THE WESTERN JOURNAL.

No. IX.

40.'

LOUISVILLE, SEPTEMBER 1, 1840.

THE NATCHEZ TORNADO.

We are happy to learn by a letter from Prof. Forshey, late of Jefferson College, Mississippi, that he is engaged in preparing a volume on the Tornado at Natchez. He thinks its phenomena highly instructive to the scientific meteorologist, and says they have an important bearing on the Espian Theory. From our knowledge of the Professor's qualifications, and his being on the spot at the time, we anticipate a work of high scientific interest. It will probably appear in October.

D.

NASAL POLYPUS CURED WITH SANGUINARIA CANADENSIS.

Being lately in Newark, Ohio, Dr. Brice, for more than 30 years a respectable practitioner of that place, narrated to us three cases of polypus of the nostril, which he had permanently cured by the application of the root of the sanguinaria canadensis. One of the patients was a youth, in whom the polypus projected out of the

nostril. A physician in a neighboring town tore away a part or the whole of it, and the operation was followed by profuse hemorrhage. Sometime afterwards the doctor saw him, and the polypus again extended beyond the alœ nasi. The application of the powdered root and the decoction of the sanguinaria soon caused it to assume a pale color and shrink up. Under the continued use of the medicine he entirely recovered.

Another patient was a little girl, in whom the polypus was distinctly seen, but it did not present itself entirely. The same applications effected a radical cure.

A third was a man rather advanced in life, whose nose was much obstructed by the size of the polypus, but it did not descend to the lip. It was permantly removed by the same treatment.

We do not recollect to what extent the sanguinaria has been employed in the treatment of polypus, and are writing these memoranda remote from all books of reference. Should the reader be already familiar with the use of this remedy, he cannot charge us with prolixity in this testimony of its efficacy.

D.

STRAMONIUM IN INCIPIENT TRISMUS.

Dr. Brice, whom we have just quoted, was called to a man who had received a wound of the scalp two days before, and found his jaws immovable, and other portons of his muscular system than the maxillary showed incipient tetanus. In the course of two hours, the doctor gave him two tea spoonfuls of the powdered seeds of stramonium; immediately afterwards the spasms ceased. D.

FAMILY CATARACT.

Although cataract is not unknown as a family disease, we have thought the following example worthy of being recorded.

Near Chillicothe, in Ohio, there lives a family by the name of Bunn, in which five cases of that disease have occurred among nine children. We shall say a few words of each, beginning with

the oldest.

Hannah, the oldest, near 36, with hazle eyes and reddish chestnut hair, when 25, presented in the centre of her left eye a small white speck, which gradually enlarged till she could only see objects obliquely. About three years after it commenced the sight of the other began to fail. Twelve months ago we found them both cataracts, with capsular opacity. The left eye was weak and we operated on it without subsequent inflammation. A second operation has lately been found necessary, and is likely to be successful.

2. Mary, aged thirty-four, has dark hazle eyes, and hair nearly black-sight good.

3. David, next in time, now twenty-eight, with hazle eyes, began to lose his sight at soventeen, two years afterwards applied to us in Cincinnati, with capsular cataract. A single laceration, not followed by inflammation, removed it.

4. Sarah Ann, now twenty-four, with hazle eyes, and chesnut colored hair, when nine years old, was discovered to have" something" in the pupil of the left eye. In two years she was nearly blind in both eyes. When she was fourteen years old, the capsules of both eyes were successfully lacerated by Dr. French. When the eyes of this patient, the pupil being somewhat dilated, are looked into obliquely it may be seen that the posterior capsule was opaque; the outer ends of the white radiating bands still remaining there.

Nancy with black hair and eyes, died at the age of twenty-two, with good eye sight.

5. Ezekiel, now twenty-two, with hazle eyes and dark hair, when eighteen, observed some failure of sight; and discovered, while he could still see to shoot with a rifle, that he missed the object-the ball invariably passing to the left of the object. When it was fifteen yards off, the ball would generally strike about five inches from it. From the beginning, his eyes although uninflamed were somewhat intolerant of light. In the summer of 1839, we found each eye with central opacity and opake bands radiating from it, the latter in the posterior capsule. Sight much reduced. The capsule of the right eye was lacerated without subsequent inflammation. Two months afterwards, from cold, a severe and protracted inflammation occurred, and we lately found a large fragment of the capsule, attached to the outer pupillary margin of the iris, and projecting into the axis of vision. It has been removed, and his sight restored-no inflammation having followed.

