Chemistry in its relations to therapeutics / W. Handsel Griffiths.

  • Griffiths, W. Handsel (William Handsel), 1846-1877.
Date:
[1874], [©1874]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Chemistry in its relations to therapeutics / W. Handsel Griffiths. 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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    The necessity of studying remedies from their chemical relation to the animal tissues is forcibly indicated by Charles Bland Kadcliffe in his paper on The Treatment of Neuralgia, read before the British Medical Association, at the Bristol meeting in 1863. He reasons thus : Nerve pain is indicative of deterioration of nerve tissue; hence phosphorus and cod- liver oil as nutrients for the nerve tissue are the appropriate remedies. So long ago as 1841, Blake (a) attempted to frame a law to the effect that salts of isomorphous bases have in general a similar action. So far as I am aware, this was the first at- tempt to define a connection between chemical constitution and therapeutic action. In 1868 Dr, W. H. Broadbent brought an extremely inte- resting communication under the notice of the Eoyal Society of London. (&) In this paper the author states that sub- stances chemically allied should have similar physiological and therapeutic actions, or any diversity found to exist should be capable of explanation on chemical grounds. The source of nerve-force is stated to be oxidation, and the seat of oxidation is the nervous structures. Poisons which kill by their action on the nervous system all contain nitrogen, and this element is the pivot on which the deadly influence turns. In the ner- vous structures carbon and hydrogen are liberated in the nascent state and appropriate the oxygen brought by the blood, and thus produce a result equivalent to exclusion of oxygen. The carbon and hydrogen are set free by the dis- locating influence ('' chemical tension ) of nitrogen. Prussic acid affords a striking example of a poison acting in such a manner. This paper of Broadbent's is eminently suggestive, and must be regarded as a valuable contribution to the chemistry of therapeutics. I have now to ask attention to the masterly essay of Drs. Crum Brown and Thomas Eraser, '* On the Connection between Chemical Constitution and Physiological Action. (c) These investigators show that composition alone is insufficient to explain physiological action, and that constitution, by which is meant the mutual relations of the atoms in a substance, must also be taken into account. Thus, acetic acid and sugar are identical in composi- tion, as ara glycocoU and nitrite of ethyl; again, kakodylic acid is inert, although it is perfectly soluble and contains 54 per cent, of metallic arsenic. It would be foreign to my pur- (a) Proceedings of the Eoyal Society of London, vol, iv., Jan. 28th, 1841. (&) An Attempt to apply Chemical Principles in Explanation of the Action of Poisons. Proceedings of the Boyal Society of London. vol., xvi., 1868.) (c) Transactions of the Royal Society oj Edinburgh,*' vol. xxt.