ned the subject with more precision. About the year 1781 Dr. Joseph Flores, a Spanish physician in South America, and a member of the university of Guatimala, published a memoir at that place, and again at Madrid in 1782, in which he asserts that a specific for Cancer had been discovered in the kingdom of Guatimala. This specific was a kind of Lizard, called by the inhabitants Lagartija. The Indians, or aborigines of the province, were the physicians who used this remedy. Their method of cure consisted in making the pa tient eat, during three days, or longer if the virulence of the cancer required, the Lagartija prepared in the following manner. The head and tail of the reptile were cut off, the skin and entrails separated from the body, which was then eaten raw and while quivering with life. But it does not appear to be essential to give the remedy in this disgusting form*. The animal being prepared in the manner before stated, may be made into pills. Each Lagartija will form two pills about the size of musket balls, which are taken daily. The mode in which this remedy operates is as singular as the remedy itself. The excretions of sweat and urine are much increased, and ptyalism is excited, the saliva discharged being thick and yellow. When neither diaphoresis nor salivation occur, the defect is supplied by an ample excretion of acrid and fetid urine. When the memoir by Dr. Flores appeared in Europe it made a very general impression. The Royal Society of Medicine at Paris directed M. Carrere, to examine it, and his report on the subject appeared in the 4th volume of the Histoire de la Société Royale de Medecine, with the title of Rapports sur les Virtues medicale des Lézards du Royaume de Guatimala. To this is joined another Report by Messrs. D'Aubenton and Mauduyt, on the same subject. The Spanish physicians of Europe substituted the Lizard of Spain for the Lagartija of Guatimala, and it was said considerable advantages had been derived from its employment. Upon this it was that the Count de Vergennes procured a

* In the St Cristopher's gazette, about 1782 or 3, it was stated that in the Leeward Islands the wood Lizard was used as a remedy for Cancer, syphilitic eruptions, &c. The Lizard is directed to be taken almost alive, the legs, tail, and head cut off, the bowels taken out, and the skin removed; or, after being thus prepared, the body being minced small, may be made into pills. These pills are given fasting, every morning about sun rise, keeping within for two or three hours after. This medicine is stated to operate by, salivation, sweat, and urine, and is reported to have effected astonishing cures. The pills taken for a dose though not specified, may be conjectured to be those made from the body of one Lizard.

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number of Spanish Lizards to be brought into France, and distributed to the academicians who had furnished the preceding Peports. From the succeeding silence on the subject and the gradual subsidence of this mode of attacking Can-, cer, it is obvious that the remedy did not succeed with them. In Italy and Germany this new remedy did not escape the notice of medical practitioners. Dr. Flores had asserted in very positive language, that the Lizard cured cancer, syphilis, bydrophobia, and all the varieties of cutaneous disease. Fillipo Baldini, physician to the Sicilian Court, in "Observazione sul' uso Medico de Rammari" coincides with Dr. Flores in recommending the Lizard in all these formidable diseases. And another Italian physician Sig. Bassiani Carminate, (in Opuscula Therapeutica) though he does not go so far as Baldini, speaks in decided terms of its extraordinary efficacy in Scrophula. In Germany similar opinions prevailed, and Dr. Roëmer in 1788 strongly recommended the use of the green Lizard : about the same time I. P. Grass published at Helmstadt a Thesis de Lacertæ agili Linnei. It is not a little remarkable, however, that during all this period, from 1781 to 1788, it was not distinctly known what species of the genus Lacerta it was that possessed these extraordinary medicinal properties, or what affinity the Lagartija of Guatimala held with the Lizard of Spain, France and Italy. But it has since been ascertained that the Lagartija, the Lizard gres, the Lacerta terrestris, the Langrola, and the wood Lizard, are the same with the Lacerta agilis.* From the period here mentioned, to the time of Dr. Gourlay's publication, the medical use of the genus Lacerta was overlooked, if not forgotten. His observations are so pointed, and his assertions so direct, that it will, probably, again be brought into notice; and the use of the Lacerta may now be either established or finally rejected.

