1810.) 
ses, to a certain exten, the well-pictured 
condition of the unhappy heroine of the 
i¥neid: 
Revoluta toro est, oculisque errantibus alto 
Qusivit calu lucem, ingemuitque reperta. 
The commumeation in the Monthly 
Magazine ior June, which gives so sur- 
prising, and at the same ume so faithful 
and unexaggerated an account of the be- 
neficial effects of stramonium iv a case of 
spasmodic asthma, appears to have 
awakened very yeneral attention on the 
part of those who are affected with the 
same coniplaint. The consequent de- 
tnand for the plant has been so great, 
that for some time it was not to be pro-> 
cured in auy of the markets of the me- 
tropolis, To the gentleman who has 
thus extensively dispersed an account of 
his own experience for the benefit: of 
others, the public are incalculably in- 
debted. The reporter has opportunities 
of knowing that not only the writer of 
the paper alluded to, still continues to 
derive the same relief which he there 
describes, from the smoking of stramo- 
nium, but that in several other instances 
of similar disease, the success las been 
equally remarkable and complete. . This 
novel* remedy may be ranked amongst 
the most important discoveries which for 
the last half century, have tended to 
enrich the stores of practical medicine ; 
it may Class at least with the new remedy 
for the gout, the evidence of whose im- 
portant and speedy ethcacy in relieving 
a podagric paroxysm is so respectably 
supported, , 
_ The reporter does not recollect a 
month for many years past, in which he 
has not been consulted with regard tosome 
one of the numerous modifications of ner. 
vous affection, which either indicate the 
presence, or menace the approach, of 
idiocy, melancholy, ormania. A remark. 
ese enE RED EnEnRemnatetmented 
* By a novel remedy is here meant, novel 
merely in its application to asthma. The 
stramonium has been highly recommended 
to the attention of practitioners by Dr. Stoerk 
of Vienna, and has been actually employed 
with reported advantage, in a variety of ma- 
niacal cases, as well as in epileptic, and other 
convulsive affections. It holds no place how- 
ever even in the recently improved Pharma- 
copeia of the London College, nor can the 
reporter speak of its use, except in the mode 
above-mentioned, from any experience of his 
own, or of his professional friends. 
‘Moyrtuty Mage, No. 203. 
Report of Diseases. 
165 
able instance of a mixture of the tw# far- 
mer has recently occurred to his notice. Le 
was a case of overstrained inteileet: the 
understanding appeared to have been 
broken down, in consequence, of having 
been overloaded ;. the excessive quanuty 
of the ingesta prevented its conversion 
into nourishment. Tt night be skid’ of 
the paticnt referred to, as of many of 
the stupidly learned, that he read too 
much to think enough. His mind was 
merely a repository for the ideas of other 
men; it was not a soil out of which an, 
idea ever grew. ‘Talents have too often 
been sacrificed to acquisitions and knowe 
ledge, purchased at the expense of under- 
standing. Who would not admire more 
the pure, altliough scanty stream, as it 
issues from its native rock, to the greatest* 
mass of water that is lodged :within a» 
leaden cistern ! 
The writer of this article has so. often 
already endeavoured to unmask the hy= 
pecritical and treacherous character of! 
pulmonary disease, that, although by a 
recent melancholy event, his feelings 
upon the subject have been more 
awakened than they ever were before, 
he is scarcely justifed in the still 
persevering repetition of his warnings 
and admonitions.’ There are few that 
sufficiently appretiate the timportance of 
a cough: from the indifference with which 
most regard it, especially when it isahas 
bitual or what they call constitutional, | 
one should imagine that coughing ap- 
peared to them, 1 nota salutary, at least 
ai innocent, exercise of the chest. ‘As for 
their cough, it was of no consequence, 
they were wsed to 1t;” making the very 
circumstance which more particularly 
constitutes their danger, their ground of 
securitye A pain in the side likewise 
is often thought of by the consumptive, no 
more than if 1t were the same degree 
of pain in any other part. The consee 
quences are seldom fureseen, which fol- 
low with a too certain fatality, the neg- 
ject of these intimations of approaching 
pthysis. -How blind and how unguarded 
Is man against the insinuating advances 
of that serpent malady; even although 
he feel the pressure of its folds twisting 
arouad his besom, he shews no con-~ 
sciousness of apprehension or alarin, until 
its bite inflicts the immedicable wound. 
August 25, 1810, J. Rei. 
Grenville-street, Brunswick-square. 
Y ALPHABETICAL 
