84 
Varieties. 
(  Am.  Jour.  Piiarm. 
\     Feb.  I,  1872. 
Singular  Effects  of the  Hydrate  of  Chloral  .—Reported  by  0  H  Seeds,  M.D., 
of  Columbus,  Texas. — October  25.  I  have  under  treatment  Mrs.  J.  N.,  ret.  26, 
who  has  had  leucorrhoea  ever  since  puberty,  accompanied  with  more  or  less  dys 
menorrhcea  ;  but  she  has  suffered  more  from  the  latter  since  marriage,  five  or 
six  years  ago.  She  is  of  a  nervous  temperament;  dyspeptic  the  greater  part 
of  her  life  ;  has  never  been  pregnant ;  during  the  menstruation,  aud  the  suffer- 
ing attending  it,  has  taken  a  considerable  quantity  of  morphia.  From  the  ex- 
cellent effects  I  have  observed  from  chloral  in  a  great  number  of  cases,  I  was 
led  to  give  it  to  her,  and,  after  a  thorough  trial  at  different,  times,  for  several 
months,  during  menstruation,  after  and  before,  in  small  and  large  doses,  I  found 
that,  in  doses  of  twenty  grains,  it  causes  natural,  quiet  sleep,  lasling  from  four 
to  six  hours,  when  its  soporific  effects  begin  to  pass  off;  then  follows  diplopia 
in  its  worst  form,  succeeded  in  fifteen  or  twenty  minutes  by  muscae  volitantes. 
To  ase  her  own  language,  "  everything  appears  double,  aud  flies  or  dark  spots 
pass  before  her  eyes."  Her  eyelids  become  red  and  swollen  ;  conjunctiva  in- 
jected. She  complains  of  vertigo  and  nausea  ;  but  all  unpleasant  symptoms 
disappear  in  about  the  same  length  of  time  that  the  drug  acted  on  her  as  a 
hypnotic.  It  always  affects  her  in  proportion  to  the  quantity  given.  I  would 
also  state  that  this  patient  bears  chloroform  very  well;  no  bad  effects  are  pro- 
duced, excepting  once  in  awhile  a  slight  nausea  some  hours  afterwards. — Amer. 
Jour.  Med.  Set.,  Jan.,  1872. 
Monobromized  Camphor. — Prof.  Deneffe,  of  Ghent,  states  (Presse  Med. 
Beige,  Nov.  19)  that  for  more  than  two  years  he  has  employed  a  combination 
of  camphor  and  bromine,  which  he  thinks  is  entitled  to  general  attention.  The 
celebrated  chemist  Laurent  showed  that  bromine  will  easily  uniie  with  cam- 
phor at  the  ordinary  temperature;  but  that  the  product  is  slowly  decomposed  by 
exposure  to  the  air.  M.  Swartz,  Professor  of  Chemistry  at  Ghent,  has  ^hown 
that  this  body  heated  in  a  closed  vessel  is  resolved  into  hydrobromic  acid  and 
a  crystallized  compound  which  is  monobromized  camphor  (camphor  mono- 
brome),  a  body  differing  only  from  ordinary  camphor  by  the  substitution  of  an 
atom  of  bromine  for  an  atom  of  hydrogen.  It  is  a  perfectly  crystallized  sub- 
stance, fusible  at  76°  C.  and  boiling  at  274°.  At  Prof.  Swartz's  request,  M. 
Deneffe  has  investigted  the  therapeutical  properties  of  this  body,  and  has  found 
it  to  be  an  excellent  sedative  for  the  nervous  system.  He  intends  shortly  to 
publish  his  cases  in  proof  of  this,  and,  in  the  present  communication,  furnishes 
one  of  these,  in  which  excitement  of  the  nervous  system  passing  into  true  de- 
lirium tremens  was  effectually  relieved.  He  prescribed  it  in  the  form  of  pills,  70 
grains  being  made  into  thirty  pills,  of  which  one  was  given  every  hour  until 
twenty  had  been  taken.  For  three  days  longer  from  forty  five  to  sixty  grains 
were  given  in  twenty-four  hours,  the  quantity  being  diminished  from  forty-five 
to  thirty  grains  daily  for  a  week  longer.  The  recovery  was  progressive  and 
stable. — Amer.  Jour,  of  Med.  Sciences,  Jan.,  1872,  from  Med.  Times  and  Ga- 
zette, Dec.  2,  1871. 
Inextinguishable  Lamp. — A  new  light,  which  seems  fitted  to  be  of  use  in  sub- 
marine construction  of  works,  is  in  use  in  England.    It  is  a  cylinder  of  tin, 
