Or, as Kiessling of Berlin interprets:—

—"O, of our troubles the sweet, the healing sedative, etc."

Homer, Plutarch, Theophrastus, and Galen say that music cures rheumatism, the pests, and stings of reptiles, etc. Diemerbroeck, Bonet, Baglivi, Kercher, and Desault mention the efficacy of melody in phthisis, gout, hydrophobia, the bites of venomous reptiles, etc. There is a case in the Lancet of a patient in convulsions who was cured in the paroxysm by hearing the tones of music. Before the French Academy of Sciences in 1708, and again in 1718, there was an instance of a dancing-master stricken with violent fever and in a condition of delirium, who recovered his senses and health on hearing melodious music. There is little doubt of the therapeutic value of music, but particularly do we find its value in instances of neuroses. The inspiration offered by music is well-known, and it is doubtless a stimulant to the intellectual work. Bacon, Milton, Warburton, and Alfieri needed music to stimulate them in their labors, and it is said that Bourdaloue always played an air on the violin before preparing to write.

According to the American Medico-Surgical Bulletin, "Professor Tarchanoff of Saint Petersburg has been investigating the influence of music upon man and other animals. The subject is by no means a new one. In recent times Dagiel and Fere have investigated the effect of music upon the respirations, the pulse, and the muscular system in man. Professor Tarchanoff made use of the ergograph of Mosso, and found that if the fingers were completely fatigued, either by voluntary efforts or by electric excitation, to the point of being incapable of making any mark except a straight line on the registering cylinder, music had the power of making the fatigue disappear, and the finger placed in the ergograph again commenced to mark lines of different heights, according to the amount of excitation. It was also found that music of a sad and lugubrious character had the opposite effect, and could check or entirely inhibit the contractions. Professor Tarchanoff does not profess to give any positive explanation of these facts, but he inclines to the view that 'the voluntary muscles, being furnished with excitomotor and depressant fibers, act in relation to the music similarly to the heart—that is to say, that joyful music resounds along the excitomotor fibers, and sad music along the depressant or inhibitory fibers.' Experiments on dogs showed that music was capable of increasing the elimination of carbonic acid by 16.7 per cent, and of increasing the consumption of oxygen by 20.1 per cent. It was also found that music increased the functional activity of the skin. Professor Tarchanoff claims as the result of these experiments that music may fairly be regarded as a serious therapeutic agent, and that it exercises a genuine and considerable influence over the functions of the body. Facts of this kind are in no way surprising, and are chiefly of interest as presenting some physiologic basis for phenomena that are sufficiently obvious. The influence of the war-chant upon the warrior is known even to savage tribes. We are accustomed to regard this influence simply as an ordinary case of psychic stimuli producing physiologic effects.

"Professor Tarchanoff evidently prefers to regard the phenomena as being all upon the same plane, namely, that of physiology; and until we know the difference between mind and body, and the principles of their interaction, it is obviously impossible to controvert this view successfully. From the immediately practical point of view we should not ignore the possible value of music in some states of disease. In melancholia and hysteria it is probably capable of being used with benefit, and it is worth bearing in mind in dealing with insomnia. Classical scholars will not forget that the singing of birds was tried as a remedy to overcome the insomnia of Maecenas. Music is certainly a good antidote to the pernicious habit of introspection and self-analysis, which is often a curse both of the hysteric and of the highly cultured. It would seem obviously preferable to have recourse to music of a lively and cheerful character."

Idiosyncrasies of the visual organs are generally quite rare. It is well-known that among some of the lower animals, e.g., the turkey-cocks, buffaloes, and elephants, the color red is unendurable. Buchner and Tissot mention a young boy who had a paroxysm if he viewed anything red. Certain individuals become nauseated when they look for a long time on irregular lines or curves, as, for examples, in caricatures. Many of the older examples of idiosyncrasies of color are nothing more than instances of color-blindness, which in those times was unrecognized. Prochaska knew a woman who in her youth became unconscious at the sight of beet-root, although in her later years she managed to conquer this antipathy, but was never able to eat the vegetable in question. One of the most remarkable forms of idiosyncrasy on record is that of a student who was deprived of his senses by the very sight of an old woman. On one occasion he was carried out from a party in a dying state, caused, presumably, by the abhorred aspect of the chaperons The Count of Caylus was always horror-stricken at the sight of a Capuchin friar. He cured himself by a wooden image dressed in the costume of this order placed in his room and constantly before his view. It is common to see persons who faint at the sight of blood. Analogous are the individuals who feel nausea in an hospital ward.

All Robert Boyle's philosophy could not make him endure the sight of a spider, although he had no such aversion to toads, venomous snakes, etc. Pare mentions a man who fainted at the sight of an eel, and another who had convulsions at the sight of a carp. There is a record of a young lady in France who fainted on seeing a boiled lobster. Millingen cites the case of a man who fell into convulsions whenever he saw a spider. A waxen one was made, which equally terrified him. When he recovered, his error was pointed out to him, and the wax figure was placed in his hand without causing dread, and henceforth the living insect no longer disturbed him. Amatus Lusitanus relates the case of a monk who fainted when he beheld a rose, and never quitted his cell when that flower was in bloom. Scaliger, the great scholar, who had been a soldier a considerable portion of his life, confesses that he could not look on a water-cress without shuddering, and remarks: "I, who despise not only iron, but even thunderbolts, who in two sieges (in one of which I commanded) was the only one who did not complain of the food as unfit and horrible to eat, am seized with such a shuddering horror at the sight of a water-cress that I am forced to go away." One of his children was in the same plight as regards the inoffensive vegetable, cabbage. Scaliger also speaks of one of his kinsmen who fainted at the sight of a lily. Vaughheim, a great huntsman of Hanover, would faint at the sight of a roasted pig. Some individuals have been disgusted at the sight of eggs. There is an account of a sensible man who was terrified at the sight of a hedgehog, and for two years was tormented by a sensation as though one was gnawing at his bowels. According to Boyle, Lord Barrymore, a veteran warrior and a person of strong mind, swooned at the sight of tansy. The Duke d'Epernon swooned on beholding a leveret, although a hare did not produce the same effect. Schenck tells of a man who swooned at the sight of pork. The Ephemerides contains an account of a person who lost his voice at the sight of a crab, and also cites cases of antipathy to partridges, a white hen, to a serpent, and to a toad. Lehman speaks of an antipathy to horses; and in his observations Lyser has noticed aversion to the color purple. It is a strange fact that the three greatest generals of recent years, Wellington, Napoleon, and Roberts, could never tolerate the sight of a cat, and Henry III of France could not bear this animal in his room. We learn of a Dane of herculean frame who had a horror of cats. He was asked to a supper at which, by way of a practical joke, a live cat was put on the table in a covered dish. The man began to sweat and shudder without knowing why, and when the cat was shown he killed his host in a paroxysm of terror. Another man could not even see the hated form even in a picture without breaking into a cold sweat and feeling a sense of oppression about the heart. Quercetanus and Smetius mention fainting at the sight of cats. Marshal d'Abret was supposed to be in violent fear of a pig.

As to idiosyncrasies of the sense of touch, it is well known that some people cannot handle velvet or touch the velvety skin of a peach without having disagreeable and chilly sensations come over them. Prochaska knew a man who vomited the moment he touched a peach, and many people, otherwise very fond of this fruit, are unable to touch it. The Ephemerides speaks of a peculiar idiosyncrasy of skin in the axilla of a certain person, which if tickled would provoke vomiting. It is occasionally stated in the older writings that some persons have an idiosyncrasy as regards the phases of the sun and moon. Baillou speaks of a woman who fell unconscious at sunset and did not recover till it reappeared on the horizon. The celebrated Chancellor Bacon, according to Mead, was very delicate, and was accustomed to fall into a state of great feebleness at every moon-set without any other imaginable cause. He never recovered from his swooning until the moon reappeared.

