knowledge, as shall remove an opprobrium apparently so justly merited. I offer the following suggestions, then, not as perfected and ready for adoption, but as ideas hastily collected, and submitted for the improvement which ingenious minds will not fail of producing. I submit, therefore, that if the vitalityof the stomach (in cases of poisoning by opium) has been so far reduced by the narcotic drug, that the organ is insusceptible to the stimuli of emetic medicines; or is so torpid and enfeebled, that it is incapable of assuming the action necessary to vomiting; then it is incumbent on the surgeon to resort to mechanical means for dislodging the poison from the stomach, which may be effected by an apparatus of the following nature: 1st. A hollow flexible tube, (of elastic gum) about 25 inches in length, and half an inch in diameter; having three equi-distant longitudinal grooves, of an inch and a half in length, around its extremity. Within each groove, three holes, which perforate the tube of of an inch in diameter, (though perhaps it might be as well to make them oblong, like the eye of a catheter,) and rather less than half an inch asunder: the opposite extremity of the tube to be fitted with a female screw, to be adapted to the other part of the apparatus. 2d. An elastic bottle, capable of holding a quart in measure, armed with a short pipe, and stop-cock, (similar to an hydrocele bottle) the extremity of which may be screwed into the end of the tube above mentioned. With such a simple apparatus, I conceive the stomach might be emptied, when emetics have been tried in vain; and I should employ it in the following manner : The tube having been carefully passed down to the greater curvature of the stomach, the elastic bottle being filled with water of the temperature of 150 degrees of Farh. thermometer, is to be screwed into it, and the stop-cock being opened, the contents of the bottle is to be gently urged through the tube into the stomach, by the surgeon, or an assistant, compressing the bottle between his hands. By removing this pressure, the bottle, by its elasticity, recovers its original form and dimensions; and, consequently, performs the office of an exhausted pump, by which means the fluid is again drawn back into it. Remarks. I would use water of the high degree of temperature that I have mentioned with the view of some effects from its stimulus. We know, from experimental observation, that there is no stimulus capable of rousing the suspended functions of animal bodies so certainly as the matter of heat; and to prove this, it is only necessary to take some one of the hybernating animals, during its torpidity, and submit it to the action of galvanism, and to immersion in warm water; the superior influence of the latter over the former, in restoring the internal phenomena of life, is soon rendered apparent. But it is not from temperature that I expect the greatest benefit to arise, by the injection of water, but from dilution. It must be remembered, that the active elements of the poison are contained in a very small bulk; and even, should a wine-glassful of laudanum No. 78.] Archbishop of Armagh. 179 have been swallowed, such a quantity may easily be enveloped in the folds of the stomach, and thus escape the action of the apparatus; distending the stomach then with water, will equally diffuse the poison; besides which, if solid food should be contained in the stomach at the time of taking the laudanum, it may so far absorb it, as to render the removal of the remaining liquid contents of the stomach of no avail; but the injected warm water pervading every recess of the stomach, and permeating its solid contents, would most probably wash away the whole of the poison contained within it. The operator should not be content with once injecting and evacuating the stomach; he should continue to throw in a fresh quantity of water, as long as the fluid abstracted betrayed any signs of being impregnated with the poison. It is proper to remark, that it will not be necessary to inject the stomach, except in those instances where the patient has become comatose; if he remain sensible, he should be directed to drink copiously of hot water, previously to the introduction of the tube into the stomach. It will perhaps be asked, what method I devise for recovering the patient from the effects of the poison already produced? I reply, that, had I at this time leisure to enter into this part of the subject, it would be foreign to my purpose; my intention at present being simply to propose some means for evacuating the poison by mechanical agency, when the vital energy itself is incapable of doing so. I have advised the holes in the extremity of the tube, to be made within the channel of several grooves, and for this reason: that without such a precaution, as soon as the suction is made, the mucous membrane of the stomach, if it should happen to be in contact with the instrument, would be drawn into the openings, and thus prevent the discharge of its contents, as