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There have already been over 120 species of sargassum described, and Dr. Harvey supposes that there are many more, in various herbaria, that still remain uncharacterized. Seven of these are already known to be natives of the shores of North America.

This plant with Fucus vesiculosus, nodosus and senatus, Rhodymenia palmata, Laminaria saccharena and many-probably a great many more-yield the well known kelps, from which the principal part of the iodine of commerce is obtained, Dr. Bache of the U. S. Dispensatory, says that the Rhodymenia palmata is particularly rich in iodine. Dr. Harvey, tells us that this species varies considerably in texture and taste, according to the situation in which it grows. When it grows parasitically, on the stems of the larger laminariæ, it is tougher and less sweet, and therefore less esteemed than when it grows among mussels and Balani, near low water mark. It is this latter variety, which, under the name of "shell dillisk” is most highly prized.

In some places on the west of Ireland, this plant forms the chief relish to his potatoes that the coast peasant enjoys; but its use is by no means confined to the extreme poor. It is eaten occasionally, either from pleasure or from an opinion of its wholesomeness, by individuals of all ranks; but, except among the poor, the taste for it is chiefly confined to children. It is commonly exposed for sale at fruit stalls in the towns of Ireland, and may be seen in similar places, in the Irish quarters of New York. In the Mediterranean it forms a common ingredient in soups. A large number of them yield wholesome condiments, while several offer valuable articles of diet, so well known that I need scarcely mention them here, such as the Chondrus crispus or Carrageen moss, Porphyra vulgaris, and P. lacimata, which often being properly cooked, is brought to the table under the name of marine sauce or sloke.

It is eaten with lemon juice or vinegar, with a peculiarly agreeable flavor to most persons. Both species of porphyry grow abundantly on the rocky shores of North America. They not only furnish an agreeable vegetable sauce, but are regarded as anti-scorbutic, and said to be useful in glandular swellings, perhaps from the minute quantity of iodine which they contain. Various species of confervoids found in many thermal springs, mostly species of Sphærozyga, are said by Dr. Lindley, the celebrated English botanist, to be used empirically as external applications to goitre, enlarged glands, etc.

Vol. 2, No. 2,-3.

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And analytical chemists who have examined the confervæ found in the springs of Vichy, Neris and Vauz, have found small quantities of an alkaline iodide in each. (See Chem. Gaz., 1844, p. 447.)

Dr. Lindley also tells us, (see Vegetable Kingdom, page 21,) that fucus vesiculosus has been employed in Europe against scrofula. In confirmation of these curious facts, Dr. Greville observes, that the stems of a sea weed are sold in the shops, and chewed by the inhabitants of South America, wherever goitre is prevalent, for the same purpose. This remedy is termed by those people palo cota-(literally, goitre stick,) and from fragments brought home by Dr. Gillies, who gave Dr. Greville the information, the plant is decided to be sargassum bacciferum, or a laminaria.

As iodine is certainly, one of the most important of the remedial means added to the materia medica, in modern times, subjecting as it does, some of the most intractable diseases to the dominion of art, our curiosity subsides on seeing the wonderful efficacy of these humble plants in the cure of some of the most inveterate diseases. The active principle of these plants in its pure state, even in moderate doses, is a powerful poison; yet, by being chemically or organically combined with the albuminous and starchy principles of the plants, they become perfectly innocuous, and capable of being taken into the system with perfect safety in any amount.

Throughout the entire range of nosology, there probably is no disease, that requires a greater number of adjuvants in its treatment, or that needs a closer, and more rigid attention to its peculiar diathesis, than scrofula. So, also, there is no diathesis so wide-spread, and permeating every class of society of the human family, including the higher grades of animal life, than the strumous diathesis. Indeed it seems that bad air, bad food, insufficiency of the variety of diet, under exposure to a cold damp atmosphere, want of proper exercise in the open air, hereditary influences, almost all chronic diseases having a tendency to lower the status of the vital principle, all the circumstances that tend to derange the state of organic nervous power, of the circulation of the blood, of the function of nutrition, and worse than all, many times, the free administration of our most common patent remedies, either singly, or more forcibly when combined, have the effect to develope this state of the system. When the diathesis is once developed, all these causes, with a nameless array of depressing diseases, like the

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addition of fuel to an already destructive fire, either enkindle scrofula in some of its protean shapes, or render intractable or malignant almost every other disease concomitant or concurrent with it. Hence, although it is far from my design to compile an essay on scrofula, yet the importance to our success in practice of distinguishing this taint, leads me to specify the characters by which it is known by our most eminent and reliable authors. We have the authority of Dr. Copland, the learned compiler of the Dictionary of Practical Medicine, for saying that this diathesis may exist a long time, or even through life, without the manifestation of disease peculiar to itself or otherwise; but this by no means detracts from the importance of knowing when the taint exists in the systems of our patients, of properly estimating its influence in modifying the diseases to which they are subject, and of altering and modifying our treatment, so as to meet the demands of sound pathological principles.

