ON THE EFFICACY OF PYRO-ACETIC SPIRIT. 67 
nately the symptoms of early phthisis are not sufficiently 
precise to satisfy the minds of those disposed to be sceptical. 
The opinions I then advanced, I have had frequent oppor- 
tunities of confirming. 
However, it is gratifying to perceive that it is attracting 
attention on the other side of the channel ; and I also find 
that a book has been recently published by Renshaw, writ- 
ten by an M. R. C. S., on the treatment of this disease, in 
which pyro-acetic spirit is put forth as the great curative 
agent ; but this is without a single mention of my name in 
its pages. 
I have now to deal with another class of diseases, about 
the diagnosis of which there is no room for either cavil or 
doubt : I mean, gout, acute and chronic rheumatism. For 
upwards of twelve months I have employed pyro-acetic 
spirit in these affections, and my treatment has been at- 
tended with a success quite extraordinary, far exceeding 
the results usually obtained by colchicum, &c. I have not 
yet seen a case of gout or acute rheumatism which has not 
rapidly disappeared under its use, at the same time that it 
brings about a very improved condition of the general 
health. Chronic rheumatism requires a more lengthened 
treatment for its removal ; indeed, it has less power over 
this affection than the two preceding. 
I should have forwarded a report of cases, with further 
observations on this treatment, but from my conviction of 
it value, I thought it better to make this general statement, 
and also to assert my claim to having been the first to em- 
ploy this agent in a class of diseases hitherto so intractible, 
and defer the other for a future occasion. — Chemist, /rom 
Lancet. 
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