Nothing is more common than the idiosyncrasy which certain people display for certain foods. The trite proverb, "What is one man's meat is another man's poison," is a genuine truth, and is exemplified by hundreds of instances. Many people are unable to eat fish without subsequent disagreeable symptoms. Prominent among the causes of urticaria are oysters, crabs, and other shell fish, strawberries, raspberries, and other fruits. The abundance of literature on this subject makes an exhaustive collection of data impossible, and only a few of the prominent and striking instances can be reported.

Amatus Lusitanus speaks of vomiting and diarrhea occurring each time a certain Spaniard ate meat. Haller knew a person who was purged violently by syrup of roses. The son of one of the friends of Wagner would vomit immediately after the ingestion of any substance containing honey. Bayle has mentioned a person so susceptible to honey that by a plaster of this substance placed upon the skin this untoward effect was produced. Whytt knew a woman who was made sick by the slightest bit of nutmeg. Tissot observed vomiting in one of his friends after the ingestion of the slightest amount of sugar. Ritte mentions a similar instance. Roose has seen vomiting produced in a woman by the slightest dose of distilled water of linden. There is also mentioned a person in whom orange-flower water produced the same effect. Dejean cites a case in which honey taken internally or applied externally acted like poison. It is said that the celebrated Haen would always have convulsions after eating half a dozen strawberries. Earle and Halifax attended a child for kidney-irritation produced by strawberries, and this was the invariable result of the ingestion of this fruit. The authors personally know of a family the male members of which for several generations could not eat strawberries without symptoms of poisoning. The female members were exempt from the idiosyncrasy. A little boy of this family was killed by eating a single berry. Whytt mentions a woman of delicate constitution and great sensibility of the digestive tract in whom foods difficult of digestion provoked spasms, which were often followed by syncopes. Bayle describes a man who vomited violently after taking coffee. Wagner mentions a person in whom a most insignificant dose of manna had the same effect. Preslin speaks of a woman who invariably had a hemorrhage after swallowing a small quantity of vinegar. According to Zimmerman, some people are unable to wash their faces on account of untoward symptoms. According to Ganbius, the juice of a citron applied to the skin of one of his acquaintances produced violent rigors.

Brasavolus says that Julia, wife of Frederick, King of Naples, had such an aversion to meat that she could not carry it to her mouth without fainting. The anatomist Gavard was not able to eat apples without convulsions and vomiting. It is said that Erasmus was made ill by the ingestion of fish; but this same philosopher, who was cured of a malady by laughter, expressed his appreciation by an elegy on the folly. There is a record of a person who could not eat almonds without a scarlet rash immediately appearing upon the face. Marcellus Donatus knew a young man who could not eat an egg without his lips swelling and purple spots appearing on his face. Smetius mentions a person in whom the ingestion of fried eggs was often followed by syncope. Brunton has seen a case of violent vomiting and purging after the slightest bit of egg. On one occasion this person was induced to eat a small morsel of cake on the statement that it contained no egg, and, although fully believing the words of his host, he subsequently developed prominent symptoms, due to the trace of egg that was really in the cake. A letter from a distinguished litterateur to Sir Morell Mackenzie gives a striking example of the idiosyncrasy to eggs transmitted through four generations. Being from such a reliable source, it has been deemed advisable to quote the account in full: "My daughter tells me that you are interested in the ill-effects which the eating of eggs has upon her, upon me, and upon my father before us. I believe my grandfather, as well as my father, could not eat eggs with impunity. As to my father himself, he is nearly eighty years old; he has not touched an egg since he was a young man; he can, therefore, give no precise or reliable account of the symptoms the eating of eggs produce in him. But it was not the mere 'stomach-ache' that ensued, but much more immediate and alarming disturbances. As for me, the peculiarity was discovered when I was a spoon-fed child. On several occasions it was noticed (that is my mother's account) that I felt ill without apparent cause; afterward it was recollected that a small part of a yolk of an egg had been given to me. Eclaircissement came immediately after taking a single spoonful of egg. I fell into such an alarming state that the doctor was sent for. The effect seems to have been just the same that it produces upon my daughter now,—something that suggested brain-congestion and convulsions. From time to time, as a boy and a young man, I have eaten an egg by way of trying it again, but always with the same result—a feeling that I had been poisoned; and yet all the while I liked eggs. Then I never touched them for years. Later I tried again, and I find the ill-effects are gradually wearing off. With my daughter it is different; she, I think, becomes more susceptible as time goes on, and the effect upon her is more violent than in my case at any time. Sometimes an egg has been put with coffee unknown to her, and she has been seen immediately afterward with her face alarmingly changed—eyes swollen and wild, the face crimson, the look of apoplexy. This is her own account: 'An egg in any form causes within a few minutes great uneasiness and restlessness, the throat becomes contracted and painful, the face crimson, and the veins swollen. These symptoms have been so severe as to suggest that serious consequences might follow.' To this I may add that in her experience and my own, the newer the egg, the worse the consequences."

Hutchinson speaks of a Member of Parliament who had an idiosyncrasy as regards parsley. After the ingestion of this herb in food he always had alarming attacks of sickness and pain in the abdomen, attended by swelling of the tongue and lips and lividity of the face. This same man could not take the smallest quantity of honey, and certain kinds of fruit always poisoned him. There was a collection of instances of idiosyncrasy in the British Medical Journal, 1859, which will be briefly given in the following lines: One patient could not eat rice in any shape without extreme distress. From the description given of his symptoms, spasmodic asthma seemed to be the cause of his discomfort. On one occasion when at a dinner-party he felt the symptoms of rice-poisoning come on, and, although he had partaken of no dish ostensibly containing rice, was, as usual, obliged to retire from the table. Upon investigation it appeared that some white soup with which he had commenced his meal had been thickened with ground rice. As in the preceding case there was another gentleman who could not eat rice without a sense of suffocation. On one occasion he took lunch with a friend in chambers, partaking only of simple bread and cheese and bottled beer. On being seized with the usual symptoms of rice-poisoning he informed his friend of his peculiarity of constitution, and the symptoms were explained by the fact that a few grains of rice had been put into each bottle of beer for the purpose of exciting a secondary fermentation. The same author speaks of a gentleman under treatment for stricture who could not eat figs without experiencing the most unpleasant formication of the palate and fauces. The fine dust from split peas caused the same sensation, accompanied with running at the nose; it was found that the father of the patient suffered from hay-fever in certain seasons. He also says a certain young lady after eating eggs suffered from swelling of the tongue and throat, accompanied by "alarming illness," and there is recorded in the same paragraph a history of another young girl in whom the ingestion of honey, and especially honey-comb, produced swelling of the tongue, frothing of the mouth, and blueness of the fingers. The authors know of a gentleman in whom sneezing is provoked on the ingestion of chocolate in any form. There was another instance—in a member of the medical profession—who suffered from urticaria after eating veal. Veal has the reputation of being particularly indigestible, and the foregoing instance of the production of urticaria from its use is doubtless not an uncommon one.

