Wine in the different forms of anaemia and atonic gout.

  • Bégin, M.E.
Date:
[1874]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Wine in the different forms of anaemia and atonic gout. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    intervention of alcohol, however small the doses, is often prejudicial to the temperaments for which the preparation is intended. There is also another in- convenience in these chemical preparations, namely, that the substance employed is not so closely united with the vehicle, it loses less of its bad qualities, and is not so easily introduced into our system ; in one word, it is less assimilable. Now, the action of certain natural mineral waters keeps their component substances in absolute sus- pension, and nearly always without diminution. On the contrary, artificially prepared mineral waters deteriorate in a short time, and especially on contact with the air. This is the reason why these fabrica- tions have fallen in public estimation, and no doctor puts any confidence in them. Thus, between quinquina wine prepared in a laboratory and wine naturally possessing those elements which constitute the efficacy of quinquina wiie, there exists the same difference as between a natural mineral water and a fabricated water. ITature possesses means of preparation and secrets of '.he alembic which it is impossible for science to attain, and which furnish the healing art with agents much more efficacious than those prepared by chemistry. It is thus with iron, which in the diffeient forms in which it is tried is not easily assinilable ; it either escapes digestive action, or it prodices such irritating and exciting effects in the orgarism that its use cannot be long employed. The same with iodine and other bodies, the action of wh.ch may be great, and their direct use produce many inconveniences and often dangers,
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