86 Medical Chemistry. 
consultation of Dr. Scudamore, exhibited every: appearance 
of confirmed pthisis ; they had a worrying cough—emacia~ 
tion—frequent pulse—night sweats—debility—purulent ex- 
pectoration, and that particular form of the nails, which 
commonly accompanies these symptoms. The Dr. gave 
them both the prussic acid in the dose of ten drops a day, 
and soon had the pleasure of seeing them restored to per- 
fect health, im which condition, after the lapse of eight 
months, the young woman called to thank her physician. 
Several cases are cited of English patients, affected with 
hectic fever, and sympathetic cough, who were greatly re- 
lieved by the prussic acid, and some of them appear to have 
been cured. The cases, although interesting, are too long 
to be detailed in this abstract, and the symptoms arose from 
different causes. In one case, a hectic fever, with cough, 
&c. grew out of a long continued inflammation of the liver, 
attended with tubercles and adhesion; in another it arose 
from miscarriage and grief; in a third, from a schirrous af- 
fection of the ovarium ; in a fourth, from typhus fever, end- 
ing in delirium; and in a fifth, (a lad of ten years old,) it 
came on without any obvious cause. The two last cases — 
were of a very desperate character, and yielded to the use 
of prussic acid, when all other means had failed.* 
Asthma of six years standing, in a man of advanced age, 
was greatly aggravated by cold dampness or exercise, and 
was replaced by a constant dry cough whenever the asthma 
was assuaged; the disease was augmented by food and de- 
prived the patient of sleep, and was attended by a swelling 
of the limbs, and chills and fever at evening ; this formida- 
ble complaint, with all its concomitant maladies, was so 
much relieved by prussic acid, that the patient acquired a 
degree of comfort to which he had long been a stranger ; 
he could go up stairs without inconvenience, and constantly 
arrested the progress of his complaints by a recurrence to 
the prussic acid, whenever they menaced a return. 
In colds and catarrhs especially where, by neglect, alarm- 
ing or troublesome symptoms were supervening, the prussic 
acid appears to have been very useful and in most cases en- 
tirely effectual. 
In one case a woman, five months advanced in her eighth 
pregnancy, and during the five months affected with ¢ vio- 
*Vid Recherches, & par, Magendie Doctenr,‘&c. pp. 33 to 38 
