Some considerations regarding the therapeutical action of iodine and iodides / by Ralph Stockman.

  • Stockman, Ralph, 1861-1946.
Date:
[1899]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Some considerations regarding the therapeutical action of iodine and iodides / by Ralph Stockman. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    classing them vaguely as “ alteratives.” The ordinary methods of pharmacological investigation, such as the examination of the circulation, the nervous system, blood, etc. in animals under the influence of iodides, have conspicuously failed to explain satisfactorily many of the reasons of their undoubted therapeutical activity. On the other hand, the knowledge which we have now obtained of the functions of the thyroid gland, of the absolute necessity of its secretion for healthy existence, and the fact that Baumann and Boos2 have proved that an iodine-containing organic compound is the active constituent of the secretion, afford a probable explanation of certain of the actions of iodine in diseased conditions, and of some at least of its occasional deleterious effects. We may begin with goitre in which iodine is the remedy par excellence, Coindet and others soon found that while most cases of goitre rapidly improved under iodine, yet a few of them developed very alarming symptoms, and some deaths were recorded. Nearly all contemporary writers attributed these results to the direct poisonous action of the iodine, and the remedy came to be regarded with much distrust. The symptoms varied only in degree, and consisted in great and often alarming emaciation, atrophy of the breasts or testicles, rapid heart-action, palpitation, tremors, nervous- ness and sleeplessness. These cases were not uncommon in Switzerland, and occurred with such small doses as y-^y to grain iodine, or grain potassium iodide daily. It is quite clear now that these symptoms are due to thyroid poisoning, an increased secretion, or increased discharge of the secretion into the blood, being evidently provoked by the administration of iodine. I have lately seen exactly similar symptoms occur in a lady, aged 3G, during the cure of a goitre for which no iodine was given. She had a large soft goitre which was causing absolutely no symptoms except a little discomfort in swallowing. On her going to the country for change of air, the goitre began to diminish rapidly in size, and she suffered from emaciation, nervous excitement, tremors, excessive palpi- tation, and insomnia. The goitre completely disappeared in about two months, the symptoms persisting for three months
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