Selections from American and Foreign Journals.

On Creosote as a remedy for Deafness. By O. H. PARTRIDGE, M. D.—From numerous observations that I have made in hospital and private practice, I believe that four cases out of five of deafness are caused either from local debility, producing what is generally called "nervous deafness," or from a want of action in the ceruminous glands, or in consequence of the external passage becoming obstructed from wax, mucus, or some foreign substance getting into the ear.

I lay no claims to originality, in the course of treatment I have been in the practice of pursuing, but will merely state facts as they have come under my notice, with the wish, if others have not prescribed the same course of treatment, that they will give it a fair trial. A large number of cases of morbid hearing, and some of long standing, have come under my observation within the last three or four years, and when they were produced by the above mentioned causes, I have generally been successful in curing, or greatly relieving the patients. My directions are as follows: to have the meatus auditorius thoroughly cleansed, I cause to be dropped into the ear night and morning for five or six days, a few drops of olive oil or the oil of almonds, and injecting with a very small syringe, once a day, a solution of the best castile soap in warm water, with a little eau de colonge, in the proportions of six parts of the solution, to one of the cologne. When on examination I find the ear perfectly clean, I then commence with the creosote, which, I think, will act more speedily and efficaciously by stimulating and producing a healthy action in the parts diseased, than any application I have ever yet seen used. commence with the following formula:

R.-Creosote,

M.

Ol. Amygdala,

3 ss. 3iv.

I am particular to obtain a camel's hair brush, of good size, with long hair, so that the mixture may be well applied, being particular to introduce it far into the ear. After a few days, I usually increase the quantity of creosote as occasion may re

quire, often using it as strong as one part of creosote to three of the oil of almonds. In pursuing this course, I have never found it produce any unpleasant symptoms, but an agreeable sensation of warmth. The duration of treatment, of course, varies according to circumstances, from three weeks to three months. While using the creosote, I syringe into the ears, every other day, the solution of soap and cologne; and, in the majority of cases use derivations behind the ears; also, occasionally, some general directions are necessary.

Looking over my note book, I find a number of interesting cases, but I will mention only two or three. About a year ago, Mrs. E., of New York, aged about 45 years, on a visit to this city, informed me that about six years previous, she found her hearing gradually failing-knew of no assignable cause. When I saw her, it was with great difficulty I could make her hear, although I spoke very loud, and she used a trumpet. Yet she told me, that when riding over the pavements in a carriage, she could hear as well as any one. This being a case of "paracusis perverse," and of rare occurrence, I immediately became interested. I accordingly invited the lady to ride with me, and soon found that when we were travelling very quick, and the carriage making much noise, her hearing was very acute; indeed she could hear better than I could. As the lady had submitted to various modes of treatment, without any good resulting, I thought it to be a fair chance to try the creosote, and I was pleased, in a short time, to find it had given tone to the debilitated organs, and improved the hearing rapidly, so that in four months she could hear as well as before the attack.

Last April I was called to see Mrs. H., of New Hampshire, who had come to this city for medical advice. I learned from her that about ten years previous she had been attacked with a disease of the spine, and as she convalesced, her hearing gradually failed, so that at the time I saw her, she used an ear trumpet, and then could only hear when I spoke in a very loud tone. I examined the case, and found the deafness was in consequence of a want of action in the ceruminous glands. I immediately commenced the treatment before mentioned, and in about three weeks, on calling to see her one morning, she met me, "with joy sparkling in her eyes," and informed me that she had that morning heard the ticking of her watch, the first time for six years: in six weeks she attended church and could perfectly understand the clergyman, without the ear trumpet, which was to her a source of infinite satisfaction, as she was a remarkably pious lady.

A gentleman, teacher in one of the public schools, has,

under my directions, been using the creosote for a few weeks, and has quite recovered his hearing: he was about relinquishing his school, when he applied to me, in consequence of his deafness, which had been getting worse for the last three or four years.

I might mention many more cases but these I think sufficient. It is of course not expected that the creosote will be of any benefit in those cases where there is mal-formation, or total obliteration of the Eustachian tube; but these cases are of rare occurrence, compared with those I have mentioned. Medical Examiner. May 20, 1840.

