The chloroformic solution of atropine is an excellent external application to relieve pain in nerves superficially situated. Rx Chloroformi, spts. vini rect., āā oz ss; atropinae, grs. v. M. Sig.: Apply on lint to painful part, and cover with oiled silk. The same application to the epigastrium sometimes arrests obstinate vomiting, cerebral or reflex, as, for example, the vomiting of pregnancy, sea-sickness, etc. A belladonna-plaster is an excellent application to relieve the chest-pains of phthisis, to allay irritability of an over-excited heart, to diminish the pains and soreness of lumbago, myalgia, etc.

Excessive sweating of a part, as, for example, unilateral sweating of the head, may be removed by brushing over the affected surface a solution of atropine (grs. iv— oz j).

There is no doubt that belladonna has the power to arrest the secretion of milk, in the same way that it stops the cutaneous transpiration, for the milk-gland is only an enlarged sebaceous gland whose function is differentiated from that of other sebaceous glands of the body. When it is desirable to arrest the secretion of milk, the gland may be enveloped by a belladonna-plaster, or the ointment of belladonna may be carefully rubbed into the integument. These are rather disagreeable, sticky applications, which soil the clothing. A much more elegant method of applying this treatment is to envelop the breast in lint wet with a solution of atropine, four grains to the ounce of rose-water. As systemic effects may be produced by such an application, when the pupils dilate and the mouth becomes dry, it should be removed. Inflamed breasts may be treated in the same way. The mode of action of the belladonna preparations is quite obvious: the irritability of the terminal filaments of the nerves is allayed by the direct action of the atropine, and the arterioles are made to contract, thus diminishing the blood-supply to the inflamed tissue.

Other superficial inflammations are subdued by the same treatment, as, for example, abscesses, boils, carbuncles. A plaster made of belladonna extract may be kept in contact with the inflamed tissue, or the solution of atropine, above recommended, may be used.

Pruritus of the vulva, vaginismus, fissure of the anus, are sometimes relieved, as if by magic, by the use of the atropine solution above recommended

Whenever atropine is used locally for the relief of inflammatory pain and swelling, the efficiency of the application is much increased by the addition of morphine, or morphine and chloral, according to formulae to be given hereafter in the article on the latter drug.