and at some future day may communicate them to the profession.

Brooklyn, January 20th, 1869.

Lunatic Asylums.

The Medical Journals vs. Judge Sutherland, and Commodore Meade. Lunatic Asylums must be supported.

Journals.

Their allies, the Medical

BY ROBERT S. NEWTON, M. D.,

Prof. of Surgery in the Eclectic Medical College of New York.

WE clip the following from the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal of January 7th, 1869.

"In the Commodore Meade case, on one side was the negative evidence of sundry persons, who could see no insanity in him at the time. On the other, his relations, without dissent, affirm his insanity and its dangerous character. They testify to an attack of apoplexy confining him to his bed for a month, the paralysis accompanying which still exists; to his marked change of character after the event; to his aversion to all his relations, and his deadly hostility to several friends of his family, leading to the carrying of firearms for the avowed purpose of killing them. Surgeon Bache, of the Navy, who had known him a long time, testified to his insanity. Dr. Brown-Séquard gave the family a written opinion that his mind was impaired by the presence of an unabsorbed apoplectic clot. Dr. Brown, of Bloomingdale Asylum, where he was sent, had not the slightest doubt of his insanity. He was discharged by order of

the court."

From this it will be seen that the writer is of the opinion that the Commodore is really a Lunatic. This writer may have forgotten the fact that he has made up the case by taking as evidence, statements which upon being investigated did not prove to be facts. The Naval officer who testified, had not seen or been personally with the Commodore, for about two years. Now the strangest thing that

this writer refers to as testimony, is the statement of Dr. Brown-Séquard, that "his mind was impaired by the presence of an unabsorbed apoplectic clot." Now Dr. Brown-Séquard, or any other physician, has no definite means of determining the existence of an "apoplectic clot," and, too, it is a well known fact that in all cases when such a condition has been revealed by post-mortem examination, that the mental condition of such persons had been the very opposite of that of the Commodore. Pressure of the brain from such a cause, is attended with depression of spirits, obtuseness of the faculties, melancholy, coma, and even death. Never is there a state of action, exhilaration and excitement from pressure on the brain. As to the attending physician of the Bloomingdale Asylum (where the Commodore was confined), while we have entertained the highest respect for his opinion on the subject of insanity, we are at a loss to understand the reasons why a special order had to be issued, before those persons who were the custodians of the Commodore, and the managers of the Asylum, would allow the Commodore. to be let out to undergo the trial by which it was to be determined whether he was a lunatic or not.

The following is from the Medical and Surgical Reporter, Philadelphia, January 2, 1869.

"The evidence in Meade's case has now been before the public for some time. It is another of those instances wherein the sympathy of the public is asked for a husband and a father imprisoned on pretence of insanity by his wife and children-another case which furnished penny-a-liners for the dailies and weeklies a text whereon to talk of lettres de cachet, private madhouses, and mercenary physicians.

"Here was a man broken down by arduous service, soured and embittered by disappointment and indulgence in violent passion, confessedly given to 'fits of ungovernable fury' for trifling causes, carrying about three or four loaded revolvers, suspicious that his daughter, who had tenderly watched over him during a trying illness, meant to poison him, threatening the life of his family, and hanging about the dens of New York to enlist' roughs ' in order to murder his prospective son

in-law; finally pronounced by Dr. BROWN-SEQUARD as suffering from an organic disease of the brain; here was such a man turned loose on the public, on his family and his connections, because the judge, while seeing proof of frenzy, of dangerous, wild, uncontrolled, permanent passion, yet was not clear in his mind that this was insanity. He had a definition of insanity of his own, this judge had, so he tells us, but, 'though clear to him, he could not express it'!!"

We cannot understand why the writer of this article manifests so much bitter feeling in the case, and animadverted so strongly upon the opinions of the press of our city. He runs into the same error as the writer in the Boston Journal, and brings forward testimony which would not stand as evidence in a court of inquiry. Again, while this writer complains so strongly of the position of the New York press in the matter, the private cards and statements of the family, and pretended friends, which he wishes his readers to take as facts, were published in the city papers.