Overton cites a striking case of constitutional peculiarity or idiosyncrasy in which wheat flour in any form, the staff of life, an article hourly prayed for by all Christian nations as the first and most indispensable of earthly blessings, proved to one unfortunate individual a prompt and dreadful poison. The patient's name was David Waller, and he was born in Pittsylvania County, Va., about the year 1780. He was the eighth child of his parents, and, together with all his brothers and sisters, was stout and healthy. At the time of observation Waller was about fifty years of age. He had dark hair, gray eyes, dark complexion, was of bilious and irascible temperament, well formed, muscular and strong, and in all respects healthy as any man, with the single exception of his peculiar idiosyncrasy. He had been the subject of but few diseases, although he was attacked by the epidemic of 1816. From the history of his parents and an inquiry into the health of his ancestry, nothing could be found which could establish the fact of heredity in his peculiar disposition. Despite every advantage of stature, constitution, and heredity, David Waller was through life, from his cradle to his grave, the victim of what is possibly a unique idiosyncrasy of constitution. In his own words he declared: "Of two equal quantities of tartar and wheat flour, not more than a dose of the former, he would rather swallow the tartar than the wheat flour." If he ate flour in any form or however combined, in the smallest quantity, in two minutes or less he would have painful itching over the whole body, accompanied by severe colic and tormina in the bowels, great sickness in the stomach, and continued vomiting, which he declared was ten times as distressing as the symptoms caused by the ingestion of tartar emetic. In about ten minutes after eating the flour the itching would be greatly intensified, especially about the head, face, and eyes, but tormenting all parts of the body, and not to be appeased. These symptoms continued for two days with intolerable violence, and only declined on the third day and ceased on the tenth. In the convalescence, the lungs were affected, he coughed, and in expectoration raised great quantities of phlegm, and really resembled a phthisical patient. At this time he was confined to his room with great weakness, similar to that of a person recovering from an asthmatic attack. The mere smell of wheat produced distressing symptoms in a minor degree, and for this reason he could not, without suffering, go into a mill or house where the smallest quantity of wheat flour was kept. His condition was the same from the earliest times, and he was laid out for dead when an infant at the breast, after being fed with "pap" thickened with wheat flour. Overton remarks that a case of constitutional peculiarity so little in harmony with the condition of other men could not be received upon vague or feeble evidence, and it is therefore stated that Waller was known to the society in which he lived as an honest and truthful man. One of his female neighbors, not believing in his infirmity, but considering it only a whim, put a small quantity of flour in the soup which she gave him to eat at her table, stating that it contained no flour, and as a consequence of the deception he was bed-ridden for ten days with his usual symptoms. It was also stated that Waller was never subjected to militia duty because it was found on full examination of his infirmity that he could not live upon the rations of a soldier, into which wheat flour enters as a necessary ingredient. In explanation of this strange departure from the condition of other men, Waller himself gave a reason which was deemed equivalent in value to any of the others offered. It was as follows: His father being a man in humble circumstances in life, at the time of his birth had no wheat with which to make flour, although his mother during gestation "longed" for wheat-bread. The father, being a kind husband and responsive to the duty imposed by the condition of his wife, procured from one of his opulent neighbors a bag of wheat and sent it to the mill to be ground. The mother was given much uneasiness by an unexpected delay at the mill, and by the time the flour arrived her strong appetite for wheat-bread had in a great degree subsided. Notwithstanding this, she caused some flour to be immediately baked into bread and ate it, but not so freely as she had expected The bread thus taken caused intense vomiting and made her violently and painfully ill, after which for a considerable time she loathed bread. These facts have been ascribed as the cause of the lamentable infirmity under which the man labored, as no other peculiarity or impression in her gestation was noticed. In addition it may be stated that for the purpose of avoiding the smell of flour Waller was in the habit of carrying camphor in his pocket and using snuff, for if he did not smell the flour, however much might be near him, it was as harmless to him as to other men.

The authors know of a case in which the eating of any raw fruit would produce in a lady symptoms of asthma; cooked fruit had no such effect.

Food-Superstitions.—The superstitious abhorrence and antipathy to various articles of food that have been prevalent from time to time in the history of the human race are of considerable interest and well deserve some mention here. A writer in a prominent journal has studied this subject with the following result:—

"From the days of Adam and Eve to the present time there has been not only forbidden fruit, but forbidden meats and vegetables. For one reason or another people have resolutely refused to eat any and all kinds of flesh, fish, fowl, fruits, and plants. Thus, the apple, the pear, the strawberry, the quince, the bean, the onion, the leek, the asparagus, the woodpecker, the pigeon, the goose, the deer, the bear, the turtle, and the eel—these, to name only a few eatables, have been avoided as if unwholesome or positively injurious to health and digestion.

"As we all know, the Jews have long had an hereditary antipathy to pork. On the other hand, swine's flesh was highly esteemed by the ancient Greeks and Romans. This fact is revealed by the many references to pig as a dainty bit of food. At the great festival held annually in honor of Demeter, roast pig was the piece de resistance in the bill of fare, because the pig was the sacred animal of Demeter. Aristophanes in 'The Frogs' makes one of the characters hint that some of the others 'smell of roast pig.' These people undoubtedly had been at the festival (known as the Thesmophoria) and had eaten freely of roast pig, Those who took part in another Greek mystery or festival (known as the Eleusinia) abstained from certain food, and above all from beans.

"Again, as we all know, mice are esteemed in China and in some parts of India. But the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Jews abhorred mice and would not touch mouse-meat. Rats and field-mice were sacred in Old Egypt, and were not to be eaten on this account. So, too, in some parts of Greece, the mouse was the sacred animal of Apollo, and mice were fed in his temples. The chosen people were forbidden to eat 'the weasel, and the mouse, and the tortoise after his kind.' These came under the designation of unclean animals, which were to be avoided.

"But people have abstained from eating kinds of flesh which could not be called unclean. For example, the people of Thebes, as Herodotus tells us, abstained from sheep. Then, the ancients used to abstain from certain vegetables. In his 'Roman Questions' Plutarch asks: 'Why do the Latins abstain strictly from the flesh of the woodpecker?' In order to answer Plutarch's question correctly it is necessary to have some idea of the peculiar custom and belief called 'totemism.' There is a stage of society in which people claim descent from and kinship with beasts, birds, vegetables, and other objects. This object, which is a 'totem,' or family mark, they religiously abstain from eating. The members of the tribe are divided into clans or stocks, each of which takes the name of some animal, plant, or object, as the bear, the buffalo, the woodpecker, the asparagus, and so forth. No member of the bear family would dare to eat bear-meat, but he has no objection to eating buffalo steak. Even the marriage law is based on this belief, and no man whose family name is Wolf may marry a woman whose family name is also Wolf.

"In a general way it may be said that almost all our food prohibitions spring from the extraordinary custom generally called totemism. Mr. Swan, who was missionary for many years in the Congo Free State, thus describes the custom: 'If I were to ask the Yeke people why they do not eat zebra flesh, they would reply, 'Chijila,' i.e., 'It is a thing to which we have an antipathy;' or better, 'It is one of the things which our fathers taught us not to eat.' So it seems the word 'Bashilang' means 'the people who have an antipathy to the leopard;' the 'Bashilamba,' 'those who have an antipathy to the dog,' and the 'Bashilanzefu,' 'those who have an antipathy to the elephant.' In other words, the members of these stocks refuse to eat their totems, the zebra, the leopard, or the elephant, from which they take their names.

"The survival of antipathy to certain foods was found among people as highly civilized as the Egyptians, the Greeks, and the Romans. Quite a list of animals whose flesh was forbidden might be drawn up. For example, in Old Egypt the sheep could not be eaten in Thebes, nor the goat in Mendes, nor the cat in Bubastis, nor the crocodile at Ombos, nor the rat, which was sacred to Ra, the sun-god. However, the people of one place had no scruples about eating the forbidden food of another place. And this often led to religious disputes.

"Among the vegetables avoided as food by the Egyptians may be mentioned the onion, the garlic, and the leek. Lucian says that the inhabitants of Pelusium adored the onion. According to Pliny the Egyptians relished the leek and the onion. Juvenal exclaims: 'Surely a very religious nation, and a blessed place, where every garden is overrun with gods!' The survivals of totemism among the ancient Greeks are very interesting. Families named after animals and plants were not uncommon. One Athenian gens, the Ioxidae, had for its ancestral plant the asparagus. One Roman gens, the Piceni, took a woodpecker for its totem, and every member of this family refused, of course, to eat the flesh of the woodpecker. In the same way as the nations of the Congo Free State, the Latins had an antipathy to certain kinds of food. However, an animal or plant forbidden in one place was eaten without any compunction in another place. 'These local rites in Roman times,' says Mr. Lang, 'caused civil brawls, for the customs of one town naturally seemed blasphemous to neighbors with a different sacred animal. Thus when the people of dog-town were feeding on the fish called oxyrrhyncus, the citizens of the town which revered the oxyrrhyncus began to eat dogs. Hence arose a riot.' The antipathy of the Jews to pork has given rise to quite different explanations. The custom is probably a relic of totemistic belief. That the unclean animals—animals not to be eaten—such as the pig, the mouse, and the weasel, were originally totems of the children of Israel, Professor Robertson Smith believes is shown by various passages in the Old Testament.

