Materia medica, pharmacy, pharmacology and therapeutics / by W. Hale White.
- William Hale-White
- Date:
- 1901
Licence: In copyright
Credit: Materia medica, pharmacy, pharmacology and therapeutics / by W. Hale White. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.
63/680 page 41
![This is approximately the order of their alkalizing power. Potassium is certainly the most powerful. Calcium is very feeble. The citrates and tartrates of these metals are decomposed in the plasma into alkaline carbonates. An extremely valuable property of alkalizers is the power they have of uniting with uric acid in the plasma, and forming urates, which are much more soluble than free uric acid. The diuretic effect of the alkaU aids the excretion of the urates. Therapeutics.—The chief use of alkahes is their administration in gout, in which disease the uric acid is greatly in excess in the plasma. As the treatment has to be continued for some time, a pre- paration which does not upset digestion, such as potassium citrate, is usually preferred, or lithium citrate, for the Hthium compound of uric acid is said to be the most soluble. For the same purpose natural alkaline waters are frequently prescribed. In lead-iooisonincj the lead is locked up in the tissues in a very sparingly soluble form. Potassium iodide was given because some authorities believed it increased the solubility of lead in the plasma, and consequently facilitated its excretion by the kidneys. Alkalies have been largely used in rheumatic fever, on the assumption that there is a deleterious agent in the plasma, and that its solubility is increased by increasing the alkalinity of the plasma; but this treatment has now been abandoned in favour of that by salicylates. For the same theoretical reason alka- lies have been given in rheumatoid arthritis. Purgatives, diaphoretics, and diuretics necessarily alter the composition of the plasma, and are largely used when there is much oedema of any part, or effusion into serous cavities, in the hope that as fast as these remedies drain off fluid from the ]Dlasma it will be replaced by that which is effused patho-](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21507260_0063.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