Abernethy as a Lecturer.-The lecture-room was the grand theatre upon which Mr. Abernethy displayed; there, indeed, he "shone eccentric like a comet's blaze!" and there he would indulge his disposition and propensities to an extent which occasioned the pupils frequently to regard it as an exhibition, and call it an "Abernethy at Home." His mode of entering the lecture-room was often irresistibly droll-his hands buried deep in his breeches-pockets, his body bent slouchingly forward, blowing or whistling, his eyes twinkling beneath their arches, and his lower jaw thrown considerably beneath the upper. Then he would cast himself into a chair, swing one of his legs over an arm of it, and commence his lecture in the most outre manner. The abruptness, however, never failed to command silence, and rivet attention.

"The Count was wounded in the arm-the bullet had sunk into the flesh-it was, however, extracted-and he is now in a fair way of recovery.' That will do very well for a novel, but it won't do for us Gentlemen: for Sir Ralph Abercromby received a ball in the thick part of his thigh, and it buried itself deep: and it got among important parts, and it couldn't be felt; but the surgeons, nothing daunted, groped, and groped, and groped,- -and Sir Ralph died.""

Abernethy at the last.-His eccentricity continued during his existence, and towards the last he is reported to have joked upon the oedematous state of his legs produced by the disturbance of the circulation and his difficulty of breathing. Some one inquired of him how he was? to which he replied, Why, I am better on my legs than ever: you see how much stouter they are?" His hobby retained full possession also to the end of his life. He attributed his disease to the stomach. He said, "it is all stomach; we use our stomach ill when we are young, and it uses us ill when we are old." But it is not

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a little singular, that he expressly enjoined that no examination of his body should take place!--Medico-Chirurgical Re

view.

State of the Faculty and of Physic in Algiers.-Physic would seem to be at a low ebb in Algiers. The doctors certainly are so. The following extract from an extract in the Medical Gazette will exhibit the state of things in that country.

"Dr. Bohn first introduced vaccination, and practised it in the family of the deposed Dey himself, who, however, did not give him a princely fee; and, generally speaking, people are here unwilling to give aught to physician or apothecary.

As to the native physicians, the Dey had a kind of protomedicus, who decided medico-legal questions, and created other physicians for a few piasters, without being exactly able to read or write. If a man was able to shave well, if he could compound a plaster, and cure a hurt, he bought the privilege, and prescribed at his own pleasure the whole contents of any of the six Moorish apothecaries' shops; bark with or without theriaca at all times; and in all fevers, opium, sarsaparilla, calomel, pimento, cantharides, and opodeldoch. Ismael Ben Mehmed enjoyed the greatest share of public confidence; he gave Dr. Schonberg an extract from the Arabic work of Ben Huesina, who lived 700 years ago, and a catalogue of his own drugs. His shop, the largest in the town, contained 70 jars, 30 bottles, 20 boxes and several drawers. He obtained medicines from abroad, prepared others himself, and possesses a still and retort. He is afraid of mercury against syphilis, and thinks he can do without it.

Ismael Ben Mehmed is acquainted with remittent and intermittent fevers, and their varieties. His surgical apparatus consisted of a common case of dressing instruments."

Medico-Chirurgical Review.

THE

WESTERN JOURNAL.

No. 6.

LOUISVILLE, JUNE 30, 1840.

VERATRINE, DELPHINE AND ACONITINE, in Neuralgia, Rheuma tism, and other diseases. By SAMUEL A. CARTWRIGHT, M. D., of Natchez.

DR. CARTWRIGHT, during his late visit to this city, related to us some striking cases of cure by the external application of these new and most active remedios. At our request, ho furnished us with the following communication, which we hope will lead some of our readers to make a trial of the articles, and report to us the results of their experience. Dr. Cartwright has seen acute rheumatisın, neuralgia, and tooth-ache effectually and promptly relieved by friction with the ointments; and although he does not profess to have used them extensively in his own practico, his experience strengthens the good opinion he formed of them while witnessing their action in the hospitals of London and Paris. Y.

DEAR SIR-It is near bed-time, and I leave the city in the morning in quest of health. I have not time to write an essay, but as you took so deep an interest in the cases which I mentioned to you that I had seen treated successfully with certain alkaloids, I herewith leave with you a few extracts from my note-book, compiled from clin ical observations made in Europe. As I have nothing original to offer in