An experimental inquiry into the relationship of action to dose : especially with reference to repeated administration of indaconitine / by J. Theodore Cash.
- Cash, John Theodore, 1854-1936.
- Date:
- 1908
Licence: In copyright
Credit: An experimental inquiry into the relationship of action to dose : especially with reference to repeated administration of indaconitine / by J. Theodore Cash. 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.
3/20
![^it ®xpcrinwntal lttqatr|t INTO THE RELATIONSHIP OF ACTION TO DOSE ESPECIALLY WITH KEFEEENCE TO REPEATED ADMINISTRATION OF INDACONITINE. Although the consideration ol amount of dose, as well as of the principles of readministratlon in the treatment of cases calling for more or less prolonged medication, are of prime importance therapeutically, it must be admitted that they have scarcely received the amount of attention to which they are obviously entitled. Stokvls asserts that there is perhaps no part of our science which does not defy our aspirations to precision more than the posology, whilst Hamack laments the Inattention of medical practitioners towards such an Important question, remarking that there exists a surprising carelessness and caprice in the matter. Sir Benjamin Brodle recognized the error of the assertion, which is even to-day occasion- ally propounded, that by doubling a dose a double effect Is to be anticipated; and exact experimental observations have shown that such a theory If applied to many active remedies must certainly lead to disaster. Harnack regards JnckuETs attempt to experimentally establish some mathematical correspondence between dosage and effect as one of the few serious efforts In the direction of a more exact therapensls. Juckuff's work was based upon a historical case of poisoning In which a fatal Issue wfs barely averted. The case was that of Koppe, who, experimentally, took 0.6 mg. of dlgitoxln. This dose proving ineffective, the experimenter, alter an interval of twenty-four hours, swallowed double the quantity. The ensulog results were so trifling that Koppe at that time regarded them as chance occurrences, and so, after the lapse ol four days, undeterred by any anxious anticipa- tions, the dose of 2.0 mg. was taken, with the result that violent, almost fatal, poisoning was produced. This clearly indicated that the effect of 2.0 mg. of dlgitoxln was not merely of twice, but of many times the activity of 1.0 mg. This fact, established with regard to the action of a single glucosidal body, was expanded by Jucbuff, who tested the [245/08]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22419202_0005.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
