STRAFFORD DISTRICT MEDICAL SOCIETY.

The forty-third Anniversary of this Society was held at the American House, in Dover, January 22, 1851. The following officers were elected for the ensuing year:

After the annual address by the President, dissertations were read by Dr. Tyler, of Rollinsford, upon certain chronic diseases of females, and their resistance to remedies; by Dr. Folsom, of Dover, upon quackery and its abettors; and by Dr. Fernald, of Barrington, upon old and new remedies.

These papers contained much interesting and valuable information, for which the society gave the following expression :

Resolved, That the thanks of this society be presented to the dissertators for the learned, instructive and eloquent papers just read, and that the same be requested for deposit in the archives of the society, and for publication, if the society so direct.

Dr. Pike, of Rollinsford, introduced the following preamble and resolutions, which were unanimously adopted:

Whereas, since our last annual meeting, our society has been deprived by death of one of its youngest members, who bid fair to become useful in the profession, therefore,

Resolved, That we deeply sympathize with the widow and friends of the late Dr. George W. Woodhouse, feeling that our society has lost a virtuous and useful member; one who was ambitious to excel in his profession, and, had he lived, would have commanded the confidence and respect of the community at large.

Resolved, That the Secretary send a copy of this preamble and resolution to Mrs. Woodhouse, and that the same be entered on the records.

The meeting was fully attended, and several cases of a very interesting nature were reported and discussed.

The following gentlemen were appointed delegates to the American Medical Association, at its next meeting in Charleston:

Drs. J. C. Hanson, J. E. Tyler, T. J. W. Pray, and J. Horne.

As your Journal is more especially devoted to the interests of the country members of the profession, I wish through its columns to inquire what measures we can adopt, to secure us from the impositions practiced by the dealers in drugs, in their frequent adulteration, both by substituting some foreign article in place of the one ordered, and also by supplying those that are impure, or damaged by keeping, or that have had their active properties extracted. This sophistication is by no means confined to the manufacturer, or to the city dealer; and too many of those who dabble with drugs in the country, not only do not themselves know the pure from the worthless article, but some of them do not seem to be aware that important changes in the power and action of drugs are often the result of chemical changes and combinations. I notice that in the cities the apothecaries are becoming aware that they are liable for the injurious results of their want of knowledge or want of honesty; and perhaps if some of the country dealers in drugs could have the advantage of a few months' uninterrupted reflection within the quiet rooms of the Penitentiary, it would be altogether for the improvement of their morals, and the interest of both the physicians and their patients.

Some time since, I ordered some of the Biniodide of Mercury, and, to insure a pure article, I referred to its description both in Pereira's Materia Medica and Therapeutics, and also in the United States Dispensatory, giving the page in each on which it is mentioned. I received in return some Red Precipitate! Again: I ordered the Ferro.-cyanate of Iron-(carefully separating the first part of the name, as above,) which is a mild medi

cine, comparatively, and the dealer gave the Cyanuret of Potassium, a deadly poison, if taken in doses approaching the size of those directed for the ferrocyanate of iron. Luckily, the patient knew more of the article than the enlightened apothecary(?) and refused to make use of the salt until she had first submitted it to me for approval. At another time, the Serpentaria (Virginia Snakeroot) was sold in place of the Spigelia Marilandica, doubtless on the supposition that if it came from the adjoining State it must possess similar virtues. But a few days since, wishing to prepare some Seidlitz powders, I sent to the same shop where the above articles were procured, for the Rochelle salt, (Soda et Potassæ Tartras,) and in return received a homogeneous mass of a light gray color, and apparently a mixture of several different substances. I did not retain it long, and cannot tell what it was, but it was not what I wanted, and of course I next day procured some that was genuine. Usually I choose to test my chemicals, but it is oftentimes quite inconvenient to do so, and it is not every physician who practises in the country, who possesses the necessary apparatus. Long since I lost all confidence in the vegetable extracts of the shops, however much confidence I had in the dealer, and acquired the habit of preparing for myself most of those I use. By obtaining the herb or the root in the natural state, and devoting a little time, I have a syrup, infusion, or extract that does not disappoint me; and, by a little observation I am become fully satisfied that we possess many indigenous plants that may well take the place of those obtained from abroad.

The above is but a faint sketch of the inconvenience we labor under, and if it but leads to an examination of the subject, and the adoption of remedial measures, my object will have been accomplished. If necessary, many particulars might be specified which I prefer to let slumber in oblivion.

