soon found, as originally stated by M. Husson, to be of vegetable origin; and, so early as 1782, MM. Cadet and Parmentier announced that it was a vinous infusion. The claim was advanced, in favour of several plants, of being the chief ingredient, in consideration of similarity of effects; and, among them, of white hellebore and colchicum. Mr. Want, of London, put forth the claim of the latter medicine; and circumstances, independently of its effects, have given colour to the opinion of its identity with that celebrated nostrum. At all events, it has been found practically to answer the same purpose; so that we now no longer hear of the eau medicinale, except in its relations with the new remedy.

1. Gout. it seems to me impossible to doubt, that colchicum has peculiar efficacy in the treatment of gout. No one now claims for it the power of eradicating that disease, when firmly seated. in most instances, the diathesis forms an inherent part of the constitution derived from the parent. it is a modification stamped upon the original organic constituents of the frame, and we might as well attempt to eradicate a temperament, as to remove the inherited gouty diathesis. But that the remedy has a powerful effect in moderating, and even controlling the gouty paroxysm, and other symptomatic demonstrations of the concealed disease, is proved, I think, beyond all reasonable controversy, by the almost united testimony of the practitioners who have employed it, and the host of sufferers who have experienced and daily experience its benefits. it has been said that any other medicine, or combination of medicines, acting equally on the stomach and bowels, and the various secretions, would prove equally effectual; but this statement is at once contradicted by the fact, that all other known medicines of similar powers, and almost all possible combinations of medicines, have been tried, and all abandoned for this one, which has now maintained its ground for fifty years or more. We might as well, it seems to me, deny the superior powers of opium as an anodyne and soporific, as to deny the peculiar efficacy of colchicum in gout.

At one time it was feared that, like the temporary expedients before and still occasionally used, it might afford present relief at the expense of future injury; that the paroxysm, though suppressed, would be likely to return sooner, and with greater severity, than if it had been left to its ordinary course; and that, in the end, life would be shortened. But experience has not confirmed these apprehensions. There are few, I presume, who look upon gout with the same fears as formerly. We have found a remedy which not only relieves the sufferings of the disease, but tends to prevent injury to the constitution, by obviating, in a considerable degree, the wear and tear of the paroxysms. it does not operate merely by removing the inflammatory symptoms, as bleeding, purging, and cold water will often do, but it removes them safely; because it modifies that very condition, which gives rise to the paroxysm. This is its peculiar excellence. it answers, in some degree, the purposes of the paroxysm itself, by removing for a time the morbid condition, which periodically and inevitably accumulates under the influence of the diathesis. The humoral physicians explain this result upon the supposition, that it causes the elimination from the blood of the uric acid, or some other principle which they suppose to be the materies morbi, and the presence of which in the blood produces all the phenomena of the disease. But, considering the great frequency with which uric acid is thrown out from the system abundantly, and of course must have existed in the blood before being thrown out, without the existence of one peculiar gouty symptom, we are, I think, justified in concluding, that this acid is present in the blood in gout as in other complaints, simply as one of the incidents of the disease, and that its mere elimination from the blood has little to do with the cure. The probability is, that colchicum operates as an alterative in the relief of gout, changing the condition of the organic structure, possibly, as before suggested, by stimulating the disintegration of the tissues, and thus removing for a time the very substratum upon which the paroxysm rests. if it be true, as the observations of Chelius, Maclagan, and Hammond render probable, that colchicum produces an increase in the discharge of urea and uric acid, far beyond the normal amount, the fact would go far to show that there is some basis for this view of its remedial influence.

It was at first supposed that, in order to suppress the gouty paroxysm, it was necessary to administer the colchicum largely, so as to produce active vomiting and purging, at least the latter; and certainly a more speedy effect is obtained in this way; but the united voice of experience is at present in favour of a more moderate use of the remedy, which is thus safer and less disagreeable, and in the end not less effectual. My own method of using it has been, after the evacuation of the bowels, to administer twenty drops of the officinal wine of the root every four hours, until some evidence of its action is shown, either by nausea, disturbance of bowels, or increased secretion from the skin or kidneys; and then to sustain such an amount of these effects as may consist perfectly with the comfort of the patient; considering them not as means of relief, so much as mere proofs that the medicine is acting. Should no obvious effects take place, the dose should be increased; if uncomfortable nausea or much purgation be produced, it should be reduced, or the medicine omitted for a time. it will often be found desirable to obviate its emetic and purgative tendencies, and give it a direction "to the skin, by combining it with some preparation of opium, as the solution of sulphate of morphia. This is especially proper when the general state of the constitution is feeble, and the disease is disposed to the changeable or neuralgic forms. On the contrary, should the bowels be constipated, fever exist, and the general state of the system be tolerably vigorous, it may be proper to combine the preparation of colchicum with a purgative, as magnesia, the sulphate of magnesia, or infusion of senna, or two or more of these together.