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CHIAN TURPENTINE IN CANCER.
637 of solid
sometimes given in twenty-four a smaller quantity sufficed. After a few weeks the patients complained of the pills (opium) purging them, which was really because about then large black and often fetid stools were passed. In fact, the first stools were remarkably copious with large scybala, for no other drug was given, and I cannot, now, have treated less than two hundred such (as the latter ones) Other cases, not one of which has terminated fatally. medical officers-several years since, before Dr. Brinton’s work was generally read-have at my suggestion tried this treatment in similar cases and with equal success. I am. Sir. vour obedient servant.
grains
opium
were
hours, although, generally,
CHARLES P. COSTELLO, Surgeon-Major, Bengal Medical Department, Officer in charge, 1st Goorkha, L.I. Jagdallack Kotal, Afghanistar1, July 27th, 1880
CHIAN TURPENTINE IN CANCER. To the Editor of THE LANCET. I may be excused if I decline to reply to the attack made upon me by Messrs. Hickinbotham and Tait in last week s LANCET. In Birmingham, where all of us are known, there is no need for reply. To readers at a distance I may say that I cannot hold myself responsible for the, failures of Dr. Hickinbotham and Mr. Tait, who unite with curious eagerness to testify that they can do nothing with a remedy which in other hands has proved itself valuable. As it seems that their experience extends over a very short period, it is not likely to be accepted as weighty, still less as
SIR,—I hope
conclusive. With your permission I shall, from time to time, continue
to report facts, which come under my observation ; and I shall venture to ask candid members of the profession to do the same, as the truth can be established only by experiments
widely conducted, undertaken without prejudice, and extending over a sufficient period to afford a real test of the value of Chian turpentine in cancer. T
am.
Birmingham, October 10th,
Stir-
1880.
vnurs
obedientiy.
JOHN CLAY.
THE HEALTH-RESORTS OF THE HARZ MOUNTAINS.
(From our Roving Co?-2-espondent.) WHEREVER fresh air, temptations towards wholesome exercise and abundant opportunities for the relaxation of the mind are to be found, there may health also be met with, and since these health-giving opportunities all exist in the Harz, together with some few more special aids towards the recovery of tone, lost either through disease or undue application to professional work, we propose to give a brief sketch of the chief characteristics of a district which is not perhaps one of those which is most intimately known to British travellers. The Harz is easily reached, and if the traveller be not afraid of a thirty-six hours’ voyage, I should advise him to follow my example and go direct from London to Hamburg by steamboat. If the weather be favourable no better beginning to a holiday can be imagined than the enforced idleness, the sunlight, and the fresh air, which are the concomitants of a lucky voyage, but I say nothing of the horrors of an overfilled packet in rough weather, when ports are closed and the unhappy passengers spend their time in the stifling atmosphere of a prison lazaretto, in which that "chance of being drowned " of which Dr. Johnson spoke becomes in no short time a consummation devoutly to be wished. The visitor to the Harz will use his own judgment in such a matter, for it can also be approached with great readiness viâ Calais and Cologne, or by half a dozen otherroutes, of which he can take his choice. From Hamburg to Brunswick is but a short journey, and from the latter place to Harzburg, the most north-westerly point in the mountains, where accommodation is be found, may figuratively be spoken of as "a mere step." The Harz is a mountainous forest, about fifty miles long and twenty miles wide, running obliquely from the north-
to
It rises with strange abruptness from the sandy plain of North Germany. Round it is a girdle of railway which connects the important towns of Goslar to the west, Halberstadt to the north, Halle to the east, andNordhausen to the south. From the northern half of this iron girdle run branch lines southward which just touch the mountains at Clausthal, Harzburg, Wernigerode, Blauken burg, Thale, and Ballenstedt, and serve to carry travellers and bring away the wood, iron, lead, manganese, silver, and other minerals which the district produces. A railway is being talked of to go right through the Harz from Nordhausen to Ballenstedt, but this enterprise is as yet in an embryonic condition, the surveyors having only just commenced their work. 1 can add very little to the two words used to describe the Harz at the beginning of the last paragraph. It is a "mountainous forest." The mountains are none of them very high; the famous " Brocken," which towers considerably above its fellows, being about the height of Snowdon, and being almost the only one which is not wooded to its summit. The forest is everywhere surpassingly beautiful, and for the variety of foliage to be found therein it greatly excels the Black Forest, and rivals the lake districts of Cumberland or our own New Forest. The oak, beech, birch, and mountain ash are to be found in great quantities ; and pines, it is needless to be said, are everywhere. There are no lakes, but