EDITORIAL.INTERNAL USE OF ATROPINE.ABRIDGED FROM THE JANUARY NUMBER OF THE LONDON JOURNAL OF MEDICINE.In the practice of English and American physicians, atropine (atropia) has been hitherto used chiefly as an external application, to dilate the pupil, but, as far as we know, has never been administered internally. In France, the powdered belladonna root has been strongly recommended as affording a reliable and efficient preparation; in this country, the leaves and the extracts and tincture derived from them are alone officinal. Dr. Lusanna, an Italian physician, has ventured upon the internal use of atropia, and, according to our notions, in very large doses. He commences its administration in doses of one-thirtieth of a grain every three or four hours, gradually increasing the dose according to the effect produced. In some instances he went so far as to give one-third of a grain five times a day.It may be given, according to Dr. L, in solution in alcohol, or in acetic or some other mild acid. Pills and powders, from the difficulty of apportioning the dose he deems unadvisable. The alcoholic solution has a taste somewhat like that of quinine, but feebler, and not particularly disagreeable. The patient soon becomes habituated to the remedy, and the dose has to be increased. In cases of neuralgia he recommends the application of one-fourteenth to one sixth of a grain to a blistered surface, in the form of pomade. Dr. L. carries the administration of atropia so far as to produce what we would call its toxicological effects.1st.Dilatation and immobility of the pupil.Between fourteen and fifteen minutes after the exhibition of from one-twenty-fourth to one-thirtieth of a grain of atropia, the pupil becomes enormously dilated. If the remedy be persevered in the dilatation passes of, but the iris becomes immoveable, and the pupil no longer contracts on exposure to light. When the remedy is stopped, as the other phenomena produced by its exhibition subside, the pupil again becomes extremely dilated. Previous to this it commences to oscillate, contracting slightly when exposed to strong light, and dilating again in the shade. This indicates that the{126}effects of the remedy are disappearing. The dilatation of the pupil is the last of the phenomena to subside, being sometimes met with eight days, or more after the suspension of the atropia.2.Disturbance of vision.Objects at first seem hazy and ill-defined, persons are not recognized, and it is impossible to read or write. If the dose be increased, objects seem covered with a dark shade, and vision may be wholly lost. Every fresh dose has a sudden and marked effect in diminishing vision, and on its suspension the disturbance of vision disappears with equal rapidity. In one or two days the sight is perfectly restored.3.Disturbance of Intellect.At first the patient appears dull and stupid, then there is vertigo and confusion of ideas.4.Hallucinations of sight and hearing.Objects are seen double or greatly magnified; motes and insects flit before the eyes; well known objects assume strange and monstrous forms, or horrible phantoms are seen. The hearing is more rarely affected. Buzzing, tinkling, hissing and whistling are sometimes heard.5.Anaesthesia.Touch remains apparently perfect, but pain is relieved or blunted. The patient does not seem to suffer from painful tactile impressions.6.Dryness of the mouth and throatwere invariably felt. At first this seemed a purely nervous phenomenon, but if the medication was continued, from the diminution of the salivary secretion it became real.7.The appetiteis early lost, and there is no thirst; but on the cessation of the remedy it returns sharper than ever. Speech is early embarrassed, and the power of swallowing early diminished, becomes finally lost.8.Deliriumalternating with stupor or succeeded by it, is produced by one-tenth of a grain of atropia at the commencement of the treatment, or by one-fourth of a grain later, or by any sudden increase of the dose. The delirium is commonly gay and ridiculous; in one instance only was it mournful. When these phenomena are at all intense, they subside slowly. For several days after the cessation of the medicine, there is confusion and slowness of thought.9.Redness of the skinwas observed in but a single case.10.Torpor and paralytic tremblings.As the patient gets under the influence of the atropia, the legs become weak and trembling, gradually lose their strength, and he is confined to bed. They may be still agitated by twitching, and convulsive movements.11.Paralysis of the sphincters of the rectum and bladder.This is the highest point to which, according to Dr. L., the medicative action of atropia can attain. In one case, only, the fæces and urine were passed involuntarily.The functions of respiration, circulation, and calorification, were never affected by atropia.After this long catalogue of serious symptoms, Dr. Lusanna rather naively observes, he has never seen any truly alarming results arise from the use of atropia! Should they occur, he recommends wine as the best antidote.{127}CULTIVATIONOFOPIUM.