unregistered, would lead us to estimate the former at less than Treatment of Erysipelas, by the Tr. Ferri Sesquichloridi, In the last two reports of this asylum, several cases of The Case 1.-C. P., a painter, aged 56, suffering severely from Case 2.-C. E., a female, aged 49, employed in the under laundry, strong, able-bodied, and in very good health, washed the clothes of the above patient on the 9th or 10th of Dec., and whilst doing so, rubbed with her wet hand a small boil on her forehead. The next morning she complained of headache and stiffness over the eyes, with a sense of itching. On the third day, erysipelas appeared all over the scalp, eyes, and face, with great severity, and rapidly extended downward to the throat. She speedily got worse, and died on the ninth day from first appearance of the inflammation. Treatment same as last case. Case 3.-April 1857. A. C., a female, aged 54, epileptic, was in usual health, and at work knitting, when seized with a violent tremor, which left her very languid and drowsy. Next morning (21st,) the face, eyes, forehead, and part of the scalp, were covered with erysipelas, skin very red and shining, great sense of heat and itching. I ordered her the Tr. Ferri Muriat in 20-drop doses, with water, every two hours night and day, and to have the whole surface where inflamed, and a little outside it, painted with a solution composed of equal parts of distilled water and the Tr. Ferri Sesquichloridi. The comforting effect of this local application was almost immediate, and she begged to have it repeated, which was done at intervals of six hours. On the 22nd the inflammation was much lessened, and by the 24th completely subdued. Rapid convalescence ensued. Case 4.-C. S., a female, aged 69, was very similar to the other, and the treatment the same, with the exception that the lotion only was applied, and no medicine administered. Wine and good diet was allowed and given regularly in each case. This local application seemed equally efficacious, and during the time it was employed great relief was experienced. The only reason for my not administering the medicine internally was the great reluctance of the patient to take it; therefore I gave her, from the first day, six and increased it to ten ounces of port wine daily. Three other cases have occurred, and been treated in the same way, with the happiest effects. I am not aware that this preparation of iron has before been used externally for this disease, but I feel sure it is a valuable agent. I should not recommend more than three or four applications of the lotion in twenty-four hours, for I believe the effect would be too severe. Whether or not in some other diseases of the skin it might not be equally advantageous, I cannot say, but I shall be ready to try it. MEDICO-LEGAL TRIALS & INQUISITIONS. The Parish Will Case, before the Surrogate of the City of New York. Medical Opinions upon the Mental Competency of Mr. Parish. By JOHN WATSON, M.D.; PLINY EARLE, M.D.; D.-T. BROWN, M.D.; LUTHER V. BELL, M.D., LL.D.; M. H. RANNEY, M.D.; J. RAY, M.D.; SIR HENRY HOLLAND, Bart., M.D., F.R.S. Trow, New York, 8vo., pp. 600. The pamphlet whose title is above given, is a new example of the magnificent style in which everything is done in the new world, where the mountains are higher, the rivers wider, the lightning quicker, the thunder louder, and everything vaster and faster, than in this used-up quarter of the globe. An octavo pamphlet of 600 pages, made up of medical opinions on the state of mind of a New York merchant, is an indication of the thoroughness with which our medical brethren in America go into questions of this sort. The inquiry, indeed, involved a very large amount of property, namely, about a million of dollars; and, as in all cases where a testator of dubious mental capacity has been surrounded by interested persons during life, the attempt to prove his mental unsoundness after death was an matter of very different complexion to that which any fair inquiry into his state during life would have been. In this country, it is well known that dead men have occasionally made wills; and that sometimes, to save the tender consciences of persons who were not absolutely prepared to swear that black was white, a living fly has been put into the dead man's mouth, so that the witness might conscientiously (?) swear that "there was indeed life in him. when he signed." In all seriousness, we are bound to applaud the acute and searching examination of evidence displayed in these medical opinions, and the clearly argued manner in which the conclusions are deduced. They prove that in America no attempt is made to limit the opinions of medical experts to merely physical facts, and that their judgment is not only permitted, but encouraged upon the evidence of others testifying to any facts which bear upon the medical question at issue. We regret that the space at our command prevents us from giving any of these opinions in extenso, as an example of the manner in which important lunacy questions are treated in America. The facts, as we