sent she has discontinued the mercurial plan for about two months, and had been free from the complaint some time before. It may be necessary to mention that, during the first attack, the bark was taken in large quantity. The arsenical solution was also used, till it disagreed so much as to oblige us to leave it off. Thus, although the mercurial plan appears to have produced the most permanent advantage, yet it must be confessed that the effect of the Stramonium was extremely beneficial in affording immediate relief when the pains were excruciating."

CASE 13. Encouraged by the effect of Stramonium in the case I have just related, Mr. Astley Cooper was induced to recommend to my care Miss D. (who had laboured for some years under a severe and aggravated form of the same disease), with a view to enable me to give that medicine another trial in this obstinate disorder. In this instance however, it failed entirely of producing relief; or rather the patient, a person of the most highly irritable nervous habit, could not bear its effects even in the minute dose of one eighth of a grain. It produced great affection of the head and of the stomach, and such a general nervous agitation as could not be endured; and the medicine was abandoned without having produced the least benefit.

CASE 14. Another, and more promising opportunity of trying the effects of Stramonium in Tic douloureux, was afforded me a few weeks ago, by the recommendation of Mr. Cooper. The subject of this case is a gentleman whose general health appears perfectly good, though he has been frequently tormented, for about three years past, by severe paroxysms of Tic douloureux. Between the two or three first attacks, intervals of several months intervened; but for the last 15 or 16 months the complaint had continued without any complete intermission, though varying considerably at different times, as to its violence and character. Having been himself a medical man, and acquired great eminence and celebrity in a particular branch of the healing árt, this gentleman had been extremely

active in trying all the remedies that have been recommended in this disorder; but had failed in obtaining permanent relief. Early in August last, he began to take the extract of Stramonium prepared from the seeds, in the dose, first of a quarter of a grain, and soon afterwards of half a grain three times a day; and his first report was, that in the smaller dose it had produced no relief, but that the benefit obtained from the larger had been very considerable. The remedy had been attended with no sensible inconvenience, and had produced rather an aperient effect. At this period however the patient went to the continent, and I was no longer favoured with direct accounts of his proceedings. But as he has lately written to a friend that his face is very much better, and that he continues the Stramonium regularly, it is reasonable to hope that his case will afford another instance of the beneficial effects of this remedy.*

Thus from the facts I have just laid before the society, (the only ones that have yet come under my own observation respecting the effects of Stramonium,) it would appear that in four cases of sciatica decided benefit was obtained. The efficacy of this remedy was still more strongly marked in two cases of sciatica combined with syphilitic pains. It failed entirely in two instances of diseased hip-joint. It produced considerable relief, as to pain, in a case of supposed disease of the spine followed by paraplegia; and likewise in one of cancer of the breast. It allayed materially the pain occasioned by an acute uterine disease. It was of great and repeated utility in a case of Tic douloureux; its utility in a second case of the same description was very doubtful; and in a third, it entirely failed.

Since this was written, another letter of a more recent date (September, 1816) was received from that gentleman, which considerably diminishes my hopes of the ultimate success of Stramonium in this case. He says, "My face is still indifferent, though upon the whole rather better than when I left England. I have continued the Stramonium, and now take between five and six grains every day, but without any perceptible effect." It appears from the same letter that the preparation of opium called 'the black drop' generally produces relief.

It may perhaps appear to this learned society, on a first view of the subject, that the addition of a narcotic plant can hardly be considered as a new or important acquisition in practice, since we are already possessed of a variety of powerful and efficacious medicines of the same class. But if this remedy should decidedly prove, upon further trial, to produce the effects I have described, and in particular to allay pain, without inducing constipation or lethargy, I cannot help flattering myself that it will be found to afford, at least, a valuable palliative.

Postscript. After the two first sheets of this paper were printed off, I heard that the name of the medical gentleman alluded to in page 456, was Mr. Norwood, of Ashford, in Kent.

Additional Particulars on the Preparation of the Extract of Stramonium, by DR. MARCET.

[From the Medico-Chirurgical Transactions, Vol. VIII].

HAVING, since the publication of my communication on the Extract of Stramonium, taken every opportunity of multiplying my trials of the effects of that remedy, and having receiv ed very favorable reports of its efficacy from various practitioners in different parts of the country, I think it incumbent upon me to communicate to the public an important fact which these trials have brought to light, respecting the mode of preparing this medicine.

Having had occasion, at Guy's Hospital, in the course of last summer, to renew our supply of this extract, two patients who were much accustomed to take it, the one for a tic douloureux, and the other for a very painful uterine disease, both complained that the remedy was much less effectual than it had been on former occasions, in producing the usual relief; and that, in order to obtain the desired effect, it was necessary to

take as much as two or three times the quantity they had been accustomed to use. Having mentioned this to Mr. Hudson, who had prepared the first specimens, this gentleman told me that he had already received, from other quarters, information to the same effect, and he soon favoured me with the following explanation:

SIR,

Letter of Mr. Hudson to Dr. Marcet.

27, Haymarket, 27th October, 1817.

During the last summer some remarks were made to me on the uncertainty, or want of uniformity, experienced in the effects of the extract of Stramonium prepared from the seeds; and I was also informed, that there was a considerable variation in the appearance of the extract prepared by different persons. I therefore examined two specimens which had appeared, upon trial, to differ materially in strength. No. 1. was bright, black, and tenacious; No. 2. was dull, brownish, and crumbly. When dissolved, No. 1. was found to consist of extractive matter, with very little deposit; No. 2. produced a very large deposit, of a farinaceous appearance: this matter abounds in the decoction of the seeds, and occasions considerable trouble to separate it. I have sometimes been obliged to stop the evaporation when considerably advanced, and subject the decoction to a second deposition, and have two or three times been obliged to re-dissolve the extract. This method is tedious, and renders the product small, and expensive; but it is quite clear to me, both from the testimony of practitioners and my own observation, that it is of great importance to use this precaution in the preparation, in order to make the extract resemble the specimen, No. 1. which was found to be very superior to No. 2.; in some instances as 3 to 1. I have no doubt the extract will be found uncertain, in proportion to the

quantity of farina it contains.

There is, however, another circumstance which has had a share in producing the uncertainty. The seeds of Stramonium® had not been an article of any value till the effects of the ex

tract became known, through your paper;-the demand then became so great, that all the seed that could be found, new or old, in good or bad condition, was brought into the market, and speedily bought up. This inconvenience, I believe, no longer exists; the growers of medical herbs have this year raised large quantities of the Stramonium plant, and there is a good supply of fresh seeds. I hope, therefore, we may anticipate more uniform and favourable results in the future exhibition of the medicine.

I am, Sir,

Yours, very respectfully,

W. B. HUDSON.

To the above very distinct and satisfactory statement of Mr. Hudson, the following particulars (which I obtained from a person whose accuracy and competence in pharmaceutical manipulations may be depended upon) may be added, as tending to confirm and farther explain Mr. Hudson's observations.

1. The decoction of the seeds of Stramonium, when newly made, is turbid and milky, and continues so even after long standing.

2. This decoction, if immediately filtered through paper, cannot be obtained quite transparent, though it becomes much less opaque.

3, The filtered decoction, on standing in contact with the air, for three or four days, deposits very little; and, in close vessels, it deposits still less.

4. The last-mentioned decoction, by rapid but cautious inspissation, yields an extract, which is very tenacious, and which, on being again mixed with water and gently warmed, forms a solution nearly as transparent as the decoction from which it was prepared.

5. The extract, on the contrary, made from the unfiltered decoction, is not tenacious; but is oily and friable, and if mixed with water, yields a considerable quantity of insoluble sediment.