Up to date that identical patient has had neither a "fit" nor any approximation thereto, and that fact is an occasion of this paper. One who already discerns the first gray shadows of that night which comes to all, does not now write at the urging, or the _itching_, of the Ego. He disclaims any merit, having evinced only a monkey-like imitativeness. He had from the Infinite, the gift of a good memory, and an old book, picked up one happy day at a street stall, flashed into recollection some twelve years later, and enabled him then to imitate the much earlier doing of its worthy author-- "Only the actions of the just Smell sweet and blossom in the dust." This dead worthy--he that was James Thacher, M. D.--more than any other, made known the virtues of _Pothos foetida_, and gratitude for what his book had taught me to do made me feel that to write up this forgotten remedy were the fittest return that I could make for his well doing. A second incentive, ample enough, is found in the fact that the first homoeopathic paper on _Pothos foet._ has never had a faithful translation into our language, and has not been critically reproduced in any other. A study of the _Homoeopathic Bibliography_, as given in this paper, will teach an impressive lesson not only to the _real_ student of Materia Medica, but also to those who assume the responsibilities of editorship. A third inducement, and perhaps a pardonable, is the singular fact that much search in our literature has not enabled me to find any assistance of the clinical application of _Pothos foet._ by a homoeopathic practitioner. If any reader knows of any such, he will greatly gratify the writer by making it known. AN EMPIRICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY.[K] [K] As my researches are confined to my own library, I do not profess to be exhaustive. I have not given all the references at my command, but have aimed to include such writers as have made positive contributions to our knowledge of this drug. Of my list, only Rafinesque is a mere (but a useful) compiler. 1785. Rev. Dr. M. Cutler.--_Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences._ Boston. 1787. D. J. D. Schoepf, M. D.--_Materia Medica Americana potissimum Regni Vegetabilis._ Erlangen. (Not in my possession. Quoted from Barton.) 1813. James Thacher, M. D.--_The American New Dispensatory._ Boston. (This is the second edition wherein Pothos is mentioned for the first time. Our citations are from the fourth edition. Boston, 1821.) 1817. James Thacher, M. D.--_American Modern Practice, etc._ Boston. 1818. Jacob Bigelow, M. D.--_American Medical Botany, etc._ Vol. 2. Boston. 1820. Wm. M. Hand.--_The House-Surgeon and Physician._ Second edition. New Haven. 1822. Jacob Bigelow, M. D.--_A Sequel to the Pharmacopoeia of the U. S._ Boston. 1822. John Eberle, M. D.--_Materia Medica and Therapeutics._ Philadelphia. (The citations are from the fourth edition. Philadelphia, 1836.)