"When animals and plants ceased to be held sacred they were endowed with sundry magical or mystic properties. The apple has been supposed to possess peculiar virtues, especially in the way of health. 'The relation of the apple to health,' says Mr. Conway, 'is traceable to Arabia. Sometimes it is regarded as a bane. In Hessia it is said an apple must not be eaten on New Year's Day, as it will produce an abscess. But generally it is curative. In Pomerania it is eaten on Easter morning against fevers; in Westphalia (mixed with saffron) against jaundice; while in Silesia an apple is scraped from top to stalk to cure diarrhea, and upward to cure costiveness.' According to an old English fancy, if any one who is suffering from a wound in the head should eat strawberries it will lead to fatal results. In the South of England the folk say that the devil puts his cloven foot upon the blackberries on Michaelmas Day, and hence none should be gathered or eaten after that day. On the other hand, in Scotland the peasants say that the devil throws his cloak over the blackberries and makes them unwholesome after that day, while in Ireland he is said to stamp on the berries. Even that humble plant, the cabbage, has been invested with some mystery. It was said that the fairies were fond of its leaves, and rode to their midnight dances on cabbage-stalks. The German women used to say that 'Babies come out of the cabbage-heads.' The Irish peasant ties a cabbage-leaf around the neck for sore throat. According to Gerarde, the Spartans ate watercress with their bread, firmly believing that it increased their wit and wisdom. The old proverb is, 'Eat cress to learn more wit.'

"There is another phase to food-superstitions, and that is the theory that the qualities of the eaten pass into the eater. Mr. Tylor refers to the habit of the Dyak young men in abstaining from deer-meat lest it should make them timid, while the warriors of some South American tribes eat the meat of tigers, stags, and boars for courage and speed. He mentions the story of an English gentleman at Shanghai who at the time of the Taeping attack met his Chinese servant carrying home the heart of a rebel, which he intended to eat to make him brave. There is a certain amount of truth in the theory that the quality of food does affect the mind and body. Buckle in his 'History of Civilization' took this view, and tried to prove that the character of a people depends on their diet."

Idiosyncrasies to Drugs.—In the absorption and the assimilation of drugs idiosyncrasies are often noted; in fact, they are so common that we can almost say that no one drug acts in the same degree or manner on different individuals. In some instances the untoward action assumes such a serious aspect as to render extreme caution necessary in the administration of the most inert substances. A medicine ordinarily so bland as cod-liver oil may give rise to disagreeable eruptions. Christison speaks of a boy ten years old who was said to have been killed by the ingestion of two ounces of Epsom salts without inducing purgation; yet this common purge is universally used without the slightest fear or caution. On the other hand, the extreme tolerance exhibited by certain individuals to certain drugs offers a new phase of this subject. There are well-authenticated cases on record in which death has been caused in children by the ingestion of a small fraction of a grain of opium. While exhibiting especial tolerance from peculiar disposition and long habit, Thomas De Quincey, the celebrated English litterateur, makes a statement in his "Confessions" that with impunity he took as much as 320 grains of opium a day, and was accustomed at one period of his life to call every day for "a glass of laudanum negus, warm, and without sugar," to use his own expression, after the manner a toper would call for a "hot-Scotch."

The individuality noted in the assimilation and the ingestion of drugs is functional as well as anatomic. Numerous cases have been seen by all physicians. The severe toxic symptoms from a whiff of cocain-spray, the acute distress from the tenth of a grain of morphin, the gastric crises and profuse urticarial eruptions following a single dose of quinin,—all are proofs of it. The "personal equation" is one of the most important factors in therapeutics, reminding us of the old rule, "Treat the patient, not the disease."

The idiosyncrasy may be either temporary or permanent, and there are many conditions that influence it. The time and place of administration; the degree of pathologic lesion in the subject; the difference in the physiologic capability of individual organs of similar nature in the same body; the degree of human vitality influencing absorption and resistance; the peculiar epochs of life; the element of habituation, and the grade and strength of the drug, influencing its virtue,—all have an important bearing on untoward action and tolerance of poisons.

It is not in the province of this work to discuss at length the explanations offered for these individual idiosyncrasies. Many authors have done so, and Lewin has devoted a whole volume to this subject, of which, fortunately, an English translation has been made by Mulheron, and to these the interested reader is referred for further information. In the following lines examples of idiosyncrasy to the most common remedial substances will be cited, taking the drugs up alphabetically.

Acids.—Ordinarily speaking, the effect of boric acid in medicinal doses on the human system is nil, an exceptionally large quantity causing diuresis. Binswanger, according to Lewin, took eight gm. in two doses within an hour, which was followed by nausea, vomiting, and a feeling of pressure and fulness of the stomach which continued several hours. Molodenkow mentions two fatal cases from the external employment of boric acid as an antiseptic. In one case the pleural cavity was washed out with a five per cent solution of boric acid and was followed by distressing symptoms, vomiting, weak pulse, erythema, and death on the third day. In the second case, in a youth of sixteen, death occurred after washing out a deep abscess of the nates with the same solution. The autopsy revealed no change or signs indicative of the cause of death. Hogner mentions two instances of death from the employment of 2 1/2 per cent solution of boric acid in washing out a dilated stomach The symptoms were quite similar to those mentioned by Molodenkow.

In recent years the medical profession has become well aware that in its application to wounds it is possible for carbolic acid or phenol to exercise exceedingly deleterious and even fatal consequences. In the earlier days of antisepsis, when operators and patients were exposed for some time to an atmosphere saturated with carbolic spray, toxic symptoms were occasionally noticed. Von Langenbeck spoke of severe carbolic-acid intoxication in a boy in whom carbolic paste had been used in the treatment of abscesses. The same author reports two instances of death following the employment of dry carbolized dressings after slight operations. Kohler mentions the death of a man suffering from scabies who had applied externally a solution containing about a half ounce of phenol. Rose spoke of gangrene of the finger after the application of carbolized cotton to a wound thereon. In some cases phenol acts with a rapidity equal to any poison. Taylor speaks of a man who fell unconscious ten seconds after an ounce of phenol had been ingested, and in three minutes was dead. There is recorded an account of a man of sixty-four who was killed by a solution containing slightly over a dram of phenol. A half ounce has frequently caused death; smaller quantities have been followed by distressing symptoms, such as intoxication (which Olshausen has noticed to follow irrigation of the uterus), delirium, singultus, nausea, rigors, cephalalgia, tinnitus aurium, and anasarca. Hind mentions recovery after the ingestion of nearly six ounces of crude phenol of 14 per cent strength. There was a case at the Liverpool Northern Hospital in which recovery took place after the ingestion with suicidal intent of four ounces of crude carbolic acid. Quoted by Lewin, Busch accurately describes a case which may be mentioned as characteristic of the symptoms of carbolism. A boy, suffering from abscess under the trochanter, was operated on for its relief. During the few minutes occupied by the operation he was kept under a two per cent carbolic spray, and the wound was afterward dressed with carbolic gauze. The day following the operation he was seized with vomiting, which was attributed to the chloroform used as an anesthetic. On the following morning the bandages were removed under the carbolic spray; during the day there was nausea, in the evening there was collapse, and carbolic acid was detected in the urine. The pulse became small and frequent and the temperature sank to 35.5 degrees C. The frequent vomiting made it impossible to administer remedies by the stomach, and, in spite of hypodermic injections and external application of analeptics, the boy died fifty hours after operation.

Recovery has followed the ingestion of an ounce of officinal hydrochloric acid. Black mentions a man of thirty-nine who recovered after swallowing 1 1/2 ounces of commercial hydrochloric acid. Johnson reports a case of poisoning from a dram of hydrochloric acid. Tracheotomy was performed, but death resulted.

