Conolly, late of Cheltenham, who was residing in Tours during an epidemic which had resisted all the efforts of Bretonneau and his confreres, and who gladly followed a method which was then attended with the most unexpected results. The favorable testimony afforded by the experience of this period, led to the employment of mercury at the first outbreak of the disease in this country; but it was soon for the most part agreed upon, that such is the asthenic nature of the disease as now generally witnessed, that not only is depletion in any form to be deprecated, but that the induction of mercurial action is indefensible either in theory or practice.
The same conviction that discountenanced the use of depletion and depressing agents, soon led to the adoption of a method in every way the reverse, and it may now be said to be conceded by almost universal consent that the treatment must be tonic, and, in every sense of the word, sustaining. The number and variety of tonic medicines which have been confided in by those called upon to treat the disease on a large scale, must, I think, show unmistakeably that, provided the strength of the patient be maintained, it becomes a matter of secondary consideration by which of these medicines the end is accomplished. Success has followed the use of several forms of medicine, provided that the patient has been enabled to take freely of wine and nourishment. Those more generally trusted to have been the hydrochloric acid, chlorate of potash, and the muriated tincture of iron. Many cases have done well under the two former medicines, either given alone or in combination, but I have always given the preference to the muriated tincture of
