Observations on the remarkable effects of iodine in bronchocele and schrophula : being a translation of three memoirs published by I.R. Coindet, M.D. of Geneva.

  • Coindet, Jean François, 1774-1834.
Date:
1821
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the remarkable effects of iodine in bronchocele and schrophula : being a translation of three memoirs published by I.R. Coindet, M.D. of Geneva. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    Some of those tumours that appear goitrous resist the action of this remedy under whatever form I pre- scribe it, and however long its use is continued. I have, however, reason to believe that these are not real goitres, or at least that their entire substance has undergone some organic change. The cellular tissue which surrounds the tumour, remains in some cases swollen, and imparts to the touch the sensation of an empty cyst. A goitre is often dissipated incompletely, but yet sufficiently so as to occasion neither inconvenience nor deformity. In a vast number of cases it is removed in from six to ten weeks, and in such a way as to leave no trace of its existence. To obtain the full and iso- lated effect of this remedy, and that it should be disengaged from every foreign combination, I have avoided making use of any local applications — such as sachets, colliers, &c. which by the compression they produce, as well as from the saline or resolutive sub- stances that enter into their composition, are not wholly inefficacious. Iodine is a stimulant; it gives tone to the stomach and excites appetite ; it neither acts upon the bowels nor kidnies ; produces no perspiration, but exercises its action upon the generative system, especially upon the uterus. If given in a certain dose, and continued for some time, it is one of the most active emenagogues with which I am acquainted ; it is per- haps from this sympathetic action, that it so frequently cures the goitre. I have employed it with complete success in one of those cases of chlorosis, where I should have otherwise prescribed myrrh, preparations of iron, &c. had I not suspected this peculiar action. This substance again merits, even under this new point of view, the attention of medical practitioners, and I make no doubt of its becoming, under skilful hands, one of the most powerful remedies with which modern chemistry has enriched the Materia Medica.