26G 
MISCELLANY. 
Experiment 5th. Twenty grains given to a dog, followed by one ounce 
of the antidote; oesophagus tied ; catharsis and recovery. Conclusions, — 
arsenious acid innocuous upon the economy of the dog, when given in 
doses sufficiently large to produce vomiting ; if the poison be retained 
either by ligature or by doses too minute to excite emesis, it is certainly 
fatal. The hydrated iron is an antidote. 
The antidote was procured after Bunsen's mode — ^i. of iron filings is 
thrown into ^viii. of aqua regia, and heated gently in a glass vessel; 
after the iron dissolves, ^xvi. of cold water are added, and the metal is 
precipitated by adding giii. aq. ammoniae. The whole is now agitated 
and filtered, and the powder dried in the shade for use. 
JLmer, Med, Intel, 
Smoking of Stramonium as a remedy for Asthma, by G. G. Sigmond, M.D. 
&c. — The first legitimate introduction of the datura stramonium, as a 
remedy for asthma, and other pulmonary affections, is to be attributed to 
Dr. Sims, who very strongly recommended smoking the herb. It was in 
the year 1802, that General Gent, on his return from India, gave to that 
learned physician and accomplished botanist, a remedy which was used 
in the east as a specific for relieving the paroxysms of asthma, and told 
him that it was prepared from the roots of the wild, purple-flowered thorn- 
apple, the datura ferox. The roots, it appeared, were cut into slips, as 
soon as they were gathered ; they were then exposed in the dry air, in the 
shade, until all moisture had completely evaporated ; they were then beaten 
into fibres, very much resembling in appearance dry hemp. When the 
remedy was to be tried, these shreds were placed in the bulb of a pipe, 
either with or without tobacco, according as the individual had been pre- 
viously accustomed to smoking or not, and then inhaled, after being kin- 
dled, in the usual form. This plan and mode of treatment had received 
the sanction of the highest medical authorities in India, and Dr. Anderson, 
physician-general at Madras, not only recommended it, but is said to have 
had recourse to it himself. 
Dr. Sims, in one of the periodicals of that day, related a case in which 
he was induced to administer this remedy. The daughter of an eminent 
physician laboured under phthisis pulmonalis, combined with asthma, as it 
appeared to him, from the frequency of the paroxysms of difficulty of breath- 
ing, not usual in pure phthisis, at least in so early a stage of the disorder; 
with a view of alleviating these distressing paroxysms, he recommended 
a trial of the datura, as given to him by General Gent; the relief obtained 
was far beyond his expectation ; and although the lady gradually sank 
under the incurable disease, yet she continued to experience throughout 
its progress, even to the last, the greatest comfort from its use. He then 
