This is said, by Dr. Hillkbrand, of Honolulu, to act as a tonic and alterative, and to control the disease for a limited period (197, 73s).

Wilson discusses (78,245) the treatment of Leprosy in the following terms:* "In the treatment of leprosy, the first and most natural suggestion is that of changing completely the hygienic surroundings of the patient. Change to a better climate, a more genial or more bracing air; sufficient exercise; exhilarating occupation and associations, bathing and cleanliness, and good and nutritious and sufficient food. From the earliest periods of medicine, these recommendations have been proclaimed, and we find wine and serpent broth, + probably a kind of turtle-soup, occupying a place at the very head of ancient remedies. . . . The most perfect diet that could be obtained is the mixed meat and vegetable diet of England, with a proportionate supply of our excellent beer. ++ ....

"Danielssen and Boeck, regarding elephantiasis as a dyscrasia of the blood, leading on to a general cachexia, employed as their remedies, in addition to generous diet and cod-liver oil, small bleedings from the skin, by the aid of cupping, and internally sulphate of magnesia, arsennic, tincture of cantharides, iodide, and for neuralgic pains the iodide and bromide of potassium.

"Locally, in pursuance of the theory of imitating nature's processes, and finding that the tubercles tended to softening and absorption, they paint the larger prominences with the acid nitrate of mercury; and the smaller ones with a solution of potassa fusa and water, one part to two; while for effecting a similar purpose on the rest of the skin, they employed baths of caistoc potash and sulphuret of potash. They ventured even to apply caustic potash to tubercles situated within the larynx, which threatened to suffocate the patient, mixing the caustic with honey. The application was always attended with a violent fit of coughing, but was always succeeded by benefit.

• I omit references to methods of treatment already discussed. - H. G. P. + Old Galen (Kuhn's Ed., Vol. 12, p. 312 et seq.) reports several oases of recovery from leprosy by the use of wine, in which vipers had been drowned. Curiously, the homoepathists of to-day recommend the use of "Lachesis," a drug prepared from the poison of the lance-headed viper of South America, in this disease. - H. G. P.

++ It is a pity that American beer cannot receive this commendation. Composed largely of artificial glucose, I believe it is the reverse of wholesome. - H. G. P.

"In the anaesthetic form of the affection they aimed at neutralizing or arresting morbid action in the nerves and spinal cord, by cupping and counter-irritation, while pursuing the constitutional treatment already indicated. Thus they cupped repeatedly in the region of the spine; they used the moxa, they established issues, and excited a more general irritation of the skin by tartarized antimony;.....

"Under the belief that the tissues principally attacked in elephantiasis were the gelatinous and not the albuminous, and that the agent of the disease was a specific zymotic virus, Newton prescribed acetic acid and carbolic acid in combination with alcohol; meeting other indications with quinine to improve digestion; nitro-hydrochloric acid to stimulate the liver; cod-liver oil as a nutritive agent, and a cholagogue cathartic of podophyllin, aloes, and ipecacuanha to obviate constipation. He likewise recommends a tincture of the young roots of the plumbago rosea, the lal chitra of the native language, in drachm doses three times a day, for anaesthesia.".....

After speaking of Beauperthuy's treatment Wilson goes on to say:

"In addition to the remedies made use of by Beauperthuy, I have myself painted the aphthae and ulcerated surfaces within the fauces and mouth with sulphurous acid. I have also given sulphurous acid combined with liquor cinchonae internally, and have found a mixture of acetic acid and carbolic acid with quinine and brandy, ... of considerable service as an internal remedy.

The oleum anacardii, or cashew-nut oil, acts upon the morbid skin in a manner somewhat similar to the caustic potash employed by Danielssen and Boeck; it produces a copious exudation from the surface to which it is applied; it robs the morbid skin of the excess of fluid with which its tissue is infiltrated, and in this manner reduces the bulk of the tubercles, the swelling of the nervous knots, and the oedema of the distended integument. It is, therefore, especially adapted to tubercles wherever they occur; and one or two applications will sometimes render a surface nodulated all over perfectly smooth, and at the same time remove the more deep-seated hardened knots that are felt in the morbid integument. "The oil is applied with a camel's-hair brush, and a certain region is selected for the purpose; it may be a part or the whole of the face, or more or less of a limb, or any other portion of the body where tubercles, thickening, and induration of the skin are present. There is no pain at the first application of the oil; but after a few hours there may be more or less pain, in proportion to the degree of sensibility left in the skin; for the same reason, while at first the applications are perfectly painless, they become painful subsequently in consequence of the restoration of the functions of the cutaneous nerves. In this sense the remedy constitutes the test of the existing sensibility of the skin. On the day follow-ing the application of the oil, the surface to which it was applied is coated over with a moderately thick crust of exudation-matter, partly of a glairy, viscous nature, like the product of the deep ulcers already spoken of, and partly semipurulent. While at the end of a week, when the crust has usually peeled off, the surface below is smooth and soft to the touch; and very frequently the pigmentary discoloration, which previously existed, is removed.