For the vegetable parasites, tricophyton, etc., (microscopical) sulphurous acid ranging from 50 per cent. up is an old tried remedy. Immoderate eating, drinking coffee, and smoking excites the itching with some. Whenever it be decided that no local or constitutional disease can be found as an assignable cause, and that it is purely neurotic in character, we commence to grope in the darkness for remedies. What relieves one will not another; and what relieves for a time will lose its effects altogether. Hot water compresses, a little short of scalding, are good for relief and a good intercurrent remedy. Among the remedies highly recommended are linseed oil, thuja occidentalis, carbolic acid, _citrine ointment_, oil of cade, oxide of zinc, compound tincture of green soap, black wash, and _galvanism_. The anode is placed over the perineum and base of scrotum and the cathode against the anus or within the grasp of the sphincters. Claimed to be a specific. Nerve stretching by divulsion of sphincter muscles is also recommended. Formulæ: ℞ Ung. Citrini ʒ ii Balsam. Peru ʒ iss Acid. Carbol. gr. xx Sulphuris ʒ iii Cerat. Simp. vel Lanolini ℥ i M. ℞ Hyd. Chlor. Mit. ℈ iv Adipis ℥ i M. Said to be specific for pruritis ani or vulvæ. ℞ Hyd. Chlor. Mit. ʒ i Balsam. Peru ʒ iss Acid. Carbol. gr. xx Lanolini ℥ i M. et sig. Apply after hot sponging. ℞ Ol. Cadini ʒ i Acid. Salicyl. gr. xv Ung. Zinci Oxidi q. s. ft. ℥ i M. ℞ Saponi viridis } Ol. Cadini } ā ā ℥ i Alcohol. } M. (Kelsey). ℞ Liq. Carbon. Detergentis (Wright’s). Glycerinæ ā ā ℥ i Zinci Oxidi } Calamini Prep. } ā ā ℥ ss Sulphuris Precip. } Aquæ Puræ ℥ vi M. (Allingham). DIVULSION. Forced dilitation as a means of relief and cure for certain forms of rectal trouble, although a much abused and somewhat barbarous practice, has positive and undoubted merits. It is only justified, however, in peculiar and isolated cases. The wholesale stretching of the sphincter ani muscles as a “cure all” is certainly to be deprecated as unscientific, illogical, and without the advantages or benefits claimed for it by rattling and noisy fanatics. Divulsion injudiciously employed may be followed by a long and tedious recovery, complicated with very undesirable sequelæ and thereby excites much adverse criticism.