It was ascertained by experiment that the bromide of zinc, when thrown into the venous system, puts a stop to the motions of the heart, without, however, totally destroying the irritability of the organ; and that, when this salt is introduced, so as to pass through the systemic capillaries before reaching the heart, it obstructs them temporarily, but exerts its deleterious influence on the central organ of the circulation when it arrives there in quantity. The experiments instituted with bromide of iron establish the analogy of it with other salts of the same base, and more especially with the iodide. When injected into the veins, it appears to obstruct the pulmonary circulation and weaken the heart's action; when these effects have in some degree subsided, a powerful secondary action on the intestinal canal becomes apparent.

The Bromide and Sub-bromide of Mercury bear the most remarkable resemblance in chemical properties to the chloride and sub-chloride, to which also their physiological affinity is strict. With respect to the Bromide of Cyanogen, it appears, from the results of numerous experiments instituted by the author, to possess two kinds of action; one on the spinal cord—perhaps primarily on the sympathetic system, closely resembling the primary effect of prussic acid. The secondary or irritant action far exceeds in intensity that of prussic acid. This body has little corrosive power, it coagulates white of egg but slowly, and is as nearly as possible a pure irritant in its secondary action. We shall now pass on to consider the—

MEDICINAL PROPERTIES OF BROMINE AND ITS COMPOUNDS.

Bromine was first used as a medicinal agent by M. Pourché. Before this, Desorgues, calling himself a simple magistrate, had written to the Academy of Medicine, proposing the employment of bromide of mercury in the treatment of syphilis.

M. Bonnet, in a paper published in the Bulletin General de Therapeutique, July 1837, in detailing all that had been then observed in France with respect to the medicinal uses of bromine and its compounds, refers to the researches of M. Pourché. In a case of scrofulous enlargement of the glands of the neck in a woman of 22 years of age, who had been affected for seven years, a cure was effected in three months by the external and internal use of bromine. At first, six drops dissolved in three ounces of water were given in the day, in three doses. Next day ten drops were given. In ten days the dose was increased to fourteen drops daily, and at last to thirty drops in the same quantity of water. Cataplasms, moistened with solution of bromine, were applied to the swellings. The same physician had great success in the treatment of scrofula by the internal and external use of the hydrobromate of potass. M. Bonnet attributes great benefit to the bromide and sub-bromide of mercury, as constitutional remedies in comparison with corrosive sublimate and calomel, the former having, he says, less action on the salivary glands, and more on the urinary secretion. Magendie employs bromine and its preparations in scrofula, amenorrhoea, and in hypertrophy of the ventricles. Dr. Williams has used the bromide of potassium with success in cases of enlarged spleen. The first case which he gives is that of a boy, aged 14, in St. Thomas' Hospital. Both the liver and spleen were enormously enlarged. Their edge was hard, and substance unyielding. Abdomen contained much fluid-countenance sallow and emaciated-legs dropsical-belly protuberant-the ordinary remedies were tried in vain; at length the iodide of mercury was used-this removed the dropsy, but the liver and spleen remained enlarged. The patient now commenced the use of the bromide of potassium, one grain thrice a day, which dose was gradually increased to four grains. After using it for nearly two months he became slightly jaundiced-the jaundice was removed by the sulphate of magnesia, and in a few weeks the bromide was re

sumed; when, after its continued use for some time, he improved gradually, and was dismissed with the liver and spleen considerably diminished.

The author now gives a summary of the results obtained in his own practice. In a case of obstinate eczema of the legs and arms in a married woman, aged 40, of strumous habits, a saturated solution of bromine mixed with water until it ceased to give pain, and applied by means of lint and oil-skin, caused a decided improvement to take place. In two months the patient was cured. The second case mentioned by him was one of specific ulcers of the legs of long standing. After various metallic washes had been applied to the ulcers without any benefit, they were treated with a strong etherial solution of bromine, which acted as a caustic, and lint steeped in a saturated solution of bromine placed over them, covered with oil-skin. This application, which was repeated next day, produced pain and intense redness, and was discontinued. The ulcers healed rapidly afterwards, and cicatrization took place. The third case was one of carbuncle, which, after resisting the hydriodate of potash, used internally and externally, was cured by the external use of bromine-forty minims to the pint of waterin between six and seven weeks. In another case of scrofulous ulcer of the leg, in a boy aged 12, with a similar ulcer on the back of the right wrist, about the size of half-a-crown, in which tonics and hydriodate of potash had been used without success, the lotion of bromine, in the dose of 40 minims to the pint of water, was applied externally three times a day by means of lint and oil-skin, while the bromide of potassium was given internally. In six weeks the ulcer on the leg was nearly healed-that on the wrist continued open. He was then made an out-patient, and died in the course of the winter of diabetes. Several other cases are given by the author, where the bromides were employed with varying success.