Burman mentions recovery after the ingestion of a dram of dilute hydrocyanic acid of Scheele's strength (2.4 am. of the acid). In this instance insensibility did not ensue until two minutes after taking the poison, the retarded digestion being the means of saving life.

Quoting Taafe, in 1862 Taylor speaks of the case of a man who swallowed the greater part of a solution containing an ounce of potassium cyanid. In a few minutes the man was found insensible in the street, breathing stertorously, and in ten minutes after the ingestion of the drug the stomach-pump was applied. In two hours vomiting began, and thereafter recovery was rapid.

Mitscherlich speaks of erosion of the gums and tongue with hemorrhage at the slightest provocation, following the long administration of dilute nitric acid. This was possibly due to the local action.

According to Taylor, the smallest quantity of oxalic acid causing death is one dram. Ellis describes a woman of fifty who swallowed an ounce of oxalic acid in beer. In thirty minutes she complained of a burning pain in the stomach and was rolling about in agony. Chalk and water was immediately given to her and she recovered. Woodman reports recovery after taking 1/2 ounce of oxalic acid.

Salicylic acid in medicinal doses frequently causes untoward symptoms, such as dizziness, transient delirium, diminution of vision, headache, and profuse perspiration; petechial eruptions and intense gastric symptoms have also been noticed.

Sulphuric acid causes death from its corrosive action, and when taken in excessive quantities it produces great gastric disturbance; however, there are persons addicted to taking oil of vitriol without any apparent untoward effect. There is mentioned a boot-maker who constantly took 1/2 ounce of the strong acid in a tumbler of water, saying that it relieved his dyspepsia and kept his bowels open.

Antimony.—It is recorded that 3/4 grain of tartar emetic has caused death in a child and two grains in an adult. Falot reports three cases in which after small doses of tartar emetic there occurred vomiting, delirium, spasms, and such depression of vitality that only the energetic use of stimulants saved life. Beau mentions death following the administration of two doses of 1 1/2 gr. of tartar emetic. Preparations of antimony in an ointment applied locally have caused necrosis, particularly of the cranium, and Hebra has long since denounced the use of tartar emetic ointment in affections of the scalp. Carpenter mentions recovery after ingestion of two drams of tartar emetic. Behrends describes a case of catalepsy with mania, in which a dose of 40 gr. of tartar emetic was tolerated, and Morgagni speaks of a man who swallowed two drams, immediately vomited, and recovered. Instances like the last, in which an excessive amount of a poison by its sudden emetic action induces vomiting before there is absorption of a sufficient quantity to cause death, are sometimes noticed. McCreery mentions a case of accidental poisoning with half an ounce of tartar emetic successfully treated with green tea and tannin. Mason reports recovery after taking 80 gr. of tartar emetic.

Arsenic.—The sources of arsenical poisoning are so curious as to deserve mention. Confectionery, wall-paper, dyes, and the like are examples. In other cases we note money-counting, the colored candles of a Christmas tree, paper collars, ball-wreaths of artificial flowers, ball-dresses made of green tarlatan, playing cards, hat-lining, and fly-papers.

Bazin has reported a case in which erythematous pustules appeared after the exhibition during fifteen days of the 5/6 gr. of arsenic. Macnal speaks of an eruption similar to that of measles in a patient to whom he had given but three drops of Fowler's solution for the short period of three days. Pareira says that in a gouty patient for whom he prescribed 1/6 gr. of potassium arseniate daily, on the third day there appeared a bright red eruption of the face, neck, upper part of the trunk and flexor surfaces of the joints, and an edematous condition of the eyelids. The symptoms were preceded by restlessness, headache, and heat of the skin, and subsided gradually after the second or third day, desquamation continuing for nearly two months. After they had subsided entirely, the exhibition of arsenic again aroused them, and this time they were accompanied by salivation. Charcot and other French authors have noticed the frequent occurrence of suspension of the sexual instinct during the administration of Fowler's solution. Jackson speaks of recovery after the ingestion of two ounces of arsenic by the early employment of an emetic. Walsh reports a case in which 600 gr. of arsenic were taken without injury. The remarkable tolerance of arsenic eaters is well known. Taylor asserts that the smallest lethal dose of arsenic has been two gr., but Tardieu mentions an instance in which ten cgm. (1 1/2 gr.) has caused death. Mackenzie speaks of a man who swallowed a large quantity of arsenic in lumps, and received no treatment for sixteen hours, but recovered. It is added that from two masses passed by the anus 105 gr. of arsenic were obtained.

In speaking of the tolerance of belladonna, in 1859 Fuller mentioned a child of fourteen who in eighteen days took 37 grains of atropin; a child of ten who took seven grains of extract of belladonna daily, or more than two ounces in twenty-six days; and a man who took 64 grains of the extract of belladonna daily, and from whose urine enough atropin was extracted to kill two white mice and to narcotize two others. Bader has observed grave symptoms following the employment of a vaginal suppository containing three grains of the extract of belladonna. The dermal manifestations, such as urticaria and eruptions resembling the exanthem of scarlatina, are too well known to need mention here. An enema containing 80 grains of belladonna root has been followed in five hours by death, and Taylor has mentioned recovery after the ingestion of three drams of belladonna. In 1864 Chambers reported to the Lancet the recovery of a child of four years who took a solution containing 1/2 grain of the alkaloid. In some cases the idiosyncrasy to belladonna is so marked that violent symptoms follow the application of the ordinary belladonna plaster. Maddox describes a ease of poisoning in a music teacher by the belladonna plaster of a reputable maker. She had obscure eye-symptoms, and her color-sensations were abnormal. Locomotor equilibration was also affected. Golden mentions two cases in which the application of belladonna ointment to the breasts caused suppression of the secretion of milk. Goodwin relates the history of a case in which an infant was poisoned by a belladonna plaster applied to its mother's breast and died within twenty-four hours after the first application of the plaster. In 1881 Betancourt spoke of an instance of inherited susceptibility to belladonna, in which the external application of the ointment produced all the symptoms of belladonna poisoning. Cooper mentions the symptoms of poisoning following the application of extract of belladonna to the scrotum. Davison reports poisoning by the application of belladonna liniment. Jenner and Lyman also record belladonna poisoning from external applications.

Rosenthal reports a rare case of poisoning in a child eighteen months old who had swallowed about a teaspoonful of benzin. Fifteen minutes later the child became unconscious. The stomach-contents, which were promptly removed, contained flakes of bloody mucus. At the end of an hour the radial pulse was scarcely perceptible, respiration was somewhat increased in frequency and accompanied with a rasping sound. The breath smelt of benzin. The child lay in quiet narcosis, occasionally throwing itself about as if in pain. The pulse gradually improved, profuse perspiration occurred, and normal sleep intervened. Six hours after the poisoning the child was still stupefied. The urine was free from albumin and sugar, and the next morning the little one had perfectly recovered.

There is an instance mentioned of a robust youth of twenty who by a mistake took a half ounce of cantharides. He was almost immediately seized with violent heat in the throat and stomach, pain in the head, and intense burning on urination. These symptoms progressively increased, were followed by intense sickness and almost continual vomiting. In the evening he passed great quantities of blood from the urethra with excessive pain in the urinary tract. On the third day all the symptoms were less violent and the vomiting had ceased. Recovery was complete on the fifteenth day.

Digitalis has been frequently observed to produce dizziness, fainting, disturbances of vision, vomiting, diarrhea, weakness of the pulse, and depression of temperature. These phenomena, however, are generally noticed after continued administration in repeated doses, the result being doubtless due to cumulative action caused by abnormally slow elimination by the kidneys. Traube observed the presence of skin-affection after the use of digitalis in a case of pericarditis. Tardieu has seen a fluid-dram of the tincture of digitalis cause alarming symptoms in a young woman who was pregnant. He also quotes cases of death on the tenth day from ingestion of 20 grains of the extract, and on the fifth day from 21 grams of the infusion. Kohuhorn mentions a death from what might be called chronic digitalis poisoning.

