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.

    221/554 (page 209)
    CONIUM. With creasote, . . With carbolic acid, With quinine, . . With iodine, . . . With morphine, . A mixture of collodion and carbolic acid is used for Toothache where pulp is exposed. Diseases of the Eye.—Collodion forms a neat dressing for wounds •about the eyelids or brow. A strip of fine gauze is laid across the wound and collodion is painted over it with a brush. It forms a protective coating and its contraction brings the edges of the wound in close appo- sition. This property of contraction can also be made useful in cases of Entropion of the lower lid from relaxation of the skin, such as is some- times met with in old people. It is freely painted over the skin, either with or without the interposition of gauze or of a thin layer of absorbent cotton. CONIUM. Hemlock. The full-grown fruit of Conium maculatum, gathered while yet green. (U. S. P.) Coniutn contains a volatile alkaloid, Conine (Conia). Conine is a yellowish, oily liquid, of a very acrid taste and a strong, penetrating odor, compared to that of the urine of mice. It is volatile and is freely soluble in alcohol, ether, the fixed and volatile oils, and slightly so in water. (U. S. D.) The pure alkaloid, and the hydrochloride which is freely soluble in water, are used in medicine. The official preparations of Conium are Abstractum Conii (one part representing two parts of the drug), Extractum Conii Alco- holicum (of uncertain strength), Extractum Conii Fluiduvi (one cubic centimetre repre- senting one gramme of the drug), Tindura Conii (tontaining the activity of fifteen parts of the drug in one hundred parts of the tincture). It is one of the ingredients of baume tranquille. Conium is sedative. General Surgery.—Conium has long been employed locally in medicine, especially in the treatment of Cancer, for which the older surgeons have held it in high esteem. S. W. Williams, of Massachusetts (^American Journal of the Medical Sciences^ ix, 1879), quoted by A. Stille, reports six cases of ulcerated cancer of the breast, all but one of which were healed under its use. The drug, when applied locally, possesses some sedative properties. A poultice composed of two parts of bruised hemlock leaves and six parts of flaxseed meal, with boiling water, has been used as a soothing dressing for painful swellings. The poultice should be applied with caution where there are abrasions or ulcerations, for fear of too active absorption. In Cancer, hemlock has fallen into disuse as a curative agent by mod- ern surgeons, but the pain of ulcerating cancer of the breast may be mitigated by the use of hemlock poultices, while lint, saturated with 14 1 minim to 2 drachms. 2 minims to 2 drachms, 2 grains to 2 drachms. 5 grains to 2 drachms. I grain to 2 drachms.