The modern practice of physic : exhibiting the character, causes, symptoms, prognostics, morbid appearances, and improved method of treating the diseases of all climates / by Robert Thomas.

  • Robert Thomas
Date:
1825
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The modern practice of physic : exhibiting the character, causes, symptoms, prognostics, morbid appearances, and improved method of treating the diseases of all climates / by Robert Thomas. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

    38/1098
    Class /. most uniform success. Military and naval surgeons will find t.ie arsenical solution a valuable substitute for the bark of cinchona, when their store of this is small or exhausted. Arsenic has long been administered by empirics with the greatest success in inter- mittents, under the appellation of ague-drop. The maimer in which arsenic acts in curing intermittent fevers, Dr. Darwin thinks, cannot be by its general stimulus, because no intoxication or heat follows the use of it; nor by its peculiar stim- ulus on any part of the secreting system, since it is not in small doses succeeded by any increased evacuation or heat, and must therefore exert its power on the absorbent system. He suspects its success in the cure of intermittents to depend on its stimulating the stomach into stronger action, and thus by the association of this viscus with the heart and arteries, prevents the torpor of any part of the sanguiferous system. A combination of the arsenical solution with cinchona* in sub- stance, decoction or infusion, is likely, I think, to prove a valuable remedy in cases of obstinate intermittents, and where either of these medicines administered singly might fail. During the fits of an intermittent, the patient's strength is to be supported by food of a light nutritive nature, such as preparations of barley, sago, panado, and the like; but when the fit is off, he may be allowed animal food, and a moderate use of wine. A change of air and situation has sometimes a happy effect in removing an intermittent, particularly if from a low marshy country to an ele- vated one. In autumnal intermittents it has been found, that the air of a city or large town is more favourable than that of the country, owing most likely to the great number of fires that are always burning. When none of the viscera are aflected, cold bathing may be used with advantage. As intermittents are very apt to return, the patient should care- fully avoid all such causes as might produce a fresh attack. Should he be incommoded by a giddiness of the head, which is not un- 17. R Liquoris Arsenica]. l\[ v.—x. Decoct. Cinchoii. f. 3x. Tinct. Cort. Aurant. f. Jjj. Opii, Til v. M. it. Haustus, lev in die suniendus. Vd, 18. R. lotus. Calumbau. f. 3xj. Liquor. Arsenica]. Fiji viij. Tinct. Opii, TT)t' vi. Cinehonae C. f. 3j. M. ft. Haustus, 4ta vel 6ta quaque liora caui. endus. * 17. Take Arsenical Solution, from fiva to ten drops. Decoction of Peruvian Bark, ten drachms. Tincture of Orange Peel, two drachms. of Opium, eight drops. Mix these, and let the draught be taken thrice daily. Or, 10. Take Infusion of Calumba, eleven drachms. Arsenical Solution, eight drops. Tincture of Opium, six drops. Compound Tincture of Peruvi- n Bark, one drachm. Murium, and let the draught be taken every lour til or sixth hour.