84 REPORT—1863. 
Local and Constitutional Effects on the Mucous Membrane.—If the mucous 
membrane of the mouth and throat has been dry, or secreted less than natural, 
a healthy moisture is produced by small doses internally, which has proved 
yery agreeable. In an instance wherein the taste was blunted and impaired, 
so that the sapid character of the solution employed locally was not noticed, 
it almost immediately improved, and became more sensitive to impressions. 
This is known to be the reverse with salts of iodine, which often produce a 
disagreeably bitter taste, pervading in some instances almost everything 
swallowed. 
Although it will improve sensation in small doses or single applications, its 
essential property is exerted upon the sensation of the minute nerves of the 
mucous membrane of the soft palate and pharynx, the former especially. 
When locally applied, dissolved in water, or glycerine and water, a remark- 
ably tranquil soothing influence is brought about, which continues for a 
certain period of time, and then passes off. 
If the strength of the solution is increased, the perhaps heretofore dry 
membrane has its follicles stimulated; and whilst secretion is increased, 
sensation is somewhat diminished; but this last property varies in different 
individuals. If now topical application be resorted to through the aid of a 
tolerably strong solution of the salt, say from two to eight drachms, or even 
more, in six ounces of water, used either as a gargle or a paint every half- 
hour, the throat will become in a condition of mild local anesthesia, that is 
to say, loss of sensation confined to the fauces, which will be more or less 
complete according to the susceptibilities of the individual and the period 
during which the solution is employed. I have seen it occur from the first 
to the ninth day; and the continuance of the anesthesia will afterwards 
depend upon the amount of the salt locally absorbed, but generally diminish- 
ing after the first twenty-four hours, and not unfrequently continuing as 
long as three days. 
Knowing that this anesthetic property was attributed to the bromide of 
potassium by M. Huette, and applied by M. Gosselin in staphyloraphy*, I 
was prepared for its occurrence with the salt of ammonium, but the result of 
my experiments warrant me in saying that, whilst the anesthesia is more 
complete and certain, it produces less inconvenience in relation to the sense 
of taste than does the bromide of potassium. The importance of this anes- 
thetic property cannot indeed be over-estimated in its application to a num- 
ber of subjects connected with the throat especially, as modifying degrees of 
natural irritability, pain, sensation, secretion, mobility, and absorption. 
Effects of large Doses.—It may be as well to mention here that the ex- 
periments of M. Huette with the sister salt, the bromide of potassium, went 
to show that headache was sometimes observed on the third day, but ordi- 
narily occurred from the fourth to the seventh day, when the daily dose of 
the salt had reached from two to five drachms t. 
According to its continuance in large doses, so were produced torpor and 
drowsiness, lowering of the pulse (40 to 48), vomiting and continued sleep, 
and finally a form of peculiar intoxication, characterized by impaired sight 
and hearing, utter helplessness and insensibility. Weakness of the mind and 
torpor of the genitals were other effects noticed. Among the special effects 
of the salt, one of the most remarkable, even from a feeble dose, observes 
M. Huette, is profound insensibility of the yelum and pharynx, which persists 
throughout the duration of the treatment. How far the bromide of ammo- 
* Gazette Médicale, April 14, 1860, p. 223. 
t Annuaire de Thérapeutique, 1851, p. 216, 
