THERAPEUTIC ACTION OF CHLORATE OF POTASH. 579 
aided and supported as its primary effect, and secondarily the process of 
absorption is stimulated and increased by its agency. This has been 
partially exemplified in the preceding case, but in those which will be 
presently related this effect will be far more strikingly manifested, and 
its practical utility shown to be of the utmost importance. 
“The first illustration of the efficacy of the chlorate of potash in pro¬ 
moting arterialization of the blood which came under my observation, 
was manifested in a case of cyanosis from disease of the heart. The 
patient was under the care of my brother. Dr. Ilosea Fountain, of York- 
town, New York, and by him was my attention called to the following 
phenomena; the cyanosis had existed for several years in an adult, from 
gradually progressing organic disease of the heart, attended with 
dyspnoea, general weakness, &c. As an experiment, he gave the 
chlorate of potash, with the view of furnishing oxygen to the blood. 
After the administration of a few doses, the peculiar blue colour of the 
skin entirely disappeared, and the dyspnoea was very much relieved. 
When the use of the chlorate was discontinued, the blue colour returned 
as before, and again disappeared when it was resumed. During the 
period of about a year following until the death of the patient, this 
article was used almost every day, and always with the same effect, 
establishing a direct connexion, as cause and effect, between the ad¬ 
ministration of the chlorate of potash and the disappearance of the blue 
colour of the skin—in other words, it directly demonstrated the fact that 
its administration arterialized the venous blood, which was circulating 
through the capillaries in all parts of the body. So striking was its 
effect in this particular, that it convinced me of its power as a remedial 
agent in supplying us with the means of meeting an important indication, 
frequently arising in the practice of both medicine and surgery. Since 
then, now many years ago, I have frequently used it for such purposes, 
and generally with happy effect.” 
A case of JLjdrotliorax likewise yielded to it, and for scarla¬ 
tina it is with him a* favorite remedy. 
“ I will not stop here to discuss what value this salt may possess as a 
remedy for scarlatina. I will merely say that I regard it as one of the 
valuable remedies we have in the treatment of some forms of this disease ; 
but by no means as a specific. My object is not to present the claims 
of this medicine as a specific in any disease (excepting, perhaps, mer¬ 
curial and ulcerative stomatitis), but to establish a general principle of 
its action by which it can be applied to a great variety of diseases in 
certain stages and conditions. If I succeed in this it will be found to 
have a wide range for its sphere of usefulness, and will establish in 
therapeutics a principle of treatment co-extensive with the practice of 
medicine and surgery. 
“ It is hardly necessary forme to state that the abstraction of oxygen 
from the atmosphere is the great function in respiration paramount to 
all others; and next to this is the evolution of carbonic acid, but this is 
a depurating, while the former is a vitalizing process. Modern re¬ 
searches have established these truths beyond all controversy, and it is 
no longer contended that the oxygen merely decarbonizes the blood 
without entering into the circulation, except by those entirely unac¬ 
quainted with the present state of physiological science. Oxygen is 
the great motive power of the human machine. It is ‘ the leaden weight 
or bent spring which keeps the clock in motion, and the inspirations 
and expirations are the motions of the pendulum which regulate it.’ 
