is sometimes so relaxed and thickened, as
to obliterate its cavities. There are other
species of polypi mentioned by authors,
as the soft, brittle, and vesicular or hyda-
tid, &c.
Mr John Bell doubts the exist-
ence of malignant polypi, and supposes
them all essentially alike, and that the
pain, caries, ulceration, &c. are the effect
of pressure and distention. Mr S. Coop-
er is of the same opinion."

As for the cure of this troublesome com-
plaint, we remark, we know of none ex-
cept bruising, excision, or extraction.
This may be effected by forceps or the
probe-pointed scissors, the ligature, in
most, if not all cases, being inadmissible,
and seldom applied. The forceps in com-
mon use are good for nothing-they are
too large and unwieldy, and for an effec-
tual operator worse than useless-and we
have repeatedly seen the most celebrated
surgeons employ them unsuccessfully, to
their own mortification, and the greatest
discomfiture of their patients. By a small-
er instrument, however, we can often
seize hold of the root of the tumor, and
extract it, or by gently bruising it, de-
stroy it altogether. A still better way of
removing the disease, is to
probe-pointed scissors, as recommended
and practised by Sir Astley Cooper. This
is the simplest and most effectual of all
operations for removing polypi; for we
have only to pass the instrument to the
neck of the tumor and divide it, and the
patient is rid of it forever. Astringent in-
jections and the careful application of
caustic, will prevent any further growth

of the disease.

ACUTE RHEUMATISM.

use the

The pain and protracted confinement consequent on this disease, render it not only a source of much bodily suffering, but of frequent disappointment and unavailing sorrow. The man of business regards the acute pain of rheumatism as a trifle, compared with the inconvenience it causes, by interrupting, for so long a time, the progress of his affairs. Is it impossible to afford relief to such men?

can we not find some remedy which will shorten, if we can find none which can cure, this disease? It is a laudable and well-directed zeal which has induced some of our transatlantic brethren to bend their attention of late to this interesting subject. We doubt not that we also might add something to the weight of newly acquired knowledge of the treatment of this disease, if we were not satis fied to follow in the beaten track, and to say, that, since the course prescribed to us in the last century will not put a stop to the disease, it must run its course, and cannot be cured. When a physician tells the sick man that his disorder must run its course, the patient ought to know that if this is the case, he has no need of a doctor. This expression is too common among us, it is an apology for ignorance, it is always the language of negligence, stupidity, or avarice, and should never come from the lips of a man who dares to assume the responsibility of the lives of his fellow men. Every disease would run its course if left without medical interference. If the physician does any thing, he checks it; if he does not check it, he does nothing.

The disease under consideration is one

which is left most generally to pursue its own tardy progress, and seldom leaves the patient till after a visitation of from three to six months. Among the remedies recently proposed for arresting this malady, is the Arsenical Solution of Dr Fowler, which, given in a dose of 6 to 10 drops, every three or four hours, is said to have great efficacy in interrupting the chain of symptoms. The sulphate of quinine, also given in large doses and often, is said to be as effectual in acute rheumatism as in intermittent fever. If on further trial these results shall be found to be uniform, they will constitute an important practical improvement in our science. If otherwise, we ought then to be more zealous in searching for a weapon, with which we may contend, with more hope of success than we now do, with so annoying and obstinate an enemy.

TO ADMINISTER NAUSEQUS MEDICINES.
BY A. CARTWRIGHT, M. D.

The best plan of giving medicines
in cases of great irritability of the
stomach, which neither sulphuric eth-
er, opium, effervescing mixtures, &c.
will allay, has heretofore been with
me a desideratum in practice. The
fate of a patient frequently depends
on minutiæ, too often unattended to
in practice. It is an easy matter to
prescribe aloes, scammony, jalap, &c.
in order to purge a patient, who is
constantly sick at his stomach. But
the object of the prescription is of
ten entirely defeated, in consequence
of the patient refusing to take these
remedies; or if he takes them by
the impossibility of his being able to
retain them on his stomach. The
best plan I ever tried, of giving these,
and similar nauseous medicines, so
as to obviate inconvenience of their
disagreeable taste, and to prevent
them from being vomited, is to have
the various purgative articles made
into a soft mass with syrup. Any
given quantity of this mass, is to be
enclosed in a very thin wafer, made
of flour, and softened by being soak-
ed a few minutes in water or milk.
The enclosed mass is then put into
a spoon with a little water in it, out
of which the patient is to swallow it.
After this manner, a patient can take
at one dose, a mass sufficient to make a
dozen pills, and he cannot without
the strongest efforts, throw it up from
his stomach; he tastes nothing but
the flour wafer, and the nausea of
his stomach is not increased, as it
would be from his swallowing a quan-
tity of bitter pills. In this way, a
large quantity of Peruvian bark may
be given at a dose, without the pa-
tient's tasting it. One table spoonful
of flour, made into a batter with wa-
ter, is sufficient to make sixty wafers.
The plan of making them is, to have
two smoothing irons heated, one of
which is to be placed with its face
upwards, on which a few drops of

p.

