TREATMENT. 113 



suspended activity. It may be that this acid may supply 

 to the blood the loss, or may arrest the decomposition it 

 undergoes, when the chlorides begin to pass off. Dr. Thom- 

 son is unable to determine whether its tonic effects in dis- 

 eases in which he had successfully employed it, is to be 

 attributed to its action on the nervous agency, or to its 

 decomposition and the action of its chlorine ; although from 

 the effects of this ingredient in its uncombined state, he 

 thinks there is reason to incline to the latter opinion.* 



We cannot find any proper correlation of Secale Cornutiim 

 with the Pest. This drug produces in countries where rye is 

 used as a principal cereal, ergotism, both gangrenous and 

 convulsive ; as also a congenital form of this disease. The 

 skin affections seem to us wholly different from the desqua- 

 matory or papular stages of the Pest-ferment, both as to color 

 and action ; and with the lungs and cerebral vessels turgid 

 with blood, the ureters and bladders filled with watery, 

 inodorous urine, almost to bursting, we have hardly a com- 

 mon sign except in the distended gall bladder. We cannot, 

 therefore, concur with Dr. Pope as to the propriety of its use; 

 unless where with an unusual disturbance of the skin 

 function threatening its gangrenous destruction, we have col- 

 liquative diarrhoea, with spasmodic breathing. 



Tartar-emetic or stibium, though used in some of the allo- 

 pathic prescriptions, has no correspondence whatever in its 

 symptoms or morbid anatomy with those of the Pest. Its 

 most marked action is in producing inflammation and conse- 

 quent hepatization of the lungs, and also thickness and 

 opacity of the membranes of the brain. The mucous mem- 

 branes of the mouth and intestines are unusually pale, 

 while the peritoneal coat is of a brick red color throughout, 

 thus reversing the usual appearances as to color in the Pest. 

 These, however, may be the appearances in the slow opera- 

 tion of frequent and small doses, while in the rapid poisoning 

 (of dogs) the mucous membrane may be highly reddened. 



Phosjjhorus (gout-producing?), with its specific nourishment 

 for an impoverished vitality, shows also miraculous power over 



Ubi sup., Vol. I, p. 728. 



15 