—In a late number of the Archives Generales de Medicine, will be found a short notice of a paper, read by M. Aubergier, to the French Academy of Science upon the cultivation of native opium. When the juice is obtained according to the methods described by M. A., the seeds continue to ripen, and the oil they yield pays the expense of cultivation. If the opium then more than repays the expense of the labor necessary to procure it, its production will be a source of profit. Now M. A., by successive improvements in his processes, has been enabled to raise the amount obtained by each laborer from a maximum of 75 to90 grammes(11571⁄2grs.to1389 grs.)to five times that quantity. The commercial value of the opium will always, therefore, more than repay the cost of manufacture. He farther finds that the proportion of morphia contained in the opium varies. 1st, with the maturity of the capsules from which it is collected, opium collected from capsules nearly ripe yielding less morphia than that obtained from those that are not so near their maturity. 2d, different varieties of the poppy yield an opium varying in the quantity of contained morphia from 15 to 17.833 per cent. Twenty specimens of foreign opium examined by M. A. yielded quantities varying from 2.64 to 13 per cent.The superiority of some specimens of European opium has been noticed by previous observers, and depends probably on the greater care bestowed on its preparation and on the cultivation of the plant.CHROMICACIDASANESCHAROTIC.Chromic acid has lately been employed in Germany, both in concentrated solution and in substance, as an escharotic. The advantages it possesses are, that it is efficient, manageable, and less painful than the more ordinary applications. The concentrated solution is applied by means of a glass rod, a pencil made of asbestos, or if necessary, an ordinary hair pencil, which, if washed immediately, can be used a second time. The solid chromic acid on account of its penetrating action has to be employed with much care. All organic compounds are first oxydised and then dissolved in an excess of the acid, and this change is accelerated by an elevated temperature. Smaller animals, birds, mice, &c., were so completely dissolved by the acid within fifteen or twenty minutes, that no trace of their bones, skin, hair, claws, or teeth could be discovered. It would thus appear to be not only a gentle and gradual escharotic, but also a complete and rapid solvent.Dublin Quarterly Jour. of Med. Science, from Wiener Medizinische Wochenschrift, 1851, No. viii.PUBLICHYGEINE.M. M. Bicourt & A. Chevalier have presented a memorial on the diseases which attack workmen engaged in the manufacture of chromsate of potash. The result of the facts presented in their memorial, proves, 1st. That workmen engaged in the preparation of bi-chromsate of potash, are subject to peculiar diseases. 2d. These diseases attack workmen who do not take snuff, and the mucous membrane of the nose is destroyed. 3d. Workmen who take snuff do not experience the same diseases. 4th. Workmen whose skin is broken{128}in any part, suffer severely when the bi-chromsate comes in contact with the abraded surface, and should, therefore, carefully preserve the abrasions from contact with the solution of bi-chromsate. 5th. Workmen lightly clothed are exposed to some inconveniences, but these may be easily avoided. 6th. Animals are, like men, exposed to maladies caused by the bi-chromsate of potash.—Archives Generales de Medicine.CHEMICALTECHNOLOGY;or Chemistry applied to Arts and to Manufactures, by Dr. T. Knapp, Professor at the University of Giesen; Dr. Edmund Ronalds, Professor of Chemistry at Queen’s College, Galway; and Dr. Thomas Richardson, of New Castle on Tyne. Illustrated with nine engravings and one hundred and twenty-nine wood cuts. Vol. iii. London:HYPPOLYTEBAILLIERE,219 Regent street, and 209 Broadway, New York.Knapp’s Technology belongs to a class of books characteristic of the present day, and of the highest and most extended usefulness. Giving the practical details of the arts in connection with the scientific principles on which they are founded, it extends the views of the manufacturer and the economist, and places him on the right path for further improvement. To the American it presents the further advantage of ample and precise details of what is being done in Great Britain and on the Continent of Europe. All engaged in pursuits with which chemistry has any connection (and with what is it not now connected?) will find in the various volumes of the Technology, valuable information in regard to their own peculiar avocations, while the variety of its information and the copiousness of its illustrations, gives it a high interest to the general reader.At a meeting of the College of Pharmacy of the city of New York, held on Thursday, 25th of March, the following gentlemen were elected officers for the ensuing year.GEO.D.COGGESHALL,President.JOHNH.CURRIE,1st Vice President.WILLIAML.RUSHTON,2d Vice President.OLIVERHULL,3d Vice President.JAMESS.ASPINWALL,Treasurer.B. W.BULL,Secretary.TRUSTEES.WM.JOLLIFFE,JOHNMEAKIN,THOMASB.MERRICK,EUGENEDUPREY,R. J.DAVIES,JUNIUSGRIDLEY,WM.HEGEMAN,GEORGEWILSON,THOMAST.GREEN.
