ese cases, and the physician should have no hesitancy in
resorting to such remedies as digitalis and belladonna for the purpose
of reducing the tension in the domain of the cerebral circulation. As a
matter of course the digestive functions should be carefully looked to;
the bowels should be kept open; and in all cases where there are
indications of a congestive origin, alcohol in all forms should be
absolutely forbidden.--_Med. Record_.

* * * * *

THE USE OF THE MULLEIN PLANT IN THE TREATMENT OF PULMONARY CONSUMPTION.

[Footnote: From a paper published in the _British Medical Journal_.]

By F.J.B. QUINLAN, M.D., M.R.I.A., F.K.Q.C P., Physician to St.
Vincent's Hospital, Dublin.

From time immemorial, the _Verbascum thapsus_, or great mullein, has
been a trusted popular remedy, in Ireland, for the treatment of the
above formidable malady. It is a wild plant--most persons would call it
a weed--found in many parts of the United Kingdom; and, according to
Sowerby's _British Botany_, vol. vi., page 110, is "rather sparingly
distributed over England and the south of Scotland." In most parts of
Ireland, however, in addition to growing wild it is carefully cultivated
in gardens, and occasionally on a rather extensive scale; and this is
done wholly and solely in obedience to a steady popular call for the
herb by phthisical sufferers. Constantly, in Irish newspapers, there are
advertisements offering it for sale; and there are, in this city,
pharmaceutical establishments of the first rank in which it can be
bought. Still it does not appear in the Pharmacopoeia; nor, as far as I
know, has its use received the official sanction of the medical
profession. Some friends with whom I talked over the matter at the
Pharmaceutical Conference at Southampton last August, suggested that it
would be desirable to make a therapeutical research into the powers of
this drug, and ascertain by actual experiment its efficacy or otherwise.
Having partially accomplished this, I am anxious to very briefly set
forth what has been done, in order that others may be induced to
co-operate in the work.

"There are five mulleins, all belonging to the parent order of the
Scrophulariaceae; but the old Irish remedy is the great mullein, or
_Verbascum thapsus_, a faithful delineation of which will be found in
Plate 1, 437, vol. vi., of Sowerby. It is a hardy biennial, with a thick
stalk, from eighteen inches to four f