formation of a carbonate of lead in the stomach of a patient whose digestive organs are much debilitated? Although pure neutral acetate of lead is not affected by free carbonic acid, nevertheless the acetate of the shops is always more or less affected by the presence of this gas, solutions always being cloudy when not made with distilled water. This is due to the loss of a portion of acetic acid, consequent on the exposure of the crystals to the air. This exposure is followed by an opacity of the external crystals by efflorescence, but that, in this instance, the result is not entirely owing to the loss of water of crystallization may be concluded from the strong smell of acetic acid which is exhaled by a jar of acetate of lead when recently unstopped. In this country, the acetate is commonly used in much larger doses than is here stated: a very common prescription, especially in dysentery, cholera morbus, &c., being two or three grains of acetate frequently repeated, and it is rare indeed to hear of any injurious effects therefrom. The custom, however here, is to unite, in the same prescription, a greater or lesser quantity of opium, as a means of obviating any injurious effects of the remedy, as well as to fulfil other indications in the above diseases. That it may have this tendency, will be obvious in considering the reactions which will be consequent on the mixture of these two ingredients. The meconic acid of the bimeconate of morphia would first neutralize any excess of oxide of lead in the acetate, and then the remainder would unite with more of the lead, and liberate acetic acid, thus forming an insoluble meconate of lead, which would pass through the intestines and be discharged. This remedy, however, is not employed to the same extent here in chronic cases, where a long continued use is required to produce its full effect, as it is in Germany. In this latter country it is very highly recommended in consumptive affections, and effects may result from its prolonged use, which would not appear from a greater amount of the remedy given in a much shorter time. R. B. American Journal of Pharmacy.

On the transformation of Calomel into Corrosive Sublimate. By M. MIALHE.

I HAVE the honor to communicate to the Society of Pharmacy, the summary of some experiments which I have made on the transformation of calomel into corrosive sublimate, experiments which I was suddenly forced to interrupt.

The point from which I started with my researches, was the following fact, reported by Vogel. A physician prescribed for a child twelve papers, each containing five grains of sal ammoniac, five grains of sugar, and half a grain of calomel: the child having died after taking several of the powders, the apothecary was accused of having committed an error in compounding the prescription. Luckily for our colleague, the accusation which hung over him was of short duration, Peter Koffer having quickly proven that, in presence of sal ammoniac and of water, calomel is partially changed into corrosive sublimate. This fact, of which I have ascertained the exactness, has always appeared to me very remarkable, and well worthy of fixing the attention of physicians and physiologists. It would not be so, if the assertion of one of the most distinguished professors of our school were founded in fact. This professor asserts to have proven, by means of experiment, that the chemical change of protochloride of mercury into deutochloride, does not take place under the circumstances stated by the German chemist. I shall not attempt to point out whence is the source of error into which our learned colleague has fallen; I shall at present_content myself with publishing the conclusions which result from my experiments.

1. The protochloride of mercury, in presence of hydrochlo rate of ammonia, or of the chlorides of sodium or potassium, and of pure distilled water, is changed partly into deutochloride of mercury, and into metallic mercury. This change takes place at the temperature of the human body, and even at common temperatures, and demands but few moments of contact to be effective. It is sufficient, for example, to be convinced of this fact, to allow calomel to remain a few minutes in the mouth; a mercurial taste, of sufficient intensity, will not be slow in exhibiting itself. This taste is the result of the mutual reaction of the chloride of mercury, and the alkaline chlorides in the saliva.

2. It is to the change of calomel into corrosive sublimate, and metallic mercury under the influence of sea-salt and the salts of ammonia, which we know to exist in the liquids of the alimentary canal, that we must attribute the pathological phenomena of mercurial salivation, from the administration of calomel. What proves that this is really the case, is, that when the protochloride of mercury does not purge, but is retained for a long time in the digestive tube, it excites an unusual secretion from the salivary glands, and this on account of the large quantity of corrosive sublimate which is produced.

The same phenomena happens after the long continued use of the protochloride of mercury, and from the same cause.

3. As the quantity of corrosive sublimate formed can only be proportional to the amount of alkaline chlorides which are contained in the viscera, those persons who eat large quantities of common salt, every thing else being equal, should be more susceptible than others, when under a mercurial course of medicine.

4. The antisyphilitic properties are communicated to it, either in whole or in part, by the sublimate and the mercury to which its chemical decomposition gives rise. It is, without doubt, the same as regards its anthelmintic virtues; it is by producing poisonous effects on the ascarides, by means of the two agents mentioned, that the mercurial chloride relieves us from these importunate guests.

5. All that has been said of the medicinal action of calomel may likewise be predicated of the prot-iodide of mercury, which, under the same circumstances, is converted into deutiodide.-Journ. de Pharm.-American Journal of Pharmacy.