There is a deleterious practice of some of the Irish peasantry connected with their belief in fairies, which consists of giving a cachetic or rachitic child large doses of a preparation of fox-glove (Irish—luss-more, or great herb), to drive out or kill the fairy in the child. It was supposed to kill an unhallowed child and cure a hallowed one. In the Hebrides, likewise, there were many cases of similar poisoning.

Epidemics of ergotism have been recorded from time to time since the days of Galen, and were due to poverty, wretchedness, and famine, resulting in the feeding upon ergotized bread. According to Wood, gangrenous ergotism, or "Ignis Sacer" of the Middle Ages, killed 40,000 persons in Southwestern France in 922 A. D., and in 1128-29, in Paris alone, 14,000 persons perished from this malady. It is described as commencing with itchings and formications in the feet, severe pain in the back, contractions in the muscles, nausea, giddiness, apathy, with abortion in pregnant women, in suckling women drying of milk, and in maidens with amenorrhea. After some time, deep, heavy aching in the limbs, intense feeling of coldness, with real coldness of the surfaces, profound apathy, and a sense of utter weariness develop; then a dark spot appears on the nose or one of the extremities, all sensibility is lost in the affected part, the skin assumes a livid red hue, and adynamic symptoms in severe cases deepen as the gangrene spreads, until finally death ensues. Very generally the appetite and digestion are preserved to the last, and not rarely there is a most ferocious hunger. Wood also mentions a species of ergotism characterized by epileptic paroxysms, which he calls "spasmodic ergotism." Prentiss mentions a brunette of forty-two, under the influence of ergot, who exhibited a peculiar depression of spirits with hysteric phenomena, although deriving much benefit from the administration of the drug from the hemorrhage caused by uterine fibroids. After taking ergot for three days she felt like crying all the time, became irritable, and stayed in bed, being all day in tears. The natural disposition of the patient was entirely opposed to these manifestations, as she was even-tempered and exceptionally pleasant.

In addition to the instance of the fatal ingestion of a dose of Epsom salts already quoted, Lang mentions a woman of thirty-five who took four ounces of this purge. She experienced burning pain in the stomach and bowels, together with a sense of asphyxiation. There was no purging or vomiting, but she became paralyzed and entered a state of coma, dying fifteen minutes after ingestion.

Iodin Preparations.—The eruptions following the administration of small doses of potassium iodid are frequently noticed, and at the same time large quantities of albumin have been seen in the urine. Potassium iodid, although generally spoken of as a poisonous drug, by gradually increasing the dose can be given in such enormous quantities as to be almost beyond the bounds of credence, several drams being given at a dose. On the other hand, eight grains have produced alarming symptoms. In the extensive use of iodoform as a dressing instances of untoward effects, and even fatal ones, have been noticed, the majority of them being due to careless and injudicious application. In a French journal there is mentioned the history of a man of twenty-five, suspected of urethral ulceration, who submitted to the local application of one gram of iodoform. Deep narcosis and anesthesia were induced, and two hours after awakening his breath smelled strongly of iodoform. There are two similar instances recorded in England.

Pope mentions two fatal cases of lead-poisoning from diachylon plaster, self-administered for the purpose of producing abortion. Lead water-pipes, the use of cosmetics and hair-dyes, coloring matter in confectionery and in pastry, habitual biting of silk threads, imperfectly burnt pottery, and cooking bread with painted wood have been mentioned as causes of chronic lead-poisoning.

Mercury.—Armstrong mentions recovery after ingestion of 1 1/2 drams of corrosive sublimate, and Lodge speaks of recovery after a dose containing 100 grains of the salt. It is said that a man swallowed 80 grains of mercuric chlorid in whiskey and water, and vomited violently about ten minutes afterward. A mixture of albumin and milk was given to him, and in about twenty-five minutes a bolus of gold-leaf and reduced iron; in eight days he perfectly recovered. Severe and even fatal poisoning may result from the external application of mercury. Meeres mentions a case in which a solution (two grains to the fluid-ounce) applied to the head of a child of nine for the relief of tinea tonsurans caused diarrhea, profuse salivation, marked prostration, and finally death. Washing out the vagina with a solution of corrosive sublimate, 1:2000, has caused severe and even fatal poisoning. Bonet mentions death after the inunction of a mercurial ointment, and instances of distressing salivation from such medication are quite common. There are various dermal affections which sometimes follow the exhibition of mercury and assume an erythematous type. The susceptibility of some persons to calomel, the slightest dose causing profuse salivation and painful oral symptoms, is so common that few physicians administer mercury to their patients without some knowledge of their susceptibility to this drug. Blundel relates a curious case occurring in the times when mercury was given in great quantities, in which to relieve obstinate constipation a half ounce of crude mercury was administered and repeated in twelve hours. Scores of globules of mercury soon appeared over a vesicated surface, the result of a previous blister applied to the epigastric region. Blundel, not satisfied with the actuality of the phenomena, submitted his case to Dr. Lister, who, after careful examination, pronounced the globules metallic.

Oils.—Mauvezin tells of the ingestion of three drams of croton oil by a child of six, followed by vomiting and rapid recovery. There was no diarrhea in this case. Wood quotes Cowan in mentioning the case of a child of four, who in two days recovered from a teaspoonful of croton oil taken on a full stomach. Adams saw recovery in an adult after ingestion of the same amount. There is recorded an instance of a woman who took about an ounce, and, emesis being produced three-quarters of an hour afterward by mustard, she finally recovered. There is a record in which so small a dose as three minims is supposed to have killed a child of thirteen months. According to Wood, Giacomini mentions a case in which 24 grains of the drug proved fatal in as many hours.

Castor oil is usually considered a harmless drug, but the castor bean, from which it is derived, contains a poisonous acrid principle, three such beans having sufficed to produce death in a man. Doubtless some of the instances in which castor oil has produced symptoms similar to cholera are the results of the administration of contaminated oil.

The untoward effects of opium and its derivatives are quite numerous Gaubius treated an old woman in whom, after three days, a single grain of opium produced a general desquamation of the epidermis; this peculiarity was not accidental, as it was verified on several other occasions. Hargens speaks of a woman in whom the slightest bit of opium in any form produced considerable salivation. Gastric disturbances are quite common, severe vomiting being produced by minimum doses; not infrequently, intense mental confusion, vertigo, and headache, lasting hours and even days, sometimes referable to the frontal region and sometimes to the occipital, are seen in certain nervous individuals after a dose of from 1/4 to 5/6 gr. of opium. These symptoms were familiar to the ancient physicians, and, according to Lewin, Tralles reports an observation with reference to this in a man, and says regarding it in rather unclassical Latin: "... per multos dies ponderosissimum caput circumgestasse." Convulsions are said to be observed after medicinal doses of opium. Albers states that twitching in the tendons tremors of the hands, and even paralysis, have been noticed after the ingestion of opium in even ordinary doses. The "pruritus opii," so familiar to physicians, is spoken of in the older writings. Dioscorides, Paulus Aegineta, and nearly all the writers of the last century describe this symptom as an annoying and unbearable affection. In some instances the ingestion of opium provokes an eruption in the form of small, isolated red spots, which, in their general character, resemble roseola. Rieken remarks that when these spots spread over all the body they present a scarlatiniform appearance, and he adds that even the mucous membranes of the mouth and throat may be attacked with erethematous inflammation. Behrend observed an opium exanthem, which was attended by intolerable itching, after the exhibition of a quarter of a grain. It was seen on the chest, on the inner surfaces of the arms, on the flexor surfaces of the forearms and wrists, on the thighs, and posterior and inner surfaces of the legs, terminating at the ankles in a stripe-like discoloration about the breadth of three fingers. It consisted of closely disposed papules of the size of a pin-head, and several days after the disappearance of the eruption a fine, bran-like desquamation of the epidermis ensued. Brand has also seen an eruption on the trunk and flexor surfaces, accompanied with fever, from the ingestion of opium. Billroth mentions the case of a lady in whom appeared a feeling of anxiety, nausea, and vomiting after ingestion of a small fraction of a grain of opium; she would rather endure her intense pain than suffer the untoward action of the drug. According to Lewin, Brochin reported a case in which the idiosyncrasy to morphin was so great that 1/25 of a grain of the drug administered hypodermically caused irregularity of the respiration, suspension of the heart-beat, and profound narcosis. According to the same authority, Wernich has called attention to paresthesia of the sense of taste after the employment of morphin, which, according to his observation, is particularly prone to supervene in patients who are much reduced and in persons otherwise healthy who have suffered from prolonged inanition. These effects are probably due to a central excitation of a similar nature to that produced by santonin. Persons thus attacked complain, shortly after the injection, of an intensely sour or bitter taste, which for the most part ceases after elimination of the morphin. Von Graefe and Sommerfrodt speak of a spasm of accommodation occurring after ingestion of medicinal doses of morphin. There are several cases on record in which death has been produced in an adult by the use of 1/2 to 1/6 grain of morphin. According to Wood, the maximum doses from which recovery has occurred without emesis are 55 grains of solid opium, and six ounces of laudanum. According to the same authority, in 1854 there was a case in which a babe one day old was killed by one minim of laudanum, and in another case a few drops of paregoric proved fatal to a child of nine months. Doubtful instances of death from opium are given, one in an adult female after 30 grains of Dover's powder given in divided doses, and another after a dose of 1/4 grain of morphin. Yavorski cites a rather remarkable instance of morphin-poisoning with recovery: a female took 30 grains of acetate of morphin, and as it did not act quickly enough she took an additional dose of 1/2 ounce of laudanum. After this she slept a few hours, and awoke complaining of being ill. Yavorski saw her about an hour later, and by producing emesis, and giving coffee, atropin, and tincture of musk, he saved her life. Pyle describes a pugilist of twenty-two who, in a fit of despondency after a debauch (in which he had taken repeated doses of morphin sulphate), took with suicidal intent three teaspoonfuls of morphin; after rigorous treatment he revived and was discharged on the next day perfectly well. Potassium permanganate was used in this case. Chaffee speaks of recovery after the ingestion of 18 grains of morphin without vomiting.

