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The following is the average of several analyses :—

Earthy Material. Neck of thigh-bone of aged persons. . . 313 middle-aged persons 50'1

Shaft of thigh-bone of aged persons. . . 533

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The remedies we already possess for many diseases have a history calculated to inspire hope that at some not very distant period, means will be found to arrest with certainty the ravages of time upon the human constitution, and to carry on life full of vigour to its utmost limits. Concerted efforts, such as have built up the noble science of Chemistry, have never been instituted for the discovery of remedies. Mere chance or individual zeal has hitherto been their source, and a comparatively short time has produced the present science of healing. A few examples will illustrate these remarks.

Peruvian bark was introduced into Europe about 300 years ago, a cure for intermittent fever. Little more than 50 years have elapsed since the crystalline constituents of this bark were first separated. Quinine, etc., are now employed in every country in the world, and save innumerable lives. Vaccination has been known and practised scarcely 100 Many persons now living have heard from their fathers of the deadly ravages of small-pox in their days. These two are the only remedies, excepting general sanitary measures, which have received the attention of government. The law enforcing vaccination, the cultivation of the tree producing quinine, are very recent recognitions of

years.

the importance of the subject to the well-being of communities.

It would well become an enlightened government to take cognisance of another fact recently ascertained. In some localities, in India, in Africa, and in other countries, quinine is by no means infallible; but when it fails, another crystalline product derived from a common tree growing abundantly at our doors is successful. Commerce often precedes science as well as national policy, and enormous quantities of salicine are made and sold, not merely as a cheap substitute for quinine, but inasmuch as it is in those localities found to be more efficient. Were this recognised, how much money and how many valuable lives would it save to the country? It is doubtful whether it is known by the medical men now with our army on the Gold Coast.

Fever, that mysterious disease, so destructive to life (i.e. continued fever), is treated with great skill and energy on what are called general principles, and many lives are thus saved. Yet when we consider that fevers are always the result of poisons, for there are several without doubt, we feel surprised that an antidote, a remedy which will counteract the poison and cut short the disease, is not only not known, but not sought for. The Prince of Wales, the Imperial Prince of Germany, and the eldest son of the Czar, have all recently passed through all the stages of fever, happily with life; yet, how striking a proof do these cases afford of our ignorance of an antidote for continued fever, corresponding to the known remedy for intermittent. Would that I could do more than offer a suggestion to those who have to deal with fever; but I would suggest,—

1. That antimony has had a reputation for possessing the desired power for ages. Some preparations or salts of this metal more than others. There is one, however, never

hitherto tried so far as I know, which, judging from analogy, ought to possess the febrifuge power of the antimony in a very high degree. I allude to stibethyl oxide Sb (C, H3)3 O, a basic substance forming salts with acids, among which remedies of great power may probably be discovered.

2. The American Eclectic Physicians, whose contributions to our list of remedies have been most valuable, confidently state that the plant Gelseminum sempervirens will arrest and cure fever at its earliest stage. I am aware of the odium attaching to what is termed a search for specifics; but I am willing to incur it, since I am sure it is by the study of the special properties of remedies on the body in disease rather than by general principles, the art of healing will henceforth be advanced.

Some years ago, a writer in the Quarterly Review said it would be a great boon to humanity, were a substitute for mercury and its salts discovered, having similar powers but entirely innocuous. This as I have shown we now possess in podophyllin.

That valuable agent for producing sleep, hydrate of chloral, only came into use in 1869. This property of chloral was discovered by Dr. Liebreicht, a German physician, who finding in the laboratory that when hydrate of chloral is subjected to the action of caustic potash, it is decomposed, and evolves chloroform, conceived the idea that if taken into the animal body it would be decomposed very slowly by the potash existing in the flesh juices, and the nascent chloroform would produce anesthesia. This hypothesis proved to be unfounded, but his experiments led to the discovery of its soporific action.

A dentist in America, in 1844, discovered the anesthetic power of ether when inhaled. Sir James Simpson, seeking for a more convenient substance for rendering the body

insensible to pain under operations, found one in chloroform.

Nitrous oxide, or laughing-gas, was experimented upon by Davy in the laboratory of Dr. Beddoes at Bristol, and in the year 1800, he wrote, “As nitrous oxide in its extensive operation appears capable of destroying physical pain, it may probably be used with advantage during surgical operations in which no great effusion of blood takes place." It was only in 1868, that it was brought into practical use as an anæsthetic, in extracting teeth.

The same Dr. Beddoes saw accidentally the cure of consumption in a family by arsenic. This hint seems to have been entirely disregarded by the profession, probably from the conventional aversion to specifics, although it was noticed by Dr. Thomas Young, in a historical work on consumption. It did not meet my eye until some time after I had employed arsenic in consumptive cases with marked success. I was led to it by a view I took of the disease founded upon a chemical examination of tubercle. My observations were published in a small work in 1856, by Churchill & Sons. Even yet this remedy is almost, if not entirely, disregarded by the profession in this country, although several eminent French physicians have adopted it, and testified to its efficacy. I have the pleasure of seeing many persons still living and in the enjoyment of health, who many years ago were pronounced to be consumptive and their lives despaired of.

Professor Lister's valuable discovery of the use of carbolic acid for healing wounds and preventing the fatal spread of purulent matter into the system (pyæmia) must not be forgotten in this connection.

While these pages were passing through the press, some extraordinary properties of an Australian tree were announced

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in the Times and other papers, and seem to have attracted much attention. This tree, the Eucalyptus globulus, is said to have the power of destroying malaria in its vicinity, and thus rendering localities where it abounds healthy, which otherwise would be highly destructive of human life.

Experiments have been made on a large scale by planting this tree by thousands in Africa, at the Cape and in Algeria, in places previously most fatal by reason of fevers, and scarcely habitable, and the result has been highly satisfactory. The tree is of very rapid growth, absorbs water in great proportion, and thus dries up marshy places, rendering them susceptible of cultivation, and the whole neighbourhood healthy.

These remarks are intended to justify the anticipation I venture to express at the head of this note. In the vegetable kingdom, in the products of the chemical laboratory, we have not thousands but millions of substances unstudied and untried. Will any one venture to say what may or may not be discovered to affect human life?

It is curious to observe the variety both as to their source and nature, of the remedies we already know.

From the depths of the forest in South America, from the roadside in North America, from Australia, a country only known to Europe about 100 years, from the mineral kingdom, from the new bodies formed by bringing together elements never found united in nature,—from all these sources do we derive the means we daily use for relieving suffering and restoring life.

What will the knowledge and power of the next and succeeding generations be?

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