ACTION OF CANNABIS INDICA.-M. Courtive observes, as the result of numerous experiments made to determine the physiological action of the cannabis indica on the nervous system, that cannabine (the resin of the Indian hemp) may be useful therapeutically, as narcotic and stupefying, in the treatment of the neuroses in general, and in the last stages of cancerous diseases. Cannabine produces also tetanic effects, and in certain periods of its action it seems to be a general stimulant. In some cases haschisch causes sanguineous congestion of the lungs, which, however, M. Courtive does not consider a reason for rejecting it, as the congestion does not always occur, and may be removed by bleeding. It has been employed with advantage in some cases of hooping cough and bronchial catarrhs, and, according to M. Moreau, may be useful in mental pathology.-Académie des Sciences.

PERIODIC EPILEPSY, HYSTERIA, NEURALGIA, AND HEMIPLEGIA.M. Mazade, in a communication made to the Academy of Medicine, M. Bricheteau, reporter, narrates cases in which the periodicity of these diseases was sufficiently marked to warrant the exhibition of the sulphate of quinine in rather large doses. The cases were successfully treated. The fifth case is described as a sort of hemiplegia which returned every day, that is to say, it was a momentary cephalic congestion, with notable numbness and weakness of the limbs of the right side of the body. This singular affection yielded to the employment of the sulphate of quinine for three days, in the dose of a scruple and a half.

CHOREA IN SCROFULOUS SUBJECTS.-M. Muller describes two cases of chorea occurring in young girls of a scrofulous constitution, which were cured by the internal exhibition of the ioduret of potassium. Duration of treatment: in one case, thirty days; in the other, twentytwo. In the one case, thirty-two scruples of the ioduret were given; in the other, nineteen.-Académie de Médecine.

INFLUENCE OF THE PENITENTIARY SYSTEM ON INSANITY.-M. Bouchet, principal physician to the Lunatic Asylum at Nantes, states, in a letter addressed to the Academy of Medicine at Paris, that in August, 1845, he received 15 lunatics from the prison at Vannes, of whom nine have been discharged, one died, and five are still at the asylum. Of the nine discharged, three were transferred, uncured, to the asyla of their departments, when the period of their imprisonment had expired; one was imbecile and epileptic; another laboured under old monomania, with hallucinations of the sight and hearing; but M. Bouchat cannot affirm that they existed before the imprisonment; the last was affected with that kind of reasoning or instinctive monomania, which, taking its

origin in a lesion of the sensibility, does not sufficiently impair the reason to warrant the term insanity, until characterized by certain acts. Of the six others, three were affected with monomania, and hallucinations of the senses referrible to fear; these were discharged cured. The other three, one of whom was of weak intellect, also laboured under reasoning or instinctive monomania, of long duration, and before trial. Having become quiet and working, they were discharged; but one of them was afterwards arrested, and placed in the asylum belonging to her department. The patient that died was always weeping, in which state she was reported to have continued for ten years, although she was condemned in 1843 only. She believed her husband and children were dead, which was not the case. Of the five still in the asylum, the first, affected with monomania and hallucinations of sight, had been mad three or four years before she was tried; she had left her husband and children, to wander about the country, and in a moment, as she said, when it was stronger than she was, had set a house on fire. The second, two years before she committed the theft for which she was condemned, had been confined for eighteen months at Quimper, or at Morlaix, as insane; after being in prison four years, she complained of headaches, talked to herself, was annoyed at the slightest contradiction, and stabbed herself in the abdomen, because she was put in a cell. Hers was also a case of instinctive monomania, with well-marked intellectual debility. The fourth, condemned in 1844, had for twelve years heard voices, to which she replied, and which incessantly spoke to her of angels, the cross, &c. The fourth, also instinctive monomania, was an instance of great intellectual debility, and the fifth was a somewhat similar case; the patients, however, worked pretty well, except when inordinate and even violent instinctive acts occurred.

M. Bouchet, from these cases, cannot come to the absolute conclusion, that the penitentiary system was the essential cause of the insanity, which, in many cases, he observes, existed before the crime was committed for which the imprisonment was inflicted, and even was the determining cause of the crime, without evincing itself to justice by irrefragable evidence. No cases of mania, properly so called, presented under the circumstances.

The prison from which these lunatics were sent to the asylum at Nantes, is conducted on the Auburn system.

ECLAMPSIA CURED BY STRAMONIUM.-Dr. Armand Jobert narrates the case of a young idiot affected with eclampsia, which, after resisting all the usual remedies, was cured by accidental poisoning by stramonium, the patient having found and eaten five of the thorn apples. Dr. Jobert is unable to say whether the cure was permanent, as the patient

afterwards passed from under his care. The idiocy depended on a physical defect of the brain.-Annales Medico-Psychologiques.

