Free phosphorus in medicine : with special reference to its use in neuralgia : a contribution to materia medica and therapeutics / by J. Ashburton Thompson.

  • Thompson, John Ashburton, 1848-1915.
Date:
1874
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Free phosphorus in medicine : with special reference to its use in neuralgia : a contribution to materia medica and therapeutics / by J. Ashburton Thompson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    remotely after absorption, it is obviously a question of time in a particular case, whether they are owing to local contact or not. If the symptoms arise immediately, probably the metalloid was altered before it was swallowed, and, suppos- ing assistance to be at once sought, it would be proper on the one hand to assist the efforts which nature has set up for the purpose of ejecting the poison, while, on the other, it is not affirmed that turpentine possesses any affinity for altered phosphorus. It should, however, be given, in case any should be present still unaltered. Should the symptoms have arisen immediately after taking the poison, but assistance not have been sought for some (12) hours, then the altered metalloid will probably have been absorbed, having, first of all, effected what local injury it was capable of. As for any 'which may even yet remain unaltered, the course to be pursued would in part depend upon the amount first taken. If that were considerable, it would still be proper to excite the action of the bowels, but perhaps rather by large and copious enemata, which may well contain some turpentine, than by a purgative given by the mouth; for it is probable that so irritant a material as the partly altered metalloid will, by this time, have been passed far down the intestine. But should the symptoms of irritation first occur after a few hours (6), then probably it is owing to the local deposit of the poison then in process of alteration within the stomach; and, if the symptom be of recent occurrence at the time of consultation, a purgative by the mouth, with or without an emetic, may be given. But the irritation may be set up only after a much longer interval (24-98 hours)— s 2