FAILURE OF MEDICAL SCIENCE. 65 



order that there shall be no misunderstandiDg I will 

 advert to one or two of the most characteristic. First 

 of all is bichloride of mercury, an agent so powerful that 

 it can only be administered internally in minute doses, 

 and which even then, and with the closest watching, 

 produces poisonous effects. 



Salicylic acid is also an antiseptic, but serious con- 

 sequences have sometimes followed its use. The poison- 

 ous qualities of carbolic acid are well known. It is one 

 of the most powerful corrosive poisons known, and yet 

 druggists distribute it freely and will sell it to anybody 

 who asks for it. A case is recorded by Dr. Billroth, of 

 Vienna, where a patient lost four fingers by gangrene 

 produced through the application of carbolic acid to a 

 trifling wound. Its effects are very rapid. A marine 

 hospital steward swallowed a small quantity by mistake, 

 and was dead within three minutes ; and a case is men- 

 tioned in Philadelphia where a man entered a drug store^ 

 purchased a very small quantity of the strong acid, 

 drank it, and was dead before he could leave the store. 

 Moreover, carbolic acid is not as powerful a germicide as 

 some other things in use by the profession. 



Permanganate of potash is so active that one grain in 

 twenty-four hours is a full dose. Iodoform, nitrate of 

 silver (common caustic), are also in use, and arsenic is a 

 favorite antiseptic. Two grains of arsenious acid have 

 proved fatal, and a fourth of a grain may produce poison- 

 ous symptoms. Arsenic is the basis of many quack pre- 

 parations and forms the active agent in complexion 

 wafers, cancer plasters and ointments, and of many 

 compounds that are sold in unlimited quantities in the 

 stores and by advertising adventurers. It is an accu- 

 mulative poison. Its effects may not be injuriously 

 apparent until it has been used for some time, and they 

 then appear in full severity, producing symptoms not 

 unlike Asiatic cholera, only with more pain. Thirst is 

 intense, consciousness usually remains to the last, but 

 not always, and convulsions, tetanus, and severe vomit- 

 ing often precede a state of collapse and death. 

 5 



