Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A handbook of therapeutics / by Sydney Ringer. 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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![we shall subsequently see, possess the same power, and hence it is that acid and bitter drinks, by their action on the salivary glands, keep the mouth and throat comfortably moist, and so remove the distressing feeling of thirst. By lessening the troublesome thirst they quiet the patient, quell irritability of temper, and so favour sleep. Under this soothing influence the pulse grows quieter, and the heat of the body diminishes ; hence these medicines, especially the organic acids, are largely employed as fever medicines. They are applied to the throat for the same purpose as to the mouth. Thus, as a topical application, undiluted nitric acid acts beneficially on the foul sloughs or ulcers occurring in the coui-se of scarlet fever or other diseases. Bretonneau has strongly recommended the application of sti'ong hydrochloric acid to the throat in diphtheria. The acid may be used undiluted, or it may be mixed with an equal part of honey, which gives the mixture consistence, and makes it cling for some time about the parts on which it is painted. It should be applied to those spots only of the mucous membrane attacked by the diphtheritic inflammation, not to the neighbouring healthy tissues, where it would produce active inflammation. The diphtheritic mem- brane being very liable to implant itself on inflamed surfaces, the application to the sound tissues may favour the spread of the disease. This treatment, however, is of little, if any, service, and in the author's experience utterly fails to check the progress of the inflammation. Nitric acid, in small medicinal doses, may be given with benefit when the throat presents the same appearances as those of the mouth previously described [vide p. 85]. The albuminous constituents of food are digested and rendered soluble mainly by the agency of acids. But for this pui-pose all acids are not equally efiicient. Lactic and hydrochloric acids far outstrip all others in this respect, while sulphuric acid hinders rather than promotes digestion, by precipitating the albumens in an insoluble form. The action of acids on nitrogenous substances is greatly heightened by the addition of pepsin. Thus dilute hydrochloric acid may be employed to assist diges- tion wher3 the secretion of gastric juice is scanty. After the](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2146148x_0098.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
