ARSENIC. 309 



been exhibited internally, in minute doses, in the treatment of 

 various diseases ; and externally, as an escharotic. Under proper 

 management it will be found, next to cinchona bark, by far the 

 most powerful of all medicines in the cure of intermittent fevers 

 and periodic hemicrania, though its modus operandi has not been 

 ascertained. It has also been employed in some obstinate cuta- 

 neous affections, particularly in lepra and elephantiasis ; in certain 

 forms or sequelae of the venereal disease, which cannot be subdued 

 by mercury ; in some spasmodic complaints ; in tetanus and 

 chorea j in scirrhus and chronic rheumatism ; and as an antidote 

 to the poison of venomous serpents. It is best given in the form 

 of the liquor arsenicalis already mentioned, and in the dose of four 

 or five drops, gradually increased. No attempt should ever be 

 made to administer it in substance j and if it excites nausea, 

 vomiting, pain at the stomach, a sense of tension, and stiffness in 

 the palbebrae, cough, head-ache, soreness of the mouth andptyalism, 

 its exhibition roust be immediately suspended. Externally, white 

 arsenic has been frequently employed, under the form of solution 

 and ointment, as an application to cancers, and various anomalous 

 ill-conditioned ulcers. The powder, unmixed with any other 

 substance, has also been sprinkled upon the sores, but the practice 

 is now abandoned by every judicious surgeon, on account of the 

 violent pain resulting from it, and the not unfrequent fatal con- 

 sequences of its absorption. " Could I suppose," says Mr. 

 Samuel Cooper, in his valuable Dictionary of Surgery, " a man so 

 rash and ignorant as to revive this murderous practice yet existed 

 in the profession, I should feel disposed to lengthen these remarks; 

 but I am persuaded that, in this country at least, more judgment 

 and knowledge everywhere prevail. The white oxide of arsenic, 

 however, may be applied with more prudence in other forms; either 

 as a lotion, composed of eight grains of the oxide, and the same 

 quantity of subcarbonate of potash, dissolved in four ounces of 

 distilled water, or as an ointment, formed by rubbing together 

 one drachm of the oxide and twelve drachms of spermaceti 

 ointment. 



White oxide of arsenic has been long known as one of the most 

 virulent of the mineral poisons. The symptoms which it produces 



