134 
THE  GUMS  AND  RESINS  OF  COMMERCE. 
any  general  inconvenience.  On  removing  the  apparatus,  the 
healthy  skin  has  become  brown  and  the  diseased  portions  paler 
colored  than  before.  On  ulcerated  surfaces,  no  trace  of  iodine 
■will  be  found  two  hours  after  its  application.  Sometimes  the 
action  has  been  sufficiently  powerful  to  produce  phlyetene. 
The  results  of  Dr.  Richter's  experiments  is,  that  this  tincture 
acts  as  a  caustic ;  that  it  has  a  really  heroic  action  in  cases  of 
lupus,  that  its  efficacy  is  remarkable  in  non-vascular  goitre, 
scrofulous  ulcers,  constitutional  syphilitic  ulcers  ;  doubtful  in 
primitive  chancres  and  eczema,  and  nil  in  psoriasis.  The  follow- 
ing is  one  case  of  lupus  cured  : — 
A  man  had  been  troubled  with  hypertrophic  lupus  from  his 
childhood  ;  his  face  was  utterly  disfigured,  ulcerated  in  several 
places,  and  in  which  two  holes  represented  the  eyes,  and  a  circu- 
lar opening  the  mouth.  The  skin  of  the  neck  was  so  much 
thickened  that  there  was  a  straight  line  from  the  chin  to  the 
sternum.  To  diminish  the  pain  of  the  application  of  the  iodised 
solution  on  so  extensive^  surface,  it  was  divided  into  two  portions., 
first  the  neck  and  lower  jaw  and  after  their  cure,  the  rest  of  the 
face.  Each  application  occasioned  pain  for  about  two  hours, 
and  from  the  very  first  iodine  was  found  in  the  urine  in  large 
quantities.  The  hypertrophy  diminished  by  degrees,  the  ulcers 
became  covered  with  a  very  thin  epidermis  which  gradually 
thickened  and  then  became  small  flat  cicatrices.  Fifty-five  cau- 
terisations in  the  space  of  three  months  sufficed*  to  produce  a 
complete  and  unhoped  for  cure  London  Chemist,  from  Wiener 
med.  wochens-schrift. 
THE  GUMS  AND  RESINS  OF  COMMERCE. 
By  P.  L.  Simmonds. 
(Continued  from  page  80.) 
Leaving  the  true  gums,  we  come  now  to  the  Resins.  These 
are  either  natural  exudations  or  are  obtained  from  some  veseta- 
ble  compounds  by  the  aid  of  alcohol,  in  which  they  are  generally 
soluble,  although  totally  insoluble  in  water.  They  are  for  the 
most  part  brittle,  tasteless  or  insipid,  fusible  at  a  moderate  heat, 
soluble  in  the  fixed  and  volatile  oils,  and  some  in  the  muriatic 
and  acetic  acids.    They  have  no  smell,  except  when  they  retain 