6. Joseph aged nineteen, has chesnut hair and hazle eyes-sight unimpaired.

7. Elizabeth aged seventeen years, with hazle eyes and dark brown hair, has intolerance of light, dimness of vision, and the appearance of cataract forming in both eyes.

8. Abraham, aged thirteen, has hair of a flaxen color, and eyes flaxen grey. His sight said not to be very good.

9. Clarissa, the youngest, nine years old, has eyes nearly black, and hair becoming so. Sight good.

The father of these children, now dead, had good vision. Eyes flaxen grey, hair black.

The mother, of a sanguine temperament, has both eyes and hair of a very dark hazle. Her sight is good. Her mother had blue eyes and red hair-her father black hair and eyes. From this union seems to have resulted the hazle chesnut and auburn hue of the coloring matter of the iris and hair of the mother and children. The mother's sight, however, is good; and no case of cataract is known to have existed among her ancestors, or her husband's. All the children are well developed and healthy. D.

EFFECTS OF CAMPHOR ON VEGETABLES.

"The stimulant effects of camphor upon the human and some other animal bodies are well known; but those on vegetables are not only new, but astonishing in their nature. A piece of the woody stem of the tulip-tree, with one flower and two leaves, taken out of a pot of water, containing several other flowers of the same plant, all, to appearance, in the same state, was placed in eight ounces of water, which had been stirred up for some time with one scruple of good camphor. In a little while, an unusually lively appearance became remarkable in the flower in the camphor; while the others, though they had the benefit of a larger quantity of water, were sensibly drooping.

"The two leaves first elevated themselves considerably on their foot stalks; the flower expanded more than in a natural state; the stamina occhives receded from the pistillum; and the three leaves of the calix, or flower cup, were remarkably reflected back, and grew extremely rigid and elastic. The internal surface of the petals of the flower perspired considerably, though a similar perspiration could not be perceived in the flowers of the same room and temperature. The camphorated plant continued in a very invigorated state for two whole days, after which it began to droop; but the

leaves drooped and decayed sooner than the flower. The other flowers and leaves of the tulip-tree left in simple water, did not live more than half as long as that in the water impregnated with camphor.

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Notwithstanding these surprising effects, no odor of camphor could be traced inany part of the branch, except what was immersed in the fluid. This circumstance seems to render it probable that the camphor was not absorbed by the plant, but that it exerted its remarkable influence entirely through the solids to which it was immediately applied. The appearance, however, was very striking, and might be compared to the beneficial effects of opium on the human constitution. Several other experiments were made with camphor on plants, in all of which was very evident that camphor operated as a powerful and wholesome stimulant. A stalk of yellow iris, with one expanded flower, was taken out of a phial of water in which it had been placed more than a day.

"The flower had begun to droop; but in a very few minutes after being put in a phial of the same size, containing a few grains of camphor, it began to revive, and continued in a vigorous state for many hours. As camphor is but very sparingly soluble in water, it is natural to conclude that the stimulant effects were produced by a very small part of the quantity mingled with the water. This discovery might induce us to make experiments with camphor as a manure, if the expense of trying them on a scale sufficiently large were not excessive. But still, we may apply the camphor in the manner before mentioned; and can that be termed a useless purpose? A few grans of camphor acting as a cordial, will revive a drooping plant, increase its beauty and prolong its existence. In the eye of the florist, these are objects of no mean importance."-Burt's Observations on the Curiosities of nature.

REMARKS.

The foregoing extract is from a late number of the National Gazette, published in Philadelphia. The editor of that excellent paper will confer a favor on the writer of these brief and hasty remarks, by an early republication of them in his valuable columns.

However interesting or "astonishing in its nature" may appear the fact, that "camphor produces stimulant effects on vegetables," the knowledge of that fact is far from being "new." It is certainly so old as to be a product of the last century; whether any older, we are not prepared to say.

The question was once made a subject of debate or conversation in the Philadelphia Medical Society, we think during the sessions of that Institution, in the winter of 1796, '97 or '98; and in the course of the next spring and summer, Dr. Caldwell, then a resident