(This brought out the following from Dr. Kirkpatrick in the same journal):
I must say that I feel a little plagued after reading what Dr. Edson says about _Amygdalus_; he has taken the wind out of my sails, but I must give my experience. Quite a number of years since a good friend in the profession called on me, and asked me to visit one of his patients, honestly stating that he thought she would die. I went a few miles in the country to see her. She had been vomiting blood for two or three days, and, notwithstanding she had had oxalate of cerium, bismuth, pepsin, ingluvin and other good remedies, everything she swallowed would come up, so that she looked more like a corpse than a living being. I ordered them to go out and get me some of the young switches of the last year's growth from the peach tree; I had them pound them to loosen the bark; I then nearly filled a tumbler with this bark, then covered it with water. I ordered her a teaspoonful to be taken after each time she vomited, one dose being given then, and one every hour after the vomiting stopped. The result was, she vomited no more and made a good recovery.
* * * In recent cases I have very rarely had to give the second prescription to relieve morning sickness. I was visiting a doctor in Quincy; while there he told me he was afraid he would have either to make a lady abort or let her die, from the fact that he had failed to stop her vomiting. I happened to have a sample of the medicine with me; I gave it to him, he took it to the lady and in a few days he reported her well. I may say, like Dr. Edson, it is a standard remedy with me. I have found it very useful in hæmorrhage from the bladder. Some of my lady patients find it very good in nervous headache. I have used the tincture prepared from the leaves, but it is far inferior to that prepared from the bark of the young shoots. A medical friend was going to see a lady who had morning sickness; he told me he had thought of advising her to use popcorn; I handed him a small bottle of my _Amygdalus_ and told him to take a couple of ears of corn in his pocket and try both. The next time I met him he said my medicine had done the work.
(Dr. Oliver S. Haines, of Philadelphia, also contributed the following experience):