In the practice of English and American physicians, atropine (atropia) has been hitherto used chiefly as an external application, to dilate the pupil, but, as far as we know, has never been administered internally. In France, the powdered belladonna root has been strongly recommended as affording a reliable and efficient preparation; in this country, the leaves and the extracts and tincture derived from them are alone officinal. Dr. Lusanna, an Italian physician, has ventured upon the internal use of atropia, and, according to our notions, in very large doses. He commences its administration in doses of one-thirtieth of a grain every three or four hours, gradually increasing the dose according to the effect produced. In some instances he went so far as to give one-third of a grain five times a day.
It may be given, according to Dr. L, in solution in alcohol, or in acetic or some other mild acid. Pills and powders, from the difficulty of apportioning the dose he deems unadvisable. The alcoholic solution has a taste somewhat like that of quinine, but feebler, and not particularly disagreeable. The patient soon becomes habituated to the remedy, and the dose has to be increased. In cases of neuralgia he recommends the application of one-fourteenth to one sixth of a grain to a blistered surface, in the form of pomade. Dr. L. carries the administration of atropia so far as to produce what we would call its toxicological effects.
1st.Dilatation and immobility of the pupil.Between fourteen and fifteen minutes after the exhibition of from one-twenty-fourth to one-thirtieth of a grain of atropia, the pupil becomes enormously dilated. If the remedy be persevered in the dilatation passes of, but the iris becomes immoveable, and the pupil no longer contracts on exposure to light. When the remedy is stopped, as the other phenomena produced by its exhibition subside, the pupil again becomes extremely dilated. Previous to this it commences to oscillate, contracting slightly when exposed to strong light, and dilating again in the shade. This indicates that the{126}effects of the remedy are disappearing. The dilatation of the pupil is the last of the phenomena to subside, being sometimes met with eight days, or more after the suspension of the atropia.
2.Disturbance of vision.Objects at first seem hazy and ill-defined, persons are not recognized, and it is impossible to read or write. If the dose be increased, objects seem covered with a dark shade, and vision may be wholly lost. Every fresh dose has a sudden and marked effect in diminishing vision, and on its suspension the disturbance of vision disappears with equal rapidity. In one or two days the sight is perfectly restored.
3.Disturbance of Intellect.At first the patient appears dull and stupid, then there is vertigo and confusion of ideas.
4.Hallucinations of sight and hearing.Objects are seen double or greatly magnified; motes and insects flit before the eyes; well known objects assume strange and monstrous forms, or horrible phantoms are seen. The hearing is more rarely affected. Buzzing, tinkling, hissing and whistling are sometimes heard.
5.Anaesthesia.Touch remains apparently perfect, but pain is relieved or blunted. The patient does not seem to suffer from painful tactile impressions.
6.Dryness of the mouth and throatwere invariably felt. At first this seemed a purely nervous phenomenon, but if the medication was continued, from the diminution of the salivary secretion it became real.
7.The appetiteis early lost, and there is no thirst; but on the cessation of the remedy it returns sharper than ever. Speech is early embarrassed, and the power of swallowing early diminished, becomes finally lost.
8.Deliriumalternating with stupor or succeeded by it, is produced by one-tenth of a grain of atropia at the commencement of the treatment, or by one-fourth of a grain later, or by any sudden increase of the dose. The delirium is commonly gay and ridiculous; in one instance only was it mournful. When these phenomena are at all intense, they subside slowly. For several days after the cessation of the medicine, there is confusion and slowness of thought.
9.Redness of the skinwas observed in but a single case.
10.Torpor and paralytic tremblings.As the patient gets under the influence of the atropia, the legs become weak and trembling, gradually lose their strength, and he is confined to bed. They may be still agitated by twitching, and convulsive movements.
