280  Drugs  and  Druggist  in  Tuberculosis.  {Am-Jfli"r'190h9arm- 
A  few  years  ago  in  an  address  before  the  British  Medical 
Association  Dr.  Goodhart 3  summed  up  medical  opinion  in  regard 
to  this  class  of  agents  in  the  following  words :  "  Antiseptics  in  lung 
diseases  from  all  the  many  inhalations  up  to  iodoform,  and  finally 
creosote  internally,  have  had  a  good  inning  and  have  not  been 
without  their  minor  successes;  but  it  was  very  mete  and  right 
that  the  comparative  inefficacy  of  such  nauseous  medicaments  should 
drive  us  back  into  the  arms  of  the  great  original  antiseptic — 
fresh  air." 
The  drugs  which  are  used  at  the  present  time  in  the  treatment 
of  tuberculosis  may  be  grouped  under  the  following  heads:  (i) 
the  so-called  tonics,  including  preparations  of  iron,  and  the  hypo- 
phosphites ;  (2)  foods,  as  cacao  butter,  cod-liver  oil,  olive  oil,  and 
koumiss;  (3)  medicines  tending  to  aid  digestion,  as  pepsin,  pan- 
creatin,  with  or  without  hydrochloric  or  phosphoric  acid;  (4)  ex- 
pectorants, as  balsam  of  tolu,  wood  tar,  and  cocillana ;  (5)  inunc- 
tions, as  of  iodoform  or  europhen;  (6)  simple  home  remedies,  as 
colt's-foot,  comfrey,  lungwort,  Iceland  moss,  scarlet  pimpernel, 
and  water  hemlock.  Over  a  hundred  synthetics  and  other  chemicals 
have  come  into  use  in  the  treatment  of  tuberculosis  probably  within 
the  past  twenty  or  twenty-five  years,  including  the  salts  of  guaiacol, 
heroin,  thiocol,  and  europhen. 
In  going  through  the  literature  relating  to  the  medicines  used 
in  the  treatment  for  tuberculosis,  one  feels  that  apart  from  those 
prescribed  for  certain  special  symptoms  or  conditions,  as  of  hemor- 
rhage or  coughing,  they  seem  to  be  used  more  or  less  at  random, 
or  in  other  words  the  treatment  seems  to  be  more  or  less  experi- 
mental. Yet  notwithstanding  this  apparent  latitude  in  the  selection 
of  remedies,  there  are  some  writers  who  appear  to  have  reduced 
the  treatment  to  a  rational  system,  in  which  certain  remedies  are 
given  with  a  view  of  producing  a  definite  effect.  Sajous 4  has 
elaborated  a  very  attractive  theory  in  regard  to  the  nature  of 
tuberculosis,  and  the  remedies  to  be  used  in  stimulating  the  patient 
to  destroy  the  tubercle  bacillus  and  its  toxin.  According  to  Sajous 
the  following  drugs  when  administered  internally  have  the  property 
of  destroying  the  tubercle  bacillus  and  its  toxin  (endotoxin)  : 
potassium  iodide,  thyroid  extract,  and  salts  of  mercury.  In  addi- 
tion to  out-door  life  as  a  means  of  increasing  nutrition  and  thereby 
the  protective  efficiency  of  the  lungs,  he  recommends  creosote  car- 
bonate, strychnine,  and  digitalis.    Among  the  agents  which  are 
