Effects of the Prussic Acid, 181? 



1 do not recollect to have heard, that the laurel-water is 

 liable to lose its strength by keeping, and this may be con- 

 sidered as a dilute prussic acid. 



If the above facts be correct, may we not infer from them, 

 that a weak preparation of the acid is better to be kept in the 

 shops than a stronger ? and also for another very important 

 consideration, that the danger of too large a dose being ad- 

 ministered, is very much lessened. 



I should recommend the trial of the prussic acid in An-^ 

 gina Trachealis or Croup, but not to the exclusion of bleed- 

 ing, and the other remedies which have had the sanction of 

 experience. As the prussic acid has the power of repressing 

 inordinate arterial action, and also the property of lessening 

 the tendency to spasmodic action in the muscular fibre, w^ 

 may expect, from the first, a diminution of the inflamma- 

 tion ; and from the latter, that it would counteract the dis- 

 position to a fatal spasm of the glottis, which even a small 

 portion of the adventitious membrane formed in croup, is 

 liable to excite, if it happen to be placed near the glottis. 

 Analogy, in other cases of internal inflammation of hollow 

 cavities, leads to the conjecture, that in irritable habits, such 

 spasm may occur even from the bare inflammation of the 

 parts : a still farther argument for the employment of the 

 acid. 



I am, Sir, with great respect and esteem, 

 Your obedient servant, 



B. L. OLIVER. 



Art. XXVII. — Reports and Memoranda of cases in which 

 the Prussic Acid has been administered. 



I. By Dr. J. A. Allen, of Brattleborough, Ver. (Com= 

 munication dated Aug. 4, 1820. 



Miss P. Keyes, a young lady of about twenty, for three 

 years had laboured under a protracted cough. It was of 

 that species produced by catarrh, in which the mucous 

 membrane of the bronchia appears to be the seat of the 

 complaint. She had no symptoms which would denote the 

 incipient stage of either tubercular or apostematous phthisis. 