11.Paralysis of the sphincters of the rectum and bladder.This is the highest point to which, according to Dr. L., the medicative action of atropia can attain. In one case, only, the fæces and urine were passed involuntarily.
The functions of respiration, circulation, and calorification, were never affected by atropia.
After this long catalogue of serious symptoms, Dr. Lusanna rather naively observes, he has never seen any truly alarming results arise from the use of atropia! Should they occur, he recommends wine as the best antidote.
After this long catalogue of serious symptoms, Dr. Lusanna rather naively observes, he has never seen any truly alarming results arise from the use of atropia! Should they occur, he recommends wine as the best antidote.
{127}
CULTIVATIONOFOPIUM.—In a late number of the Archives Generales de Medicine, will be found a short notice of a paper, read by M. Aubergier, to the French Academy of Science upon the cultivation of native opium. When the juice is obtained according to the methods described by M. A., the seeds continue to ripen, and the oil they yield pays the expense of cultivation. If the opium then more than repays the expense of the labor necessary to procure it, its production will be a source of profit. Now M. A., by successive improvements in his processes, has been enabled to raise the amount obtained by each laborer from a maximum of 75 to90 grammes(11571⁄2grs.to1389 grs.)to five times that quantity. The commercial value of the opium will always, therefore, more than repay the cost of manufacture. He farther finds that the proportion of morphia contained in the opium varies. 1st, with the maturity of the capsules from which it is collected, opium collected from capsules nearly ripe yielding less morphia than that obtained from those that are not so near their maturity. 2d, different varieties of the poppy yield an opium varying in the quantity of contained morphia from 15 to 17.833 per cent. Twenty specimens of foreign opium examined by M. A. yielded quantities varying from 2.64 to 13 per cent.
The superiority of some specimens of European opium has been noticed by previous observers, and depends probably on the greater care bestowed on its preparation and on the cultivation of the plant.
The superiority of some specimens of European opium has been noticed by previous observers, and depends probably on the greater care bestowed on its preparation and on the cultivation of the plant.
CHROMICACIDASANESCHAROTIC.Chromic acid has lately been employed in Germany, both in concentrated solution and in substance, as an escharotic. The advantages it possesses are, that it is efficient, manageable, and less painful than the more ordinary applications. The concentrated solution is applied by means of a glass rod, a pencil made of asbestos, or if necessary, an ordinary hair pencil, which, if washed immediately, can be used a second time. The solid chromic acid on account of its penetrating action has to be employed with much care. All organic compounds are first oxydised and then dissolved in an excess of the acid, and this change is accelerated by an elevated temperature. Smaller animals, birds, mice, &c., were so completely dissolved by the acid within fifteen or twenty minutes, that no trace of their bones, skin, hair, claws, or teeth could be discovered. It would thus appear to be not only a gentle and gradual escharotic, but also a complete and rapid solvent.Dublin Quarterly Jour. of Med. Science, from Wiener Medizinische Wochenschrift, 1851, No. viii.
CHROMICACIDASANESCHAROTIC.Chromic acid has lately been employed in Germany, both in concentrated solution and in substance, as an escharotic. The advantages it possesses are, that it is efficient, manageable, and less painful than the more ordinary applications. The concentrated solution is applied by means of a glass rod, a pencil made of asbestos, or if necessary, an ordinary hair pencil, which, if washed immediately, can be used a second time. The solid chromic acid on account of its penetrating action has to be employed with much care. All organic compounds are first oxydised and then dissolved in an excess of the acid, and this change is accelerated by an elevated temperature. Smaller animals, birds, mice, &c., were so completely dissolved by the acid within fifteen or twenty minutes, that no trace of their bones, skin, hair, claws, or teeth could be discovered. It would thus appear to be not only a gentle and gradual escharotic, but also a complete and rapid solvent.Dublin Quarterly Jour. of Med. Science, from Wiener Medizinische Wochenschrift, 1851, No. viii.
PUBLICHYGEINE.M. M. Bicourt & A. Chevalier have presented a memorial on the diseases which attack workmen engaged in the manufacture of chromsate of potash. The result of the facts presented in their memorial, proves, 1st. That workmen engaged in the preparation of bi-chromsate of potash, are subject to peculiar diseases. 2d. These diseases attack workmen who do not take snuff, and the mucous membrane of the nose is destroyed. 3d. Workmen who take snuff do not experience the same diseases. 4th. Workmen whose skin is broken{128}in any part, suffer severely when the bi-chromsate comes in contact with the abraded surface, and should, therefore, carefully preserve the abrasions from contact with the solution of bi-chromsate. 5th. Workmen lightly clothed are exposed to some inconveniences, but these may be easily avoided. 6th. Animals are, like men, exposed to maladies caused by the bi-chromsate of potash.—Archives Generales de Medicine.
