A manual of practical therapeutics : considered with reference to articles of the materia medica / by Edward John Waring ; edited by Dudley W. Buxton.

Edward John Waring

Date:: 1886

Credit: A manual of practical therapeutics : considered with reference to articles of the materia medica / by Edward John Waring ; edited by Dudley W. Buxton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

119/720 (page 89)

$Owing to the liability to the deposition of the silver salts in the rete, it is ad- visable before administering a course of the drug to warn the patient of such possible consequence. In small doses silver salts constipate, a tendency to be counteracted during their administration. As pigmentation is first to be detected in the mucous membrane of the mouth, any discoloration there is a sign to stop the silver. Local applications, when producing unsightly staining, should be replaced by hyposulphite of soda (gr. x-^^j). This removes the stain. Solutions of common salt are effectual antidotes to silver, a useful point to be remembered in accidental swallowing of lunar caustic sticks. Silver salts, formerly largely employed as internal remedies, have at the present time had their use almost restricted to external applications. As internal remedies, they are had recourse to in gastro-intestinal affections and certain disorders of the nervous system. Dose of the Nitrate :—Gr. %—] or more. 315. Therapeutic Uses. Diseases of the Abdominal Viscera. In Chronic Gastric Ulcer, nitrate of silver is useful: it acts bene- ficially in much the same class of cases as arsenic. The irritation and vomiting of gastric ulcer are sometimes relieved, as also happens in Gastralgia. Dr. James Johnson used to advise a pill of gr. ss of Argent. Nitr. combined with Ext. Hyosc, gr. ij-iv in hypergesthetic states of the gastric mucous membrane, espe- cially when associated with Hypochondriasis. 316. Pyrosis sometimes yields to this remedy, while Chrofiic Gastritis, according to Professor Wood, is better treated by silver than by any other drug. 317. In ChronicDiarrhcea,vfh&r\t\\estoolsdiXtwdLteryorvcmcous, the nitrate has been found serviceable when other astringents and tonics have failed. The obstinate Diarrhoea of Children often improves under the following formula, originally proposed by Dr. Willshire: E. Argent. Nit., gr. j, Acid. Nitric. dil.,Ti^v, Mu- cilag. Acacia, Syr. Simp., aa 3vj. M. Sumat f.^j 4ta quaque hora. It may be given safely to children of a year old. In the Diarrhxa of Phthisis, Graves regards nitrate of silver, in doses of gr.j three or four times daily, one of the best remedies. In the Diarrhoea of Enteric Fever, Trousseau advised a pill com- posed of Arg. Nitr., gr.i^-j with Pil. Sap. Co., gr.i-ij; but Dr. Harley regards it as inferior to Cupri Sulph. {q.v.^. 318. In the advanced stages of Acute Dysentery, and in Chronic Dysentery, no remedy in my hands has proved more uniformly useful than nitrate of silver, in doses of gr.ss-iss daily, re- duced to fine powder and conjoined with Pulv. Ipecac. Co. in the form of pill. Its effects are often very remarkable, and even in young children, to whom I have prescribed it extensively, no ill effects have followed its use. Others have also testified to its value in these cases. It has also been extensively employed in the form of enema; and some few years since considerable atten- tion was called to Dr. Hare's^ plan of treatment of Acute and ^ Indian Ann. of Med. Sci., i, p. 486.$