Jaundice: its pathology and treatment : with the application of physiological chemistry to the detection and treatment of diseases of the liver and pancreas. / By George Harley.

Harley, George, 1829-1896.

Date:: MDCCCLXIII. [1863]

Credit: Jaundice: its pathology and treatment : with the application of physiological chemistry to the detection and treatment of diseases of the liver and pancreas. / By George Harley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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$firstly, its action is slow, and not ah\nys certain ; and, secondly, in delicate females it gives rise to a good deal of griping. This latter objection can, however, to a certain extent, be counteracted, by combining the remedy with hyoscyamus. On the whole, I prefer mercurials to podophyllin, and only administer the latter in slight cases of jaun- dice, or in those where mercurials are counter- indicated. For example, in cases of feeble liver, where there is an insufficient secretion of bile from want of nervous power, podophyllin is decidedly of ser- vice, for in such cases mercury is of course counter- indicated. Moreover, podophyllin can be advan- tageously combined with vegetable tonics, and, when given along with gentian or quinine, forms an admirable hepatic stimulant in some of the cases usually denominated “ torpid liver.” I cannot refrain from making a few remarks on what I consider the injudicious employment of podophyllin. Like every new remedy, it has to run the risk of falling into disfavour, in consequence of its too ardent admirers blindly prescribing it in all cases of hepatic disease; in many of which it must of necessity prove unsuitable, if not even detrimental. In cases of jaundice, for example, podophyllin is at one, and the same time, the bane, and the antidote. The bane in all cases of i$