Further observations on the internal use of the hydro-cyanic (prussic) acid, in pulmonary complaints; chronic catarrhs; spasmodic coughs; asthma; hooping-cough; and some other diseases : with full directions for the preparation and administration of that medicine / by A.B. Granville.

  • Augustus Granville
Date:
1819
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Further observations on the internal use of the hydro-cyanic (prussic) acid, in pulmonary complaints; chronic catarrhs; spasmodic coughs; asthma; hooping-cough; and some other diseases : with full directions for the preparation and administration of that medicine / by A.B. Granville. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    [11] the number of those substances, which medi- cal men may afterwards use^ with safety and advantage, in the treatment of diseases. From the moment of its discovery, it was ascertained that the prussic acid was deleterious to the human frame, and was consequently ranked amongst poisons. This opinion was con- firmed by the experiments of Coullon, Em- mert, Robert^ Orfila, and more particularly by those of Magendie and Brugnatelli.* It has been shown by these chemists, that this acid, when administered to warm blooded animals in its concentrated state, or in the form of va- pour, destroys their sensibility, and the con- tractility of the voluntary muscles ; but such a statement ought not to have deterred the phy- sician from any inquiry, which might have led him to ascertain whether a substance pos- sessed of such active properties, might not be safely introduced into the practice of medicine; for it must not be forgotten, that many of our most energetic remedies, are drawn from the class of vegetable and mineral poisons. Thus opium, henbane, hemlock, digitalis, arsenic, corrosive sublimate, &c., are daily used by the * Read the Giornale di Fisica, published every two months, at the University of Pavia.