fully convinced me, that in no forms of chancre, nor in any other stages of the venereal disease, is it proper to exhibit mercury in the unmerciful quantity, and for the prodigious length of time, which custom, ignorance, and prejudice, used to sanction in former days. Violent salivations ought, at all events, to be for ever exploded. When I was an apprentice at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, most of the venereal patients in that establishment were seen with their ulcerated tongues hanging out of their mouths, their faces prodigiously swelled, and their saliva flowing out in streams. The wards were not sufficiently ventilated, and the stench was so great, that the places well deserved the appellation of _foul_. Yet, notwithstanding mercury was thus _pushed_ (as the favourite expression was), it was then common to see many patients suffer the most dreadful mutilations, in consequence of sloughing ulcers of the penis; other patients, whose noses and palates were gone; others who were covered with nodes and dreadful phagedenic sores.” This woful picture is not exaggerated, and cannot be too strongly impressed on the minds of young practitioners. A small quantity of mercury will affect violently some constitutions; as of those who have been in warm climates, or who have taken much of the drug, even in this country. _Eczema Rubrum_, a disease resulting from external causes, but which may also be produced by mercury, often arises from but a very small quantity of that medicine even applied externally. It most frequently affects the scrotum and upper and inner parts of the thighs. It is preceded by heat and itching in the part; a diffused redness appears, and the affected surface is rendered rough by the eruption of numerous minute vesicles. In a short time, these vesicles, if not ruptured, attain the size of a pin’s head, and the included serum becomes opaque and milky. The affection soon extends over the rest of the body in successive large patches, and is accompanied with considerable swelling of the integuments, tenderness of the skin, and itching. The vesicles burst, and discharge a thin acrid fluid, which renders the surrounding surface painful, inflamed, and excoriated. The discharge becomes thicker, adhesive, and fetid, and by its drying, partial yellowish incrustations are formed. The disease terminates in desquamation, and in some cases, the hair and nails are also lost. It is preceded and accompanied with smart fever, and general disorder of the system. _Erethismus_ is another occasional consequence of mercury, characterised by remarkable depression of strength; small, quick, and often unequal pulse; anxiety, sighing, and trembling; a pale contracted countenance, and occasional vomiting. While in this state, sudden exertions are apt to prove fatal. OF SCALDS AND BURNS.