have come home shorn. It does seem at first sight as if the name "rigid os " should cover a definite pathological condition, and call for a constant treatment, but it is not so.

We have a difficult labor, with inefficient pains, and an unyielding os, and when we bring our fingers in contact with the lower segment of the uterus we find it full, thick, and leathery. There is fullness of the face, an oppressed pulse, and oppressed respiration. We administer Lobelia in slightly nauseating doses, and everything progresses nicely.

In another case the patient is extremely restless, her eyes are bright, features contracted, and she suffers intense pain. An examination determines the lower segment of the uterus thinned, the os parchment-like, and the edge almost cuts the finger. We give Gelseminum, and our patient goes on comfortably.

In another the pains are irregular, or rather the contraction of the uterus is irregular, and though there is an excess of pain, there is slow dilatation and no progress. We give Macrotys, and in a short time the labor is progressing naturally.

We have another in which the pains are spasmodic, and the woman complains of "cramps" in the lower abdomen. We administer Viburnum and in a short time things go smoothly. Let us take headache as a last example, and briefly note the remedies that have been found most useful, and the indications for them. It is true that some people have an infallible recipe for headache, and the literature of medicine is full of medicines" which have been found useful in such cases."

The headache is from enfeebled circulation, the eyes are sunken, the face pallid, the pulse feeble. We give ten drops of sulphuric ether on sugar, or five grains of carbonate of ammonia, and with an hour's rest the headache has ceased and the brain is ready for work.

Our patient has a flushed face, bright eyes, contracted pupils, and increased heat of head, and the "head aches all over." We cure it with Gelseminum.

The patient feels dull and sleepy, would sleep if it were not for the pain; eyes are dull and pupils dilated. We cure it with belladonna.

The pain is frontal, especially in left orbit, is sharp and burning, and there is contraction of the tissues about the eyes and brains in some cases. We cure it with Rhus.

The pain is in the back of the head and extends to the neck; movement of the head increases it. We cure it with Sticta. The patient is nervous and feels as if she had lost all her friends. Giye her Pulsatilla.

The veins are full, the head feels full, as if it would burst, and there is dizziness. Cure it with podophyllin.

The tongue is full, heavily coated, with fullness and weight in epigastrium, disgust and nausea. This is a case for an emetic.

There is extreme nausea, sometimes vomiting; the face is sallow, yellowness about the mouth, intestinal uneasiness. Give Nux.

The paroxysms of headache are preceded and attended by scanty urination, and we give acetate of potash or other renal depurant.

The patient is a sufferer from chronic headache, and there is marked dizziness and difficulty in commanding the voluntary muscles. Give iodide of ammonium.

The headache is distinctly periodic, and we cure it with quinine in antiperiodic doses.

This list of remedies might be increased, but we have enough to show the necessity of a careful adaptation of the remedy to the condition of disease as defined by the symptoms. What is true of headache is true of every named disease, and there is no case that may not be analyzed in this way.

Though I have not been able to give the subject the time that it deserved, I hope that what I have written may show that we have reached a period when we may have "positivism in medicine,” if we wish it.

CARDINAL POINTS IN THE STUDY OF MEDICAL BOTANY.

By RICHARD E. KUNZÉ, M. D.

"No fields are so barren to me as the men from whom I expect everything but get nothing. In their neighborhood I experience a painful yearning for society which cannot be satisfied, for the hate is greater than the love."―Thoreau

Perhaps Thoreau, the poet-naturalist, was not wrong in applying such irony to the indifferent classes of society, and possibly a little of it we might take home to ourselves. Certain it is, that Medical Botany, much less Organography, Phyto-physiology or Phyto-chemistry, are seldom as much studied as other of the Natural Sciences. And it seems as though to some, "Blue Grass" afforded more allurement for close study than do the pine regions of our vast land. How, then, can we make Medical Botany interesting enough to engage for it the attention it deserves at the hands of Eclectic physicians ? That the success of the practitioner of to-day much depends upon a thorough knowledge of Medical Botany, very few will deny. And in proportion to the study of the signs of Vegetable Nature are we enabled to enlarge our stock of knowledge in hygienic, conservative and practical medicine.

All skill ought to be exerted for the universal good; every man owes much to others and ought to repay the kindness that he has received. The individual, who lives to eat, thinking that to be all that life is worth living for, compares favorably with the concrete of a structure in relation to the corner-stone of an edifice. Such people are not seen, neither do they seem to support anything substantial. In that old maxim "live and let live," we see that life is based upon reciprocal action. In a like manner do we find the relation of plant to animal life. Our welfare, nay, our very existence is dependent on a wellbalanced condition of the vegetable and animal kingdoms. SIGNATURE MEDICINE*; OR, SINGULAR APPEARANCES

PLANTS INDICATING THEIR PROPERTIES.