will perhaps sustain some injury itself; it is obvious, that the ridges between the grooves will tend materially in preventing such an occurrence. It has occurred to me that, even in those desperate circumstances where the excitability of the stomach is reduced so low, that emetics will not act, this organ may, by mechanical means, be brought into such a condition, as will render it susceptible to this class of medicines; that is, that such a temporary influx of the nervous principle may be elicited to it, by mechanical irritation, as will renew sufficient excitability of the stomach, as to render it sensible to the stimulus of emetic substances, and give its muscular structure sufficient energy to enable the organ to excite the associated motions of sympathetic parts, and to fulfil the actions of vomiting. To ascertain this, I am about trying the effect of introducing the dolichos, in a dry state, into the stomach: whether the viscidity of the mucous fluid of the stomach will protect the inner surface from the mechanical irritation of the article, I am not aware; nor am I at all acquainted with the effect which this article might have upon the gullet, fauces, and mouth, if it were thrown up. A physician of my acquaintance has indeed informed me that he has swallowed the hairs of dolichos, mixed with water, without experiencing the slightest inconvenience; but experiment alone can determine it. I shall administer first an emetic; and, having waited some minutes, I intend to pass the dolichos into the stomach, through a hollow tube, open at both extremities. Should this fail, I shall endeavour to excite the stomach, by passing a fasciculus of bristles, secured to a flexible stillet, through the tube, and gently irritating the stomach with it. Having thrown these crude notions together, I leave them for the consideration and improvement of those, as anxious as myself. They will, no doubt, be found extremely defective, because purely theoretical; but should they only prove the humble means of eliciting an attention to the subject, which shall eventually lead to practical utility, I shall consider them not altogether useless. Westminster, May 29, 1822. Mr. Jukes has kindly promised to inform us of the result of his experiments, which we shall be enabled to lay before our readers in the next number. Mr. J. is also preparing a plan for the adoption of apothecaries and chemists, by which accidents by poisoning may be avoided; this also we shall lose no time in communicating to the public. On account of the length of Mr. Jukes's interesting paper, we are compelled, through want of room, to postpone the conclusion of our remarks on Quackery until next month. BURNS AND SCALDS.-Dr. Copland has lately published the following "Remarks on Burns and Scalds, from the pen of a Mr. Thomas Stokes, of Thornbury, who represents himself to be a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons in London." "It is well known that two remedies of an opposite nature are in use for burns and scalds. Some contend for the use of cold water, and other cold applications, as a primary resource; while others equally indicate the employment of spirit of turpentine, warm brandy, or other spirit. It happens for me to belong to the latter class. I am aware, there is no occasion of adding my humble declaration of preference on this subject, after eminent men have given it the authority of their names, (among whom I may reckon, more particularly, Dr. Kentish, in the present time, and the renowned Sydenham at his time); but as I have reason to believe the principles of proper treatment in this important part of surgery are not generally well understood, I am induced to solicit room for a few remarks in the Medical Repository. The late Mr. Thomas Shute, an eminent surgeon of Bristol, whose premature death robbed his profession of a name that would have been distinguished in its annals, and society of a gentleman that would have been an ornament to any rank of life, was accustomed to repeat in his lectures the old adage, that " extremes are dangerous;" that it was destruction to bring a frost-bitten limb to the fire, and, by the same rule, out of reason to plunge a severe burn or scald into its opposite-cold!! In such cases, he recommended the application of spirit of turpentine, or some warmed spirit, at first, on the principle of a COOLING lotion; knowing that, as the pain and heat of the part subsided, what at first was a cooling No. 78.] lotion, would become, if continued, a stimulating dressing. He limited the use of spirit of turpentine to the injured surface; and, if "Take of diachylon, one pound; Olive oil, half-a-pound. When melted together, add prepared chalk and acetic acid, of each half-a-pound, and stir them together till cold." "From my own observations (says Mr. Stokes) on the effects of cold in burns or scalds, whether from immersion in cold water, or from cold lotions, and other applications of that nature, I believe, that in severe cases, where life is, as it