3<D ACTION OF INORGANIC SALTS 



diarrhea, to control gastric hemorrhage, non-bleeding gastric ulcer, 

 enteritis; bismuth subcarbonate, in typhoid fever; bismuth subgallate, in 

 enterocolitis; BiONO 3 in bacillary dyspepsia, to control diarrhea, dusting 

 powder. 



Copper. Copper Salts are used medicinally for local effects. Here 

 they act as astringent, caustic and antiseptic. Copper is very destructive 

 of certain forms of life. The typhoid bacillus is very sensitive toward it. 

 As an astringent, it is often used in chronic enteritis and in treating 

 small ulcers of the conjunctiva it acts as a caustic. Only the sulphate is 

 official. Copper is indicated in chronic gonorrheal urethritis, mem- 

 branous rhinitis, oriental sore, scurvy, blastomycosis. 



Lead. The following preparations are employed: acetate, iodide, oxide, 

 plaster, and cerate, also liquor subacetates and its diluted solution. 

 Internally lead is at times used as an astringent and in the treatment 

 of diarrhea, especially in combination with opium. The solution of lead 

 subacetate is used in various acute inflammatory conditions, such as 

 sprains and bruises. Lead has a peculiarity of being absorbed by the 

 tissues of the body where it is gradually stored up and produces so-called 

 chronic lead poisoning. The first signs of this condition often appears 

 as an anemia, or as a colic. Lead has much the same action on muscle 

 fibers that barium has and there is thus observed a contraction in all plain 

 muscular tissue throughout the body. This action is also visible on the 

 vascular system and the arteries. Other characteristic signs of lead poi- 

 soning are the "blue line" at the margin of gum and teeth, and the "wrist 

 drop" produced by paralysis of the extensors of wrist and fingers. Lead 

 salts are indicated in the following conditions: lead acetate, abscess and 

 gangrene of lung, hematuria, relief of edema. 



IRON, ARSENIC, MERCURY, ZINC, ANTIMONY, PHOSPHORUS. Iron and 

 its salts are drugs which act largely by affecting metabolic processes. 

 There are, of course, other actions of iron salts as will be shown later. In 

 surveying the medicinal preparations of this element and its salts, one meets 

 with no less than thirty-five separate compounds. Fourteen of these are 

 soluble solid preparations; nine, insoluble solid preparations; and twelve, 

 liquid preparations. There are eight scale salts of iron, besides the reduced 

 iron itself. The iodide, chloride, carbonate, and sulphate are the most 

 commonly used salts. Since iron is a normal constituent of body tissues 

 and since we know that there is a continual breaking down of the hemo- 

 globin of the blood to form many body pigments which subsequently are 

 eliminated from the body. The iron thus lost must be replaced. This is 

 normally done by the iron contained in the ingested food stuffs. 



The physiological action of iron has been a subject much debated, 

 particularly the question of the availability of so-called inorganic iron. 

 That inorganic iron can be absorbed seems now to be quite certain, but 

 what its drug action is is not always so clear. 