If newspaper statements are good on one side why not on the other? But the most remarkable circumstance connected with this whole matter is, that now, after the only proper legal tribunal has decided the "victim" not a lunatic, and set him at liberty, that this writer should continue to use such language as the following, which will be found in the extracts: "Here was such a man turned loose on the public, on his family and his connections, because the judge, while seeing proof of frenzy, &c., was not clear in his mind that this was insanity." May we ask why are the editors of the several medical journals feeling so bad at the success of the public effort to rescue one of the prominent officers of our navy from a lunatic asylum, where he had been sent, and where he would have remained until death had released him, as in the case of thousands of others who have been the victims of designing persons? If it was a question of sympathy for the family, why not have a little for the Commodore, if he is, according to the writer, a "poor paralyzed apoplectic," and still suffering from "blood clot," leaving him in a state of "congestion," not "able to run," or "take care of himself."

If it was a question of danger, the circumstances in the case. fully developed the fact of who was really the most to be dreaded and feared.

If the medical editorial staff of this country were as united and determined in keeping sane persons from being victimized, and locked up in lunatic asylums, as they are to sustain the opinions of the medical men who testified in these cases, we would have no more such cases as have occurred the last few months in New York, New Jersey, and Philadelphia.

At this time, Commodore Meade is well and in his right mind, and no indication of insanity has been discovered by any of his pretended friends, since they have learned that the public and the courts of the State will protect him in the exercise of all his personal rights. Judge Sutherland took a rational and common sense view of the case, and decided accordingly, and we are glad to be able to record the fact that he fully understood his duty, and discharged it promptly, and, but for his independent and just decision, one of the old tried and true servants of the country, would in all probability, still have been deprived of his personal liberty.

We make another appeal to the various Legislatures of the several States, for a reform in all the land upon this subject.

NEW YORK, Jan., 1869.

PERISCOPE.

Therapeutical Action of Veratrum Viride.

M. OULMONT, in a memoir on this subject presented to the Academy of Medicine, states that he has employed the resinous extract made up into granules of one centigramme each, one of these being given every hour until vomiting takes place, this usually occurring after the third dose, although sometimes not until after the seventh or eighth. These short intervals are indicated by the fugitive character of the action of the medicine, and by the fact that this is not cumulative. Being aware of the elective action it exerts on febrile phe

nomena,

M. Oulmont has administered the substance in cases of acute pneumonia, acute articular rheumatism, pleurisy, and typhoid fever. The following conclusions are drawn: 1. The veratrum acts directly by lowering the pulse and temperature, the former, at the end of three or four hours, diminishing by from twenty to fifty beats. The temperature lessens much more slowly, so that it is diminished by from a half degree to 2° C. only after three or four days. 2. The dose requisite to produce these effects is from 3 to 7 centigrammes per diem, and, for durable effects to be produced, it must continue during three or four days. 3. It exerts a very favorable influence in simple pneumonia, the mean duration of which is reduced by its aid to 63 days, while the mortality is less under this mode of treatment than under any other. Its action on the local condition is only indirect by arresting the progress of the disease, and hastening on resolution. According to Dr. Kocter, of Berne, the mortality of pneumonia treated by veratrum is but 8.3 per cent., while it is 13.5 by the expectant treatment, 20.4 by antiphlogistics, and 20.7 by antimony. In complicated pneumonia its action is much less decisive. 4. Its action is far less satisfactory in acute rheumatism and pleurisy, while in typhoid fever its employment is contraindicated. 5. Accidents sometimes attend its administration, collapse sometimes occurring when this has been inopportune, or too strong doses have been given. Singultus also not unfrequently occurs.-Med. Times and Gaz. Jour. Med. Sciences.

Inhalation of an Aqueous Solution of Carbolic Acid under the form of Spray for the Treatment of Phthisis.

DR. WM. MARCET states (The Practitioner, Nov., 1868), that, considering the phenomena of chemical decomposition which must take place in the diseased portions of the pulmonary tissue in phthisis, owing to their low state of vitality, it occurred to him that if an antiseptic agent could be introduced into the lungs, without interfering with the general functions of the body, the progress of the disease might be arrested, or its mortality diminished. He therefore decided to try carbolic acid in the form of spray, as that most likely to cause the antiseptic agent to remain in contact with the diseased parts for some little time before its absorption in the blood.