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:
- 1890
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.
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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![IDIOSYNCRASY. 'JO friend of the author, wlio cannot eat a strawberry without sutVcriiig from a violent attack of hives. Tlio oth(M- case is tliat of a woman of thirty years, suffering from severe Jieadachc, who received an ei<^hth of a grain of the muriate of pilocarpin, iiypodermically, every twenty minutes, till nearly three- fourths of a grain was taken, without any evidence of its action either in salivary flow or sweat. But the tolerance of drugs did not stop here. Twenty drops of tincture of cannabis indica every four hours tailing to relieve the ])ain, half-grain ])ills were ordered of the solid extract of the drug which was known to be reliable, two of which commonly affect a grown man most markedly. In order to avoid any failure in absorption the pills were cut in half before they were given, and forth- with administered, one every three hours, without any effect after ten had been taken. Twenty more of the pills from the same manu- facturers, but from a different retailer, were now given, one every hour, with the exception of a few irregularities in administration in the night, the entire twenty being swallowed'between four o'clock one afternoon and two o'clock on the next afternoon. The thirty pills (15 grains) were taken in less than forty-eight hours without producing a single physiological sign of the slightest character. That the doses were really swallowed would seem to be undoubted for their administration was carried out by a trained attendant, and their black color forbade their expulsion on the bed from the mouth without attracting attention. The hypodermic injections were given by the author, and as the solution was made as fast as it was used, the patient must certainly have received all of the pilocarpin. As there was daily an afternoon rise of temperature amounting to several degrees, quinine bisulphate was ordered in the dose of fifteen grains to be given after six powders of one-sixth of a grain of calomel had been taken ; this not only failed to control the fever but also pro- duced no buzzing in the ears. The writer M'as now inclined to con- sider all the symptoms as hysterical, even including the evening rise of temperature. Twenty-four hours after the last dose of cannabis indica, the at- tendant gave the patient, without orders, no less than sixty grains ot antipyrine in sixteen hours without any physiological symptoms, and, under orders, she took from forty to fifty grains of bisulphate ot quinine every day for three days without any signs of ciuchonism. Wide experience has taught us, however, that several conditions act fairly constantly in regard to some idiosyncrasies. Certain dis- eases—such as peritonitis or pain—allow large doses of opium to be given, or in lead-poisoning and paralysis patients may require enor- mous doses of active purgatives to move the bowels. The dimate in which the patient lives, or has been accustomed to live, renders him more or less susceptible to certain remedies. Thus the East Indian runs amuck after eating hasheesh or cannabis indica,](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2105695x_0027.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