TETANUS CURED BY INTOXICATION. In the same journal, Dr. Jobert describes a case of tetanus occurring in a child five years old from a cut of the finger, which he cured by intoxicating the child. The patient became quite drunk and delirious; vomiting, diarrhea, and general prostration, sweating, and deep sleep, followed. The next day, the alarming symptoms of tetanus were removed, and the child soon became convalescent. Leeches were applied behind the ears, to relieve a determination of blood to the head, the result of the intoxication. A similar case, with the same result, was recorded in one of the French journals last year, and another case, in which the treatment was much more protracted, has been read at a meeting of the Medico-Chirurgical Society. In a case of hydrophobia, which, however, terminated fatally, Mr. Fitzpatrick afforded great relief by the same measure.

EFFECT OF MUSIC ON THE NERVES.-The first effect that music produces is merely physical. Sounds strike the nerves of the ear, and make, according to their power, quality, character, roughness, or sweetness, analogous impressions upon our senses. Too powerful, too sudden strokes, might occasion nervous convulsions, destroy the faculty of hearing, or even extinguish life. In the endless variety of organizations, an endless variety of sensations is awakened by one and the same sound. A delicate, sensitive ear, is otherwise affected than that of a stronger, rougher nature. The tumult, the whistles, and the shrieks, in which the latter delight, would throw the other into the highest state of alarm or discomfort. Hence the curious anecdotes of men who could not tolerate certain sounds, and who, on hearing particular instruments, became the subject of the most unaccountable nervous sensations, of which no other person was conscious. The beating of a drum produces in many persons a corresponding tremulousness in the chest. Some persons cannot refrain from weeping when they hear a certain note. J. J. Rousseau says that he knew a lady who could not hear any kind of music without being seized with involuntary and convulsive laughter. The delicacy of the ear of Mozart was so great, that, without being modified by other instruments, he could not tolerate the sound of a trumpet. His father, who wished him to overcome this sensibility, took him one day by surprise with a violent blast of a trumpet. The boy shrieked, grew pale, and fell senseless to the ground. The monk of St. Gallen tells us of a woman, who, when she heard an organ for the first time, was so transported with rapture, that she never recovered from the effect, and died in consequence. Animals, as well as men, are

the 131 patients were so predisposed, or 39 per cent.; whilst 41 were suicidal, being at the rate of 31 in every 100. Both these peculiarities are of much importance in this malady, and materially influence the disease, its progress, and result. The total deaths in the 131 puerperal patients amounted to six, or four and a half per cent., thus making the average rate of mortality nearly the same as in other species of insanity, taken collec tively. The particulars of the fatal cases, and pathology, next occupied attention, and he (Dr. Webster) stated, that three of the six patients who died were suicidal and hereditary; one was only hereditarily predisposed to insanity, but not suicidal; whilst two, it was reported, had neither of these peculiarities; and none were ever insane previously. In addition to these facts, Dr. Webster also mentioned, that half the deaths occurred in patients who were not affected longer than fifteen days, the shortest period being eleven days, and all were attacked by insanity within seventeen days after their confinement. In none of the dissections were any morbid appearances observed in the abdomen, but the lungs always appeared diseased, as also the brain and membranes. The details of one autopsy were then described, as a specimen of the diseased changes of structure frequently met with in puerperal mania, the principal morbid alterations being, turgidity of the bloodvessels of the brain and membranes; large, bloody points on cutting the cerebral substance; slight serous infiltration of the pia mater, and considerable effusion of fluid in the fifth ventricle; adhesion and purulent ulceration were noticed in the left lung, with hepatization in other portions of that organ, and in the right lung, partial pneumonia in the congestive stage. Although this patient had been delivered only twenty-six days prior to her death, no corpus luteum could be discovered in either ovary, nor any diseased changes of structure in the abdomen. Notwithstanding it appeared rather a digression, the author, in his paper, remarked, that gangrene of the lungs, however rare an occur rence in persons carried off by bodily disease, but without any mental affection, sloughing of that organ was not unfrequent in lunatics. He said so from his own knowledge, and others had also made similar observations, especially in continental asylums for the insane. Dr. Webster afterwards alluded to the treatment of puerperal insanity; and considered cerebral irritation, combined with great exhaustion of the nervous system generally, to constitute the true character of this disease, and that it rarely, if ever, proves inflammatory. He thought depletion, or the use of strong antiphlogistic remedies, became very seldom admissible. Leeches appeared in some cases advisable, but even then should be applied with great caution, and their effects carefully watched. As a general maxim, the author advised the same principles to be followed in the treatment of this malady as in delirium tremens, since the nature of the two diseases were somewhat analogous. Opium, camphor, ammonia, and aromatics, with some of the diffusible stimuli, proved excellent remedies, and ought to be chiefly relied upon. When opium fails to procure sleep, so beneficial in this, as indeed in every form of insanity-then conium, hyoscyamus, or Indian hemp, may be substituted. Mild purgatives, to open the bowels, and sometimes cathartics, should be prescribed; but powerful drastic medicines are seldom advisable. Enemata are also useful, and sometimes with turpentine. When the disease assumes a more chronic form, setons or issues may be made in the neck, &c. The shower-bath, from its strengthening influence, then acts beneficially, whilst tonic remedies, with more nutritious food, become necessary, and prove advantageous; indeed, low diet is very often prejudicial in insane patients, and it has been long remarked in many asylums, that improved nutriment, especially in lunatics who have previously suffered privations, frequently becomes a powerful means for promoting recovery. In recent cases of puerperal insanity, when the circulation is

