It is not only in the regular gouty paroxysm that colchicum is useful. it is probably not less efficacious in the various other morbid affections in which the diathesis occasionally explodes, whether inflammatory or nervous. The only contraindication is irritation of the stomach, and that sort of irritation which shows itself by nausea and vomiting; and even here the remedy may sometimes be used with advantage, in the form of enema with opiates.

Unfortunately, the influence of the remedy is sometimes impaired by the habit of using it; but it is still the most efficient to which recourse can be had; and the fact should serve to put us upon our guard against its early abuse. in chronic gout, it is less efficacious than in the acute form; but even here will often serve greatly to relieve the patient. it is advised, at present, by those most experienced in its use, not to omit the remedy with the first subsidence of the symptoms; but to go on with it, in gradually diminishing doses, until the paroxysm has wholly passed away, and indeed for some time afterwards.

2 Rheumatism. From the use of colchicum in gout to its use in rheumatism the transition was obvious; and many have found it scarcely less efficacious in the latter than in the former affection. I confess that my experience does not conform with theirs. in acute rheumatism, though I have used it considerably, I have been able to discover from it no greater effect than from any other medicine, which would equally affect the bowels and the secretions. I do not think I have ever seen it arrest at once, or materially shorten a case of the disease; and for some years I have almost abandoned its use. Nor is it much more effectual in fixed chronic rheumatism. But there are intermediate conditions of the disease, coming under the denomination of subacute rheumatism, sometimes seated in the muscles, sometimes in the joints, and often internal, and much disposed to change its position, in which the medicine has seemed to me to have been occasionally very useful, especially combined with morphia. The same remark is applicable to the nervous or neuralgic forms. Of course, the remedy is peculiarly applicable to those intermediate forms, seemingly in part gout and in part rheumatism, which are generally designated as rheumatic gout, or gouty rheumatism.

3. Acute Cutaneous Eruptions. in acute attacks of skin diseases, as lichen, prurigo, herpes, urticaria and other rashes, etc., colchicum may sometimes be used with advantage; and, when these affections occur in gouty individuals, should generally be added to other remedies, as they are often, under such circumstances, nothing more than one of the protean forms in which that disease shows itself. But, even without this complication, the medicine may sometimes prove useful in these complaints, through its ordinary evacuant and eliminative properties.

4. Fevers, and inflammatory Diseases generally. From its influence on the bowels and the secretions, but chiefly in consequence of a supposed direct depressing power over the circulation, colchicum has been recommended in these affections; but its tendency to disturb the stomach is a strong contraindication; and, as we are in possession of other more powerful and more easily managed antiphlogistic remedies, it is little employed. it is wholly inapplicable to typhoid cases.

5. Gonorrhoea. Dr. Eisenmann, of Wurtzburg, having discovered that a patient, for whom he had prescribed a mixture of wine of colchicum and laudanum for rheumatic ophthalmia, had been cured, while under the influence of the medicine, of a gonorrhoea with which he was affected, was induced to try the combination in several other cases of the latter complaint, and all, without exception, were cured in a few days. No other remedy was taken, and no local application made except tepid water. Absolute rest, however, was directed, and the diet was chiefly of milk. Of a mixture consisting of six parts of the wine of colchicum and one part of laudanum, eighteen or twenty drops were given three times daily. None of the cases resisted the treatment longer than a week. (B. and F. Medico-chir. Rev., Jan. 1860, p. 178.)

6. Dropsy. This is the disease in which the medicine was originally used by Storck, and in which it was at one time thought to possess extraordinary powers. When it operates actively as a diuretic, it may certainly prove useful in the removal of dropsical effusions; but this effect cannot be relied on; and its disturbing influence on the stomach and bowels, when urged somewhat strongly, would render it frequently inappropriate. it is much inferior in efficacy to several other diuretics, and has no superior power, that I am aware of, to recommend it in this affection generally. When, however, as often happens, dropsy is associated with, or dependent on gouty disease, colchicum may with great propriety be administered in connection with the more certain diuretics. it has been particularly recommended in dropsical collections in the pericardium and chest, conjoined with rheumatic or gouty cardiac disease.

1. Asthma and Pectoral Diseases. The possession of expectorant properties has recommended colchicum in cases of bronchial disease; and it has been thought specially useful in chronic bronchitis associated with asthmatic phenomena, as in the affection formerly denominated humoral asthma. Even in the paroxysm of spasmodic asthma it may sometimes prove useful. irregular and nervous gout so often assumes the asthmatic character, that, independently of the influence which colchicum may exercise in this disease, through its nauseating and expectorant effects, it may often be found useful through its antiarthritic virtues.

8. Nervous Affections. in neuralgia, colchicum is often very useful; because nothing is more common than gout and rheumatism lurking under that garb. The remedy has also been used, with asserted success, in tetanus idiopathic and traumatic, in chorea, hypochondriasis, hysteria, etc. its powerful nauseating and depressing effects in large doses will no doubt often suppress nervous disorder, as the same influences from any other agent; but, except when these complaints may be associated with a gouty diathesis, there is no special call for this remedy.