rippling mountain torrents make music upon every side. The soil is almost everywhere porous, being composed of granitic and shaly detritus ; and this fact, coupled with the universally undulating nature of the ground, ensures that the effects of rain are not of long duration, and that out-of-door exercise is usually possible the moment that it is dry overhead. As in all northern mountainous districts, rain is not uncommon, but it is neither so frequent nor so severe as always is the case at Killarney, and nearly always in Cumberland. The absence of lakes, the insignificant size of the rivulets, and the great number of open-air restaurants scattered here and there all testify to the fact. The two great industries of the district are wood-cutting and mining, the latter having its headquarters at Clausthal. The climate is a temperate one, with perhaps rather more sun and certainly less rain than we are accustomed to at home. The almost entire absence of any of the more delicate fruits (even in September) and vegetables from the country markets is an indication that we are in a country verging on the barren north, while an occasional glimpse of a snow-plough by the roadside, or of a disused sledge hanging from the beams of an inn coachhouse, serve to remind one that here the rigours of winter are such as we in England have no acquaintance with. Before going into details with regard to anyone of the resorts of the Harz mountains, it may be well to state what are the good and bad points (from the point of view of the traveller and health-seeker) of the district generally. To take the good points first-we may say, imprimis, that the inhabitants appear to be universally obliging, scrupulously honest, and deferentially polite, and I feel sure that a lady might travel throughout the district without suffering molestation The roads are everywhere magor incivility of any kind. nificent, and well-kept footpaths for the convenience of visitors lead to all the most picturesque and interesting points. The average German does not appreciate scrambling over rocks and boulders. Quiet contemplation and rumination are his natural occupations, and he prefers to take his pleasure and his ease together, and is ready to climb to the summits of the hills provided he can do so leisurely and comfortably without having to fling away his cigar, or being obliged to discontinue his disputations or his ruminations for the sake of looking after the safety of his limbs. The points of view are all railed in, and finger-posts are so plentiful that in the depths of the forest it is not possible to lose one’s way. This ample provision of paths is a great boon to ladies and persons who are not blessed with a great amount of physical vigour. Even the most determined pedestrian or climber is not allowed in the Harz to run the risk of exhaustion for want of food, for wherever he is likely to be tempted to press forward his footsteps, there he is equally sure to find the inevitable restaurant and gasthaus; and, indeed, the lively German kellner, flitting to and fro with pyramids of glittering golden beer, seems as native to the soil as the grasshopper or the dragon-fly. The omnipresence of "refreshment" is a kind of thing to which in England we are apt to apply the west to the south-east.
term "cockney,"but
the
cockney is often
a
practical indi-
sometimes given in twenty-four a smaller quantity sufficed. After a few weeks the patients complained of the pills (opium) purging them, which was really because about then large black and often fetid stools were passed. In fact, the first stools were remarkably copious with large scybala, for no other drug was given, and I cannot, now, have treated less than two hundred such (as the latter ones) Other cases, not one of which has terminated fatally. medical officers-several years since, before Dr. Brinton’s work was generally read-have at my suggestion tried this treatment in similar cases and with equal success. I am. Sir. vour obedient servant.
grains
opium
were
hours, although, generally,
CHARLES P. COSTELLO, Surgeon-Major, Bengal Medical Department, Officer in charge, 1st Goorkha, L.I. Jagdallack Kotal, Afghanistar1, July 27th, 1880
CHIAN TURPENTINE IN CANCER. To the Editor of THE LANCET. I may be excused if I decline to reply to the attack made upon me by Messrs. Hickinbotham and Tait in last week s LANCET. In Birmingham, where all of us are known, there is no need for reply. To readers at a distance I may say that I cannot hold myself responsible for the, failures of Dr. Hickinbotham and Mr. Tait, who unite with curious eagerness to testify that they can do nothing with a remedy which in other hands has proved itself valuable. As it seems that their experience extends over a very short period, it is not likely to be accepted as weighty, still less as
SIR,—I hope
conclusive. With your permission I shall, from time to time, continue
to report facts, which come under my observation ; and I shall venture to ask candid members of the profession to do the same, as the truth can be established only by experiments
widely conducted, undertaken without prejudice, and extending over a sufficient period to afford a real test of the value of Chian turpentine in cancer. T
am.
Birmingham, October 10th,
Stir-
1880.
vnurs
obedientiy.
JOHN CLAY.
THE HEALTH-RESORTS OF THE HARZ MOUNTAINS.
