144 
CAUSE  AND  REMEDY  OF  TUBERCULOSIS. 
in  such  a  state  that  it  may  be  directly  assimilated,  and  at  the 
same  time  at  the  lowest  possible  degree  of  oxydation. 
The  hypophosphites  of  soda  and  lime  are  the  combinations 
which  hitherto  seem  best  to  fulfil  these  two  requisites.  They 
may  be  given  in  doses  varying  from  ten  grains  to  one  drachm  in 
the  twenty-four  hours.  The  highest  dose  which  I  have  been  in 
the  habit  of  giving  to  adults  is  twenty  grains. 
The  effect  of  these  salts  upon  the  tubercular  diathesis  is  im- 
mediate, all  the  general  symptoms  of  the  disease  disappearing 
with  a  rapidity  which  is  really  marvellous. 
If  the  pathological  deposit  produced  by  the  dyscrasy  is  of 
recent  formation,  if  softening  has  only  just  set  in  and  does  not 
proceed  too  rapidly,  the  tubercles  are  absorbed  and  disappear. 
When  the  deposit  has  existed  for  a  certain  time,  when  the  soft- 
ening has  attained  a  certain  degree,  it  sometimes  continues  in 
spite  of  the  treatment ;  and  the  issue  of  the  disease  then  de- 
pends upon  the  anatomical  condition  of  the  local  lesion,  on  its 
extent,  and  upon  the  existence  or  non-existence  of  complications. 
I  have  made  numerous  attempts  to  modify  the  local  condition  of 
the  lungs  by  the  inhalation  of  different  substances,  but  have 
never  obtained  any  satisfactory  result  independent  of  what  was 
to  be  attributed  to  the  specific  treatment.  The  hypophosphites 
of  soda  and  lime  are  certain  prophylactics  against  tubercular 
disease. 
The  physiological  effects  which  I  have  observed  to  be  pro- 
duced by  the  use  of  the  hypophosphites  of  soda,  lime,  potash 
and  ammonia,  show  these  preparations  to  have  a  two-fold  action. 
On  the  one  hand,  they  increase  the  principle,  whatever  that  may 
be,  which  constitutes  nervous  force;  and  on  the  other,  they  are 
the  most  powerful  of  hsematogens,  being  infinitely  superior  to  all 
medicines  of  that  class  hitherto  known.  They  seem  to  possess 
in  the  highest  degree  all  the  therapeutical  properties  formerly 
attributed  by  different  observers  to  phosphorus  itself,  without 
any  of  the  danger  which  attends  the  use  of  that  substance,  and 
which  has  caused  it  to  be  almost  forgotten  as  a  medical  agent. 
The  different  preparations  of  hypophosphorous  acid  will  un- 
doubtedly occupy  one  of  the  most  important  places  in  the 
materia  medica. 
The  Academy  resolved  that  the  paper  be  referred  to  a  com- 
