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.

  • Thomas, Robert, 1753-1835.
Date:
1822
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.)

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    length of time, owing to their having been entirely neglected in their beginning, or where the cinchona has failed to procure the desired effect, preparations of iron and copper have been adminis- tered with success. The oxydum zinci, given in the dose of two grains thrice a day, has removed obstinate intermittents when the usual remedies have failed. The sulphas zinci has likewise been administered with much success. The sulphate of copper, given in doses of a quarter or half a grain every four or six hours, is also said to have proved very efficacious in some cases of obstinate intermittents. As a tonic, the cuprum ammoniatum* has been given with advantage. All these may be employed along with a decoction of the cinchona, or any of the other tonic bitters which have been mentioned. Arsenic has been strongly recommended as a remedy in intermit- tents, and it is undoubtedly a very powerful medicine, for I have found it to remove obstinate intermittents which had long resisted all other means. The inhabitants of a considerable portion of the country which surrounds Salisbury (the place of my residence,) are very subject to these fevers, but 1 have never yet been disappointed in removing even those of an obstinate nature, by a proper use of the arsenical solution : it is, however, my constant practice to con- join four or five drops of tinctura opii with each dose of it. The late Dr. Fowler seems to have been the first physician to advise this medicine in agues, and on his recommendation many practitioners have used it, agreeably to his directions, with the most pointed success. The preparation he advised is now introduced into the London Pharmacopoeia, under the name of liquor arsenicalis. The dose is from two to twelve drops, once, twice, or oftener in the day, according to the age, strength, &c. of the patient. Eight days' administration of the medicine, in the manner just mentioned, will generally be found sufficient for the radical cure of an intermittent. Vomitings, gripings, swellings, and the loathing of food, are the troublesome symptoms now and then produced by an improper use of the arsenical solution. They however disappear generally on a discontinuation of the drops, or only require the exhibition of gentle opiates, or some warm cathartic, such as the tincture of rhubarb. From the observations which have been made on the use of arsenic in agues, there seem just grounds for believing it to be the most powerful of all the medicines which have been recommended in these complaints. In Lincolnshire, which is a fenny country, where agues are very prevalent, it is universally used, and with the * 16. g;Cupr. Ammoniat.3j. Mic. Panis, sjij. Syrup. Cort. Aurant. q. s. M. fiant pilul. xxiv. capiat j. vd\).—iij. (sensim augendo dosem) hora decubitus quotidie. * 16 Take Ammoniated Copper, 1 scruple. Crumb of Bread, two drachms. Syrup of Orange Peel, as much as will be sufficient to form the mass, which divide into twenty-four pills. Take one, two, or three, every night at bed-time, gradually increasing the do?e,