FURTHER OBSERVATIONS ON THE TREATMENT OF YAWS 

 WITH CASTELLAN I'S MIXTURE 



By L. E. Guerrero, E. Domingo, and M. Arguelles 



(From the Department of Medicine, College of Medicine and Surgery, 

 University of the Philippines) 



TWO PLATES 



Salvarsan and neosalvarsan are, without doubt, the specific 

 remedies for f ramboesia ; but the high price and shortage of these 

 drugs brought about by the war, the lack of hospital facilities 

 in districts where the disease prevails, and the fact that patients 

 often refuse any kind of injection treatment are some of the 

 considerations that led Castellani, (l, 2) in 1915, in Ceylon, and 

 us in the following experiments to use his formula in place of 

 the drugs. The formula consists of: 





Quantity. 







0.066 

 0.65 

 4 

 1 

 30 





do.__. 





do 





do 



Water 



do 







The above is given in one dose, diluted in 4 ounces of water, 

 thrice daily, for adults and for children over 14 years of age, half 

 doses to children 8 to 14 years of age, one-third doses or less 

 to younger children, and not more than half doses to Europeans. 

 According to Castellani the preparations of antimony, which 

 were first introduced in the treatment of yaws by Brault in 1911, 

 have a beneficial effect, but their action is slow. Sodium salicy- 

 late apparently hastens the disappearance of the thick yellow 

 crusts, due to secondary pyogenic infections. Potassium iodide 

 potentiates tartar emetic, but its great drawback is that the good 

 effects are obtained only by using doses that often give rise to 

 iodism. This and the emetic action of the antimony and potas- 

 sium tartrate are diminished by the addition of sodium bicar- 

 bonate. The formula is pharmaceutically a very inelegant one; 

 it is cloudy and has a sediment due to the formation of antimony 



191 



