REVIEW— IODINE AND ITS COMPOUNDS. 
223 
conduct to a conclusion that iodine exerts some action both on 
the liver and spleen. In respect to the generative system, the 
most celebrated result attributed to the use of iodine is, the pro- 
duction of atrophy of the mammae and testicles, of which there 
are some well-attested cases on record. Such histories, how- 
ever, are far from common. Dr. Pereira says, he has seen iodine 
exhibited hundreds of times, with no such unhappy event. Pro- 
fessor A. T. Thomson includes iodine among his diuretics. Dia- 
phoresis on debilitated patients, and erythema and eruption on 
others, are the effects commonly ascribed to the action of iodine 
on the skin. 
That iodine, when incautiously administered, is endowed with 
sufficient energy to produce such inauspicious and even dangerous 
symptoms as have been ascribed to it, cannot be questioned ; 
while, at the same time, these proofs of its power when abused 
far from countervail the reality of its possessing wholesome pro- 
perties, or there is no truth in the adage, “ Nihil prodest quod 
non potest laedere idem.” 
Some have conceived the whole physiological character of 
iodine to be expressed by the definition of “ a stimulant to the 
absorbent system.” But that something farther requires to be 
included is more than probable, otherwise, in certain cases, 
there is no very obvious mode of explaining its action. For 
instance, this remedy has been found remarkably influential in 
putting a check upon the ulcerative process, so that in the same 
patient, and on the same limb, the arrest of a spreading cachectic 
ulcer may accompany the absorption of a node. “ Here are 
two actions of a remedy,” as Mr. Key remarks, “ opposed to 
each other, and inexplicable so long as ulceration is regarded in 
the mere light of absorption ;” and this eminent surgeon is in- 
clined to ascribe the result to some modifying influence exercised 
over the nervous or vital action of the diseased surface. 
Is Iodine a Cumulative Medicine ? 
The symptoms occurring at the commencement of a course 
of iodine having been thought to bear a mildness and ob- 
scurity hardly commensurate with the apparently accumulated 
violence of their development after proceeding a certain length, 
Dr. Coindet (its discoverer) was led to look upon iodine as a 
remedy which tends to saturate the economy before displaying 
its action. That iodine, after being taken, is rapidly absorbed, 
is evident from its speedy appearance in the urine ; while the 
period of its disappearance from the secretion might shew how 
soon it had passed. out of the system. The chief objections 
are, that the iodine may remain fixed in the tissues without 
