v HISTORY OF THE USE OF ANTIMONY 39 



chief use for antimony was in chronic distempers, perhaps 

 especially in plethoric conditions, where it quieted the circu- 

 lation, and acted too as an eliminant. This mode of action 

 came under the term " alterative," and as such continued 

 to inspire faith in the medical mind until far on in the next 

 century. 



In the meantime Rasori (1799), Louis and the French School 

 had brought antimony into use in the treatment of inflamma- 

 tions. Blood-letting had begun to lose its hold, and this 

 depressant drug took in a great degree its place, and gave 

 better results. In the earlier half of the nineteenth century, 

 the treatment of pneumonia and of cerebral and other sthenic 

 inflammation by means of tartar emetic held full sway among 

 the best practitioners. Many believed that it cut short these 

 diseases : Sir T. Watson thought it very valuable ; according 

 to Graves it might save life. The remedy had a strange 

 attraction for some minds. Dr. Archibald Billing (physician 

 to the London Hospital from 1822 to 1845) was an enthusiastic 

 believer in antimony : it was a " heal all " in his practice. 

 Trousseau explained its use in pneumonia by its toxic action 

 on the heart, diminishing the quantity of blood sent to the 

 lungs, and so giving relative repose to those organs. But 

 medical opinion at length turned. Thus T. K. Chambers' 

 experience (1863) led him to dwell on the risks of antimony : 

 it lowered the vitality of the patient ; and was, he said, a 

 poison in pneumonia. Its use in such disorders is nearly 

 extinct to-day, and for the most part antimony is now 

 neglected, save for its occasional employment, in the form 

 of the wine, in some inflammatory skin diseases, and in 

 the respiratory catarrhs of children ; as well as in veterinary 

 practice. 



From this disuse the drug may probably again be rescued, 

 for Professor Cushny showed in 1907 that it has the property 

 in common with arsenic, but more efficiently, of destroying 

 the trypanosome of sleeping sickness, even when the remedy 

 is much diluted. This observation is important, since this 

 protozoal organism has much likeness to the spirochcete of 

 syphilis. In 1913 Tsuzuki of Japan recorded a series of 

 successful results from the use of antimony in cases of this 

 latter disease, and Spanish observers have since given it in 

 phagedaenic chancre. It has recently been found of use in 

 Kala-azar and has been tried in cerebro-spinal fever. The 

 empirical use of antimony by Fothergill and others in chronic 



the rank atmosphere of a goat or a fox " was sometimes tried. Med. Obs. 

 & Inq. iii. 281. Pereira (1839) used tartar emetic. 