The following are some of the principal characteristics of the scrofulous taint: According to Bredow, there is a want of due symmetry of the body, shown by small, weak or crooked limbs; the ribs are flatened, producing a gibbous or pigeon breast; the head is larger than natural, especially posteriorly; a puffed-up, rounded visage; a pale, inflated countenance; the chief color in the dark complexion is dull or dirty, in the fair, an unnatural whiteness, with an agreeable redness of the cheeks; in others, a waxy sallowness, with a dirty pallor round the mouth. Lugol, enumerates hypertrophy of the pubis, sacrum, and ischia, among the characteristics, but he contends, that the functions of the generative organs in scrofulous subjects are below the average. Hufeland, on the other hand, maintains that these functions are early and powerfully manifested, and the powers of the mind although generally feeble are often precocious. According to Dr. Copland, the albuginea of the eye is of a bluish whiteness, and the pupils large when the lung is diseased. The eyelids are often oedematous, the eyelashes are long, and the meibomian secretion is increased, the nose is wide and swollen, or red, or shining, the upper-lip is thick and projecting, and the furrow between it and the nose is deep. The general expression of the countenance indicates indolence and want of energy. The first teeth are small and subject to caries. The second are broad, often covered with a glairy secretion, are very white, readily split, and often become carious. The appetite is irregular, sometimes impaired, at

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other times voracious; occasionally there is nausea, the tongue is often foul, the breath fetid, the bowels irregular, flatulent eructations are frequent and acid, and the excretions are also acid. The abdomen is large tumid and flatulent on percussion. Discharges from the nose are common and from the vagina not unfrequent. The soft solids are flabby, the adipose and cellular tissues abundant but soft, giving the surface of the body a full and rotund contour; the limbs are difficient in rigidity and firmness. The tendons are small and yielding; the capsules of the joints are weak; and the heads of the bones are large; hence a disposition to curvature of the spine, thick ancles and joints, large and ill formed hands and feet and falling of the arches of the latter. The shoulders are high.

Hensinger, one of the most correct writers on pathology, points us to the fact, that the scrofulous taint consists of a torpid state of the nervous system. The blood, whose pathology in this condition is yet but little known, appears to be from the beginning poor in globulin and hæmatin, rich in albumen, which a later period only diminishes also. There is an abundance of lymph, distension of the lymphatic vessels, marked development of the lymphatic glands, and predominence of the cellular system, not only under the skin, but in all the organs, where it commences to replace the specific tissues, which is especially apparent in the muscles, the bones, etc. All the mucous secretions are augmented, and they often become albuminous. General lassitude, languor and debility are commonly experienced, with an inability to sustain prolonged physical and intellectual exertion. It is the remark of Dr. Glover, that in very few of the subjects which he has examined, has he found the bodily and intellectual powers fairly developed, in a degree proportionate to the age and circumstances of the patient; and that a general retardation of development, seems one of the most constant features of this peculiarity of the constitution.

Limon has observed that the urine is unusually pale, except when vascular excitement is present. Its specific gravity is low, and in children is more acid than usual. There are differences of opinion with regard to the nature of the free acid; some look upon it as phosphoric acid, others as hydrochloric, and others again as lactic acid. The urea and uric acids are often diminished, while the salts, especially the phosphates, are increased, and even oxalic acid-an acid foreign to normal urine-has been found in the urine of scrofulous children.

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According to the observations of Schonbein, the chief alterations marked in the urine of scrofulous persons, consist in a diminution of the nitrogenous constituents--the urea and uric acid; and in the appearance of the non-nitrogenous oxalic acid. The acid is frequently so abundant that urine, upon cooling, deposits copious sediments of the oxalates, and those sediments sometimes form renal and vesical calculi.

Mr. Phillips, an excellent writer and observer in this class of diseases, but who confines his observations to the external manifestations, referring the internal forms of the malady to other diseases, very judiciously remarks with regard to the characteristics of this diathesis, that there is a want of muscular development, an hypertrophied or infiltrated condition of the cellular tissue, which rapidly disappears under privation or disease; palor and coldness of the surface, owing to a feeble circulation; a marked disposition to disorders of the respiratory an digestive mucous surfaces; frequent soreness of, or discharges from the nose, the eyes and the ears; enlargement of the tonsils; frequent dryness of the skin, or a greasy, sour or foetid exhalation from the skin; and more or less disorder of nearly all the abdominal secretions and excretions.

To sum up the marks and appearances by which the strumous taint is recognized by various writers and observers, it is obvious from the foregoing epitome of the subject, that the strumous diathesis may be viewed as an original or an acquired deterioration of the constitution from the natural healthy pitch, or condition, and that before any actual manifestation of disease takes place, there may long exist such a state of organic nervous power, of circulation, of function, and of nutrition, of general asthenia, and of structural development, as to constitute an obvious and wide divergence from health, before the scrofulous formation of tubercular deposit takes place; and futhermore, in the language of Dr. Copland, that the characters before described as constituting scrofulous taint, cachexy or divergency from the actual healthy condition, may exist for many years, or throughout a long life, without being followed by any of the marked structural manifestations of the strumous disease, or tubercular deposit, although many determining or concurring causes, very easily develop those diseases in active and manifest forms.

[To be continued.]