gather them with some difficulty from this bulky volume, may be briefly stated as follows: Mr. Henry Parish was a retired new York merchant, of great wealth. He had a wife, but no children. He had two brothers, one of whom had been his partner in business. His wife also had two brothers, namely, Dr. Delafield and Mr. Delafield. When in health, Mr. Parish had been a man of more than usual capacity as a merchant. He retired from trade in 1838. His habits afterwards were not domestic. He spent most of his evenings away from home-at whist parties, at the opera, or at his clubs, where he remained from eight or nine in the evening until one or two at night. His character was "mild, gentle, unruffled, and yet decided." He went on a tour to Europe in 1842. During the two years previous to this date, he had been subject to attacks of vertigo. "It was of the nature of apoplexy, but incomplete." He was unconscious for a short time; there was tendency of blood to the head. "It was a family complaint; his father died of the same thing." He had two or three seizures before leaving for Europe; he also had one at Baden, after getting out of a bath. In September, 1842, before going on the tour to Europe, Mr. Parish executed a just and reasonable will, by which, after providing most liberally for his wife, and even leaving legacies of $10,000 each to her two brothers, he left his own brothers, Daniel and James Parish, his residuary legatees, assigning as a reason for bequeathing to Daniel Parish in particular, that he had made his money together with him as partners in business, and that Daniel Parish, although a man of handsome fortune, had a large and expensive family. After his return from his European tour, he was attacked with apoplexy in a broker's office where he was calling; he became insensible, convulsed, and paralytic; at first there was hemiplegia of the right side, which his brother-in-law described as defect of motion, not of sensation, implicating the right arm, the right leg, and the organs of speech. He subsequently regained considerable control over the movements of the leg, and the muscles of the face soon recovered, but the right arm remained paralysed. In the following October, he had a severe complication of disease, which his brother-in-law and Dr. Markoe attributed to intussusceptio, and a slough of a portion of the lower bowel which came away entirely. He had also one or more attacks of cholera morbus, one severe attack of imflammation of the lungs, an abscess under the angle of the jaw, which threatened suffocation; and "there were various minor attacks from time to time," that is, there was a great deal of swelling of the legs, "his bowels required frequent attention, he had difficulty about the urinary passages, sometimes incontinent, sometimes obstructive, which required surgical interference," and "he was obliged to wear an artificial receptacle to receive the urine." His habits, as we elsewhere learn, were thoroughly those designated as dirty. Before his apoplexy, he had been couched for cataract, which operation had been fairly successful. He now became troubled with the floating of motes before his eyes, or, as the oculist called it, traumatic amaurosis. Altogether a most melan choly picture of a millionaire. One other physical symptom he had of the utmost importance to the question of his mental capacity; he was epileptic; "the seizures were at one period as frequent as two, three, or four times in a month, and occasionally of such severity as to cause alarm for life; he frequently bit his tongue in the fits; and although the medical men who gave evidence of his sanity, manifested a natural aversion to the word epilepsy; there cannot be the least doubt, that these fits were truely epileptic. Sir Henry Holland justly laid great stress upon these epileptic fits, stating that in a practice of forty years, he had never met with a single instance in which successive paralytic and epileptic attacks were conjoined, without the intellect being impaired. The following is the graphic description of these attacks given by his nurse. With regard to the spasms, "they would vary, sometimes two, sometimes three in one month; they varied in duration from 25 to 30 minutes; they came on with a sudden scream, a contraction of all the muscles and organs of the body; the body would be in complete contraction; the face was very black, and the froth would work out of his mouth; there was a sudden twitching of the limbs and body altogether, and very frequently he would bite his tougue which we always had to carry a little stick to prevent, by putting it in his mouth." Mr. Parish survived the attack of paralysis six years; he never however recovered the use of speech; he employed two or more monosylables, which were interpreted by those around him to mean yes" and "no." There is wide diversity of evidence on this point. Mr. Wheaten, an army surgeon, who frequently saw him as a friend of the family, says he never heard Mr. Parish utter any distinct sound but the word "yes." He made mumbling sounds, and he thought |