We give the following summary of Dr. Ramskill's views on the treatment of epilepsy by belladonna.

“Concerning the treatment by, and action of, belladonna, I will give you, in a short compass, the results of my experience in its use. First, you must not always, nor even usually, look for immediate and palpable beneficial results. The number of fits at first may not lessen in equal times; very frequently the reverse obtains; and you may expect, for three or four weeks after commencing it, even in the most appropriate cases, a complaint that the patient gets worse; but, after six or eight weeks, if any amelioration occur, it will be decided and progressive. At first, the dose should be very small, and gradually augmented until the pupil shows signs of its action, and the patient complains of both alteration in sight and dryness of throat.

The case here related by Dr. Ritchie was admitted as a private patient into Bethnal House Asylum, London, on the 8th of September, 1843, suffering from chronic mania, in good general health; mind generally disordered, but quiet. She was, however, subject to paroxysms of excitement, the cause of which she alleged to be two other persons, who used some means, of which she was not cognisant, to excite her. She had various other delusions, such as that her actions and feelings were controlled by others; “that her husband” (he had been dead for some years) “is alive, and she occasionally converses with him;” “she hears a voice abusing her,” &c. From this date it appears that she had delusions of a similar nature, but of increasing intensity. Her bodily health was good, and unaffected by severe illness.

Dr. McLeod publishes in the ‘Medical Times' a series of papers on the employment of hydrocyanic acid in the treatment of insanity, with the detail of eight cases out of forty thus treated. Dr. McLeod thus states his views of this mode of treatment.

“Medical science,” says Dr. Donkin, “is indebted to Professor Simpson for having first directed attention to the coexistence of albuminuria and puerperal mania, in a contribution to the Obstetric Society of Edinburgh, in 1856. In this paper Dr. Simpson contented himself with demonstrating merely the frequent coexistence of the two morbid conditions, without attempting to explain the exact pathological relation between the renal and mental affections, leaving that to be accomplished by future clinical investigation. Dr. Simpson's communication is, I believe, up to the present time, the only contribution we possess on the subject, either in our own or any other language.”

During the last few years, says Dr. Laycock, the attention of the profession has been directed to a disease in which there is more or less of a general debility resembling anæmia, considerable and varied nervous disorder, greatly increased activity of the heart and of the arteries of the head and neck, a vascular enlargement of the thyroid gland resembling bronchocele, and staring eyes, with protrusion of the eyeballs, giving a peculiar expression to the face. This latter appearance, known as exophthalmos, exophthalmia, and proptosis, has attracted especial attention.

In an elaborate paper upon this subject in the last two numbers of the ‘British and Foreign Review’ (April and July, 1863), Mr. Sedgwick has recorded numerous facts, which he has been at the pains to collect from various English and French sources; so numerous, indeed, are his observations, that his paper will supply a valuable storehouse of references to those who may wish specially to study the subject. The more general reader, overwhelmed by the multitude of unconnected details which seem to point to no conclusion, may, perhaps, find the ancient adage involuntarily rise to his lips—Non numerandæ sed perpendendæ observationes. It is an adage, however, which is more often the refuge of idleness unwilling to labour at the tedious collection of facts, than it is the legitimate expression of a just censure.

“Several patients applied spontaneously for admission, of whom four had formerly been inmates. They sought the protection afforded by the asylum, from a sense of their returning malady and inability to take care of themselves.