Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette. — 1891-02-28 (Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England)

CHINESE TREATMENT OF CHOLERA.  A native newspapv in Shanghai lately published ' an article by a Chinese medical practitioner on the proper treatment of cholera, a disease specially fatal to Chinese. The writer notices seven symptoms of cholera—vomiting, diarrhcea, low pulse, cold limbs, perspiration, spasms, and exhaustion. His practice is at once to order a pre• pared dose to be heated and taken warm to the extent of a good-sized tea-cupful. In this dose the main things are ginger, ginseng, Chinese cardamoms, and a sort of caraway seed. After this the patient receives atractylodes alba, called pedal by the apothecaries, a medicine of which the Chinese think a great deal as an aromatic tonic and stimulant. They- use it in cases of profuse sweating and apoplexy, chronic dysentery, and rheumatism. It belongs to the cparacem, among the species of which are found many plants known in Europe as urnisliing useful stomachic and febrifuge medicines. If the disease progresses still into the spasmodic state with numbness of the limbs he would use pavnia albe fora with boymia rutavarpa, and a pepper wort, known to druggists by the name of araatharylunt piperitam. It is one of the commoner aromatic stimulants in China and Japan. To this he 'adds a cinnamon bark. To soothe the extraordinary derangement of the system he gives pig's liver mixed with brick dust from the inside of a furnace—a mixture known as "liver of the hiding dragon." To this are added two or three ounces of ginger. He notices as curious that the name of the disease does not occur in Chinese literature before the middle of the 17th century, and says that it came with the present dynasty from Manchuria, spreading from the north southward. He remarks the use of the name "Manchurian sickness" any of "the foreign cholera." Chinese doctors appear, from what is here said, to be fond of using mild remedies, while they avoid those which are very powerful in their operation; as to the nature of the medicines, they appear, on the whole, much the same as our own.  The body of a man, supposed to be French, has been found on the foreshore of Deal. The body was in a large pool of blood. No explanation of the mystery is yet forthcominer.  The floods in West Virginia are still causing enormous damage and much suffering. The town of Parkersburg is completely submerged and cut off from communication with the outside, and the inhabitants of the riverside are camping on the hills until the waters subside. The overflowing of the river at Findlay, Ohio, has driven all residents of the lower section of the town from their homes.  William Adlam, a locally famous centenarian, died at Taunton on Sunday night at the age of 106. He was born at Dunning, St. Mary in Wiltshire, in 1784, and spent his younger days as a shepherd on the Wiltshire Downs. He went to live at Taunton when 30 years old, and worked there as a gardener until about 20 years ago. He took walking exercise frequently until within a fortnight of his death. The Canterbury police were on Sunday called to the house of a licensed victualler, named Tillotson, who had cut his throat and resolutely refused to have the wound dressed. The man had to be overpowered and removed to the hospital on an ambulance. It was then found that in addition to the wound in the throat he had stabbed himself in one armpit. The wounds are of a serious character. At ' the Newcastle Assizes, on Saturday, George Walls, labourer, who had been charged with the wilful murder of Dennis O'Neil, dealer in waste paper, but was eventually convicted of manslaughter was sentenced to eight years' penal servitude. The prisoner was apprehended on his own confession, at Sunderland; but it did not appear that there was any premeditation of tlio fatal attack on O'Neil.  Only casual information has been furnished the House of Commons as to the manner in which the large sums of money authorised under the Imperial Defence Act 1888, the Naval Defence Act 1889, and the Barracks Act 1890, have been expended. The Chancellor of the Exchequer is being pressed to lay a return on the table, so that members may be fully informed on the subject before the debate on the Budget.