192 Effects of the Frussic Acid. 



cle. This quantity was to be increased, one drop each 

 day, or until it produced some obvious effect. The good 

 consequences of this course were immediate, and altogether 

 beyond my expectations. 



Having been for the last two weeks distressed by a con- 

 stant irritation of the trachea, and unable to obtain much 

 repose, he found the first night, after taking the remedy, that 

 these symptoms were so much alleviated, that he enjoyed a 

 night's rest, to which, for many weeks, he had been a stran- 

 ger ; and by persevering in the same course, for a single 

 week, he was perfectly cured, without any other medicine. 



Case 3d. L. C. aged six years, (October, 1 820,) was 

 siezed with a violent catarrhal affection, attended with a 

 shrill and nearly convulsive cough, difficulty of respiratioHj 

 and great anxiety. Pulse quick — tongue furred with a 

 white coat — hot surface — and loss of appetite. Had taken, 

 various remedies without alleviating the cough, difficulty of 

 breathing, or other symptoms. In this state, the third day 

 after the attack, I prescribed for her the prussic acid in do- 

 ses of one drop every two hours, in simple syrup. The 

 promptness with which this prescription relieved my little 

 patient of her most pressing symptoms, gave the highest 

 satisfaction to her anxious friends, and to me an unequivo- 

 cal pledge of the power of the remedy in such cases. Af- 

 ter three or four doses, the cough and difficult respiration 

 began to subside, and completely disappeared under its 

 use in about two days. 



This being the only case in which I have used the prus- 

 sic acid when the system was laboring under considerable 

 febrile affection, it may be proper to remark, that I did not 

 observe the immediate action of the remedy to have the 

 least influence on any of the symptoms of fever, which the 

 case exhibited. The fever, being of the sympathetic kind, 

 and depending on the irritation, which the remedy seemed 

 so promptly to control, of course began to subside when 

 its cause was diminished, and finally, was cured with it. 



In this, and the last related case, it was as obvious to me 

 that the symptoms of disease were cured by the prussic 

 acid, as it is in ordinary cases that opium relieves those of 

 the same, or of any other description. 



Case 4th. A child aged two years, had been afflicted 

 v/itl) the whooping cough about two v/eeks. I prescribed 



