On the treatment of the night-sweating of phthisis. XIII. Agaric / by William Murrell.

  • William Murrell
Date:
1882
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the treatment of the night-sweating of phthisis. XIII. Agaric / by William Murrell. 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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    mentioned those of Peter 1 of Paris, Wolfenden 2 of the Charing Cross Hospital, London, and Young3 of Glasgow. Professor Peter gives the agaric in doses of three grains, or four and a half at the most, and has never found it necessary to give more. He gives details of three cases which have been under his care at La Pitie, and refers to many others. He thinks very highly of agaric in the treatment of the sweating of phthisis, but considers that after a time a kind of tolerance is established when it ceases to do good. Bouveret commenting on these observations says that agaric does not deserve the discredit into which it has fallen. Dr. Wolfenden employed agaric in the treatment of nearly forty cases, with almost complete success. He considers that it is “ of such equal efficacy with atropia, that it may supplant it.” He finds twenty grains at bedtime usually sufficient, though thirty grains may be necessary to quite check the sweating. Dr. Young’s cases were under the care of Dr. Gairdner of the Western Infirmary at Glasgow. The drug was usually given in the form of a tincture containing ten grains to the drachm. An active principle, agctricine, was also extracted, which was found to represent the properties of the drug. In addition to checking sweating, the agaric was found to check cough and promote sleep. It exerted considerable influence in reducing temperature, a fall of two degrees having been noticed in a case of phthisis after the administration of gr. Tyth of agaricine. During the last three years I have treated sixty-four cases of night-sweating with agaric. They were nearly all out- patients at the Poyal Hospital for Diseases of the Chest. There were 39 men, 17 women, and 8 children under the age of ten. The ages of the adults ranged from 19 to 63. The majority of cases were bad cases of phthisis, and in fifteen the physical signs indicated the presence of cavity on one or both sides. My first observations were made with the agaric given in the form of three-grain pills. Ten patients are included in this series and the results are given in Table I. The pills caused no incon- venience, and undoubtedly had the power of checking the sweating to some extent, but their action was slow and not very 1 Bulletin Gtntral de Thcrapcutique, 1879, t. xevi. - Medical Times and Gazette, October 8, 1881. 3 Glasgow Medical Journal, March, 1882, vol. xvii. No. 3, ]>. 17(5.