Iodine was then looked upon as a specific remedy for goitre. Its effect upon the system was little known and little attended to. No person seems even to have considered how it produced its astonishing results. Its efficacy, however, in the cure of goitre, was soon generally recognised. Its reputation flew over the city and neighbourhood of Geneva, and it was taken with the utmost levity, with and without medical advice. Dr. Coindet justly deplores this abuse, which was the cause of the unmerited discredit into which the remedy afterwards fell. When it had been used for some time in this manner, its pernicious effects began to show themselves; several persons paid for their temerity with their lives, and many were irreparably injured in their health. Every day brought to light some new catastrophe, the effect of iodine; and in the course of a short time its name was associated with the idea of a most intractable and virulent poison. Neither patient nor physician dared venture on its employment. It seemed to be one of those benefits held up to invite the appetite, while its use was denied us. These melancholy consequences of its indiscriminate and lavish employment, show that iodine is a medicine of great power, and teach the necessity of watching and studying its operation. Nothing can assist us more in forming an accurate estimate of its virtues than a careful observation of the bad effects which flow from its abuse; and we shall now, therefore, proceed to consider them in detail. * * * * *