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
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

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.

    49/782 (page 47)
    ACONITE. Poisoning.—When over-doses of acetic acid are taken the treat- ment consists in the use of large doses of milk, alkaline liquids, such as lime-water, soap-water, etc., and the genei-al measures adopted for the treatment of gastro-enteritis. (See Gastro-enteritis, Part IV.) Contraindications.—Nursing mothers should not take freely of vinegar, as it may produce a troublesome diarrhoea in the nursling. ACONITE, or MONKSHOOD. The aconite of the U. S. P. is derived entirely from the tuberous root of Aconitum Napellus. At one time the leaves were official, but are so no longer, and for this reason the term radix is not to be employed, as it is a useless distinction. Aconite is indigenous in G-ermany, France, and Switzerland, and is cultivated as a garden-plant all over Europe and America. The root is so sti'ikingly like that of horseradish as to be readily confused with that article of food, but does not emit the pungent fumes of the latter when it is scraped or broken. It is to be remembered, how- ever, that it produces a distinct feeling of heat in the mouth when chewed. The active principle upon which the therapeutical value of aconite would appear to depend is aconitine, but there is reasonable doubt whether this can be relied upon as completely as the preparations of the crude drug; the aconitine of commerce, moreover, varies very much in strength, because some of it is amorphous and impure, while other samples are very pure and crystalline. Further than this, even the crystalline form is exceedingly variable. In addition to aconitine, Dunstan asserts that there are two amorphous alkaloids—namely, aco- iiine and napelline—and this investigator believes that there is a fourth iilkaloid closely allied to napelline. Physiological Action.—When aconite is placed on the tongue it ])roduces a sensation of tingling and burning which extends over the ])haryngeal surface and into the stomach if the drug is swallowed. This is due to its primary irritant and secondary benumbing action on the sensory nerve-endings of the mucous membrane. It sometimes causes a sensation of constriction in the fauces. Aconite is rapidly absorbed and destroyed by oxidation or eliminated. Nervous System.—In full medicinal dose aconite depresses the functional activity of the perceptive centres in the brain, the sensory side of the spinal cord, but chiefly depresses the peripheral ends of the sensory nerves. Applied to a mucous membrane, it acts as a local an- sesthctic, but is too irritating for this use in the eye. On the motor portion of the body it exerts little influence unless given in large, poisonous doses, when it paralyzes the motor tract of the spinal cord and the peripheral motor nerves. Circulatory Systejm.—When aconite is given in moderate medi- cinal dose It exercises no marked change on any part of the organism save the circulation, which becomes somewhat slower by stimulation of the vagus centres iind by the drug acting as a sedative to the heart- muscle Itself. The arterial pressure is slightly decreased by these doses,