OF

In the study of Medical Botany, many signs of Nature are *This must not be confounded with the ancient doctrine of Signature-medicine, and which, for the sake of comparison, the writer will briefly refer to. The Doctrine of Signatures, has taken its origin from a belief that medicinal sub

perceived which ultimately must come to be considered. The bluish bloom of leaves and cream-colored flowers, are said to indicate the plants intended by Nature to cure the fevers of the vicinity where found growing. And as it is applicable to so many plants employed in medicine as febrifuges and antipyretics, it should be properly investigated. The following plants most forcibly illustrate this strange hypothesis, which so far as the foliage is concerned, includes the glaucous, downy and whitish under-surface of leaves:

Magnolia glauca; Populus tremuloides; Populus balsamifera, var. candicans; Eucalyptus globulus, when the tree is not over two years old, leaves whitish underneath; Cinchona Condaminea, H. and B.; Cinchona officinalis, L., the leaves of last species according to Artus, downy on under-surface; Salix alba; Rhus glabrum, the berries are used with whiskey for intermittents; Rhus coriaria, and R. cotinus, which are also astringent, were used as substitutes for Cinchona. Liriodendron tulipifera, its root-bark used in fever and ague according to John stances bore upon their external surfaces the properties or virtues they possessed, impressed upon them by planetary influence. Hence followed the once popular belief, that the color of the juices of plants indicated their medicinal properties. Several prominent colors were embraced by Signature-medicine, resembling in a manner some of the fluids or conditions of the human body, and whenever these agreed with the juices of certain plants or even the color of the flowers, were supposed to indicate the seat of disease for which intended by astrology.

Therefore, white flowers and succulent plants yielding mucilage, were regarded as refrigerant, and the latter were often so denominated as being cooling for the kidneys Among the latter were found, Sempervivums, Sedums, Mesembryanthemums, seeds of Melo Pepo, Cucumis Melo, Citrullus vulgaris and Cucumis sativus.

Yellow flowers, or plants yielding juices of the same shade, were good for any biliary derangements from a supposed resemblance to bile. These included Crocus sativus, Berberis vulgaris, Chelidonium majus; and by late believers in that doctrine even Hydrastis Canadensis has been added. Hence, all these correct the bile.

Red flowers or red vegetable juices, were good for disorders of the sanguiniferous system and to enrich the impoverished condition of humorous blood. Papaver Rhoados (Red Poppy) and Sanguinaria Canadensis, were included in the last list. The vulgar consider bloodroot even to this day as eminently qualified for diseases arising in the blood. In fevers, even red or scarlet clothes were formerly worn, because so ordered by physicians. The ignorant to this day prefer red flannels to any other color if worn next to the skin, because supposed to give out more heat. Many a physician to-day will order a rheumatic patient to wear red instead of white flannel, and some of them prefer it themselves for ordinary use. The Chinese and Japanese, were believers in the same doctrine, of the "red' as being heating.

Blue or purple flowers, were recommended against melancholy. Hence, persons in a melancholic state of mind are often accused of having the Blues." But the latter sobriquet has a far greater range, when applied to those who have partaken of too much of "Blue Grass."-R. E. K.

D. Hunter; Laurus sassafras; Prunus spinosa or sloe, bark used for intermittents; Pyrus malus, the apple-tree bark yields phloridzin which is anti-pyretic; P. aucuparia, Rowantree or European Mountain Ash, the bark, root, flowers and red berries of which contain much hydrocyanic acid; P. Americana or American Mountain Ash, according to Rafinesque-the bark is used like Cinchona. Monarda punctata, used in malarial fever; Salvia officinalis, used in hectic fever; Artemisia absynthium, used in intermittents formerly, Ruta graveolens, its leaves glaucous on both sides, the juice of which was formerly given in Wales for ague. Alstonia scholaris of India, with whitish under surface of leaf, is also febrifuge. strigosus and R. Idæus, were used in Wales for the ague.

Rubus

Most of the following having glaucous leaves have not yet been investigated: Acer dasycarpum; A. saccharinum or sugar maple; Ilex opaca or American holly (the European species has febrifuge properties); Calycanthus glaucus or glaucous Carolina Allspice; Arctostaphylos glauca or manzanita leaves are astringent-tonic; Amelanchier Canadensis or shad-bush and service-berry so-called, is a kind of North American medlar; Azalea viscosa or false honeysuckle; Vitis vinifera; Physianthus albicans, a twining plant from Buenos Ayres; Antennaria plantaginifolia; Chelone glabra or balmony, recognized as a bitter tonic. The flowers of Convallaria majalis or lily-of-the-valley, were formerly given for spasms and in syncopé. The berries were used against intermittents.

Diospyros Virginiana or persimmon bark, a bitter astringent, is used in agues. Spiræa opulifolia or ninebark, was used by Rafinesque for fevers with success; S. tomentosa or steeplebush, is also astringent, tonic and bitter; Kageneckia cratægifolia or hawthorn-leaved Kageneckia of Chili, is there used by the populace for intermittent fevers; its glaucous leaves are intensely bitter. In closing this interesting subject regarding external marks or impressions of certain plants, we cannot help but think how strange it is, that so many of our best febrifuges are found in the preceding list of names. Is it a mere freak of nature, or to guide the instinct of brute