_Cashew-nut Oil_, from Anacardium occidentale, Linn., Cassuvium pomiferum, Lamk, a large tree very common in the West Indies. The oil is found in the pericarp, and is extracted by ether, which, after being evaporated in open vessels, leaves a thick, brownish black oil--the Cashew-nut oil. This is the oil with which the French physician, Dr. Beauperthuy, in Cumana, Venezuela, claimed to have cured leprosy. An English physician, Dr. Bakewell, who had investigated the treatment of Dr. Beauperthuy, sent a report to both houses of parliament on the beneficial effects of the treatment, and it thus attracted much notice. Dr. Beauperthuy’s method of treatment was the following: good nourishing diet, good hygienic surroundings, frequent warm baths followed by the inunction of olive oil, and internally 1/15 to 1/20 of a grain of bichloride of mercury twice daily, or, when this was contra-indicated, 10 to 20 grs. of carbonate of soda. As external remedies, which Beauperthuy regarded as the most important, he applied different liniments, such as tincture of iodine, to which were added potash lye, olive oil, and balsam of copaiba mixed with yolk of eggs. These liniments he principally applied where herpetic or other eruptions complicated the leprosy, and to the specific eruptions he applied solutions of nitrate of silver or sulphate of copper, but especially Cashew-nut oil. In all this there is nothing new except the oil; all the other remedies have been long, and still are occasionally, used. In the Lungegaard’s hospital, the oil was tried on five patients exactly according to the directions of Dr. Beauperthuy, and after a trial of several months, the results were anything but good. The oil induced irritation, redness, swelling and vesiculation; the leprous tubers and patches remained unaltered, and in one case a leprous eruption developed, probably produced by the irritation of the oil. In Trinidad, too, the same results of the application of the oil were seen, and Dr. Beauperthuy’s treatment has been given up.