BEECH, of Coldwater, gives the details of a practically instructive case of puerperal peritonitis, treated successfully by the hypodermic injection of morphine. At the close of his interesting case, he inquires whether the drug thus exhibited had any effect to restrain the peristaltic action of the bowels. He considers the effect upon them very slight one way or the other. But Dr. WATSON (Prin. and Pract. of Physic, edited by Dr. CONDIE, p. 737), besides the effect it has in allaying irritation, considers the restraining effect upon the action of the bowels of paramount importance. He says: To simple inflammation of the peritoneum, to those perilous forms of peritonitis which occur in women after delivery, and to those still more terrible cases that follow perforation of the serous membrane, this principle of keeping the intestines at rest is applicable." He then quotes a case from Dr. STOKES, where the inflammation, collapse, Hippocratic expression of the countenance, etc., were relieved, and every hope of a speedy recovery prognosticated, through the quieting influence of the "black drop." Forty-eight hours passed in this state, when the "mildest possible laxative" was given, ending in a fatal return of the peritoneal inflammation; thus putting in a strong light, in the language of Dr. WATSON himself, the good effects of opium, and the dangerous effects of purgatives, in such diseases. The result in Dr. BEECH's case would seem to indicate that the anodyne effect was more therapeutic than the restraint upon the action of the bowels.

Papaver dubium is introduced, and becomes partially naturalized in some portions of this country, and even the P. somniferum has escaped from the gardens, and is sometimes found wild, but is hardly yet naturalized. P. nudicaule is a native arctic plant, and is found in the sub-arctic regions, both on the eastern and western boundaries of our continent.

Besides the Argemone Mexicana, which appears to have been introduced from Mexico and South America, we have two or three other species lately discovered in the West, one of which is distinctly shrubby. The A. Mexicana is considered in the West Indies a valuable remedy in ophthalmia, and a good local application in chancres. The juice is purgative and deobstruent, and in those countries is employed as a substitute for ipecacuanha. The seeds,

contrary to the general character of the order, are said to be narcotic, and sometimes smoked with tobacco. The active properties of this species very naturally lead us to suspect the same in our western natives of this genus, and should incite us to a trial of their virtues. Dendromecon rigidum, a Californian plant of this order, as its generic name implies, is a woody or small tree-like shrub.

Another most interesting plant of this family was collected in a single locality, in the Californian Mountains, on the banks of a creek, by Col. FREMONT, in his Exploring Expedition of 1842, '43 and '44, and named by Dr. TORREY Arctomecon Californicum. It is most nearly allied to the poppy, indeed, so closely as hardly to be separable from it, although Dr. TORREY considers that by its difference in habit, and in strophiolate seeds, as well as in other characters, it must be a distinct genus. The following are the characters drawn by Dr.

TORREY, in connection with Col. FREMONT:

'Arctomecon Californicum-Calyx of three smooth imbricated caducous sepals. Petals, four, obovate, regular. Stamens numerous; anthers oblong-linear; the cells opening longitudinally. Ovary obovoid, composed of six carpels, with as many narrow intervalvular placentæ; styles, none; stigmas coalescing into a small hemispherical six-angled sessile head, the angles of which are opposite the placentæ, not forming a projecting disk. Capsule (immature) ovoid, the placente almost filiform, opening at the summit by six valves, which separate from the persistent placenta. Seeds oblong, smooth, strophiolate. A perennial herb, with a thick, woody root. Leaves numerous, mostly crowded about the root, flabelliform-cuneate,. densely clothed with long, gray, upwardly barbellate hairs, three to five-lobed at the summit; the lobes with two or three teeth, which are tipped with a rigid, pungent, upwardly scabrous bristle. Stem scape-like, about a foot high, furnished about the middle with one or two small bract-like leaves, smooth above, rough towards the base. Flowers in a loose, somewhat umbellate, simple, or somewhat compound panicle; the peduncles elongated, erect. Petals about an inch long, yellow. Flowers early in May."-Report of Expl. Exped. to the Rocky Mountains, Oregon, and North California, 1842, '43 and '44, by Capt. J. C. Fremont, p. 312.

Accompanying the description is a good figure of the plant.

cise a great degree of discretion and judgment, in graduating the dose exactly to the physiological effect intended to be produced upon his patients. In prescribing crude opium, and in directions for the different officinal preparations, we are admonished to have reference to the purest and best Smyrna and Constantinople opium, as a standard of comparison; but how is the physician or the druggist to distinguish, before being analyzed, such genuine specimens as yield but four or five per cent from those that yield fifteen per cent of the active salts ? It is clear that one grain of the latter is equal to three of the former, or laudanum made from the one must be three times stronger than the other. Dose is no insignificant item in the successful management of this active drug. As an illustration of the importance of exactly knowing the strength of the opium we are using, let us imagine a case that may occur in the practice of physicians every day. Unadulterated Turkey opium, according to our best analytical chemists, varies in the amount of its active principles from five to fifteen per cent. A physician, say, by his last purchases, has become accustomed to the use of the five per cent opium, and from experience has learned to deal out the exact dose, but his supply becomes exhausted, and he obtains a new one from the druggist, which happens to be of the strength of fifteen per cent of morphia, of which he is not aware. His first case, after obtaining it, may be that of an infant with cholera infantum, and a stage in the disease arises in which opium is indicated; he exhibits it to the suffering infant in the doses he was accustomed to, in his previous lot, with success-his present lot being three times stronger than the former. Is it any wonder that his little patient's case is soon complicated with congestion and inflammation of the brain? And ten to one his patient dies! These cases occur so often, that many conscientious physicians are afraid to give opium at all in these diseases. Again, the physician prescribes for a case of cholera morbus in the adult, and depends upon the apothecary for putting up his prescription. But the opium, which is an essential ingredient, is supplied from a sample which contains but five per cent, when it should have been fifteen per cent of the active principles. It may easily happen in this case, that by his failure of giving relief, in consequence of the want of the proper dose, he may lose his patient,