accelerated, accompanied by evident congestion of the brain, leeches to the temples, and behind the ears, or blisters, might then be applied, and afterwards cooling lotions, with ice to the head; whilst tartar-emetic, or ipecacuanha, in nauseating doses, and digitalis, may be administered for the same object. Besides medical treatment, moral means, with judicious occupation and amusements, when proper for the patient, must not be overlooked, as these very often constitute effective adjuncts in the management of the insane. With the view of briefly illustrating the symptoms and treatment proper to pursue under ordinary circumstances, the author next narrated two cases of puerperal insanity, one being affected with mania, the other with melancholia. In the first, or maniacal case, the patient, a single woman, aged twenty-one, whose child did not survive, had hereditary tendency to mental disease, but was reported not suicidal. She was very noisy, incoherent, often much excited, frequently very wild, violent, exceedingly mischievous, used bad language, destroyed her clothes, and paid no regard to personal cleanliness. Took food voraciously, was very restless at night, and dirty in bed. Pulse generally quick, and bowels constipated. The remedies employed consisted of opening medicines, cooling saline mixtures, and croton oil, on one occasion, with regulated diet. Subsequently, bodily occupation and amusements were put in requisition, whereby the patient soon became convalescent. The second case was an example of the variety denominated melancholia. In this patient, a married woman, aged thirty, suicidal and hereditary tendency to mania existed. She was hasty in temper, but naturally cheerful. The attack commenced a month after delivery, and her child was weaned when six weeks old. Had been much debilitated by hæmorrhage after labour; appeared often very depressed; melancholic; generally very desponding of her insane state, and had attempted to injure herself. She took food very unwillingly; could not sleep at night; would scarcely remain in bed, and endeavoured to escape from her room. Pulse of natural frequency, and bowels regular. Early in the disease, leeches were once applied to the temples, and afterwards blisters to the neck on three occasions. Opiates and camphor were prescribed, with purgatives, especially the compound decoction of aloes. Latterly, the cold shower-bath and tonic medicines were employed. The diet, at first light, was subsequently more nutritious, with malt liquor, by which means, and proper occupation conjoined, as the patient improved, with amusements, she recovered. In concluding his paper, of which the above report is merely an abstract; the author made a few observations respecting the employment of restraint to persons labouring under lunacy in any form. Dr. Webster is decidedly opposed to the use of such severe measures; and said, if improper in ordinary cases of mania, mechanical coercion was even more inapplicable to puerperal insanity; and wherever the straight-waistcoat is adopted, lest the patient might injure herselfthe excuse commonly assigned by attendants-the exasperation and excitement then exhibited appear more frequently a consequence of, than a warrant for, such barbarous proceedings. This is found to be especially true, in respect of suicidal patients; since experience amply demonstrates, that the mechanical restraint of insane persons so disposed, and even of individuals who have never shown any propensity of the kind, often acts as a highly exciting cause of suicide. The degradation which even lunatics feel, when thus treated like criminals, frequently produces most injurious effects upon the weakened mind of the sufferer; and if the insane patient, subjected to such cruel treatment, be a female of delicate constitution, susceptible feelings, high accomplishments, and of education, the objections to straight-waistcoats, or similar means, become much stronger; as the results, in all likelihood, will prove more disastrous.

Dr. Murphy was of opinion that the antiphlogistic treatment, in cases of