On the new pharmacopoeia : with some preliminary considerations on the past and future condition of British pharmacy / T. Laycock.

  • Laycock, Thomas, 1812-1876.
Date:
[1858]
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the new pharmacopoeia : with some preliminary considerations on the past and future condition of British pharmacy / T. Laycock. 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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    endermic medication is almost wholly excluded from tlie Pharmacopoeia. We have a few liniments, ointments, cataplasms, and clysters left ; but they are more like fossils of the old “ Compound Externals,” than anything else. Yet there was hardly an object to be attained by the internal administration of drugs, which the ancients did not aim at by their external application ; and succeeded in, too, with much advantage to the overworked stomach of the patient. A hip-bath of oil, albeit oil of the fox, was not improbably found to be sometimes as useful to arthritic patients, as P. -^gineta states—namely, that if they are put into it for a considerable time, it removes the complaint entirely. Not wishing to load the intestines with irritant drugs, in a case of stricture of the rectum, under my care, I tried a purgative cataplasm or epithem to the abdomen (or navel), like that recommended by this writer, and it answered remarkably well. I have applied castor oil to the abdomen with similar results, in cases in which the slightest excess in its operation would have been dangerously debilitating. I can confirm the experience of Professor Trousseau and others, as to the diuretic activity of squill and digitalis, applied in like manner. The external application of quinine, opium, arsenic, &c., is well known and valued. Why, then, should we not have a class of epithems ? In this respect the modern practitioner has a great advantage over those of past times in the gutta-percha tissue. I was, I believe, one of the first to introduce its use into practice nearly twenty years ago, for the purposes of endermic medication, for whicli it is much better fitted than oiled silk, from the simple circumstance that it resists the action of many chemical remedies. Thus I have by its means applied iodide and bromide of potassium and chloride of sodium endermically to bronchoceles, to enlarged strumous glands, and even to the scalp in cases of strumous idiocy, with both comfort to the patient and marked success in the treatment. Amongst ender- mic remedies I hardly think that suppositories and clysters will be neglected, but the class of tents are entitled to a re-consideration as means of endermic medication. The old turundae acousticae are ear-tents for this purpose of a more artistic con- struction than a twist of cotton-wool. And perhaps even the “ amulet against pesti- lences ”had a virtue in them as endermic medicants in addition to their psychological influence as antidotes to depressing fears. The febrifuge powers of arsenic are well known when used as a remedy, but its fumes also are antidotal, for in Cornwall the arsenical fumes from the mines are said to “ kill” all the fevers in malarious unhealthy districts. But arsenic was probably applied endermically in the form of vapour in these amulets, and thus had an influence in counteracting the action of the miasmata which is strongly predisposed to attacks of pestilential fevers. I give you the formula from Salmon’s edition of Shipton’s Bates “R Auripigment (orpiment) §iss., angelica roots 3vj., mucilage of gum tragacanth q.s., mix and make a paste, of which make amulets, No. xij. of a globe-like form, which roll up in silk and hang against the region of the heart.” These amulets are said to have produced deleterious effects when worn for the purpose specified. Crato observed an ulcer of the breast, and Vernascha violent pains and syncope to follow their use.* Old Salmon says, “Paracelsus, Crollius, Hartman, and others, are of opinion that there is a mighty force and virtue in such like amulets, made to defend against the infection of the plague. I will not say much to the matter, but leave every one to use their own freedom. However, this, I will say, that if my own life lay at stake. I should rather trust to some known and approved inward specifick antidote, than to all the force of amulets in the world. Tho’ if the philosophick reason of the thing be considered and enquired into, there may be much more in it than many are aware of.” Between 1694 and 1858 we have advanced to a “philosophick reason of the thing,” and [think the arsenic, being slowly vaporized by the heat of the body, is absorbed by the skin, and so acts, as well as the inward specific antidotes or febrifuges, quinine or arseniate of potass—for arsenic may be absorbed in poisonous doses by the unbroken skin. Let us turn to another circumstance influencing the selection of remedies. 3. The ancients used, what we consider, very nauseous and disgusting remedies, and we have, therefore, neglected them; but they had their reasons: the main one being, probably, that beneficial effects resulted from their use. We have seen that one of this class of remedies (cow-dung) actually contains valuable drugs. I believe this will be found true of other remedies drawn from the animal kingdom. The Hindu Paris’s rharmacologia, 7th edition, vol. ii., p. 100.