54 Medical Chemistry. 
the respiration became more easy—the cough less wearing 
—the pain in the side gradually ceased, and in a few days, 
by this mild and simple treatment, the patient became quite 
well. 
Dr. Manzoni, in the same thesis, assures us that the pro- 
fessor derived the most signal advantage from the use of the 
prussic acid in bronchial inflammation; in catarrhs, and in 
phthisis. A man, thirty-four years old, rapidly verging 
towards the tuberculous state of phthisis, by taking the prus- 
sic acid, in emulsion of gum arabic, had his purulent ex- 
pectoration both ameliorated and diminished, and his life, 
(before very wretched) prolonged. 
Two women with chronic catarrh, attended by copious 
and purulent expectoration, in a short time, by the use of 
the prussic acid, found the matter changed into simple mu- 
cus and left the clinical institution almost in perfect health. 
In professor Brera’s private practice many similar cases 
occurred. Among others, the following memorable instance 
is cited. A noble lady, affected by a commencing phthisis, 
was seized with such a copious bleeding at the lungs, (hé- 
moptysie) that in a short time she was at death’s door ; 
bloodletting had been resorted to in vain, when Dr. Brera 
prescribed under the form of pills, one hundred drops of the 
prussic acid, to be taken in the course of the night ; this, as 
he expresses it, miraculously arrested the bleeding. ‘The 
use of the prussic acid, in doses of from thirty to fifty drops, 
in twenty-four hours, continued for five days, restored this 
lady to perfect health without leaving the slightest trace of a 
pulmonary affection.* 
Dr. Brera, by the use of prussic acid, with the leaves of 
the atropa belladona, succeeded in curing perfectly a schir- 
rous affection of the womb, complicated with a syphilitic 
affection. 
In another case, a noble lady at Padua, aged twenty-sev- 
en years, of an irritable temperament, placed herself under 
the care of Dr. Brera. She had a chronic uterine affection, 
* Dr. Magendie very justly condemns the administration of the prussic acid 
in pills, because, from its excessive volatility,especially at an elevated tem- 
perature, much of it must be lost; this is the reason why this lady could 
take with impunity (or rather appear to take) one hundred drops, for had 
she really taken this quantity it might have been fatal. It is mach better to 
put the acid into some liquid vehicle, water--mucilage of gumarabic, or 
almostany simple fluid. 
