377 



ANTIMONY (MEDICAL USES OF). 



ANTI'PATHY. 



378 



action of the skin, and flow of perspiration, if the patient be kept 

 warm. In a larger dose it causes vomiting, with all the phenomena of 

 that action ; and from being commonly employed for this purpose, it 

 is designated Emetic Tartar. Compared with other emetics it may be 

 said to be distinguished by the ease with which it causes vomiting, as 

 well as by the certainty, though in this latter respect it is surpassed 

 by sulphate of zinc (white vitriol). It may be given to persons of any 

 age, except to very young children, for whom ipecacuanha wine is 

 preferable. It ought not to be given in cases of poisoning, for reasons 

 stated under the head ANTIDOTES, and least of all should it be given in 

 cases of narcotic poisons, since in large doses it is itself a poison, unless 

 vomiting take place ; and as, by narcotic poisons, the sensibility of the 

 stomach is so lowered or destroyed as not to occasion the rejection of 

 anything received into it, the impropriety of exhibiting tartar emetic 

 in such cases is manifest. From the extremely small quantity of this 

 substance which is sufficient to occasion vomiting, there is one state in 

 which it is to be preferred to every other means of causing vomiting. 

 By whatever channel tartar emetic is introduced into the system, it 

 invariably excites the stomach to perform the act of vomiting, unless 

 the person be in a state of insensibility or coma ; a solution of two 

 grains of it, in three ounces of warm distilled water, may, by a skilful 

 operator, be injected into a vein when the gullet is obstructed by any 

 extraneous body lodged in it. In the same way it may be sometimes 

 tried in tetanus, or lock-jaw, when the teeth are so firmly clenched 

 together that nothing can be made to pass them. 



tartarised antimony is decomposed by most bitter or astringent 

 vegetables, which contain tannin (except oak-bark), and an insoluble, 

 and consequently an inert, tannate of the protoxide of antimony is 

 thereby produced, such vegetables, in the form of infusion, decoction, 

 or tincture, furnish the best antidote in cases of over-dose, or poisoning 

 by this article, should it not, by inducing vomiting, prove its own 

 antidote. Under these circumstances, we should administer decoction 

 or tincture of yellow cinchona bark, or, when these cannot be easily 

 procured, a strong infusion of tea. 



Employed in appropriate doses, its action as an emetic is seldom 

 violent, while it certainly acts more powerfully than other emetics in 

 prompting the secretion of the fluids of the stomach, as well as of the 

 bile and pancreatic juice, with those of the lungs, and indeed all the 

 secretions, external as well as internal. Now, aa the suppression of the 

 secretions is one of the most common occurrences in the early stage of 

 fever, and the restoration and improved character of these one of the 

 most favourable signs of its abatement, antimony is employed with 

 great advantage in the treatment of fever, and it cannot be used too 

 early. Indeed, many a fever is stopped or prevented by the employ- 

 ment of this or some other emetic, as ipecacuanha, upon the first 

 intimation of the disease being felt. It is also suited to the beginning 

 of each paroxysm of intermittent or remittent fevers [AGUE]. It may 

 also be advantageously given about the period of the expected crisis in 

 continued fever. When the disease is of a highly inflammatory type, 

 it should be combined with, or followed by, saline medicines ; but when 

 there is great depression of the vital powers, as hi typhus, the salines 

 must be soon laid aside, and stimulating medicines cautiously 

 substituted. 



Antimony is also used in some eruptive or exanthematous fevers, 

 such as measles and scarlet fever, being less suited for those in which 

 the eruption is of a vesicular or pustular character, and which affect 

 the deeper layers of the skin. (For a classification of cutaneous diseases 

 on this principle, see Craigie's ' Pathological Anatomy.') Antimony is 

 well suited for rheumatic fever and erysipelas, as in these diseases the 

 liver is deranged, and furnishes an unhealthy biliary secretion. It is 

 also useful in what are sometimes termed mucous and bilious fevers, 

 which are attended with very depraved secretions from the intestinal 

 canal, which may be removed and improved by repeated small doses 

 of an antiuionial. 



It is also hi daily use for the cure of catarrhal affections, that is, colds 

 affecting the mucous membrane of the lungs. 



Tartrate of antimony, when intended to act as an emetic, is generally 

 given in the dose of a quarter or half a grain dissolved in distilled 

 water, and repeated every ten or twenty minutes till vomiting occurs ; 

 but when merely intended to cause nausea, or to act gently on the 

 secretions of the intestinal canal of the lungs or that of the skin, it is 

 given in even smaller doses, and at the interval of two, four, or six 

 Lately, however, a mode of employing it in much larger and 

 ]ii"i'> frequent doses has been practised with marked benefit in several 

 <M of an inflammatory character, particularly in pneumonia or 

 inflammation of the lungs. According to this plan, from two to three 

 grains dissolved ill water, are given, and repeated every two hours or 

 table tune, even for two or three days. The early 

 doges cause vomiting and purging, but these effects soon cease to 

 ap]>ear, while the j>nle is found to have fallen to fifty beats, or even 

 less, in a minute. Wlivn pursued with caution and managed skilfully, 

 it often enables us to overcome the disease, and to dispense with the 

 removal of so much blood from the system, as might otherwise have 

 been necessary. It ought not to be tried, however, if the mucous 

 membrane of the stomach be in a state of irritation or subacute inflam- 

 mation ; a condition which often occurs during pneumonia. This state 

 of the stomach must be removed by general or local means before we 

 venture upon the exhibition of the antimony. 



