A textbook of pharmacology and therapeutics, or, The action of drugs in health and disease / by Arthur R. Cushny.

  • Arthur Robertson Cushny
Date:
1903
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A textbook of pharmacology and therapeutics, or, The action of drugs in health and disease / by Arthur R. Cushny. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    693/762 page 691
    active caustic is desired. Its use is much more restricted at the present time than formerly, when there was greater apprehension of the minor surgi¬ cal operations, but it has been recommended as a caustic and disinfectant application in inoperable cancer. In very dilute solution it has been applied as a disinfectant lotion or injection (1 in 5,000). Burnett’s disinfecting solu¬ tion (a somewhat stronger solution than the official liquor) is used to disin¬ fect faeces and urinals, aud the liquor of the pharmacopoeia may be employed for the same purpose. It has frequently given rise to severe corrosive poisoning from being swallowed accidentally or suicidally. The acetate of zinc acts in the same way as the sulphate and may be used for the same purpose. The valerianate and bromide have been introduced with the intention of combining the action of zinc with that of valerian or bromide in hysteria and epilepsy, but valerianic acid is entirely devoid of any action on the brain (see Valerian, page 74) and the bromide is given in too small doses to exert any influence. The iodide is used in a similar at¬ tempt to combine the astringent effects of zinc and the specific action of iodides, but is open to the same objection. The action of the phosphide is practically identical with that of phosphorus. Poisoning with zinc is treated in the same way as that with copper. Bibliography. Harnack. Arch. f. exp. Path. u. Pharm., iii., p. 53. Bucholtz. Ibid., iv., p. 64. Helpup. Inaug. Diss., Greifswald, 1889. Deutsch. med. Woch., 1889, p. 782. Sacher. Arbeit, a. d. pharmak. Instit. zu Dorpat, ix., p. 88. Grcihe. Ibid., ix., p. 155. Lehmann. Arch. f. Hygiene, xxviii., p. 291. Morner. Ibid., xxxiii., p. 160. Jacob]. Arb. a. d. k. (lesundheitsamte, xv., p. 204. Volcker. Beitrage z. klin. Chirurg., xxvii., p. 592. Richter. Centralbl. f. Bacteriologie (II.), vii., p. 417. VII. SILVER. The only salt of silver used at all extensively in medicine is the nitrate, which is caustic, astringent and antiseptic. Added to solutions of proteids, it forms a heavy precipitate of albuminate, which is at first white in color but turns darker in the light as the silver is re¬ duced, and which is soluble in the presence of chlorides. Van der Does has recently formed a soluble compound of proteid and metallic silver which was not coagulated by heat and which failed to putrefy after being kept for several weeks. Symptoms. — In dilute solution silver is a slight irritant to the skin, and causes redness and itching only, but more concentrated solutions blister, and the solid nitrate of silver causes an eschar, which is at first white, but later turns black from the reduction of the silver in light. On the mucous membrane, dilute solutions act as astringents, but con¬ centrated cause irritation and corrosion. The caustic action of silver does not extend so deeply as that of some other metals, such as mer¬ cury, because the penetration of the metal is limited by the membrane of silver albuminate formed. On the other hand, the silver salts are more irritant than those of lead. Dilute solutions of silver nitrate are said to contract the vessels when they are applied locally, and this may be correct under some
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