In chronic opium eating the amount of this drug which can be ingested with safety assumes astounding proportions. In his "Confessions" De Quincey remarks: "Strange as it may sound, I had a little before this time descended suddenly and without considerable effort from 320 grains of opium (8000 drops of laudanum) per day to 40 grains, or 1/8 part. Instantaneously, and as if by magic, the cloud of profoundest melancholy which rested on my brain, like some black vapors that I have seen roll away from the summits of the mountains, drew off in one day,—passed off with its murky banners as simultaneously as a ship that has been stranded and is floated off by a spring-tide—

'That moveth altogether if it move at all.'

Now, then, I was again happy; I took only a thousand drops of Laudanum per day, and what was that? A latter spring had come to close up the season of youth; my brain performed its functions as healthily as ever before; I read Kant again, and again I understood him, or fancied that I did." There have been many authors who, in condemning De Quincey for unjustly throwing about the opium habit a halo of literary beauty which has tempted many to destruction, absolutely deny the truth of his statements. No one has any stable reason on which to found denial of De Quincey's statements as to the magnitude of the doses he was able to take; and his frankness and truthfulness is equal to that of any of his detractors. William Rosse Cobbe, in a volume entitled "Dr. Judas, or Portrayal of the Opium Habit," gives with great frankness of confession and considerable purity of diction a record of his own experiences with the drug. One entire chapter of Mr. Cobb's book and several portions of other chapters are devoted to showing that De Quincey was wrong in some of his statements, but notwithstanding his criticism of De Quincey, Mr. Cobbe seems to have experienced the same adventures in his dreams, showing, after all, that De Quincey knew the effects of opium even if he seemed to idealize it. According to Mr. Cobbe, there are in the United States upward of two millions of victims of enslaving drugs entirely exclusive of alcohol. Cobbe mentions several instances in which De Quincey's dose of 320 grains of opium daily has been surpassed. One man, a resident of Southern Illinois, consumed 1072 grains a day; another in the same State contented himself with 1685 grains daily; and still another is given whose daily consumption amounted to 2345 grains per day. In all cases of laudanum-takers it is probable that analysis of the commercial laudanum taken would show the amount of opium to be greatly below that of the official proportion, and little faith can be put in the records of large amounts of opium taken when the deduction has been made from the laudanum used. Dealers soon begin to know opium victims, and find them ready dupes for adulteration. According to Lewin, Samter mentions a case of morphin-habit which was continued for three years, during which, in a period of about three, hundred and twenty-three days, upward of 2 1/2 ounces of morphin was taken daily. According to the same authority, Eder reports still larger doses. In the case observed by him the patient took laudanum for six years in increasing doses up to one ounce per day; for eighteen months, pure opium, commencing with 15 grains and increasing to 2 1/4 drams daily; and for eighteen months morphin, in commencing quantities of six grains, which were later increased to 40 grains a day. When deprived of their accustomed dose of morphin the sufferings which these patients experience are terrific, and they pursue all sorts of deceptions to enable them to get their enslaving drug. Patients have been known to conceal tubes in their mouths, and even swallow them, and the authors know of a fatal instance in which a tube of hypodermic tablets of the drug was found concealed in the rectum.

The administration of such an inert substance as the infusion of orange-peel has been sufficient to invariably produce nervous excitement in a patient afflicted with carcinoma.

Sonnenschein refers to a case of an infant of five weeks who died from the effects of one phosphorous match head containing only 1/100 grain of phosphorus. There are certain people who by reason of a special susceptibility cannot tolerate phosphorus, and the exhibition of it causes in them nausea, oppression, and a feeling of pain in the epigastric region, tormina and tenesmus, accompanied with diarrhea, and in rare cases jaundice, sometimes lasting several months. In such persons 1/30 grain is capable of causing the foregoing symptoms. In 1882 a man was admitted to Guy's Hospital, London, after he had taken half of a sixpenny pot of phosphorous paste in whiskey, and was subsequently discharged completely recovered.

A peculiar feature of phosphorus-poisoning is necrosis of the jaw. This affection was first noticed in 1838, soon after the introduction of the manufacture of phosphorous matches. In late years, owing to the introduction of precautions in their manufacture, the disease has become much less common. The tipping of the match sticks is accomplished by dipping their ends in a warm solution of a composition of phosphorus, chlorate of potassium, with particles of ground flint to assist friction, some coloring agent, and Irish glue. From the contents of the dipping-pans fumes constantly arise into the faces of the workmen and dippers, and in cutting the sticks and packing the matches the hands are constantly in contact with phosphorus. The region chiefly affected in this poisoning is the jaw-bone, but the inflammation may spread to the adjoining bones and involve the vomer, the zygoma, the body of the spheroid bone, and the basilar process of the occipital bone. It is supposed that conditions in which the periosteum is exposed are favorable to the progress of the disease, and, according to Hirt, workmen with diseased teeth are affected three times as readily as those with healthy teeth, and are therefore carefully excluded from some of the factories in America.

Prentiss of Washington, D.C., in 1881 reported a remarkable case of pilocarpin idiosyncrasy in a blonde of twenty-five. He was consulted by the patient for constipation. Later on symptoms of cystitis developed, and an ultimate diagnosis of pyelitis of the right kidney was made. Uremic symptoms were avoided by the constant use of pilocarpin. Between December 16, 1880, and February 22, 1881, the patient had 22 sweats from pilocarpin. The action usually lasted from two to six hours, and quite a large dose was at length necessary. The idiosyncrasy noted was found in the hair, which at first was quite light, afterward chestnut-brown, and May 1, 1881, almost pure black. The growth of the hair became more vigorous and thicker than formerly, and as its color darkened it became coarser in proportion. In March, 1889, Prentiss saw his patient, and at that time her hair was dark brown, having returned to that color from black. Prentiss also reported the following case a as adding another to the evidence that jaborandi will produce the effect mentioned under favorable circumstances: Mrs. L., aged seventy-two years, was suffering from Bright's disease (contracted kidney). Her hair and eyebrows had been snow-white for twenty years. She suffered greatly from itching of the skin, due to the uremia of the kidney-disease; the skin was harsh and dry. For this symptom fluid extract of jaborandi was prescribed with the effect of relieving the itching. It was taken in doses of 20 or 30 drops several times a day, from October, 1886, to February, 1888. During the fall of 1887 it was noticed by the nurse that the eyebrows were growing darker, and that the hair of the head was darker in patches. These patches and the eyebrows continued to become darker, until at the time of her death they were quite black, the black tufts on the head presenting a very curious appearance among the silver-white hairs surrounding them.

