1:821 .J 
his own opportunities of observation, that 
the medical professor who shall indolently 
or ignorantly reject the proffered benefits 
of the above-named agencies, will deprive 
himself of valuable auxiliaries in the war¬ 
fare’ he is waging* against disease and 
death. 
The reporter is too old, he thinks, to be 
deceived by empirical, or taken captive 
by enthusiastic representations respecting 
the virtues of drugs ; and when, he hears 
the laudatory accounts which some pour 
out, of the hydrocyanic acid, he thinks of 
the consumption curers, and Digitalis ad¬ 
ministrators, of some twenty years since; 
a granum salis admission, however, of 
alleged powers, is very different from an 
unreserved acquiescence in all the dicta of 
ardent experimentalists; and fox-glove, 
though destitute of the antiphthisical 
properties formerly ascribed to it, is ne¬ 
vertheless a potent and valuable medici¬ 
nal. 
But to the present subject. Four in¬ 
stances have occurred within the last fort¬ 
night, in which the Croton-oil has proved 
of essential service. The first was the 
case of a boy who had taken poison, in 
whom it became necessary speedily to act 
upon the bowels, and half a drop of this 
singular medicine almost immediately ef¬ 
fected the purpose, after other cathartics 
had been administered in vain. The se¬ 
cond case was one of spasm of the kidnies, 
which soon yielded to the same dose of the 
drug in question. An old lady was, thirdly, 
cheated by a drop of this oil put into some 
bread, who obstinately refused every thing 
in the shape of medicine; and, lastly, a 
little subject, almost suffocated under the 
deadly grasp of croup, has been restored 
to life by merely rubbing the tongue with 
the cork of a Croton-oil vial. 
With respect to Prussic acid, the very 
few trials which he has instituted, do not 
authorise quite so favourable a report: 
from the accounts of others upon which he 
ought to rely, the reporter, however, is 
still inclined to think, that it is possessed 
of considerable efficacy; and in one very 
& 
recent case of menacing phthisis, he found 
its soothing and quieting properties con¬ 
spicuously evident. Two instances of vio¬ 
lent, and before invincible tooth-ache, 
have immediately yielded to the topical 
application, or rather touch , of this acid. 
Of the Colcliicum seeds, it were suffi¬ 
cient to say, that so respectable an autho¬ 
rity as that of Dr. Williams, of Ipswich, 
continues to report highly in their favour ; 
and the present writer, although sometimes 
unsuccessful with them, has, at other 
times, found their efficacy in old rheumatic 
eases, proved in a most convincing and 
complete manner. 
Tincture of Lytta was lately adminis¬ 
tered under the reporter’s direction, to a 
child, apparently dying of hydrocephalus ; 
the kidnies were violently excited, the 
symptoms indicatingeff’usion upon the brain 
soon gave way, and the child has, unex 
pectedly to all, recovered. 
It must be scepticism indeed, that would 
refuse to subscribe to the vermifuge vir¬ 
tues of Turpentine-oil ; it is not, however, 
to the expulsion of worms, that the virtues 
of this drug are limited. The writer is ac¬ 
customed to prescribe it in many nervous 
affections, which, either in their commence¬ 
ment or course, implicate especially the 
first passages ; and he has very recently 
seen its efficacy manifested in a case of 
child-bed fever. 
As the virtues of Colchicum seeds might 
be safely received upon the testimony alone 
of Dr. Williams, so might it be sufficient to 
say of Galvanism, that, in habitual asthma, 
it is recommended by Dr. Wilson Philip. 
The reporter has lately had an opportunity 
of witnessing those important experiments 
which shew the restoration of suspended 
nervous power by the galvanic influence, 
and from which Dr. Philip first inferred 
the utility of that influence in some disor¬ 
dered conditions of the respiratory organs 
—an inference which has been fully veri¬ 
fied by the result of practical investiga.- 
tion. D. L wins. M D. 
Bedford Row, July 20, 1821. 
Agricu Hum l Report. 
MONTHLY AGRICULTURAL REPORT 
T HERE is little of novelty to present to 
the public, at this time, as an agricul¬ 
tural report. The different crops upon 
the ground have improved sir.ee our last, 
from a favourable change in the weather, 
whilst yet there has been a considerable 
want of solar heat. Late high winds also, 
may have had some degree of ill effect on 
the wheats under the flowering process. 
Nevertheless, all the crops appear in a 
prosperous and thriving state, and very 
probable at harvest, to afford a considera¬ 
ble augmentation of the national stock of 
corn, pulse, and roots collectively. The 
stock of roots was great, and the late rains 
will draw up a large aftermark. The hops 
are much mended, and will probably be a 
far greater crop than was expected. The 
growth of seeds this year has not been so 
successful. Tares will be a good crop. 
Fruit is in far greater abundance than the 
early season promised, apples being the 
chief exception. The late rains have 
drawn up the turnip plants to a size and 
substance 
