New remedies : with formulae for their preparation and administration / By Robley Dunglison.

  • Dunglison, Robley, 1798-1869.
Date:
1856
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: New remedies : with formulae for their preparation and administration / By Robley Dunglison. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

    59/814 (page 53)
    ACIDUM IIYDl Such arc tlio principal affeotions in which hydrocyanic acid has been used. The author has often employed it internally in many of the cases recommended, especially in painful affections oca hygreat >i<rr<>ux impressibility and in consumption, hut he baa riot had sii(licit'tit reason to place it high in rank amongst medicinal agents.1 He has certainly had no evidence, thai it can CUT6 consumption when no1 beyond its firsl Btage, as remarked by Magendie.1 If the practi- tioner will heai- in mind the effects which the acid is capable !' inducing upon healthy man, when the dose is carried to the requisite ext< i will have no dilliculty in deciding upon the cases in which its agency may he appropriate. If not a true sedative, it is the nearest appn to one in the catalogue of the materia medica; and therefore its em- ployment is clearly indicated in all diseases in which there is much erethism,—administered alone or along with other appropriate agents. MODE OF ADMINISTRATION. After the remarks that have been made on the varying strength of the hydrocyanic acid, according to the particular form hy which it may have been prepared, it is hardly necessary to say, that the physician must be acquainted with the character of the acid he prescribes. The ordinary dose of that of the Pharmacopoeia of the United States is a drop, given three times a day in a little sugared water; it must be borne in mind, however, that the specific gravity of the acid is less than that of water, and hence the necessity of dropping the quantity of acid at the time of using it, rather than forming a mixture with a larger quantity of the acid, which will certainly rise to the surface, if the mixture be put to one side; and unless the vial is shaken, a much larger dose may be administered than was intended. It must also be recollected, that the acid loses its strength by keeping. Magendie remarks,3 that when left to itself in a close vessel, it sometimes becomes decomposed in less than an hour, and that it rarely preserves its integrity for more than a fortnight. The substances that are incompatible with it in the same prescription, are most metallic oxides, particularly those of mercury and antimony, nitrate of silver, salts of iron, sulphurets, mineral acids and chlorine. The proper plan is to begin with a small dose, and to augment it carefully until some effect is induced, but if any of the signs—mentii >ned above as indicating the supervention of the sedative effects of the acid —should supervene, it ought to be discontinued. Magendie, it has been seen, uses the hydrocyanic acid of <iay- Lussac, diluted with 8.5 times its weight of water; and this mixture he denominates medicinal prussic acid. The following are forms in which the acid may be administered. Mistura acidi hydrocyanici. Mixture of hydron/anic acid.—(Melange pectoral.) R. Acidi hydrocyanici medieiiialis f 3J - Aqua? destiUatae Oj. Sacchari albi siss. M. 1 Becquevel, Gazette Medicale de Paris, 18th Jan., 1