PUBLICHYGEINE.M. M. Bicourt & A. Chevalier have presented a memorial on the diseases which attack workmen engaged in the manufacture of chromsate of potash. The result of the facts presented in their memorial, proves, 1st. That workmen engaged in the preparation of bi-chromsate of potash, are subject to peculiar diseases. 2d. These diseases attack workmen who do not take snuff, and the mucous membrane of the nose is destroyed. 3d. Workmen who take snuff do not experience the same diseases. 4th. Workmen whose skin is broken{128}in any part, suffer severely when the bi-chromsate comes in contact with the abraded surface, and should, therefore, carefully preserve the abrasions from contact with the solution of bi-chromsate. 5th. Workmen lightly clothed are exposed to some inconveniences, but these may be easily avoided. 6th. Animals are, like men, exposed to maladies caused by the bi-chromsate of potash.—Archives Generales de Medicine.
CHEMICALTECHNOLOGY;or Chemistry applied to Arts and to Manufactures, by Dr. T. Knapp, Professor at the University of Giesen; Dr. Edmund Ronalds, Professor of Chemistry at Queen’s College, Galway; and Dr. Thomas Richardson, of New Castle on Tyne. Illustrated with nine engravings and one hundred and twenty-nine wood cuts. Vol. iii. London:HYPPOLYTEBAILLIERE,219 Regent street, and 209 Broadway, New York.
Knapp’s Technology belongs to a class of books characteristic of the present day, and of the highest and most extended usefulness. Giving the practical details of the arts in connection with the scientific principles on which they are founded, it extends the views of the manufacturer and the economist, and places him on the right path for further improvement. To the American it presents the further advantage of ample and precise details of what is being done in Great Britain and on the Continent of Europe. All engaged in pursuits with which chemistry has any connection (and with what is it not now connected?) will find in the various volumes of the Technology, valuable information in regard to their own peculiar avocations, while the variety of its information and the copiousness of its illustrations, gives it a high interest to the general reader.
Knapp’s Technology belongs to a class of books characteristic of the present day, and of the highest and most extended usefulness. Giving the practical details of the arts in connection with the scientific principles on which they are founded, it extends the views of the manufacturer and the economist, and places him on the right path for further improvement. To the American it presents the further advantage of ample and precise details of what is being done in Great Britain and on the Continent of Europe. All engaged in pursuits with which chemistry has any connection (and with what is it not now connected?) will find in the various volumes of the Technology, valuable information in regard to their own peculiar avocations, while the variety of its information and the copiousness of its illustrations, gives it a high interest to the general reader.
At a meeting of the College of Pharmacy of the city of New York, held on Thursday, 25th of March, the following gentlemen were elected officers for the ensuing year.GEO.D.COGGESHALL,President.JOHNH.CURRIE,1st Vice President.WILLIAML.RUSHTON,2d Vice President.OLIVERHULL,3d Vice President.JAMESS.ASPINWALL,Treasurer.B. W.BULL,Secretary.TRUSTEES.WM.JOLLIFFE,JOHNMEAKIN,THOMASB.MERRICK,EUGENEDUPREY,R. J.DAVIES,JUNIUSGRIDLEY,WM.HEGEMAN,GEORGEWILSON,THOMAST.GREEN.
At a meeting of the College of Pharmacy of the city of New York, held on Thursday, 25th of March, the following gentlemen were elected officers for the ensuing year.
GEO.D.COGGESHALL,President.JOHNH.CURRIE,1st Vice President.WILLIAML.RUSHTON,2d Vice President.OLIVERHULL,3d Vice President.JAMESS.ASPINWALL,Treasurer.B. W.BULL,Secretary.
TRUSTEES.WM.JOLLIFFE,JOHNMEAKIN,THOMASB.MERRICK,EUGENEDUPREY,R. J.DAVIES,JUNIUSGRIDLEY,WM.HEGEMAN,GEORGEWILSON,THOMAST.GREEN.
TRUSTEES.