156 
Facts and Observations. 
New Medicines. —A writer in the Chemical News states 
that the fashion of the present day is to discover so-called 
new remedies. The vegetable and the animal creations are 
being ransacked for them. The medical world is inundated 
with therapeutic agents, principally culled from the vegetable 
kingdom, having names so excruciating that the modest 
medical man feels a nervousness in asking for them. One of 
the precepts of the eclectics is, that the vegetable kingdom 
contains all the medicaments necessary for all known diseases, 
and they generally condemn mineral preparations. A French 
philosopher carried this a little further, and averred that every 
country produced medicinal plants curative of the diseases 
incidental to that country. This may, perhaps, be true, and 
if so, it would show something more than mere economy in 
nature ; proofs of wisdom and design on the part of the Great 
Architect. 
The writer having questioned the novelty of some of the 
so-called new medicaments, gives a list of many which were 
‘‘'cooked and hashed up by our forefathers until they were 
done to tatters, and then became obsolete.^^ By the aid of 
chemistry, however, we are enabled now to withdraw the more 
active constituents of plants, in the form of vegeto-alkalies, 
acids, oils, resins, &c., separating them from inert matter, 
and these are at the present day resorted to as therapeutic 
substances. 
One remark of his we may appropriate, and which we have 
only a little altered. Our Army Veterinary Surgeons have 
great facilities for introducing useful things to the notice of 
their brethren at home, as well as time to experimentalise on 
them, if they have the inclination to do so. 
Rot in Sheep and Cattle. —We very much regret to 
state that the disease, “ rot^^ or “ bane,^’ which has for man}'’ 
years past prevailed amongst the flocks and herds in Glouces¬ 
tershire and adjacent counties, owing to the wetness of the 
season, has again manifested itself to a very alarming extent, 
more so than it has ever before. This is owing to the 
very great quantity of rain which has fallen, there having 
been scarcely two consecutive days unaccompanied by rain. 
The effect of these rains has been most severely felt in the 
low districts, and more especially on the borders of the 
