Volume 5

The elements of materia medica. Comprehending the natural history, preparation, properties, composition, effects and uses of medicines / [Jonathan Pereira].

  • Pereira, Jonathan, 1804-1853.
Date:
1839-1840
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The elements of materia medica. Comprehending the natural history, preparation, properties, composition, effects and uses of medicines / [Jonathan Pereira]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    94/592 (page 68)
    feebleness and irregularity of pulse, faintings, convulsions, and insensi-— bility. Tobacco is remarkable for producing excessive feebleness of the 5} muscular system. Foxglove sometimes causes salivation. Both sub- stances have been employed to reduce the frequency and force of the heart’s action, and to cause diuresis; tobacco has been used as a purgative in hernia and intus-susception. | h. The eighth group contains certain metallic preparations which act specifically on the nervous system, such as the preparations of arsenic, bismuth, copper, silver, and zinc. Their local action is imitant or caustic. Their influence over the cerebro-spinal system is shown by their remedial power in some disorders of this system, as epilepsy and chorea (in consequence of which they have been termed antispasmodics), and. by the giddiness, cramps or convulsions, paralysis, coma, &c. when taken in poisonous quantities. In small doses they are considered to act as tonics, principally on account of their beneficial agency in periodical diseases, especially ague. This group corresponds very nearly to that ca'led by Vogt, nervino-alterantia. i. The ninth group contains the plumbeous preparations, which are remarkable for producing colic and paralysis. These compounds are usually called astringents. k. The tenth group is formed to include mercurial compounds, which by long-continued action in small quantities, cause a convulsive move- ment of the muscles (tremor mercurialis) as in chorea. Notwithstanding the numerous groups or subdivisions’ of the class cerebro-spinants, which I have thought it necessary to make, more probably ought to be added. If, as Dr. Hall believes, the tone of the muscular system is derived from the true spinal system, the substances called tonics should form a group of cerebro-spinants rather than a distinct class. Moreover, the medicines known as antispasmodics (such as asafcetida) ought perhaps to be placed in this class, on account of their remarkable influence in hysteria and infantile convulsions. Cause or mode of death.—The immediate cause or mode of death from the use of cerebro-spinants is not always the same,—in some instances it is an affection of the respiratory organs, in others of the. heart. a. Paralysis of the muscles of respiration.—In some cases the respiratory muscles do not receive their proper supply of nervous energy, in consequence of which respiration is performed with in- creasing difficulty, until, ultimately, asphyxia is produced. This kind of death is caused by opium, and sometimes by dilute hydrocyanic acid. Before the cessation of life we observe the breathing to become laborious or even stertorous, as in cases of apoplexy ; and if the body be opened immediately after death, the heart is found beating, oftentimes with considerable force and for some minutes. These are the cases in which it has been proposed to prolong life by artificial respiration until the cerebral disorder has passed off. ‘The proposition is not supported merely by its ingeniousness and plausibility, but by experience. The following is a case in point related by Mr. Whateley, and quoted by Dr. Christison (Treatise on Poisons, p. 680, 3d ed.) A middle-aged man swallowed half an ounce of crude opium, and soon became lethargic. He was roused from this state by appropriate remedies, and his surgeon left him. But the poison not having been sufficiently discharged, he fell again into a state of stupor; and when the surgeon returned, he found