were, struck a hard blow, they either weaken it so much as to be past recovery, or they tend to excite shivering, nausea, sickness, local congestion, increased discharge, and sloughing. I would rather prefer for myself, under such circumstances, a warm bath, about ninety-six degrees of Farenheit; and I can conceive more good than harm from it. In slight burns or scalds, where the constitution is little or not at all disturbed, I can bear witness to the good effects of cold water, cold vinegar and water, and cold spirituous lotions; but would trust them no farther!!" To our non-medical readers, this article may convey some practical information; but, that it should be inserted in a work published A confirmaprofessedly for communicating information to the members of the medical profession, is a matter of astonishment to us. tion of the good effects of the spirit of turpentine in burns or scalds was, no doubt, gratifying to Dr. Copland. We beg to ask the Doctor, if it is not his duty to give his correspondent a scientific explanation of the terms cold and warm; and explain to his readers how he accounts for an article which "at first" was a cooling lotion, should become a stimulating one, on being continued; and also for a plaster composed of diachylon, oil, vinegar and chalk, possessing an imbibing quality? Even if the prepared chalk were not mixed with vinegar, it would be rendered, by the oil and plaster, incapable of The Doctor has very imbibing any discharge from the skin. properly placed the article among his original communications. The learned Doctor's own original ideas of the ganglionic functions, and "that there kind of thing," we shall decline to notice, till he has finished the article, which, in compassion to his readers, we hope he will bring to a conclusion in his next number. We suspect the Doctor's attempts to reanimate the Medical Repository, by cooling the inside, and stimulating the outside, by means of spirit of turpentine, even with his ganglionic theory, will fail; and that he, with his able coadjutor, Dr. James Johnson, will soon have an opportunity of displaying the sublimity of their flights of fancy, in the composition of an epitaph to perpetuate the memory of the Medical Repository, and Medico-Chirurgical Journal, who, in the prime of life, fell cruel sacrifices to internal dropsy, to the great disgrace of the medical profession of the age in which they flourished. PALSY.-Professor Olmsted, of the College of North Carolina, has published a case of palsy of the face and eyes, which was cured principally by lightning. "As the patient was walking in his chamber, a flash of lightning struck him senseless for about twenty minutes. On the following day, he was free from any paralytic affection, except a slight deafness, which he attributes to the shock of lightning." The result of the shock in this case has induced Mr. Olmsted to suppose that the opposite reports of practitioners of the effects of electricity on partial palsy, particularly of the eye and ear, and some other nervous affections, arise from different modes of employing it, and that if shocks were cautiously and judiciously administered, instead of sparks, &c., it would prove more generally useful. DROPSY OF THE LOWER EXTREMITIES.---Dr. Granville has published a long paper from a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons, residing at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, on the superior advantages of puncturing anasarcous limbs, over incision and blistering. The author directs the puncture to be made with a common bleeding lancet, on the inner side of the calf of the leg, about four or five inches below the knee; after which a bandage is to be applied, " beginning about an inch above the puncture, and to be carried up to the groin." This bandage is to be tightened as soon as it becomes slack. A piece of adhesive plaster is to be applied over the puncture, with a hole in its centre, of the size of the puncture, to admit of the escape of serum. Such medicines are to be administered, as the state of the stomach, bowels, kidneys, &c. may indicate. The author has found the tincture of fox-glove, with the sweet spirit of nitre, to answer best in his practice. The practice recommended by this gentleman is very old, and, we believe, is generally adopted by experienced and cautious surgeons, in preference to scarifications or blistering. Some physicians of great experience contend, that a very thin slip of blistering plaster applied two inches above the ankle, succeeds much better than puncturing, and the inflammation is less liable to become gangrenous; and from this practice, we have frequently witnessed very favourable results. THE SEIDLITZ SALT.-An intelligent lady, who has been much distressed from indolent bowels and from flatulence, informs us, that she has derived more benefit from the true Seidlitz salt, (which she procured from Germany), dissolved in a tea-cupful of chamomile tea, than from any aperient medicine which had been prescribed for |