A contribution to the haematinic properties of dialized iron : being extracts from communications read before the Boston Society of the Medical Sciences and the Boston Society for Medical Observation / by Robert Amory.

  • Robert Amory
Date:
1879
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A contribution to the haematinic properties of dialized iron : being extracts from communications read before the Boston Society of the Medical Sciences and the Boston Society for Medical Observation / by Robert Amory. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    Soluble Compressed Pellets. A NEW FORM OF REMEDIES FOR HYPODERMIC USE. By H. AUGUSTUS WILSON, M.D., Ophthalmic and Aural Surgeon to St. Mary’s Hospital; Lecturer on Diseases of the Eye and Ear, and on Fracture Dressings at the Philadelphia School of Anatomy; Member of the Philadelphia County Medical Society, Northern Medical Society, etc., etc. Extracts from a paper read before the Philadelphia County Medical Society, Oct. 27,1SSO. Solutions for hypodermic use have been very generally abandoned because thepenicillum, which so soon forms, renders the use of medicines in this form uncertain, if not dangerous. Because of the danger and uncertainty, as well as the inconvenience of carrying the medicines in solutions, the profession has resorted, where practicable, to the use of powders, which are carried either in the hypo- dermic or pocket case. It is as a substitute for the latter that I propose the new form of soluble compressed pellets, because of their convenient size and certainty of contents and action. I have confined my experiments to the salts of morphia, because it is the drug most frequently used hypodermically, and because I felt confident that if I could succeed with this drug it would be but a simple matter to place in the same form other remedies, such as strychnia, arsenic, apomorphia, etc. The result of my first attempt to obtain a soluble pill I now show you. Besides the morphia, it contains one-quarter grain of white sugar; but the moisture necessary to roll the pills rendered them difficult to dissolve when required. Then the compressed form was tried with sugar; but the smart- ing, burning pain which immediately ensued led me to believe that the sugar was an irritant to the tissues, and, instead of aiding, really interfered with the process: therefore sodium chloride was substituted, which I found had not the disadvantages of sugar and possessed merits of its own. The use of the sodium chloride will be apparent when I say that if morphia salts are compressed alone they become extremely hard and very slowly soluble. Hence the necessity of mixing thoroughly, before com- pression, some material which at the same time shall give increased bulk, be inert, and have a great affinity for water. The sodium chloride acts as a disintegrator, for upon coming in contact with water it readily dissolves and leaves the morphia in a fine state of subdivision, ready to be acted upon by water. The sodium chloride, instead of causing pain or irritation, seems really to assist in promoting absorption. To accomplish the solution usually requires not more than thirty seconds, and may be brought about as follows: The syringe is charged with about twenty minims of water, (17;
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