Any new remedy that promises relief in dropsy will be hailed with pleasure by the profession. Happening into a pharmacy soon after receiving the January _Recorder_, a physician rushed in and inquired for "that new remedy for dropsy--that got rid of 'a gallon and a half of urine in one day.' Have a bad case cardiac dropsy. Want to try it. How do you give it?" He could not get it. "Get me some," was his order. "There is the article, be sure to get the right thing, _Liatris_!" _Liatris spicata_ is the familiar "button-snake-root" that I used to dig every fall for our old family physician (who called himself a "botanic physician") and who gave it for indigestion. It is also called "colic root" and "devil's bit," because a piece is missing from each tuber as a rule, just as if bitten out. _Kost's Medicine_ (my first medical work) describes it as follows: "Root perennial, tuberous, ovate, abrupt, beset around the base with many fine fibers; it is aromatic. Stem round, about three feet high, bearing a spike of scaly purple-colored blossoms, bearing in the aggregate a resemblance to an acorn. The leaves are linear or sword-shaped, somewhat resembling the leaves of young corn. It is found in prairies and open woods in the western States." "The _Liatris_ is an aromatic stimulant, diaphoretic, diuretic, anodyne and carminitive. It is particularly useful in colic, backache and flatulency." It is interesting to know that it has had clinically a good effect in dropsy, (1) due to liver and splenic enlargement, also (2) where the kidneys were involved. In the second case referred to, "_Apocynum can._, _Aralia_, _Digitalis_, _et al._" had been given, but the kidneys failed to respond until the _Liatris_ "was given in infusion," then "on the _second_ day the patient passed _a gallon and a half of urine_"--equal to 192 ounces of urine! In the first case the _Liatris_ was followed by _Ferrum carb_. Whether it will prove equally efficient in cardiac dropsy only time will tell. I hope that the readers of the _Recorder_ will report results, whether favorable or otherwise. The dose that Dr. Bradley gave was about a pint, drank during the course of the day, containing about half an ounce of the root. The tincture will be more convenient, and it is a question if the dilutions will not be equally efficient. Try the third, and then go up or down the scale as the case seems to demand. This drug should be proved. It is harmless. If any young physician will volunteer I will gladly direct him. Infusion of _Digitalis_ (English leaves) is a favorite prescription with some physicians in cases of cardiac dropsy, but I have not found that form any more efficient than the dilution, except in cases where alcohol had been a cause, then _Strophanthus_ or _Arsenicum_ had a better effect. LOLIUM TEMULENTUM. NAT. ORD., Gramineæ. COMMON NAMES, Darnel. (G.) Taumellolch. PREPARATION.--Trituration of the dried seeds.