FACTS AND OBSERVATIONS. 
99 
the nineteenth day of October^ one thousand eight hundred 
and sixty-eight, relating to hay which is shipped at, or im¬ 
ported from, any port of the United States of America, and 
which is brought to, or arrives at, any port or place of the 
United Kingdom; provided that nothing herein shall be 
deemed to invalidate or make unlawful anything done under 
the said Orders before the date of this revocation, or intefere 
with the institution or prosecution of any proceeding in 
respect of any offence committed against, or any penalty 
incurred under, the said Orders, or either of them. 
(Signed) ARTHUR HELPS.’^ 
Jan. \htJiy 1869. 
The Therapeutic Effect of Ergotine. —At a late 
sitting of the French Academy of Sciences a paper was 
received from Dr. Bonjean, of Chambery, on certain pro¬ 
perties of ergotine. He stated that the mortality caused by 
amputation had, in the course of the last twelve months, been 
reduced to one-fifth of what it formerly was at the hospital 
of St. Andre at Bordeaux, by administering, immediately 
after the operation, a draught containing from two to three 
grains of ergotine, to be drunk in the course of the day. 
Cold Air as a Therapeutic. —In his lecture, delivered 
on Tuesday, January 12th, Dr. Richardson proposed the in¬ 
halation of cold and dry air as a remedy for the condition 
associated with separation of fibrine from the blood in in¬ 
flammatory diseases. He finds, by experiment, that the 
inhalation of air artifically cooled is capable of bringing down 
the temperature of an animal several degrees. In the con¬ 
dition above referred to, there is, concomitant with an in¬ 
crease of the fibrine and water of the blood and a diminution 
of the corpuscles, a marked rise in the temperature of the 
body. By an ingenious apparatus he is enabled to cool and 
dry the air which is to be breathed by a patient in this con¬ 
dition, and he suggests that the diminution of temperature 
which will result may probably be accompanied by an arrest 
of the tendency to separation of fibrine from the blood. As 
a therapeutical means the inhalation of cold air is not new. 
Dr. Richardson informs us that the treatment of disease by the 
inhalation of air rendered artifically cold was proposed by 
Dr. Drake, a follower of Dr. Currie, of Liverpool, in the 
second volume of the American Journal of Medical 
Science. We believe, however, that Dr. Richardson has 
been led to suggest it as a means of reducing the tempera¬ 
ture by his experiments and his researches into the pheno¬ 
mena which accompany the separation of fibrine.— 
Times and Gazette. 
