Transactions of the Eclectic Medical Society of the State of New York, for the year 1867 : transmitted to the legislature January 17, 1868.

  • Eclectic Medical Society of the State of New York.
Date:
1868
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Transactions of the Eclectic Medical Society of the State of New York, for the year 1867 : transmitted to the legislature January 17, 1868. 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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    from this conclusion, I expect to use it in dysmenorrhea, biliary calculi, l'enal calculi, and all diseases that require a powerful and safe anti-spasmodic; believing, as I do, from previous use, that in these diseases it would give prompt relief. At all events a trial of it would do no harm, and I would recommend the members of this Society to use the dioscorein in these diseases. The author of the Eclectic Dispensatory says of this medicine: “ It acts well in small doses, often repeated.” On this principle I have acted in prescribing this remedy. A saturated tincture of the dioscorea was made with 95 per- cent alcohol, as may be seen by No. 1, herewith presented. Into this strong tincture I put the No. 5 pills, composed of sugar of milk, tind turned them out upon a plate to dry. The alcohol soon evaporates, leaving the medicine upon the pill, as seen by No. 2. Of these pills, I give one every fifteen, thirty or sixty minutes, in acute diseases, and one every two, four or six hours in chronic affections. These pills are not only effectual in the above diseases, but they they have the advantage of being pleasant to the taste, and agreeable to take; a point which I am satisfied we too often overlook. Gentlemen, it is our duty to make our medicines as pleasant for our patients as we possibly can. I will mention a case that came under my treatment during the past year. The patient was a Mrs. P., of Brooklyn. She complained of a constant papa in the stomach and upper portion of the bowels, worse at night, so much so as to render sleep almost impossible. The bowels were natural, and the digestion fair, no particular eructations of wind and no more distress after eating than before. I suggested a course of diet, which, however, had no good effect. I resorted to different remedies in my attempt to cure her, and gave for that purpose the different preparations of bismuth, the wine bitters, spice bitters, hydrastin, tonics, etc., etc. Nothing I prescribed gave her even temporary relief. Anodynes alone would lull her pain for a few hours, but had no permanent curative effect. It was an unusual case, but not dangerous; and ono of those cases in which the carbonate of bismuth, or the spiced bitters, had here- tofore been successful in my hands. In this case they failed. I then gave her a box of these pills, and ordered one to be taken every hour through the day. In twenty-four hours from the time she commenced to take the pills, a permanent cure was effected. Three months have since elapsed and no return of the disease.