Lithium benzoicum

Volume I — Appendix

Description. — Prepared by heating Carbonate of lithia and water with Benzoic acid until effervescence ceases, filter, and evaporate to dryness. It is soluble in 3} parts cold and 2} parts hot water.

Preparation. — Aqueous solution or triturations.

° Diminishes the uric acid deposits.

Consult the pathogeneses of Lithium and Benzoic acid.

Volume II — Special Therapeutics

Dr. T. O. Summers says : “ In our hands Benzoate of lithia has often a most magical effect in diminishing the uric acid deposits, and increasing the free hippuric acid of the urine. It will thus be seen that this agent acts in a manner entirely different from the alkalies in the cure of uric acid deposits. Benzoate of lithia acts upon the urine before it leaves the blood, converting the uric acid which would otherwise be deposited into hippuric acid, a harmless agent, which passes off in solution, leaving no ill effects. The alkalies do not act in this way. They dissolve the uric acid directly after it has left the blood. Hence, while they are clearly indicated in those cases in which the acidity of the urine is so great as. to produce irritability of the bladder, or any part of the genito-urinary apparatus, it is clear that they cannot change the lithic acid diathesis — an end which we may hope to attain according to the rationale of the Benzoate of lithia action.” — “ Nashville Journal of Medicine and Surgery.”

BEBBEKIS AQUIFOLIUM.

This unproven remedy is being used a good deal on the Pacific Slope, and latterly in the East. I doubt if it comes up to the expectations of its friends. Dr. Bundy, of California, writes of it:

“ In the introduction of this new drug to the profession I must say that, as a shrub, it is one of considerable beauty, and is on this account cultivated in our California gardens, and can be found at most of our florists, who find a large sale for it as a flowering