On poisoning by tartarized antimony : with medico-legal observations on the cases of Ann Palmer and others / by Alfred S. Taylor.

  • Taylor, Alfred Swaine, 1806-1880.
Date:
1857
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On poisoning by tartarized antimony : with medico-legal observations on the cases of Ann Palmer and others / by Alfred S. Taylor. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    been drawn, that if large doses can be borne by patients in certain states of disease, similar, or even larger doses may be borne with impunity by persons in a state of health ! Laennec, who carried out the Italian practice to a considerable extent in treating his patients, began with a dose of a grain every two hours, until six doses had been taken. The medicine was dissolved in a large quantity of liquid, so as to prevent any local irritant action. The patient was then left to repose for seven or eight hours if the symptoms were not urgent, or^ if he experienced any inclination to sleep. In the more severe cases, he either gave the medicine uninterruptedly at the same interval, in the same doses, or he sometimes increased the dose to a grain and a half, two grains, and even to two grains and a half.1 In the practice of M. Louis, from one to two grains were given at a dose, the whole quantity administered daily varying from six to twelve grains. M. Lepelletier, a writer of some repute, states that the dose best supported by adults is comprised between the quantity of six and twenty-four grains daily. Sir John Forbes, in commenting on this practice, gives as the result of his experience, that the doses safely adapted to this mode of treatment range from one to two grains, admi- nistered every two or three hours. The period over which such doses might be given was from one to nine days. Dr. Marryatt, of Bristol, who appears to have been the first to promulgate this mode of treatment (subsequently called Basorian), recommended similar doses.2 This physician had used tartarized antimony on a large scale; it was his chief remedy in the treatment of disease. His object in using it, like that of Rasori and others, was the very reverse of poi- soning, i. e., to endeavour to produce an effect on the body wholly exclusive of any sensible evacuation. He says, te I j have seen many instances wherein a paper has been given every three hours, of which there have been ten grains of tartar emetic in six powders (about one grain and a half to a dose), without the least sensible operation by sickness, stool, sweat, or urine,” &c. Fie does not appear to have tried it on 1 ‘ Laennec,’ transl. by Forbes, 3me edition, 256. 2 Marryatt’s ‘Treatise on Therapeutics,’ was first published in 1758; it reached ts eighth edition in 1788.