A theoretical and practical treatise on the diseases of the skin / by P. Rayer.
- Pierre François Olive Rayer
- Date:
- 1845
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A theoretical and practical treatise on the diseases of the skin / by P. Rayer. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)
44/582
![i tided small quantities ■ationa of iron to children phulus. Chalybeate medicines have il in eases of purpura hemorrl Van have been lauded in the same Carmichael lias praised the carbonate of iron even ctions; 1 have tried it several times in cancer of the skin, always unsuccessfully as the disease itself was concerned, but nails with advantage to the general constitution of the patient. \'A. Qrapkitt or plumbago,3 looked upon some years ago as a rarburet of iron, now regarded as a kind of carbon or coal containing ae admixture of iron, has been used in the treatment of chronic affections of the skin, from a remark made at Venice, that ikinen employed in the manufactory of pencils were speedily cured of any cutaneous diseases they might have been labouring under when they begun this business. M. Marc informs us that he llbstance in obstinate herpetic affections. Hufeland i tails the ease of a lady forty-one years of age labouring under a which resisted every other means, but yielded to the internal .iel «\ti mal use of plumbago. In his report from 1817 to 1818 he speaks of the good effects of this remedy. It is administered internally in doses varying from twelve grains to a drachm daily in any form,— powder, electuary or pill ; occasionally it is combined with sulphur, and with some mercurial, as the sublimate. The stomach bears the medicine readily, and it is said greatly to increase the secretion of urine after its use has been continued some days; two or three ounces are said to be enough to cure the most obstinate cases. Externally i' is best applied mixed with some unctuous body. Contradictory accounts of the value of the plumbago as a medicine have been published in the Medical Journal of Saltzburg.4 My own mind is not yet made up on the matter; I have not had experience enough to •■nable me in judge. 174. The preparations of mercury are universally employed in affec- of the skin, both internally and externally. Geber, Meuse and llhases are held the first who prescribed mercu- iiul ointments in cutaneous affections and ulcers, against pediculi, &c. Employed by Theodoric and Guy de Chauliac in scabies, herpetic eruptions, different species of tinea, plica, frambd'sia, and elephantia- sis, and subsequently applied by Jacobus Berengarius Carpus and I'allopius to the treatment of venereal affections, various preparations of mercury were afterwards administered internally by Vigo, and have not since ceased to be extensively employed in the practice of medi- cine. 175. Mercury in the metallic state, intimately combined with grease, soap, or some vegetable conserve, in the dose of four, six, or eight grains, is a powerful remedy, the action of which, in syphilitic cases, and in some other affections of the skin, is most remarkable and most beneficial. Mercury administered in this form is a much better medi- > me in general than when rubbed into the system in the shape of an ointment. United with several other substances, mercury has been forced into an immense variety of forms, each possessed of a different degree of activity. It is now found united with sulphur, and now with sulphur and antimony,—the latter, a form that has been recom- mended by Hufeland, in chronic eruptions of the skin during child- hood. Lastly, the black powder called Etfdop's mineral, which is produced by combining a quantity of mercury with twice its weight of sulphur, has been tried with some success in several forms of cutai .ise. ]'*'<. Since the experiments of Lalouette were published,5 cinnabar rations have been had recourse to with evident advantage in in- ate Byphilitic and other obstinate affections of the integuments, bj directing the vapour through a funnel to the affected parts, or ap- tchreibang too Pyrmont. Leips., 17;4,1785,2 Bde.,in-8o., •; li., p. 106, 183.—l!ramli<. Erfahrungen ueberdie Wirkung der Eisenmittel in alle- ins besondere. Hannover, 1603, 8vo. ii the effects of carbonate and other preparations of Dublin, ls09. Weil DerGraphil neuenideckies Heilrniltel gegen die Flechten, in-9. 809.—Hufeland. Troisieme rapport de l'institui polvclinique de Berlin, rn Archlv., 1810, mar/., 387.) l.p. 337. 