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No article of the Materia Medica has occasioned more enquiry than Mercury. In its crude state, quicksilver was once the subject of a keen controversy in this country. Its advocates pronounced it to be an universal remedy: and many

* The trivial name Agilis is happily applied to this species of Lacerta. It springs upon the minute animals on which it feeds with the quickness of thought; and on the appearance of danger, it seeks a secure retreat with equal rapidity. Far from flying from the approach of man, it seems to eye him with satisfaction, but on the smallest noise, even the falling of a single leaf, it suddenly shoots away and disappears, returns again, seems agitated, conceals itself again, returns, describes several circuitous contortions so rapidly as hardly to be followed by the clearest eye. This wonderful rapidity of motion is chiefly to be seen in warm climates, for in temperate regions its evolutions are more languid.

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hundreds in London swallowed a certain portion of it daily, for a long time together. The effects produced by this prac tice are not detailed with distinctness, but the probability is, that it was often inert, though, in some instances, the contrary was observed; and the celebrated Barton Booth was declared to have died from its use. The exhibition of the various preparations of this excellent remedy must have produced sometimes untoward effects; but it had not been observed, until lately, that certain morbid states, distinctly characterized by specific phenomena, arise from its employment. About the year 1782, or 1783, these effects had been so far observed as to become the subject of remark, in the public lectures delivered by a very ingenious Surgeon. In 1805 and 1806 several publications appeared on the subject of an eruptive disease consequent on the use of this mineral. The disease thus produced seems to have been most frequent at Dublin, where it sometimes was fatal. Sir George Alley, a physician of Ireland, was among the first who gave his opinion on this subject to the public. The disease which Sir George Alley describes as being produced by mercury, and to which he gives the name of hydrargyria, is characterized by an eruption which is very variable in its appearances. In some instances there is merely a light rosc-coloured efflorescence; in others, the skin presents an almost uniformly dark red tint, approaching, in a few cases, to a purple. But for the most part, the eruption appears in semi-distinct spots of a dusky red hue, which, diffusing themselves over the surface, leave but a few interstices of the natural colour. This eruption consists of a multitude of scarcely perceptible vesicles, and is accompanied with a febrile irritation, proportionate to the severity of the external appearances. The symptora which soonest produces distress, is an affection of the lungs. In some instances there is a disturbance in the respiration alone; but in others, a hard, harassing cough, and a fixed pain in the chest are superadded and sometimes bloody expectoration. In these cases the pulse was hard as in pneumonia. Pain in the head, or violent delirium were seldom observed. Soreness of the throat and fauces was often a distressing symptom, and continued many days; hoarseness and extensive sloughing of these parts also occurred. The tongue, early in the disease, has an extraordinary degree of whiteness, but toward the close becomes parched, and black in the centre. The different degrees of hydrargyria are distinguished by the terms mitis, simplex febrilis, and maligna. Formidable this disease must have been in Dublin, for nearly one in five died. Beside this vesicular disease, under the des nomination hydrargyria, other morbid effects have been produced