Emetics of Ipecacuan. in Hemorrhage.-Dr. Osborne states that this treatment in menorrhagia has never as yet failed in his hands, except when the progress of the case afterwards proved the formation of scirrhous or cancerous structures of the uterus. "The remarkable effects of emetics of ipecacuanha in restraining hemorrhage," he adds, "is not confined to this organ. In a case of violent epistaxis, in which several remedies were ineffectual, I tried it while preparations were going on for plugging the posterior nares, and with success, so as to render that measure unnecessary. In hemoptysis, I am unable to add the facts already known respecting its efficacy, being of opinion that hemorrhage from the lungs is always salutary, and that the practice of giving the mineral acids, &c., to discourage it in phthisis is injurious. A very considerable benefit is generally perceptible, after the vessels of the diseased lung have been unloaded by this discharge. When, however, a violent hemorrhage takes place from the lungs, and blood is expectorated in such quantities as to endanger life, then all our efforts must be directed to its suppression. In a late case (not phthisis) I failed in the emetic, but as I lost sight of the patient subsequently, I am unable to pronounce as to the cause of the hemorrhage, and therefore as to the cause of the failure."-Dublin Journal of Medical Sciences.-Boston Med. and Surg. Jour.

Cure of Strabismus.-M. Jules Guerin announces, in a letter recently addressed to the Academy of Sciences, that he has performed Dieffenbach's operation for the cure of strabismus in four cases with success.

I had long ago established, says M. Guerin, and publicly professed, that strabismus depends on retraction of the muscles of the eye, and its various forms depend on the different degrees of retraction, variously affecting the different muscles which move the eyeball. This is a simple application of my theory of the deformities of the joints in general, which elicited from a distinguished member of the Academy, the quaint, but just remark, that squinting was the club-foot of the eye. In accordance with this theory, I have proposed to extend to the eye the section of its muscles; the mode of operating which I have adopted, differs slightly from that of Dieffenbach; the results have been advantageous, but not immediately so: in one case only did the eye become quite straight soon after the operation; in others there was merely an amelioration, and this circumstance appears to me to be a natural consequence of the true origin of squinting.-Journal des Debats. Ibid.

Red Sulphur Springs.-I passed on without stopping long at any of the springs until I reached the Red Sulphur, which is the most distant of them. It is situated in the county of Munroe, seventeen miles from the Salt Sulphur, and of course forty-two miles from the White. The spring is concealed in a glen in the midst of hills, which surround it completely, forming, however, a narrow valley, the length of which is much greater than the breadth. These hills were at one time covered with high trees; but the proprietor of the spring, Mr. Burke, has cleared them away, from a well-grounded apprehension on the part of the invalids that they obstructed the circulation of the air, and rendered the place damp. The hills shelter the buildings and the whole inclosure from the cutting winds which are often felt in the springs near the Allegheny mountains; the climate therefore is extremely mild in the summer season, and subject only to one inconvenience—the damp fogs and occasional chillness in the evening; this is, however, readily guarded against by a little fire in the cabins. Most of the invalids avoid walking after sunset, or in the early part of the morning until the dew is cleared

away.

The summer climate is therefore not unexceptionable; but is still vastly better for a pulmonary invalid than the excessive heat of the eastern plains, or the cold breezes of the seaside. In pulmonary cases, properly speaking, I have observed no inconvenience; but I have met with asthmatics who were injured quite seriously by a journey to the mountains, which was incautiously advised by their medical attendant. The sharp air and the alternations of temperature produce much greater effects upon them than on those who are disposed to tuberculous diseases.

The reputation of the Red Sulphur Springs is chiefly founded upon its efficacy in either alleviating or curing pulmonary diseases, including catarrhs of long standing, and commencing tuberculous cases. Even in patients who have long labored under the latter form of disease, the benefits of the spring have been much sought for. A reputation of this kind, which arose gradually, and was sustained for many years, notwithstanding many disadvantages of situation, and an almost absolute dearth of comfortable accommodations for the sick, which then existed, cannot be unfounded. It is true that an exaggerated estimate of the powers of the water, and a carelessness in the selection of patients who have been from time to time sent to the spring, have produced an impression which is unfavorable to its true value.

I met with a remarkable instance of this. On my return from the Red Sulphur, at the Salt Sulphur I found a young married lady who had just arrived from a long journey of sixteen days; during this whole period she had labored under a colliquative diarrhoea, and an exhausting hectic, with the thick yellow expectoration which indicates the rapid softening of tuberculous matter. I was then called to see her in consultation with a gentleman from the same part of the country in which she resided, and found her rapidly sinking; at our earnest request, the friends of the lady, who were utterly unconscious of her danger, consented to give up their intention of proceeding farther; she died the next day, and but for our interference, would have sunk in the course of the last day's journey. These extreme cases are not frequent, but there are many instances in which much mischief arises from advising patients in the last stage of pulmonary phthisis to resort to the Red Sulphur, precisely as in similar circumstances it is pernicious and morally wrong to direct them to abandon the comforts of home in the vain hope of seeking for health in a warmer climate. No patients who are exhausted by hectic fever, and copious purulent expecto