A treatise on the use of cod-liver oil in the treatment of chronic rheumatism, scrofula and consumption, bronchitis and asthma, and all diseases of the lungs and throat / by Emery Souther.

  • Souther, Emery.
Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on the use of cod-liver oil in the treatment of chronic rheumatism, scrofula and consumption, bronchitis and asthma, and all diseases of the lungs and throat / by Emery Souther. 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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    wasting diseases, which either arise from hereditary causes, or depraved nutrition. I feel very anxious that the medicinal char- acter of the Oil may not be injured, through the selfishness of the trade, either by its imperfect preparation, or its too indiscriminate use, and cheerfully lend my aid in confining its manufacture and sale to apothecaries of respectable standing. Judging from the sample you have seut me, I am satisfied that you prepare it with skill and fidelity. [Extracts from Pereira's Materia Medica and Therapeutics. Vol. II. p. 793.] The Oil obtained from the common Cod appears to have been for a long period a popular remedy in various countries of Europe, for rheumatism and some other diseases. In 1762 it was strongly recommended by Dr. T. Percival ; in 1807, by Dr. Bradsley, who states that it was in high repute in Lancashire. This Oil has been analyzed by Marder, and the following ingredients found in it:— green soft resin; brown hard resin; gelatine; oleic acid ; margaric acid; glycerine; coloring matter; chloride of calcium ; chloride of sodium, and sulphate of poiash. Since which, iodine and bromine have been detected in this Oil. Physiological Effects —At the commencement of its use, it frequently causes nausea, disagreeable eructation, and occasionally vomiting. In the dose of a tablespoonful it acts as a laxative, diaphoretic and diuretic ; and when the habit has surmounted the repugnance to the nausea and sickness, these effects will cease. Dr. Bardsley found that most patients were disposed to get fat under its use. Eut Taufflield declares, that in doses of from two to four spoonsful a day, he never found it exert any appreciable influence upon the urine or perspiration, or produce any disturbance in the economy. Uses.—Though it has been used more or less successfully in a considerable number of diseases; the cases in which it has proved most successful, are those of a gouty, rheumatic, or scrofulous nature. As the Oil contains iodine, and as it proves most suc- cessful in those maladies in which this element proves successful, it has been suggested that iodine is its active principle. In rheu- matism, it is indicated in the chronic forms of this disease, where the muscles and tendons are rigid, and the joints nearly inflexible. In scrofula it has proved successful in most of the forms of this disease, but especially when it affects the bones, (as in rickets, caries, &c.) and in tabes mesenterica. In the latter most intract- able form of this disease, its efficacy has occasionally been most surprising. Even in phthisis, benefit is said to have been obtained by its use. In chronic skin diseases attention was drawn to its