A text-book of practical therapeutics : with especial reference to the application of remedial measures to disease and their employment upon a rational basis / by Hobart Amory Hare.

Hare, H. A. (Hobart Amory), 1862-1931.

Date:: 1897

Credit: A text-book of practical therapeutics : with especial reference to the application of remedial measures to disease and their employment upon a rational basis / by Hobart Amory Hare. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$medfcinf thaTtrl; T''^^ ^'^l-'^ containing the ncl pX.ona .y t^^^^^^^ 'T'' ^he farthest bronfhiole posseL LTeat non! I ^^^'^^.^ '^^J' i^^ve also been found to Sei the skin nf\ '° P''',' ^^'^^^^^^^ inflammations Lrbuncles. -emb.anes, as, for example, boUs and As an example of the rules governing the administration of drugs in this manner we find that compound tincture of benzoin may be Se by mhahng the steam ansmg from hot water containing it, bu ca^i not be used m a spray because it occludes the fine points'of the atom- izing tubes In a similar manner we may inhale the smoke of bella- donna or tobacco-leaves to relieve asthma, or the fumes of chloride ot ammonium for bronchitis in its later stages. Finally, we find that oxygen is sometimes very useful, the gas being readily inhaled, with good results in proper cases. The spray or atomizer is made in two forms—one form of appa- ratus being worked through the agency of compressed air, the other tbrough the escape of steam from a small boiler. Very few of the compressed-air atomizers throw a spray fine enough to reach the deeper parts of the lung, particularly if the air is compressed by the hand. The inhalation of moist air is very useful in bronchitis, and greatly aids other remedial measures. Steam may be disengaged in a room by means of a kettle of boiling water or by placing pieces of unslaked lime in a pan of water. Inunctions consist in the rubbing into the skin of medicines gen- erally of an oily or fatty nature, or which assume this character through embodiment with oil or fat. The three substances most com- monly used in this way are cod-liver oil, mercurial ointment, and iodine ointment. They should alwaj^s be applied on some part where the derm is thin and well supplied Avith subcutaneous lymphatics, as in the axillte, the groins, or the insides of the thighs. Other sub- stances have been and may be used by inunction; but as this method is necessarily a disagreeable and dirty one, it is rarely resorted to unless the stomach is disordered or it is necessary to push the drug into the system by every possible avenue of entrance. The endermio method consists in the use of a blister, by means of which the e])iderm is raised, when a little moi-phine or other alkaloid may be slipped under it and so absorbed through the true skin. It is a painful method, almost never to be resorted to, which has been entirely supplanted by the hypodermic method of medication. Remedies arc administered in a number of forms, but chiefly as follows: Abstracts ai-e dry powdered extracts mixed with sugar of milk until they are twice as strong as the crude drug. Abstracts are no longer official in the United States Pharmacopoeia. AcETA, or vinegars, are solutions of drugs in vinegar or acetic$