The preparations of lead seem to act upon the nervous system, destroying its energy, and thereby producing paralysis. Whether this is effected through the medium of the circulation, or whether they produce their effects without being absorbed, appears to us to be a question which has not hitherto received a satisfactory answer. It must, however, be admitted that they act upon the alimentary canal, by coming into contact with its nerves; and in some cases, where the dose of the _acetate_ has been large, it may have produced death by the local injury which it inflicted. _Dr. Lambe_ observes upon this subject, that “certain facts render it probable that lead does not operate entirely through the medium of the circulation, nor by nervous sympathy; but also topically, affecting the part to which it is applied more than the other parts of the body.” This latter position is clearly established by the beneficial effects occasioned by the topical application of lead to inflamed surfaces; nor can any doubt exist as to the fact of such applications having produced local paralysis. There is a paper in the third volume of the _Medical Transactions_ by _Dr. Reynolds_, in which the case of a gentleman is detailed, who brought on a temporary paralysis of the _sphincter ani_, by freely using _Goulard’s_ lotion for the cure of piles. Foreign writers have also maintained that saturnine applications have frequently occasioned impotence; for further information upon this subject the reader may refer to _Istitutione di Medicina Forens: di Tortosa_, _vol._ 1, _p._ 58; also _Fritze Compend: sopra i Malat. Vener._ _p._ 189; and _Monteggia Annotat. sopra i Mali Venerei_, _p._ 36. _Sir George Baker_ states that he has some reason to doubt, whether _litharge_, the common basis of our plasters, when used for the purpose of dressing issues, has not, in certain irritable constitutions, produced some of the ordinary effects of saturnine preparations taken internally. There have been instances of children thrown into convulsions, by _cerusse_, sprinkled on excoriated parts. _Zeller_ quotes, on the authority of _Molingius_, a remarkable instance of the pernicious effects of _litharge_, externally applied.[389] _Sir George Baker_ met with a most violent and obstinate colic, which seemed to have been occasioned by some litharge, mixed in a cataplasm, and applied to the _vagina_, with a view to allay a troublesome itching; and he says that he was informed by _Dr. Petit_ that _Goulard’s poultice_ applied for some time to a patient’s knee, in St. George’s hospital, occasioned violent pain in the bowels, which did not cease until the poultice had been removed; nor are authorities deficient to prove, that the fashionable application of _cerusse_ to the skin has been followed by obstinate colics, pains, and tremors. We have been desirous of laying before our readers the above authorities, in proof of the constitutional