VARIETIES. 
181 
Lyons, show that this new purgative possesses equal powers with the citrate 
of magnesia, and is much less costly. — Amer. Jour, of Med. Sciences , Jan. 
1851, from Revue Medicate de Paris, 31st May, 1850. 
New Antiperiodics. — The French medical world has been lately on the 
qui vive, on the subject of antiperiodics, stimulated by a prize of 4,000 francs, 
offered by the Society of Pharmacy, for the discovery of a substitute for 
Quinine, and to which the French Minister of war has offered to add an 
equal sum. M. Delioux, Professor of Materia Medica, at Rochefort, main- 
tains that chloroform is a powerful succedaneum for cinchona and arsenic. 
A sufficient number of cases of periodic fevers, which are very common 
at Rochefort, were treated at the hospital there, with chloroform, and with 
such a regularity of success, that M. Delioux feels warranted in recom- 
mending it as a powerful antiperiodic. The chloroform was given in doses 
of from nine to thirty grains, according to the severity of the case. The pa- 
tients took it several times before the access, and continued its use for 
several days. To make a good mixture, the chloroform is to be first rub- 
bed up with syrup, and then it mixes readily with water. — Jour, de Med. et 
Chirur. Prat., July, 1850. 
ThePhysalis Alkekengi, or winter-cherry of France, is also proposed as 
a remedy for intermittents. The whole plant, twigs, leaves, capsules and 
berries, are described as possessing the anti-periodic qualities of cinchona. 
Med. Examiner, January, 1850, from Gaz. Med.. July, 1850. 
Poisoning with Dulcamara. By Dr. Plaetschke. — A man 40 years of 
age, who was using decoction of dulcamara-stalks for a cough, took, one 
forenoon, from three to four quarts prepared from a peck of the stalks. In 
the evening he was suddenly seized with numbness in his limbs, and pains 
in the knees and elbows, dryness of the throat and paralysis of the tongue. 
These symptoms increased so much in the course of three or four hours, 
that he could scarcely move either his. limbs or tongue. The head remained 
unaffected, consciousness unimpaired, the pulse quiet, but small and rather 
hard, breathing regular, the skin cool • there was neither nausea nor vomit- 
ing. From the time which had elapsed since taking the decoction, the ad- 
ministration of emetics was contraindicated; recourse was therefore had to 
stimulants. Camphor was given freely, and the symptoms gradually disap- 
peared. — London Med. Gaz. from Casper's Wochenschrift. 
Falsification of Cantharides. — M. Emanuel, pharmaceutist at Isbernheim 
having received cantharides from a very reputable house, discovered that 
they were admixed with about 16 percent, of another coleopterous insect 
of a brilliant green color, the Crysomela fastuosa, that is found in abundance on 
the Galeopsis ochroleuca, the Rubus idoeus, the Urtica, the Lamium, etc. 
This falsification is evidently owing to design and not to a mistake ; because 
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