Your letter of March 28th found me in an agony of suffering, from an attack of acute rheumatism, which made its aggression two days prior to the date of your letter, upon my right elbow joint, and three of the lower dorsal vertebræ; this being the third attack I have had since 1842. I formerly took the usual remedies; the first time was bled, took calomel

and opium, &c.; the second an emetic, then colchicum, and was confined from four to six weeks. For my recent attack I took, in the evening of March 27th, 10 grs. of calomel, which was followed in the morning with oil, by which I got several highly bilious dejections, without improving the inflammation of the joints or the pain in the least. While sipping lemonade for a troublesome nausea, I recollected reading the remarks of Drs. G. O. Rees, Babington, and others, on the value of lemon juice in the treatment of rheumatism, by whom you know it is highly extolled, and at once determined to give it a trial. Accordingly, I took the first dose in the morning of the 29th, under the following circumstances: White coated tongue, headache, sickness, pulse not remarkably frequent, but had that peculiar distinctness almost always to be met with in cases of acute rheumatism, so much so as to be felt and seen in many of the arteries of the fingers; elbow a little less painful, but the right wrist, back, and the second joint of my right great toe were most exquisitely tender, painful, and somewhat swollen and red. A fair case, you see, for testing the value of any treatment. As I have said, I took the first dose, oz., in the morning of the 29th, after an almost sleepless night, and it relieved the nausea and headache. In six hours I took one ounce, which very soon changed the force and frequency of my pulse, completely removing all nausea and pain. In the evening, through mistake, I got a glass of lemonade instead of the proper dose, and in an hour or two the pain began to return, pulse increased. At nine in the evening the mistake was discovered, the proper dose taken, and after passing a comfortable night, I awoke in the morning in a perfect Elysium; pain all gone and soreness of the joints much improved. I continued to take one ounce of the lemon juice once in six hours three days only, and no other medicine except one dose of castor oil, April 2d, and am now able, ten days from the date of the first dose of lemon juice, to go out to my office, and could ride if it were necessary.

I am aware that it is fallacious to conclude that the result of one case can safely be taken as a criterion by which to judge of, or treat any disease, especially one so capricious in its nature as rheumatism; but my case affords a notable example of cure; an unusual rapidity and early relief from pain, such as I have seldom or never witnessed in any case of this, to my mind, worst of all diseases. I confess I am utterly ignorant of the modus operandi of lemon juice on the human system, whether or not it acts by eliminating morbid matter by the kidneys, as Dr. Rees tells us, seconded by Golding Bird, who maintains that by giving citrate of potash, lemon juice, or carbonate of soda, we remove at once from the blood, by the kidneys, a materies morbi, by increasing the blood's alkalinity, I cannot tell. These are matters too philosophical for my pen, so I must be content to give the medicine a fair trial, and judge from the results of observation.

Meredith Bridge, April 8, 1851.

Yours,

GEO. W. GARLAND.

[During the last two months, acute rheumatism has been somewhat prevalent in our vicinity, but we have not resorted to the use of lemon juice, because, where exposure has been properly guarded against, we have had good success with the use of the wine of colchicum combined with morphia, the bowels being at first properly evacuated. When the acute pain has disappeared under this treatment, and it has usually been in two or three days, we have given full doses of the iodide of potassium three or four times a day, which rapidly removes the soreness and swelling of the joints; and we continue its use in diminished quantities for two or three days after these have almost entirely disappeared. In one case we met with a curious accident. The patient had so much improved that in the morning we ordered the usual doses of iodide of potassium. In the evening we received a message to visit her again, for she was suffering intensely. We found her covered from head to foot with the wheals of Urticaria. Although aware that some authors, Wood among others, consider this to be occasionally one of the protean forms of rheumatism, we are inclined to think that in this case it was owing to the medicine. After a mild purgative it disappeared, but on giving another dose of the iodide two days afterward, it again broke out. We could not persuade the patient to submit to another trial. We should be glad to learn from members of the profession in different parts of the State what is their usual treatment of this disease.-Ed.]

“MYSTERIOUS KNOCKINGS.”

[For the N. H. Journal of Medicine.]

Mr. Editor:

I fully coincide with the remarks and the quotations in the last number of your Journal in regard to the so called "Spiritual Knockings," and the duty of physicians respecting such impostures. Medical men, certainly, possess qualifications for detecting the sources of such phenomena which no other class of men do; and in view of the sad consequences of a belief in spiritual communications thus made, in unhinging the mind, even to the production of insanity, and begetting a disbelief in revelation, it is the duty of every physician to let his influence against this delusion be felt so far as he may.

Drs. Lee, Flint and Coventry have done the community great service in merely establishing the fact that sounds apparently identical with those attending the presence of the Rochester ladies-Mrs. Fish and Miss Fox, her sister-can be produced by certain motions of the knee and several other joints, by different persons. And it would seem that even the most infatu