On the treatment of scarlet fever and measles, with sesqui-carbonate of ammonia / by Thomas J. Graham, M.D.

  • Graham, Thomas John, 1795?-1876.
Date:
1861
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the treatment of scarlet fever and measles, with sesqui-carbonate of ammonia / by Thomas J. Graham, M.D. 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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    Hence its great use in syphilis, wMch is a blood disease, and for winch it was at one time properly regarded as almost a specific • and in numerous cases of that complaint it is certainly a far more suitable and efficient remedy than mercury. It is a powerful blood solvent.* It invigorates the capillary vessels, accelerates the movement of the blood in them, and effectually controls the strong tendency in scarlet fever and diphtheria to fibrinous depo- sition. It aids materially in the change of venous into arterial blood. Hence its singular efficacy, in combination with squills m the chronic bronchitis of old people; and, when combined with tartar emetic, in acute bronchitis and pneumonia at all ages. Eoth m acute and chronic bronchitis, when we see the signs of venous blood mingling in the general circulation, the complexion being dusky, and the lips bluish, ammonia is a valuable remedy in combi- nation with emetic tartar. The latter medicine checks and reduces the inflammation present, and the ammonia sustains the strength and promotes expectoration, by invigorating the capillary circulation and assisting in arterializing the blood. With the erroneous views generally entertained respecting the operation of ammonia by writers on Materia MecHca, no wonder that we should meet with such remarks as the followino-. Dr A T. Thomson says, Mem. of M. Medica, vol. i. p. 402, It is not easy to explain the manner in which ammonia operates when it is taken into the stomach for warding off the effects of the bites of poisonous snakes, unless we admit that the ra-us introduced into the wound acts as au immediate and direct sedative to the nervous system, and that the ammonia, by sustaining the nervous energy, enables the system,to, w#st,aiid,th,e influence of the poison until it expends its power.:. , > ' Here is a fair specimen of the neuro-pathology—a fruitful source of so many errors in practical medicine. The virus of snakes does not act at all on the nerves. Its sedative operation on the nervous system is merely imaginary, and so is that of ammonia directly sustaining the nervous energy. The certain facts are that the poison of serpents instantly attacks the blood, to the extent of pro- ducing a visible fermentation in it when microscopically examined and that ammonia, by destroying the morbific power of the virus there, proves a specific remedy. It evidently neutralizes the virus earned into the blood, and thus circulated throughout the system. Ihis is perfectly intelligible; and ammonia operates in the same way m scarlet fever and measles, diseases in which the whole blood 01 the sufferer is struck with a virulent poison, which ammonia neutrahzes. Its well-ascertained power over the potent poison of venomous serpents, spreading as it does with such fearful rapidity tJirough the circulation, is a striking proof of its remarkable anti- septic and life-giving quahties. That the poison of scarlet fever primarily acts on the great * Richardson ou the Blood, p. 300 and 322-7.