Quinin being such a universally used drug, numerous instances of idiosyncrasy and intolerance have been recorded. Chevalier mentions that through contact of the drug workmen in the manufacture of quinin are liable to an affection of the skin which manifests itself in a vesicular, papular, or pustular eruption on different parts of the body. Vepan mentions a lady who took 1 1/2 grains and afterward 2 1/2 grains of quinin for neuralgia, and two days afterward her body was covered with purpuric spots, which disappeared in the course of nine days but reappeared after the administration of the drug was resumed. Lewin says that in this case the severity of the eruption was in accordance with the size of the dose, and during its existence there was bleeding at the gums; he adds that Gouchet also noticed an eruption of this kind in a lady who after taking quinin expectorated blood. The petechiae were profusely spread over the entire body, and they disappeared after the suspension of the drug. Dauboeuf, Garraway, Hemming, Skinner, and Cobner mention roseola and scarlatiniform erythema after minute doses of quinin. In nearly all these cases the accompanying symptoms were different. Heusinger speaks of a lady who, after taking 1/2 grain of quinin, experienced headache, nausea, intense burning, and edema, together with nodular erythema on the eyelids, cheeks, and portion of the forehead. At another time 1 1/2 grains of the drug gave rise to herpetic vesicles on the cheeks, followed by branny desquamation on elimination of the drug. In other patients intense itching is experienced after the ingestion of quinin. Peters cites an instance of a woman of sixty-five who, after taking one grain of quinin, invariably exhibited after an hour a temperature of from 104 degrees to 105 degrees F., accelerated pulse, rigors, slight delirium, thirst, and all the appearances of ill-defined fever, which would pass off in from twelve to twenty-four hours. Peters witnessed this idiosyncrasy several times and believed it to be permanent. The most unpleasant of the untoward symptoms of quinin exhibition are the disturbances of the organs of special sense. Photophobia, and even transient amblyopia, have been observed to follow small doses. In the examination of cases of the untoward effects of quinin upon the eye, Knapp of New York found the power of sight diminished in various degrees, and rarely amaurosis and immobility of the pupils. According to Lewin, the perceptions of color and light are always diminished, and although the disorder may last for some time the prognosis is favorable. The varieties of the disturbances of the functions of the ear range from tinnitus aurium to congestion causing complete deafness. The gastro-intestinal and genito-urinary tracts are especially disposed to untoward action by quinin. There is a case recorded in which, after the slightest dose of quinin, tingling and burning at the meatus urinarius were experienced. According to Lewin, there is mentioned in the case reported by Gauchet a symptom quite unique in the literature of quinin, viz., hemoptysis. Simon de Ronchard first noted the occurrence of several cases of hemoptysis following the administration of doses of eight grains daily. In the persons thus attacked the lungs and heart were healthy. Hemoptysis promptly ceased with the suspension of the drug. When it was renewed, blood again appeared in the sputa. Taussig mentions a curious mistake, in which an ounce of quinin sulphate was administered to a patient at one dose; the only symptoms noticed were a stuporous condition and complete deafness. No antidote was given, and the patient perfectly recovered in a week. In malarious countries, and particularly in the malarial fevers of the late war, enormous quantities of quinin were frequently given. In fact, at the present day in some parts of the South quinin is constantly kept on the table as a prophylactic constituent of the diet.

Skinner noticed the occurrence of a scarlatiniform eruption in a woman after the dose of 1/165 grain of strychnin, which, however, disappeared with the discontinuance of the drug. There was a man in London in 1865 who died in twenty minute's after the ingestion of 1/2 grain of strychnin. Wood speaks of a case in which the administration of 1/100 grain killed a child three and one-half months old. Gray speaks of a man who took 22 grains and was not seen for about an hour. He had vomited some of it immediately after taking the dose, and was successfully treated with chloral hydrate. A curious case is mentioned in which three mustard plasters, one on the throat, one on the back of the neck, and another on the left shoulder of a woman, produced symptoms similar to strychnin poisoning. They remained in position for about thirty minutes, and about thirty hours afterward a painful stinging sensation commenced in the back of the neck, followed by violent twitching of the muscles of the face, arms, and legs, which continued in regular succession through the whole of the night, but after twelve hours yielded to hot fomentations of poppy-heads applied to the back of the neck. It could not be ascertained whether any medicine containing strychnin had been taken, but surely, from the symptoms, such must have been the case.

Tobacco.—O'Neill a gives the history of a farmer's wife, aged forty, who wounded her leg against a sewing-machine, and by lay advice applied a handful of chopped wet tobacco to it, from which procedure, strange to say, serious nicotin-poisoning ensued. The pupils were dilated, there were dimness of vision, confusion of thought, and extreme prostration. The pulse was scarcely apparent, the skin was white and wet with clammy perspiration. Happily, strychnin was given in time to effect recovery, and without early medical assistance she would undoubtedly have succumbed. There are several similar cases on record.

Although not immediately related to the subject of idiosyncrasy, the following case may be mentioned here: Ramadge speaks of a young Frenchman, suffering from an obstinate case of gonorrhea, who was said to have been completely cured by living in a newly painted house in which he inhaled the odors or vapors of turpentine.

White speaks of a case of exanthematous eruption similar to that of ivy-poison in mother and child, which was apparently caused by playing with and burning the toy called "Pharaoh's serpent egg."

The idiosyncrasies noticed in some persons during coitus are quite interesting. The Ephemerides mentions a person in whom coitus habitually caused vomiting, and another in whom excessive sexual indulgence provoked singultus. Sometimes exaggerated tremors or convulsions, particularly at the moment of orgasm, are noticed. Females especially are subject to this phenomenon, and it is seen sometimes in birds.

Winn reports the case of a man who, when prompted to indulge in sexual intercourse, was immediately prior to the act seized with a fit of sneezing. Even the thought of sexual pleasure with a female was sufficient to provoke this peculiar idiosyncrasy.

Sullivan mentions a bride of four weeks, who called at the doctor's office, saying that in coitus her partner had no difficulty until the point of culmination or orgasm, when he was seized with complete numbness and lost all pleasurable sensation in the penis. The numbness was followed by a sensation of pain, which was intensified on the slightest motion, and which was at times so excruciating as to forbid separation for upward of an hour, or until the penis had become flaccid. The woman asked for advice for her unfortunate husband's relief, and the case was reported as a means of obtaining suggestions from the physicians over the country. In response, one theory was advanced that this man had been in the habit of masturbating and had a stricture of the membranous portion of the urethra, associated with an ulcer of the prostate involving the ejaculatory ducts, or an inflammatory condition of all the tissues compressed by the ejaculatory muscles.

Hendrichsen quotes a case in which a spasmodic contraction of the levator ani occurred during coitus, and the penis could not be withdrawn while this condition lasted; and in support of this circumstance Hendrichsen mentions that Marion Sims, Beigel, and Budin describe spasmodic contractions of the levator and, constricting the vagina; he also cites an instance under his personal observation in which this spasm was excited by both vaginal and rectal examination, although on the following day no such condition could be produced. In this connection, among the older writers, Borellus gives the history of a man who before coitus rubbed his virile member with musk, and, similar to the connection of a dog and bitch, was held fast in his wife's vagina; it was only after the injection of great quantities of water to soften the parts that separation was obtained. Diemerbroeck confirms this singular property of musk by an analogous observation, in which the ludicrous method of throwing cold water on the persons was practised. Schurig also relates the history of a similar instance.