This plan of administering tartar emetic is generally believed to have 

 originated with the Italian physicians Rasori and Tommasini ; but 

 whatever merit it possesses is justly due to Dr. Marryat of Bristol, who 

 proposed it in 1790, many years before its employment in Italy. 



Tartrate of antimony is applied externally as an ointment and 

 plaster ; and in either way it excites an action of the part, leading to 

 the formation of a vesicular eruption, similar to that of vaccinia or 

 cow-pox ; and it is consequently used as a means of counter-irritation, 

 often with great advantage. The ointment and plaster may be pre- 

 pared of different degrees of strength, but care must be taken not to 

 make them too strong, as the antimony may be absorbed from the 

 ulcerated surface, and produce violent vomiting, which in some cases 

 has been so serious as to cause death. 



Other forms or preparations of antimony are used, but more as 

 ingredients of certain compounds than in their simple state. Oxide, 

 more properly teroxide of antimony, called tStQjbvcn of antimony, is 

 the chief active ingredient in the pulvis antinionialis composition, the 

 officinal substitute for the empirical article called James's powder. This 

 possesses the same diaphoretic, expectorant, and emetic properties as 

 tartarised antimony. It is also the active ingredient in the oxy- or 

 gray sulphuret, the glass of antimony, kermes, and golden sulphuret. 



Terchloride (formerly muriate) of antimony, called popularly butter 

 of antimony, is a powerful caustic. When applied to the skin, it 

 spreads, cauterising wherever it goes. Proper steps must be taken to 

 limit it to the part to be destroyed. If at hand, it is good to apply 

 instantly to the bite of serpents or mad-dogs. 



Oxysulphuret, or precipitated, or golden, sulphuret is the chief active 

 ingredient in the compound chloride of mercury pill, formerly called 

 Plummer's pill. This is of great service in cutaneous diseases as an 

 alterative. 



ANTIMONY, OXIDE OF. [ANTIMONY.] 



ANTINO'MIANS, from the Greek, signifies ayainst tlic tan: It is 

 applied by theologians to those, if any there be, who hold that faith in 

 Jesus Christ dispenses with, and renders unnecessary, so far as a future 

 state is concerned, the observance of morality and the performance of 

 good works. We say, if any there be, because there is reason to 

 suppose that the accounts of earlier antinomians contain much ex- 

 aggeration, and that there never was any body of men, worthy to 

 be called a sect by numbers and duration, which professed the above 

 opinion. 



So far as avowed abandonment of morals, we find various antino- 

 mian sects in the first three centuries ; but the name was first 

 applied to the followers of John Agricola, a townsman and con- 

 temporary of Luther, born at Eisleben in Saxony. His opinions had 

 the tendency above mentioned, and were attacked by Luther, who, 

 with the assistance of the elector of Brandenburg, obliged him to 

 publish a retractation. It must, however, be observed, that Bayle 

 points out (in the article Inlebien*) the exaggerations which have been 

 made of Agricola's opinions and their source, and that Agricola him- 

 self was employed with others in drawing up the ' Interim,' a pro- 

 visional confession of faith, pronmlgated by the emperor Charles V., at 

 Augsburg, in 1548, which Dupin (and Catholic writers are, in general, 

 shrewd judges between one Protestant and another), admits to be per- 

 fectly orthodox on the article of justification. 



This sect has obtained very little notice from Continental writers, 

 and its followers appear rather to have been distributed among other 

 persuasions. The assembly of divines in 1643 condemned several 

 writings which appeared to them antinomian ; and the Parliament in 

 1648, in what ought to be called the Presbyterian persecution Act, 

 among other provisions, enacted, that any one convicted, on the oaths 

 of two witnesses', of maintaining that the moral law of the Ten Com- 

 mandments is no rule for Christians, or that a believer need not repent 

 or pray for pardon of sin, should publicly retract, or, on his refusal, be 

 imprisoned till he found sureties that he would no more maintain the 

 same. 



The little importance of this sect renders it unnecessary to dwell 

 further upon its history ; but the name, like others, is bandied about 

 as a tenn of reproach by many who do not understand its meaning. 



ANTINOUS. [AQUILA.] 



ANTI'PATHY (from the Greek ii/riireWtia, compounded of iunl 

 rniitrnrii, and rdDos feeliny), properly signifies an involuntary dislike or 

 .aversion entertained by an animate being for some sensible object. 

 Thus a man may have an antipathy to particular smells or tastes a 

 turkey-cock to the colour red, or a horse to the smell of raw meat. 

 Ac. There is no doubt that many antipathies are natural, and do not 

 arise from any accidental circumstance : such as the aversion in man- 

 kind to the tastes and smells of many drugs, and of bodies in a state 

 of putrefaction. Such natural antipathies may, however, in many 

 cases, be overcome by habit ; as in the case of surgeons, who soon 

 leani to conquer the disgust occasioned by the effluvia arising in the 

 dissection of the human subject. Home nations constantly eat food 

 which the rest of mankind would nauseate, as the Esquimaux, who 

 live on whale blubber anil train oil. When the Cossacks were in 

 London and Paris, in 1814, they sometimes drank the whale oil from 

 the lamps in the streets : probably an Englishman or Frenchman would, 

 if starving, reject the draught which the Cossack considered as a luxury. 

 It is moreover quite conceivable that individuals may have such 

 physical peculiarities as will cause them to feel pain from impressions 