1 Ancien Journ. de Med., torn, xiv., p. 19. plying it by means of a close box to the Surface of the body generally. Ih. quantity of cinnabar used at each fumigation is from halt to I whole drachm, and the process is repeated every two or three days. Carelessly administered, cinnabar fumigations are callable ol causing accidents o( a serious nature. Mixed with camphor and some unctuous substance, cinnabar forms an ointment that has been recommended in several herpetic eruptions, and against pediculi. It has been prescribed externally by way of friction,8 and internally in small doses in the treatment of impetigo. 177. The proto-chloride and dciito-chloridc of mercury (calomel and corrosive sublimate) enter into the composition of almost all the anti- herpetic ointments which we find preserved in pharmacopoeias and for- mularies. In the cases communicated to Rivcrius, we find two of syphi- lis cured by the use of calomel. Willan and Bateman made extensive use of these preparations in the treatment of cutaneous diseases, and certainly many cases have been successfully combatted by their means.7 I believe myself to have been one of the first who observed that the white precipitate (calomel obtained by precipitation) mixed with lard in the proportion of a drachm to an ounce of grease, applied in fric- tions to the affected parts in the quantity of one, two, or three drachms daily, exerts a specific power over two forms of squamous inflamma- tion, namely, lepra and psoriasis. I never saw these frictions followed by salivation, which is so frequent a consequence of the internal exhi- bition, even in very small doses, of calomel prepared in the ordinary way. In this respect, therefore, there is an actual difference between an ointment of precipitated calomel and the common blue or mercu- rial ointment, the action of which on the salivary glands is constantly the same. I have seen patients labouring under old and inveterate psoriasis use half a pound of precipitated calomel by way of friction, without their mouths becoming in the slightest degree affected, and obtain a perfect cure. Calomel, taken internally, in the dose of five, six, eight, ten, twelve, sixteen, or twenty grains, is commonly fol- lowed by several dejections ; but besides this action, it exercises another and not less remarkable influence on the constitution. As an alterative, in greatly diminished doses it often excites salivation, some- times after a very small quantity only of the medicine has been taken. I shall give several cases which prove that calomel applied to the pitui- tary membrane of the nose, has the power of curing syphilis. In com- bination with the sulphuret of antimony (Plummer's pill), with the golden sulphuret, or sub-hydrosulphate of the same metal, calomel enters into the composition of a multitude of formulae, that have pos- sessed and still retain a certain reputation. In fine, calomel internally, and corrosive sublimate externally have been recommended together in many forms of disease of the skin. 178. The deuto-chloride of mercury3 is the basis of a great many simple and compound medicines. Brisbane showed how eminently useful this active substance might become in the treatment of diseases of the skin, when other mercurial preparations had failed to do good. Lorry and many other practitioners have confirmed these fortunate results by their success. I am in the habit of using the sublimate with advantage in the treatment of chronic and obstinate eczemas, in smaller doses, too, than are usual in syphilitic cases. During its use, patients ought particularly to avoid exposure to cold and moisture. I have sometimes combined the action of purgatives with that of the sublimate. Sublimate baths, (from two drachms to one ounce in two hundred pounds of water,) conceived by Baume, have been particularly ap- plied to the treatment of syphilitic affections; and this mode of ad- ministering mercury has been extolled by M. Caffe and M. Wedekind, who have proposed a particular formula for the purpose (half an ounce 2e6 sTrTifp. ST™1 ^ '* SyPh''iS **' ' friCti°ns cin™brees. (Rev. med., ' Vacquie;. Journ. complem. du Diction, des scienc. medic t vy.i n «><;* * Cotton (S.). An herpeti, licet non venereo snbl ma^m'rnrr ;,P » in-4., 17721-Hoffmann.B.ss. de mercuno in' affeSis rma„S a' ParlS!• CWittwer Ph. L.). Collect. Diss. Argent. i^Brfsbane OW?a ArSer°ra Society of Physicians, v. i., n. 149.-Caffe. A van a~esdes S»! ad T^ b3? traiternent des maladies cutanea et venerfennes -5 Par Ts\Tt ft? J Heildelberg. klinische Annalen., 1829, p. 557 (Extract in ArrV,L \6—Wedek,n,;- p. 275).-Bullet,n des scienc. medic, di■ Ferussa^■ txx n 2S' *T d, raed- '' **! eiter. du sublim* dans les maladies de la peau (Bullet Mcs \c J^Ta^ EmV]cn xvni., p. f.3).-Miguel. Inconveniens du subliro* dans les mTla l'i,c ^er!]ssac' l (Arch. gen. de med., t. jvi., p. 290). maiacnes de la peau](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21149495_0044.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
