Dr. J. H. Nordlin,[82] of Rome, Ga., has used it successfully as an anaphrodisiac, as also a correspondent of the _Lancet_.[83] Dr. O. F. Ham, of North Barnstead, N. H., writes me of a chloral taker, a lady, whom he has questioned closely. She avers that chloral has absolutely no effect on her sexual appetite, which was never marked. Sensitiveness of the organs of generation, a kind of mucous membrane hyperæsthesia, has also been noted by Dr. H. H. Doane,[82] of Litchfield, Ohio, as follows:— “Female, aged forty-two; used chloral for twelve years. Given for insomnia and nervousness of prolapsus uteri, with constipation. Bilious temperament. Dose, twenty grains, four or five times a day. Present condition, prolapsus uteri, obstinate constipation, great loss of flesh and muscular power, appetite poor, stomach weak and tender on pressure; also constant, dull, and sometimes sharp gastric pain. Headache, nervous prostration, loss of mind (general melancholia, with suicidal tendency, if chloral is withdrawn for a few days). No pain in neighborhood of joints, slight dimness of vision accompanying headache. No family history of morphine or opium habit or alcoholism. Extreme sensitiveness of sexual organs.” Its effect on menstruation is slight. It sometimes causes too free flow, sometimes a slight, continuous flow. I can find no facts supporting the belief that it, like morphine or opium, produces sterility. As menstruation seems to be unaffected it is probable that it does not do so. As bearing upon the effect of chloral on menstruation, the following letter is of interest. No replies seem to have been received. _To the Editor of the Lancet_:— SIR—Have any of your correspondents noticed one peculiarity in the action of hydrate of chloral—namely, its power entirely to check the catamenial discharge? I have three patients who are in the habit of taking the drug, for attacks of asthma, and who have assured me that its exhibition is attended with this one drawback, if taken at the onset of the monthly period. I have had no opportunity of verifying their statements, but imagine there must be some truth in them, as they are all three of them in different stations of life, do not know one another, and cannot have compared notes. Moreover, their statements were volunteered, and not elicited by leading questions. Your obedient servant, G. H. R. DABBS, M.D. _Newport, I. W., Sept. 21st, 1872._ CIRCULATION AND COMPOSITION OF THE BLOOD. Aberrations in circulation are due to derangement of the nerves governing the vessels; in other words, the vaso-motor system. Flushing of the face, fullness of the head, redness of the ears, congestion of the eyes, alternating hyperæmia and anæmia of the various organs, is the result. From this cause we have the intense splitting headache one day, vertigo the next.