130 
Varieties. 
J  Am.  Jour.  Phakm.. 
\     Mar.  1, 1873. 
sleep,  but  that  the  pains  in  the  head  and  face  either  ceased  altogether,  or  were 
much  diminished.  In  two  cases,  both  women,  the  croton  chloral  was  of  no  use 
whatever,  the  pains  being  aggravated  during  the  use  of  the  medicine  ;  but  in 
the  rest  of  the  cases  more  or  less  relief  was  given. 
Should  the  croton  chloral  be  as  efficient  in  the  hands  of  others  as  it  has  been 
in  mine,  it  will  prove  a  most  important  addition  to  the  materia  medica.  It  will 
enable  the  physician  to  give  relief  from  pain  until  relief  can  be  afforded  by  the 
dentist,  or  by  attention  to  the  general  health,  and  this  without  any  of  the  gen- 
eral effects  of  narcotics.  It  is  almost  unnecessary  to  dwell  further  upon  the 
advantage  of  possessing  such  a  means. — I).  J.  W.  Legg  — Dental  Cosmos,  Feb., 
1873,  from  The  Lancet. 
Case  of  Poisoning  by  Aconite  Treated  by  Digitalis  :  Recovery. — By  "William 
Dobie,  L.R.C.S.  and  P.E.,  Keighley. — I  was  requested  one  morning,  between 
12  and  1  A.M.,  to  visit  a  veteran  surgeon  who  was  supposed  to  have  taken  poi- 
son.   The  place  where  he  lodged  was  scarcely  a  hundred  yards  from  my  house, 
and  only  a  few  minutes  elapsed  before  I  saw  the  patient.  He  was  stupidly  drunk 
in  bed,  and  unable  satisfactorily  to  answer  questions.    His  landlady,  however, 
informed  me  that  he  returned  home  the  worse  for  drink  about  midnight;  that 
he  went  direct  to  his  surgery,  took  out  a  bottle  of  medicine,  and  went  up  stairs 
to  bed  ;  that  shortly  afterwards  he  rang  the  bell,  and  said  he  had  taken  a  large 
dose  of  poison,  which  was  certain  in  a  short  time  to  prove  fatal.    There  was  a 
two-ounce  bottle,  with  its  lable  defaced,  lying  by  the  bedside.    The  bottle  con- 
tained  about  half  a  drachm  of  a  brown-colored  liquid,  a  portion  of  which  I  ap- 
plied to  my  tongue,  and  was  satisfied,  by  the  characteristic  tingling  induced, 
that  it  was  aconite.    Up  to  this  time  there  were  no  symptoms  of  the  patient 
having  taken  poison.    There  had  been  no  vomiting,  the  breathing  was  natural, 
the  pulse  of  fair  volume  and  strength,  and  the  extremities  were  warm.  An 
emetic  was  prescribed  ;  and,  in  conjunction  with  my  late  partner,  Dr.  Ramsay, 
I  visited  the  man  again  in  less  than  half  an  hour.    By  this  time  he  had  vomited 
freely;  a  considerable  discharge  had  also  taken  place  from  the  bowels;  there 
was  evidence,  too,  of  failing  circulation;  the  pulse  was  rapid  and  feeble,  and 
the  feet  and  hands  were  getting  cold.    The  use  of  stimulants  was  clearly  indi- 
cated ;  and,  in  order  to  give  ammonia  and  brandy,  we  raised  the  patient's  head. 
This  brought  on  alarming  prostration  ;  the  breathing  became  labored  ;  the  pulse, 
at  the  wrist,  irregular,  intermittent,  and  finally  imperceptible ;  there  was  a  quan- 
tity of  frothy  mucus  discharged  from  the  mouth  and  nostrils  ;  the  3kin  became 
dusky;  a  cold  clammy  sweat  bedewed  the  face  and  forehead:  in  a  word,  the 
patient  was  dying.    We  quickly  replaced  his  head  upon  the  pillow,  and,  as  he 
was  unable  to  swallow,  injected  subcutaneously  twenty  minims  of  tincture  of 
digitalis,  and  then  applied  galvanism  to  the  cardiac  region,  and  continued  its 
use  for  about  twenty  minutes,  at  the  end  of  which  period  the  patient  began  to 
rally,  and  in  a  few  minutes  more  was  able  to  swallow  a  mixture  of  ammonia, 
brandy,  and  a  teaspoonful  of  tincture  of  digitalis.    Marked  improvement  fol- 
lowed the  administration  of  the  mixture,  and  it  was  twice  repeated  within  an 
hour,  by  which  time  the  breathing  had  become  easy,  and  the  circulation  re-es- 
