SKIN DisoRnEns.—Ipecac is excreted in part by the skin (Binz), and we find that its diaphoretic properties may be utilized in the beginning of fevers, colds, and other inflammatory conditions, for which purpose it is associated with opium as in the official "pulvis ipecacuanha et opii." In the dermatitis caused by rhus toxicoclendron the free application of a wash consisting of 3 drachms of powdered ipecac to a pint of water is recommended ' by W. S. Gilmore. Neall recommends the use of 1 pint of powdered ipecac to I 8 parts each of alcohol and ether to re lieve the inflammation caused by mos quito-bites. Powdered ipecac made into a paste and smeared on the skin is said to relieve the pain and swelling produced by the sting of bees.
Ipecaeuanha used in about 50 cases of anthrax during the last fifteen years and without a single failure. The writer ap plies it externally, mixed with water to the consistence of cream, and administers it in full doses internally. In carbuncle,
too, it appears to be a specific. E. B. Musket (Lancet, Feb. 11, '89).
lpecacuanha tried several years in Nicaragua, Central America; notwith standing its vaunted efficacy, in dysen tery no case derived much benefit from it. Patients suffering from dysentery could not always retain the large doses recommended in text-books. But ounce doses of a saturated solution of magnesium sulphate and 15 minims of dilute sulphuric acid every two laours, with milk diet, caused all traces of blood to disappear from the stools in twenty four hours, and there was a complete absence of the distressing nausea which is always present in the treatment by ipecacuanha. T. R. 'Wiglesworth (Brit. Med. Jour., Feb. 26, '98). (See DYSEN TERY, volume ii.)