North Carolina Medical Journal. Vol. 3. No. 4. April, 1879Various
Science
North Carolina Medical Journal. Vol. 3. No. 4. April, 1879
Various
Medicine -- North Carolina -- Periodicals; Medicine -- Periodicals
Many years ago, Isambert and Honie, found chlorate of potash eliminated
without any change, and in large quantities, even as much as 95 or 99
per cent. of the amount administered, in the various secretions of the
body; that is in the urine, the saliva, the tears, the perspiration, the
bile, and now and then even in the milk; no oxygen was developed at all.
The theory of Simpson was long ago given up, because it was found out
that the same redness was produced in the blood by other alkalies.
Its principle value consists in its effect upon catarrhal and follicular
stomatitis; further, in mercurial stomatitis, the former being a
frequent and the latter a rare disease in infancy and childhood.
“In regard to [the employment of chlorate of potash] diphtheria, I can
give [my position] in a few words. It is this: that chlorate of potassa
is a valuable remedy in diphtheria, but that it is not _the_ remedy for
diphtheria. There are very few cases of diphtheria which do not exhibit
larger surfaces of either pharyngitis or stomatitis than of diphtheritic
exudation.”
There are also a number of cases of stomatitis and pharyngitis, during
every epidemic of diphtheria, which must be referred to the epidemic,
perhaps as introductory stages, but which still do not show the
characteristic symptoms of the disease. * * * *
The dose of chlorate of potassa for a child two or three years old
should not be larger than half a drachm in twenty-four hours. A baby of
one year or less should not take more than one scruple a day. The dose
for an adult should not be more than a drachm and one-half, or at most
two drachms, in the course of twenty-four hours.
The general effect might be obtained by the use of occasional larger
doses; but it is best not to strain the eliminating powers of the
system. The local effect cannot be obtained with occasional doses, but
only by doses so frequently repeated that the remedy is in almost
constant contact with the diseased surface. Thus the dose, to produce
the local effect should be very small and frequently administered. It is
better that the daily quantity of twenty grains should be given in fifty
or sixty doses than in eight or ten: that is, the solution should be
weak, and a drachm or a half-drachm of such solution can be given every
hour or every half hour, or every fifteen or twenty minutes, care being
taken that no water is given soon after the remedy has been administered
for obvious reasons. He referred to these facts with so much emphasis
because of late an attempt has been made to introduce chlorate of
potassa as the main remedy in bad cases of diphtheria—and, what is
worst, in large doses.
As early as 1860, Dr. Jacobi advised strongly against the use of large
doses of chlorate of potassa. * * * * The treatment is dangerous and
because of the largeness of the dose of the chlorate given.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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