During the summer of 1889,this section was visited by an epidemic of dysentery, with which the physicians here, myself among the number, were unable to cope. I tried everything recommended in works on practice, but was not satisfied with the result. I knew that my grandfather, a hundred years ago, used blue mass and opium in the treatment of this disease, but how to use it, I did not knoiv. After repeated experiments, I found the proper thing to do was to combine i gr. of opium with 2 grs. of blue mass in a pill, and give one pill every two hours until the patient recovered.
On July 1, 1889, I was called upon to treat a lady, •56 years of age, all of whose family had dysentery, one son 20 years of age, having died a few days previously. She had had the disease ten days, and been