Opera minora : a collection of essays, articles, lectures and addresses from 1866 to 1882 inclusive / by Edward C. Seguin.
- Edward Constant Seguin
- Date:
- 1884
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Opera minora : a collection of essays, articles, lectures and addresses from 1866 to 1882 inclusive / by Edward C. Seguin. 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.
594/708 page 580
![A more physiological view of the action of remedies upon organic diseases, and a careful examination of clinical evidence would, it see-iïis to me, prevent one from assuming the specific action of iodide of potassium in syphilis.* As regards the general question, that of the specific action of remedies, I have not the time to present an argument to show its fallacy ; and probably I could not do the matter justice. The belief in the specific action of drugs, i.e., of the action of drugs against disease as such, is a comfortable belief to have ; it apparently solves many of the problems of every-day medical practice. But many believe such a doctrine to be just as falla- cious and unscientific as it is comfortable. I wholly agree with those who think this, and who believe that remedies act on the organism as a whole, or on its apparatuses, or on some of its tissues, or on its constituent chemical ingredients, in a physio- logical way, i.e., by and through the operation of chemical and physiological laws already operative in the animal body. In the second place, as to clinical evidence. This is the pur- pose of my paper ; to place before you some cases which I think support the proposition that the iodide of potassium is efficacious, more or less, in non-syphilitic nervous diseases. In going through my case-books for the purpose of finding such illustrative cases, I have exercised great strictness, and as a result I have had but very few histories to read, and these I have condensed as much as possible. My cases are nine in number, arranged in two groups. In the first group are three cases of organic disease of the brain, in which many threatening symptoms were relieved, in some of them immediately and on different occasions, by the free use of the iodide. In all these cases post-mortem examina- tions were made, and the gross lesion found. In all of these there was no clinical or histological evidence of syphilis. In the second group are six cases which are still living, some cured. I divide this group into two classes, « and K The former is made up of three cases of organic cerebral disease in the adult, two of them cured, and the third twice relieved of most of his symptoms by the iodide. Class h is composed of three cases of basal meningitis with optic neuritis in little children, who recovered rapidly while using the same remedy. I attach much * For the opinion of various authors on these points see the end of the article.— [R. W.A.]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21077435_0594.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
