As regards the employment of this remedy in the phlegmasiae generally, it labours like all the other nervous sedatives under the capital defect, that it does not lesson the quantity or alter the quality of the blood, which are indications of cure quite as prominent as to lessen the force with which it is distributed. it cannot, therefore, be relied on as a substitute for the lancet, or the arterial sedatives, particularly the anti-monials.

Vascular irritation or Active Congestion. The condition of this kind to which aconite would appear to be best adapted, is active congestion of the brain. its sedative influence at once on the nervous centres, and the circulation, is what is specially wanted here. But, as it does not lessen the quantity of the blood, it cannot be depended on in plethoric cases, in which there is no substitute for the lancet, or other depletory measures. As an adjuvant, however, of these measures, it may be resorted to, and also as a substitute when the patient is not in a state to admit of depletion. in those determinations of blood to the head which occasionally take place from the direction thither of gouty or rheumatic irritation, and in other instances associated with an irritable condition of the nervous system, aconite is a very appropriate remedy. if, at the same time, there should be an excessive action of the heart, as in hypertrophy of that organ, the indication for its use would be still stronger. inflammation of the brain, apoplexy, and convulsions may probably be averted, in some instances, by a timely and appropriate use of aconite; and headache and vertigo may often be relieved. But care must be taken not to confound these affections, arising from vascular fulness of the brain, with similar affections from an anemic condition, in which the medicine is contraindicated.

Active hemorrhage also offers an indication for the use of this remedy, which may be employed to reduce the frequency and force of the heart's action, when bleeding may be inappropriate, or may have been employed without sufficiently relieving the arterial excitement.

Fevers. in the idiopathic fevers, though perhaps occasionally useful, aconite is much inferior to the refrigerant and depletory remedies usually employed, and is often objectionable from its tendency to irritate the stomach, already more or less irritated in these affections, and almost always more than ordinarily irritable. it has been employed with asserted success in intermittent fever; but this is a credit which it shares with so many other medicines, that it is of little value. it is not pretended that it can be compared with cinchona in efficiency. in erysipelas it has been employed by M. J. Lecoeur with remarkable success. He gives it, however, in doses which would generally be considered very large. (Ann. de Thérap., 1862, p. 19.) it has been used, with great apparent advantage, in variola, by Dr. J. W. Cleft, U.S.A. (Bost. Med. and S. Journ., April 11, 1864, lxx. 217.)

Organic Diseases of the Heart. The remarks made upon the use of digitalis in these affections are so exactly applicable to aconite, that it would be useless to repeat them here. (See page 118.) it is sufficient to say that this remedy may sometimes be advantageously resorted to when digitalis disagrees with the patient, or in order, by varying the remedies employed, to prevent a too rapid impairment of the susceptibilities, and thus to prolong the period during which remedial or alleviating measures may be used With effect.

Nervous irritation. it is in the different forms of this pathological condition that aconite is most useful, and of these forms, neuralgia is the one in which it has proved pre-eminently so. it is, indeed, one of the standard remedies in nervous pain. There is no variety of this affection in which it may not be employed, with the reasonable hope of permanent or temporary benefit. But neuralgic rheumatism and gout arc the special affections in which it has proved most serviceable, and in which it is probably most used. in all the varieties of neuralgia, the medicine may be employed both internally and externally; or it may be applied to the seat of the disease, while some other remedy or remedies may be addressed to the system. in the local use of it, the application is generally made by friction, which should be continued until decided sensations of tingling and numbness are induced, or until the neuralgic pain itself ceases.

It has been used advantageously in tetanus; and is especially applicable to the poisonous effects of strychnia, to which it seems to be antagonistic, so far as concerns the action of the two substances on the muscles. in the poisoning by strychnia or the substances containing that alkaloid, it should be given during the spasms, which it has a tendency to relax; and should be repeated whenever the spasms return; the patient being in the mean time supported by stimulants until the poison is eliminated.

The remedy has been found useful by some practitioners in the pains of secondary syphilis, in which it may be used in connection with the alteratives destined to eradicate the disease. it has also been employed for the relief of pain in carcinoma.

Palpitation, of gouty or rheumatic origin, may also be advantageously treated with aconite, which, in this affection, as in neuralgia, may be employed both generally and locally.

In pertussis and epilepsy, the remedy has also been used, and may sometimes prove serviceable; but it cannot be relied on for the cure.

It is asserted to have been given beneficially in paralysis and in amaurosis. At the first glance, it might seem to be contraindicated in these affections; as both not unfrequently result from its poisonous action. But a little consideration will show that, without giving any countenance to the homoeopathic dogma, "similia similibus curantur,n we may sometimes employ aconite in paralytic diseases, in full accordance with sound therapeutic principles. Palsy generally results from a loss of function in the nervous centres. This loss of function may depend on a direct depression of the centre, as under the poisonous influence of aconite, or from an over-excitement, vascular irritation, or active congestion of the centre, as in inflammation or active congestion of the brain or spinal marrow. Now, while it is obvious that aconite would probably only aggravate palsy originating in the first of these causes; it is no less clear that, in the cases dependent on over-excitement, it is one of the very remedies which would be suggested by the views of its powers here taken. it would prove serviceable by acting as a sedative to the morbidly excited nervous centre. I have had no experience with aconite in palsy; but in certain cases of the disease, originating in or sustained by active congestion of the brain or spinal marrow, without positive structural lesion, I should have no hesitation in employing it, should circumstances prevent the use of other habitual remedies, as bleeding, purging, the antimonials, etc.