(From our Roving Co?-2-espondent.) WHEREVER fresh air, temptations towards wholesome exercise and abundant opportunities for the relaxation of the mind are to be found, there may health also be met with, and since these health-giving opportunities all exist in the Harz, together with some few more special aids towards the recovery of tone, lost either through disease or undue application to professional work, we propose to give a brief sketch of the chief characteristics of a district which is not perhaps one of those which is most intimately known to British travellers. The Harz is easily reached, and if the traveller be not afraid of a thirty-six hours’ voyage, I should advise him to follow my example and go direct from London to Hamburg by steamboat. If the weather be favourable no better beginning to a holiday can be imagined than the enforced idleness, the sunlight, and the fresh air, which are the concomitants of a lucky voyage, but I say nothing of the horrors of an overfilled packet in rough weather, when ports are closed and the unhappy passengers spend their time in the stifling atmosphere of a prison lazaretto, in which that "chance of being drowned " of which Dr. Johnson spoke becomes in no short time a consummation devoutly to be wished. The visitor to the Harz will use his own judgment in such a matter, for it can also be approached with great readiness viâ Calais and Cologne, or by half a dozen otherroutes, of which he can take his choice. From Hamburg to Brunswick is but a short journey, and from the latter place to Harzburg, the most north-westerly point in the mountains, where accommodation is be found, may figuratively be spoken of as "a mere step." The Harz is a mountainous forest, about fifty miles long and twenty miles wide, running obliquely from the north-
to
It rises with strange abruptness from the sandy plain of North Germany. Round it is a girdle of railway which connects the important towns of Goslar to the west, Halberstadt to the north, Halle to the east, andNordhausen to the south. From the northern half of this iron girdle run branch lines southward which just touch the mountains at Clausthal, Harzburg, Wernigerode, Blauken burg, Thale, and Ballenstedt, and serve to carry travellers and bring away the wood, iron, lead, manganese, silver, and other minerals which the district produces. A railway is being talked of to go right through the Harz from Nordhausen to Ballenstedt, but this enterprise is as yet in an embryonic condition, the surveyors having only just commenced their work. 1 can add very little to the two words used to describe the Harz at the beginning of the last paragraph. It is a "mountainous forest." The mountains are none of them very high; the famous " Brocken," which towers considerably above its fellows, being about the height of Snowdon, and being almost the only one which is not wooded to its summit. The forest is everywhere surpassingly beautiful, and for the variety of foliage to be found therein it greatly excels the Black Forest, and rivals the lake districts of Cumberland or our own New Forest. The oak, beech, birch, and mountain ash are to be found in great quantities ; and pines, it is needless to be said, are everywhere. There are no lakes, but rippling mountain torrents make music upon every side. The soil is almost everywhere porous, being composed of granitic and shaly detritus ; and this fact, coupled with the universally undulating nature of the ground, ensures that the effects of rain are not of long duration, and that out-of-door exercise is usually possible the moment that it is dry overhead. As in all northern mountainous districts, rain is not uncommon, but it is neither so frequent nor so severe as always is the case at Killarney, and nearly always in Cumberland. The absence of lakes, the insignificant size of the rivulets, and the great number of open-air restaurants scattered here and there all testify to the fact. The two great industries of the district are wood-cutting and mining, the latter having its headquarters at Clausthal. The climate is a temperate one, with perhaps rather more sun and certainly less rain than we are accustomed to at home. The almost entire absence of any of the more delicate fruits (even in September) and vegetables from the country markets is an indication that we are in a country verging on the barren north, while an occasional glimpse of a snow-plough by the roadside, or of a disused sledge hanging from the beams of an inn coachhouse, serve to remind one that here the rigours of winter are such as we in England have no acquaintance with. Before going into details with regard to anyone of the resorts of the Harz mountains, it may be well to state what are the good and bad points (from the point of view of the traveller and health-seeker) of the district generally. To take the good points first-we may say, imprimis, that the inhabitants appear to be universally obliging, scrupulously honest, and deferentially polite, and I feel sure that a lady might travel throughout the district without suffering molestation The roads are everywhere magor incivility of any kind. nificent, and well-kept footpaths for the convenience of visitors lead to all the most picturesque and interesting points. The average German does not appreciate scrambling over rocks and boulders. Quiet contemplation and rumination are his natural occupations, and he prefers to take his pleasure and his ease together, and is ready to climb to the summits of the hills provided he can do so leisurely and comfortably without having to fling away his cigar, or being obliged to discontinue his disputations or his ruminations for the sake of looking after the safety of his limbs. The points of view are all railed in, and finger-posts are so plentiful that in the depths of the forest it is not possible to lose one’s way. This ample provision of paths is a great boon to ladies and persons who are not blessed with a great amount of physical vigour. Even the most determined pedestrian or climber is not allowed in the Harz to run the risk of exhaustion for want of food, for wherever he is likely to be tempted to press forward his footsteps, there he is equally sure to find the inevitable restaurant and gasthaus; and, indeed, the lively German kellner, flitting to and fro with pyramids of glittering golden beer, seems as native to the soil as the grasshopper or the dragon-fly. The omnipresence of "refreshment" is a kind of thing to which in England we are apt to apply the west to the south-east.
term "cockney,"but
the
cockney is often
a
practical indi-