ARSENIOUS ACID.

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tageously conjoined with arsenic. If the bowels be confined during theuse of the remedy, gentle laxatives should be employed. Arsenic hasbeen beneficially employed in various other periodical diseases, as pe-riodical headaches, intermittent neuralgias, &c.

In various chronic affections of the skin, particularly the scaly diseases(lepra and psoriasis), eczema, and impetigo, arsenic is one of our mostvaluable agents. I can confidently recommend it in lepra, having seen alarge number of cases treated by it without a single failure. Frequentlythe disease is relieved without any obvious constitutional effect: sometimesa febrile condition of the body is brought on, with a slight feeling ofheat in the throat, and thirst; occasionally with an augmentation ofappetite: the urine and cutaneous secretion often promoted ; the bowelsmay be constipated or relaxed, and occasionally, as I have alreadynoticed, salivation takes place. If the patient complain of swelling andstiffness about the face, or itching of the eyelids, the use of the medicineought to be immediately suspended. Ichthyosis and elephantiasis aresaid to have been benefited by the use of it. (For further informationon the use of arsenic in skin diseases, consult Rayer, Treatise onDiseases of the Skin, by Dr. Willis, p. 80.)

Various chronic affections of the nervous system have been treated bythe arsenious acid, and with occasional benefit: for example, neuralgia,epilepsy, chorea (Dr. Gregory, Med. Chirurg . Trans, of London, xi. 299),and even tetanus. I have seen arsenic used in a considerable number ofepileptic cases, and in none was the disease cured. In some the fitsoccurred less frequently, but I am not sure that this was the effect ofthe medicine. In chorea, I have seen advantage now and then accruefrom the use of this agent. It has also relieved angina pectoris.

In bites of venomous snakes and of rabid animals, arsenious acid hasbeen recommended. In India, the Tanjore pill (the basis of which isarsenious acid) has long been celebrated for the cure of the bite of theCobra di Capello, and other venomous serpents. Arsenic has been em-ployed as an internal agent in various other diseases—as chronic rheu-matism, especially when attended with pains in the bones; in diseasesof the bones, particularly venereal nodes (Colhoun and Baer, Amer. Med.Record, iii. & iv.); in syphilis; in passive dropsies; in the last stage oftyphus (Ferriar , Med. Hist. i. 84).

Arsenious acid has long been employed as an external application.Notwithstanding that it has been applied and recommended by Sir A.Cooper, Dupuytren , and other high authorities, some doubt may be fairlyentertained as to the propriety of its use, especially as in most, if not inall instances, we may derive equal advantage by the employment of otherless dangerous applications. M. Roux, a celebrated surgeon at Paris,states ( Nouv. Elem. de Med) that he amputated the breast of a girl 18years of age, on account of a scirrhus of considerable magnitude. Afterthe cicatrix had been several days completed, ulceration commenced,accompanied with darting pains. To avoid frightening the girl by theuse of the actual cautery, he applied an arsenical paste over a surface ofabout an inch in diameter. Colic, vomiting, and alteration of counte-nance, came on the next day, and in tw r o days afterwards she died inviolent convulsions. “ I am convinced,” says M. Roux, “ that this girldied poisoned by arsenic.” I could quote several other cases illustrativeof the same fact, but shall content myself with referring to Wibmer’s