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
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

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.

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    330. Spasmodic Diseases. In Chorea and Epilepsy, prolonged courses of the nitrate were formerly much in vogue, and many- cases cured by these means are on record; but the danger of turning blue, taken in connection with the fact that other remedies of equal if not greater efficacy have been discovered, has tended to. bring it into comparative disuse. 331. In Spasmodic Asthma, a course of the nitrate, gr.j daily, in the form of pill, appears in some cases to act beneficially in reducing the force and frequency of the paroxysm. I have seen benefit from it when thus administered. 332. In Hooping Cough. After the acute stage is passed, the nitrate is strongly advised by Trousseau. He uses the subjoined formula: R. Argent. Nit., gr.ss, Syr. Simpl., fgss, Aq. Dest., '^]. M. The dose for a child one year old is a teaspoonful. It is probably inferior to alum {q.v.~). Dr. McNutt^ speaks highly of the practice of treating hooping cough by the local application of a solution of the nitrate (gr. xv, ad Aq., gj) by means of a spray atomizer, but there are great difficulties in the way of applying it in the case of young children, and if it causes struggles or fright, and thereby induces a violent paroxysm of cough, it will do more harm than good. It seems hardly worth the risk. Dr. Eben. Watson ^ relates several cases cured by the application of the nitrate (gr. xv, ad Aq., gj) to the glottis. 333. Diseases of the Mouth and Throai. In Diphtheria, an application formerly recommended was a solution of the nitrate (i part to 3 of distilled water). It should be well applied to the patch and the surrounding turgid mucous membrane. Dr. Morell Mackenzie (p. 163) speaks disparagingly of the nitrate in these cases, and says it is being generally abandoned by those who have had experience in recent epidemics. In fact, he adds, the profession has given up the use of caustics altogether, being convinced that they rather aggravate than check the local process. 334. In Croup its efficacy is maintained by the late Professor W. Mackenzie,* of Glasgow, who applied a strong solution (gr. XX, Aq., '^ j), by means of a large camel's-hair pencil, to the whole of the lining membrane of the fauces, once or twice a day, ac- cording to the severity of the symptoms. In the Sore Throat of Scarlet Fever, Dr. E. Copeman * speaks highly of a solution of the nitrate (gr. iv-viij, ad Aq., gj), applied by means of a brush or syringe. It is specially indicated in those cases in which there is a profuse ichorous discharge from the throat and nostrils, with disposition to sloughing ulcers in the pharynx : here, he says, there is no remedy so successful as the nitrate. In ordinary Relaxed Sore Throat and in Chronic Laryngitis, solutions of the ^ Boston Med. Surg. Journ., Aug. 16, 1871. ' Glasgow Med. Journ., July, 1881. Dublin Med. Press, Feb., 1850. * St. George's Hosp. Reps., 1870.