70 
ON  VALERIAN. 
the  plain  logic  which  led  me  to  the  result.  The  first  thing  I  knew, 
I  had  a  reputation  for  curing  cases  of  malarial  poisoning,  which 
the  other  doctors  within  a  radius  of  fifty  miles  had  failed  to 
cure.  Persons  came  to  me  with  immense  infarctions  of  the 
spleen,  many  of  whom,  in  accordance  with  what  is  now  known 
of  malarial  poisoning,  had  had  no  ague  at  all.  I  prescribed  the 
pills,  and  they  got  well.  Persons  remained  pale,  debilitated  and 
sallow  from  attacks  of  malarial  remittent  fever.  I  prescribed 
the  same  pill,  and  they  soon  had  a  good  color  and  a  stock  of 
good  blood.  Others  came  with  neuralgia  of  longer  or  shorter 
standing — of  the  quotidian,  tertian  or  quartan  type,  evidently  of 
the  malarial  stamp,  which  had  been  broken  up,  but  which  had 
returned.  I  broke  them  up  with  the  usual  remedies,  and  then 
prescribed  the  pills  of  the  metals  and  bitters.  Their  neuralgia 
came  back  no  more — for  that  season  at  least.  Then  came 
anomalous  cases — pale,  exsanguinous  persons — some  laboring 
evidently  under  the  influence  of  malarial  poison — others  not,  in 
whom  no  organic  disease  could  be  detected,  and  for  whose  mala- 
dies the  Nosology  even  of  John  Mason  Good  hardly  had  a  name, 
and  who  were  yet  sick.  (What  doctor  of  long  practice  has  not 
seen  persons  die  of  a  disease  for  which  he  could  find  no  name  ?) 
There  was  one  thing,  however,  about  all  these  people — they 
lacked  good  blood,  and  having  already  come  to  regard  the 
Pilulce  Metalorum  et  Amarum,  from  experience  as  well  as  upon 
theoretical  grounds,  as  a  most  powerful  remedy  for  this  condi- 
tion, I  prescribed  them.  These  people  almost  invariably  got 
well  and  hearty. — Pacific  Med.  and  Surg.  Journ.,  Oct.,  1866. 
ON  VALERIAN. 
By  Thomas  Doliber. 
Query  35.    Is  the  cultivated  Yalerian  produced  in  New  England 
of  equal  quality  with  that  imported  from  England  and  Germany,  and  are 
there  any  characteristic  differences  by  which  they  may  be  distinguished  ? 
The  Valerian  of  American  and  that  of  English  growth  were 
the  only  varieties  with  which  experiments  were  made.  The 
American  came  from  Vermont ;  the  English  was  obtained  from 
an  undoubted  source.  Solid  and  fluid  extracts  of  each  were 
made,  samples  of  which  and  also  of  the  roots  are  herewith  sub- 
