TREATMENT OF BRONCHIAL CATARRH. SI 



enough through its narrowed bronchi to support life, yet after the 

 bleeding his strength may be inadequate to the exertion. He who has 

 once seen the altered aspect of a child a few hours after such a bleeding, 

 and, on the other hand, has had opportunity of observing how long the 

 undepleted powers of nature are able to sustain a respiration, which, if 

 laborious, is still sufficient, will readily abstain in these cases from vene- 

 section. 



The " antiphlogistic " neutral salts of potash and soda are as little 

 employed in catarrhal inflammation as depletion by the lancet. Calomel, 

 also reckoned an antiphlogistic, is extensively used, both in the bron- 

 chial catarrh of teething children and the catarrh of the intestine which 

 develops about this period. Incomprehensible as the beneficial effect 

 of this drug upon either of these disorders may be, yet experience has 

 affirmed it so fully that we cannot have any hesitation in making use of 

 the remedy. We give small doses of from the sixth to the quarter of a 

 grain, three or four times a day. Certain salts, to which there has been 

 ascribed less of an antiphlogistic than of anti-catarrhal virtue, have come 

 into very extensive use in bronchial catarrh, either because they excite 

 the action of the skin, or because they are supposed to directly modify 

 the nutritive condition of the mucous membrane of the bronchi. Among 

 these are certain antimonial preparations, golden sulphuret of antimony, 

 Kermes mineral, tartar emetic, and, above all, muriate of ammonia. 

 The mistura solvens, which consists of muriate of ammonia and liquorice 

 aa ( 3 j), with one grain of tartar emetic, or one or two drachms of anti- 

 monial wine, dissolved in six ounces of water, forms almost a third of all 

 the prescriptions which come into the apothecary's shop. When I con- 

 sider that physicians, and even very clever ones, devoutly order a table- 

 spoonful every two hours of this nauseous dose, and even take it them- 

 seives upon occasion, I hesitate to declare that it can hardly have any 

 other effect than to irritate the gastric mucous membrane and to em- 

 barrass the digestion. Perhaps from the sal-ammoniae and the anti- 

 monials some slight palliative action might be expected in oases where 

 the mucus continues to retain an abnormal viscidity. 



The treatment by diaphoresis is highly to be recommended where 

 the catarrh is recent, and particularly when cold is the assignable cause. 

 Whether determination to the skin act as a derivative to the vessels of 

 the mucous membrane, or whether the beneficial action arise from other 

 influences, their happy effect upon recent catarrh is established by bril- 

 liant experience. The irritability of the mucous membranes can be 

 diminished even in a few hours, and in fortunate cases, by profuse 

 sweating, we may even succeed in cutting short the catarrh. It seems 

 a matter of indifference how we produce the diaphoresis. Copious po- 

 tations and warm bed-covering seem to be the most sure means. It is 

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