392

ELEMENTS OF MATERIA MEDICA.

mities, and delirium or coma, are indications of the cerebral affection ;while the feebleness, lassitude, trembling of the limbs, and the paralysisor tetanic symptoms, are evidences of the disordered condition of the truespinal or excito-motory system of Dr. Hall.

The alimentary canal, heart, and nervous system, are not the onlyparts on which this acid appears to exercise a specific influence: thelungs, the skin, the salivary glands, &c. are also specifically affected.The disorder of the lungs is inferred from the local pain, cough, andoccasional inflammatory appearances after death. The eruptions andother altered appearances of the skin , and the falling off' of the hair andnails (sometimes noticed), have led to the idea of the specific influenceof arsenious acid on the cutaneous system,—an opinion which seemsfurther supported by the fact of the remarkable influence it exercises insome cutaneous diseases, especially lepra. The salivation noticed byMarcus, Ferriar , Mr. Furley, Cazenave, and others, seems to shew thatthe salivary glands are sometimes specifically influenced. The swellingof the face, and the irritation and redness of the eyelids, also deservenotice in connexion with the specific effects of this poison.

Uses. —So powerful a poison as arsenic necessarily requires to be em-ployed with great caution, and to have its effects carefully and atten-tively watched ; for it has on more than one occasion proved fatal whenused as a medicinal agent.

In intermittent fevers and other periodical diseases, arsenic has beenemployed with great success. For its introduction into practice in thesecases in this country, we arc indebted to the late Dr. Fowler, of Stafford{Med. Rep. of the Effects of Arsenic, 1786); but Lemery and Wepferappear to have first mentioned its febrifuge property. Dr. Fowler was ledto its use from the beneficial effects obtained by the use of the “ TastelessAgue Drop," and from the information of Mr. Hughes, that this patentmedicine was a preparation of arsenic. The reports published hy Dr.Fowler, of the good effects of arsenic in periodical diseases, as ob-served by himself, by Dr. Arnold, and by Dr. Withering, have beenamply confirmed by the subsequent experience of the profession gene-rally. No remedy has been more successful in the treatment ofague. It will not unfrequently put a stop to the disease, even whencinchona or the sulphate of quinia have failed. Dr. Brown ( Cyclo-patdia of Practical Medicine, ii. 228) who has used it in many hun-dreds of cases, never saw any permanently ill effect arise from it: heconsiders it superior to crude hark, but inferior to quinia: over both ithas the advantages of cheapness and tastelessness. It should be giventhree times a day. It is not necessary to intermit its use during thefebrile paroxysm, for I have repeatedly seen it given with the best effectsduring the attack. In agues, accompanied with inflammatory conditions,in which cinchona and sulphate of quinia are apt to disagree, arsenicmay, according to Dr. Brown, be sometimes administered with the besteffects. It is also very successful in relapses after the use of the aboveremedies. Dr. Macculloch {An Essay on the Remitt, and Intermitt.Diseases, 1828) states that X * F of a grain of white arsenic given three orfour times a day will sometimes cure ague when the liquor potass® arse-nitis fails. A combination of arsenic and cinchona, or arsenic and sul-phate of quinia, sometimes succeeds, where these agents used separatelyfail. When the stomach is very irritable, opium is occasionally advan-