Remarks on nitrate of potash in acute pneumonia.

  • Macnaughton-Jones, Henry, 1844-1918.
Date:
[1873]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Remarks on nitrate of potash in acute pneumonia. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    I have several tliermometric charts of febrile affections, intermittent in character and otherwise, with and without chest complications, which show at a glance this property of quinine, and I may merely add in passing, that my experience of its administration does not con- tra-indicate its trial and use in the large doses in which it has been recommended by some authorities. I might reiterate these remarks Avhen I allude to digitalis. I have at the present moment a case of typhoid fever in hospital, in which the effects of digitalis in persis- tently lowering the temperature were well shown, and I have in seve- ral cases exhibited this drug in typhoid fever with a similar result In cases of this disease complicated with pneumonia I look upon digitalis as particularly useful, especially in the later stages of the affection. Tartar emetic has the foremost place as an antipyretic in the treatment of pneumonia, and certainly its administration in this disease dates further back, and has had more startling statistical proofs adduced in its favour, than any drug of this nature. I have seen it administered with apparently a marvellous eflPect; but so also, I have been obliged, from its lowering and debilitating results (and in some cases from an idiosyncrasy on the part of the patient, contra-indicating its use, even in small doses), to stop its administra- tion. Of late I have relinquished altogether the use of tartar emetic, and have treated nearly every case of acute pneumonia which I have seen in the earlier stages of the disease with nitrate of potash, in ten and fifteen grain doses, repeated every third hour, until it produced its peculiar effect on the temperature and pulse. I combine at times with it gr. i. of hippo and gr. i. of antimonial powder I have had cases in which I have given up the nitrate of potash, and resorted to quinine or digitalis, from complications which prevented its continuance, and some in which, the pneumonia being a secondary affection, it was of course excluded. Regarding the accompaniments of this treatment, diet and local measures to the lung, I must state, that I lean entirely to a free and generous support, and rather to the side of the stimulant system than the contrary. In fact, I must confess that I have no experience either of general depletion or of a debilitating regimen, and the results of such modes of procedure I can hardly speak impartially of, as I have ever been more a follower of Todd and Bennett in the management of pneumonia than of theupholders of the lowering and depressing system. Not but that I feel certain I have seen equally injurious results follow from the blind and indiscriminate employ-