Cinchonine : C[20]H[12]NO / by Joseph Ince.

  • Ince, Joseph.
Date:
1863
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Cinchonine : C[20]H[12]NO / by Joseph Ince. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    1/6
    [Reprinied from ihe'PnxJiMACF.VTiOAZ Journal, February, 18G3.] CINCHONINE. By me. JOSEPH INGE. 1:^ Scarcely is there anything more perplexing than to authors on the subject of Cinchona and its preparations, witn'»;3aBJC«*^arriv- ing at any definite conclusion; every man appears not only to entertain a special theory of his own, but to think lightly of the speculations of contem- porary or preceding writers, from Guy Patin, who in 1662 decided:— Cinchona bark does not cure inter- mittent fever, and we have abandoned it. Le Quinquina ne guerit pas la fievre intermittente, et nous I'avons abandonne. Jacet ignotus sine no- mine pulvis. to Briquet (1853) who, in his elaborate treatise, ' Traits Thdrapeutique du Quinquina et de ses Preparations,' thus introduces his observations:— II existe deja quelques travaux sur cette matiere; mais comme ils ont tons ete entrepris dans des vues par- ticulieres, et plutot dans I'intention de soutenir tel ou tel point de doc- trine, que dans le but d'obtenir des notions generales et d'arriver a con- naitre le modus agendi de la medica- tion parle Quinquina a haute dose, ils manquent, ainsi c^u'on va le voir, de ce caractere de generalite qui est in- dispensable meme pour I'etude d'un simple medicament. Ainsi M. Magendie, voulant lors de la decouverte de la quinine, aj outer les resultats de I'experimentation sur les animaux a ceux de 1'observation sur les maladies, injecta du siilfate de quinine a des doses assez fortes, mais qu'il n'a pas indiquees, dans la veine jugulaire de plusieurs chiens, et n'ayaut rien observe de particulier, il en conclut que cette siibstance etait donee d'une innocuite complete et qu'on pouvait I'administrer sans in- convenient a des doses fort elevees. Various researches on this sub- stance have been made already, b\it as tbey were aU. undertaken to confii-m particular views, and rather with the intention of supporting such and such a theory, than to arrive at general con- clusions, and to gain a knowledge of the modus agendi of the medical action of Cinchona in large doses, they are deficient, as will be seen in the sequel, in that character for impartiality which is indispensable even in the study of a simple remedy. Thus M. Magendie, wishing, after the discovery of quinine, to add the results of experiment on animals to those derived from the observation of disease, injected sulphate of quinine in tolerably strong doses (which he has not indicated) into the jugular vein of many dogs, and not having observed anything remarkable, he concludes therefrom that this sub- stance is completely innocuous, and that it may be administered without inconvenience in very large doses.