MEDICAL HINTS. 237 
gent, and is therefore useful in internal bleeding and looseness of the 
bowels. It is of very great value in erysipelas. 
Sulphate of iron .—Dose, one to three grains. Is a powerful astringent 
and blood tonic, and often does good in checking the looseness of the 
bowels which remains after an attack of dysentery. 
Iron pill or Blaud’s pill. —Dose, five to fifteen grains. Is one of the best 
tonic preparations of iron, as it is not very astringent. It is put up in 
tabloid form. 
Solution of dialysed iron. —Dose, ten to thirty drops. Is a good blood 
tonic, and, unlike most preparations, is not astringent. 
Parrish's food. —Dose, thirty to a hundred and twenty drops in water. 
Is a good tonic preparation of iron. 
Mercurial ointment forms a useful application in cases of itch, ringworm 
and other skin diseases. As it is rather strong, it should be diluted with 
two parts of vaseline. 
White precipitate, or ammoniated mercurial ointment. —Uses as mercurial 
ointment. 
* Opium. —Is a valuable drug, but it is also a poison, and great care 
should be observed in using it. Opium is narcotic and sedative in its 
action; it relieves pain of all kinds. Useful in diarrhoea, dysentery, 
cramp and colic. Promotes perspiration and checks vomiting. Some¬ 
times it will cut short a cold or an attack of malaria. 
No preparation containing opium should be given to children. 
The chief preparations containing opium are:— 
Chlorodyne. —The ordinary dose is ten to fifteen drops, but if there 
is great pain, then even thirty or forty drops may be given, but a 
second dose should not be administered for three or four hours; if 
two full doses have been given, do not give a third within at least 
twelve hours of the second dose, and do not give it at all if the patient 
is drowsy. 
It is best not to give more than forty to sixty drops in tweniy- 
four hours, unless there are very special reasons for giving a larger 
quantity. Is the most suitable of all the preparations containing opium. 
Is to be preferred to laudanum, as it is more palatable and more readily 
stops vomiting. 
* Laudanum , or tincture of opium. —The doses and uses are precisely 
