Dr. Quinlan then refers to several cases, in which the mullein plant has been tried as a remedy for consumption, and remarks that these cases, although too few to justify any general conclusion, appear to establish some useful facts. The mullein plant boiled in milk is liked by the patients; in watery infusion it is disagreeable, and the succus is still more so. The hot milk decoction causes a comfortable (what our Gallic neighbors call _pectorale_) sensation, and when once patients take it they experience a physiological want, and when the supply was once or twice interrupted, complained much in consequence. That it eases phthisical cough there can be no doubt; in fact, some of the patients scarcely took their cough mixtures at all--an unmixed boon to phthisical sufferers with delicate stomachs. Its power of checking phthisical looseness of the bowels was very marked, and experiment proved that this was not merely due to the well known astringent properties of boiled milk. It also gave great relief to the dyspnoea. For phthisical night sweats it is utterly useless; but these can be completely checked by the hypodermic use of from one-eighteenth to one-fiftieth of a grain of the atropia sulphate; the smaller dose, if it will answer, being preferable, as the larger causes dryness of the pharynx, and interferes with ocular accommodation. In advanced cases, it does not prevent loss of weight, nor am I aware of anything that will, except koumiss. Dr. Carrick, in his interesting work on the koumiss treatment of Southern Russia (page 213), says: "I have seen a consumption invalid gain largely in weight, while the disease was making rapid progress in her lungs, and the evening temperature rarely fell below 101° Fahr. Until then I considered that an increase of weight in phthisis pulmonalis was a proof of the arrest of the malady." If koumiss possesses this power, mullein does not; but unfortunately, as real koumiss can be made from the milk of the mare only, and as it does not bear traveling, the consumptive invalid must go at least to Samara or Southern Russia. In pretubercular and early cases of pulmonary consumption, mullein appears to have a distinct weight-increasing power; and I have observed this in several private cases also. Having no weighings of these latter, however, makes this statement merely an expression of opinion. In early cases, mullein milk appears to act very much in the same manner as cod-liver oil; and when we consider that it is at once cheap and palatable it is certainly worth a trial. I will continue the research by careful weighings of early cases; and will further endeavor to ascertain whether the addition of mullein to the cultivating solution prevents the propagation of the phthisical bacillus. * * * * * ACTION OF MINERAL WATERS AND OF HOT WATER UPON THE BILE.