On the medicinal qualities of the Bebeeru bark of British Guiana / by Douglas Maclagen.

Date:
[1843]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the medicinal qualities of the Bebeeru bark of British Guiana / by Douglas Maclagen. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    success in a case of atonic dyspepsia, where it restored the ap- petite, and removed the bitter taste in the mouth and the unea- siness after meals; but as its action here presents nothing differ- ent from that of any ordinary bitter, and as the results obtained are not of the same decisive character as in ague or periodic headache, I have refrained in the mean time from extending my trials of it. As regards the features which are characteristic of bebeerine as a therapeutic agent generally, I think that the above cases entitle us to consider that it is a marked antiperiodic and tonic, and consequently that there is good reason to believe that it may be applied to the same purposes for which the more expensive sulphate of quinine is employed. Contrasted with quinine, I should say from what I have ob- served in my own patients, that it is not so liable to excite the circulation. Dr Watt, in one of his letters, writes to me, I took ten grains of the sulphate on going to bed on 27th Novem- ber, by way of trial. The taste was not more bitter than quinine but continued much longer in the throat. It has a very astrin- gent taste, causing the point of the tongue to have a leathery feel I felt some fullness about the ears during the night, but no ring- ing. The same quantity of quinine would have made my ears ring for a whole night, and made me feel nervous next morning After the bebeerine I had no nervous feelings whatever. ^ In a subsequent letter he says, Whether or not the bebee- nne affects the head like quinine, still remains a question. Dr -Blair s patients said not—mine that it did. But as my patients were stupid Portuguese, and had to be enquired at through an mterpreter, who put a leading question, they may have answered yes, from politeness. _ I may state that the astringent taste observed by Dr Watt IS characteristic of the salts of bebeerine, and is in no way con- nected with any adherent impurity, nor does it confer on the sul- phate any astringent action on the bowels. On the contrary in most of the cases in which I used it, the bowels have remained regular without medicine. It is unnecessary to say any thing further here, as to a secret medicine, extensively circulated under the name of Warburg's Fever Drops and which, as I have elsewhere stated, I beheve nthpr rfr. of bebecru, probably of the seeds. Like any other preparation of bebeerine, it may answer for treating inter- .mittent or remittent fevers; but the supposition that it if appli- . cable as a specific i^medy to such a disease as our common con- itmued fever, is a fallacy too obvious to require comment. ]29 George Street, Edinburgh July 3, 1843. '