presented the appearance of having been ex¬ 
posed to a sirocco. 
THE INDIAN REMEDY FOR SMALLPOX. 
In a previous number we inserted a so-called remedy for 
variola— Sarracenia purpurea —(see p. 592.) It is stated, 
in the Medical and Surgical Reporter and British American 
Journal , that, at a recent meeting of the Medical Society of 
Nova Scotia, held at Halifax, the subject was discussed, and 
a resolution passed to the effect, that “ there were not any 
reliable data upon which to ground any opinion in favour of 
its value as a remedial agent." 
xxxv. 
50 