the batter is to be poured, and the other iron is then to be pressed upon it. The little cake, or wafer, thus made, is, as I before observed, to be soaked in water before using it, in order to make it sufficiently pliant to enclose the medicine. I venture to assert, that whoever tries this plan of giving nauseous drugs, &c., in cases of great irritability of the stomach, will seldom prescribe them in pills, syrup, or solution. Calomel, however, can be very conveniently given, floating on a table-spoonful of A table spooncommon cold water.

ful of water will float two scruples, if the calomel be not in lumps, and if it be sifted down lightly on the water. Spirits of turpentine should be purified by mixing it with alcohol, as directed by Dr Nemmo.* With these remarks on the manner of administering remedies in cases of great irritability of the stomach; remarks, though seemingly of little importance every where else, may not be entirely so at the bed-side of the sick, I close.

VAPOUR BATH.-At the fourth anniversary meeting in London, March 27, the society for cure of scrofula and glandular disease, on Mr Whitlaw's principles, a letter was read from Dr James Hamilton, stating facts within his knowledge tending to prove the utility of the Medicated Vapour Bath in violent and desperate cases. The following is from the Report. Every attempt to form accurate judgment on medical subjects, the committee have utterly disclaimed. They (the committee) have been disappointed in their expectations of encouragement from medical practitioners. By reports from the United States it seems that Mr Whitlaw has been successful in medicating vapour by herbs.t their approbation of his system (as his leta proof of Many medical gentlemen as ter will clearly show) have formed socicties (or corporations) in Massachusetts, &c. Of more than 670 persons, who the last year received advice and medicine in London, where Mr Whitlaw's system is regularly pursued, in two only have they failed in the accomplishment of their most sanguine expectations, and these were much improved in health.

* See New-England Journal, vol. XI. 321. + In Boston the vapour is generally medicated with herbs, frequently with rose-leaves, or something to make it pleasant, according to the bather's pleasure.

Published weekly, by John Cotton, Proprietor, at 184, Washington-St. corner of FranklinSt. to whom all communications must be addressed (post-paid). Price two dollars per annum, if paid in advance, but, if not paid within three months, two dollars and a half will be required. and this will, in no case, be deviated from.

MEDICAL INTELLIGENCER.

VOL. IV.

"NON EST VIVERE, SED VALERE VITA."

TUESDAY, JUNE 20, 1826.

For the Medical Intelligencer. "VARIOLOID."-NO. 3. There is a growing disposition,I liked to have said, a morbid oneto multiply the NAMES of diseases. And it is to be lamented that we are led astray in Physic by names, almost as often as in Keligion. By this multiplication of terms, good sense has hardly fair play;-for it fills the head of the student with a jumble of words, and burdens his memory to no useful purpose. Thus VARIOLOID has been brought before the public as a new distemper, and introduced to them as a stranger; whereas I had described this anomaly four and twen ty years ago, yet practitioners in general, would not attend to it; and some were inclined to place it under the head of magnified trifles :-but now they are willing to regard it, because dignified with a name.

At that early period of the discovery, I found it needful to write a chapter entitled-"Of SPURIOUS Small Por:" and another-" Of SPURIOUS Kine Pock." (See from p. 101 to 116 of the treatise.) In the first, it was said that spurious small pox had scarcely, if ever, been mentioned in America, before the publications on the Kine Pock had appear ed, notwithstanding its woful consequences had been felt in many families in every part of the Union, that we found it difficult to convey a correct idea of spurious matter, and its necessary effect, spurious cases :—— that the best British writers have used the same term to express failures in communicating the true disease, which had originated from different causes. In the same chapter, several cases are related in the practice of some of the first surgeons in En

No. 5.

gland, whose patients had, what some would call," the small pox twice."

I said in 1802, that spurious small pox was indeed so common an occurrence among inoculated patients, that we might, with equal propriety, put the same query in America, that Dr Jenner did in England-"Where is the village, that hath not yielded its victim to the small pox after inoculation, for that disease was supposed to have been properly performed?"

In the last general inoculation with small pox, in this quarter, including Boston, which was in 1792, a considerable proportion of all the first cases were spurious, owing to the difficulty of obtaining a sufficiency of good matter. It appears that Small Pox inoculators here and in England, had not, previous to the practice of vaccination, any correct ideas of the change which variolous matter may undergo in the putrefactive process; or that matter, thus changed, would give rise to a train of symptoms, bearing so strong a resemblance to the true small pox, as to be often mistaken for it; neither did they appear to know that a severe diseasc, resembling small pox, would arise from variolous matter taken at too late a period of its pustule. This may account for what has been sometimes said, that such a person has had the small pox Twice.

There is not only SPURIOUS Small Pox and SPURIOUS Kine Pock, but spurious measles; that is, a morbilious affection, so slight as not to secure the person from a second attack of it, not fever enough to consume, if you please, the original pabulum.

But it is SPURIOUS KINE POCK of which we have most occasion to