On the physiological and medicinal properties of bromine and its compounds : also on the analogies between the physiological and medicinal properties of these bodies, and those of chlorine and iodine, with their correspondent compounds : being the Harveian Prize Essay for 1842 / by R. M. Glover.

  • Robert Mortimer Glover
Date:
[1842]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the physiological and medicinal properties of bromine and its compounds : also on the analogies between the physiological and medicinal properties of these bodies, and those of chlorine and iodine, with their correspondent compounds : being the Harveian Prize Essay for 1842 / by R. M. Glover. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    M. Bonnet, in a paper published in the Bulletin Gmeral de Therapeutique, July 1837, gives a complete digest of what had been then observed in France with regard to the medicinal uses of bromine and its compounds. He refers to the researches of M. Pourche. In a case of scrofulous enlargement of the glands of the neck in a woman of years of age^ who had been affected for seven years, a cure was effected in three months by the exter- nal and internal use of bromine. At first six drops dissolved in three ounces of water were given in the day, in three doses. Next day, ten drops were given. In ten days, the dose was increased to fourteen drops daily, and at last to thirty drops in the same quantity of water. Cataplasms, moistened with solution of bro- mine, were applied to the swellings. The same physician had great success in the treatment of scrofula by the internal and ex- ternal use of the hydrobromate of potass. M. Bonnet attributes great advantages to the bromide and sub- bromide of mercury, as constitutional remedies in comparison with corrosive sublimate and calomel. He states, that the sub-bromide has less action than calomel on the salivary glands, and more eff*ect on the urinary secretion ; that the former substance is therefore preferable where the idiosyncrasy of the patients renders them liable to salivation. After stating that the bromide is less solu- ble in water than the chloride, he recommends a solution in ether for medicinal use, and gives the observations of an Austrian phy- sician, which prove the antisyphilitic virtues of the remedy, and contends that it is not so liable as corrosive sublimate to affect the head, chest, and stomach during its medicinal use. In the cases of M. Fournet, already referred to, the therapeutic action of the bromine is exceedingly obscure. Frictions of bro- mine to the swollen articulations appear to have been useful, but as their application was conjoined with alkaline baths, and, more- over, the bromine was mixed with alcohol, which would soon change it into bromal and hydrobromic ether, these cases prove very little. Magendie employs bromine and its preparations in scrofula, amenorrhoea, and in hypertrophy of the ventricles. He expresses his conviction that future observation will establish the great the- rapeutic powers of bromine. Dr Williams has used the bromide of potassium with success in cases of enlarged spleen. The first case which he gives is that of a boy, aged 14, admitted into St Thomas' Hospital on the 13th of September 1833. Both the liver and spleen were enormously enlarged. Their edge was hard, and substance unyielding. The abdomen contained much fluid ; the countenance was sallow and emaciated ; the legs dropsical ; belly protuberant. The progno- sis was most unfavourable. After unsuccessful trial of the super-
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