produced by Mercury. These, from their resemblance to Syphilis, have been called pseudo-syphilis, and cachexia syphiloidea. These differ much from the hydrargyria. That is an acute febrile affection, these are chronic; and though their characterizing marks are well known, Hunter, Pearson, and Abernethy hesitate to pronounce them mercurial. Mr. Andrew Mathias, in an express treatise on the subject, has described their symptoms with more clearness and precision than had before been done; but he has not satisfactorily explained their cause, though he looks for that cause to Mercury. In the history of this mineral a fact of more importance has not occurred, than one which accidentally arose in the spring of 1810. In the month of April of that year, the Triumph man of war, took on board 30 tons of quicksilver, contained in leathern bags of 50 pounds each. These bags were picked up on the shore of Cadiz, from the wreck of two Spanish line of battle ships, lost in the storm immediately preceding the above date. The collected bags were stowed below, in the bread room, after hold, and store rooms forward; they were saturated with sea water, and in about a fortnight many of thíem decayed and burst, and the mercury escaped into the recesses of the ship. At this period, bilgewater had collected, the stench of which was considerable; and the carpenter's mate, in the act of sounding the well, was nearly suffocated. The effect of gas escaping from bilge-water, is manifested, by its changing every metallic substance in the ship black. But in this instance metals of every kind were coated with quicksilver; and an affection of the mouth took place, very generally, among the men and officers to a severe degree of ptyalism, in upwards of two hundred persons. This history having been submitted to Dr. George Pearson, so well known for his chemical acquirements, he observed upon it, that "from well established principles, as well as analogies, a very reasonable explanation may be given of the effects attributed to 30 tons of quicksilver, exposed on board the Triumph in bilge-water, in a hot climate, in the beginning of Summer. The stinking gas, which was sulphuretted and perhaps phosphuretted hydrogen gas, mixed with carbonic acid, and, possibly, other gases compounded by the putrefaction of animal and vegetable matter. The deadly suffocating effects of which gases are fully ascertained; tarnishing of metals, especially silver, at a great distance, even when mixed with a large proportion of fresh air, is a well known effect of sulphuretted hydrogen. These last mentioned effects are attributable to the gases of putrefaction independently of quicksilver. But when the influence of so large a body of this metal is considered, it will be easy to ac

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count for the whitening of metals, and the salivation of many persons in the ship. The quicksilver would rise, united or suspended by the above gases, or be even evaporated by the heat of the ship, in the common fresh air. This metal, thus suspended or dissolved, is very likely to penetrate the human body, and act upon it like the fumigation with mercury; but sulphuretted hydrogen dissolves the metal, and of course would carry it wherever the gas was transmitted."

The Materia Medica has received important additions from a valuable catalogue of Indian medicinal plants and drugs, by Dr. Fleming. Many of these articles are yet only known in India; but the information now given will, probably, bring them into the European practice. A few only can be here noticed. In running over the alphabetic arrangement, the Asclepias asthmatica, a plant growing in the northern Circars, but not in Bengal, first deserves regard, as affording, possibly, a substitute for ipecacuanha; and possessing, perhaps, some properties different from that plant. It is em ployed in dysentery and asthma with great success, by the Hindu physicians. This species, of a very numerous genus, was discovered in the woods of Ceylon, by the late Dr Koenig (Linn. suppl.), and to him is the public indebted for all that is at present known concerning it. In the examination of the properties of the asthmatic swallow-wort, it would be unwise to overlook its thirty-three known brethren, among whom may perhaps be found individuals possessed of similar virtues. The Boswelliathurifera furnishes the gum-resin olibanum, which is yet given (Phar. Lond. Edit. 1809) to the Juniperus lycia. Casalpina bonducella, a native shrub of both Indias, but known as a medicine only in the East, produces seeds intensely bitter, and possessing tonic powers in a very high degree. The Hindu physicians employ these seeds as a general tonic; and particularly in intermittent fevers, for which they are considered as an almost infallible remedy. The Calcaranja, the Hindoo name of this plant, is most efficacious when used with a decoction of the Gentiana chirayita, another valuable plant, indigenous in the mountainous countries north of the Ganges. Carica papaya, (a native of South America, but

*As opinions are much at variance on the rationale of this occurrence on board the Triumph, it is hoped that a further investigation will take place. We know that Dr. BAIRD, to whom the public is indebted for the above statement, and who pursues, with an indefatigable spirit, every object calculated to benefit physical science and improve our medical naval œconomy, is endeavouring to effect a full and satisfactory explanation of a phenomenon so interesting to philosophy as well as to medical science.