Case XIV.—Case of Tic, worth the attention of Sufferers in general, and Homœopaths in particular.—(24th November.)

Mr. L. P., shoemaker, Biggar, has been subject to severe attacks of tic for the last twenty years, during which period I have treated him myself some eight or ten times, with quinine, etc., and various external applications; the attacks generally lasting a fortnight or thereby. On Thursday, the 21st, he consulted me for an attack of his old enemy. This was the fifth day of the disease. The pain was most acute in left eyeball, and above the eyebrow across to the temple. It always came on about nine A.M., and lasted till early in the afternoon. I gave as usual a dozen of quinine powders, one to be taken three times daily; and as the patient was suffering much during the consultation, I applied on the instant a pledget of lint, soaked with strong sulphurous acid, and covered over this pledget with oiled silk. I gave him also a phial of the acid, to repeat the application for a few times. In half an hour the pain was gone, before he had time to take one dose of quinine!

What makes me think that the sulphurous acid was the cause of relief is, that the pain left on that occasion two hours before its usual time; and, especially, that it has never since returned, except to a trifling extent next day. When he felt it threaten, he fain would have applied the acid and lint to the eyebrow again; but the part being all blistered from three applications of the previous day, he very sagaciously adopted milder measures. Uncorking his bottle he took a few sniffs up his nostrils, and the potent imponderable homoeopathic dose, thus imbibed, checked it in a moment.

Note.—It would be rash to draw conclusions from a single case. But if this be a fair sample of how we are to deal with tic in future, what a curative weapon have we not discovered for fighting not only page 43 tic, but toothache, rheumatism, neuralgia, sciatica, and a host of other most intractable diseases?

Note.—Since writing the foregoing, I can report as follows:—Slight case of Earache.—One day's duration; slight pain; disagreeable ringing in car : considerable deafness. Treatment.—A few whiffs of spray. Immediate Result.—No pain; no ringing; hearing perfect. Result next day.—Hearing keeps perfect; ringing scarcely perceptible; kept free of pain till midnight, remained sharp for several hours, towards morning some blood escaped from ear, giving great relief. Now (twenty-four hours after spray) so nearly well, that she won't have another whiff.

Toothache.—My experience in toothache is, that spray generally gives relief, but not invariably. To-day I tried first soaking the cavity with strong acid, then applying a pledget of lint, wet with acid, between the gum and cheek. Result.—Immediate relief, which continued during the fifteen minutes of the patient's stay in my house. Query.— How will this acid, frequently applied, affect the teeth? Do harm, like other acids? or good, by preventing decomposition and decay? Beyond all dispute it does good, by preventing decomposition and decay. Indeed, mixed with glycerine, and rubbed on with a sponge, it forms an admirable tooth-wash.

Note for Thirteenth Edition.—As the result of further experience I find that strong sulphurous acid, locally applied, generally gives relief in tic, neuralgia, toothache, sciatica, lumbago, and rheumatic joints. It seems to act both as a counter-irritant and anæsthetic, or like mustard-poultices and chloroform combined; though in some instances it certainly fails. A slight headache, in or near the frontal sinuses, is often relieved by simply smelling the acid from a bottle.