1046

ELEMENTS OF MATERIA MEDICA.

certain

healthy individuals, as well as for the therapeutical influence usubjects being disproportionate to the observed physiological eu®

Asafcetida, or its odorous principle, becomes absorbed by t 1823)though -slowly. Flandrin (Magendie, Physiol., by Millig en > " ’fgd a*gave half a pound of this gum-resin to a horse; the animal '' a . ,usual, and killed sixteen hours afterwards. The odour of asal® ^ th edistinguished in the veins of the stomach, of the small intestine, r ^ e( ] e .caecum : it was not noticed in the arterial blood, nor in the lymp 11 - ^ formann and Gmelin ( Versuch. S. 9) w T ere not successful in their sit: they gave two drachms of asafcetida to a dog, and at the en ^ (Ji ehours w ere unable to recognize the odour of it either in the c tbeVthoracic duct, or in the blood of the splenic and portal veins •oof of thedetected it m the stomach and small intestines. In farther pro ^ eC -opinion that asafcetida becomes absorbed, may be mentioned of

tion of the odour of this substance in the secretions. The eX P e ag c0 rr°'MM. Trousseau and Pidoux, already related, may be adducec Vsiat ic3borative of this statement. We are told that the transpiration o ^icbwho use asafcetida daily, is extremely fetid; a circumstanceAristophanes ( Equites , Act. ii. Seen. 4) alludes. Vogt (Pharma126, 2 ,0 Aufl.) says, that the secretions from carious ulcers s01 ^ iue<smell of asafcetida, when this substance has been taken for son * e - oU an^The stimulant influence of asafcetida over the organs ofof secretion (as the bronchial membrane and skin), depends a ^^ se ls 111on the topical action of the oily and resinous particles on the vtheir passage through the latter. j that

Uses. —From the foregoing remarks it will be readily g at “ e ’ gj oHasafcetida is contra-indicated in febrile and inflammatory dise ju'account of its stimulant properties; as also in vascular irritation, t j,isflammation of the stomach, on account of its topical influence dieviscus. On the other hand, it is found highly useful m s P aS ^ reSj b utconvulsive diseases not dependent on disease of the nervous ceiof the kind called by Dr. Hall eccentric. acfl 11 ’ 1 ^

1. In spasmodic and convulsive Diseases .—Few remedies have g(i7)such celebrity in hysteria, as asafcetida. Dr. Cullen (Mat. Me ■ Ilj0 stspeaks in the highest terms of it, and I believe the experience jt,’practitioners corroborates his opinion of its virtues. “ I have ,^ eD tb esays he, “ to he the most powerful in all hysteric cases ; and ^ e n bypresence of an hysteric paroxysm prevented medicines being ;the mouth, I have found it given in clyster to be very effectual- ^ c ofl'the circulation is very languid, ammonia may with advantage asa^joined. Schonheyder (Acta Reg. Soc. Hafn. i. 168) reconnnen . gtt *n>tida with opium, in die form of clyster. In infantine convulsions, a< j ll ltsof asafcetida are often used with good effect. Even in the epilepsy ^ j )Ll v®they are not always without value. In purely spasmodic astton , ^jcbnever seen relief from the use of asafcetida. This observatio l eta en&accords with Dr. Cullen’s experience, does not agree with the s e g eebof others. Trousseau and Pidoux (op. cit. p. 15) declare they 11it produce good and undoubted effects. But in old chronic 1 coo!? 11 ’with occasional spasmodic difficulty of breathing and spasmI have procured the most marked relief by the combined use _ rC gintida and ammonia. I have no experience of the use of tins n' ^ o/iin the disease called laryngismus stridulus, in which Md ial -