For medicinal purpose, brucine is procured from “la fausse angusture” (angustura ferruginea). The process is in most respects similar to that employed for strychnine. It is administered in pills, and has been employed in paralytic cases with reported success by M. Magendie, and by M. Andrals fils, in doses from half a grain to five grains; and it is assuredly a much safer preparation than strychnine. The active properties of ipecacuanha have been found by M. M. Magendie and Pelletier, to reside in an immediate principle which they have called _emetine_. They consider that it may be advantageously substituted for ipecacuanha, as an emetic, it being divested of the offensive odour and taste of that substance, and which M. Caventou found by experiment to be foreign to the emetic qualities of the medicine. As an emetic, from a quarter to a whole grain in solution may be first given, and a quarter or half a grain repeated every twenty minutes till the due effect be produced. _Veratrine_ is an alkali procured by a long chemical process from the plants of the family of veratrum. It appears to be the chief active principle residing in the colchicum autumnale, and in white hellebore. M. Magendie states that the dose of a quarter of a grain usually affects the intestinal canal rather powerfully. In a case of apoplexy, he prescribed two grains in the twenty-four hours without producing much effect on the bowels. He comments on this result, as proving how much the state of the nervous system influences the action of medicines. M. Magendie suggests that the use of veratrine might be preferable to the tincture of colchicum and the eau médicinale (which latter medicine he considers to be substantially veratrine), on account of the greater uniformity of the preparation. In the treatment of gout, I am induced to avoid the active preparations of colchicum entirely; and in employing the acetum colchici, which is very mild, I use it only in combination with other medicines, and desire to procure from its agency rather an auxiliary operation, than that of colchicum distinctly. I have endeavoured to explain my sentiments fully on the subject in my Treatise on Gout and the disordered State of the Digestive Organs. With these observations, I shall now conclude my summary view of the nature of the principal new medicines, which have been added to our list of remedies by the science and industry of our continental neighbours[11]. It would lead to an interesting field of inquiry, were we to examine the general customs and the habits of living in different countries, in relation to health; and to trace the influence of climate, soil, political and civil institutions, laws, religion, &c. But the subject would demand a volume, rather than a few pages, and be foreign to my present limited purpose.