A handbook of local therapeutics / edited by Harrison Allen.

Date:
1893
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A handbook of local therapeutics / edited by Harrison Allen. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    115/554 (page 103)
    ARGENTI HYPOSULPHIS—ARGENTI NITRAS. IO3 Diseases of the Ear.-Cherry-laurel water is a favorite prescription in Germany, for Otalgia and, combined with tincture of lodme, as an application to Diffuse Inflammation of the Auricle. ARGENTI HYPOSULPHIS. Hyposulphite of Silver. Hyposulphite of silver is a stimulant and alterative. Diseases of the Throat.-A union of hyposulphite of silver with hyposulphite of sodium is recommended by E. Watson (-Topical Medi- cation of the Larynx, 1854, 35) in place of the nitrate of silver in the treatment of inflammation of the throat. While weaker than the salt last named he claims that it is more agreeable to the taste, and does not stain. ARGENTI NITRAS. Nitrate of Silver. Lunar Caustic is pure nitrate of silver moulded into appropriate form. Diluted nitrate of silver (mitigated stick), official in the U. S. P., is composed of equal weights of nitrate of silver and nitrate of potassium fused together and moulded. Nitrate of silver is soluble in eight-tenths part of water and in twenty-six parts of alcohol at 15 C. (59° F.) U. S. P. It should be kept in dark amber-colored vials, since exposure to light reduces it to the black oxide of silver. A like reduction takes place when solutions of nitrate of silver are brought in contact with animal tissues or vegetable fabrics. The stains of the oxide of silver can be removed by mopping the spots with a solution of cyanide of potassium, or one of one part each of bi-cbloride of mercury, and of chloride of ammonium in ten parts of water. When the black spots discolor the skin they can be removed by touching them with the tincture of iodine, and washing away the iodide of silver thereby formed with a solution of caustic potassa or water of ammonia. Nitrate of silver is incompatible with so many substances that when solutions of it are required they should be made with distilled water, as the chlorides in ordinary water, however pure, will otherwise precipitate part or all of it from solution. Excessive action of nitrate of silver on animal tissues can be controlled by sopping them with a solution of common salt. Nitrate of silver is caustic, excitant, astringent, and haemostatic. Strengths of nitrate of silver sufficient to prove astringent are also apt to be irritative. Thus, when used on mucous surfaces, the agent is liable to excite the mucous glands, if not increase the inflammation. Under other conditions the irritating quality of the drug acts to advantage, and it is often selected when an excitant, at the same time astringent, effect is desired. Nitrate of silver is a weak caustic on the most delicate tissues, but is a futile one on tough, resistant tissues. It is an astringent and haemostatic through the direct constricting effect it exerts on the calibres of the smaller vessels, and in the pressure made on them by the hygro- scopic albuminate created by the salt.