From all the author has witnessed with respect to the real therapeutic power of bromine and its compounds, he is disposed to recommend the external use of bromine in scaly dartrous affections of an inveterate character, in specific and malignant ulcers, where there is defective action. Oil-skin should be employed to cover the lint in which the bromine is dipped, to prevent evaporation. Inter nally the use of bromine must necessarily be very limited.

We have now given a concise analysis of this interesting paper, which does great credit to Dr. Glover, and proves him to be an industrious and judicious experimenter in a department of medical science, so very important, because so decidedly practical.

THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF INSANITY. Edited by the Officers of the Lunatic Asylum in UTICA. No. 1. July, 1844.

BROTHER JONATHAN is, assuredly, "going a-head" in physic as well as in commerce, and all the various branches of art, science, and literature. Free, or at least democratic, institutions, have a general tendency to liberate the mind from the shackles and forms imposed on it by despotic governments; as may be seen in a comparison of China with Great Britain. But, as America is still more democratic than England, so, in the former, there is greater propensity to spurn the boundaries within which the current of thought, invention, and speculation runs in the "Old World." The "JOURNAL of INSANITY" conveys a new idea; and the wonder is that it never struck the encephalon of John Bull, who is not a little prone to this terrible malady, and who expends many millions annually on institutions for its reception and treatment.*

There is a Journal of Insanity lately established in France, (Annales MedicoPsychologiques,) by Drs. Baillarger, Cerise, and Louget.-Ed.

The Asylum in UTICA is a recent and state establishment, and among the Board of Managers we recognize some good names, such as Dr. Theodore R. Beck, Dr. Coventry, &c. &c. The resident officers of the Asylum include Drs. Brigham and Buttolph. The following sentence is gratifying:-" It is be hered that the proper discipline can be established among the maniacs without the use of the whip."

The second article in this new contemporary is entitled-" Insanity illustrated by the Histories of Distinguished Men, and by the Writings of Poets and Novellists." Our countryman, CowPER, is the first that comes on the stage, since he was not only insane, but a poet, and has given us portraits of himself as well as of others in that melancholy predicament. His own feelings, however, can hardly be depended upon when his intellects were deranged; but his delineations of CRAZY KATE, shew the poet and the observer in every line.

"She heard the doleful tidings of his death,

And never smiled again! And now she roams

The dreary waste-there spends the live-long day.
She begs an idle pin of all she meets,

And hoards them in her sleeve."

It is curious that this begging of a pin is by no means uncommon among the insane.

In Childe Harold, Byron, no doubt, refers to his own case.

Johnson has described monomania in the person of the Astronomer in Rasselas, who thought that he ruled the planetary system. Every one now acknowledges the close connexion between genius and insanity, of which we have more than one example among the Lions of our own days. But we cannot say that stupidity is free from madness, as is supposed by one poet at least.

"Hail, awful Madness, hail!

Nor best nor wisest are exempt from thee.
Folly-Folly's only free.”—Penrose.

Monomania is not incompatible with a high range of intellect on other subjects than the delusion. Simon Brown wrote his defence of the Christian religionone of the best that was ever written—while labouring under insanity, and when he believed that his rational soul was dead, and that only his brute life remained. The remarkable fancies that have entered the imaginations of monomaniacs, would fill a thousand volumes. Perhaps the man described by Mr. Moore, the poet, who fancied he had been guillotined, and afterwards got a wrong head on his shoulders, is as ludicrous as any on record.

"Went to the mad-house,-saw the man

Who thinks, poor wretch, that while the fiend
Of discord here full riot ran

He like the rest was guillotined;

But that when under Boney's reign,

(A more discreet, though quite as strong one,) The heads were all restored again,

He in the scramble got a wrong one.

Accordingly he still cries out

This strange head fits him most unpleasantly,

And always runs, poor devil, about

Inquiring for his own, incessantly!"

The above patient was in the Bicetre many years. Shakespeare, of all poets, has shewn, as it were from inspiration, the greatest knowledge of insanity. The more we read his works, the more we are astonished at the correctness of his portraits. His knowledge of the disease-its nature-and even its treatment, were far in advance of the age in which he lived.

