The elements of a new materia medica and therapeutics : Based upon an entirely new collection of drug-provings and clinical experience / By E.E. Marcy, J.C. Peters & Otto Füllgraff.

  • Marcy, E. E. (Erastus Edgerton), 1815-1900.
Date:
[1850?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The elements of a new materia medica and therapeutics : Based upon an entirely new collection of drug-provings and clinical experience / By E.E. Marcy, J.C. Peters & Otto Füllgraff. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    Clinical Remarks.—In many cases of rheumatism and of painful joints, with arthritic concretions, arthritic irritation of the great toe-joints attended with swelling and redness of the skin, urine highly colored and of strong ammoniacal odor, I have employed Benzoic-acid with much benefit. (Jeanes.) [30.] It seems to be one of the most homoeopathic remedies for wandering rheumatism, and rheumatic affections of the heart. • In Gout, Benzoic-acid has been advised by Drs. lire and Prout, to prevent the disposition of, and to remove when formed, the masses of Urate of Soda, which so commonly occur about the joints of gouty subjects. (44.) According to Lehmann, Benzoic-acid sometimes occurs in animal fluids, and its conversion in the animal body has already thrown much light on the metamorphosis of the tissues. Benzoic-acid stands in near chemical relation to Toluylic-acid, Copaivic-acid, and Cinnamic-acid. Benzoic-acid also bears some relation to Hydrocyanic-acid, for when heated with Potassium it yields Cyanide of Potassium. In fact, the oil of bitter almonds is regarded as a combination of Benzoyl with hydrogen; and Benzoin may be formed by the action of caustic alkalies on oil of bitter almonds, containing Hydrocyanic-acid. Again Nitro- benzide is a yellow fluid with a sweetish taste and cinnamon-like odor. Benzoic-acid has been found in the urine of the Herbivora and Carnivora, and it very often occurs in the place of Hippuric-acid. Again, when the urine of horses has stood for some time in the stable and begun to be ammonical it never contains Hippuric-acid, but only Benzoic-acid. In like manner we often meet with onlyBenzoic-acid in human urine, and if some portions of it have long been exposed to the air, they undergo such a change that only Benzoic-acid is found in the whole urine. Hence it appears to be a fact, as Liebig assumed, that a ferment is formed in the urine by means of which the Hippuric-acid is converted into Benzoic-acid; for if we mix a specimen of urine, whether from man or from the horse, with another specimen containing Hippuric-acid, on separating the acids from the mixture, we almost constantly obtain Benzoic-acid alone, the ferment of the urine contain- ing Benzoic-acid probably acting on the Hippuric-acid of the fresh urine. Moreover Benzoic-acid when conveyed into the organism is invariably converted into Hippuric-acid, as observed by Woehler, Kel- ler, Ure, and others. The ingestion of Benzoic-acid causes an extremely disagreeable irritation in the throat, and subsequently a very profuse diaphoresis ; it is also one of the very few acids which produce a marked augmentation of the acidity of the urine.