I have tried all the medicines of the class of antispasmodics, and cannot speak in favour of any one of them. They are either useless or hurtful. The tinctures and ethers are injurious in a very marked manner and in a very high degree. Various other remedies will, of course, be suggested to the judicious practitioner by the peculiar circumstances of each case. * * * * * I may seem to some persons to have dwelt too tediously on the poisonous properties of iodine; but let it be recollected, by those who have had opportunities of becoming acquainted with its virtues, that this medicine is as yet almost unknown to the numerous practitioners who are now daily using it; that it is a medicine of singular power and efficacy in a great class of disorders, with which the inhabitants of this country are peculiarly afflicted; that this most useful remedy may be divested of all its deleterious properties; that, therefore, it will probably come into general use among us; and they will allow that I have not bestowed too much time on this important subject. I wish the details had been more complete, that my experience had been more extensive, and that I had been better able to satisfy the reader’s curiosity and my own. Some of my readers, who have lately been in the habit of using iodine cautiously, and of watching its effects, may think that I have overcharged the picture of its baneful properties; but I have been an eyewitness of all I have written; and I should extend this treatise much beyond the limits I have assigned to it, did I detail all the cases that have reached me of the mischief it has produced. I am glad, however, to add my testimony to that of Coindet, de Carro, and others, that this medicine may most certainly be deprived of all its hurtful qualities, by using it cautiously and watching its effect. Like all other powerful medicines, when its action is not controlled by the hand of a master, its energies become a source of mischief and ruin, instead of restoring the blessings of health and strength; but when well managed, it is a most useful remedy, and a valuable addition to our materia medica. I have used it myself in a great number of cases, and I have never yet, in my own practice, had occasion to regret the occurrence of any of the violent symptoms I have described. I have more than once discontinued the medicine on finding the pulse become frequent, small, and depressed, on account of watchfulness, flying pains of the joints, tremors, or pain at the stomach; but having early detected these symptoms, they were not allowed to become formidable. Dr. Coindet states, that he has prescribed the medicine to one hundred and fifty patients, and that he has never had occasion to observe any mischief from its use.[3] Dr. Decarro has given it at Vienna to one hundred and twenty patients; Dr. Erlinger, of Zurich, to seventy; and Dr. Formey has prescribed it extensively, in Prussia, with the same favourable results.