"An examination of the writings will show that he believed the following facts, all of which were in advance of the general opinions of his age, and are now deemed correct.

"1. That a well-formed brain, a good shaped head, is essential to a good mind.

"2. That insanity is a disease of the brain.

"3. That there is a general and partial insanity.

"4. That it is a disease which can be cured by medical means.

"5. That the causes are various, the most common of which he has particularly noticed.

"These assertions we shall endeavour to prove.

"First. That a well-formed brain is essential to a good mind, he often mentions. He particularly notices the excellence of a high forehead. Thus, Cleopatra, anxious to know the personal appearance of her rival Octavia, asks the messenger, Bearest thou her face in mind, is't long or round?' to which he replies, Round even to faultness, and her forehead as low as she would wish it.' This so pleased Cleopatra that she replied, "There is gold for thee,' and rewarded him for his gratifying intelligence.

"So in the Two Gentlemen of Verona, Julia contemplating the picture of her rival Silvia, says, 'Her forehead's low, what should it be that he respects in her?'

"Again; Caliban, in the Tempest, fears they may all be turned to Barnacles, or to apes with foreheads villanous low!'

"Second. Shakspeare considered insanity to be a disease of the brain. "In Macbeth, the struggle between sanity and insanity is well illustrated, particularly in the dagger scene. At first Macbeth doubts and asks:

"Is this a dagger, which I see before me,

The handle towards my hand? Come, let me clutch thee."

"Not succeeding, he doubts his eye-sight and exclaims,

"Art thou but

A dagger of the mind: a false creation,

Proceeding from the heat oppressed brain !”

"Yet looking again, he sees it in form so 'palpable,' that he for an instant believes in its existence, but finally reason triumphs and he exclaims, "There's no such thing;

It is the bloody business, which informs
Thus to mine eyes."

"The whole passage is beautiful and instructive, and finely exhibits the struggle between reason and delusion.

"Macbeth also believed Lady Macbeth to be affected by mental disorder, and asks the doctor if he can not

"Minister to a mind diseased;

Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow;

Raze out the written troubles of the brain?"

Showing that he considered her disorder seated in that organ."

Disordered mind is sometimes called by Shakespeare "brain-sickness." King Henry exclaims-" What madness rules in brain-sick men ?"

The Poet of Nature believed that insanity was curable. Thus, in King Lear, Cordelia asks "What can man's wisdom do in restoring of his (her father's) reason?" The physician promptly and truly answers :—

"There are means, Madam;

Our foster-nurse of nature is repose,

The which he lacks, that to provoke in him,
Are many simples operative, whose power
Will close the eye of anguish."

Next to Shakespeare, Sir W. Scott has given the most exquisite delineations of insanity-more especially in the persons of Madge Wildfire-Norna, in, the Pirate-and Clara Mowbray, in St. Ronan's Well. These are so well known that we need not notice them specifically.

We must now draw this short article to a close. In one of the articles of our new contemporary, there is a curious case of insanity, of which we shall exhibit a few particulars.

A gentleman, about 50 years of age, has been slightly deranged for twenty years past. His father was hypochondriacal, and he has a brother insane. He is a man of education, intelligence, and piety-of kind and amiable feelings and manners-conversing rationally on most subjects; but he is unable to walk, or to attend to any business requiring bodily exercise, without great mental agitation and ludicrous movements. He rarely stirs without much solicitation, and would remain in his room all day, if not compelled to move. He occasionally writes verses, and the following ode to the Hypo is not unamusing.

"No tongue can declare

The torment I bear,

It my heart-strings doth tear,

So keen are the pangs of the Hypo.

I start 'cross the floor,

Then pitch out the door,

As if ne'er to enter more,

In order to fly from the Hypo.

I then dodge and run,

Which often makes fun,

Till my race is quite done,

I am so bother'd by the Hypo.

I pick up a chip,

A stone or a whip,

And along hop and skip,

And this is to fool the Hypo.

And 'tis not in vain,

For my object I gain,

And I will not complain,

For hereby I master the Hypo.

I see people laugh,

Though they'd better cry by half,

But I then seize my staff

And rush to the combat with Hypo.

I could sit down and cry,

And pour floods from my eye,

And weep till I die,

I am so afflicted with the Hypo.

But this will not do

I plainly do know,

For it adds to my woe,

And only increases the Hypo.