Effects of the Prussic Acid. i9T 



monly employed in medicine, would not be prepared, on 

 reading this paragraph, to expect worse consequences than 

 what actually ensued. 



But what result should we not anticipate from the unpre- 

 cedented dose of eight drops to a child, only seven or eight 

 years old ! 



It seems that the dose of the medicine was so great in 

 the first case as to produce loss of sense and of motion ; the 

 same symptoms precisely which result from too great a 

 dose of opium. 



The unwillingness of the writer, at first, to refer these 

 symptoms to their true cause, argues his inexperience in the 

 ijse of the powerful medicine he was administering. 



The second case above referred to, is one of a lady, who 

 after taking a second dose of five drops, experienced a 

 strange disturbance in the head, and symptoms of debility. 



In this case " the patient had no suspicion she was taking 

 a medicine possessed of any peculiar violence." Without 

 adverting to the necessity of cautioning the patient of the 

 power of any medicine, in order to ensure accuracy in the 

 dose, we cannot help animadverting upon the impropriety 

 of such bold prescription, in the case of a remedy of almost 

 unexampled energy. 



It is the gradual effect of the medicine upon the system, 

 resulting from moderate doses, continued for some time, up- 

 on which all its medical efficacy depends. 



Who can, with impunity, prescribe, in large doses, opium, 

 digitalis, corrosive sublimate, or arsenic, or any of the more 

 powerful articles of the Materia Medica? What violent and dan- 

 gerous symptoms might we not reasonably expect, were we 

 to prescribe for a dose, thirty-two drops of digitalis, or five 

 grains of corrosive sublimate, or ten grains of arsenic ? To 

 obtain the salutary effect from any of them, they must be 

 administered in smaller doses, and with the necessary pre- 

 caution to the patient not to exceed the prescribed dose. 



We would refer this writer to the researches and experi- 

 ments of Magendie and others on prussic acid — by which 

 we think he will be convinced that even prussic acid may 

 be administered with safety if administered also with due 

 cmition. 



ATEDirUS. 



